News is god. Ubiquitous and all-knowing, this collective entity, the news is coming and it won't stop. Things are happening; things are moving fast, and if we don't keep our ability to quickly process information in check, we'll surely fall, lost, into the past. Sometimes, when it's windy out and the news is whistling through the cracks in my windows and pushing everything, everything off my desk, I'd like to give in and let myself fall. The walls will buckle, crinkling like a sinking submarine from the pressure of the information pushing from outside.
I imagine it would happen with a sepia tone, like the whole event was taking place on parchment. A Renaissance period artist scrawls it in the sand or on tree bark, depicting my body falling through the gap between the floor and wall when it tears. Timeless, yes, but a cautionary tale this time for those not willing to follow the news. "See! This is what can happen. Don't give in!"
The artist's parchment is delivered to the King. Three frames of me in a how-to format: giving up and giving out, then letting the information burrow in, letting it push the picture frames off the walls to come in through the nail holes, and finally one of me tumbling through that gap in the room as it breaks apart. The King will be astonished and worried. He's a good king and good kings do good things, and this king realizes something important. So he issues his royal decree on the matter.
More news. But here, this news, in this time, this news has gall. It is nailed to a post in the town's square. It stands up, it is looked at, and it cannot be avoided. It is not an onslaught of nameless stories but one story that says WAIT. And his royal messengers deliver this brash statement to all the satellite cities, one at a time, slowly but delicately, meticulously.
And as I come back and the walls erect around me, as I wait, Andrew Bird is playing. Touring with the messenger, or better, ushering the change himself. So much music, so much, sometimes listening to his albums and listening to him live seems like a dark calm that cuts through that onslaught. Andrew Bird is touring through the satellite cities one at a time, letting us take the time, playing music while we wait, or delivering the message himself
09.01.07 - Vancouver, BC - Richard's On Richards
09.02.07 - Seattle, WA - Bumbershoot 2007 (Mural Stage)
09.08.07 - Chicago, IL - 11th Annual Hideout Block Party
09.10.07 - Knoxville, TN - The Bijou Theater
09.11.07 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
09.12.07 - Durham, NC - The Carolina Theatre
09.13.07 - Atlanta, GA - The Variety Playhouse
09.15.07 - Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
09.17.07 - Lawrence, KS - The Granada
09.18.07 - Louisville, KY - WL Lyons Brown Theatre
09.19.07 - Bloomington, IN - Buskirk Chumley Theater
09.20.07 - Madison, WI - Wisconsin Union Theater
09.21.07 - Urbana, IL - 2007 Pygmalion Music Festival at Tryon Festival Theatre, Krannert Center
09.22.07 - Iowa City, IA - The Englert Theatre
09.24.07 - Buffalo, NY - Asbury Hall at The Church
09.25.07 - Toronto, ONT - The Opera House
09.26.07 - Montreal, QEC - La Tulipe
09.28.07 - South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
09.29.07 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
09.30.07 - Richmond, VA - Toad's Place Richmond
10.01.07 - State College, PA - State Theatre
10.02.07 - Pittsburgh, PA - Carnegie Music Hall
