Turning Your Orbit Around

Last week was a big concert-going week for me. I saw Radiohead out in Jersey a week ago last Saturday, just me and 30,000 other folks. They all seemed real nice (except for that one guy) and they knew the words to most every song. I got to hang out a bit backstage because John got me an all-access pass, but the only famous person I saw was Tim Robbins, but I see him at the grocery store all the time, so it didn't seem that special.

Then, later in the week I saw Wilco over at McCarren pool in Williamsburg. I got to stand up real close and hang out with some guy who hosts a show on ESPN. He told some funny stories that made me laugh. After pretty much every song Wilco played, he'd shout, "that's another good one!" and I think it made them feel good because everyone else was just cheering loudly in words that were hard to understand. Afterward, Sara and I wandered over with some friends to the rooftop deck of a guy who had been hanging out on the bus with the band before the show. He said they were real nice, but star-struck because Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon had been on the bus too.

The lesson I take away from all of this--I mean, other than that Radiohead and Wilco are making more interesting music in more interesting ways and finding more interesting avenues of distribution for it than anyone else--is that, in our Iphone calendars, Tim Robbins and I have much in common.