Odds and Ends

My concert future is starting to look very bright. Just got tickets for my brother and I to see Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truth Speaker from Blackalicious in two weeks. Ben Folds is going to be here the first weekend in May, and the week after I'm heading up to Chicago to see Doves. Add in back to back U2 shows in October, and I've got a pretty good stretch coming up. Hopefully, there will be a few more to fill in this summer. I'd love to see Coldplay, Stereophonics and Elbow if they get over to the US this year.

Todd passed this along from Kottke.org. It's a pretty ballsy example of culture jamming, which just happens to be the last chapter I read in Naomi Klein's excellent book, No Logo, a look at globalization and the growth of corporate conglomerates that spun into a movement (and of course, requisite website). I forgot how much I was enjoying that book before I got sucked into Gormenghast, so I've added it to my sidebar. And no, the irony of linking to her book for sale on a giant corporate conglomerate website is not lost on me. If you want to buy it, try your local bookstore, as long as Barnes & Noble hasn't squashed them out of business. (Steps off soapbox.)

And finally, apparently, laughter really is the best medicine. Well, maybe not the best, but good enough for a physician in India to start a laughing club 10 years ago and for the idea to spread to the US. That's funny stuff, people.

It's Tuesday

And that means all kinds of new music and DVDs flooding the market. I made my weekly visit to the iTunes music store, and got really excited for a minute. At the bottom of the front page, you can choose to browse different iTunes stores from a variety of different countries. I switched over to the UK store, where they had tons of stuff unavailable in the US, including a Doves EP, the new Stereophonics album and Beck's new album (both of which have release dates scheduled for the US), a new Gorillaz single, and a bunch of different Elvis rereleases. Unfortunately, when I tried to buy something, it told me my account was only valid for purchases at the US store and sent me back there. Bee-yotch.

To console myself, I bought the remastered version of Ben Folds Five's Whatever and Ever Amen. It's one of my favorite albums in and of itself, but this version gets the value add of seven bonus tracks, including several covers and a version of "Song For The Dumped" that Ben sings in Japanese. Surreal.

While that was downloading, I stopped to watch the second installment of Clone Wars, and it was 12 minutes of kick-ass. It's gonna be hard for the movie to top this. OK, so the cartoon doesn't have Natalie Portman, but it also doesn't have her spouting painfully cardboard dialogue, either. And no trade delegations or Senate debates or stupid scientific explanations for The Force. It's pretty much just lightsaber fights and space battles, which is the way Star Wars should be.