Friday night we went to go see the Freewheeling Yo La Tengo show in Williamsburg, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

The band played seated and answered questions in between songs. I think the setup made Georgia the star of this show, but there were moments that led audience members to comment that "that song sounded like you were standing up". YLT also revealed that they are just as happy to have a quiet audience rather than a dancing audience. Overall, the show was kind of like recent Mountain Goats shows where there was a lot of banter but then very quiet during songs.

The Hanukkah shows all sold out very early this year and so I'm not going, but this was the special Yo La Tengo show of the year for me.

The show was at that new Music Hall place that replaced Northsix in Williamsburg, and it was pretty nicely set up but eerie how much the overall design took from the Bowery Ballroom.

Photo from yolatreacy flickr.

The Jennifer O'Connor Myspace has some streaming covers, including Stockholm Sweden and an Elliott Smith track.

A good week of Daytrotter sets, with Magic Numbers and Emma Pollock following Okkervil River.

I'm really not too impressed with this Amazon Top 100 books of the year list.
Knuffle Bunny Too as the kidlit pick? Not really the one book I'd pick for such a list.

British papers are reviewing The Book of Other People, created by all the trendy writers and graphic novelists