Three dollars and 63 cents

I hate that every show he's doing in a four-hour radius from me is on a school night! I enjoyed seeing him solo in October, but I enjoyed seeing him open at Tanglewood with his band, and I'd like to see them play a full set. Preorders ship in nine days!

For the longest time, that was all I could remember about him. The textbook I used for the 20th Century Poetry class I took in college listed how he died as the last line of his biography, and for years I kept picturing this Wiley Coyote-esque scene. I'm glad I finally got around to digging into his work some more.

Oh man, that show was so good. I almost jumped out of my seat when I realized they were closing the first set with "Blood Drawing," one of my favorite Singers songs and one I never thought they'd do because it's so long. Those were 15 of the best minutes of music I've probably ever heard. The waitress brought me another beer at the end of the set and said "Daaaaaaamn, those boys can play!" Alex is also an amazing drummer. It's sort of creepy that a set of twins can have that much musical talent between them. I don't know his work as well as I'd like to, but I'm planning on ordering his new a

Woah. I hope there was a taper there

I go through phases when I read a lot or when I read quickly, and sometimes it will take me months to finish one book. I spent probably three months at the beginning of the year slogging through The Satanic Verses. Parts of it really dragged for me, but once I start a book, I rarely just give up on it. Also, if I'm at a point in the semester where I'm reading a lot of drafts or grading a lot of papers, the last thing I want to do when I come home is pick up a book. I read a lot of poetry during the school year, which takes much less time to read than a novel or something like that and which is

That's about as good as Faulkner gets, so that's a good place to start. I've been meaning to read As I Lay Dying for quite awhile. I'm a little over 300 pages into the Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara, which I started in the middle of last month. I found it at a used bookstore a few years ago but never felt brave enough to tackle it before now. It's been hit or miss, which is the way it usually goes when it's everything a poet has ever written, but there have been quite a few poems that have really wowed me, so it's been worth the effort.

Happy birthday to Nels and his brother Alex. Here's to hoping that 2009 will be their best year of music yet!

I have a recording of a radio broadcast she did back in 1998 where she had to restart Changed the Locks twice because she screwed up the lyrics, so it doesn't shock me that she has them in front of her now. Bono also took a lot of grief from fans on U2's last tour because he was using a teleprompter.

I read 24 last year (I know this only because I kept track). I felt like I got sort of lazy about reading during some parts of last year, though, so I'm aiming for 50 this year. I also want to try to use our local library more, since we've got a good one and I never take the time to go. Speaking of the 33 1/3 series, did anybody else submit a proposal this time around? I have no idea if I have a chance, but I figured I'd go ahead and write a proposal anyway.

I did a lot of traveling this summer, most of it solo. My favorite trip was in July, when I traveled to see Nels play a string of shows with the Singers. I drove from my home in Ithaca, NY, out to Belleville, IL, passing through most of New York, the northwest tip of Pennsylvania (just about the only part of my home state I'd never seen), Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois en route. I went with poppydawn and Mr. B'n'B to Columbia, MO, on day three of the trip, then took poppy with me to Nashville the next day, passing through Kentucky for the first time on the way. On day five I traveled solo across

I really hated it. I mean, it wasn't a bad book per se, I guess, but it wasn't at all like I would've expected a book that's in that series to be. The author approached the album from a very religious perspective, looking at it as a narrative about man and woman's departure from Eden into the so-called "City of Man," all slick neon and sin. While that in and of itself isn't too unbelievable (though it's not how I've interpreted Achtung Baby, I can see where he's coming from), he drowns his analysis in quotes from the bible, philosophers, and religious scholars and doesn't include a single lyri

This week I've read the 33 1/3 books on the Pixies' Doolittle, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, U2's Achtung Baby, and Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. ESue, I read that Kingsolver book this summer and loved it. It made me think about our role in the larger world in a way no book has for a long time.

Happy birthday!

Vibes!

I think it was supposed to be for some show on MTV/VH1 that apparently never aired. That's probably one of my very favorite concert venues, so I was disappointed that footage never saw the light of day.

Happy birthdays!

Thanks for posting this. These are really sharp descriptions of the songs, rather than just the band members or Eno or Lanois talking about them. I'm expecting a single sometime in January, and from what Bono says about the tour, stadiums this summer. U2 is probably one of the few bands left I'd go see in a stadium. They're not my favorite band anymore, but I don't think I'll ever stop listening to them. They were my first favorite band, and I more or less grew up with them. I've fallen behind with the remasters and the DVDs and all that, and I highly doubt I'll buy anything but the basic, no-

Yeah, getting to see them for the first time this year the week after the residency was amazing, both in terms of set list and energy. That Philadelphia show still ranks as one of my favorite Wilco shows ever.

It's great to hear that the DVD is coming out, and I'm really surprised they're thinking spring for the album. I was expecting late summer or fall. I was hoping for some shows in March so that's how I could celebrate my birthday, but I'm content for another crazy summer of road tripping

Thanks so much for posting this.

I just made a post over on the U2 forum complaining about the pricing of the deluxe editions for the new album, and about half a dozen people pounced on me. Someone actually accused me of being a troll and trying to cause trouble. It was hilarious...and reminded me why I don't spend much time over there anymore. The more I've read about the album this week, the more I've started looking forward to it. I know about 90% of it is the usual hype and bullshit rhetoric any band makes about a new release, but part of me does really think it could be a new direction for U2.

RIP Nels fish

I'd be interested to know if it's a random 10% across all price levels, or if Blockbuster will regularly have a percentage of the best tickets. I haven't seen a Blockbuster since I moved to upstate NY five and a half years ago, but they're still around the area I grew up in. Now that my dad is retired, he likes having things to do I'm guessing the first major test of this system will be U2's (I can only assume) summer tour. Ticket sales for their last tour were an absolute nightmare, with Ticketmaster taking up to two hours to process all requests. I'm wondering if a relatively new system w

I've been listening to Lou Reed today for the first time in ages. I started with some tracks from the box set, and now I'm listening to Set the Twilight Reeling.