TMIB

a slide show of photos taken by marty stuart, as well as a podcast of yesterday's segment on all things considered. pretty great stuff, but this pic of johnny cash ... allegedly the last portrait ever taken of him is astonishing. stuart said he wanted it to look "presidential".

a better title

"GUNS 'N ROSES - THE MOTION PICTURE"

chinese ... er ... democracy

i've had in my hands the new gnr record for a day. i normally wouldn't give a crap ... i'll be honest, i think gnr is a pretty tepid experience. a decent hard rock band with a shitty lead singer (sweet child is a fine enuff single but the middle section is horrific). i listened to the first album and was amazed at what peeps thought ... "this is gonna show the poisons of the world where they stand" ... wow, you beat up on hair metal. ROAR!!! "use yr illusions" were silly (those vids were beyond amazing), and that "punk rock" record showed em for what (most of em) were, dude's who listened to punk in retrospect. fuck, even metallica got their punk record right. in the meantime via behind the muzaks we've gotten to learn what a shithead axl was, whatever ... then we got a listen to the muscle of the band as velvet revolver (possibly the most tuneless band i've ever heard). but you know what, i'm going in with an open ear. takin it for a walk tonight.

(written at 6:30pm ... aren't you dying???)

clapton is godihateyourband

10 eric clapton songs i can remotely stand*

an old acquaintance put it best, "there is simply NO reason for an eric clapton solo record"

badge (beatle helped him)
let it rain
layla (beatle wife helped him)

*yardbirds excluded

MFers!!!!!

startin a friday right

dear bruce

love the special effects. you gonna leave the grunts in there?

the seven dwarves nod during the solo made beer come out of my nose! i don't get enough of that ... props!

1:46

and the first 12 secs ...

The Chills #2

jaysus! fave tune x10

The Chills

this might not end soon ... flying nun ruled!!!!!!!

The Clean

while on the NZ highway ... another fave from The Clean

The Verlaines

as an absolute goof, i entered one of my favorite bands into youtube. they happened to be there. The New Zealand band The Verlaines, with one of my fave songs of all time "Death and the Maiden".

dbt vs hs

let me say this from the start. terminal 5 is an awful venue. bad sound (if you gotta do it, hit the second floor, somewhat better). a glorified airplane hangar. i know this show was probably a bigger drinkin crowd than normal ... but bar and pisser lines were woodstock(the famous one)-esque.

missed the truckers opening tunes, but hit "man i shot" (which i'd played 3x en route)! a blase mode until they woke again with "zip city" (cooley is rock personified). missed the intro to "wallace" (PISSER LINE!!!) which apparently reduced friends to tears. rest of show typical DBT rock fest, and by typical i mean the best rock show on the planet. "puttin people on the moon" came and the place was crazy, then nuthin ... oh yeah, opener. sad. alot of friends went on thursday when they headlined. gone are the days when i see great bands open.

was interested to see the headlining Hold Steady. i haven't seen them live since '02. pre-fame, pre-albums, etc. i am a hold steady fan. "boys and girls" was a huge fave and 'sequestered' is still my fave song of '08. opening 'summer' was pretty great. they followed with other rockers like 'chips ahoy' (another fave). i was stunned. they've grown into an amazing live band. finn is a great leader (less woody allen, more stephen colbert). ultimately though, they've only got the rockers.

i've always felt their reach ends with the rockers. the other 'stretching' songs always seem forced, and live it's even more pointed. finn works his ass off, and the fans respond like an english football crowd, but after a few songs you feel as if you've walked into an office party where you don't work. 1.5 hours is too much.

the "bruce is gonna play" talk was abuzz as the encores set in. never happened. a cute 'history lesson- part II' (hold steady version) ensued, and patterson and the 'other' guitar player came out, but that and some classic rock karaoke ended the evening. i ain't complainin.

... and my cab driver decided that spring street is an acceptable cross to the east side. $30.

new day rising

... i'm not feeling particularly partisan today. mccain and bush gave pretty extraordinary speeches last night and this morning, and obama gave what i hope people in all of their exhultation remember was ultimating a pretty sobering message and a outright challenge to respond.

i've got no messiah aspirations for obama. this is going to be a ridiculously tough stretch to work through. strangely though, i feel ownership of it now. last night as i fell asleep i actually pictured myself showing up in DC and sayin 'what can i do'? (it ended with me making a giant pot of coffee)

one fact i heard however blows my mind. there is no longer a single republican member from the new england congressional delegation. say what you want about the liberal major cities, but losing those suburbs and the small towns is borderline unreal. add the defection of latinos across the board and the jewish vote in florida. this victory has been called (COUGH) reagan-esque, but it's so much bigger.

america finally looks like i thought it should when i was in 1st/2nd/3rd grade. i feel vindicated. and last, but not least ... virginia ... props!

vote aqui

ominous looking lines broke apart once i found an election official that told me the location of my district booth. that wasn't easy spec w/ g in tow (pictured). lots of people were left standing in an extra long line very confused. i've voted in the same place now for 12 years and have never seen anything like it--especially at 11am.

was the boy's first time in the booth. thought it was important he be there. this being an election more about the future than any i've ever been a part of, and my first national election as a dad. i've previously given my endorsement, so i got nothing to add in that dept. after a hellish 8 years, i'm not feeling nervous, not feeling particularly vindictive, i'm feelin a calm, a relief ... and i'm just waiting to exhale.

i wish i was a stoner

sebadoh bubble and scrape

cuz ... i love this record too much. hey, fake name guy, bust me!