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MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 02.06.2012

They're going to run out of megastars to play at Super Bowl halftimes really soon, aren't they? Speaking of that, words cannot describe how much LMFAO irritates the shit out of me.

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.30.2012

Now with even less proofreading [and, apparently, less paying attention to switching the entry from "Unpublished" to "Published." Oops. - ed.]. Hope to see you Saturday!

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.23.2012

There's a fair amount of stuff that's just not getting me excited this week, so rather than force myself to just paraphrase something in Time Out Chicago, I just left those shows out.

But then Saturday sorta makes up for it.

TV: Three Degrees of Downton Abbey

Spurred on by feeling of inadequacy when all the cool kids are talking about it -- by "cool kids," I mostly mean Patton Oswalt, Gillian Jacobs and Aimee Mann, and by "talking about it," I mean Twitter -- I caught myself up on Downton Abbey over the weekend.

As all the talk suggested, it's quite good.

What I found amusing was the degree of "hey, I know that actor" across the first season and a bit. Mostly because I seemed to get better at it over time. First -- in the first episode -- it was the Duke of Crowborough that I recognized, but I couldn't place him, or his name. Turns out Charlie Cox also plays Owen Slater on Boardwalk Empire, presumably because either he was upset the role of Irish revolutionary chauffeur was already taken, or had already been there and done that, depending on which show he joined first.

Next, it was nagging at me that I knew who Anna was, and once that had lodged in my head, I was able to pick out a familiar name from the credits -- Joanne Froggatt. Turns out she has a thing for unavailable men, whether it's the still-technically-married Mr. Bates or Robin Hood after he'd already lost Marian. But I still had to look it up.

Finally, I got one just on pure recognition and a thing for knighthood, apparently, as Iain Glen as Sir Richard Carlisle was immediately recognizable as the same actor who plays Ser Jorah Mormont in King of Thrones.

That's everybody so far in my little entertainment world. I know there are other actors who have been in other shows, just not ones that I watch. And all three seem related to their other roles.

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.16.2012

I regret to inform you that the Foreigner show originally scheduled for Thursday at House of Blues has been cancelled. Something came up. It was "Urgent."

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.09.2012

In which no mention is made of either Tim Tebow or Downton Abbey, unlike anyone's Twitter timeline last night.

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.02.2012

Happy New Year everybody! If you're like me, you've gotten old and need a couple of days to recuperate from whatever New Year's Eve hijinx you were up to, so let's start with Tuesday, shall we?

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 12.26.2011

We seem to have gotten hip to the idea of having acts play both the 30th and 31st, in case you've got more social and less musical plans to ring in the new year, but still want to see some of these shows.

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 12.19.2011

Not sure if there will be a Boxing Day edition next week, which means you're on your own for New Year's Eve. We'll see.

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 12.12.2011

It's Wilco week!

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 12.05.2011

Or, the most important list.in.to.chicago ever, since I didn't start writing it until well after the URT CD release party. Heck, I didn't start writing it until after URT. You're coming to Metro on Thursday, right?

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 11.28.2011

I sorta wanted to use "Clap You Hands Say Meh" this week, but for everyone's sake, I resisted.

Oh, wait a minute...

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 11.21.2011

If you missed me half as much as I missed you while I was sitting in a conference room in Madrid, well then I missed you twice as much.

MUSIC: list.in.to.chicago this week: 11.07.2011

Okay, it's another one of those "there might not be a newsletter next week because I'm several time zones away" deals, but I have jetlagged downtime when I land in Madrid on Sunday that might be conducive to cranking out some listings. This was the point last year where my car got stolen, so hopefully things go better this time.

MAIN: A Win Is A Win

I know the Occupy Wall Street movement is taking credit for Bank of America backing down on their debit card fee, but couldn't you also argue that this is precisely how a free market is supposed to work?

The defense, I suppose, is that Wall Street typically doesn't operate in an actual "free" market -- they've typically been able to do things just like this with impunity and casual disregard for their customers. So if Occupy Wall Street really wants to frame this right, it's a victory for free market capitalism, not the oligarchic bullshit we have had to put up with. Much better optics, in my opinion.

(As an aside, and in the "why do I write this when nobody reads it" department, my initial reaction was the free market part, but only in writing the post did I come around to the "and that's really the point" part of it. Yay process!)