Chinese Apple

That is TOO funny! Did that really happen? Sick, but I like! Maybe it's just you? Taking from the rich (corporations) and then giving out downloads like "The Jolly Banker" to The People rather screams "Robin Hood." (Let's discuss new, interesting ways for Wilco to sell out, rather than flog the VW dead horse.)

Yay! Oxfam and Doctors without Borders are two of the best run and most ethical relief orgs out there. What a terrific bonus to get free Wilco downloads.

Actually, I would too. Except when other people cast stones about the above, I know I wouldn't be able to come up with any counter arguments, except to sigh and say, "The heart wants what it wants."

Having recently defended the use of Wilco's music in VW ads (by comparing them to Shakespeare, Rembrandt and Mozart who all had wealthy patrons) -- I was musing to myself at which point I would consider Wilco/Jeff Tweedy to be sell-outs. Three points of no return might be: 1) Jeff Tweedy (or any of the band members) launching a "celebrity scent." 2) Any of the band members being a guest judge on American Idol. (Although, depending on their judging styles I would likely forgive this.) 3) Any of them starring in an MTV reality show. ("Meet the Miller-Tweedys," a la the Osbournes.) I'

And by the same token, Kicking Television, also a double album, sold the least (hard)copies...

Good point. Especially since it's priced the same as the usual one-CD albums.

I am a sporadic participant on the forum; shoulda done a search of topics first. Oops. But the poll graphic is informative, no? Especially juxtaposed against actual album sales figures, as a comparison of the fan forum against "real world" consumers.

Here's my ranking 1) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 2) Sky Blue Sky 3) Summerteeth 4) A Ghost is Born 5) Being There 6) Wilco (The Album) 7) A.M. 8) Kicking Television Choosing a favorite Wilco album is like being asked to choose a favorite child. On different days I might favor one slightly more than the others, but I love each of them in their own unique way.

Ok. Fixed it. Please cast your ballot!

(Sad about Massachusetts today, so felt like designing a couple of polls where I'll be happy with the outcome, regardless.)

Wilco has released a total of eight albums. Below are the eight, listed in chronological order, each followed by their ranking in terms of album sales. (Please note that in the age of downloading single tracks, album sales may not mean much, but are provided here for anecdotal reference.) Please rank them in order of your personal preference. 1) A.M. (1995) --> #6 2) Being There (1996) --> #3 3) Summerteeth (1999) --> #5 4) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) --> #1 5) A Ghost is Born (2004) --> #2 6) Kicking Television (2005) --> #7 7) Sky Blue Sky (2007) -- #4 8) Wilco (The A

I was listening to the Beatles a couple of weeks ago, and heard a riff in Lady Madonna that is used at the beginning of Hoodoo Voodoo. This musical reference is probably not news to many of you here, but that realization set off a whole chain of association that made a favorite song even greater for me. I am a fan of Woodie Guthrie, and love his songs for children. My two little guys and I love "Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_to_Grow_on_for_Mother_and_Child) I know from the lyrics of Hoodoo Voodoo that Guthrie must have written it as a child

I would cast Jason Bateman as Glenn Kotche in the Wilco Rock-u-drama.

I have a feeling Twitter is holding things up. There are still a LOT of bugs with it. Last week it was apparently hacked by Iranians: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/18/twitter.hacked/index.html. I entered some haikus via Twitter, and my username (like_a_version) was hijacked, so I ended up removing all of my tweets. Here is my favorite of my own entries. It wants an audience. To tenderize steak, try pounding the cold, raw slabs to "Bull Black Nova."

(Is that you, Mr. Jorgensen? In drag?)

Wow! That screenshot says it all. I am convinced that we are breeding a new race of cyborgs, whose nervous systems are connected to the physical world via electronic gadgets. Reminds me of something I read by Marshall "the Medium is the Message" McLuhan. Here is his interview in Playboy (March 1969): http://www.playboy.com/articles/marshall-mcluhan-playboy-interview/index.html Back then, people DID buy Playboy for the articles! And, a reminder that our grandparents, who were around when the atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, probably thought TV and rock and roll were the har

When I interned at a major network news magazine show a few years ago, I researched potential stories and wrote up pitches. They told me that the best stories (for ratings) were "when bad things happen to the rich or the beautiful." Story pitches about bad/sad things that happened to ugly, poor people would be shot down, and never make it to air. Some stories about good things happening to poor people were OK'ed, but not if they were distractingly unattractive. I went into TV hoping to make good TV, but in the end, the ratings trumped superior content. We can't simultaneously blame (v

Wanted to clarify, for the record: I started this thread NOT to justify reliving my own concert experiences through badly made videos, but because I find it interesting to look at other people's badly made videos. The main difference between autobiography and auto-ethnography is, if members of Wilco make a video about Wilco, or a fan films him/herself (not Wilco), that would be autobiography.

They don't give an accurate picture of individuals. But taken collectively, auto-ethnographies reveal the values of a community or society precisely because they are self-censored and self-edited. Officially sanctioned videos or publicity materials are edited to represent the ideals of the artist or the record companies. They all paint parts of a bigger picture of the times we live in. Decades (or centuries) from now, people might look at Youtube videos and get an inkling for the sort of things that had cultural credibility among the population that used that medium.

O brave new world! Thanks.

What is "The DVD Project"? Is it for The People?

I don' think indie rock culture is "faux" culture. As an outsider, I find it quintessentially American and absolutely fascinating. I like it, but don't feel a part of it. I study it, the way some Americans study kabuki, or haiku (!) in its original form. English is not my mother tongue. I feel bad that these "academic terms" exclude you. I forget who I am talking to on these here internets: the default assumption is that we are talking to someone much like ourselves, in our own heads. I am sure you are not as "self-absorbed" as I am. I'm surprised that you assume I am not doing

I agree with this part. But disagree that "everything we do is auto-ethnography." Ethnography entails documenting. If you take a crap in the toilet, for instance, that may be future fodder for archeologists, but is not ethnography. Let's not deny the hypocrisy of poo-pooing people for videoing, but then watching them ourselves on Youtube. Being the "demand," and then turning around to blame the "suppliers" feels as wrong as denouncing prostitution if you are a john. I look it up, and I like it. I feel badly about harshing on people who tape, for that reason. So, great for anyone ou

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I was born in Taiwan (a former Japanese colony populated by ethnic Chinese from Southern China), but grew up all over the place, chunks of it Connecticut and California. I've been based in Dublin, Ireland for the last four years, though.