zanelotti

Sorry if what follows is pretentious or sounds like pontificating or over-intellectualizing things: at the least, it is how I feel about the topic of this thread.

I am no buddhist, but in zen buddhism there is a concept known as Soshin, or "beginner's mind." This phrase was popularized by Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, where he describes the "beginner's mind" in these terms: "in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."

We tend to get in the way of experiencing, on its own terms, a work of art. What I find so challenging about art, and what I think the Pitchfork review exemplifies, is the difficulty of simply encountering a piece of music, without contextualizing it or comparing it to past (and hoped for) works, without mythologizing the past to demythologize the present, yada yadda yadda.

What I love about Wilco, and the new album (and, really, all creative gifts) , is that it takes time and effort to experience the work on its own terms. Is SBS an exercise in "experimentalism"? Is it soft-rock pablum? Is it mundane? Is it "dad rock"? etc.. These questions--which seem to inform the Pitchfork reviewer's attitude--reveal expectations that stand in the way of experincing what SBS has to offer. Why not just allow the work to become a part of your creative life as a listener, and, like friendship, slowly strip away what we want X to be and accept X on its own terms?

For me, at least, I have found a friend in SBS: it might not have been the friend I wanted (i.e. expected, demanded on preconceived notions), but, then again, the friend we want is rarely the friend we need.

Dear Jeff and the Tweedy Family,

My sincere condolences and thoughts are with you at this time.

Jeff, you've touched us all so profoundly through the years. And though I do not know you personally and did not have the privilege of knowing your mom, I nevertheless cannot help but feel a great sadness for what you and your family are going through. Words fail me here--so just know that you are in the thoughts, prayers, and hearts of many people at this time of great sadness.

38 years old

Married, with three cats (one a former feral missing a paw)

PhD, professor of philosophy (I will begin teaching at McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill; which is but 10 or so minutes from Belleville. My wife is concerned...)

For years, I quite deliberately refused to give Wilco a serious listen. Music snob that I was (Zappa, avante classical, Zappa, etc.), I was sure that something so many of the hipsters loved would be something not worthy of my love. Foolish, I know. First YHF, then the documentary, then a deluge of downloads (thanks VC, dime-a-dozen,etc), and now--my wife is concerned...

Side note: I play guitar, and in younger days played in euro-style heavy metal bands in Baltimore and the mid-atlantic. Mercyful Fate! Er, we live and learn. But, damn, if some of that stuff doesn't just hit the spot now and then.

Enough is enough. Or, more apropos, Enuff z' Nuff (I was tickled when JT mentioned them during an acoustic version of Heavy Metal Drummer).

On a radio interview JT gave he explained the cherry ghost. i dont remember exactly what he said but im pretty sure he said that the cherry ghost line means that he wants to be remembered as a nice person after he dies

Yes, he said that by "cherry ghost" he means someone who leaves behind a pleasant taste, that they were loved and loving. I think that is just so sweet.

He also said "illiterate light" is that which is beyond language, and that "illiterate" should thus not be taken as a prejorative.

some do, some don't, it all depends on the reaction one's body has to the drugs.

True, but I was responding to the blanket statement that such drugs make one "feel like nothing," period. Also, a thing to consider is that someone who is depressed might "feel like nothing" anyway, so it might not be the drug itself. "You are on (drug x)? You act like a zombie!" Well, if you are depressed you feel, at best, like a zombie anyway. But your point is well-taken.

if he is going to be taking meds for his 'disorder' I am very worried. My philosophy is it is better to feel shitty than feel nothing at all. Not so much the case with corrective anti anxiety meds, but more so along the lines of your prozacs and other anti-depressants. That shit frightens me.

May I add the late Stevie Ray?

You really have no idea.

Anti-depressants do not make you "feel nothing at all." Where do you get your information? What do you think is the great distinction between meds for anxiety and for depression? Gee, the one often produces the other, right? And sufferers of anxiety often take the same or similar medications as sufferers of depression.

Maybe "that shit frightens" you because you have no idea what you are talking about! By the way, your comments stigmatize people taking meds for depression in a way that is highly insensitive. Are you friends with Tom and Katie?

Oh, the scare quotes around disorder is a nice touch on your part. Way to go, downplaying the significance of JT's situation--and if you did not mean to do that perhaps you should communicate more clearly in the future.

I like the sign idea (though I would not like to be sitting behind you!), and it certainly beats the endless requests from the audience during JTs shows.

Is it just me or is that just plain annoying? It is bad when the rest of the audience must "shush" (sp?) the requesters.

when people say " they lost it when they stopped doing drugs", it's more like they lost it because your 20's and early 30's are the peak of your creativity in the artistic field of modern rock and pop.

Just my opinion, but there is no comparison between the material JT wrote in his 20s and the material that he has been sharing with us the last few years--I believe he is around 38, so this period is certainly beyond your "early 30s" cutoff.

Why exactly do you think that in the "early 30s" artistic merit somewhow diminishes? Why would this happen? What are the reasons? What about the artists who reach their peak after their "early 30s"? Doesn't this give the lie to your statement? Were the last 7 years of Lennon's life the twilight of his artistry? Leonard Cohen? The list could go on...

Amen to that It does seem rather odd that one feels most inspired when things are at a low ebb,doesn't it??

I agree, it's just that being a human being raises so very many problems in and of itself that you don't necessarilly need have to have a chemical imbalance or behavioral disorder to feel pain!

In our best moments, perhaps we are all philosophcial manic-depressives: we take some manner of joy in seeing our sitatuion as it really is (warts and all), yet this produces anxiety and pain in itself.

Nietzsche said it best: it is only as an aesthetic phenomena that life can be either tolerated or justified. Whatever that means...

A few hours ago I was talking with someone at a local record shop, and this person expressed concern that with JT getting help for his panic/anxiety attacks his music would suffer.

I am just dumfounded. The sentiment is absurd (as if pain and sufferring were the essential and ineliminable ingredient in JT's wonderful music, or any art). I am confident that I'm preaching to the choir, but I am really just at a loss.

Along the same lines, I was listening to the "Hotel S 'n S" shows today and was really struck by the anxiety continually expressed throughout the same by JT. It brigns to mind some shows where his expressions of anxiety and pre-show panic are met with an odd laughter. Am I alone in sometimes feeling a bit...guilty listening to those shows? Or, maybe I am just being overly sensitive here. Thanks for letting me share

i still think the solo acoustic version that opens I'm Trying to Break Your Heart is the best one

Yeah, I'm just ecstatic that we have the choice between the two. Glenn's percussion is stellar, as usual.

THe opening fourish to IATTBYH just made me smile! Can't wait for the Serge Gainsbourg-like piano parts

Edgar Varese. What do I win?

1) , with eyebrows on it!

2) You may have this already (and if you do it is certainly in a form less lossy than this), but: http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...CB1033D21B9A677

Probably too easy for this bunch, but here's a go:

1. As a young lad, Zappa used his birthday money to make a long-distance call to what composer?

2. Why did Marty Robbins frequently appear last on the Grand Old Opry?