Swordfishtrombones

I've got 2 amazing musical experiences lined up for the next month: Tom Waits and M. Ward. Tom barely ever tours, let alone comes to the South, but he said in a recent interview, "I want to buy some fireworks in Tennessee, and a guy in Kentucky owes me money." Problem is, no one else I know got a ticket. I really, really don't want to go to Atlanta alone, but I will. It's Tom fucking Waits, for crying out loud. I'll just have to force myself to be intrepid. After all, has Tom taught me nothing?

M. Ward is an artist I've just gotten into in the last 6 months or so. Great songwriter, brilliant guitar player, and a voice that gives me chills. He sings "Handle With Care" on Jenny Lewis' record with Jenny, Conor Oburst, and Ben Gibbard. When his part comes in (the George Harrison part, I think), I forget the others are even in the song until someone else starts singing. If I were singing a song with the so-called Gods of Indie Rock, I'd want to stand out somehow, and his voice really does. He's playing at the Belcourt in Nashville, and I think I'm going to be really lucky to see him in so intimate a setting before he hits it big.

More on those shows later - most likely after they've happened.

I'm reading some fun, interesting things right now. One of them is Philip Roth's The Plot Against America. Roth (or, rather Roth of the last 10 years) comes pretty close to being my favorite American writer, and this one isn't disappointing. His last few books have been razor-sharp, witty, and approaching bitter. This one has crossed the line into "angry." I don't mind, though. When it comes to Roth, he writes best when his pen is dripping with poison. His sarcastic look at the funeral of Richard Nixon in I Married a Communist (pointing out the hypocrisy of the attendees who came close to cannonizing the man) is probably my favorite scene in all of Roth's work. His newest book takes place in an alternate reality where Lindbergh defeated FDR and refused to involve America in WWII. I'm not very far into it, but I can see where it's heading. America becomes an evil, anti-Semitic nation, and Roth is going to hold up a mirror to our current state under the W administration. The man is brilliant.

The other book I'm reading - my guilty pleasure - is a Barnes and Noble bargain book called The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I know, ok? I know. I, too, find it sad and pathetic that I will happily lap up the table scraps of writers whom I wouldn't normally give the time of day simply because they're writing about Sherlock Holmes. But I've read all the novels and short stories several times, and you can only do that so much before you start craving new material. None of the cannon (works by different authors written after those original Doyle stories) has ever been anywhere near as good as the originals. But I read them anyway.

I picked up Thievery Corporation's new Versions yesterday, and I've been enjoying it at work, in my car, and in my bathtub (that's the beauty of Thievery Corporation). I think it's time I overhaul my iPod and take off a LOT of old stuff that I mostly skip through now, and add lots of new stuff I've been hoarding since Rosalie was here. It will be a whole new ride to work in the mornings.

In other news, my cool neighbor took a picture of a rather oddly-shaped, huge cucumber that a vaguely creepy man at work gave me. She works at a frame shop, so she matted it and framed it beautifully with a scrap frame she found - it's bizarre and gorgeous at the same time. I gave it a place of honor on my kitchen wall. If I went out specifically looking for an odd conversation piece, I couldn't have found a better one than Amber made me yesterday.

That is all.