The Foo Fighters were farging fabulous. Fine musicians, totally on, acoustic foo… ten great songs in the set including a pile of them from the soon to be released “Skin and Bones” CD. Petra Hayden Haden (late of “That Dog”) joined them on violin, mandolin and vocals… her mandolin work was extraordinary. Acoustic is kind of an understatement of course. The instruments were acoustic but so wonderfully amplified that they blew my ears out. The keyboard player (Bobby Chaffee Rami Jaffe) played piano, of course, but also keytar, organ and the accordion.

Set list?

1. Times like these
2. Marigold
3. My hero
4. Big me
5. Next year
6. See you
7. Another round
8. (Taylor Hawkins track number nine)
9. Skin and Bones
10. Everlong

There was a brief intermission and then an industrial music assemblage of older men in hats and a pedal steel guitar player took the stage and jumped into a song called “Maggie’s Farm.” The keyboard player (who occasionally swapped out on harmonica) was a thin guy in a black suit with red trim wearing a flat brimmed zorro hat with silver conchos on the band. The drummer wore some kind of brimless middle eastern looking thing. The three guitarists wore classic fedoras. (The lead guitarist had the best one). The pedal steel player needed no hat. He was younger with a full head of hair. They played another fifteen songs before they were through.

The pedal steel was all about air horns halfway through the set when they played Highway 61. More about this later I think. I better go to bed now. Tomorrow is a work day and this whole experience was almost too fun to blog.

Update: Denny Freeman, the lead guitar last night in the Bob Dylan Band was wearing a classic homburg with rolled brim.

Senator Allen, accompanied by Brown Shirts, appears to have prematurely adopted a policy of violent confrontation when approached by the press. Hopefully Stark will sue his pants off. And their shirts. And the right-wing lout will lose the election. hopefully.

Tamar summarizes American culture in a few well chosen words.

Well, I’m off with a pencil, a tablet and a couple of expensive tickets to the Foo Fighters and Bob Dylan. Beth is under the weather so it looks like one of the tix will go to waste. It’s a pity that Papa Golby is so far away.

Here then is the excerpt from the Bishop’s “personal and confidential” message to his subordinates that I find so offensive:

Please listen to the enclosed message: it deals with the marriage referendum, the death penalty referendum, and the issue of embryonic stem cell research. The message is educational in its purpose, and is certainly nonpartisan. What I expect of each of you is a simple introductory statement that the bishop has required this message to be played during the homily time at all Masses of obligation on November the 4 th or the 5 th. If you can express some support for the message that I offer that would be appreciated but not expected. I must make it very clear that any verbal or nonverbal expression of disagreement with this teaching on the part of the priest will have to be considered by myself as an act of disobedience, which could have serious consequences.

Here is a link to the audio that the Bishop requires be played at all “masses of obligation” the weekend before the election.

Tom Bozzo provides a nicely reasoned examination of the Bishop’s testing the limits of 501(c)(3) free speech in an electioneering context. Among many other fine arguments, he says,

On same-sex marriage, the Church position, as we’ve noted before, is a mishmash of incoherently selective Biblical fundamentalism and rank hypocrisy. Once you move beyond ancient assertions of at best dubious provenance towards a rational view of homosexuality, it becomes frankly silly for any self-appointed defender of marriage to want to do anything other than encourage the formation and preservation of stable relationships. Morlino is also a fan of the “we’re just saving civilization” pitch, regarding which we note the continuing absence of the breakdown of civil society in those polities that tolerate same-sex marriage or at least equivalent civil rights.