Three dollars and 63 cents

Myspace is touting the album pretty heavily on their homepage. I had a good laugh last night when I realized Myspace didn't even exist when the last GnR album came out

I almost posted this last night. This is one of the saddest and most screwed up things I've read about in a long time. In the class I'm teaching about understanding culture and cultural assumptions, we're finishing up a unit on technology. Most of the students still have a hard time believing technology can ever be a bad thing. I definitely want to bring this up to them at our next class, after the break.

Happy birthday, Maudie!

Did anybody catch Nels in Berkeley last night?

I started this last night. I only read maybe 10 poems, but I can tell I'm really going to like it. What I always like about Kevin Young's collections is that while he's not a narrative poet, he structures his books so that they always manage to have a very narrative quality to them. I also had no idea first editions of the book are so valuable. I bought mine used for maybe $8 a few years ago and it's in brand-new condition. Amazon is listing the cheapest new copy as almost $50.

Exiled is on Silencer and Stela for Jefferson is on Ground (my favorite Trio album, I think). There's a video of the Singers doing Exiled somewhere on YouTube, I think. They do a lovely version of it, that's for sure. This past summer was the first time they'd toured in six years. Both runs of shows went well, so they're hoping to tour a lot more often, but Nels's schedule can be tough to work with. I didn't want to wait for them to make it to the northeast and took off after them instead. Every show was worth the insane amount of travel and they promised me they're coming to me next time th

Great set list. I like the pairing of He Still Carries A Torch for Her and Thurston County. Cause For Concern is always pretty mind-blowing, too. I hope they get around to recording Thurstonius at some point, because it's such a fun little tune. And Stela for Jefferson and Exiled? They were really breaking into the oldies! It took me over a year to track down the N.C. Trio album that has Exiled on it since it's been out of print so long.

This means I'll get lots of concert calls

I'm just starting to get into the Black Keys and have really been loving them, so I'm looking forward to checking this out.

I just finished listening to Mary Halvorson's Calling All Portraits, and now I'm listening to the Scott Amendola Band's Live In New York recording from earlier this year.

Me either. Heck, I was a Wilco fan for probably four or five years before I finally got to see them.

High Road Touring is showing Jeff as available for special shows and one-offs through the winter, so maybe we're getting our hopes up too much for a full tour For what it's worth, they're also listing Wilco as available in May and June.

From Wilcoworld:

As it turns out, they didn't broadcast Scarnella's performance, though they did record it. Hopefully they'll broadcast it at some point. I'm glad I didn't stay up to hear it--I would've been so mad had I waited until nearly 3 a.m. only to find out they weren't going to be on! Nels will be playing with Anthony Shadduck, Vinny Golia, and Bert Karl Saturday at Cafe Metropol, so maybe that show will fit in around your cleaning schedule better

I think part of the disjointedness of it for me was that I wasn't reading it every day. In fact, I read the novel in four chunks--the first 90 or so pages about three weeks ago, and the rest over the last three nights. I didn't expect to finish it last night, but I couldn't put it down once I got to the last 60 pages or so. Diaz definitely brings everything together in the end, in ways I never would've imagined. For instance, in any other book I think the letter arriving after a character's death would come off as hokey, but it was not only believable but exactly the right ending. I did no

Wilco has six members but is one group. A group can have as many people in it as you'd like, but it's still just one group. Therefore, it's singular. I've got a Ph.D. in English. I know these things. It's all fun and games until people start withholding news about the new album because of the sloppy grammar around here

I'm still reading, but I wanted to chime in a little. So far, I'm enjoying it, but like ESue said, I don't love it. I'm stumbling through the Spanish a bit, but I think not including it or explaining it more would've taken away from the authenticity of the novel. The narrative is disjointed, which has been frustrating in places, but I wonder how much that has to do with the fact that Diaz spent eleven years writing the book. Could a narrative that took that long to write not be disjointed? If he's as good a writer as I want to believe he is, all the layers and fragmented narratives will make s

Scarnella (Nels and Carla Bozulich) will go on at 11:30 The show will also be broadcast online: Lo-fi (56k): Hi-fi (128k): I saw their last show, back in June in Montreal, and it was stunning. I've been to a lot of shows, but I think theirs was among the two or three most intense I've ever seen. Don't miss them if you're in LA, and tune in if you're somewhere else and up late. Nels has a few other shows coming up this week, including one with the Singers Wednesday in San Francisco and one Thursday in Berkeley with his Celestial Septet.

I just checked Wilcoworld to see if they've posted an opening act for Rochester and Baltimore (they haven't), but I thought this was worth sharing: JAN-31 CHAMPAIGN, IL FOELLINGER AUDITORIUM JAN 31: Jeff Tweedy perfoming solo. Pre-Sale begins on Wednesday, November 19 at 10 a.m. Click here for Pre-Sale. Public on sale begins 11/20/08. Maybe there will be more shows?

Thanks to those who have served our country, as well as to those who currently are. Though we may not stop and think about it as much as we should, their sacrifices have enabled and are enabling us to live the way that we do. We should never take that for granted.

I usually like beards, but Pat's just isn't doing anything for me. He can grow a ZZ Top beard, though, if it really helps him in the studio

I wonder if this means Pat got rid of that awful beard, or were these pre-awful beard?

That makes the pumpkin waffle I had this morning look like a really wimpy breakfast!