Environmental Economics

Where is my friggin' pre-order?

From the C-J (Wilco: Wow!):

And yet each of Wilco's studio albums has charted higher than the last, with 2007's "Sky Blue Sky" debuting at No. 4 on Billboard's album charts. Wilco's seventh studio album, "Wilco (the album)," was released today, but overeager fans pirated it weeks ago and it will still almost certainly land in the Top 10.How did this happen? Your guess is as good as anyone's, but every once in a while a band finds critical and commercial success despite the odds. This decade has two, Radiohead being the other. The difference between the bands, however, is that you actually want to listen to Wilco as opposed to feeling that you should listen to Radiohead. So if Wilco is the American Radiohead, we got the better of the deal.

My Top 20 WNCW artists

As submitted to the WNCW website:

To celebrate WNCW’s 20th Anniversary this year, we’re compiling our listeners’ list of 100 favorite WNCW artists. We want to know who you’ve enjoyed hearing the most on WNCW these past 20 years.

Here is my list:

1. Tweedy, Jeff (Wilco, Uncle Tupelo)
2. Miller, Scott (+ The V-Roys)
3. Steve Earle
4. Old '97's (+ Rhett Miller)
5. Farrar, Jay (+Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo)
6. Griffin, Patty
7. Drive-By Truckers
8. Donna the Buffalo
9. Merritt, Tift
10. Lynne, Shelby
11. My Morning Jacket
12. Miller, Buddy & Julie
13. Chambers, Kasey
14. Case, Neko
15. Gourds
16. Acoustic Syndicate
17. Blue Mountain
18. Adams, Ryan (+Whiskeytown)
19. Cash, Roseanne
20. The Jayhawks

Steve Earle and MATLAB: Who knew?

I'm listening to Steve Earle on NPR's Here and Now, running NLOGIT and they're advertising MATLAB [is that the same one? if so ... !]. Do I need a reminder that I'm old and out of date? Does MatLab target old guy music shows for that reminder? Or are hot shot econ PhDs listening to Here and Now every day while programming latent class logits?

After this post, I'm heading to Amazon to put Townes in my cart.

This should get me a pair of free tix to Bonnaroo

From the inbox:

The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is proud to announce exciting new environmental initiatives for its 2009 event, set to take place June 11-14 on a beautiful farm in Manchester, Tennessee. This year's programs further Bonnaroo's longstanding sustainability tradition, which won the festival outstanding marks from UK organization A Greener Festival, a rare distinction among music events worldwide. With new onsite utility sources, free water initiatives and an emphasis on buying local, Bonnaroo continues to provide a first-rate entertainment experience while fostering a community that cares for our planet. So far, 40 percent of patrons have participated in Bonnaroo's "green ticket" program, adding a donation to their ticket orders to support the festival's large-scale environmental efforts. ...

For a complete list of Bonnaroo greening initiatives, visit:
http://bonnaroo.com/festival/greening-facts.aspx

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

(Old deeds ...):

A state transportation official says the discovery of two old deeds will help North Carolina save $300 million when it replaces the bridge across Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks.

The discovery of the deeds will allow the state Department of Transportation to save the money while replacing the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge by not requiring a certain route. The existing 2½-mile-long bridge was built in 1963.

The deeds were found in the archives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported Monday. The documents from 1953 and 1958 give the state right of way at any time through a wildlife refuge on Hatteras Island at the southern end of the bridge.

Unsaid in the article are the costs of buidling the bridge through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. The website says that there are 2.7 million visitors annually. If each visitor had a willingness-to-pay of $12 to keep the bridge out of the refuge then the present value of the costs of the "old deeds" outweigh the benefits (T = 30, r = .10).

A Friday Beer Post

From today's gmail inbox:

Hello from newburycomics.com,  We thought you'd like to know that we have shipped the items listed below.  Thanks for shopping with us, and we hope to see you again soon.

Order Information:

Shipment from: Newbury Comics
Will ship via: Standard U.S. Domestic Mail
UPC            Title                              Format    #     Price     Total
103-1223220N   Autographed CD Booklet                       1      0.00      0.00
01589140462    Sarah Borges & The Broken Single...          1     15.99     15.99

I suggest that you listen to Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles while drinking a beer.

Anondyne

I've seen the word used three times ...

1. Anodyne, Uncle Tupelo (actually the first half Wilco/half Son volt album)
2. Page five hundred something in Chernow's Hamilton
3. In the Environmental Economics comments section

Craig Landry's Best of 2008

1.      Takka Takka – Lion in the Waves
2.      Wolf Parade – Soldier’s Grin
3.      Bound Stems – It Happens to Us All Otherwise
4.      Gnarls Barkley – Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)
5.      of Montreal – For Our Elegant Caste
6.      Deerhunter – Nothing Ever Happened
7.      Menomena – the Pelican
8.      Ra Ra Riot – Ghost under Rocks
9.      Thao with Get Down, Stay Down – Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)
10.     Destroyer – Libby’s First Sunrise
11.     Friendly Fires – Jump in the Pool
12.     Man Man – Hurly/Burly
13.     Silver Jews – Suffering Jukebox
14.     The Accidental – Illuminated Red
15.     Okkervil River – Pop Lie
16.     Evangelicals – Midnight Vignette
17.     Blitzen Trapper – Sleepytime in the Western World
18.     the Breeders – Istanbul
19.     Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
20.     Deerhoof – Fresh Born

Source: Craig Landry.

What I'm listening to right freakin' now

J Shogren: American Holly:

Hard acoustic roots music from a life lived in loud proportions. American Holly is the second release from Wyoming’s favorite applied philosopher J Shogren, who made a splash overseas since his ’07 debut. Shogren is getting press across a wide field: "Blending more styles than we can list here Shogren ... He’s traveled the world and the stories are plentiful in these grooves. At the end of the day though it’s Americana at its best."- Village Records.

And its not because I, ahem, have a paper under review at Resource and Energy Economics!

Another best albums of 2008 list

Many of these on Twangville's list were on my list:

This is our second year aggregate of our year-end best album lists representing another great year in music. This year we’ve broadened the list to include our Reader’s Picks and Bobby K’s annual picks. Scoring was based on 10 points for a #1 pick working its way down to 1 point for a #10 pick. Non-ranked picks defaulted to 5 points. Being that the number of lists we pull from is still small there quite a few ties including our first tie at the #1 spot. The first number in parenthesis represents the cumulative score and the second number is the number of editors who selected the album. Enough about the scoring, here are the results:

• #1 DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark (New West) (28/4)
• #1 THE HOLD STEADY, Stay Positive (Vagrant) (28/3)
• #3 RECKLESS KELLY, Bulletproof (Yep Roc) (26/4)
• #4 HAYES CARLL, Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway) (20/4)
• #5 OLD 97S, Blame It On Gravity (New West) (19/3)
• #6 KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON, Rattlin’ Bones (Sugar Hill) (13/3)
• #6 ELI “PAPERBOY” REED, Roll With You (Q Dvision) (13/2)
• #6 AUSTIN COLLINS, Roses Are Black (Fat Caddy) (13/2)
• #9 ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO, Real Animal (Back Porch) (11/3)
• #9 LUCINDA WILLIAMS, Little Honey (Lost Highway) (11/2)

See full lists from Tom, Mayer, Chip and Kelly. Todd’s list was included but remains unpublished at this time.

Note to Will: I'm on my first Kathleen Edwards listen. Thanks for the tip.