Year: 2008

Growing Up Wilco

I love Wilco and can’t wait to see them again on the 29th in Charleston. In my opinion, they are the greatest American band out there right now…

Extended Play Music News by Todd Martens – The Envelope – LA Times: “Indeed, it’s astonishing to see the amount of growth and evolution the band has covered in just over a decade. It’s hard to imagine the alt-country Wilco of 1996 tackling the dancey, electronic groove of ‘Spiders (Kidsmoke),’ from Wilco’s 2004 album ‘A Ghost is Born.’ Or then dialing it all down for the easy-going soul of ‘Hate It Here,’ from Wilco’s latest, ‘Sky Blue Sky.’ Fans who have stuck with Wilco since Day One were rewarded with one of the most ardently adventurous bands around, and they showed their enthusiasm by turning songs such as ‘Airline to Heaven,’ ‘Jesus, Etc.’ and ‘Hummingbird’ into full-on crowd sing-alongs.”

It’s been an amazing trip watching the band morph and change while I do the same. I first discovered Wilco during my freshman year of college in 1996 (bought Being There b/c I liked the album cover) and have been hooked every since. It’s been a fun 12 years.

And if you need to hear some Wilco, here’s a set from last Aug 22 (my birthday, btw):

Part 1
Part 2

Thanks to Ashley for sending over.

Examples of the Nine Unknown Men making contact with the outer world are rare. There was, however, the extraordinary case of one of the most mysterious figures in Western history: the Pope Sylvester II, known also by the name of Gerbert d’Aurillac. Born in the Auvergne in 920 (d. 1003) Gerbert was a Benedictine monk, professor at the University of Rheims, Archbishop of Ravenna and Pope by the grace of Ortho III. He is supposed to have spent some time in Spain, after which a mysterious voyage brought him to India where he is reputed to have aquired various kinds of skills which stupified his entourage. For example, he possessed in his palace a bronze head which answered YES or NO to questions put to it on politics or the general position of Christianity. According to Sylvester II this was a perfectly simple operation corresponding to a two-figure calculation, and was performed by an automaton similar to our modern binary machines. This “magic” head was destroyed when Sylvester died, and all the information it imparted carefully concealed. No doubt an authorized research worker would come across some interesting things in the Vatican Library.

THE NINE UNKNOWN MEN

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Examples of the Nine Unknown Men making contact with the outer world are rare. There was, however, the extraordinary case of one of the most mysterious figures in Western history: the Pope Sylvester II, known also by the name of Gerbert d’Aurillac. Born in the Auvergne in 920 (d. 1003) Gerbert was a Benedictine monk, professor at the University of Rheims, Archbishop of Ravenna and Pope by the grace of Ortho III. He is supposed to have spent some time in Spain, after which a mysterious voyage brought him to India where he is reputed to have aquired various kinds of skills which stupified his entourage. For example, he possessed in his palace a bronze head which answered YES or NO to questions put to it on politics or the general position of Christianity. According to Sylvester II this was a perfectly simple operation corresponding to a two-figure calculation, and was performed by an automaton similar to our modern binary machines. This “magic” head was destroyed when Sylvester died, and all the information it imparted carefully concealed. No doubt an authorized research worker would come across some interesting things in the Vatican Library.

THE NINE UNKNOWN MEN