Chez

Saw "The Green Book." Predictable, but still pretty good.

Courtney Barnett -- Tell Me How You Really Feel Parquet Courts -- Wide Awake! Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks --- Sparkle Hard Superchunk -- What a Time To Be Alive Yo La Tengo -- There's A Riot Going on Low Cut Connie -- Dirty Pictures (Part 2) Alejandro Escovedo -- The Crossing John Prine -- The Tree of Forgiveness Guided By Voices -- Space Gun Richard Thompson -- 13 Rivers Jeff Rosenstock -- Post

I'm old -- depressingly old. I learned about new music through word of mouth (I had a couple of friends who not only had great taste themselves, but older brothers with even greater taste) and the radio. When I got to college, I started reading lots of reviews in Rolling Stone, Spin and (later) CMJ. My college had a decent radio station and the student newspaper had good album reviews (they significantly improved after I started writing them -- a major benefit of that "job" was free albums and free concert tickets). My senior year I took a course on the history of rock and roll which grea

^^^ Completely agree. I don't do stadium shows for that very reason. United Center is the largest venue I'll go to and then only if it's a bucket-list band I've never seen previously (e.g. Radiohead).

I've been hate-watching the last season of House of Cards.

I just finished "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. Both were extraordinary.

That book opened my eyes (and ears) to many bands I had overlooked. It's fantastic.

^^^ 50 shows in any year is impressive. Congratulations on your retirement and on achieving your post-retirement mission..

Even though I was warned repeatedly not to go back there, today I'm going back to Rockville (MD) for a meeting.

Au Cheval is pretty great for burgers too. Love Kuma's and was shocked they closed the store in Lakeview.