la*

Ever since I finished reading the excellent Manhunt, I've been on a slight Civil War-era jag for books.

LOVED that book, and I had to read another Lincoln book after I finished it, too. I picked this one (which I highly, highly recommend):

I am reading this now, and enjoying it immensely:

dear dear Jefferson,

Thank you for all you've done for this crazy place.

Good luck with the retirement, my friend!

A picture from a few years back... with not only you, but solace too!!

i went to the first night of the Minneapolis 2 night First Ave stand... it was pretty good... not even remotely close to the best i've seen BTS, but certainly better than their '03 shows when they weren't touring for anything whatsoever.

 

the 2nd night setlist looked a lot nicer though. i was at Eric Bachmann & Richard Buckner that night, and while good, i prolly shoulda just gone to BTS, i had a ticket from April and everything. ah well.

 

the one thing that bugged me so much about the first night, is they played 4 or 5 NEW new songs, like newer than YIR, and they played them all within maybe a 6 or 7 song stretch. while a couple of the new songs were quite good, the crowd (myself included) were getting pretty bored/restless by the end of it, but thankfully they came back w/ The Plan

 

the closing 20+ min Broken Chairs was nice tho

Thank you for adding your two cents, K-Train.

Yeah, we got two new new songs within a three song stretch and I thought the timing was bizarre.

I too love the 20+ minute Broken Chairs, but found it slightly less enchanting when they did it as the encore again the second night. That's just not ok.

I just saw them Monday night in Boston. Was pretty impressed but dissapointed by 2 things. First the fact that none of the band move whatsoever and it gets dull to watch. And second I thought they were getting a little indulgent with the excessive jams at the end of a lot of the songs but overall pretty good show. Great sound and really powerful with 3 guitars up there.

Yeah, Doug's not the chattiest dude, but I love watching him play guitar. Where did they play in Boston? I saw them play a couple nights at the Paradise a few years ago and they were fantastic shows.

i forgot to post!

 

the second night nearly literally wiped me off my feet. the first three songs - woah!

overall I'm glad to have a package deal of both nights, but Saturday will be etched in my memory for quite a while. The artwork was pretty cool too. http://www.mikescheer.com/ I have my eye on a couple pieces

 

La, can you post the set list for that night?

Why Kristina, I thought you'd never ask!

I'll spare everyone the complete setlist, but here are the songs that were new on Saturday:

Liar

Else

Carry the Zero

Randy Described Eternity

Big Dipper

Untrustable

ps. Kyle, why in the hell haven't you piped up yet?

Built to Spill was raucous and great last night at Metro. The new songs sound excellent and the old songs make me really happy.

Setlist:

Traces

Sidewalk

Goin' Against Your Mind

*new song* ("and when you're gone/you're gone/and when you're here/you're wrong" ??)

another mystery (new?) song ("I need a ride across the frozen Amazon...desperate me/desperately/you and me"?)

The Plan

Made Up Dreams

instrumental with video about ecology activists in the background

Distopian Dream Girl

Re Arrange (Gladiators cover)

Kicked it in the Sun

Conventional Wisdom

Broken Chairs

Looked forward to another show from Doug + co tonight!

I thought the show at Metro on Friday was absolutely mesmerizing. I haven

Happy Birthday, my friend!! Hope your day and year are outstanding!

Happy happy Birthday, my friend!

I hope your day and year are wonderful..

My city's still breathing

(but barely it's true)

through buildings gone missing like teeth.

The sidewalks are watching me think about you,

sparkled with broken glass.

I'm back with scars to show.

Back with the streets I know.

Will never take me anywhere but here.

The stain in the carpet,

this drink in my hand,

the strangers whose faces I know.

We meet here for our dress rehearsal to say " I wanted it this way"

Wait for the year to drown.

Spring forward, fall back down.

I'm trying not to wonder where you are.

All this time lingers, undefined.

Someone choose who's left and who's leaving.

Memory will rust and erode into lists of all that you gave me:

a blanket, some matches, this pain in my chest,

the best parts of Lonely,

duct-tape and soldered wires,

new words for old desires,

and every birthday card I threw away.

I wait in 4/4 time.

Count yellow highway lines

that you're relying on to lead you home

I just finished Bill Janovitz's (from Buffalo Tom) book on Exile on Main Street. I read it on my bus/subway commute while listening to Exile on my ipod. I thought it was great - but also important to be listening to it. He makes a lot of very specific references to moments of each song that would be confusing (or not as interesting) without actually listening to it.

This is awesome.

Did you go to the reading/concert he had in Newton? It was outstanding! First he read from the book, then he played some of the tunes. It was one of my favorite readings ever.

I'm also a huge fan of the 33 1/3 series. I got the Neutral Milk Hotel one for my birthday but haven't read it yet. Only the Jeff Buckley one has disappointed me so far..

I have Assasination Vacation on my pile......let me know what you think of it.

 

Sarah Vowell irritates me on the radio and I am hoping I can read the book without having her voice in my head........

Kate, you weren't asking me, but I thought some chapters of Assassination Vacation were excellent, while others were just decent. I'd recommend it, just not with complete enthusiasm.

Also, while I'm giving unsolicited opinions: since you liked Prep, you might like Man of my Dreams ,Curtis Sittenfeld's latest book. I loved it (terrible title notwithstanding).

I'm reading:

Happy, happy Birthday, Kate!

Hope you have a wonderful day and year!

Happy, Happy Birthday, my friend!!

For those of you who were there - did Jeff play guitar on Impossible Germany? The two electrics I hear sound like Nels (duh) and Pat. Is that right?

Jeff did play guitar on that song, which was lovely.

What a fun show-- good cronies, nice weather, tasty food (champagne! funnel cakes! fried cheese curds!)

Well worth enduring those three cover bands.

Velvet Roof

Treehouse

I'm Allowed

Rachael

Bad Phone Call (new song)

Sodajerk

Late at Night

Summer

Mineral

Be the Same?(new song)

Taillights Fade

Catch Him? (new song)

Kitchen Door

Tangerine

 

Encores (2 of them):

Enemy

Staples

Sunday Night (by request)

Darl

Three Easy Pieces(new song)

Larry

Frozen Lake

 

Oh sure, you *finally* come to Boston after I move away?!

Glad you made it, Jim! Sounds like a great set...

ladies and gentlemen welcome tonight

peforming here for the very last time

is your life so please take a seat

the physics of innocence falls to the side

leaving the citizens nowhere to hide

so down the back stairs went all we know

i'm breathing out loud to pretend i'm alive

while strangers throw flowers and kiss me good bye

i guess i'm not as well as i had hoped

what ever happened to the greater design

it must have stepped off with the first it could find

with the way it's all turned out who's to blame

rest your head here tonight

it's not supposed to turn out right

there's no one left and there's nowhere to go

maybe that's why i came

a still belief that it all can change

i hate the taste but i love the effect its bringing on

open committees are talking right now

deciding my fate and laughing out loud

the execution is on for the fourth of july

the only survivor was late to arrive

calling up sympathy and blessing the sight

it's all over now and you can't even cry

Losing the star without a sky

Losing the reasons why

You're losing the calling that you've been faking

And I'm not kidding

It's damned if you don't and it's damned if you do

Be true 'cause they'll lock you up in a sad sad zoo

Oh hidy hidy hidy what you tryin to prove

By hidy hidy hiding you're not worth a thing

Sew your fortunes on a string

And hold them up to light

Blue smoke will take

A very violent flight

And you will be changed

And everything

And you will be in a very sad sad zoo.

I once was lost but now I'm found

Was blind

But now I see you

How selfish of you to believe in the meaning of all the bad dreaming

Metal heart you're not hiding

Metal heart you're not worth a thing

Metal heart you're not hiding

Metal heart you're not worth a thing

I'm a huge fan of his books, but this one is a bit muddled at times (so far..)

Ever see the movie?

I have not. Is it good?

If you have not read Tony Early's books - you should:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156512360...glance&n=283155

I agree 100%. I love "Somehow Form a Family" and his fiction is wonderful as well.

I'm reading this right now (also by a Southern writer!)

Thanks Laura! That sounds fabulous. You haven't steered me wrong yet.

That looks fantastic.

It's a great book.

I am currently reading:

I just finished reading a book my son Brennan was assigned for a class.....called "Complications", it is a collection of essays on a surgeon's life, and is more fascinating than I expected it to be. I read it in two days flat. The author is Atul Gawande. Highly recommended.

Donna, I really liked "Complications" too! If you're in the mood for another book by a doctor, this is one of my favorites. It's a collection of beautifully written short essays about his work in the emergency room.

Headlights race towards the corner of the dining room.

Half illuminate a face before they disappear.

You breathe in forty years of failing to describe a feeling.

I breathe out smoke against the window, trace the letters in your name.

Our letters sound the same; full of all our changing that isn't change at all.

All straight lines circle sometime.

You said "Somewhere there's a box full of replacement parts to

all the tenderness we've broken or let rust away.

Somewhere sympathy is more than just a way of leaving.

Somewhere someone says 'I'm sorry.' Someone's making plans to stay."

So tell me it's okay. Tell me anything, or

show me there's a pull, unassailable, that will lead you there, from the dark, alone, to benevolence that you've never known, or you knew when you were four and can't remember.

Where a small knife tears out those sloppy seams, and the silence knows what your silence means, and your metaphors (as mixed as you can make them) are linked, like days, together.

I still hear trains at night, when the wind is right. I remember everything, lick and thread this string that will never mend you or tailor more than a memory of a kitchen floor, or the fire-door that we kept propping open.

And I love this place; the enormous sky, and the faces, hands that I'm haunted by, so why can't I forgive these buildings, these frameworks labeled "Home"?

I will swear, by my little toe,

two board members on either side

of Mr Mexico!

We were only on one side of Charles..

I have probably about 100 photos to share coming soon. Maybe that will make this thread a bit more cheerful. Either that or La* could post a picture of her entire shoe collection.

No pictures of the shoe collection are at the ready (nor is it very well organized), but I do have some of the purse collection.