Lead singer, Karen O.

To Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans from around the world, I offer a welcome and an apology.

As site regulars know, this has been a pretty slow summer at LTD, which is fine, because the summer is no time for blogging.   I’d check in occasionally and be surprised by the number of hits we were getting without new posts.   Now that I’m back in the game, I’ve scoured the site statistics, and turns out we’re getting visitors from around the globe. One major reason is my post about a book of maps, which I shrugged off as a testament to the internet’s hunger for a fascinating intersection of etymology and geography.  Then I realized that it was all in the post’s title: “Maps, they don’t love you like I love you.”  

The title, of course, was a riff on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ tune, “Maps.”  The main chorus line in the song is “wait, they don’t love you like I love you.”  This is Internet 101 to bloggers who know what they’re doing, but apparently certain post titles play better with Google and drive people to your site.    Noted.   That’s why I welcome our Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans out there.   My apology is that I have nothing about the song to offer you- no lyrics, no song history or meaning.

The best I can do is tell you about the time I suffered through a Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert in 2009.  It was no fault of their own.  2009 might have been the deepest Bonnaroo talent pool in its history, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were playing a scorching hot afternoon set sandwiched between Animal Collective and TV on the Radio.   During Animal Collective I  struck up some conversation with the LSU crew in front of us.  I had crashed LSU’s homecoming party only a few years earlier.  The Tigers throw 12-hour tailgates and never slow down.  When one of the fellows offered me a toke I took it.  Unfortunately, everything soon turned red, and I was overcome by the dizzies.  The strange sensations and colors, plus the weirdness of Animal Collective, compounded by the darned Tennessee heat drove me to the brink.   Cristina got me out of there and dumped ice water on my dome.   So my condition was weakened when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came on.   I do recall a killer version of “Zero”, which this video does no justice to.   Of all the things Bill Simmons has been wrong about, none is more seared in my mind than his claim that YouTube was going to eliminate smugness of people claiming to have been at certain concerts.   Yeah, you can watch a youtube of pretty much any show of the last ten years, but is it the same as having been there?  Of course not.

The internet was buzzing with a new indie go-go campaign to build a “Goddamn Tesla Museum.”  Turns out the land that housed Tesla’s old laboratory is up for sale, and some evil developer wants to turn it into a retail store.  But not if those who still remember Nikola Tesla have anything to say about it!

Tesla’s fan are legion, and the project’s goal of raising $850,000 is well within reach, with weeks to go.  Tesla was a pretty awesome inventor, for all the reasons listed here.    Actually, today’s events turned me on The Oatmeal for the first time.  It’s a hell of a website– if you’re bored at work this is a minimum ten minute time-suck.  But beyond just Tesla being a cool dude, I support this project because we need to bring create as many touristic destinations in New York State as possible.  This could be a boon for Shoreham, Long Island, just as Jameston, New York is trying to build a stable comedy attraction in Lucille Ball’s hometown.  Whether its Cooperstown, casinos, vineyards, or festivals, New York City’s fellow Empire Staters are in a perfect spot to market cool ideas to draw out city-folk and the millions that pass through the City looking for a touristic fix each year.

Have you not seen this incredible mash-up of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” as performed by hundreds of movies and TV clips?  Then you haven’t really enjoyed 2012.

So that was the first week of Daily Nos.  I hope you enjoyed.  We’ll be back Monday.  You can spend the weekend thinking about your Peoples’ Choice Tournament nominations.  We’ve got nine noms in so far, including selections from Rakin, Passion Pit and Steve Earle.  Eclectic, promising times ahead.