It pains me to say so, but there will be no CHART ATTACK! this Friday.  Long story short:  busy week at work, rehearsals for two different bands and a play, and any free nights this week were spent listening to Christopher Cross and that god-awful Lou Reed song.  See?  When Lou Reed’s involved, we all get punished.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and I’ll see you next week for more Mellow Gold and CHART ATTACK!-y goodness!

I received many awesome, musical presents for my birthday yesterday (Jason Falkner CD!  A melodica!  Concert tickets!  My wife bought me a MANDOLIN!), but there’s one gift I got that I thought you guys would especially appreciate.  This one comes from Mike, who came up with the idea, and his wonderful girlfriend Colleen, who actually crafted it.

Colleen even said she’d make me more if I want.  I’m thinking about getting them in every pastel color imaginable, and ONLY wearing Pablo Cruise t-shirts on weekends for the entire summer.  I can’t even tell you how much in love I am with this shirt…but then again, if you’re a regular here, you probably understand completely.

Speaking of Colleen, she’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.  See her post on Mike’s blog today, and stay tuned for her own website, launching soon.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Not sure what’s going on with my spam filter lately, but I’m noticing that quite a few comments are ending up in the spam folder (and not just yours, Robert).  Because hundreds of spam messages come through daily, I only sift through it every few days, but I’m going to try and get to it at least once a day. 

If you’ve attempted to post a comment and you’re not seeing it, don’t post a second time; instead, please send me an e-mail at jason (at) jasonhare dot com if you are so inclined, and I’ll look into it to see if it got caught in the filter.  I unfortunately don’t know how to stop it from sensing that some of your comments are spam, and I’m sure as hell not going to turn the damn thing off…trust me on this one!

Thanks for your patience.

I love writing about music.  You love reading about music.  We’re a match made in heaven.  But the most fun part of blogging, for me, is in the relationships we create with each other.  Some of those relationships are virtual, some are real-life relationships, and some have morphed into an interesting combination of both.  We spend a lot of time, in these relationships, snarking and discussing music - which is fun as all hell, but at the end of the day, doesn’t change much in the world.

Jeff Giles came up with a brilliant idea.

http://www.bloggersforacure.com

Here’s the deal: we want to help the Malchus family reach - and hopefully exceed - their goal of raising $2500 for the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis in Valencia, CA on June 2, 2007.  If you make a donation, you’ll not only be showing that the blogging community can make a difference, but you’ll also be entered in the running for some fantastic prizes (including a 250GB hard drive full of music from the Jefito Collection, which is music nerd porn if ever there were such a thing).

So what are you waiting for?  Let’s help the Malchus family - and all those who have been affected - beat cystic fibrosis!

http://www.bloggersforacure.com

Bloggers For A Cure is a joint effort, led by Jeff Giles, and comprised of:

T-Sides | Py Korry | The Lovely Mrs. Davis Tells You What to Think | Mulberry Panda 96 | Lost in the ’80s | Jeff Vrabel | I Like Your Crappy Band | Jason Hare | Down With Snark! | You Must Be From Away | Kurt’s Krap | Jefitoblog

Here are a few of my favorite photos from our gig at The Bitter End on Friday.  Full album can be found here.  Thanks to everybody who came!  (And special thanks to Jess, who was on camera duty the entire night.)