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I liberally use the "block" feature, to hide either individual applications (I don't care about Mafia Wars, and no, I don't want to participate in a Food Fight, thanks very much) or some friends' entire streams of nonsense. I've also made a decision that 200 friends is plenty, especially considering that that's way more than I have in real life. So now, if I get friended by someone I really want to be friends with, I'll go in and delete one of my old friends. I feel a little bit bad about that, but most of the people I'm deleting either don't use facebook on a regular basis, so it's not li

Finished those three William Kennedy books. I know Ironweed is supposed to be the masterpiece, but I preferred Billy Phelan's Greatest Game. Will definitely be reading more of his, too. I love a novel that's set in a real place (and Albany is very much a real place in his books), with a bit of history tossed in, plus I love that the characters keep popping up in each other's books. Good stuff. Also finished Columbine. Distressing, in a number of ways. Now:

Dan, I was little surprised by it, too. While I certainly think that there's room for lots and lots of musicians to make great music to go along with these lyrics, it strikes me that either: 1. Jay Farrar is still competitive with Tweedy, and thinks he can blow him out of the water with his versions of these songs. or 2. He's completely past any competition mind-set, or any thoughts of Tweedy at all, and it has not even occurred to him that he'll be compared in any way. If he understands that comparisons will be made, and just plain doesn't care, then he's a bigger person than I cou

I have a twitter account, which I purposely do not have sent to my phone. I could not deal with numerous tweets thoughout the day. Just in the past couple of weeks, I've been taking a break from facebook. I've only been on to update my Visual Bookshelf, which I really do like, it's a handy little way to keep track of what I'd like to read next (much better than the stack-o'-books system). I can't even keep up with e-mails anymore, trying to go on facebook every day was making me nuts. I'll still stick my nose in occasionally, but it was becoming a chore. Also, yeah, younger people are

Wow, that's major. I am changing the thread title!

Scooped ya! Although, I wonder if Taylor Swift's "people" would have set this up without her knowledge. She was managing a pretty convincing stunned-and-humiliated look, which I don't think she could have pulled off had she known it was going to happen. And are we adding Obama to this conspiracy, too? He gets the cred of calling out Kanye as a jackass, plus the deniability of it being off the record...

This strikes me a bit like Robert Reich's book about his term in Clinton's cabinet, which I believe is currently accepted to be great storytelling, but a bit fast and loose with verifiable facts. Not that I think there are any outright lies here (or in RR's book), just that I don't entirely trust a book that contains nothing but great anecdotes (and I realize these are just excerpts, of course the best anecdotes are included). Life doesn't usually happen in such perfectly bite-sized chunks, fabulously suitable for cocktail-party conversation. Having said that, yes, this is fascinating stuf

Plus, adding to Beyonce's golden-girl routine when she pulls the "class act" of letting Taylor Swift speak later on in the show. It's a win-win-win-win!

There's a rumor going around our house that the Giants have sold Eugenio Velez's soul to the devil. It's possible, right?

I agree.

How is that not in your sig line yet?

How about "pointless for you, fun for other people"? Really, what's the harm in it?

I've stuck with Friendster! It's pretty much just me, now...

This is very cool! However... I want to remind everyone that we're not getting into the business of selling Wilco shirts. We're only doing Via Chicago shirts. An important distinction. You did! Sorry, I just checked my hotmail again, and you did indeed submit a HMUF design. Sorry about that.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't even comprehend what your family must have gone through this past year. I recently read Dave Cullen's book about Columbine. Patrick Ireland was the kid who flung himself out of the window of the school after having been shot in the head, spent several years re-learning how to walk and will be on anti-seizure medication for the rest of his life. He told the author that several years after, he received an e-mail from a friend one morning, asking him how he was doing and was he OK "today", and didn't realize until later, when he was dating a document

After much cajoling, I don't believe I ever actually received a Highy Messed Up Freak t-shirt design. Aside from that though, Ms. Misswe submitted several quite lovely designs, and I have done nothing to get them out to you all, because I suck. Seriously. No other excuse for not having put together the on-line store yet. It's still on my to-do list, though! I promise I haven't forgotten about it, and it will get done, eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

No subtext/critique intended. You, and anyone else who's interested, are more than welcome to talk about any subject you want (within reason and within civil bounds, of course... I am a moderator, after all!). I'm just saying that there might be good reason for some people to not want to talk about this here. Don't assume the worst of us.

People have widely varied personal responses to today's date, and expressing them on a message board is not always the best way of dealing with those feelings. In fact, reading about other people's feelings on a message board isn't always a great way of dealing, either. I think the lack of comment today isn't about oversight, disinterest, or a memory lapse.

The original documentary is definitely fabulous, and entirely horrifying. I also saw the Broadway musical, which was disturbing for different reasons. Christine Ebersole, who is great, played "Big Edie" in the earlier scenes, then played the older "Little Edie" in the second act. It was the second act that bothered me. Although there are plenty of moments in the documentary when the only possible response from the viewer is nervous laughter, it's always quite obvious during those moments that Little Edie was emotionally disturbed. In the musical, many of those scenes seemed to me to simpl

Welcome to VC, don't worry about the rehash/wrong forum stuff. And thanks for taking the links to older threads so graciously! There is a long-term back-and-forth on this topic (not about concert etiquette [although, that too, obviously], but about forum etiquette, and how people respond to new/old threads). OK, and now I'm just going to apologize for that last sentence, and move on...

stooka posted a link to the apology: As some of the commenters are noting, it's more one of those "I sorry you got offended" apologies, than it is an actual apology.

I haven't read the whole thread so this may have been mentioned before, but have you seen this? Paperback Writer So funny. My sister Kathy is pretty sure that Tweedy cribbed a joke from it the last time Wilco played the Fillmore.

Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, and Ironweed. I've got these three in one volume, alternating them with some non-fiction. Just finished Legs, moving on to Columbine, then after Billy Phelan's Greatest Game I'll start Deceit and Denial. Then back to Ironweed. I like to have a plan.

Well, Leroy played on AGIB, but didn't tour for it. So assuming there was some moment in time between the recording of that album, and Nels and Pat signing on for the AGIB tour, that was the moment when those four guys were Wilco. They probably didn't record anything or play live anywhere, just the four of them, but technically, yeah. So then the question is: why did they take a publicity shot during that time???

Despite the error with the date, this is still the Best Wilco Timeline Ever. I also liked the quote about needing to give something back to the communities where they play, since they're making a bunch of people go out and find places to park.