shitkickers

Download your very own 'Give Bush The Boot' poster!

reverse zee curse

Congrats to the Boston Red Sox!

RIP John Peel

Just heard this via the Posies mailing list: Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies

Britain's New Musical Express has also begun some nice tributes.

Matthew Good

Matthew is a well known musician in my home and native land, having released a handful of discs with The Matthew Good Band before going "solo" and releasing a couple of discs. In the last few years Matthew has really begun to show is "political" side and has shared his feelings on the current state of the world.

Matthew's blog continues to impress by highlighting world events most folks wouldn't bother to mention or are downright afraid to mention. I respect and generally agree with his views, so linking to his blog is a no-brainer.

see you later

How much emotional pain must a person be in to plunge a steak knife into their own chest? Not once, but twice?

For whatever reason, that's what happened one year ago to Elliott Smith.

So today is primarily a celebration of his life, or at least the part of his life that was shared with the public. I did not know the man personally, but I appreciated the music and art he created in his 34 years of life. So today will be spent listening to the music, both studio creations and live performances. And it's a great day to stop and remember just how much his art has been a part of my life.

You know how previous generations will tell you how they remember exactly where they were when they heard that Kennedy had been shot? Both "discovering" Elliott and hearing the news of his death are those kinds of moments for me.

I discovered Elliott on a CMJ sampler disc while living and working in Dallas, spring of 1997. "Rose Parade" was the tune and that's all it took. Thru the summer of 1997 I dug up his previous solo discs and eventually worked my way back thru the Heatmiser stuff, adoring all of it.

Between 1997 and 2003, I'm happy to say that I saw Elliott perform in the following live settings:

solo acoustic at The Horseshoe in Toronto
plugged in (with Quasi as his band) at Lee's Palace in Toronto
plugged in (with his regular band) at Key Arena in Seattle during Bumbershoot
plugged in (with his regular band) at The Phoenix in Toronto

The day I'd like to forget is October 21, 2003. I returned to work after a morning meeting and got the computer up and running. Loaded all the usual programs, including a media player that streams internet radio. The song that was playing was an Elliott Smith tune, altho I don't recall which one. My first reaction was "that's odd" because this particular internet radio station almost never played ES tunes, so that struck me as very strange. I checked the radio station website and viewed the playlist for the previous hour or so and found it all to be ES tunes. And at that point it was pretty much "oh fuck".

So I clicked over to my usual daily music news source, Pitchfork, and found the day's headline as "Elliott Smith Dead at 34". OHHH FUCK.

money well spent?

Bush spent $44 million on his campaign in September alone!

color me impressed

this whole Red Sox/Yankees thing is getting good!
i've never really given a toss about baseball until the World Series, but this playoff series has been one for the ages.

i'm sure you'll hear that over the next few days: one for the ages

when the Sox were crushed in Game 3, i was pretty sure it was over.

but then Games 4 and 5 both went extra innings and the results were the same: SOX WIN! SOX WIN!

Game 6 was dominated by the Sox, so that just sets us up for the big Game 7.

color me impressed!
and save a spot on the Red Sox bandwagon!

ES - nearly one year gone

Welcome to blog-land.
It's the latest "thing" sweeping the planet, so it's only natural that I get on the bus.
and we all know just how much I enjoy following the crowd.

The most pressing item near my frontal lobe at this moment is Elliott Smith.
Today is the release date of his posthumous CD, a mere 2 days before the one year anniversary of his sudden death. And it's a death that continues to raise questions and ongoing hurt amongst his fans.

I just got back from purchasing said CD and will be spending the evening letting it wash over me. I've already read a half-dozen reviews and I'm pretty sure of what to expect, but it's that personal time with ES that I crave, that moment when "new" music comes blasting out of those speaker towers.

It's a tough week being an ES fan.
We get this new CD and we get the anniversary of his death.
This week is kinda like scratching at a wound that has yet to heal.

Join the ES community in marking this week of rememberance by clicking here:

http://www.sweetadeline.net