Thanks to Matt, I learned today that Polydor has given the Deluxe Edition treatment to Rattlesnakes, the fantastic 1984 debut by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Although I don't know if the second disc of demos, B-sides, and live cuts justifies the price, I was glad to see this because you never hear Cole's music anymore.

I'm sure you've all heard by now that today is the 40th anniversary of the debut of Sesame Street. Last Friday, Fresh Air did a great tribute show, replaying older interviews with Jeff Moss, Frank Oz and Christopher Cerf, all of whom were essential in creating the show. Growing up, my favorites were Oscar The Grouch and Cookie Monster, so it was great to hear Moss talk about how he created those characters.

The hard rock was world was saddened, though not surprised, as the news got out this weekend that Steven Tyler, longtime lead singer for Aerosmith, has left the band after 40 years, one previous break-up, a comeback, and more sex and drugs than all the collective readers of this blog can ever freakin' dream of.

Apparently Del Amitri did the theme song for Scotland's 1998 World Cup team. YouTube embedding has been disabled by their label (yeah, because you wouldn't want to let their millions of fans talk about it, right?), but you can watch it here (with a special guest appearance by Colin Hendry's mullet!

(clears throat)

Two-thousand seven!

(clap-clap, clap-clap-clap)

Two-thousand seven!

(clap-clap, clap-clap-clap)

That's all I got to say right now. Deal with it, Simmons and Shaughnessy. You both lied to us by not dying in peace like you said you would.

Last month I discovered that MeTV, a local retro television channel, was showing Barney Miller reruns, and I've just had a blast seeing these shows I haven't seen in years. Although it was very successful during its eight-season run from 1975-82, I don't think it got the proper respect. That's probably due to the fact that there were so many other groundbreaking sitcoms at the time (the same goes for the original Bob Newhart Show, which MeTV also broadcasts).

...Jason, Jeff and I get seasonal on the new episode of the Popdose Podcast, talking about our childhood fears, which, as it turns out, aren't nearly as disturbing as some of the things we're capable of saying as adults. Admittedly, this one was entirely my fault.

I also put another installment of Infinite Play up this week, this time about Let It Loose by The Rolling Stones.

One of the podcasts I subscribe to is The Interface at Spinner.com, which gives a 20-minute performance of an up-and-coming band every week, with high-quality audio and video. If I don't know the act, I'll usually listen while preparing dinner. This way, if I can't stand it, at least I'm doing something productive and listen to it all the way through unless it really sucks.

After today's victory over Manchester United, perhaps they should change their theme song from You'll Never Walk Alone to this one.

And yeah, I know that those pictures didn't come from today's game, but I can't keep track of all of Torres' goals against the Mancs nor Vidic's red cards against Liverpool.

If you don't have the time to pay attention to the whole stream and want last Saturday's festivities in small doses, all three shows now have their shows online. So I'm putting them here all in one post, complete with my introductions. The video quality isn't the greatest due to the poor lighting in the room, but I do want to thank the great Brian Ibbott at Coverville for shooting the video for me.

This time it's from my Popdose colleague Dw. Dunphy:

If Ray Bradbury decided to form a prog metal band, it would sound like Jupiter Society, and that really wouldn't be a bad thing...

Sorry, my friend, but I beg to differ.

So, bits and pieces of this past weekend are slowly coming back to me, mainly as a result of going through my pictures, the best of which have been uploaded to my Facebook page.But here are some thoughts:

I stayed in the West Wing at MGM Grand. It was smaller than their usual rooms, but much more interestingly decorated.

I'm at McCarran Airport waiting to take the red-eye back to Chicago as an amazing trip to Vegas comes to a close. The Podcast-A-Palooza was a total blast, as was hanging out with friends old and new. I'll have more to tell about it, with pictures and video, but until then, this song by Drive-By Truckers has been in my head all day.

For those of you interested in seeing me make a fool out of myself, the stream goes live at 6:45 Eastern time.

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