reading The Road

"The weather lifted and the cold and they came at last into the broad lowland river valley, the pieced farmland still visible, everything dead to the root along the barren bottomlands. They trucked on along the blacktop. Tall clapboard houses. Machinerolled metal roofs. A log barn in a field with an advertisement in faded ten-foot letters across the roofslope. See Rock City."

- Cormac McCarthy

now click this

seriously. do it now.

if rationalize you must, call it the most affordable present you've ever bought yourself: the oddly titled (imagine that) 49:00, a 43 minute, 55 second download from Paul Westerberg for a mere 49 cents.

seriously. do it. now.

concert news both far and wide

though nothing quite as far as Yemen (see below).

this isn't really what I do here, extensions to the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss and Liz Phair tours seemed newsworthy enough to merit mention.

Phair will, of course, reprise, from start to finish and in order, her recently reissued Exile in Guyville in Philly, DC and Boston on August 27, 28 & 29 respectively (reviews from her previous performances in San Francisco and New York gave major charm points; Chicago not so much). and tickets go on sale this Wednesday for all three shows.

Mr. Plant, Ms. Krauss and company (including T-Bone Burnett and Buddy Miller) have added another half dozen shows or show, all west of the Mississippi, to those few already rescheduled (I believe St. Louis is now being recorded for a DVD release). reviews here have been positive across the board and tickets, like those for Liz's re-issue shows, have gone quickly (though at about four times the price as revisiting Ms. Phair).

and Laurie Anderson (my interview with her just posted this morning) is finishing her domestic Homeland dates with five nights, starting tomorrow, at Lincoln Center. tickets are still available.

more Plant/Krauss reading . . .

more Liz Phair reading . . .

last book I ever read: Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Soderberg (a/k/a the book that Peter, Bjorn and John member Peter Moren has read at least twice). took me a while, but the novel deserves its classic designation irregardless (is that a word? I've never known) of geographic distinctions.

the book Robert Plant has read at least twice: Yemen: The Unknown Arabia by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (it's on my list)

sundown on siren

I'm tired, I look it,
my spouse is in New Jersey,
and I don't feel so good myself.

but I did ride the Cyclone for the first time (the highlight of my day).

siren festival, siren festival, more, more, more

a tribute to Andrea True, the homeliest former porn star to ever find disco success (how'd you like that as an epitaph?).

so how is The Dark Knight? I feel asleep halfway through Batman Begins (only $5.99 for the Widescreen Edition?) last night. and though so far it sounds like it was written by a committee of university philosophy professors, that's really more of a comment on my relative tiredness than movie quality (although we've still got an hour to go).

the final two pre-Siren Festival Siren interviews are up: Beth Murphy of Times New Viking (Columbus, Ohio) and Anna Spence of Annuals (Raleigh, North Carolina).
there. that ought to keep you busy for a while.

gracias, senora de los bubies

the head is finally, if briefly, above water level after an impressively frantic work schedule (which I guess is a good thing seeing as how yesterday was the two-month anniversary of my departure from the bank) and numerous welcome out-of-town visitors.
in celebration I am not completely ignoring the programming on my new favorite channel, HBO-Latino (I figure to learn another language by osmosis, I guess). of course it's harder not to pay attention to The Simpsons Movie in Spanish than, say, King Ralph (you have your chance at The Simpsons Movie in Spanish tonight at 7 EST).

last movie I ever saw (in English while paying attention): Vantage Point. what a stinker. the previews were intriguing (that's my story and I'm sticking to it), but not unlike tennis the level of acting (even William Hurt and Forest Whitaker) sunk to the level of the least skilled player (I'm going to go with Dennis Quaid on this one, but screenwriter Barry Levy should be equally embarrassed about cashing a check)

the heavy workload has, at least, left plenty of material on the Internet to peruse. the Nashville Scene just reprinted a tweaked version of my Robert Plant feature (Mr. Plant and Ms. Krauss have recently announced extended tour dates, including Kansas City, St. Louis, Houston, Austin, Portland, Seattle and the Holy Trinity of California cities: San Francisco, Saratoga and Kelseyville - listing tour dates isn't really my thing, but this is a strong performance, well worth seeing, if you're nearby any of the aforementioned metropoli), and the villagevoice.com has already posted long form Q and As with Janet Weiss of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks and Victoria Legrand of Beach House so far this week. Beth Murphy of Times New Viking and Anna Spence of Annuals will make appearances in a similar location between now and the kickoff of Coney Island's Siren Festival just under 50 hours from now.

what I'm listening to (besides Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Beach House, Times New Viking and Annuals): Bowerbirds' Hymns for a Dark Horse, Wolf Parade's At Mount Zoomer, Brendan Canning's Something for All of Us..., The Dodos' Visiter, Film School's Hideout and Steinski's 1986-2003 double-disc retrospective What Does It All Mean?

more mission of burma

I've been remiss. my Mission of Burma piece, my first ever for Detroit's Metro Times, went live right about 72 hours ago. but it's been a busy, busy time since. too busy to send kudos to former Baltimore Oriole and current Yankees broadcaster Ken Singleton for his excellent commentary during New York's make-up game on Thursday (imagine mentioning the Andy Warhol Museum during a baseball telecast), too busy to care that the new iPhones went on sale this morning and are having problems already (though not as great as the problems the stock market's currently facing (dropping below 11,000 on the Dow intra-day for the first time in two years)), too busy to celebrate (yet) the fact that our friend Rowbear Huffman is one of Baby Ruth's three finalists flying to New York with a chance to render "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to millions over national television airwaves this coming Tuesday night.

the culprits? five interviews in the past three days (about two too many to truly excel at all): Victoria Legrand of Beach House, Janet Weiss of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Laurie Anderson, Robyn Hitchcock and Beth Murphy of Times New Viking. and three of those, plus at least two other pieces will run next week so it's going to be a busy weekend as well.

but it was actually fun to rediscover Mission of Burma. their Vs. show at the Bowery Ballroom was the best I've seen in some time, the guys were nice and accomodating, I enjoyed the research (including the viewing the film Not A Photograph on my laptop late one night courtesy of Netflix's "Watch Instantly" feature) and I'm happy with the piece.

last discs to arrive via snail mail: Akron/Family's Love Is Simple and the Watson Twins' Fire Songs.
but the only thing I'm really listening to outside of the required interview research (that list is way, way long): Kimberley Rew's lost (at least to me, at least for a while) classic, Bible of Bop.

last movie I ever saw (rather than just being "on"): Dan in Real Life (we liked it)