Handbill Handout

There are people who wax poetically about the springtime and baseball, about how it is a time of hope and renewal and optimism. To them, spring is a time of limitless possibilities and endless horizons where the sky is the limit. Have I hit my cliché quota yet? I hope so. To me, spring is a time when the weather gets a bit warmer and I can spend more time outside watching entertainment than inside. Still, I my curmudgeon’s heart will grudgingly admit that there are certain comforts in the seasonal cycle. Certain patterns that emerge that re-educate you about how life really is for most people. Last Saturday the Mrs. and I made a spur of the moment decision to head over to see the Newark Bears for our first ballgame of the season. The Bears are part of the Atlantic League which is an independent league meaning that all the ball clubs have no affiliation with major league clubs and the rosters are composed of youngsters hoping to get signed and start on the way up, slightly older g...

Some winners have worked for me over my too-long tenure at my current employer. It’s only partly my fault, I mean sure I hired them but media research attracts a particularly pungent mélange of weirdoes, losers, obsessive-compulsives and, as a fellow sufferer put it, “nervous underachievers”. One of the younger ingredients in that stew of oddballs recently left my employ after a fairly short tenure and while nobody else in the department was particularly heartbroken to see her go (not that she was disliked, rather she simply opted to have as little interaction as possible with all other members of the department) we were all puzzled at one of the things she left behind: a red folder that she sat on every single day of her employment. I have no idea why she did it. She wasn’t a particularly healthy person to be sure – in the six months she worked for me she took about six or seven sick days and for many others she was a nonstop coughing machine –but if she thought having a folder under ...

Great live music is, for me, what I imagine religious ecstacy to be like. Wilco (the song) IATTBYH Ashes of American Flags Bull Black Nova You Are My Face One Wing A Shot in the Arm I'll Fight Company in my Back Pot Kettle Black Handshake Drugs California Stars Impossible Germany Poor Places -> ----into acoustic set---- Spiders (Kidsmoke) You and I Sunken Treasure That's Not The Issue Forget the Flowers Laminated Cat War on War Passenger Side Outta Mind (Outta Sight) ----out of acoustic set---- Airline to Heaven Via Chicago Hate it Here Walken Jesus, Etc. Theologians You Never Know I Must Be High Can't Stand It Heavy Metal Drummer I'm the Man Who Loves You In the Street [Big Star] ----------- Dreamer in my Dreams Casino Queen Outtasite (Outta Mind) I'm a Wheel "rave version"

I get old. I get jaded. Things that used to excite me don't anymore. Comes with age, I guess. The one thing that still excites me is great live music. Wilco is one of the great live rock bands of our time (and of course this is a completely subjective judgement; there is no objective reality when it comes to the perception of live sound except for that registered on a decibel meter). This would explain why I have seen them live 15 times (well, including side projects). My show "collection" listed below is of no particular interest to anyone but me so you can stop reading here unless you want to be impressed by the fact that some nut out there is keeping a website with setlists of every single Wilco and Wilco-related live performance ever. 10/18/02 Roseland Ballroom, NYC 12/7/02 St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn (Loose Fur) 4/23/03 Bowery Ballroom NYC (Minus 5) 6/26/03 Central Park Summerstage NYC 6/27/03 Central Park Summerstage NYC 10/5/04 Radio City Music Hall, NYC 10/6/04 ...