Wilco Weekend: Happy Holiday.

Happy Labor Day weekend greetings brought to you by Wilco. Wilco.


We've got a few announcements and then we're gonna get out of here and fire up the grills for what could be the last time this summer as a world tour awaits. So with that in mind, (Glenn: a drumroll please) here is the next group of North American tour dates. Ticketing info will follow in a week or so.

Nov. 29: Dallas TX Music Hall at Fair Park

Dec. 1: Austin TX Austin City Limits Live at The Moody Theater

Dec. 3: Kansas City MO Uptown Theater

Dec. 4: West Des Moines IA Val Air Ballroom

Dec. 6 & 7: Minneapolis, MN State Theatre

Dec. 9: Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater

Dec. 10: Detroit, MI Fillmore Detroit

Dec. 12: Chicago, IL Civic Opera House

Also, less than 150 tickets are left for the September shows in Indy, Toronto (both nights) and Boston. And for all of our North American tour dates (in case you missed the announcement on Facebook and Twitter), we're starting the Fan Video Project this week. Details here (in short, we want you to create a video stage backdrop for the band).

If that isn't enough, we're gonna do a special under-the-radar stream of the new record tomorrow for Wilcoworld only. Here's the deal -- as a reward for your labors, ours, and those of our forefathers/mothers -- starting at 12 Noon Central time tomorrow (Saturday) and for 24 hours straight we're gonna stream The Whole Love in its entirety, at wilcoworld.net. That's right. Your first chance to hear the whole thing is tomorrow. Trust us, you'll be glad you made time to check it out.

Next up, The Whole Love is officially out and in stores on September 27 -- which is less than a month away. Have you preordered yours yet? If not, you can at our store, iTunes, the ANTI- Records store, Amazon and many indie retailers. We suggest you give a listen, maybe check out a couple of the videos we have up on the site, and then pull the trigger and order one for yourself and maybe a couple more for holiday gifts. What the heck, may as well get an early start, right?

More soon. Have a great holiday weekend.

Cheers (sound of bottles & cans opening....)

- Wilco HQ

Nostalgic for St. Patrick's Day.

I heard the entire city of Chicago went on a bender last weekend, as is typical this time of year in commemoration of St. Patrick's Day. Something about wearing green and drinking copious amounts Irish spirits usually proves a recipe for disaster, as I have witnessed firsthand several years over along the green river.

I cant say I wish I was there among them, but I must admit that I am feeling extremely nostalgic for St Patrick's Day celebrations this year. Perhaps it is just a wishful diversion from work, but something doesn't feel quite right about letting this day go by without the standard fare of a draught guiness, corned beef and cabbage and some soda bread.

So in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day and also in celebration of my mom's birthday, I share an innovative recipe that you can count on to get your annual fix of Irish soda bread.

This One Goes Out to the One I Love.

For those looking to indulge a sweet tooth today in celebration of love, here is a divine chocolate cupcake recipe via lanalou.

Chocolate Cupcakes

100g cake flour

20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar

1½ tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

40g softened butter

120ml milk

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla essence

* Mix flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter together with electric mixer till it forms a fine granule-like consistency.

* Add milk, egg and vanilla essence to the dry mixture and beat till smooth.

* Spoon mixture into cupcake cases until ⅔ full. Mixture makes about 12 cupcakes.

* Bake in pre-heated oven at 180˚C for about 20 minutes or until sponge bounces back when touched.

* When cool, either dust with icing sugar or ice with chocolate frosting.

This One Goes Out to the One I Left Behind.

Valentine's Day Poems. Tanzanain Style.

Sweating through my shirt

Smell of Deet and burning trash

She will be impressed.

I thought it was love

Hot!  Sweaty!  Delirious!

Nope: malaria.

Q-Bar prostitute

Spirit of love and romance

Half hour, Room 6.

Drank warm red box wine

Moon-lit stroll on CoCo Beach

Now we're getting mugged

Would have bought flowers

But we're in Dar es Salaam

Will Konyagi do?

Una pendeza

I will make love to you now

Ignore the heat rash

Peace Corps volunteer

Room with power and water

Easy to impress

Kempinski was full

Street meat at Posta instead

Can I still get laid?

I had a great night

It's too hot to walk you home

Please take a bajaj

---

Forwarded by Christen Mullen via Roman Kotovych.

Holiday Traditions.

Our recent trip to the US allowed us the opportunity to continue some of our favorite holiday traditions. Among our favorite holiday traditions, is our annual visit to the Botanical Gardens to see their train display and miniatures of national historic buildings - notably all made from scrap organic materials collected from the in-house gardens. These are works of pure genius and bring out a childhood sense of fascination - I highly recommend you squeeze in a visit to this annual display amidst your holiday reveling next year. Oh! and the Willard's Round Robin Bar makes for an excellent place to warm you up afterwards - a Dirty Martini is my guilty pleasure - and you may just overhear some interesting political gossip while enjoying your drink!

This year I also managed to learn a thing or two along the way.
1) I did not need to travel 5000+ miles to see how a banana grows

2) Everyone in the US has an iphone, including her

and her:

3) Sometimes simple can be better:

Just Like Christmas.

Some pictures from the Mattingly Household on Christmas morning.

And what would Christmas be without my favorite Christmas song. Off to celebrate with booze and bagels at my uncle's house in Capital Hill:)
Merry Christmas everyone!
---
Photo Credits: Andrei Sinioukov

Homeward Bound.

Tomorrow we are homeward bound for the holidays, or so we hope. Barring weather delays and grounded flights, we hope to board a plane and then another one and then another one to make it home in time for the holidays. Fingers crossed we experience a smooth journey. Afterall, it wouldn't be the holidays without Joannie's cookies to celebrate.