M. (hristine

1. First Concert, when?

1974 ~ Gordon Lightfoot

2. First Concert you really wanted to go to and did?

1974 ~ Jackson Browne

3. Favorite Band?

Today, Califone

4. How Many Times have you seen them?

Once

5. Worst concert you attended?

Hmm. I saw Joe Perry Project at a festival. That was pretty bad.

6. Favorite?

I've seen some tremendous shows. '78, '79 had some standouts; Springsteen, B52s, Neil Young, Dylan, Pretenders. The David Lindley and El Rayo X show at Parody Hall in 1982 is still talked about in hushed tones. Tom Waits in '82. More recently: Tweedy solo at the Fillmore West, Wilco the last time they played Columbia, Missouri. Califone a couple weeks ago.

7. Band you have seen the most?

Wilco

8. How many times?

More than a dozen

9. Furthest you drove for a concert? How far?

Twice to Chicago. 8 hours.

10. Furthest locale from home you have seen a concert?

London

11. How many concerts have you seen?

Several hundred.

12. Most you ever paid for a concert ticket?

Dunno. Rolling Stones in 81 was probably the most, but I can't recall how much. That and Pink Floyd a few years later are pretty much the last stadium shows I've seen.

13. Least amount of people at a concert by a major labeled artist.

I saw both B52s and Pretenders in tiny bars about the time they broke.

Tweedy at a living room show. 30 adults. 1 dog. 1 child.

14. Band you want to see the most who you haven't seen?

Mostly dead people.

Alive but back in the day: Bowie. Prince. Lou Reed. Talking Heads. Kate Bush.

I would really like to see Slim Cessna and the boys one of these days.

15. Ever been backstage, on a tourbus..which?

It's been offered, but unless I know the dudes I'm generally not interested. Seems kind of weird to me.

16. Longest show by one artist you ever saw?

Springsteen. 3.5 hours.

17. Shortest show by a headliner?

I've been kind of lucky that way.

Has Zooey learned how to sing yet?

Heh.

I dl-ed the first one twice, trying to hear with different ears the second time.

I sent it into the ether twice.

I was never quite sure how this works. Is that zero degrees? Or in order to be zero degrees separated, must you be Tim Rutili?

There were moments during that show where I could have sworn it was zero °s.

Also: This one time AtticusPoongoogler left a message on my answering machine.

Tim Rutili opened the door for us last week.

How many °s is that?

Sitting at the hotel computer, still in wonder about what I witnessed last night. I saw a show with none of the usual rock and roll trappings (no booze, seated, tiny room...we were practically in Rutuli's lap), but I feel like I participated in the genesis of music itself. Simply astounding 2 hours of music. Tim's film was riveting.

M. (hris to Ben Massarella: Please don't ever stop making music.

Have fun, girl!

Thanks mb! I'll report back.

Wish you could be there.

Seeing All My Friends live Thursday night!

I'm thinking I'll watch American Beauty instead of the Oscars tonight.

You're a goddam liar.

The reaper has been working overtime on musicians these past months.

I'm thinking I'll watch American Beauty instead of the Oscars tonight.

Happy trails Mark. I'm going to miss you so.

(to the camera): "I have to go wash my...eyes."

This episode was the perfect combination of tender and funny. One of the best this season.

These films have stuck with me over the years, yet not many people seem to have seen them. That's how I define underrated.

The Return

Polly Jean Harvey as Mary Magdalene? How could it not be tremendous?

The Book of Life

And by far the most disturbing film I've ever seen. (And if I recall correctly, no dialogue.)

Begotten

I worked tonight, so I was not able to listen in and am sleepy now. Two things...

1 Sarah and I saw Ashes of American Flags at the theater last night. I seat danced. Hard to imagine not seeing them this year. Sigh.

2 We are seeing Califone in three weeks. I can't believe how stoked I am.

Enjoy the show kids. Somebody get kidsmoke a beer.

I have a 25 yo bottle of Laphroaig that I'm afraid of.

My mom had the hots for Kristofferson for as long as I can remember. We listened to him a lot. I suppose I never had a chance. It was uncanny how Jeff Bridges seemed to channel Kristofferson in Crazy Heart.

Two of the best songwriters of any genre in the last 50 years. Nice piece. Thanks for sharing.

An Ominous Warning on the Effects of Ocean Acidification

 

A new study says the seas are acidifying ten times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred. And, the study concludes, current changes in ocean chemistry due to the burning of fossil fuels may portend a new wave of die-offs.

 

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2241

There are times when I'm not sure that even an event of this magnitude could put a monkey wrench into the grinding gears of the compressed fossil incineration machine

 

I would also agree with GON that humans have made it their primary aim to remove ourselves from the natural flux of the world, and I have to disagree with you, M. Chris and say that our scale of occupation is unprecedent, not only by our numbers but the number of and means by which we exploit other objects for our own advancement and continued removal.

Speed, what I meant was that the scale our influence upon climate is not unprecedented. Climate change can be precipitated by any number of natural occurrences, and sometimes quite dramatically. Variation in the earth's orbit, solar and oceanic variations, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions are some of the known variables. Isn't dinosaur extinction blamed on a meteor crashing to earth and changing the climate? Scientists have barely scratched the surface of understanding how these variables influence long and short term climate.

I'm not saying that the hypothesis of human caused climate change is wrong. I just think it's good to keep perspective that CO2 is one of many many variables.

I think I'll be giving up meat and alcohol altogether (except for St. Paddy's day).

My friend Loy always gave up cigarettes and booze during Lent, except for St Patrick's Day. He claimed some sort of papal dispensation.

I too have decided to give up refined sugar. Including chocolate, and excluding one morning French press with condensed milk.

I agree, but by and large, we’ve removed ourselves from that system, and rather than live within it, we have manipulated it on a grand scale, and for a while, it worked (and continues work) to our benefit – but now it appears as though we are seeing the effects of those changes, and the bill is in the post, with interest. It is estimated that prior to industrialization, the planet’s carrying capacity sat somewhere in the neighborhood of one billion – there are now six billion of us – and our ability to sustain that number comes largely by way of artificial, unsustainable, i.e. unnatural means. We’ve taken billions of year’s worth of stored energy, and released it back into the atmosphere within an extremely short period of time. We’ve created fertilizers from petroleum to feed more mouths than a pre-industrialized, pre-fertilized farm “community” could ever begin to hope to feed. And when that energy is no longer available, assuming alternatives to take its place are not yet widely available, we’re going to have a surplus population numbering in the billions, without the means to provide sufficient sustenance.

 

Or, perhaps, through the use of nuclear weapons, we’ll simply eliminate ourselves and everything else from the map – and there is nothing natural about that.

 

By definition, I suppose everything humans do is natural, but for better or worse, we’re pretty much living outside the example set by every other creature that has ever lived on this planet, long-term and successfully.\

 

Edit - for the record, put a "in my opinion" at the end of most of the previous sentences.

And I guess my response is that it is arrogance to believe that it's even remotely possible to remove ourselves from that system. Whether through the inclination towards war, natural disaster, epidemic disease, or unseen apocalyptic occurences, the system seeks to balance itself. The element that is in a precarious position is humans, the innocent as well as the guilty. The system does not differentiate.

Climate change has been the norm throughout the earth’s history, however, the behavior of an individual species directly contributing to and/or driving planetary-wide change is, insofar as we know, unprecedented.

 

With regards to dinosaurs, tree living is a sacrifice I’d be willing to make for a glimpse, hopefully not too brief a glimpse, of a living breathing t-rex or maybe even just one of those less impressive duck-bills.

I'd be attaching my neural transmitter braid to the brain of a terradactyl and cowgirling it.

My point is that humans live within a system. A system of balance that is forever in flux. Because we are woven into the system, we change the balance. Mostly through our adaptability, lack of natural predators and success in populating. Change unprecedented by a species? Maybe. Unprecedented? lol

Ultimately, like Cormac, I see the concentrated feral fire of balance far outweighing cannibalistic unbalance.

when did the trend change from global warming to climate change?

When we realized everything is a lot more complex than we originally made it seem.

Climate change is really nothing new is it? If dinosaurs still ruled the earth, humans would yet be living in trees.

God controls the climate and the weather, based on the democratic choice as expressed by the sum total of prayers He receives on a daily basis

 

why is that so hard for you people to understand?

OK, listen, just because YOU do not understand (even remotely, apparently) the science behind climate change, doesn’t mean the mechanisms by which it “works” don’t exist – the only thing you are making apparent, blindingly I might add, is your own ignorance – but keep it up, your cluelessness is vastly entertaining, just maybe not in the way you intend. If you have any self respect left, walk away – just walk the fuck away.

Why do you always have to bring skygod into it?