Lucky for Philadelphia, their legislature isn’t stoopid enough to close 54 libraries. For LP
who knows her library card number by heart.

Earlier this month representatives for The Free Library of Philadelphia (which employees 3,000 people) said they would be closing all 54 of their branches due to severe budget constraints. On September 17th, the Philadelphia legislature passed bill 1828. The bill will provide the necessary funds to keep all Free Library locations open as well as retaining all of it’s current employee base.

Next week, the Free Library will celebrate it’s victory at the Parkway Central Free Library location with readings from books that were once banned or considered questionable literature by libraries throughout the years.

Free Library means Free Expression. America Fuck Yeah!

Can you hear me now? I feel GREAT!

According to Concert producer Tom Moffatt, Steven Tyler says he’s “feeling great and everything is back to normal.” This statement comes on the heels of confirmation that Aerosmith will play a make-up gig on October 20th at the Maui War Memorial Stadium. Ticket holders and fans filed a class-action lawsuit filed against Aerosmith after the band canceled a sold-out concert on Maui in 2007. Which should be interesting since Tyler and Joe Perry still aren’t speaking to each other. During an interview with the Boston Geraldo Herald, Perry had this to say about the future of Aerosmith:

Whether it’s him calling me or me calling him, it will happen. Maybe we have three more records in us. Maybe we have five and seven years of touring.

If you’re keeping score at home, that would put Steven Tyler at 69 and Perry himself at age 66 by the time Aerosmith’s Farewell Tour winds it’s way to it’s last stop in Boston in 2017. Sounds reasonable to me. Perry went on to talk about his recent comments to the media about Tyler “needing to clean up his act”. Sez The Perry:

Sometimes certain things come out. I always try to be as honest as I can and that’s it. I stand by everything I said. In the context of a longer interview it probably would have seemed less harsh, but it is still the truth. Relationships go through changes, songwriting partnerships go through changes. When we started using outside songwriters it definitely helped with our success in the ’80s and ’90s. I don’t know, maybe it got too comfortable to rely on that. I don’t think anybody really cares who writes the songs as long as they sound like AEROSMITH songs and, at least to me, there have been times when we drifted away from (sounding like AEROSMITH). I don’t mind using outside songwriters but I’d still like to see the core of the music coming from the guys in the band.

What? Does this mean that members of Aerosmith had nothing to do with the lyrics to the #1 hit “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing”? Anyway, I don’t care who writes songs for Aerosmith or The Joe Perry Project. I just want them to sound like something I want to listen to for more than 30 seconds. Anyway, all this is technically good news for the Aerosmith junkies of the world (of which I am one) as there is hope that the band will be back on the road together and as solo acts in the very near future.

The Joe Perry Project will play two gigs this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. More info on that here.