Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

11 in 2011

2012-01-01T10:43:00.004-06:00

My Top 11 in 2011 in 11 words or less
also posted on CHIRP Radio Best of 2011

In no particular order

Let England Shake, PJ Harvey
Grim, haunting songs sweetly sung. Next time, PJ, more guitar please.

Fractured Days, Brief Candles
Shoegazers from Milwaukee = bowling shoe gazers. Stellar from start to finish

Yuck, Yuck
These kids do the 90s better than most 90s bands.

The Whole Love, Wilco
Best since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

WHOKILL, Tune-Yards
Wha? Ukelele-driven African beats? One of the year's best surprises.

Weird Freedom, Little Gold
Former Woods guitarist gets his pubrock/psychedelic/alt country freak on.

Cults, Cults
Bouncy but creepy take on sixties girl group sound and themes.

Last Summer, Eleanor Friedberger
Stream of consciousness tour of Manhattan and other islands.

Bad as Me, Tom Waits
Waits and Nick Cave give aging rockers hope.

The King is Dead, The Decemberists
Decemberists get rootsy, release one of their strongest efforts to date.

Icky Mettle, Archers of Loaf
Favorite reissue. 18 years later and still crunchy.

2010 Top Ten List

2010-12-27T09:11:00.004-06:00

1) This is Happening, LCD Soundsystem
Summer officially started 3:06 into “Dance Yourself Clean” when the volume surges and handclapping gives way to a monster bass line. Finally, I can see the appeal of driving a boom car where the bass rattles all the windows in the neighborhood.

2) The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
This album could have been a load of pretentious crap, filled with clichés about the sterility and open-aired claustrophobia of suburban life. Thankfully, The Suburbs (for the most part) avoids those pitfalls and delivers a meditation on the emotional pull of a place you once called home. And the importance and inevitability of leaving that place.

3) Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter
The album is shot through with lyrics that twist in upon themselves, contradicting lines of optimism, then providing grace notes to the bleakest lines. One of the more poignant tracks, “Helicoptor,” imagines the last moments of Dima, a Russian male escort, before he is thrown off a helicopter. That strange unidentifiable percussive sound is the blade of the helicopter, heard through a drug-addled haze.

4) My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West
In an album filled with diverse musical styles, samples from all over, guest stars and a wide-ranging inventiveness, West still manages to find space to wedge in all of his ego and all of his doubts.

5) Together, The New Pornographers
Not as propulsive as Twin Cinema or as hauntingly lovely as Challengers, Together is still sublime pop.

6) The Lady Killer, Cee Lo Green
This album is much more than the ubiquitous kiss-off single with the Motown bounce. Cee Lo obviously loves the soul stylings of the sixties and seventies and does an inspired take on them.

7) The ArchAndroid, Janelle Monáe
A remarkable debut album, switching between music genres with more dexterity and poise than most veterans could manage. She also seemed to be everywhere at once as a guest artist—appearing on albums by B.o.B., Big Boi and Of Montreal. And she brings it live. Even hampered with a muddy sound mix at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre, she put on a jaw-dropping performance.

8) High Violet, The National
Not the high water mark of Boxer or Alligator, perhaps because what they are writing about is more elusive. Instead of the bipolar extremes of male extended adolescence, with its dizzying self-regard (“All the Wine”) or its groveling lows (“Slow Show”), High Violet is trying to capture something else, that imperceptible slide into adulthood.

9) The Fool, Warpaint
The first full-length album by this LA all-female quartet is hypnotic. Lots of space in these songs to get lost in.

10) Crazy for You, Best Coast
Sunny pop songs about AWOL boyfriends who disappear with the weed.

Lots of Happy Listenings:

The Five Ghosts, Stars

False Priest, Of Montreal

Forgiveness Rock Record, Broken Social Scene

Broken Bells, Broken Bells

Broken Dreams Club, Girls

Astro Coast, Surfer Blood

You Are Not Alone, Mavis Staples

New Amerykah Part Two, Erykah Badu

Their fifteen minutes are over: Sleigh Bells

More Lollapalooza

2010-08-16T21:29:00.005-05:00

Arcade Fire
The high point of my summer:

Set list: Ready to Start (opener), Neighborhod #2 Laika, No Cars Go, Haiti, Empty Room Rococo, The Suburbs, Intervention, Crown Of Love, Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), We Used to Wait, Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Rebellion (Lies), Keep the Car Running. Wake Up (encore)

Lollapalooza 2010

2010-08-09T11:31:00.000-05:00

One of the first highlights. Mavis Staples performs The Band's "The Weight." An amazing version that had the whole crowd singing along. Catch it here.

Later Ms. Staples brought out Jeff Tweedy, who produced her upcoming album, out for a guest turn. Mr. Tweedy doesn't sing, just plays a little acoustic guitar.

After Staples finishes, the Drive-by Truckers start at the stage on the other side of the field. Guitarist Patterson Hood asks the crowd to give a hand for Mavis. Seems like a gracious gesture, but it's even better. Later I read that his father, David Hood, played bass on a number of Staple Singers session at Muscle Shoals in the 1970s. Very cool.

Pitchfork 2010

2010-07-19T11:41:00.001-05:00

Highlight

The most anticipated act paid off big time. LCD Soundsystem, Saturday night's headliner, grabbed the crowd from the first song (a fiery "Us V Them")and held it throughout its hour plus set. The peak of the set (and the whole weekend) came with an amazing "All My Friends." The percussive piano chord keeps repeating and repeating, building the tension relased only when the last line comes around, which the whole crowd happily sings along.

The set had some huge omissions: "North American Scum," "Dance Yourself Clean" (which I think would sound amazing live), and "Home." If this is the last tour for this group, they are leaving at the top of their game.

Partial set list: "Drunk Girls," "I Can Change," "Pow Pow," "Someone Great," "Yeah Yeah," "Tribuations," "Losing My Edge," "Daft Punk," and a very curious choice for a closer, "New York, I Love You."

Luck of the Irish

2010-03-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

I remember envying the Irish when I was growing up. They had a great holiday that everyone loved and celebrated; a big jolly party. You wore your green sweater, colored shamrocks and hung them all over the classroom.
We Polish-Americans weren’t so lucky; the only public acknowledgement of our heritage was Polack jokes.
Where’s the best place to hide money from a Polack?
Under a bar of soap.
And on and on. Polacks were dumb and dirty. The point was reiterated endlessly. The jokes were too moronic to wound but were frequent enough to blunt any incipient interest in Polish culture I might have, which I’m sure was not much. I was not interested in all that old stuff. And I wasn’t Polish, I was American.
These days, I’m thinking that maybe the Polish-Americans got the better deal. Chicago kids get off on Pulaski Day, but the day is not cause for wild celebrations of non-Polish people.
But the Irish are forced to see their culture, the culture of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett, reduced to green draft beer and “Kiss me I’m Irish” T-shirts.
Of course, this cultural reductionism doesn’t afflict only the Irish but they are unfortunate enough to have a wildly popular holiday that becomes a day-long spectacle of these reductions.

Coyote Sighting

2010-01-11T23:30:00.000-06:00

I had just finished parking my car behind the Civic Center, when I see what I think is a stray dog on the other side of the street. Then I realize it is a coyote, smallish, a bit scruffy-looking, but trotting down the sidewalk like he belongs and has an appointment to keep. My camera is in my backpack, which is in the backseat. But before I can move, the coyote takes a sharp right and disappears into the backyards. I try to follow, but he's gone. Nothing left but these prints, which don't look any different than a dog's. I'm staring at the tracks, when an older guy walks by. Did you see that? I ask him. He doesn't stop, but says, That was no dog.

Best of 2009

2010-01-01T11:42:00.001-06:00

Best of 2009

2009 was a better years for songs than albums. I had no trouble my year-end mix tape of stellar songs released this year. Coming up with a list of ten albums that held together as albums was a lot tougher. But here’s what I enjoyed in 2009.

1) Middle Cyclone by Neko Case
Neko’s most popular album is also one of her best. Her voice is as divine as ever, She allows herself to write some choruses, and her lyrics have less of the obtuseness of Fox Confessor. It helps that I first heard the best of these songs on a gorgeous September night at the Hideout Block Party in 2008; hearing them again brings back that late summer magic.

2) Face Control by Handsome Furs
Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and his wife, Alexei Perry, make an album of lean muscular rock that is more vital and urgent than 90% of the stuff out there.

3) Fortress ‘round My Heart by Ida Maria
Brash, funny pop with a punk edge.

4) Hospice by The Antlers
A gorgeous suite of songs evoking the grief, guilt, helplessness and fear resulting from watching a loved one die. The music whispers then surges into powerful choruses.

5) Welcome to Mali by Amadou & Mariam (2009 US Release)
Maybe the most joyous album of the year comes from the Mali couple of Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia. The lead track, “Sabali,” continues to beguile.

6) Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
The same multilayered sonic landscapes you’d expect from Animal Collective, but crafted into more structured songs. “My Girls “ is a sunny, giddy delight.

7) Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear
A big step forward from their 2006 release, Yellow House. Still too many formless swaths of pretty sounds, but the strong songs (“Cheerleader,” “Two Weeks,” “While You Wait for the Others”) are some of the best of the year.

8) Wilco by Wilco
I miss the edge of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but this comfy cardigan of an album is ingratiating.

9) It’s Blitz! by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Great dance rock.

10) Change of Heart by Tim Fite
Mr. Fite’s Valentine’s Day present to music fans is a free download of songs about a break up. Fite’s goofy wit is reined in a little (but, happily, not extinguished) and the songs cut deeper.

Many Happy Listens

Dark Was the Night by Various Artists
This double album compilation is a microcosm of the 2009 indie music universe: talented people recording some terrific songs, but why are so many so introspective and slow.

The XX by The XX
This debut album by a London band features spare arrangements with whispery vocals and carefully parsed guitar lines.

Yonder is the Clock by The Felice Brothers
Great songs. If only this album had the energy of the their live shows.

Art Brut vs. Satan by Art Brut
More droll rockers from this band from the UK. Are they pulling a Mekons and setting up shop in Chicago? They must have played here at least ten times this year, including a five-night stint at Schubas.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by The Pains of Being Pure of Heart

PW & The Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys (EP) by Paul Westerberg

Blood Bank (EP) by Bon Iver

Manners by Passion Pit

Best of the Decade

2009-12-30T15:02:00.000-06:00

I make no claim that these are epoch-defining or the most influential of the decade. My criteria is simple: these are the albums that I’ve come back to again and again these last ten years.

#1 Funeral by Arcade Fire (2004)

#2 In Rainbows by Radiohead (2007)

#3 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco (2002)

#4 Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers (2005)

#5 Boxer by The National (2007)

#6 Come On Feel the Illinoise! by Sufjan Stevens (2005)

#7 Middle Cyclone by Neko Case (2009)

#8 Ten New Songs by Leonard Cohen (2001)

#9 Sound of Silver by LCD Sound System (2007)

#10 The Meadowlands by The Wrens (2003)

#11 The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley (2008)

#12 Love & Theft by Bob Dylan (2001)

#13 Essence by Lucinda Williams (2001)

#14 3 Rounds and a Sound by Blind Pilot (2008)

#15 Failer by Kathleen Edwards (2003)

#16 Satellite Rides by Old 97s (2001)

#17 All Your Summer Songs by Saturday Looks Good to Me (2003)

#18 Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon (2007)

#19 Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea by PJ Harvey (2000)

#20 Alligator by The National (2005)

#21 Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes (2008)

#22 Sea Change by Beck (2002)

#23 Dig, Lazarus, Dig by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2008)

#24 Challengers by the New Pornographers (2007)

#25 A Boot and a Shoe by Sam Philips (2004)

#26 Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal (2006)

#27 You & Me by The Walkmen (2008)

#28 When the Telephone Rings by The Silos (2004)

#29 Microcastle by Deerhunter (2008)

#30 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields (2000)

Pitchfork 2009

2009-07-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

July 17 to July 19
Tortoise takes the stage during an off and on again drizzle and announces that it is dedicating its set to a friend who died this morning. This is the worse start I've ever heard to a concert or a festival promising three days of music.

Things improve. All in all the best Pitchfork I've been to, although the weather remains weird. Instead of the usual steambath, the days are sweatshirt cool and threaten rain the entire weekend.

Most repeated line from band.

Some variation on "This is the largest crowd we've played for." Cymbals Eat Guitars, The Antlers, Beirut, and at least one other band that I can't remember now.

Best t-shirt:
Die Emo Die

Most interesting photos of people on top of other people:

I watched this kid lick his Dad's head for a good half of Cymbals eat guitars.

Highlights include:
The National, who seem to be getting better live. Songs that sound introspective on the album become fully fleshed out rockers in concert. At the end of the show, we're all screaming the lyrics to the final song: "I won't fuck us over; I'm Mr. November! Very cathartic.

The Walkmen
I was curious to see how "You & Me" would translate live. Sometimes I fell into the album and it was like a suite of songs; other times I found myself impatient--not enough variety. I was delighted to see that the album, which made up about half the set, was even more compelling live. The cords on Hamilton Leithauser's neck looked about ready to pop during songs like "in the New Year" and "The Rat."

The Yeasayers had the moment of the concert when the drizzle stopped and the sun came out for "Sunrise."

Santa Fe

2009-04-26T22:17:00.000-05:00

There’s a reason Georgia O’Keefe, who spent the most important years of her artistic life in the Santa Fe area, painted still lives of flowers and skulls.

You spend months looking over at the mountains in the distance, months regarding the miles of dry mesas in between, and it works on you—like those nights away from the city when all the hidden stars come out to stun you and, after the first shock of beauty is gone, put you in your place. Your small, transient, inconsequential place.

Who needs a beach...or summer

2009-02-22T22:14:00.000-06:00

Scout can sunbathe on a blanket of snow on a sunny 30-degree day. She's happy as a clam for a good half hour. When she comes back into the house, the fur on her back is warm.

The Temporal Horse Latitudes

2009-02-20T17:15:00.000-06:00

The horse latitudes are a stretch in the ocean where currents and winds dwindled to nothing and sailing ships would be mired for days. They were called the horse latitudes because sailors in the horse trade had to travel through these waters. When they got stuck, they had to lighten the boat by throwing the horses into the sea. The screams of the drowning horses were terrible to hear.

On Friday afternoons, around 2 or 3PM, the temporal version of horse latitudes occurs. Time doesn't stir.

The screams of the cubicled are more muted but still terrible to hear.

Funeral

2009-02-15T21:57:00.000-06:00

We are heading to the funeral of my wife's aunt, down Highway 63 in Indiana when we pass a hearse that appears to have driven out of a Flannery O'Connor story. On the back is the quote from scripture: The wages of sin are death.the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. A sign across the roof of the hearse reads Prepare to Meet Your Maker.

Why do the Bible Belters have to be so Old Testament? Instead of “Jesus is love” or “Jesus Loves You,” the message is you sinners will suffer. I never get the feeling messages like those adorning the Brimstone-mobile are really trying to get people to reform. Just putting the message out and then waiting for a sublime afterlife watching the sinners roast.

Fuck Winter

2009-01-18T20:42:00.000-06:00

Ignore it and maybe it'll go away.

Today I hit 37 straight months of grilling out at least once a month, fixing up a tasty mixed grill of brats and Greek sausage. Scout joined me in the backyard, just soaking up the pale winter sun.

Only two months before spring training.

Best Music of 2008

2008-12-31T18:57:00.000-06:00

Best of 2008

10) Fleet Foxes—Fleet Foxes
I resisted this one for a while. All these pretty harmonies by bearded guys in flannel. Suddenly it was 1971 and everywhere I go CSN&Y’s Four Way Street is on the turntable. Not only is the album popular but it becomes a totem to girls like Lisa, a girl who drew horses all through grade school and whose preternaturally large eyes seemed always ready to get teary. “You can just hear the love in their voices,” she’d say. Asking to put on the Stones seemed like pissing in the sacristy. I just didn’t know if I wanted to revisit all that sensitivity. But Foxes wore me down. I’m not sure I hear the love in their voices, but the songs are gorgeous in a warm flannel kind of way.
myspace

9) Don’t Do Anything—Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips’ voice gets better with age: more mystery, more nuance, more economy of expression. Don’t Do Anything continues with the spare instrumentation that worked so well on 2004’s A Boot and a Shoe. Except here it she has a fuzz-drenched guitar and Jay Bellerose’s amazing percussion, which seems to include anything that can be tapped, rapped, pounded, shook or rattled.

8) At Mount Zoomer—Wolf Parade
What’s a year-end best of list without a Canadian band? Lots of synths bolstered by great crunchy guitar lines. Compelling.
myspace

7) For Emma, Forever Ago—Bon Iver
More flannel and tenderness. You don’t listen to this album so much as eavesdrop.
myspace

6) Real Animal—Alejandro Escovedo
Alejandro looks back at a long, varied career and records a brilliant album that captures the sweetness and the pain of those years. This is the comeback album I was hoping for when The Boxing Mirror came out.
myspace
Live with Springsteen

5) Dear Science—TV on the Radio
Listening to Cookie Mountain was a like descending into an airless cave. Many great songs but not a trip I wanted to make that often. On Dear Science TVotR opens it up and lets the melodies out, adding touches of 70s soul and all kinds of good stuff.
myspace

4) Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.—Deerhunter
Trippy, trancey on the outside; tart and poppy on the inside.
myspace

3) Fair Ain’t Fair—Tim Fite
This guy’s an original. Just as likely to yodel as rap, Fite composes songs with the quirky catchiness and irresistibility of foul-mouthed jump rope rhymes. Friend Katie caught him live and described him as a cross between Pee Wee Herman and Tom Waits. I can see that. His site is chock full of great free tunes.
“Big Mistake” video

2) Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!—Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Barbed, literate music that still rocks.

1) The Odd Couple—Gnarls Barkley
A finer album than St. Elsewhere, but no “Crazy” blockbuster, so a lot of people overlooked it. “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” is the song of the year.
myspace

Many Happy Listens:

Santogold—Santogold
Flight of the Conchords—Flight of the Conchords
Fire Songs—The Watson Twins
New Amerykah: Part One—Erykah Badu
Modern Guilt—Beck

Not terrible but I expected more:

Asking for Flowers—Kathleen Edwards
Stay Positive—Hold Steady

Pitchfork Notes

2008-07-20T01:28:00.000-05:00

Last year's Pitchfork had the narrowest demographics of any concert or public event I can remember. It seemed like the entire crowd was an army of 28-year-old baristas or vegan tattoo artists. Not only were Nan and I oddballs, but my daughters (aged 17 and 14 at the time) also missed the demographic ideal by more than a decade.

This year the crowd seemed more diverse. I saw some older folks, and some young parents brought their kids. One memorable sighting was a young dad carrying two beers while balancing a 15-month old on his arm. The kid was happily plunging his fist into one of the beers, then shaking his hand. Dad looked pained but resigned.

Later, during the middle of the set by Hold Steady, I feel a light pressure on the back on my legs. I turn around and there's a 312 beach ball wedged between my calves and the footrest of the guy's wheelchair behind me. I pick up the ball and it's vibrating. All kinds of ideas flit through my mind--the ball's deflating in a wobbly way; there's something electronic--or a bug??--inside the ball. My puzzlement must have been showing; this woman behind me puts her hand and on the ball. "It's a beach ball," she says in the kind of voice kindergarten teachers use for their behind-the-curve kids. "You throw it." She pantomimes throwing the ball in the air. Just when I decide that the ball is vibrating in response to the bass, she takes the ball from hands with an exasperated expression and slaps it into the air. She really wanted it to be a learning experience for me.

Farmer's Market

2008-07-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

Nan and I finally made it to the farmer's market. Grape tomatoes (but no vine-ripened full-sized tomatoes), gorgeous chard, radishes, all kinds of greens. I was almost as eager to scan the stuff as eat it.

Next by Gnarls Barkley

2008-05-22T20:25:00.000-05:00

Next by Gnarls Barkley

2006 --St. Elsewhere
2008--The Odd Couple
???2010--Gilligan's Island

Doesn't matter what it's called, if the quality is as high as the first two, I'm there.

Best of 2007

2007-12-29T18:53:00.000-06:00

10) Scene of the Crime—Bettye Levette
Bettye LeVette is not another pretty voice. She sings in a cracked Bourbon-aged voice that can distill a world of heartbreak and disappointment into a couple of syllables. Backed by the Drive-by Truckers, LeVette crafts another fine album in the Stax/Muscle Shoals tradition.

9) We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank–Modest Mouse
Isaac Brock keeps some of his annoying vocal gimmicks to a minimum and ups the quality of his songwriting.

8) Chalk—PJ Harvey
The story of failed relationship and an abortion are told as a whispery Gothic horror story. Polly Jean shelved her guitar and learned to play the piano for this album, a spooky and atmospheric masterwork.

7) Sky Blue Sky—Wilco
No, it's not Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but it's got some great stuff here. The intertwining guitars on the coda to "Impossible Germany" is a certified Grab-the-wheel-honey-I gotta-play-air-guitar moment

6) Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga—Spoon
After years of wondering what the fuss about Spoon was all about, this album won me over. Thirty-seven minutes of tight toothsome rock.

5) Sound of Silver—LCD Soundsystem
James Murphy and company pull off the hat trick: an album that makes you laugh, makes you think about life's goals and life's fleetingness, and gets you to shake your booty at the same time. "All My Friends" is my song of the year.

4) In Rainbows--Radiohead
Gorgeous and otherwordly. My favorite to listen on late drives with the moon roof open. It feels like you could drift off into the stars with the music.

3) Neon Bible—Arcade Fire
After being anointed the great indie hope, Arcade could be forgiven for folding under the pressure. While "Bible" doesn't have the quirkiness and surprises of "Funeral," the scope is wider.

2) Challengers—The New Pornographers
People who never got past that "Challenger" didn't rock like "Twin Cinema" missed an album with some of the most inventive arrangements, gorgeous harmonies and stellar melodies of the year.

1) Boxer—The National
Every time I slid this album into the CD player, I felt like I wasn't listening as much as eavesdropping. How can these songs be so revealing and enigmatic at the same time? A brilliant and brilliantly original album.

Honorable mentions:
Cold & Kind—The 1900s
Kala—M.I.A.
Everybody—The Sea & Cake
Chrome Dreams II—Neil Young
I'm Not There—Soundtrack, various artists

Women and Vodka--The Old Bait and Switch

2007-11-12T14:43:00.000-06:00

How to sell classic Russian literature to American males during the Cold War:

It even has a selection from Crime and Punishment, featuring that swinging lady-killer Raskolnikov.

Friday at Lollapalooza

2007-08-04T01:32:00.000-05:00

Irony does not seem to function in an outdoor concert setting. I'm pretty sure that when Kurt Cobain wrote Lithium, the opening lyrics of "I'm so happy…" is not to be taken at face value. But when the Polyphonic Spree gets the crowd in a huge sing-along, Lithium becomes a feel-good anthem. The camera focuses on Tim Delaughter moving among the audience and singing, "I'm so ugly, but that's okay, so are you," then zooms in on a guy getting a pat on the head while the lyrics are sung to him and it's a big crowd pleaser with this guy truly ecstatic that the joke was on him.

I noted this last year when Sleater/Kinney sang Modern Girl and everyone sang the "My whole life is a like a picture of a sunny day" line. So a song about limits of materialism becomes a festival feel-good song. Not that I minded it either time.

After a hot and muggy day, the sun slips behind the skyscrapers in the west just in time for the 7:30 show of LCD Soundsystem. The area around stage fills up quickly with people who just got off of work and are ready to dance off any traces of the workweek. James Murphy (who has serious bed hair) and the band play an intense set. In between songs, Murphy has droll monologues: “I never know what to say in between songs. What can I say? ‘Are You Ready?’ Never could understand why performers ask that. You are all obviously ready, waiting for the next song. What do you have to be ready for? It’s the band that needs to be ready. And we’re not, so I have to say stuff like this.”

The set reaches its peak during a red hot version of "All My Friends." The song's ending refrain of "Where are your friends tonight?" which has always seemed a twist of a knife now becomes a joyous shout. Our friends are here tonight and we're all dancing our asses off.

Magic Beans

2007-05-15T15:44:00.000-05:00

Research shows that coffee can protect the liver against too much partying. It doesn't appear to be the caffeine in coffee, but some other ingredient in java.

This is nature in its truest most beneficial form. A big night out and you naturally need a little more coffee than usual and all that java is making everything all right. It's beautiful in a kind PBS nature special kind of way—except that since the ecological system portrayed is your inner organs, it's even more moving.

And proof positive that those folks juicing on diet Pepsi or Red Bull in the mornings aren't just corroding their taste buds, but are fucking with the natural order of things.

Man, Whatever Happened to "What happens in El Salvador, Stays in El Salvador"

2007-03-14T18:12:00.000-05:00

From the Chicago Trib 3/13/2007

Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found naked, bound and drunk, according to Israeli media reports confirmed Monday by a government spokeswoman.

Tsuriel Raphael has been removed from his post and the Foreign Ministry has begun searching for a replacement, ministry spokeswoman Zehavit Ben-Hillel said.

Two weeks ago, El Salvador police found Raphael in the yard of his residence, tied up, gagged with a ball and drunk, Israeli media reported. He was wearing bondage equipment, the media said. After he was untied, Raphael told police he was the ambassador of Israel, the reports said.

Ben-Hillel said the reports were accurate and that Raphael has been recalled, although he did not break any laws.

Republican Fiscal Responsibility

2007-03-05T20:10:00.000-06:00

Remember when Republicans, although still not exactly progressive when it came to social issues, were fiscally responsible and generally tight with a buck.

Neither do I.

Still there must have been a time when this was true. All that stuff about tax-and spend Democrats and good steward Republicans.

But check out this table, run in the Chicago Tribune a while back.

The biggest increase occurs because of WW II debt, then a gradual pay down until Reagan takes office and the debt takes off like a shot. Clinton balances the books briefly, then comes Shrub. In all the Republican years of Reagan and the Bushes push the national debt $8,000 higher than it was after WWII.

Yesterday David Walker, the US comptroller general, was on 60 Minutes where he pointed out that this level of debt is unsustainable and added: "We are mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren at record rates, and that is not only an issue of fiscal irresponsibility, it's an issue of immorality."

Maybe tax and spend is better than spend, cut taxes for the mega wealthy and spend.

Immortality

2006-11-02T16:01:00.000-06:00

Substance in Red Wine Extends Life"... NY Times 11/1/2006

Man, I am fucking immortal!

Desperate Measures

2006-10-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

As reported in Wall Street Journal 10/19/2006 in an article about low poll numbers for Republicans in the November election.

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, yesterday sent an email to the media suggesting House Democrats would "plot to establish a Department of Peace, raise your taxes and minimize penalties for crack dealers.".

So now the Democratic Party is the party of big government, higher taxes and a thriving crack market.

The America I Want To Belong To

2006-06-28T16:21:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at NU a few days back. It wasn't Gettysburg address or anything--more of a kind of revamped JFK inauguration speech. But it spoke to things I have not heard this administration which gave us the Abramoff lobbying scandal, the Iraq tragedy/travesty, the antigay marriage amendment, the bullshit flag amendment, and the most divided America I’ve seen since the Viet Nam era, consider, much less address. Obama’s speech is about thinking of others not as people you conquer or ignore, but try to understand.

Some excerpts:

“Cultivate empathy: There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit, the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room.

As you go on in life, cultivating this quality of empathy will become harder, not easier. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You’ll be free to live in neighborhoods with people who are exactly like yourself, and send your kids to the same schools, and narrow your concerns to what’s going on in your own little circle.

Not only do we live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principal goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. A culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses. They will tell you that the Americans who sleep in the streets and beg for food got there because they’re all lazy or weak of spirit. That the inner-city children who are trapped in dilapidated schools cant learn and won’t learn and so we should just give up on them entirely. That the innocent people being slaughtered and expelled from their homes half a world away are somebody else’s problem to take care of.

I hope you don’t listen to this. I hope you choose to broaden, and not contract, your ambit of concern. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all of those who helped you get to where you are, although you do have that debt.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. And because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential and become full-grown.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled. I often think about the young Americans, teenagers and college kids not much older than you from all over the country, watching the Civil Rights Movement unfold before them on their television sets.

I imagine that they would’ve seen the marchers and heard the speeches, but they also probably saw the dogs and the fire hoses, or the footage of innocent people being beaten within an inch of their lives; or heard the news the day those four little girls died when someone threw a bomb into their church.

Instinctively, they knew that it was safer and smarter to stay at home; to watch the movement from afar. But they also understood that these people in Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi were their brothers and sisters; that what was happening was wrong; and that they had an obligation to make it right. When the buses pulled up for a Freedom Ride down South, they got on. They took a risk. And they changed the world.

So don’t let people talk you into doing the safe thing. Listen to what’s inside of you and decide what it is that you care about so much that you’re willing to risk it all.”

I’m not one of those who think Obama should be our next president. Hes too untested, but I like hearing from someone who tells us that we are in deep shit instead of telling us comfortable lies. I like hearing from someone who talks about unifying people instead of characterizing as enemies anyone who disagrees with him.

I want to live in the America the Obama describes, not the America Bush has reduced this country to.

Impeach Bush

2006-04-11T21:03:00.000-05:00

Funny but sad. Screw around with an intern and it's impeachment time; screw a country or three and you get off with an attempt at censure.

History eroding--Two Quotes

2006-03-21T13:56:00.000-06:00

The greatest of human inventions is the library, a vast repository of collective memory far larger than any single mind can hold….So long as one's narrative survives, one's ideas and versions of history are passed along, like genetic code, to ensuing generations. Control what goes into the library, what becomes the available record, and you control what the future thinks" (The Persistence of Memory, Tony Eprile).

From the New York Times
Feb. 21 -- In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians.

The restoration of classified status to more than 55,000 previously declassified pages began in 1999, when the Central Intelligence Agency and five other agencies objected to what they saw as a hasty release of sensitive information after a 1995 declassification order signed by President Bill Clinton. It accelerated after the Bush administration took office and especially after the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to archives records….

Anna K. Nelson, a foreign policy historian at American University, said she and other researchers had been puzzled in recent years by the number of documentspulled from the archives with little explanation.

''I think this is a travesty,'' said Dr. Nelson, who said she believed that some reclassified material was in her files. ''I think the public is being deprived of what history is really about: facts.''

Swiss Army Knife

2006-02-15T14:19:00.000-06:00

This illustration came in the package of a Swiss Army knife I bought recently. I was struck by two of the devices.

Seat Belt Cutter

Doesn't this seem just a bit too specific? Don't use this on oranges, masking tape, pants cuffs, sweater strings, flower stems, drinking straws, or twine. Save the edge for when you are upside down in your Subaru and need to saw through your seat belts before the gas tank blows.

I know my luck. The day I smash the Toyota and am trapped by my seat belt is the day I leave my Swiss Army knife on the dresser

2) Pharmaceutical Spatula

Sometimes called the Dubya blade, this brings back memories of the bad old days of disco, when the guys with the perms wore pharmaceutical spatulas (spatuli?) on a gold chain around their necks.

Check out the French Army Knife

Bile Beans

2006-02-07T14:37:00.000-06:00

Bile beans are the new almonds.

Last Visit to the Berghoff

2006-01-22T14:41:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we ate our last meal at the Berghoff, one of the most beloved restaurants in Chicago. When people who had never been to Chicago before would visit, we'd take them to the Art Institute and the Berghoff. Its hard not to fall in love with a city that has both Nighthawks at the Diner and a place that serves great braised lamb shanks with a side of creamed spinach.

The restaurant, which has been in business since 1898 and has the first liquor license issued in Chicago after the repeal of Prohibition, closes at the end of February. A little bit of Chicago history dies then too.

We tried to get to the restaurant at 'tween time to see if we could beat the rush. We got there at 2:30 on a Saturday and we still waited for over an hour. We were lucky enough to get a table on the main floor to see the murals and wooden wall panels one last time. We were also glad to see the Christmas lights were still up.

A table across the room was celebrating a birthday. The waiter presented a woman with a special birthday cake: A rounded pink cake shaped like a skirt with a Barbie doll emerging from the center. The waiter and a busboy started singing "Happy Birthday." The whole room joined in. When the song was over, the room started clapping. The person who had presented the woman the cake held it over his head and the clapping surged and continued.

This isn't just a restaurant with good food. This is a place rich in family traditions and memories. Throughout our meal I saw lots of people asking the people at neighboring tables to take a quick snapshot, a memory of the their last visit to the Berghoff.

Chicago will seem a poorer place without this restaurant.

El Sighting

2005-10-04T14:51:00.000-05:00

A guy about sixty, wearing a red T-shirt and jean shorts, gets on the el and sits down on one of those inward-facing seats next to the door. My eye is drawn to something dangling from a leather strap around his neck. It takes me a moment to make it out: a nail clipper. I look to his fingernails: gnawed down about two-thirds past the cuticle. He spends the rest of the trip chewing on one stumpy nail then moving to the next.

There’s a line in William Kennedy’ Ironweed about someone chewing with “insatiable revulsion.” But he doesn’t look revolted, so I guess the revulsion is mine.