"On Friday, the first day of sales for the new musical, theatergoers bought 5,461 tickets. That more than triples the Guthrie's previous record, set in 2006 for the annual holiday show, "A Christmas Carol." Zowie! Might this trigger a series of 80's musicals? Airwolf the musical?! I'm. So. There.

Forgot the Iron and Wine. And the Wilco, natch. And what about some jazz? Randy Weston or something might be nice. Though muxtape has that stupid file size limit, so yeah, maybe not. If I were young and full of time and piss and vinegar I'd make a "Jam band songs for people who only listen to bands played on The Current" muxtape. In the face!! (Also: fd: it's not a bad little mux.)

Check it! Isn't she awesome and silver and stuff? Totally she is. I think I'm naming her Katie, though I'm giving a few weeks before I settle on anything. She's a Yamaha 650 Special from the year 1981. Mtv was still showing videos then. And Yamaha was working with Triumph engineers to refine their frames and look how great they did. I know!

I bought her off craigslist. Duh. The dude who sold her to me lives in Forest Lake. I went up there last Friday after work to see it and give it a test drive and act like I knew what I was talking about. It was a long ass drive. Also: 35W is torn up. So yeah, like 90 minutes. But it was worth it. The dude lived on a hobby farm or something. It was a little spooky driving up his looooong driveway, what with it being out in the country and isolated and I'm alone and then there's the fact that like 1 in 5 craigslist sales ends up with someone dead, right? So yeah, I had Huna on the cellphone as I pulled in, just in case. But the guy comes out and he seems harmless enough in his golf shirt and jeans, so I exhaled and hung up and shook hands and crossed my fingers that the bike looked as good in person as it did in the one blurry picture he posted with his ad. We walked out to one of his barns and he throws open the door and there are like 5 motorcycles in there. One completely torn down. I'm in way over my head. He's one of Those Guys.

"So, it runs?" I say, exhausting my list of questions.

"Yep," he says.

"Mind if I start it?"

"Nope."

And he shows me the choke and it idles a little fast with the choke on - naturally - and I push the choke back in after like 10 seconds and the engine dies and suddenly the guy is all "Oh, come on now, don't embarrass me in front of the buyer!" And I pull the choke out and start it again and it's raging along and the guy says "She's a little cold blooded." And he's saying it in a way that makes it seem like he's making excuses. Here's the part where on the outside I'm giving it my "Huh" face but on the inside I'm jumping up and down screaming "She has a personality!!"

I take it out for a little spin and it's right on. I banter some more about oil changes and rust in the gas tank and the carbs and stuff. He saw thru me, but he humored me and that was cool. I ask if he can deliver it and he says sure so I just give him what he's asking no bargaining or nothin'. Not really my style, but delivery included? I'm all over that.

I'm gonna take it over to Midwest Cycle to have them look at it. I called and asked the guy about having them give it a quick inspection. He kind of flipped out and said no. From looking over their website it looks like they prefer to work on bikes from 2000 or newer. My neighbor - who drives a 1985 Honda - insists these guys are great, so I still think I'm gonna take it over there. If anyone has other suggestions, I'm all ears. I have the shop manual, but I'm not ready to tackle everything on my own just yet. Eventually? Count on it.

It's been 3 days. A couple of trips around the neighborhood. A few laps around Harriet. Today I drove it the 6 miles to work. A guy could really get used to this.

The reviews I've heard are that it's everything you want '71 to sound like. One crazyhead friend of mine called it "so crispy that it boggles my mind". We're so cute with the 'crispy' talk, aren't we? Totally. So yeah, $20 seems like something I can come up with in the name of mind boggling.

Does this mean the end of the tree trim? I love the tree trim. But a change might be nice, right? You don't mess with a classic, unless it's not a classic. Funny how that works. (10ktakes has a preview of the temporary new logo. Huh.)

yes please.

For the most part the reviews were fair to middlin'. Music wise people seemed to like it, but operationally not so much. Need examples? Check out the extra cranky comments over on The Current's Blog Summary of the day. Yikes! Long lines for corporate burritos? Crappy sound? What is this, Bonnaroo 2002? Wah wah wah. Breaking news: these one-off type of events rarely go smoothly and anyone who assumes otherwise is just silly. Now here's the part where we share a laugh over the people saying 4 artists for $35 is crazy expensive and that a ticket price like that should mean everything goes perfectly. They've clearly never waited 5 hours to get out of the parking lot at Alpine Valley after spending $60 to hear Mickey sing 'Fire on the Mountain'. Holla!

Anyway, I waded through the various noise for awhile hoping to find the one thing that had been bugging me about the whole event, but [oddly] nobody mentioned it. Are you ready? Good. How about how it's sponsored by a [local] [public] radio station and it's all about the music and it's a super hot ticket and wtf, why didn't they just simulcast it on the radio? This isn't Star Party, it's a Real Show. Cloud Cult could use the exposure, right? Would they really be against something like this? Bon Iver? Bird? Really? And what about MPR? Something like that gets torrented and instantly you've broadened your audience and your brand and your fanbase. With all due respect, Mr. Kling, this was a no brainer. And it's not like this is some crazy new idea, either. In fact, The Current has done it once before (that I know of), for an Arcade Fire show at First Avenue a few years back. It's great, I listen to it all the time. But honestly, that's the only time I know that they've done it. And it's a shame. Because doesn't this seem like it was a perfect opportunity? Yes it does. Though there are plenty of other shows they should do it for, too. So let's not lose faith. Because we gotta have faith-a-faith-a-faith-AH*.

* - this should not be seen as a request to simulcast the George Michael show at the X. At least I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be.

Good call on the Pavarotti, it's one of those things that's just pure distilled perfect. The downside of course is that it'll destroy your heart faster than that girl in 4th grade who wouldn't swing in unison with you on the playground. It doesn't mean you're *really* married! Come on!

OMG here's the part where I start begging for a tour when it's finished.

Video cuts early, but it's still worth it. In related news: I'm not even slightly sick of the new album yet. In other related news: Carson Daly still has a show?!