Southpaw Jones

• THEY perform in Austin tonight for the first time since July 16, 2004, and I’m taking my girlfriend. Their concerts are one of the rare things in life that excite me more and more the older I get.

• John Flansburgh’s blatant left-handedness and short-sleeved button-up shirts.

• Don’t Let’s Start: “No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful. Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful.”

• John Linnell, my favorite songwriter in the world.

• Lincoln, my favorite album of all time.

• Their last time around, THEY wrote songs named after every venue THEY played, including Stubb’s.

• THEY never write or record more song than they need to, whether it be 5 seconds or 3 ½ minutes long.

• When I saw them fifteen years ago in Houston, THEY were in a nasty, overcrowded club called The Vatican, and the fire marshal had to stop the show. The authorities said, “Play one more song and end it!” So THEY played a “medley of hits.” John Linnell said, “We’d play until you’re all dead if we could.”

• John Linnell is an introverted genius, and John Flansburgh is an extroverted promoter and showman. Neither would be successful without the other, me thinks.

• THEY hide the most human emotions inside seemingly emotionless, melodic music. Their lyrics explore themes of paranoia, isolation, and mortality, while their catchy tunes jump into the front and back of one’s brain to stay forever.
THEY are pop.
THEY are art.
THEY are the band for me.
THEY.
MIGHT.
be
GIANTS!

Check THEM out!

as reported in The New York Times

March 5, 1908
WHIP BARRED FROM SCHOOLS.
Board of Education Rejects Corporal Punishment by a Vote of 21 to 17.

One clue whose answer consists of two rhyming words:

She takes the tiny, freshwater fish and throws them high into the air. The wind blows away the smallest ones that have absolutely no substance, and the more hearty floppers fall down for use in the meal of the day. Would you like to see her technique next time she…

Highlight here for answer: [winnows minnows]


Garfield Minus Garfield

His later manner leaves your neck-hair flat,
Not standing up as Housman said it should
When poetry has been achieved. For that,
In old age Auden simply grew too good.
Clive James, on W. H. Auden

EVERY DANG THURSDAY
with Matt the Electrician
8:00 PM
Flipnotics at the Triangle
4600 Guadalupe
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 380-0097
http://www.flipnotics.com

2 Nerds in the Sunshine - February 24, 2008