Beltmann

You have always been VC's most generous and thoughtful member!

Same here. Feels like yesterday we were vigorously debating the merits of the drone.

That was great. If I remember right, it was around the time of the famous VC battles over whether Wilco had sold out because they licensed SBS songs for Volkswagen ads.

Thanks! I hadn't heard of this before, but thanks to you I'm enjoying it right now!

I vividly remember the Challenger explosion, too (born 1974). But I think the earliest major news story that I can remember noticing is Beirut being bombed in 1982. Those war images on the evening news stuck with me for a very long time.

My wife said the same thing. It's true, of course, but it bothered her more than it bothered me, perhaps because I'm almost always on Hawke's wavelength.

Someone shouted, "Come back!," and Jeff replied, "Anytime. We're just down the road from here." He also had a little trouble with "Where Do I Begin," and afterwards apologetically said that the reason was because it's a new song. He added something about how he's still trying to figure it out (as a solo version, I presume).

Thanks, Paul. I was thinking of jotting down the list until I spotted you just a few minutes before the show started (actually, it was Stacy who first saw you). I would have said hello, but you were up front and we were up in the balcony. Always great to see old friends!

Mr. Jeff Tweedy, in Sheboygan, WI. Rough week... I need this!

Letterman May 2007: "What Light" (I have the segment recorded onto DVD-R and double-checked.)

Count me among those that care about the other records. All of the records before '72 (Surf's Up and earlier) get plenty of play in the house.

As always, huge thanks for these details, Paul.

The list of bands that I regularly blind buy is very long. The sense of discovery is different and deeper when it carries the weight of purchase, and by extension, investment. But the question is which bands will always be on that list. That's tougher, and those candidates are usually bands that are not just "great," but have some other personal connotation for me. (In fact, some of them aren't among the best bands in the world, but there are personal reasons for my forever interest. The Gaslight Anthem comes to mind--a good band, not a great band, but there's a profound link between me, the

Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. All the action is down the street.

We had two threads going about Lemmy's death, so I merged them.

Thank you for sharing this heartwarming news.

I absolutely loved it and was (slightly) disappointed for the same reason: It fully transported me back to my childhood, because it felt like a remake of Episode IV, but it also felt a bit like a retread, because it felt like a remake of Episode IV, with parts taken from the other movies, too. Loved the old cantina scene? Here's a variation! Loved the old scene with Kenobi being cut down in front of helpless onlookers? Here's a variation! Loved when Vader used the Force Choke? Here's a variation! Loved when Luke used the Force to grab his lightsaber from the ice? Here's a variation! Loved th

#2 on Robin Hilton's list for NPR: "Star Wars — and the Tweedy record from last year — show frontman Jeff Tweedy has entered a period of profound creativity, writing some of the best songs of his life."

#7 on American Songwriter's list: "The apex of the record is its stunning final track 'Magnetized,' which see’s the band channeling Abbey Road-era Beatles into robust pop perfection that rivals 'Reservations,' for best album closer."

#9 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the year's best albums: "Frontman Jeff Tweedy has finally found his inner Han Solo."

The GOP's rejection of refugees is rooted in a shared virtue: Like all Americans of any political persuasion, they sincerely want to keep America safe. The irony is that it doesn't take into consideration the tried-and-true methods of keeping America safe. First, there is a careful vetting process already in place that has been working for more than a decade. (To listen to the cable news blowhards, you'd think that the president's plan is to simply open the doors to an unregulated stampede.) Embracing refugees keeps America safe for several reasons. Research shows that moving refugees far aw

I'm not crazy about the last two albums, but the older stuff remains in heavy rotation around the house. My wife and I have seen them 7-8 times over the years, and the live show continues to be pretty great. They were obviously having a blast last night and did a few things they've never done before. (There used to be quite a few Guster fans around here.)

Guster at the Pabst in Milwaukee.

Self-serving silence is what motivates the fallen Catholics who intersect at a seaside monastery in The Club, Pablo Larrain’s severe indictment of the Church in Chile. The residents are mostly disgraced priests sent to the coast by the Church in order to save face, but their comfortable, unholy existence is threatened when a young investigator, Father Garcia, starts asking questions. With its washed-out, colorless cinematography, the movie starts grim and only grows bleaker, culminating in an astonishing sequence of violence and retribution. Larrain flirts with sacrilege—one potent image has F

Over the last 10 days I have seen 31 movies at the Milwaukee Film Festival. (Five days still to go!) So far the two best films I've seen are documentaries: The Look of Silence and Cartel Land. Both are nuanced sociopolitical portraits that excoriate entire nations for their moral corruption, and both contain startling, how-did-they-get-that footage.