Post-Gazette – McCain Makes Inroads in Rust Belt

Maybe he’s trying …

clipped from www.postgazette.com Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks during a town hall-style forum yesterday at Youngstown State University.

YouTube – Super Pii Pii Brothers

Saw it at Hess’ weblog first. Wow. Just wow.

YouTube – Super Pii Pii Brothers

Evil Don’t Look Like Anything

So yeah, I went to the Okkervil River/New Pornographers show at the Carnegie Music Hall in Munhall/Homestead, Pennsylvania tonight. I’ve been looking forward to the show for weeks.

- Parkway East sucks. Loaded up my wife’s Saturn with Goomba Joe, his girlfriend and the two of us. Had dinner reservation for 5:15 p.m. at the Rock Bottom in Homestead with Sara, her husband and his friends John and Mike. Left Greentree at 4:30 and it took every bit of 50 minutes to get there. Would have been OK, except I forgot my lighter at the hotel. Yeah … sitting in traffic for most of an hour without nicotine blows monkey balls.

- Rock Bottom is good. Used to hit the RB in the Flats when I lived in Cleveland and the place in Homestead is better. For reals, made friends with one of the bartenders and pounded six or seven Irish Stouts before/during/after dinner. Had a nice barbecued salmon with potatoes and asparagus. Wife had a burger and fries. She wasn’t in the mood to share, but it looked good.

- Carnegie Music Hall is a nice, quiet venue. Not sure it’s the right place for a rock show. No beer, no smoking … not sure what kind of crowd they were expecting for the New Pornographers and Okkervil River, but it was a good mix of 20s, 30s and 40s. Seemed like a “date night” group overall. Not too many single women.

- Will Sheff and Charles Bissell are rock gods. Okkervil River played about an hour, and the set included nearly all my favorites. They opened with “The President’s Dead” and closed with “Westfall,” which has got to be one of the best songs in the universe. Other highlights were “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe” and “For Real,” but there wasn’t a weak link in the show. Sheff seems to know what he does best and sticks to it for the live performances. Some OR songs are mind-blowingly awesome (all of the above, plus “Black,” “John Allyn Smith Sails,” “A Stone,” “The Latest Toughs,” “Unless It’s Kicks,” “A Girl in Port,” etc.), and some aren’t. They played the great ones and didn’t play the others. It was awesome.

- Two complaints. Set was missing “Red” and “Plus Ones,” which are two of my personal favorites. And would it kill Sheff to let Bissell play a Wrens tune or two? I could have used “She Sends Kisses” or “Ex-Girl Collection” … just sayin’.

- New Pornographers rocked. It was a really good show. Neko Case is still my favorite redhead that I’m not married to. She’s funny, smart, humble and has the voice of an angel. The rest of the band was also very good tonight. This is going to sound a little like blasphemy, but overall, I enjoyed the Okkervil River set a little better than the NP set. There were some great moments, like “Bleeding Heart Show,” “Stacked Crooked,” “Use It,” and “Mutiny, I Promise You,” but many of the songs blended together and sounded the same. Being a fan, I suspect that the absence of Dan Bejar for this tour contributed to that. Carl Newman’s a friggin’ genius and the set was fantastic, but in my opinion, it would have been a nice change of pace to have heard “Streets of Fire” or “Myriad Harbor” with his vocals.

- Special mention to Neko and Kathryn Calder for their awesome work on “Go Places” and “These Are the Fables.” Newman himself was amazing all night, but especially on “My Slow Decent into Alcoholism” and “The Jessica Numbers.” I think the whole band was at its best as a unit on “The Laws Have Changed” and “Sing Me Spanish Techno,” but that’s just my opinion.

- Other notes … no “Letter from an Occupant” was a little disappointing, but it’s hard to fault the band. They were great … hit the Hop House after the show for a few beers and a really good local blues band was there … no cover … hanging with Goomba Joe brought back some great memories … wife had a great time, too, despite being the designated driver (again) …

- That’s about it, I guess. My wife sat much closer to the stage than I did and said that Neko had some camel toe going … I suppose I’m sorry I missed that.

YouTube – The New Pornographers-Mutiny, I Promise You-Fonda 9/20/07

Final New Pornographers Friday here. Saved my favorite for last. For real, Neko Case rocks the living shit out of that tambourine and my world. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

YouTube – The New Pornographers-Mutiny, I Promise You-Fonda 9/20/07

YouTube – Red by Okkervil River

It’s the final Okkervil River Thursday here at the P-X, so fittingly, here’s my favorite song of theirs. Enjoy. Cool video, too.

YouTube – Red by Okkervil River

Review: The New Pornographers

Hmmm. Note to New Pornographers – “We need Neko in the Burgh!”

Review: The New Pornographers

So it wasn’t all too surprising last night when the 8-piece band was a 6-piece, with both Case and Bejar noticeably missing in action. For some it was a major disappointment – Case had clearly been on the bill for this tour. Even the Revolution Rock promoters were caught off-guard when the band arrived without the talented singer, who is apparently recording and joining the band in Toronto.

My Yahoo!

Look out, bitches!

My Yahoo! Horoscope: Pisces (2/19-3/20)

Your mind is razor sharp today, and it will enable you to tackle all your assignments and commitments with the grace of a ballet dancer! Other people would feel overwhelmed if they were in your toe-shoes, but not you! Maybe it’s the recent good news you got that is keeping you smiling, or maybe it’s just that wonderful sense of confidence you have been working to hard to achieve. You are smart, you are capable, and today you will be impressing people left and right.

mental_floss Blog » Paging Dr. Freud: 8 Unusual Mental Illnesses

I should buy myself a copy.

mental_floss Blog » Paging Dr. Freud: 8 Unusual Mental Illnesses

There are only a certain number of ways to go crazy, and you can find most of them listed in the psychologist’s bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, currently in its fourth edition and commonly referred to as DSM-IV.

Kurt Vonnegut | Salon Books

The second novel I read twice (voluntarily) as a student was Slaughterhouse Five. The first was The Catcher in the Rye. The only research paper I’m actually proud of writing was the one where I compared Billy Pilgrim and Holden Caulfield and ultimately came to the conclusion that being an anti-hero wasn’t so bad as it sounds at first.

I still hold that opinion.

Kurt Vonnegut | Salon Books

“When I got home from the Second World War 23 years ago, I thought it would be easy for me to write about the destruction of Dresden, since all I would have to do would be to report what I had seen. And I thought, too, that it would be a masterpiece or at least make me a lot of money, since the subject was so big.”

YouTube – The New Pornographers “Challengers”

New Pornographers Fridays continue here, still counting down to April 12.

YouTube – The New Pornographers “Challengers”