LP Auction for Charity

Hey all,

Rare LPs (only 700 copies printed) by the band Shellac (Steve Albni, Bob Weston, Todd Trainer) which were given only to those named on the LP cover, have been donated by the three members of Buffalo Tom for auction to raise money for the Callum Robbins Fund, for 2 y.o. Cal:


http://www.callumrobbins.blogspot.com/

These records have been know to raise $700+ a piece and it seems like a great rock & roll way to raise money for a kid with rock & roll parents.

If interested, bidding has started at Ebay. 2 of them are up so far. Look near bottom of page for 2 entries:

Shellac LPS

Thanks for your help on this and thanks also to all of you who have attended recent shows. We look forward to seeing more folks at the upcoming shows.

Bill

Nick Flynn in Esquire

I have little doubt that this will prove to be one of the most memorable things I read in 2008. From Nick Flynn, the writer with whom Buffalo Tom collaborated on the song, "Father Outside (Ink Falling)."

The Ticking Is the Bomb

I'd love to hear reaction. In fact, I would love to see any note from folks to see if anyone is checking in here apart from mentions in my email newsletter. A blog no one reads is like a town with no cheer, or a tree falling in the forest, or as Nick might say, "the falling is the tree."

Nice to see some of you out there in D.C. and N.Y. Hope to see more of you next weekend.

january update

hey everyone,

sorry, again. i am an apologetic sob, ain't i? i just have been lax in updates. i had such great intentions when i started my music blog (http://www.billjanovitz.blogspot.com/). actually, i see that it was updated in december. that ain't too bad, is it? anyway, i can't see too many people hanging on every word anyway.

i wish i could say it is because i am busy. but i have been less busy than i was all 2007, i think. but american idol started last week. plus someone sent me an invitation to join this facebook that i have heard so much about, from all the kids and such. but i see that it has hit some tipping point (btw, that's the title of a great book by malcom gladwell) and more modern maturity folks like me have signed up. it is actually the most useful of all the "social networking" sites i have found. i never quite latched on to myspace too much. and linked-in has some professional uses, i suppose. no one has made them apparent to me yet, but i'm willing to suspend my disbelief for now.

but with facebook, one can post the music, vids, little logos that allow you to dupe yourself into feeling like you are politically, environmentally, or gastonomically aware, etc. but the event announcements thing, in fact the whole interface seems very user-friendly. so that's where i have most recently posted upcoming bt shows that i hope many of you will attend. kevin will continue to update the bill and bt sites, but they are so web 1 or possibly 2.0 and this band is, like, very web 3.2.

i see that the shows are selling well, so i hope to see some of you out there on the cold and lonely plains. and there is a buff tom listeners group or something like that, which of course i had to join even though i don't listen to them (only like the early stuff) when i can avoid it. of course, we will have to listen to each other prattling on (this means you, tom) for an 8-hour ride in a van to dc this friday. so we have that going for us. how much would you pay for a podcast of that. have any of you heard the troggs tape? something like that.

the downside of facebook, and perhaps the real reason for my laxity in updates and other such things such as bathing and acknowledging the existence of my children is that it has this texas holdem poker app. which has ruined me. mind you, i have achieved "big dog" status in a mere couple of weeks and am ever so close to attaining the ultimate status of "shark." however, these achievements don't seem to resonate with my wife, who has never really encouraged my aspirations and dreams and so i don't expect her to all of a sudden wake up and bow down at the feet of a facebook-poker-recognized "big dog" now, january 22, 2008. further, she doesn't even seem enthusiastic when i finally win a few hands and come out on the positive side of my bi-weekly poker group in my favorite contractor's shop (which seems like a setting out of a tarantino bloodbath but is nothing of the sort in real life). so again why would i expect her to wake up lucid one morning and thank me for my visionary foresight?

so i recommend you sign up for the f-book as well so you can waste more of your time.

but as usual, i digress:

buffalo tom
January 25
night time
black cat
washington dc.

january 26
joe's pub
2 shows -- both night time, one earlier than the other
in the shadow of the astor place kmart
near/once home of the scrappy yet sadly soon-to-be defeated new jersey giants
new york, ny

february 1
first avenue
home to prince
and husker du
and grant hart
and the replacements
and that city that gave birth to the mighty hold steady men
minneapolis, mn
because, really, when you think about it, why go play some place warm in february? we want to keep our pale - broken-only-by-our-patches-of-psoriasis-because-we-are-so-dried-out-by-the-boston-winters - glow. let's pick someplace more miserable than boston in the winter. yes, minn. will do. but how about tomorrow? shall we go to hawaii then?

no.

february 2
double door
one of my favorite cities in the world
chicago, we-be-illinois

i be illin' so you keep chillin' and like lowell george be willin' and in facebook poker i make a killin',

Bill-in'

Tour Slide Show

Thanks to everyone who came to see us in Europe/London. We had a great time. Below is a little slide show made from some of my cell phone camera shots. More words to come soon.