Wilco Posters

Here are some concert posters I bought at the Wilco shows I went to recently.


Fox Theater in Pomona, 6.20.2009

Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, 6.23.2009

Things that I've been called other than my name

Over the years I've had a lot of people not really understand my name. This usually only happens when people encounter my name for the first time. Whether they hear me or someone else say it, or if they see it written down. I always, without fail find these moments hilarious. I think you all know about my favorite time this happened ("Two Hands, huh?"), but here are some more classic "Zuhair" eff-ups.

There was my the history professor at UCR, Elizabeth Vanderven, who for two whole quarters called me Zaire (Zah-year), like you know? The country in Africa (now called the somewhat less catchy Democratic Republic of Congo). I probably could have corrected her, but dang dude, she was cute and I figured that I'd let her call me whatever she wanted.

The ethnic studies professor, Ralph Crowder, who simply glossed over my name and opted to skip the first part altogether and just call me Abdulla. He's the only person that I've ever known to call me by only my last name, consistently. I ran into him about a year ago, having first had class with him in 2001 and found out that he still calls me, simply, Abdulla.

I'm not even going to talk about what happened when that stupid Don't Mess With the Zohan movie came out.

At the Toyota dealership a few weeks ago one of the dudes from maintenance came up to me and asked me if I owned a Prius. I said yes and he told me my car was done and ready to be paid for. Usually they just call your name on the loud speaker but I had my headphones in and couldn't hear. Anyhow. I went up to the counter to pay for whatever it was they were fixing when the lady behind the counter said, in a Mexican accent, "Oh! It's your car! I was calling Zwa-hurr for like 10 minutes! Just me saying 'Zwa-hurr, Zwa-hurr, your car is ready.'" I told her I was wearing headphones and couldn't hear, but didn't mention that even if I could hear, I still would have had no idea that my car was ready.

There's a guy who does handiwork at the house that I work at. I've seen him probably once a week or at least twice a month since I started working here in August of last year. We don't talk much but we always do a little stop and chat. His name is Justin and he's addressed me by name many times. I went on tour for about 5 weeks starting at the end of March. When I returned back to the office the week after tour ended I saw him and said hello. He responded with, "Oh hey Zuha (Zoo-ha, as in Zoo-ha got you all in check!), how's it going?" He also ended the conversation with, "Good seeing you again, Zuha!" I guess 6 weeks of not seeing me makes you forget the last two letters of my name.

I can't remember exactly where this happened but I was at a somewhat loud party when one of my friends decided to introduce me to the lady he brought. She was very, very, clearly not interested in meeting me and wasn't really paying attention at all. So when I said, "Hi, I'm Zuhair, nice to meet you," she very bitchily responded with "What's a Zuhair?"

When I was a child, a little baby Zuhair if you will, all the other children used to call me Poohair. I believe though, that that was somewhat intentional.

Success!

Saturday had me watching one of my favorite bands ever, Wilco. It was, hands down, the best show I've ever been to in my life. And I saw Weezer 3 times before they got all shitty! In fact, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it; It was the best anything ever. For Wilco fans out there, here's what they played:

1. Wilco (The Song)
2. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
3. Bull Black Nova
4. You Are My Face
5. One Wing
6. A Shot In The Arm
7. Radio Cure
8. Impossible Germany
9. Deeper Down
10. Pick Up The Change
11. Can't Stand It
12. Jesus, Etc.
13. Hate It Here
14. You Never Know
15. Theologians
16. Walken
17. I'm The Man Who Loves You
18. Hummingbird
// E1: 19. Passenger Side
20. California Stars
21. Misunderstood
22. Happy Birthday
23. Spiders (Kidsmoke)
// E2:
24. Kingpin
25. Monday
26. Hoodoo Voodoo

Don't know if you noticed that there, but they did two encores!

They didn't play a few jams that I really wanted to hear, but they had such a good set list it didn't really matter. Plus they played Misunderstood which is goddamned incredible. Here it is, the live version off of Kicking Television:

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

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I couldn't find a really good live video of the whole song, there's one from Lollapalooza '08 that was pretty good but then I noticed it didn't have the lead guitar in the mix, what up with that sound guy? Anyhow, so instead I've just embedded this short clip from I am Trying to Break Your Heart of just the end bits.

The Darjeeling Limited, 2007

Higher res if you click the pics











"I guess I've still got a lot of healing to do."

Wilco

Next Saturday I'm going to be seeing Wilco at The Fox Theater in Pomona. This'll be my second time seeing them and I'm pretty dang excited. Here are some videos of them that I like a lot:





My favorite:


And not only do I LOVE this next song, but I think the video is super funny. It looks like it's from one of those MTV Winter Break things they used to do in the 90s. This video is full of cheesy edits and for some reason, Tweedy is wearing snowboarding goggles:

Funny People

I honestly haven't been excited about an Adam Sandler movie since Punch Drunk Love came out back in 2002. That movie came out and it really showed me how incredible of an actor this goofball can be. It kind of ruined the shtick he had going for so long with movies like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, and The Waterboy. So when he returned to making movies like that, I did not return to the theaters. Even his subsequent attempts at serious acting failed to grasp my attention (Spanglish, Reign on Me, I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry). Paul Thomas Anderson captured Adam Sandler at his absolute best. It kind of made me feel the way I did when I first saw Bill Murray in a similar type of situation, silly comedian turns comically serious. Not that Adam Sandler is anywhere near as talented and amazing as Mr. Murray, but for a moment there I did see a glimpse of hope.

Anyhow, now he's back with Judd Apatow's Funny People, which has an absurdly good cast including Seth Rogan, Jason Schwartzman, Jonah Hill, and Aziz Ansari. Needless to say, just thinking about this movie gives me a little bit of a boner.

Speaking of Aziz Ansari, has anyone seen Parks and Recreation yet? If so, is it any good? I want to love it, but haven't turned on my TV in a while... let me know what the deal is, yo.

Anyhow, here's the trailer: