Right. The White House's ego is so frail that they're trying to mess with the media. "Boo hoo, Fox doesn't worship me".

What they're doing almost smacks of Pervez Musharraf's attempts to shut down the media a few years ago. I guess the national emergency of the swine flu epidemic will be the ostensible excuse Obama needs to eventually declare an emergency state a la Pakistan.

Or perhaps the administration is hanging too much with the People's Republic of China. Will my live journal be frozen?

Fountains of Wayne write fucking good songs.

Their live shows are a little dull, but after having taken a hiatus from seeing them, I went to see them at Maxwell's in Hoboken in June and then at the Bell House in Brooklyn last night. I had forgotten how great their songwriting is and just enjoyed listening to them again. Four new songs were introduced, my favorite of which is Cold Comfort Flowers. A Road Song is also a keeper.

Although the shows were marketed as "acoustic", they were still pretty loud. Bonus to an "acoustic" show, I guess, is that Adam Schlesinger was on the piano a lot. I AM a sucker for keyboards. So, uh, yeah. FoW. That's my quota for another few years unless they liven themselves up.

By contrast, I also went to the TMBG shows at Oak Ridge Park this past Sunday. I am a dork. Will report later as to why.

Otherwise, I've spent this summer catching up on things I ignored while running. So, I've been mountain and road biking a lot as well as kayaking on the creeks and rivers that have come up as a result of the unusually cool and wet summer we had. Can I just say that I love mud?

Happy Birthday aliste!!!

Hope your move is going well.

Things that struck me about the show:

1. The opening band should always be Les Chauds Lapins even if they had to play the NYC Ukefest that same night because the band that did perform...well, since I don't have anything nice to say...

2. It was great. Just shows how much the band's mood matters because the setlist wasn't too earth shattering, but did include Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes, Figure Eight, I Am Not Your Broom (someone please 'splain how that song represents "Non-stop rock" as advertised by Flans prior to the show). But they all seemed to be in very good moods with Flans acting all goofy and Linnell being all smiley. I love how when Flans messes up anymore, he takes it in stride and just continues on instead of making a big deal and having the band restart the song.

3. As for the fuck-ups, (i.e., the best parts of the show) um, Linnell missed his keyboard entrance on Why Does the Sun Really Shine?, which was the first song on the setlist! Hee. And in Fingertips, Flans completely zoned out, but the band went on.

4. Usually, if there's some interesting science tidbit in the news, Linnell will mention it in the show, e.g. the Time Traveler's Convention at MIT, the 2008 New Year's Eve leap second, and Earth Hour. Surprisingly, though, he did not mention Manhattanhenge, which occurred Saturday night and will have its encore presentation in July.

5. They know what the audience wants. More "yip yap" and more posing in front of the camera. And different Particle Man bridges (although, sadly, there was no PM on Saturday). But, I enjoyed watching the video of the "Here You Come Again" bridge. Watching it makes me appreciate what a difficult song it is to sing well like Dolly does. Takes me back to Nashville.

Photos and videos

Finally saw Star Trek on Friday and was overall impressed with the movie. ( spoilers )

Other than my latest movie-goings, we finally had the Steeplechase Spring Classic today. For its first running, we did pretty well, bringing in a little over $83,000. We had about 210 25K and 5K participants and about 80 more in the 1 mile. The weather was perfect for the race, although it was considered very cold for just spectating, which I think is bullshit because don't people brave snowfall for football games? Maybe we should allow for tailgating in the parking lot next year.

My hopes for a PR at the Nashville Country Music Marathon were dashed this past Saturday at about mile 11. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for this time of year, and everyone on the team reported difficulty. But, I finished...and survived, which is more than I can say for this poor fella. Apparently, he finished right in front of our team coach and promptly collapsed. However, Mike did finish 18th overall, so we're all really impressed.

On a happier note, last Monday, I went to the Tinted Windows show at the Mercury Lounge, with Adam Schlesinger, James Iha, Taylor Hanson, and Bun E. Carlos. I came upon this show by accident because I was looking for some activity from Ivy, but instead found that Andy Chase was doing a show with Brookville at the Mercury Lounge. But it was sold out, which I thought a little strange because I didn't think that Brookville was that big. The reason was Tinted Windows.

With that kind of line-up, it seemed like TW would be a real winner. I have to admit that I wasn't aware that Hanson was still an active band, but I quickly found out that they still have quite a following when I got into line with a dozen girls coming to see TW for Taylor. When TW came on, it was pretty exciting to see James Iha playing live. There was also another guitarist, who looked suspiciously like Evan Dando, but I wasn't sure since I couldn't hear Hanson when he introduced the guy at the end of the show. Actually, I could hardly hear anything by the end, my ears hurt so much.

All in all, I wasn't that thrilled with TW only because every song sounded the same, which were loud and fast. I suppose I was unrealistically expecting a semblance of Fountains of Wayne melody and didn't get that at all. Plus, I didn't get into the whole Taylor Hanson rocking out in too tight black jeans, always messing with his hair, and shaking a tambourine schtick. Again, I was unfairly comparing the lead guy to Chris Collingwood, who has a nice voice and can play a guitar. Perhaps, this review reflects my age.

When TW were done, unfortunately, the whole place emptied out and poor Brookville had maybe six people there to see them. They were hosed in the line-up since it was a Monday night, and they didn't go on until after 11.

Luckily, Ivy has finally updated their website to say that they will be coming out with a new album next year. Looking forward to it and maybe another two marathons by then.

Again, apologies for not writing about the past few shows. Part of the problem has been lack of hard disk space, even though I've got a portable hard drive. At some point, we'll be getting a new computer with an Intel processor and more space. Plus, I'll need a vacation where I'm not actually going to a conference or a marathon.

But, I digress. I went to the kid's show today at McCarter Theater in Princeton, which is probably the closest that TMBG will ever play to relative to my house. I ran into two of my colleagues, one who was with his family for the kid's show and the other who was attending the later show with his wife.

The kid's show was pretty well attended although not sold out. The acoustics were very good and the children's talking wasn't too overwhelming. I sat next to a child and his mother, who did an excellent job of trying to make her kid behave and not annoy me. Unfortunately, there were points in the show where some parents in front had no respect for the other patrons and stood up with their kid on their shoulders.

The highlight of the show for me was when the theater was still pretty empty with fifteen minutes to go until curtain time. There was a smattering of people with kids around. I sat in the fourth row and behind me were a family of three. The crew were scrambling to get everything ready and Iggy came onstage to check something on the side. He was obviously having a difficult time of it because he screamed out FUCK!!, at which point Adam smirked and gestured for him to *shhh* and then Bill and the smoking-guitar-guy-who looks-like-death-warmed-over, who has crewed for Them intermittently for years, started cracking up. The parents behind me were equally amused.

Oh yeah, the show. Seated shows are hard to get excited about, except it is a luxury to have an assigned seat, if it is decent. I enjoyed just leaning back in my seat and watching as if I were in my living room.

There wasn't too much jabbering by the band. Flans did not appear relaxed. Not sure if it was the trying-to-remember-not-to-curse burden, or if it was the trying-to-remember-words-and-music-to-songs-not-often-played burden. Linnell seemed a little more at ease or on auto-pilot. The kids running up and down the aisles were amusing him. He did forget how Four of Two started and had to stop the song after the intro. They had their Celebration! code for I just fucked up. Then, Flans tried to cover for him by re-introducing the song, but Linnell said he still hadn't recovered and unabashedly asked what the first line was.

I saw I Am Not Your Broom live for the first time. Not sure if this was a broom that McCarter Theater provided, but when Flans was doing the "shh shh shh" part and he brushed the bristles, you could see the dust flying into the air. After the song, Flans said, That was a filthy broom.

Danny got to sing his Paleontology song. At this point, one of the ushers told me that I couldn't continue using my camera, but hopefully therealtdk was able to video the whole thing.

Afterwards, I met my husband and we went to the Princeton Record Exchange. I was disappointed to find that much of their vinyl collection had been reduced. I did find two New Pornographers CD's, but failed to discover any from Ultra Vivid Scene. I was also looking for the out-of-print DVD of Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould, but wasn't quite sure where to look except under the weird as shit bins. Just as we were leaving, Richard Barone and guitarist Nick Celeste played some songs right outside the store.

We wandered around, looking for some place to eat. The problem with Princeton is that most of the nice restaurants have patrons who actually dress up. So, it was hard to find some place, where we didn't feel underdressed. On Witherspoon, we saw four restaurants, one of which is French. I had eaten there before, but didn't think it appropriate to walk in with shorts on when I saw someone else wearing a tuxedo. While looking at some of the other places, we saw Dan, Danny, and Marty hanging out in a small square on a bench and enjoying the sun.

We finally settled on a small Italian place, where we had a satisfying meal. Then, we went to the Bent Spoon for some ice cream. They had great flavors for the season, including the ginger green tea and blood orange flavors that I picked.

Setlist (not in order or necessarily complete):

Wake Up Call (Intro)
Seven Days of the Week
Istanbul
Seven
Pirate Girls Nine
Apartment Four
E Eats Everything
Alphabet Lost and Found
I Am a Paleontologist
Why Does The Sun Shine?
Clap your Hands
Robot Parade
John Lee Supertaster
Particle Man
Dr. Worm
No
Four of Two
Fibber Island
Eight Hundred and Thirteen Mile Car Trip
Older (confetti cannons)
I Am Not Your Broom

Yeah, I've been remiss in updating. The last few shows at LPR have gone unreported. Much may ye rejoice over this.

I'll be trying to put some photos and videos from the last LPR show. Although, for some reason, I took crappy videos this time.

RIP Blossom Dearie :(

Congratulations, John and John, and Marty, Dan, and Danny!!!

Hee, I watched the pre-telecast of the Grammys. Well, only the part with TMBG. Linnell, Marty, Dan, and Danny went up to accept the award. There was only one gramophone, which Linnell took. Linnell made a very brief speech, thanking everyone important, except for Disney. Pretty funny. Reading into it:

Linnell: I am much more comfortable ad-libbing during the bridge for Particle Man than I am in front of the Grammys.

I didn't think we would win, ergo, I didn't prepare a long-winded speech.

Flans, why the fuck aren't you here?

Disney is not the reason for our success.

The band were so cute. They looked incredibly stoked to be there. How lovely that John & John asked them to fly out too.

So, I hope Flans is okay.