Looks like we have a miniature heat wave en route for this week. I will need more than the two pairs of shorts I own to get through this. And more socks I can wear with my Airwalks without getting pulled over and beaten by the fashion police.

Today was hanging out downtown with Kyle and Joey and trying not to scratch my mosquito bites. Itchy little sumbitches. Also got my Dismemberment Plan tickets.

On a lark, I did a little Google-digging on someone I used to know a long time ago and was pleased to find that she’s doing well. I have no intention of contacting her, there’s no point in going back there, but it’s good to know that she’s okay.

The past can be a dangerous place to hang out in for too long.

np – Bettie Serveert / Log 22

Yesterday was Bryan and Andrea’s wedding up at the Tripp family compound in Orangeville. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for an outdoor wedding and it was a lovely ceremony. The only downside on the day was when night fell and the mosquitoes began to swarm. I knew there was a reason I never left the city. Damn nature!! They went for the knees this time, the bastards. But that was mitigated somewhat by the fact that I was actually able to see the stars in the sky for the first time in many months. Fantastic.

For the first time since 1998, I have no weddings on the horizon to attend. I’ve been to 10 since June 1999, so this has been a long time coming. I should get my suit dry-cleaned.

Thanks to the efforts of the wonderful and resourceful Kate (or maybe just damn lucky), I do have Radiohead tickets for August. They are seats and they are from the W.A.S.T.E. allotment of tickets so they should be decent seats. I will refrain from being too excited until the tickets actually physically arrive in Canada, though. Much can happen between point A and point B.

Former Leafs coach and all-around hockey legend Roger Neilsen passed away from cancer yesterday. A sad day for hockey.

np – The Magnetic Fields / 69 Love Songs

Celebrity Grudge Match, round 1 – Pitchfork vs The Rub!

Round 2 – Canadian Idol vs Broken Social Scene! Vit Wagner encapsulates my thoughts on this whole ‘Idol’ bullshit pretty well.

Fight fight fight!

My Radiohead ticket farce story. I am on Ticketmaster AND W.A.S.T.E. bright and early, waiting. Multiple browsers are go. I hit refresh on W.A.S.T.E. at around 9:58 – server down. No response. Great. Again. Server cannot be found. That’s fine. To Ticketbastard. 10AM, I get the option page, make a grab for 4 tickets, best available. “Too many users.” Refresh. “Too many users.” Lather, rinse, repeat. Finally, I get some tickets on hold for me – 4 lawns, after taxes and service charge, $230. Fuck you very much. I am not paying $60 to sit on FUCKING GRASS and not see anything. But wait! W.A.S.T.E. is back up! And I have somehow managed to reserve four seats! Rejoice! I fill in my order info, hit send… Transaction error, card cannot be processed. Again. Again. I try a friend’s credit card. Same shit, different transaction error code. Back to my card. Transaction error. Again – FUCK YOU VERY MUCH.

Fuck Ticketmaster, fuck Radiohead, fuck American Express and their ‘Front of the line’ bullshit, fuck W.A.S.T.E. and their server run off a Commodore Vic 20. I’m going to go see some bands at the Horseshoe.

But first I have to go buy a wedding card for Bryan and Andrea. Married on the summer solstice, that’s nice.

np – Husker Du / Candy Apple Grey

Tonight was the fourth time I’ve seen Wilco in the past four years. They’re pretty firmly ensconced as my favorite band in the world right now, and every show is always cause for excitement and anticipation.

Opening quietly with a set of Mermaid Avenue tunes, the set consisted of mostly Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Being There material, with a handful of new tunes in the mix. The new songs were the most exciting part of the evening – they’re fantastic. Who knows if the arrangements will stay the same when they record them, but the new record could be even better than YHF, and considering how much I love that record, that’s some high praise. Curiously, they filled the whole show without playing a single number off of A.M. or Summerteeth. It says something about a band that can play for two hours and still leave you feeling like you’ve only had a sampler of their repetoire.

Jeff ran through a dizzying array of guitars through the show (I counted six electrics and at least two acoustics – he’s on a Gibson kick, it seems) and Leroy Bach’s role has been augmented by a second touring keyboardist. Ex-Wilco touring member and local boy Bob Egan, now of Blue Rodeo, was invited out to play some tasteful lead slide on “California Stars”, as he was a couple years ago at the Phoenix show.

Maybe the biggest surprise on the night was the sound – usually the Kool Haus is a terrible room for harsh and muddy sound (yes, harsh and muddy at the same time) but there was some aural magic going on tonight cause the sound was the best I’ve ever heard in that room. Every word of the vocals were loud and clear and the intstruments (mostly) perfectly balanced. At points the ambient synth pings and bloops weren’t sitting properly in the mix and as a result sounded odd and out of place, but not distractingly so.

I want to backpedal a bit on my comments about From Fiction. While on paper it still seems like a damn odd pairing, it actually wasn’t a terrible mismatch. There’s some definite common ground between some of what From Fiction were doing and Wilco’s jammier, noisier bits. It’s also worth taking into account that Wilco’s been on tour for the last while with Sonic Youth – that’s gotta figure into it. It was a great opportunity for a local band, and I’m damn jealous.

Thumbs down to the frat-boy jock types that insisted on going, “Whooooo!” at every opportunity (which to them was every second they weren’t swilling a beer) as if Jeff Tweedy was going to come into the audience and high five them. Shut the fuck up, nimrods. Also in the “boo” column, $40 t-shirts. The sound may have been better, but DAMN I still hate the Kool Haus.

UPDATE – Here’s the setlist from the show:

One By One / When The Roses Bloom Again / Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard / I Am Trying to Break Your Heart / Muzzle of Bees / At Least That’s What You Said / War on War / Jesus, etc. / Ashes of American Flags / Heavy Metal Drummer / Spiders / Red Eyed and Blue / Got You At The End Of The Century / I’m The Man Who Loves You / Poor Places / Reservations //

Encore 1: Sunken Treasure / Less Than You Think / California Stars //

Encore 2: Misunderstood / Kicking Television / Monday / Outtasite (Outtamind)

Something I’ve realized lately is that I LOVE the caper film. A good heist flick? Nothing like it. The Good Thief is a good heist flick. Stylishly directed by Neil Jordan (stylishness is essential to a good heist flick), the film (a remake of French film Bob Le Flambeur) plays the well-worn theme of an old thief coming out of retirement to make one last big score. Yeah it’s a bit of a cliche, but the caper isn’t about concept – it’s about execution. Nick Nolte is fantastic in the title role, a performance good enough to make you forget the haggard drunk in his well-publicized mug shots and see only a veteran actor in one of the finest roles of his career. Nolte quite literally embodies the broken-down, wasted man pulling himself together for one last shot at glory, and does so splendidly. Thumbs up.