A clear sign that I am certainly not in touch with the kool kidz -- Paul McCartney played here in NYC last night. I had no idea.

For Mr. McCartney, however, who can sell out stadiums at hundreds of dollars a ticket, this was unusual. He used no pyrotechnics or video backdrop, and the audience stood close enough to its hero that it could hold non-conversations with him. He played beautifully, in tight control of his voice (even in high range) and his musicianship, through a clutch of new songs and some of the oldest Beatles repertory.

Hero is definitely the right word.

Damn, I'm crushed. So close to musical godliness. A 700 person venue!!!

The few times I've heard him recently, I'm so impressed with how well his voice still sounds. I'm curious to hear his new album, although most of what I've heard recently isn't his best stuff. But he played all the instruments on the new one, just like on McCartney, his first solo album. So that really makes me want to hear it.

In any case, I'm bummed.

And a touching note, at the end of the article:

Later, alone at the piano, he sang “Here Today,” an elegiac song he wrote after John Lennon’s death, and dedicated it to “our fallen heroes: John, George and Linda.”

When he finished, he stopped the flow of his own efficiency, and thought out loud. “It’s good to play that song in the town John loved,” he said. “And where Linda was born in. And where we played the Ed Sullivan show.”

It's good to have you back, Paul. Even if I didn't get to see you.

Two items of interest. There is a new Ozu box set out. And Cat Power wins the Shortlist Music Prize, the first woman to do so.

If you haven't seen the moody, unconventional films of Ozu, or heard the moody, unconventional music of Cat Power, you should.

In the continuing train wreck that is Swampland's Guest Blogger seat, a political consultant, who, apparently, refers to himself as "Mudcat," claims it is "immoral to stereotype any group of people" while in nearly the same virtual breath, stereotypes "the elitist wing of the Democratic Party, or what I refer to as the "Metropolitan Opera Wing."

Given his slipshod approach to logic and thinking, this person appears to me to be quite, um, less than sharp.

Now, I have no problem with people who call themselves "Mudcat," or refer to others as "feller."

I just wish that, when hiring these people as political consultants, we would find the ones that aren't as blatantly careless with things like "writing" and "ideas."

That might go a long way.

In a previous comment, I predicted Paris would come out of this with a new, socially-conscious perspective. Hmmm...

I must also say that I was shocked to see all of the attention devoted to the amount of time I would spend in jail for what I had done by the media, public and city officials. I would hope going forward that the public and the media will focus on more important things, like the men and women serving our country in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places around the world.

I would encourage everyone to be more like Paris.

Well, maybe put on underwear more often.