This evening Remei and I went with Big T from Kazakhstan to see Buddy Miller, the country-rock-blues-gospel guy, do a show. It was really very good; his originals, most of which I hadn't heard, are excellent, and he has good taste in covers, with a killer electric live version of "With God on Our Side" that lasted about eleven minutes. Miller has a great voice and plays mean guitar, electric and acoustic, in several different styles. I liked the drummer a lot as well, and the other two guys were just fine. Miller is a very congenial fellow; he establishes rapport with his audience. The show was maybe a little rough, but I think that they wanted it that way, and it was the first show of the tour, so obviously they haven't settled into the groove yet. If you go to his website you can check out his new stuff, and if he comes to your town go see him play. (Yes, I know what his politics are. All he said on stage was that "With God on Our Side" was relevant today, which is fair enough.)

The news around here is it's still cold, the damn tow truck drivers are postponing their strike until Semana Santa when they can really screw things up good, only 36% of Spaniards are going to turn out to vote in the referendum on the EU constitution though 56% of those polled say they're in favor of it, up in the Carmelo this whole apartment building fell in this enormous hundred-foot-deep hole created by digging for the expansion of the subway (fortunately, nobody was hurt; they were able to evacuate, with plenty of warning, over 800 people), and Barça plays Sevilla tomorrow night in the Sánchez Pízjuan on free TV so I don't have to (have to, he says, it's such an awful chore, I just hate it) go down to Pierre the Cameroonian's bar to watch it illegally on pay-per-view. Also, Oscar the little black cat barfed on the living room floor.