Month: March 2006 (Page 1 of 3)

I was going to call this the “Daley Double,” as in two posts. Get it? Instead I’m going to use a nickname some schmo gave me when I worked as a waiter some 25 years ago. So, Spring is in the air, and an young man’s thoughts turn to love, right? Yeah, whatever. There’s no love in sight for me, so I’m thinking about art. Tomorrow Kyle and “Twice” Daley are meeting some folks at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum for some art n’ stuff.

I recently read a nice little article by Samar Farah, a Boston Globe correspondent, on how to get more out of the art museum experience, and for you fortunate readers, here’s a summary.

Wow. In an incredibly ironic twist, Mr. Farah interviewed Alan Chong, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s curator of collection! Maybe we’ll see Al tomorrow! Anyway, Mr. Chong’s big theme is to simply enjoy the time. “Don’t turn a trip to a museum into serious education.” He believes the experience should be more about what you feel and think while viewing the art, rather than the historical facts about it. So take your time, relax and just gaze. Think about the pieces you like and the ones you don’t. Mr. Farah’s article suggests you ask yourself these questions:

• Why do I like this?
• Why is my eye drawn to certain shapes or forms?
• Why has the museum placed this painting next to these mosaics (or other work)?

Mr. Chong, who’s favorite piece in the Gardner is “Death and Assumption of the Virgin,” adds, “It’s important to trust yourself. At the end of the day, it’s about your own eye, your own taste, your own set of questions.”

5. Stick your ABC gum on a painting.

4. “Hey, where’s the beaker of piss with the crucifix in it?”

3. Stumble around drunk near priceless vases.

2. “Oh, is that the dude that cut off his ear?”

1. “I could do that.” No, you couldn’t. If you could, you would have… ass-clown.

There’s plenty of pain to go around for everyone and everyone has their own to deal with. In my extended family, the Anodyne… the painkiller… has taken many forms including food, gambling, alcohol, drugs, and my personal favorite, cold indifference. So, what to do? How to deal? It seems pretty simple, either we face down our fucking demons or we die having lived less of a life than we should have, clutching a bottle of our own personal Anodyne.

OK, so I wasn’t quite as colorful in my Wilco post, but that’s one of the descriptions used by Marc Hogan in his review of “Kicking Television: Live in Chicago.” Speaking of live Wilco, I found a cool video filmed at a German festival in the summer of 2004. It includes “Muzzle of Bees” and “At Least That’s What You Said.” Finally, the band has a few shows coming up, some pretty close to me!

04-17 Bloomington, IN – IU Auditorium
04-19 Portland, ME – Merrill Auditorium
04-20 Providence, RI – Meehan Auditorium
04-21 Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
04-22 Williamsburg, VA – William and Mary Hall

For a few months now, there have been no comments here. Not even those chicken-shit anonymous types like one ripping me for ripping New Orleans looters. Now I know why. Pal Dave told me he left two comments and received a message that I had to “approve” them. Somehow, a “moderate comments” option was turned on and I found ten or so comments waiting for my approval. I approved all but one which contained someone’s name. Hey, I need to protect the guilty and the innocent… So, comments are back… Blast away!

Since 1995 I’ve been a Wilco fan, but have not been true. I’m pretty sure Jeff and I saw their first New England shows on the heels of “AM,” and we caught another a year later when they toured to support their sophomore effort, “Being There.” After that I went astray. I admit I didn’t put any effort into their “Mermaid Avenue” releases with Billy Bragg, but those records are still there to be discovered and enjoyed…or not. In any event, it’ll be brand new.

In ’99, Jeff gave me an advance copy of “Summerteeth,” but it didn’t grab me. More pages were ripped from calendars and Jeff Tweedy kept on writing and playing brilliant songs. In 2002, a newly constituted Wilco released “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and a documentary of its recording, “I am Trying to Break Your Heart.” The film also chronicles the last days of multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett with the band and the dumping of the band by Reprise Records after Tweedy refused to compromise over musical changes requested by the label. Over what seemed to be minor artistic differences, Bennett and Wilco were both told to hit the bricks. A couple weeks ago, I watched the film in high-definition, followed by an HD performance by the band on “Austin City Limits.” (ACL performance of I’m a Wheel”)

After immersing myself in the combined 150 minutes of Wilco-age, I just shook my head (really, I actually gave it a shake) and thought, “what a brilliant band.” Since then I’ve been on a post-1999 Wilco bender… “Summerteeth,” “Foxtrot,” their latest, “A Ghost is Born,” and “Kicking Television: Live In Chicago” recorded over four nights in 2005 on their home court in Chicago at the Vic Theatre.

I still have the film and ACL show on my DVR, so feel free to come watch, but don’t do a “pop in,” call first. Until then, here’s a short sample of “Outta Mind, Outta Sight” from “Being There,” and a great site for Wilco lyrics called A Sea Black with Ink.

What a brilliant band…

These were outstanding. Thanks Barb.

I continue to be amazed at the picture quality of my plasma TV. BC-Nova in the NCAA tourney will rock tonight. I fretted for months and actually ordered LG and Panasonic models, both of which fell through for different reasons. Finally, after months of longing, I threw down on the NEC 42XR4. I thought I’d suffer at least some degree of buyer’s remorse, but I really haven’t and this week PC Magazine helped further validate my decision, calling it, “the most impressive a 42-inch plasma display panel that PC Magazine has tested to date.” Um, OK.

Unfortunately, it appears women are not so taken with the big unit. Recently I had a female guest over for dinner and I was hoping for a Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally” moment, but there was none. Um, I mean over the TV… This morning I found out why. As I was perusing my morning Bloglines over coffee, I read a blog posting by Regina Lynn. She writes a column in Wired Magazine called “Sex Drive.” Anyway, she claims, “98 percent of women couldn’t care less about the men’s “hi-tech tools” — what the women respond to is the communication and the interaction they can have with these men.” Communication? Is that what they want?