Three dollars and 63 cents

Oh man, if I didn't have front row seats for Andrew Bird here Saturday night, I'd definitely meet up with one of my friends in Philadelphia and go.

That looks amazing.

It's an odd combination, that's for sure. I'm pretty sure seeing Wilco in a basketball arena is going to be traumatic. The only one we'll probably be able to see from the back is Nels, and only if he wears his red pants.

If you're aiming for a teaching career, it's going to stay difficult to read for fun. I was devouring books this summer, but now that classes are back in session, most of what I read is written by 17-21-year-olds. Nice to know there's someone else with a creative writing background on the board

Zooey's thank you picture is on my bulletin board at work

I just saw this Myspace bulletin and thought I'd pass it on...

It turns out I'm going to miss Bill Maher tonight, since I haven't been feeling well all day I do still want to see the movie, though.

Pretty much not a single song from the set list sounded exactly like the album version. I think that was a good thing, except maybe for Where the Stars Go Blue. I didn't particularly care for the arrangement of that one. Both Wonderwall and I See Monsters started out very quietly, like the studio versions, but blossomed into full-band performances. I was so thrilled to hear Come Pick Me Up. I'd never heard it before, either, and when I saw that they'd played it Thursday in Albany, I didn't figure they'd play it again so soon. The show was so good that I considered driving up to Rochester

Jesus Camp was one of the most terrifying movies I've ever seen.

I hope Lilly is found safely and brought home soon, and that karma catches up with the jerk who stole the van with her in it.

I'm going to see Bill Maher tomorrow night at Cornell. An article in the local paper previewing the show warned those going to "prepare to be offended"

Since this thread has been pretty active, I didn't think it was worth starting a new thread in After the Show, but I was really impressed by the show in Syracuse last night. I'd sort of written him off a few years ago after I saw them at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, but this show completely won me back. I had a bad day at work yesterday and was really zapped by the time I left, and I almost blew off the show. I'm so glad I didn't. The band was tight and focused, and they put on a great show. The new songs sound great, especially Fix You. I'm looking forward to hearing the whole alb

In one of my classes last fall I taught a great article by Judy Blume about how ridiculous the current crusade against the Harry Potter books is. She talks about how it seems parents and teachers are afraid to teach kids how to use their imagination. It sparked what was probably the best discussion of that entire course (and about a half-dozen treacherously boring research papers on book banning...).

Evangelista's Hello, Voyager blows everything else away for me, not just from this year but from the last two or three years.

What's the best way for those of us outside of the NYC metro area to get the album when it comes out? I can't make it to the show this weekend, but I like what I heard on Pronto's Myspace page and would like to pick up the album. Also, as a head's up, if you search for Pronto on iTunes, you get a really awful hip hop album that has nothing to do with Mikael

I'll be seeing him Friday in Syracuse.

That does sound great. I'll have to keep an eye out for it. I'm currently reading: His debut novel comes out soon. I'm curious about it, but from the description, it sounds a bit predictably autobiographical. I'll probably still check it out, though. I've been on a big Klosterman kick recently. I gave the students in my Writing About Music class a passage from Killing Yourself to Live without its punctuation the other day and had them work in pairs to put it all back. It was much more of a hit than my grammar and editing exercises usually are.

Yeah, I'd take ZZ Top over Jack Johnson any day. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Can you blame her? Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.

Not to be a party pooper, but I saw him last month and was bored to tears. I'd seen him five times before that and had loved every one of those shows, but I hope for the sake of everyone here who has tickets that he doesn't half-ass these shows the way he did the one I saw last month. Maybe he was just having an off night, but it was such a disappointing show that I think I'm done seeing him.

The Scott Amendola Band's cover of Dylan's "Masters of War" comes to mind. Carla Bozulich's singing is so haunting that hearing Dylan play it live this summer was a bit of a letdown. I always think of "Dirty Harry" by Gorillaz as a sort of protest song, too. There's U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" (I have a few really good live versions of the latter--let me know if you want one). Good luck with your presentation. What really helped me calm my nerves before my dissertation defense last year was just thinking about all the hard work I'd put into the project and how proud

I didn't really care too much about the other remasters this year, but I'm so excited for this. I was going to try to wait until Christmas for this, but I have a hard time believing I'll be able to wait that long.

Frank Black