7. My Favorite new DVD/Musician From Chicago/Guy Named Jeff

There's a lot I could say about Jeff Tweedy, and a lot I don't have to. I think the man is incredibly talented and the number one person on my list of people I want to sit down and talk to (yes, he is before Conan O'Brien). I want to know what goes on in his head, how he manages to turn everyday occurrences and habits into lyrics, and how those lyrics become amazing songs. I think he is fascinating, hilarious, and so attractive. He's got the whole package, as far as I can tell.

Last week I picked up his new DVD, Sunken Treasure, which is a collection of songs from last winter's solo tour. Most projects of this nature make little effort to bring the songs together, and simply present them as bits and pieces from each show, but I was surprised to find that Sunken Treasure isn't like that at all. The audio is great (and each track is available for download if you purchase the DVD) and between tracks are little snippets of Jeff conversing with people, making jokes, or explaining his point of view. My favorite thing on the entire disc comes at the end of the Seattle shows, when Jeff explains how church should be more like a concert:

"There's a collective experience happening at a rock concert that I will always assume...would probably be what church should be like, if church was what it should be."

I would like to sit down and have lunch with Jeff. I would order a glass of wine and a tuna sandwich, and stare out the window past his right ear when he answered my questions, because that's what I do when I'm nervous. We could talk about the headaches we get, and he would probably warn me about not getting addicted to painkillers and to stay out of rehab. Maybe he'd order a Diet Coke, with something light like a chicken sandwich or a salad. I would ask if I could live in the Wilco loft, maybe not all the time, just when they were recording, and upon seeing the gleam in my eye at the thought of sleeping in the flight case for Glenn Kotche's bass drum, Jeff would order the check and tell me, "Sorry, I gotta go".