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Thoughts in no particular order: Hardly any security, unlike the vigorous frisking at the Tweeter Center this summer. I could have brought in a VCR, if not a videocamera. 18th row center seat, main floor, in line with Neil's bass drum. Nobody too tall in front of me. Guitar sound was a little thin at first. Looked like there was a Buddy Christ on one of Al's amps. The band seemed in good spirits, Neil smiling early in the set and Alex a clown at times. The Trees/Ghost Rider/Freewill setlist. Secret Touch works well live, and the band really gets into it. Neil's arms are simply huge, GI Joe-like. Excellent drum solo. During La Villa, Alex started signing about Chicago, and after his rant, continued to do so through the end of the song. Hope there's a DVD from this tour.

Well worth it, and even better than the two shows from this summer. Too bad schedules and such will keep me form the Ames and Minneapolis shows.

Posted by jim at 3:27 PM | Permalink

Rush tonight at the United Center. My third show of this tour (not 6 or 7 like Dan, but still pretty good). There's an interview with Geddy (done by his dog, apparently) at Rush.com.

Posted by jim at 3:42 PM | Permalink

Ah, just in time for our UK trip. Saw that dealmac has lanched dealcam, which allows you to campare prices from screened merchants.

Posted by jim at 1:33 PM | Permalink

This morning at Belmont I scored free copies of both Red Streak and Red Eye, the two new tabloids by the Sun-Times and Tribune, respectively. Haven't had a chance to look them over, but they kind of remind me of the Onion, which isn't a good thing. I guess the kids these days just don't read the traditional newspapers, opting for TV and/or the Web, I guess.

Posted by jim at 10:10 AM | Permalink

Finally updated the Ivory Tower: Links page. Someday it'll go in the weblog page template and get a better sense of alphabetization and organization.

Posted by jim at 4:05 PM | Permalink

Ivory Tower is now searchable. I've added the search code now included in Movabletype 2.5 to the main template here and things are working fine after a little work behind the scenes with templates and chmod. Enjoy!

Posted by jim at 9:34 AM | Permalink

Let's see how this is working:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tatio

blockquote away!

Posted by jim at 3:51 PM | Permalink

There is no 191

Posted by jim at 12:58 PM | Permalink

Read while on the road: Goodbye Tsugumi (quite good, a little closer to Kitchen or Lizard in feeling), I'm a Stranger Here Myself, and Notes from a Small Island (the latter better than the former).

Up next: Written on Water: Five Hundred Poems from the Man'Yoshu and The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Posted by jim at 7:01 PM | Permalink

Add me to the list of trouble-free upgrades to Movabletype 2.5. Now all I need to do is find time to learn about adding search.

Posted by jim at 8:38 PM | Permalink

I was doing a little digging around on Google for information on John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls and found a good article on the piece from andante.com as well as an interview at the New York Philharmonic's site. Sounds like a pretty interesting piece (reminds me of Reich's Different Trains in the sense that there's a lot of recorded bits being used). I wonder if the piece, along with Guide to Strange Places, will be released on disc someday soon.

Update: There's also a review of the performance at the NY Times.

Posted by jim at 6:59 PM | Permalink

There's (finally) an excerpt of Neil reading from Chapter Three of Ghost Rider over on Rush.com (click The Band, the Neil to find the page; I'd link directly to it, but the thing's in Flash). Now if they'd only get around to updating the rest of the site (the promised interview with Geddy and the questions from Big Al's Summer Extravaganza).

Tiny review: I expected a little more of a performance than an actual straight reading from the book. It was flat, as if he was reading something he was unfamiliar with. The multimedia stuff was ok, and the music sounded like a Laurie Anderson backing track, which was odd. I do hope that there's more of it to come, although I doubt it'll ever be a book on tape sort of title.

Posted by jim at 11:32 AM | Permalink

Things I've learned in San Francisco:

There are physicians who have never used a computer before. Ever. Many who claim basic skill in order to get into an intermediate course are faking it.
Børn Shoes are rather comfortable when you're on your feet all day proctoring courses, then walking up and down hills at night.
Physcians will use any opportunity the have to check their e-mail.
Anything that can go wrong in a computer training class will (unintended shutdowns, accidental disconnection of power/networking cords, etc).

Posted by jim at 5:33 PM | Permalink

Comedy Central will be rerunning episodes of the Ben Stiller Show and Clerks starting in December. Also read something earlier this week that the Stiller episodes will be coming out on DVD with a commentary track.

Posted by jim at 12:06 PM | Permalink

Dinner last night at Capp's Corner. Very good, small "neighborhood" place.

Posted by jim at 1:36 PM | Permalink

In San Francisco for the week (on short notice). Who'd have thought it would be nearly 90 degrees in October. Every time I travel out west, be it Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or San Francisco, the sun's like a halogen lamp.

Posted by jim at 7:28 PM | Permalink

The Two Towers trailer is qute excellent and still manages to hold back quite a bit.

Posted by jim at 11:48 AM | Permalink