Ian Fitzgerald

Why is this new t-shirt “only available through [their]...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:07:00 -0500

Why is this new t-shirt “only available through [their] online store?”

I wonder where else they could sell this shirt…..

the pawnbroker roared

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:50 -0500

For a couple of days a few weeks back, I listened repeatedly to two Bob Dylan songs:...

quid pro quo

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:58:41 -0500

I was reading an interview (from this month’s Interview) with Wes Anderson this afternoon. In...

stuff to stuff your stockings

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:02:00 -0400

One day left in October means less than two months until Christmas, which means that minus one day...

wrap-ups

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:22:00 -0400

I’ve been lucky enough to be part of two dynamite lineups in the span of five days. The first...

to be fair

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:16:00 -0400

This is interesting. The Lilith Fair is apparently returning to the summer festival circuit next...

Wait, there’s another volume?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:42:13 -0400

Wait, there’s another volume?

I was shocked earlier this year to find that Crosby, Stills...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:04:12 -0400

I was shocked earlier this year to find that Crosby, Stills & Nash were only just being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. “What have they been waiting for?” I wondered. Aloud. To myself.

Anyway, they’ve managed to shock me again this year by nominating Elvis Costello and Leonard Cohen. Really? These two hadn’t proved their worth before now? Hadn’t proved it ten times over? No offense, but did Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, two of this year’s other inductees, really deserve earlier enshrinement? How about Johnny Rzeznik, the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls? The Goo. Goo. Dolls.

On the plus side, this news does give me the opportunity to post this fantastic picture of Elvis and Elvis’s excellent moustache. It’s a trade-off.

I can't drum

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:36:49 -0400

The ol’ AP has a story about ol’ Phil Collins: apparently Phil has lost pheeling in his...

This is the worst Michael Jackson video I’ve ever seen.

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:07:27 -0400

This is the worst Michael Jackson video I’ve ever seen.

machine on wheels

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:08:31 -0400

An addition to yesterday’s post: the Dave Rawlings Machine has announced some late fall tour...

last thoughts on Philadelphia

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:45:36 -0400

So I ventured over the long weekend to the great city of Philadelphia. Since little or nothing of...

extraordinary machine

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:46:25 -0400

Are you as excited as I am about the upcoming debut release from the Dave Rawlings Machine? No? ...

Happy Birthday, John.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:44:48 -0400

Happy Birthday, John.

Why is Justin Rice, lead singer and songwriter for Bishop Allen,...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:27:17 -0400

Why is Justin Rice, lead singer and songwriter for Bishop Allen, in a commercial for online poker. Occurrences of this nature confuse me. Is the general public supposed to recognize Justin? I would think not, given the band’s relative ‘obscurity.’ Is he here, then, to represent the common man? Or are they playing both sides of the fence by casting someone who would appeal to certain demographics on the basis of appearance alone while lending a certain cachet among a different, though probably not mutually exclusive, demographic? Either way, of course, this is neither Justin’s first foray into ‘acting’ nor Bishop Allen’s first involvement with television advertising.

Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio “Either you’re the...

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:33:00 -0400

Sacrifice of Isaac by Caravaggio

“Either you’re the butcher or the lamb but even so/Everybody pays as they go” - Jakob Dylan

“The difficulty of poetry (and modern poetry is supposed...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:33:10 -0400

“The difficulty of poetry (and modern poetry is supposed to be difficult) may be due to one of several reasons. First, there may be personal causes which make it impossible for a poet to express himself in any but an obscure way; while this may be regrettable, we should be glad, I think, that the man has been able to express himself at all.”

-T.S. Eliot

Silly Eliot.

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:40:40 -0400

The line above comes from the title track of the Avett Brothers’ new CD, I and Love and You...

What bit of news could be exciting enough to spur a slothful...

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:02:00 -0400

What bit of news could be exciting enough to spur a slothful fellow like myself to post in this space twice in one day? Friends and neighbors, I give you the report we have all been waiting for…sort of. As you’ll no doubt certainly recall, I lamented in this space (and long before that in other spaces) in March of 2008 (back in the halcyon days when my posts were beautifully illustrated) the time it was taking Gillian Welch to follow up on Soul Journey which itself was something of a stopgap following the classic Time (The Revelator). Well, today we have an official report that the Dave Rawlings Machine will release its first album, Friend Of A Friend, on November 17.

For those who don’t know, the Dave Rawlings Machine consists of two members: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who happen to be the same two members that make up Gillian Welch (which Gillian says is the name of the two-piece band that she fronts). While this is not a proper follow-up (obviously), it is a welcome addition to the fall schedule. (Actually, it jumps to the top of the list of records I’m looking forward to.) And for those of you unsatisfied with this news, the article does mention that one of the record’s originals, “It’s Too Easy” (which I got to hear Gillian Welch perform on August 1; the Dave Rawlings Machine perform on August 2; and the Dave Rawlings Machine with members of Old Crow Medicine Show perform later that same week in the style in which I’m certain it will appear on David’s record) will also appear on Gillian’s forthcoming album. That’s right: there’s a Gillian Welch album on the way. Billboard never lies.

Photo by Catherine Maldonado

Hank, Carl, and me

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:28:00 -0400

Like millions of Americans, I often pass those languorous minutes between the end of dinner and the...