Silent Assassin

Initially I was not blown away, but after a number of listens it stacks up with the rest of his albums, which means great.

Too Much Time may be may favorite song so far this year, especially the the live version he did with the Magik*Magik Orchestra.

 

what do you folk make of this video? Im not to sure I mean its weird that the guy is escorted for disagreing with the Obama crowd but it dosent seem that insane that you can remove someone from a rally for saying diffrent things in this type of election , I mean you don't want that guy on camera or Cnn. Im not saying what he thinks is right but do any of you think thats its okay to remove people this way?

I was at Belmont when these guys came in. It was not a Obama rally per se, but about 1000 Obama supporters around the MSNBC broadcasting tent. I didn't agree at all with this guy being kicked out, especially with the argument that he had a bull horn as the guy that led the Obama supports in also had a bull horn and was allowed to remain. I talked to the remaining members of that group after the incident and they came back in, and it seemed like they were just there to cause a scene, which is fine if that is what they wanted to do. They basically just wanted people to vote for a third party candidate, any candidate so long as it wasn't Obama or McCain. I told them I would love to vote third party if there was a legitimate candidate, but I am supporting Obama because while imperfect I think will be a much better president than McCain.

On a side note, I also talked to a small group of McCain people that were there (a picture of them was posted on 538.com). They kept talking about how Obama was friends with terrorists and said that Obama was not patriotic because he didn't serve in the military. It went on for a little while where I thought I was very polite, simply challenging them on the issues, and eventually they just gave up and walked away. My only regret was not bringing up the Alaskan Independence Party issue with Palin, because I would have loved to hear their response to that.

I met my girlfriend because she was playing Beulah in the dorm. I introduced myself and said that I saw them over the summer, and then she responded that she saw them too, at their final show ever, upon which I responded, "damn you!" Nothing like damning your girlfriend upon first meeting her. Our first date ended up being a Ted Leo concert.

In general we like the same music, however, I don't think she quite gets my love of Wilco or John Vanderslice.

I've seen them three times, have yet to disappoint.

They are playing in Nashville the same night as the New Pornographers, so unfortunately I won't get to see them a fourth time. However, Spoon is playing a Vandy sponsored festival and I can just imagine a bunch of drunken undergrads that would probably not care about them anyway would ruin the experience anyway.

Right on, what program are you in? I'm in Spanish and Portuguese. You'd think there'd be more Wilco fans in humanities programs, but so far I've only found a few "appreciators"--pfff, whatever that means. I even try to seek out other fans by wearing that one cartoon Wiilco t-shirt, but honestly, I get more comments about the Trogdor tee.

 

Had a dream last night about the show. It was outdoors and it started to rain so my wife and I sneaked into a canopy section. Good thing the Ryman has a roof!

I'm in Biomedical Engineering. I know there are a few low level fans in my department (at least they list Wilco as their favorite music on facebook).

My wife and I will be there. This is her first show at the Ryman...she's gonna love it. We're on the floor, 2nd to last row in the back, but direct center. It's been a stressful week but it's spring break at Vandy. This show will be welcome respite from the rigors of grad school.

Hello from a fellow Vandy grad student. I'll be down on the main floor, section 7, row H, seat 9. It'll be my first show at the Ryman, looking forward to it.

That's where the second part of my post comes in (making insurance cheaper).

If it makes insurance cheap enough for people at the poverty line than I'd be all for it. Just not so sure it would.

A large number of them make over $50,000 per year, and individuals should get the same tax breaks that employers get for providing insurance. There are other things that could be done to make the actual insurance more affordable. Allowing people to buy insurance across state lines and cutting back on arbitrary regulations that say what insurance companies have to cover would help.

I understand how people make $50,000 a year will be helped. It's the people hovering around the poverty line (~$20k family of 4) that I just don't see how giving them a tax credit would work.

It is a little pink (IMO, obviously). I honestly don't know the specifics of either plan, but I'm guessing they both involve large subsidies (if they don't just outright pay for everything). While you may have a choice of whether you want to adopt the government plan, you don't have a choice on paying the taxes that are going to fund it. A less pink option would be to offer tax credits for buying insurance. That keeps the government out of the actual plan while saving consumers some tax money that they can use on it.

I have one question about the tax credit option. I could be wrong, but a large proportion of people that don't have health insurance probably are paying very little in federal taxes as it is. So giving them a tax credit would effectively do nothing?

Why is relying on the government preferable to relying on charity?

In theory its not, but the government has a realistic shot for covering everyone.

This is probably less of a problem than it was in the past. Medicine is starting to lose its appeal as far as the money-power thing goes. Either way, we are going to need as many doctors as we can get with the aging population.

I hope so, but there are still a lot of them where I think to myself, "I would never want him/her to be my doctor."

if you know of any med schools that pay you to attend, I would love to transfer.

If you get a MD/PhD they do pay you.

You can help people without the government forcing you to do so.

But you shouldn't have to rely on the charity of other people to get medical treatment. It should be a human right, not a privilege of those that can afford it. Unfortunately, I don't think the US can begin to see healthcare as a right as until the government does something about it. But maybe that is just the socialist in me talking.

On a side note, as a recent college graduate and graduate student, I know quite a number of people that are now in medical school. Many are there for the wrong reasons (IMO); power, money, and their parents want them to be doctors. I'm not sure how that fits into the whole healthcare debate, but I'll just throw it out there. However, I also know many who are in med school because they truly want to help people.

But he has been doing stuff like this lately also.

John Vanderslice - Cellar Door

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

The Beatles - Revolver

Beulah - Yoko

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

Elliott Smith - XO

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

Spoon - Series of Sneaks

Ted Leo - The Tyranny of Distance

In no order.

I'll be at the Nashville show.

It seems John Vanderslice is opening, which is great (although I wish he was just coming as the headliner). Don't know if he is opening for other shows.

Beulah - Yoko

I was at that show, I wasn't terribly impressed with the new songs. However, Ben said that he was still working on them and in many cases was the first time they had played them live so they were a little rough. He did seem a little less "happy" than other times I have seen him, but still put on a great show.

Took a few attempts, but I was successful in getting one ticket. I too got "upgraded" from the balcony down to section 7 (Row H, Seat 9) with the rest of the cool kids. Looking forward to this, it'll be my first show at the Ryman since moving down to Nashville.

Wendy, if you make it down here I still owe you for that Beck ticket you gave to me a couple years back.

Since 4/30/2005

1. One More Night (Stars) - 53

2. Sing Me Spanish Techno (The New Pornographers) - 43

3. The Bleeding Heart Show (The New Pornographers) - 42

4. The First Five Times (Stars) - 40

5. Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games (Of Montreal) - 40

6. Reunion (Stars) - 38

7. Use It (The New Pornographers) - 36

8. I Was Never Young (Of Montreal) - 35

9. Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Stars) - 34

10. Fake Palindromes (Andrew Bird) - 33

11. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh! (Sufjan Stevens) - 33

12. Forecast Fascist Future (Of Montreal) - 33

13. The Jessica Numbers (The New Pornographers) - 33

14. A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left (Andrew Bird) - 33

16. The Dark Don't Hide It (Magnolia Electric Co.) - 32

17. They Won't Let Me Run (John Vanderslice) - 31

18. Set Yourself on Fire (Stars) - 31

19. Oslo in the Summertime (Of Montreal) - 31

20. The Naming of Things (Andrew Bird) - 31

21. We Both Go Down Together (The Decemberists) - 31

22. Let It Go (Stars) - 31

23. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (Sufjan Stevens) - 30

24. Exodus Damage (John Vanderslice) - 30

25. White Plains (John Vanderslice) - 30

A couple summers back I went on a huge Stars kick, which has somehow held up despite the fact that I haven't listened to them for about a year.

Yay! Cleveland! Thanks for posting these.

At the Cleveland show they said that they were recording it, for what I don't know. It was my first Calexico show, after waiting for a couple years for them to come around, and it was great.

His song from the Adidas World Cup commerical (Eanie Meanie) is really catchy. Otherwise, I haven't heard anything.

I love it when bands just take a few requests and explicitly state that they are not coming out for an encore. John Vanderslice, Beulah, and Elliott Smith (judging from live recordings) do/did such a thing.

Of Montreal is very fun live. Check out some of their older stuff, it is rather different than their recent albums, but still great.

got one

thanks very much