NIN and Billy Corgan news (jeez, that's a boring title for this post)

I am back from an incredible 10 days or so in the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver are all great cities, and I will say a little more about the trip later (I hope). And now MMM is back from sleep, sort of.

At any rate, as my days keeping MMM chugging along may be numbered with a new job starting in a little over a month, I need to share the nuggets I find while I still can.

a) And here is the first nugget I had to share: if you missed out on tickets to see NIN and QOTSA and Madison Square Garden (I could have used MSG but then the acronyms would be getting a bit out of control), while it did sell out, you can buy tickets via auction at ticketmaster. Interestingly, the auction benefits The Innocence Project - I am a former Carbozo so the idea of Trent using his celebrity capital to raise funds for one of the best things that the school does warms the cockles of mi corazon.

b) This happened while I was away and it was bound to happen at some point. The Smashing Pumpkins are a band that has as much of an emtional resonace for me as almost any band, but as I get older, I am learning the sad truth: Billy Corgan, the artist that was most able to articulate all those wonderful, horrible feelings that come with being seventeen years old, is nucking futs. Did he really think that after he made that recockulous statement about the Pumpkins reuniting that he might take a little heat from the crowds at his solo shows for not playing any? Perhaps I am playing Monday morning quarterback, but I think he would have been better off waiting until he was done promoting thefutureembrace before saying he was getting the old band back together, unless he merely wanted to try to shift a few extra units of the album by attracting a little extra coverage by making the announement. Billy got what he bargained for.