I don’t exactly recall how I first heard about The Old 97’s. It may have come from their music appearing on the soundtrack to Scrubs. Someone I know may have talked about them. I’m not really sure. All I know is that, before this year, I had a handful of their songs and enjoyed them when they showed up in shuffle play.

Then I used a gift card I got for Christmas to buy Blame it on Gravity, their new album. And they scheduled a concert in Baltimore. And a friend posted on Twitter about that show. He wanted to see if anyone wanted to go, and I jumped on that offer immediately. What a great decision.

I thoroughly enjoyed “An Evening with the Old 97’s” at the Recher Theatre last weekend. The unique set up had bass player Murry Hammond and guitarist Rhett Miller each play a solo set before the full band took the stage. Miller made sense because he recently released a solo album and has had some great solo work previously. Hammond, on the other hand, confounded the crowd with a mix of Old 97’s songs, old-time country pieces and gospel dirges, for lack of a better word. It wasn’t bad, just different.

Then Rhett hit the stage. The change was like going from the air conditioning into the summer heat. He rocked and thrashed and basically made you wonder how one man with an acoustic guitar created such a layered sound. Besides the frenzied songs, Rhett kept the audience on its toes with some pretty good stage conversation.

After he closed with “Our Love,” there was a little break before the whole band took the stage. That’s when the real treat started. I knew about Miller’s smooth voice and clever wordplay, but nothing prepared me for the way the foursome brings a song together. Guitarist Ken Bethea blew me away time and time again.

I wish I had a set list, but I didn’t pay that much attention, plus I didn’t know a lot of the songs individually that night. That has changed since I bought both Rhett’s solo album and the band’s greatest hits the next day. I do know they covered a lot of the new album, plus threw in favorites of mine like “King of All the World,” “Murder (or a Heart Attack),” and “Barrier Reef.”

The Old 97’s really know how to put on a live show. Miller’s light blue shirt was drenched with sweat and turned almost black by the end of the night. Hammond - who is Ed Helms’ doppleganger - rocked on the bass like few can. Bethea often hid in the corners of the stage, but stood out with the licks that make the songs so distinctive. Drummer Phillip Peeples held it all together.

I have a tendency to get a little obsessed when I experience something as fun as this, so I think it’s fair to say I’ll go see the band next time I get the chance.

Every day on my commute, I drive past a farm in northern Maryland. You can’t miss it. It’s the one with all the buffalo.

Twin Springs Bison Farm not only serves as the home to the big animals - which really aren’t buffalos, but I like to call them that - but it also has a shop selling bison meat. I drove by it I don’t know how many times without ever taking a chance and buying something. Until about a month ago.

I actually visited the shop on a Saturday because I wanted time to browse and didn’t want to delay my arrival home. I had the day to myself that day so could really check things out and cook whatever I wanted. Since I like to limit my red meat intake due to health concerns, I eagerly awaited a big pile of meat with a lower fat content.

I ended up buying a packet of bison burgers and a couple of steaks. I intended to grill them all that day, but plans changed (and beers were opened). I cooked the burgers, but saved the steaks. Finally, I threw them on the grill last night.

After eating all four burgers (over time) and one steak, I give bison two thumbs up. You could tell no difference in the burgers from any other burger. I might chose a different cut of steak next time - I had a bone-in variety - but really enjoyed it. I don’t grill steak much, and this particular meat takes more attention from what I have read so hopefully I will get it perfect as time goes on. I thought the meat cookes a little unevenly, but that could be my grill and not the meat.

Either way, I think I will have to make another visit to the bison farm.

I have always loved the ability to buy things on the Internet. With just a few clicks, you can have some new music on your computer or get yourself some new clothes or even pick out a new book to read.

Recently, I discovered another cool thing I could order online – contact lenses. But the simple process of allowing myself to see the world clearly has brought one big question to my mind.

What is with the militant oversight of vision prescriptions?

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Because the one big piece of fiction I have written (attention agents - you can read it if you want!) revolves around the impact of music on the lives of people in their 20s, I could not resist picking up Sarah Rainone’s novel “Love Will Tear Us Apart” when I saw it on the library shelf.

I have no real affinity for the Joy Division song which lends its name to the Rainone’s debut. I never really got into the band. That presents my only real stumbling block with the book. Each chapter wraps around a song, but I grew up about 5-10 years too soon for most of the songs to have much relevance in my life. The title track comes from my era, but I just didn’t like Joy Division. I preferred not to think about suicide. Other songs came when I could care less about new music so I don’t have the same connection as the characters do.

But that’s a minor quibble because the notion of a song tying together your current situation with a memory which helps define your current situation goes beyond whether you like the song or not. In fact, as I look at the upcoming songs on iTunes, I see “So. Central Rain,” which reminds me of that one time Paul Ewing used the lyrics of the final verse to write a farewell column for the student newspaper at college because he just couldn’t deal with some issue or another. I remember reading the column and wishing I could pull it off the way he did. I still think that sometimes when I struggle with words. I could go on, but the fact remains that songs have a powerful force, and any book which tries to harness that will suck me in.

“Love Will Tear Us Apart” deftly follows a group of friends on the day two of them marry one another. Well, they were once friends, but now have drifted apart, only to come back together at the wedding in less than ideal circumstances. That’s where the songs come in - to remind them of how far they have come and inform them of what they have left to do.

One instance of their youth seems to tie them together, but I didn’t get it at first. As the book went on, that kind of annoyed me because I had kind of figured it out, but Rainone’s storytelling was dancing around the fringes. I felt like yelling, “come on, already - I know what happened pretty much. Just tell me.”

But as the details became more clear, I really appreciated the understated way in which this piece of information came out. Sometimes authors can just hit you over the head with the connection so I just needed time to sit back and reflect on how things affected these six people. I liked how it was something they shared, but it didn’t define them. We all remember things, but don’t dwell on all of them. Rainone seemed to keep that in mind.

Other than that fact that I found one of the main characters a boorish d-bag and another reminded me of how much I hated girls in college who wore flowing skirts and listened to the Dead and Edie Brickell, I really enjoyed the book. But that’s another generational thing.

The band put out their second reissue this week as a new treatment of “Reckoning” hit the stores on Tuesday. The new disc also includes a concert from the ensuing tour. Strangely, I have not gone out and bought the CD yet.

I will. It’s only a matter of time, you know. There’s no real reason for my hesitance. I just didn’t feel like it. I love Reckoning, but have heard it a million times. Nothing gets me going like an REM show from pre-1985, but I have heard much of this one and already. I might grab it this weekend sometime.

The band has taken the occasion of this release to get the word out about the CD they have planned for this fall. Live from the Olympia will compile some of the songs from the five nights of “working rehearsals” the band played in Dublin in 2007 while in the midst of recording “Accelerate.”

Fans can get a peak at the CD on July 7 when “Reckoning Songs from the Olympia” is released digitally. This four-song sampler will include songs from the band’s second album which were played during the Dublin shows. No idea if they also appear on the two-CD set to be released later this year or if these are bonus tracks. Either way, I have always thought that “Reckoning” provided many of their best live songs since the songs basically came about on the road so I’ll get this one.

I found Jonathan Tropper by accident. While scanning the shelves at a local bookstore for something to read, the cover for The Book of Joe caught my eye. I had never heard of the author, but found the summary interesting enough. Plus, I’m a sucker for guys writing about guys who need to grow up a little bit. I enjoyed the book, but not as much as I had hoped.

After polishing off How to Talk to a Widower in just under two days last week, I’m very grateful for picking up that first book and giving his other work a try. First, I tried his debut novel Plan B, now this. I am hooked. I have one more from his back catalog to read, and he has a new book coming out in August.

In Widower, his most recent published work, Doug Parker finds himself suddenly widowed. His wife is 11 years older than him and leaves a complicated life behind for the young writer - a teenage son and an ex-husband. Parker doesn’t handle grief well to begin with. The attachments of his marriage make it even tougher to cope.

The sory takes place around a year after the plain crash that claims Parker’s wife and features situations only Tropper can get his characters into. I don’t know why he needs to have his main characters get into brawls, but it has started to crack me up.

Doug tries to manage his grief, a rebelious stepson, an agent looking to capitalize on the tragedy, and a family too bizarre to even describe. Doug has a way of making everyone around him not like him a little bit, while still wanting to help him back on his feet. Well, almost everyone.

Tropper does a great job at taking us through Doug’s journey while avoiding too sacharrine of an ending. As I said to a friend, I want to write like Jonathan Tropper when I grow up.

The good news just keeps flowing the way I see it.

Delaware has started on the road to table games with the first ones expected by January. Sports betting is pretty much a done deal. I scoped out some good football weekends and actually made a reservation (it’s easy to cancel) for the hotel at Dover Downs for the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Eagles-Redskins play at 1 and the Ravens play the Steelers at 8:30 on the Sunday night game. That would be fun to experience in a sports book so I might just give it a shot. The only bad thing is that poker won’t be up and running yet, but I can save that for March Madness.

Anyway, while I salivate over the possibility of expanded gambling in the First State, Pennsylvania steps up as expected. A bill for table games hit the House floor yesterday. A Senate version is expected soon as well. Everyone knew this was going to happen. I just hope it doesn’t get held up for too long, which you know it will.

Gov. Rendell is not down with making the move so soon, which will probably slow things down. Estimates for setting up the whole operation range from six to nine months, meaning the earliest you could probably play poker or blackjack in PA would be the summer of 2010. I would even think 2011 is a better bet. The gaming committee in the state house meets in a week so we will hopefully have some idea then where the plan will go.

Besides, Rendell favors the addition of video poker machines to ever bar and social club in the state over table games. They had at least one hearing on that, but no movement yet. Personally, I think the way to go is to put slots and video poker in the OTB facilities already taking racing bets, put video poker in private clubs and approve table games for the existing slot facilities.

But what do I know? I’m just a guy who wants to gamble on occasion.

I have a decent background with Ireland. I traveled there once, did my senior thesis for college on Irish literature and have read several different books on the island’s history. Still, I almost didn’t read Morgan Llyewen’s historical novel 1949.

Part of this was because I bought the book at a discount store a few months ago. I purchased another book which turned out to be quite possibly the worst published piece of fiction I have ever encountered. I don’t think I even made it halfway through before giving up.

So 1949 sat there, teasing me. Did it have discount bin quality like the other book or would I be reminded of why I have such a fascination for the Irish struggle. In the end, I gave in and discovered that the answer lay somewhere between those two extremes.

Not only did I get through the book, but I enjoyed it. The story takes place from the early 1920s through the creation of the Republic of Ireland in 1949. We follow Ursula Halloran as she displays the stereotypical Irish stubborness through the changes that sweep Europe during this time.

I did feel like the author merely invented Ursula and her family to frame a history lesson. Not being familiar with any of Llewelyn’s work, this may be her usual style. Even though it was a little bit trite, I learned a lot about what happened in Europe in the time between the two world wars and how Ireland found itself in such a unique place.

In the end, the book turned out to provide a fascinating read, although I think she occasionally skipped ahead a little too far at some points. Hitler seemed to be in power for only a few pages, it seemed. But the undeniable Irishness of the story and characters allowed me to overlook those things. Not bad for just $4.

I could not believe my eyes. As I sat with my daughter to eat lunch at the Maryland Zoo 10 days ago, I thought I saw someone I knew.

Since I grew up and now work in Baltimore, this should not come as a surprise, but I still had trouble wrapping my mind around it.

That had nothing to do with who I saw. I did enjoy catching up with a former co-worker. It’s just that this thing seems to happen to me all the time.

I don’t want to sound like I have a million friends or anything like that, but I seem to run into people I know in the strangest of places.

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I have procrastinated posting this, but the boys of R.E.M. - well two of them at least - have started the process that will hopefully lead to the follow-up to Accelerate. Peter Buck and Mike Mills got together in Portland last month with Bill Rieflin and Scott McCaughey, who are basically non-voting members of the band now to demo some material.

I had read somewhere that the band will not release an album this year, which bummed me out, but this news kind of bouyed me. If they can at least get started now, I think the prospects for an album in 2010 are good.

Pitchfork had a cool interview with Buck, which shed some light on how the band works, particularly about the process this time around. What I liked was seeing again was the notion that they don’t lock themselves into some routine.

Well, we’ve done it different ways. But we always like to play together and come up with stuff. In the Athens days, we would just go in every day and play when we all lived there, and Michael would come in once a week or maybe he’d skip a week or whatever. So it’s kind of the way we used to work back in the 80s. As we’re doing the demos or whatever they are, we’re always thinking, “Gosh, will Michael like this? Is this something he feels like singing? Is this going to inspire him? Does it sound too much like something we’ve done in the past?”

I loved the return to fast, fun rock on the last album, and Buck says he hopes to have a more “broad” album when R.E.M. releases its next album. That notion excites me because I think the fact that Buck kind of led the way for Accelerate over the over-produced sounds that Mills and Michael Stip engineered over the prior few albums. If Peter wants a broad album that showcases the range of the band, let it happen.