All your parantheses are belong to me.

No Kelly Hogan until 5/16 according to the hideout calendar and with a bunch of other good folk, to boot.

Glad you mentioned it, I'm gunna go.

And oh goody. Thomas Frank the writer of What's the Matter with Kansas will be there. I have issues with that guy (it's not a bad book, really, it's a local thing - he's from the "rich" part of KS and the book is a wee bit condescending to folks from the poorer part of the state). But that is really neither here nor there.

All your parantheses are belong to me.

Well, you can keep the PBR too. t /beer snob

However, it just means I can buy you all the beer you want should we ever have an opportunity to go see music together!

However, it just means I can buy you all the beer you want should we ever have an opportunity to go see music together!

Woohoo! Here's hoping.

I used to be a beer snob. My favorite is Peroni (it's Italian so it must be snobby). I usually just can't afford grown up drinks or good beer. And even when I can afford it, I am usually craving a cold PBR in a can anyway.

I believe Kelly works (has worked?) at the Hideout as well. You really do have to see her perform when she starts up again -- none of her records have really captured the fantastic size of her voice.

Tom Frank -- I could go on and on about Tom Frank, but I will just note that he is a fine reader of texts and social history, and lousy lousy lousy at drawing any sort of conclusion from it. Trust his research, ignore his recommendations.

I have issues with that guy (it's not a bad book, really, it's a local thing - he's from the "rich" part of KS and the book is a wee bit condescending to folks from the poorer part of the state). But that is really neither here nor there.

Catch up on some of his other writing beforehand, if you can. The Baffler is the smartest magazine in the US, and the collections Commodify Your Dissent and Boob Jubilee both provide good support for the pro-Tom Frank among us. His Conquest of Cool is pretty smart, too. I'm currently reading Thomas De Zengotita's Mediated, which posits that our exposure to pop culture puts modern Americans at a slight remove from the real, much of which has me wondering whether he's read The Baffler (which makes similar arguments, although sometimes from different fronts). Anyway, Frank is upfront about being from Overland Park, and I hope you don't condemn him entirely for being born rich.

In other news, go see the Go-Betweens! Seriously, Spoon will be back. Who knows with the G-Bs?

I could go on and on about Tom Frank, but I will just note that he is a fine reader of texts and social history, and lousy lousy lousy at drawing any sort of conclusion from it. Trust his research, ignore his recommendations.

Maybe so, but he surrounds himself with smart concluders. I agree that the Kansas book had some problems, but I don't think Conquest of Cool was off-base. Maybe we should go on & on about Tom Frank.

Hey, Tina, if you see a big funny-looking half-Arab guy at the Hideout, go and say hi: that's my friend (and Rio's friend, too) Leonard, who is both brilliant and an all-around mensch. Leonard's blog: [link]

What? The Baffler has published some exceptionally fine essays -- Ben Metcalf's great piece on the culture of the Mississippi comes to mind -- but if you think it's the best magazine in America, my dear, you have some reading to do.

Not only do I think it, I've published that selfsame thought for all the world to see: [link]

The Conquest of Cool didn't try to draw conclusions in the way Kansas does. But when I saw Frank do a reading, and he was asked "what sort of response can anyone make to this sort of cultural manipulation?" his answer was, "Join a union." Which, yes, you should do if you can, but is bizarrely not the point the questioner was trying to raise.

Similarly, the conclusion in Kansas is "get people to think about their economic interests." This after an entire book about how people care about things other their than their own economic interests! It's an updated version of the old "false consciousness" argument, and still just as wrong.

Yeah, I'll grant you that the Kansas book fell down quite a bit and that Frank can be pretty glib, but I'm willing to cut him a lot of slack. His Baffler essays have certainly had more of a point than "join a union."

I forgot to mention One Market Under God, which was one of the first books I saw to draw the connection between free-market fervor and religious extremism.