If I were a few years younger, I would describe last night's Wilco concert as "fucking sweet." Hélas, as a mature and slightly more articulate woman, I will say simply that it rocked. Hard.

The concert stirred in me nostalgia for many things, particularly outdoor dining in the cool evenings of Chicago's sweltering summers, shared joyrides of the far-distant past and, most importantly, the friendship of my fellow Michiganders.

The opening of one song sent me back about eight months to one of the local folk-rock shows in Ann Arbor.

A fellow in the audience standing not too far from me could have passed as a twin brother of my friend Tom, sharing both physiognomies and a countenance of genuine interest and contentment. I've seen this specific expression, which conveys delight and inspiration more than superficial admiration, on his face during several concerts we've attended together. This look (that is, mouth agape and beard atingle) makes me doubt that few other people enjoy the live musical experience as much as he does.

The multi-instrumentalist of the band could bear no greater resemblance to another friend of mine, Aaron. They must have bought their hair from the same Scandinavian wig market and inherited their facial expressions and gestures from the same tambourine-shaking mother.

Oh, Wilco, you tease!



Overall, I've been in a rather bad mood for the past few days. I owe this upset to the past month's lack of decent weather and to the absence of the internet in my apartment. It makes it very difficult to get anything done when I have class all day and then dinner from 7:00 to as late as 10:00 (in my new home situation, we usually have to cook it ourselves and I never know when the rest of the family will get home). My body has forced me to nap between class and dinnertime for the past week and it still doesn't seem to be enough sleep to make it happy.

Hopefully I'll bounce out of it so I can write about the experiences of the past two weeks. These include a lonesome viewing of Luis Buñuel's 'Belle du Jour', a co-operative (though failed) effort to see the Palais de Tokyo and the new Helvetica documentary, a celebrity sighting (Marat Safin, tennis player), perspectives on the urban experience, and a new photography project.