I should try to do this week-away vacation thing more than once a year, given that I get three weeks’ vacation now. [I take a day or two here and there, sometimes to go to shows, sometimes to go to concerts, sometimes to just visit the fam.] Sure, I went to Ohio in May, but I drove way too damn much for that to be something I’d call a vacation.

Last week of the month, I’ll be off from work for a week [glorious!], without anyone calling me or me calling them [even better! I was in touch with the office all during my week out in May], spending part of the time with my parents and the rest of the time by my own damn self. I’m even going to Lake Guntersville for a couple days. But I won’t tell you when, Internet, so you don’t try to break in my house and steal my stuff.

[Besides, I boobytrap the place.]

My stress level is best indicated in the relative desire for me to go eat Thai for lunch.

Today, I crave it.

This week has two new studio releases: one that everyone has, and the other one that BMG sent me when I missed the chance to reply no. Hey, I’ll take the chance.

• Radiohead’s In Rainbows. No, I didn’t buy/download this.
  
• Angels & Airwaves’ I-Empire. Fully prepared to hate it.
  
• 18 Jul 1990 [New York, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Uncle Tupelo. 1990-07-18: Live on Heat, National Public Radio, New York, NY, USA.
  
• 4 Aug 1997 [Atlanta, GA, USA] concert bootleg of Counting Crows. 1997-08-04: Chastain Park Amphitheater, Atlanta, GA, USA (disc 1) and 1997-08-04: Chastain Park Amphitheater, Atlanta, GA, USA (disc 2).
  
• 6 Jul 2002 [Bushnell, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. Jeff thinks he’s who recorded this, but I can confirm that he took the photo that I used for the cover art. 2002-07-06: Cornerstone Festival, Bushnell, IL, USA.
  
• 16 Oct 2007 [Montréal, QC, Canada] concert bootleg of Spoon. 2007-10-16: Le National, Montréal, QC, Canada.
  
• 2 Mar 2008 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. A show I wish I’d seen live. 2008-03-02: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN, USA.
  

Last week was a very good return to form:

• My Brightest Diamond’s A Thousand Shark’s Teeth. Nothing on A Thousand Shark’s Teeth ever grabbed me like “Golden Star” off of Bring Me the Workhorse did, but “Ice & The Storm” comes close. There’s no doubt that Shara Worden is quite ridiculously talented, but it feels on this one that she’s so there and I’m so … here, with little connection. All in all, it’s a solid effort, though. Three stars.
  
• Sigur Rós’s Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. Brad asked me what I thought of the new Sigur Rós pretty quickly after GNM went up last week, so I sat down and listened to it on Sunday night [which watching baseball, which was quite the dissonant experience, I assure you]. It’s … definitely quite different from what I have of their catalogue to date. I understand the criticisms of it in terms of why people don’t like the more straightforward pop direction this album took, but I’m a firm believer that bands have to experiment lest they [and/or their fans] become totally bored with the thing. Style changes notwithstanding, it’s still very much Sigur Rós—I’d recognize Jónsi’s vocals anywhere—and that’s a good thing. Bands that don’t experiment don’t grow, and bands that don’t grow die. [Unless, of course, you're the Rolling Stones, but then Keith Richards has to be pickled from all the crap he's ingested over the years.] Three-and-a-half stars, and it could grow on me even more.
  
• 21 Apr 2002 [Toronto, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Wilco. The set starts off with “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”, which is weird given their current sound. It’s also pre-Glenn and pre-Mikael, so it’s just an overall different feel—more straightforward than present-day Wilco [my favorite incarnation of the band]. This is a fine-sounding audience recording, which is great given its age [and how blessed we Wilco fans are with the fine rigs folks bring to shows these days]. I give it three stars.
  
• 14 Nov 2003 [Los Angeles, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. Thin, reedy, and distant. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 22 Apr 2005 [St. Paul, MN, USA] concert bootleg of M. Ward. The show starts out slow, and the recording is about a B-, but it’s enjoyable. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 5 Nov 2005 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. The Canal Street Tavern is where I first saw OtR live, in a city I used to call home, so all those shows hold a special place in my heart. [I want to see a CST OtR show in 2008 or 2009 with Lara if she's still in Ohio then.] This is a fine, fine recording. Four stars.
  
• 4 May 2008 [Birmingham, AL, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken. I wish that I’d gotten a board feed of this show, because the AT2021s don’t really get lows. Of course, this works fine for acoustic singer/songwriter-y stuff, but the end result still sounds a little thin. But it sounds pretty great. Three-and-a-half stars.
  

Limbs Down

Originally uploaded by Geof F. Morris

We had quite a storm roll through Madison County, today, and there are limbs down all over our neighborhood. This is the tree in the front yard of my neighbor’s house just to the west of me; I expect that it will be a total loss, because the tree pretty well split in half, with a slight majority of the tree now being on the ground.

I took this photo as I left the house, and as I came back, my neighbors pulled up. They were, suffice it to say, a bit surprised. They have to walk through their front flowerbed to get into the house.

I’m just thankful that the tree in my own yard didn’t split and hit my WRX. As Amy said, “Then it would have been Hulk Smash.” Persactly.