Global Warmi ... Quick, Look Over There! (And Wilco)

This short tease of an article (and given its length and near-complete lack of analysis, perhaps misleading tease of an article) basically captures the essence of this terrible administration: they are willing to go to court to argue that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide levels in car exhaust, which is bad for the environment.

Give me a break.

In other news, or at least in me-news, my Morrissey review should be up at Billboard soon.

And on Friday, I took my dad to see Wilco play one of their annual Thanksgiving stands. The band was in fine form and a little boring, which in Wilco-land are not incompatible traits. In fact, for the first time I was able to pinpoint just what throws me off about the current line-up: they're like a cross between the Grateful Jam (indulgent and noodly, with hints of country and weirdness) and Steely Dan (indulgent control freaks, with hints of jazz and weirdness). So basically you end up with jams that neither swing nor, well, jam, some amazingly sensitive and sensational instrumental passages, beautiful melodies, nonsense lyrics, little crowd interaction and just a hint of the idea that the band feels they're a little bit above their audience.

Which, by the way, against all odds, and despite all the strange changes in the band's music and playing, has retained its original beer swilling frat guy audience, the kind that doesn't seem to recognize that their favorite rock band by and large no longer rocks.

In fact, if I were one of said frat guys I'd probably think the music was a little, you know, “arty,” in a wimpy sort of way. But nope, no connection there for the two middle aged dudes in front of us, who spent the entire night high-fiving, yelling to one another "dude, I can't believe we're here, seeing Wilco!!!!!" and generally talking over the hushed music, and the other half in line waiting to buy beer.