Wilco the song

From last night's Colbert Report. It's a fun little one-off. thank goodness for the DVR. I can't stay up that late anymore!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Exclusive Wilco Song

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Jesus, Etc.: Nora Jones' cover

At the Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit.

Must see TV

New Cars Toon cartoons start tonight

For all of you out there with pre-school and school aged boys (and girls!) you probably know all about the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. We at the Roach house are up to our eyeballs in Cars!

As our 3 year old neighbor told us a couple of weeks ago, Cars 2 is coming out in 2011. To keep kids and fans interested, Pixar has keep the toys and merchandising going strong. And suckers like us keep buying it! The latest is the Cars Storytellers book and toys from Target. Starting tonight, "Toon Disney" begins to air a series of short Cars cartoons, appropriately titled "Cars Toon." The first three which air this week fallow the general theme of "Mater's Tall Tales." I'm sure Parker will love these!

Monday, Oct. 27 (6:56 p.m. EDT)
Rescue Squad Mater. Mater is a fire truck that rescues Lightning McQueen from a burning building. When McQueen is rushed to the hospital, he discovers that Mater is a doctor, too.

Tuesday, Oct. 28 (6:57 p.m. EDT)
Mater the Greater. Mater is a famous daredevil who does all kinds of stunts. And Lightning McQueen becomes an unwilling participant in Mater’s greatest stunt ever.

Wednesday, Oct. 29 (6:57 p.m. EDT)
El Materdor. Mater is a famous bulldozer fighter in Spain. He’s so good, he’s able to fend off multiple bulldozers at once. Lightning McQueen joins Mater in this tall tale just as things are at their worst.

Check out a sneak peak on the Jim Hill Media website.

Yes we carve!

Yes we carve! #2,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

We carved our Halloween pumpkins on Sunday. surprisingly, for a kid that loves playing in mud and dirt, he didn't want to have anything to do with the "guts" of the pumpkin. Maybe next year. This is the second time we've done a political themed pumpkin. The first was a "VOTE" pumpkin in 2004. Maybe we should have been a little more specific because people didn't vote the way we intended!

Yes we carve! #1,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

If you look closely, you can see Parker's Obama button and his shirt says "Vote for my better tomorrow." Looks like great trick-or-treating weather for Friday. Parker and our neighbor are both going to be Buzz Lightyear this year. Look out neighborhood, here come the Space Rangers!

Congratulations George and Dawnielle!

The Roaches spent last weekend in the Windy City helping my brother George and Dawnielle get married. By "helping" I mean Cathy helped make the corsages, I gave a best man's toast and Parker slept through the ceremony. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was great to meet George's Chicago friends. They are probably wrapping up their honeymoon in sunny Sedona, AZ right about now. When they get back they'll be moving into their new apartment in Carol Stream, IL. (Weather in Sedona: 78 and sunny, weather in Carol Stream: 53 and showers). We wish the newlyweds lots of luck and love in their new life together! See you guys at Thanksgiving?!

Front to Back: Ben Folds Five Reunited

Check this out on MySpace.com. Ben Folds Five reunited recently to perform their last album, 1999's The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. I never really cared much for this album, but it is good to see "The Five" performing together again. Cathy and I saw them at the IU Auditorium on this tour. Check out the performance below:



Ben Folds Five - MySpace Front To Back concert

Cardinology Streaming

The new album from Ryan Adams and the Cardinals is streaming on iLike.com. Check out Cardinology here. It'll be released next Tuesday, October 28th.

Parker and Mommy

Parker and Mommy,
Originally uploaded by chmcelwee.

I love this shot. Parker is getting an early Halloween trick in on his Mom. The other day he told me "I'm just joking, Daddy. I love jocking people. it's fuuuuuunny."

Turning Indiana Blue

There's a great new article on Salon.com about Barack Obama's campaign in Indiana. Indiana hasn't voted for Democratic President since LBJ. Let's hope this is the year Indiana turns Blue!

Parker and Uncle George

Parker and Uncle George,
Originally uploaded by chmcelwee.

How cute are these two? Parker and George spending some time together at his wedding this weekend!

Yes We Carve!

Latest great web find: Yes We Carve, a site devoted to all things Barack Obama and Halloween. It's full of stencils, instructions and pictures of uploaded jack o' lanterns. We were planning on doing our own election themed jack o' lantern even before finding this site. I'll post picture hopefully next week!

Coming to a drive-in near you.

I can't tell if it's a comedy or a horror film. If only it was all a joke.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The Cardinals, Live in Indy

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals (or as the marquee billed them "The Cardinals featuring Ryan Adams") put on a fantastic concert at the Murat Theater in Indy last night. This was the first concert Cathy and I had been to together since a John Mellencamp show in 2002, I believe.

The band was in great form, performing hard edged "rock" versions of songs, with lots of extended jams. Jon Grayboff's pedal steel was mostly lost in the mix; only really shining in a couple of songs. Only two songs featured piano. The new songs were great. Thank goodness for YouTube and tapers or I might not have enjoyed them quite as much. Although I thought "Evergreen" fell completely flat. I was surprised they didn't play "Fix It," which is going to be their first single from their new album. Most of the songs were from Easy Tiger, Jacksonville City Nights and Cold Roses, but they threw in a couple of older gems too. Nothing from Ryan's Whiskeytown days, however.

Ryan wasn't much on the stage chatter. They took the stage, with no opening act, without as much as a "Are you ready to rock, Indy?!" About 40 minutes into the show, they started having monitor problems. Ryan said that his voice in his ears sounded like Darth Vader. They left the sage to correct the problem and we were treated to an odd opera track and what sounded like some of Ryan's "rap". At least it wasn't any of his death metal. Thankfully they fixed the problem and we weren't witnesses to any of Ryan's infamously temperamental stage antics. I've heard he's much more even tempered now that he's clean and sober.

Pretty cool stage design, with two big neon "cold roses" logos that Cathy had seared into her eyes the whole ride home and the strange new "Cardinology" logo that doubled as a gong holder for the drummer, Brad Pemberton. Here's the set list, courtesy of the official Cardinals Cave Blog, with edits.

1. Cobwebs (new song)
   
2. Wonderwall (Oasis cover)
   
3. Mockingbird
4. Goodnight Rose (VIDEO)
   
5. Off Broadway
6. Natural Ghost (new song)
   
7. Please Do Not Let Me Go
8. I See Monsters
9. Let It Ride
10. Desire
    
11. Sun Also Sets
12. What Sin Replaces Love (rather obscure bonus track from Jacksonville City Nights)
    
13. Like Yesterday (new song)
    
14. Games (VIDEO)
    
15. Everybody Knows
16. Sink Ships (new song)
    
17. Come Pick Me Up
18. When the Stars Go Blue
19. Oh My God, Whatever Etc. (VIDEO)
    
20. Beautiful Sorta
21. Evergreen (New song)
    
22. Bartering Lines (a blistering performance of this originally rather subdued song) (VIDEO)
    
23. Rescue Blues (featuring Ryan on piano)
    
24. La Cienega Just Smiled
    
25. Two (VIDEO)
    
26. Easy Plateau (capped with a feedback barrage that left Cathy's ears bleeding)
    

Listen to the show here:


Check out 3 live in studio tracks (Two , Fix It, and Everybody Knows) from The Cardinals at the WTTS web site. These are all acoustic tracks, unlike the all electric set at the Murat.

Photos from Nuvo.

Here's a recent Rolling Stone interview with Ryan.

There's also a great new Ryan Adams article in the latest Paste Magazine.

Way to Normal

Ben Folds' latest album "Way to Normal" was released yesterday. You can hear it all streaming on AOL. Click HERE. A word of warning, the site requires a ActiveX plug-in for Firefox that isn't compatible with version 3.0. I think I'll spin this for a while before I think about buying it. I haven't been too impressed with what I've heard so far.