Ah, summertime--when you can go see bands without having to wait on long, depressing lines in the freezing cold for hours, among people who honestly believe they are cooler than you because they have better shoes.

As die-hard ARSFIPT readers know, I've been waiting for quite a while to see harp-sprite Joanna Newsom again. I check dragcity.com daily, to see that she's only playing in Iceland. That's not sarcasm. Since Neil Hamburger's also on Drag City Records, I at least get the pleasure of going to his hilarious site. So I get to have a laugh after finding out that Joanna is still not coming around.

Then I got one of those ticketmaster e-mails, the ones that say "Don't miss..." and are followed by "Rob Thomas," or "Third Eye Blind" or something. My eyes popped out when this one said "Don't miss Joanna Newsom."

Turns out she's playing a show in Brooklyn, at an old park with a pool that's been renovated. (The audience will be in the pool. I assume with no water.) That's on August 24th. Seems to be a one-off show, so I'm glad it's in my city. I found out about this last week, already have tickets, and stupid Drag City has still made no mention of it. Thank you, ticketmaster. (First time I've ever said that.) I'll be dragging Chan to that show, per our "deal"--you come see my blonde, short, weird, female songwriter with me if I go see yours with you. (I'm talking about Nellie Mackay, who I ended up seeing more than once with the Chan-meister.)

While researching this crazy swimming pool venue, I noticed that Sonic Youth is playing there, on August 11th and 12th. Got tix for that, too.

Central Park Summerstage isn't nearly as promising as last year's, but they could still add some stuff. Plus a lot of those shows are free, which automatically makes them more desirable.

Then you've got the yearly Hot Stove concert at Fenway, which I'll be attending once again. Terribly, it's on a Wednesday (July 12th), but I'm taking the day off to chill in the right field grandstand at Fenway, get this, facing the action. The stage will be in right field, facing the corner. Same old same old as far as bands. No Bernie Williams on the bill this year, though...

I saw this headline this morning: “Sting Helps Nab Terror Suspects.” Does this mean he's back with The Police? Oh!