My old college pal Dan (well, actually we got to be friends after college, but that’s a long story), who was the master of the new-music mix tape back in the middle-eighties, turned up on Facebook recently and has been freshening up my iTunes with all sorts of fun new stuff.
So here are a […]

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I just discovered that talented local singer-songwriter John Greenfield — who, by way of mentioning it, performed in the second-ever edition of The Partly Dave Show back in 2003 — has an eloquent writeup of a recent Gordon Lightfoot show in Waukegan over on Gaper’s Block.
I suppose I’ve been a Gordon Lightfoot fan since […]

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Well, the Andy White show I posted about last Sunday was lovely. It was a shockingly intimate setting, a cozy and beautifully decorated back room at the Celtic Knot where Andy played for a group of about 20 of us, and he was just as charming and entertaining as any Andy fan would expect.
He […]

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Tonight, Sunday evening March 30th, one of my favorite less-well-known-than-he-ought-to-be performers is playing a no-cover live gig up in Evanston.
If you aren’t familiar with him — and most people I know aren’t — the best way I can describe Andy White is to say that if Jonathan Richman had been born an Irishman, he might […]

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About two and a half years ago, I adopted a big blue talkative cat named Mr. Blue (aka Barabajagal). Below the jump is the email I sent out to my cat-friendliest friends announcing his arrival.
I didn’t have a blog in those days, but I wanted to post it here to document it, and provide […]

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So there was a new study written up this past week, supplying evidence that young people in America are rejecting Christianity because they see it as “hypocritical, judgmental, and anti-gay.”
The vast majority of non-Christians — 91% — said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who said […]

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For those looking forward to Todd Haynes’ new film about Bob Dylan I’m Not There, in which Dylan is played by six different and very diverse actors, here’s a leaked clip from the movie with Cate Blanchett as Dylan and David Cross as Allen Ginsberg. If the whole movie is this much fun we’re in […]

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Out, damned spot! Fox News caught red-handed, laundering entries on Wikipedia. Keep on scrubbing, Lady MacFox, but those stains belong to you always.

The GOP’s California strategy: winning the 2008 election by undoing California’s winner-take-all electoral system. Once the state goes piecemeal, the Repubs gain at least 20 electoral votes from safe GOP districts.
Arianna Huffington looks […]

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Because I could use a little cheering up tonight … some classic Smothers Brothers.
Remember, if you’re a folksinger, when someone says “take it” you are obligated to take it.

 
And here’s an updated version of “Cabbage” from the 80s. Now with bonus naked bacon!

 
Poor Tommy … all those years later and he still hasn’t learned how […]

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“Iraq hasn’t even begun”: Writing in the LA Times, Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford University, examines the long-term consequences of the debacle in Iraq, and concludes, “Looking back over a quarter of a century of chronicling current affairs, I cannot recall a more comprehensive and avoidable man-made disaster.”
Digby on the […]

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It’s the foreign policy, stupid: This great post at Crooks and Liars takes apart the simplistic and unhelpful notion that terrorists “hate us for our freedoms.” As Michael Scheuer, former station chief of the CIA’s Osama Bin Laden task force, says:
“The fundamental flaw in our thinking about Bin Laden is that ‘Muslims hate and attack […]

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This is it — tonight’s the night The Partly Dave Show makes its long-prophesied return, at 7:30pm at The Neo-Futurarium.
I’ll dish out one more exciting little fact about tonight’s show: Even in Blackouts will be unveiling* the brand-new Partly Dave Show theme song, hot out of the oven** and never before heard by human ears!
If […]

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Speaking of Waterboys videos, here’s one I dearly love. It’s a fan-made clip of Mike Scott performing “Fisherman’s Blues” live with The Decemberists! The sound isn’t great but the joy comes through just fine. Here’s what the official Waterboys mailing list said about it:
Mike Scott made a guest appearance with top up and coming US […]

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Mike Scott, singer, songwriter, and bandleader of The Waterboys, has a thoughtful and entertaining piece in The Guardian recounting his experiences trying to correct errors in the band’s entry on Wikipedia.
Meanwhile, the Waterboys have a new album coming out in April! It’s called Book of Lightning and you can hear samples of a couple […]

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