This seems like the appropriate video with which to end this particular week (on a Friday the 13th at that!).  In hindsight, the week had a sort of perfect symmetry - first, a slow build up Monday and Tuesday to the mid-week climax of Wednesday's six-hour deposition, and then a gradual coming down on Thursday and Friday.  

"Subpoenaed in Texas, sequestered in Memphis," the Muppets sing, to which I can add, "And deposed in Georgia."  Here's a live version of the song by The Hold Steady themselves in case watching the Muppets perform in Craig Finn's place takes some of the gravitas away for you.

However, as Mumon points out, a deposition really isn't all that unpleasant an experience (especially when you're neither the defendant nor the plaintiff), and in hindsight there is a sort of chess-like fascination to the process.  The give-and-take of the questions and answers are like sparring with an agile opponent, and in the end it's not so painful as just plain exhausting.  On your toes, always thinking two or three questions ahead, making sure you're completely honest at all times . . . I slept like a baby that night.  Trial comes up in June (when things should get really interesting).

Speaking of The Hold Steady, which we sort of were in a way, their Craig Finn is coming to The Earl, but on a Monday night, my Achilles' heel for concerts, joining the illustrious list of artists playing our fine town on the one night that I'm otherwise committed (Grimes at The Drunken Unicorn on Monday, March 5; The Ting Tings at Variety Playhouse on Monday, April 16; M83 at The Buckhead Theater on Monday May 14; and so on).  But as readers of this blog know, I don't exactly hurt for lack of hearing live music.

Grimes:

I will get to see and hear our old friends and Top 10 contenders The Head and The Heart, who are passing through the South again this spring.  While their tour doesn't include Atlanta, they are playing at Athens' infamous 40-Watt Club on March 23, a non-Monday night (a Friday to be specific).  I bought tickets last night.  I almost bought tickets at the same time to see Blind Pilot there too, until I realized, at the very last minute, right before I hit the "Buy" button, that I already had tickets that night (Wednesday, February 29) to see Shearwater at The Earl.

Shearwater at The Earl, 2010:

It's also just been announced that moody Seattle singer and Pickwick fan Damien Jurado, who opened for Shearwater the last time I saw them at The Earl, is coming back on Wednesday, May 23.  In addition to opening for Shearwater, I stayed up way past my bedtime to see him perform in Portland during MFNW 2011.  So, yes, I plan on seeing him at The Earl again.

Meanwhile, Welch agitators, MFNW participants, and Music Midtown stand-outs The Joy Formidable are continuing their apparently endless tour and are coming back through Atlanta the next day (March 24), but at the godforsaken  Masquerade.  I've already seen the band twice since September, and my rules for going back to that venue again are: 1) the band has to be totally worth it, and 2) they have to be playing in the upstairs, Heaven, room, where the acoustics and atmosphere are at least a little bit better than the downstairs rooms.

For example, Givers, an excellent live act who I'd gladly see any time, are playing at the godforsaken Masquerade tomorrow night, but in the downstairs, Hell, room, where I saw Yellow Ostrich and The Antlers get drowned out by the noise from upstairs.  Unfortunately, for me, The Joy Formidable gig meets both criteria as they'll be playing upstairs, and to top it off, A Place To Bury Strangers and Exitmusic are opening, so I practically have to go, as much as I hate to patronize the g.f. M.

So that's a lot.  I'll wrap all this up by pointing out that you can - and I recommend that you do - download a live set by Montreal's Suuns that's just been posted over at  NYC Taper.  

One more thing before I go watch tonight's episode of Portlandia.  Here's last Friday's Arcade Fire video reposted in a different format to see if I can slide the puck past the GEMA goalie for Wolfgang.