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The crowded escalator experiences I refer to take place in transit stations and airports. Typically there is a wide open and not particularly crowded area at the end of the escalator. Often there is a crowd waiting to get on the escalator, which is probably why people stand on both sides once they get their chance to step onto it. But it's still highly inconsiderate, considering people are trying to make time-sensitive travel connections.

Yes, it really is, despite how much you want to be right. Where is the person in front of me going to go if there is a person directly in front of them and another person directly next to them...and there are people directly in front of and directly next to those people, and so forth on every single stair of the escalator? Sometimes you're just stuck and you have to ride it out.

If you like Good for Cows, you might like Redressers, which is Devin and Ches, plus Carla Kihlstedt (violin) and Marika Hughes (Cello). http://www.myspace.com/redressers

This works if it's only one or two people blocking an escalator, but when the entire escalator from top to bottom is blocked, "excuse me" is worthless.

Interspecies friendships.

People can be really stupid with their pets sometimes. Some dumbass brought their cat to the pizza place down the street from my house, and thanks to him they don't allow any pets on their patio anymore.

Yeah, my favorite album of his is probably "Gone, Just Like a Train." I got to see his trio in Athens a few years ago. I think that was around the time he was recording the East/West live cd, which is also very good. Unfortunately I missed him last year when he came through Atlanta.

Non-smoking music venues.

bowing to the loudspeaker gods. Another pet peeve of mine: People who feel entirely justified in being inconsiderate just because there is no RULE that prohibits their inconsiderate action.

Me too. Maybe I can save some money and find a used one in time for my 40th birthday in a couple years.

Yeah, it was badass. I remember I kind of pissed off my bandmates at the time, because we were offered a pretty good slot at the same festival, at the same time Nels/Carla were scheduled to play, and I turned it down so I could see Nels. I got into Nels from seeing him with Mike Watt in 1995. I assume the first time I ever heard of Nels was from the track listing to Watt's "Ball-Hog or Tugboat" album. Nels is on a few of those tracks, but it took seeing him live before I became a fan. I think "Ballhog..." came out in '94. I have an album of Alex's solo percussion pieces, which is pr

Escalator blockers. Standers on the right, walkers on the left. What kind of brain malfunction do you have to have in order to think it makes sense at a trasit station where people are trying to catch the next train or bus to prevent people from getting up or down an escalator quickly?

There are two guest keyboardists on the album. Yuka Honda and David Witham. I don't recall which one of them plays on that song. Witham, I think. You may be right about Nels/Georgia. It'd be intersting to see how many people showed up if he played here. He came to Atlanta twice when "Instrumentals" was out. The first time, most of the audience seemed to be there for Carla's "Red Headed Stranger", and the second show was a festival show, so it's hard to say who was there specifically to see Nels. Actually, now that I think of it, the second time through Atlanta was with Carla's ba

I was going to post the same thing. This forces some passengers to put their bags several rows behind their seats, meaning you have to wait for virtually the entire fucking plane to empty before you can get your bag and get off the plane.

Having seen some photos of the Heartbreakers practice space/equipment warehouse, I'm kind of surprised he didn't already have one.

"Gibson hasn’t officially banned independent guitar sellers but more than five years ago it began forcing them to spend at least USD 100,000-USD 150,000 on merchandise annually to remain in its supply chain." This policy has put at least one guitar store out of business in Atlanta. For the last few years, I've been thinking of getting a Les Paul or an ES-335. There's no way I can buy a new one, for any price. I think I read the linked article a week or two ago, and somewhere I found a link to a website that tracks employee satisfaction with their employer (found it...see below). App

I don't know anything about them, other than the fact that Mike Campbell uses one. That's all the praise any guitar needs. If he says it's worth playing, you can take it to the bank.

I saw them open for King Missile in Atlanta. Must've been '91, I guess. I wish I had seen them they play more than an opening slot, but it was a fantastic short set.

Part 4 of the Oral History is up: http://www.downbeast.com/ “Hot For Teacher.” That’s the official song of the Nels Cline Singers. We’ve played that at almost every single sound check.

Cool, and now it's playing in my head.