Tabors, Wilco, Fraktur

I very much enjoyed seeing the Tabors ever-so-briefly this weekend--particularly Nick, who I haven't seen in over a year. If I end up at Vanderbilt next year, we will be only an hour or so away, which would be fantastic.

Nick and I talked about the new Wilco album--he enjoys it but is significantly less enthusiastic than I. I think it's fantastic start to finish.

Here Tweedy pairs grim lyrics with aggressive, upbeat music--just as, in the wondrous album closer, which I posted recently, a dark story of paternal disappointment is told in a peaceful, lovely manner. I love the wailing guitar line. As Tweedy says in a really nice piece about the creation of this track, "I can play that guitar riff. I can't make it sound like [Nels Cline does]."

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I filled the past week with late nights translating smudged German Fraktur, a frustrating but also rewarding task. This was my first time doing any extended reading in Fraktur, so it was good to work on that long overdue skill. And as always, there's a certain pleasure in correcting some little technical, grammatical error and then seeing the whole phrase or passage fall into place and make sense.

My translation work Friday morning went much slower than anticipated, and I did not finish before I had to go to work. So at 11 PM that night, after work, I sat back down to the task of translating and worked until 4 AM, slept, woke again at 8 AM, worked two more hours, and then slept again. I woke for good 11:30 AM to burn a cd for Bill Nye. Then I washed some dishes and cleaned the bathroom before the Tabors arrived.