During the band’s encore, “Hang You From the Heavens,” singer Alison Mosshart (also of the Kills) — a wraith-thin tangle of bird’s-nest black hair, cigarette smoke, leather, and lipstick — spat the sacrilegiously nasty come-on: “I wanna grab you by the hair, and drag you to the devil,” as the trio in black behind her sounded like a late-’60s/early-’70s gang of white afro’d skeeves (plus a ringer Latin percussionist) in bell-bottoms, tiny tight t-shirts, mustaches, and unlicensed handguns, working out a four-minute version of rock, blues, funk, and soul, that would later be issued on a limited-edition compilation by DJ Shadow (and called something like “Mr. Chicken Shit”).

I’ve seen this gang three times now, and this is the tightest I’ve heard them play. Jack White was the most animated I’ve seen him in a long time. He’s always out there on the edge, but last night was his “Detroit Badass” character night. Dropping Mother Fuckin’ this and that. It was like seeing a nun drinking Redbull Vodka’s for the first time.

Anyway, I tried in vain to snap off some photos from my phone, and here’s what I was able to salvage:

Why? Because it doesn’t fit with Twitter’s core values. Twitter is at its best when they push people to interact with each other. Millions of microposts a day push ideas around the internet. Users reach news organizations. They organize #WorldCup meetups, donate to haitian relief and, basically, SHARE their excitement about something.

Now twitter wants to use that excitement to fuel their financial ends. And I’m all for that! Old Spice just pulled that feat off in a spectacular way. People were ecstatic to be part of a two way marketing dialogue.  To a lesser extent, I think people were excited over @Earlybird’s first offering too: When twitter users bought a ticket to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, they got a second one free. Take a date! Organize with your friends, get out and DO something. I like that.

Even if the movie was lame, the idea was good. It was active. And the barrier to entry was low, so people could actually take a chance on it.

But 9% off a $400 TV? Excuse me for not jumping out of my seat. Where’s the community spirit here? Did I somehow land on Overstock.com? Twitter has a brief moment to prove that @earlybird is a cool new aspect of the twitter community, or else they are going to end up as the first official Twitter spam bot, with a quick #UnfollowFriday doom to follow.

So be sure to tune in and catch all the adventures along the way!

People went kind of cross eyed when I said I had bought it. But then I set it up in the garage of the house I shared with a few guys and GOD DAMN, if we didn’t get our money’s worth. It was undeniably loud and obnoxious to some of the housemates and neighbors, but I can’t tell you how many hours were spent playing out in that garage. It didn’t matter that I approached it having NO IDEA how to play the drums. It was just fun. In the end, it even received it’s rightful rock star demise as we left the house, which was strangely satisfying.

I fully support impulse spending if it gives you the chance to explore something new that you normally wouldn’t think to try. So when you see a $99 dollar drum set, rest assured it will be a piece of crap, but you know what? Go for it.

Basically, Russian cops stole a few firms, embezzled $230 million in state funds, then accused and imprisoned the tax lawyer who testified against them. He recently died in prison, and his story can be found here.

I would talk more about it, but I need to procure immediate travel to China. Brazen narcissism? Maybe, but I don’t care. It has a roof bar, for christ sakes!

Cosmic conspiracy? Probably more like ethnic profiling, but god damn does it work.

[nggallery id=4]