It's another day. Like that Paul McCartney song. The semester is almost over, so I'm jumping into every unfinished project I have going. I have a lot of things to finish up before the end of May, when Summer term starts. Once I turn in my presentation evaluations later today, I'll be officially halfway through my master's program. In my final three semesters I'll be taking the required classification course and legal resources online this Summer, competitive intelligence and government documents (through University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana) online in Fall and the management course and an internship in the Spring. Then I will have the extreme pleasure of searching for work, because I do so love looking for a job.

I spent all of my money yesterday buying tickets to David Byrne, Phish and Simon and Garfunkel. I considered also picking up tickets for David Bowie and Prince, but then poverty spoke up. Actually, that's not entirely true. Bowie is on the night of a residency, and I don't want to try that again, after the disaster in December. And Prince is a mid-week show the week before Phish festival. I'm still torn on The Dead. If the show is going to be like the mind-blowing Other Ones show I saw November 2002 in Albany, then sign me up, but I don't relish the idea of paying $60 to see a decent, but unadventurous set like the one last Summer with Willie Nelson (see note) or to listen to three guitarists step all over each other. I'm not quite sure what they're going for at this point. They said two keyboard players was too many, although they have had two keyboard players at other times (Pigpen and T.C. in 68-69, Pigpen and Keith in 71, Bruce and Vince in 91-92). Jeff and Rob complemented each other pretty well. Rob is a good piano player and Jeff had the organ and synth thing going on. They did a pretty good job blending in the sound, unlike Bruce and Vince, who at times sounded like they were playing with different bands. So instead, they have one keyboard and three guitarists. So now they're Iron Maiden all of a sudden? Or is it the Skynyrd aound they're after? In any case, I'm adopting a wait-and-see attitude to this tour.

We had another good one at work yesterday:

Two female undergrads walk into the department. Seeing the chain across the entrance, they stop. Pat is loading books on a transport to be returned to the vendor.

Student 1: What do I do if I need to get a book?
Pat: I can get it for you. What book are you looking for?
Student 1: I want your most expensive book.
Pat: No, we're not going to do that.
Student 1 (annoyed): I knew I should have come up with a title.

The two students slink off.

And thus it begins. It will never cease to amaze me. I told him he should have given them the most expensive book he could find that he knew wasn't on the buyback list. Or even better, one that was going into a new edition, so they couldn't sell it anywhere. For anyone keeping track, I wasn't serious...

I'll be revamping things around here, as well as working on the rest of the mixes for the Fink Squad reissues. The mix and mastering is done for the Indecision Repent or Die 10th Anniversary Edition, but the cover isn't finished. Look for those soon, as well as a new, expanded writings section.

More later.

Note: Willie was fine for about an hour, which was unfortunate seeing as he played for two. I don't want to step on the legend or anything, but basically the guy had his backing band play the same song repeatedly for a couple of hours while he sang different lyrics off-key. They'd play the ending of a sing and he'd be starting the next one already. I don't think he was even listening to what they were playing. After two hours of this, we were more than ready to have our minds blown by The Dead. Unfortunately, they brought Willie back on stage and played some more old country tunes. It took them an hour to get going with a nice Scarlet, at which point they abruptly ended the first set. The second set was good, but after having to endure Willie Nelson for over two hours, it seemed like a bit of a rip-off. Back
- posted by John @ 10:03 AM

 
I saw Mike Doughty last night. He was playing an "acoustic coffeehouse" at Hamilton College. He's doing a swing through the area this weekend, this being the only weekend I am booked solid every night. So, we headed out in the rain to the middle of nowhere for the Thursday show. It was a similar show to the one I saw four years ago in NYC, except that it was almost entirely solo material. Back then, he didn't have a lot of new songs, so half the set was Soul Coughing stuff. Last night, the only SC tunes he did were "Circles," "True Dreams of Wichita," and "Janine." I was surprised that I actually knew most of the material. I guess I've listened to that live in Minneapolis disc more times than I thought. The show overall was a good time. We met him briefly afterward when he was selling CDs from the stage. I lined up to buy a copy of his current(ish) EP, Rockity Roll, even though my wife has it, just because. The one thing I found curious that I forgot to ask about, was that he's switched from playing acoustic to plugging a Strat into the PA.

- posted by John @ 9:43 AM