LouieB

You are welcome comrade!!!! Actually this is not correct. Publicly hired doctors ARE in Unions. A very good friend of mine is the representative for the doctors which are hired in the Cook County health system. They are also in a pitched battle for collective bargaining rights. Okay so workers need to tighten their belts, which includes public employees. Actually we have tightened and continue to tight our belts along with everyone else. (see my earlier comments about working without a raise for four years... I also pay more into my pension than I used to...) For those who think that

If you don't support our pension, benefits, health insurance, tenure etc which was gained by collective bargaining agreements, (or in the case of Illinois the pensions by the state constitution) then you actually DON'T support public employees. There is no point in saying you support us if you want to strip us of the rights we have won through collective bargaining. That IS the whole point of what is going on in Wisconsin and the a number of other states. So really I was NOT wrong about this. I understand how folks are pissed off about this, but that's the fact. When push comes to shov

Velvet Underground. I could have seen them in Cleveland at La Cave, in the days when they weren't playing NYC. Oh well. LouieB

Clearly I was speaking hyperbole, but the fact remains. Most folks don't support public sector employees at this point. Mostly what you see are public employees demonstrating for their benefits. There happen to be a whole ton of us. So therefore there are a ton of folks demonstrating. But the general public doesn't support us. Demonstrations of this kind are by the unions, not a general uprising of the populace. Unions represent only about 10% of all workers and many (if not most) of them are now public employees. Even today in the Trib there was a story regarding the effort to have

One could hope that there will be a full scale uprising in Wisconsin, but the circumstances are quite different. Unlike Egypt where the entire populace has been living under a virtual dicatator for 30 years, the only folks in Wisconsin who are really going to be upset about this are public employees. Now admitedly there are lots of public employees in any given state, but at the present moment, public employees are like the new communists and have very few allies. As a similar public employee here in IL, we just settled our little union contract with no raises for three years (we get a bi

Cee-Lo actually had the best song of the year, it is just that you can only go so long calling it Forget You. The guy is a fucking genius.... LouieB

The Esperanza Spaulding win was wonderful. Not only is she deserving, she probably won because of a vote split. Justin Beiber, sure, big star. But Esperanza is a great talent who has a long future in all sorts of music. When she is still making great music, Beiber will be a pop music footnote. Cee-lo was the best performance of the night and has one of the best songs of the year. Meanwhile, I actually like the Lady Antebellum single although they should have thought of some new stuff to say each time they won. Bob Dylan was Bob Dylan and Mick was surprisingly good. LouieB

Yea, it is probably Crosby. I guess I need to listen more closely although it seems like McGuinn is also spouting off. LouieB

I finally got it around Christmas and have listened to it a bunch. I was at that show, admittedly in the next to last row of the balcony, but it brought back some really nice memories. It actually sounds pretty good for a sound board recording. Check it out. Maybe some of the strangest drug induced raps ever are McGuinn's rantings on the Monteray Pop set. Really strange. LouieB

While Justin didn't play the library last night, he did play Metro to a fairly large crowd for a cold Thursday. It was a bit of a triumphant return to Chicago. He looked and sounded great (although the extra echo on in the Metro sound system was a bit irritating to me.) Backed by a stand up bass and violin (more than fiddle) he is back in top form. He even played a new song, which was fun. He was particularly chatty about bad girlfriends, his parents, his addictions, etc. Good time all around. You have to wish Justin the best of luck, but even as he says, he loves booze and cocaine, so

I went by Jack White's former big house in Detroit the other day and drove around Mexician Town, where he grew up as well. What a great story. LouieB

Me either..that is Mavis' song now. (Actually it is an okay song though...) LouieB

I think I actually know the answer to this...no and yes. (Again I could be wrong....!!) He did not play with them in the wake of releasing AM, but Jeff did join The Bottle Rockets during the Gary Scheppers benefit back in 2006 and played a couple AM numbers then. Apparently Brian had not played with Jeff since the AM sessions up until that point. LouieB

You may very well be correct about this. I could never bring myself to read the book. LouieB

UIC Pavillion? LouieB

I am a Bottle Rockets fan and while they continue to be sort of alt.country, they are a very fine band which has survived and are actually prospering. They rock like crazy in concert and still write excellent songs. They aren't Wilco, but they are still a very fun band. There was never a question about Brian Henneman staying with Wilco. He was a hired hand for AM and continued to front the Bottle Rockets. LouieB

I only say you had to be there if you can't imagine how exciting an album this was at the time. Only people who don't get it now maybe needed to be there. Heck it is still pretty cool. This was Tweedy's first solo record after all. LouieB

Many (if not all) the songs on AM are far better than most of the songs on W(TA). There is more complexity and feeling. And for the spur of the moment, Brian Henneman plays up a storm. LouieB

AM was a great album from the baby Wilco. People still request material off it. Only folks who weren't there at the time dis it. The rest of us know it was great. LouieB

Nice joke....!! LouieB

This is true. It also doesn't help proponents of there is no climate change to point to big snow storms and cold weather as evidence that there is no change either. We have had cold and snow before and will again. (I am sick of winter already...) LouieB

It is always nice to hear someone cover Wilco. LouieB

Brilliant...they will be back... LouieB

The new songs they did in concert were quite good. As good as the old stuff, maybe not, but good enough. louieB

I hope we find out... LouieB