[1/27/98] - According to Dik (sharwood@4mc.com), tickets for the March shows go on sale this Saturday. Those of you who have found Ticketmaster to be as reliable as usual, take solace in the fact that they typically don't know about shows until they happen. Keep checking the Tour section for info. Apologies for the MP3's still being slow, Jeff (who owns the machine hosting the archive) says that the problem should be resolved any minute now. And it seems that the laser shows will come to an end soon, as mentioned below. So if you wanted to see them, hurry.

[1/26/98] - Some folks have mailed in saying that they have seen flyers posted or handed out for two shows in L.A., on March 26 and 27. It is unclear if any other shows will surface, but these two look locked in. And if you were wondering about Laser Tool, Travis Gillison (saila@webtv.net) has found out something you may not like. According to the folks at http://www.laserfantasy.com, the show may not continue to run for long, because the band / management (as we know) is quite cautious about how they are presented, understandably.

[1/23/98] - About those shows this spring: keep watch for info about a few late March shows in the Los Angeles area. More live Tool at last. A warning, by the way: dates you see listed on other web sites for Tool shows in Europe this spring are from LAST YEAR. Be warned. Joel Mahaffey, the man behind the Biography page, just popped on a big chunk of info about Adam, ramble on over and check it out. And, of course, the MP3's are still in slowland. Apparently it's just a matter of waiting for some hardware to arrive. I'm waiting too.

[1/17/98] - Last fall, news broke that Laser Tool shows would start showing up this winter, and sure enough, a few cities have begun scheduling them. As always, check local listsings; don't ask me. Word on the street is that a few shows may happen this spring, so keep your eyes open for info about west coast tour dates. The MP3 archive at sucked.down.net will be switching to a more reliable, faster connection early next week, so this dang slow-download problem should go away then. Happy two-day-late birthday to Adam Jones, and a happy six-day-late birthday to me. Older and older.

[1/9/98] - A series of new images has shown up around this site, hopefully making it look a little smoother and shinier and new-for-'98. So you may notice a lot of visual changes around the site as of now. Yes, sucked.down.net (the MP3 archive) is slow as hell, we're working on it. Thanks for not shooting us. Remember the Opinion section? I just did; because it got too busy even for several people to keep up with it, it looks like instead of "approving" posts and trashing "bad" ones, all posts over a month or two old will be removed from now on. So if you see one you like, save it; like many discussion forums, this is no longer going to be a permanent vault. New opinions will not be accepted until this changeover is completed in the coming weeks.

[1/6/98] - Jason Senger (chachi@mail.bc.rogers.wave.ca) was the first of many to share today's big news. Tool has been nominated for two Grammy's this year: "Ænema" for Best Metal Performance, and "Stinkfist" for Best Music Video, Short Form. Lusk, by the way, was nominated for Best Recording Package, the award Tool was up for last year. Check out all the Grammy fun at http://www.grammy.org/nominees/ ... let's hope things go smoothly for the band. Of course, things around here never go as smoothly as you would hope. Although it works, the MP3 archive could be faster. We're looking into a sneaky way of fixing that. Some folks have said that the server isn't recognizing those files as audio files; it is working for a bunch of people, so make sure your browser is configured to know how to deal with audio/mpeg files. All of you who have asked about the Official Newsletter, check out the Mailing List section for more info. A copy of the most recent newsletter should be up any minute now, under Mailing List. And lastly, the Marketplace has gotten a new look and is now living at a new address courtesy of the new owner, Mike Whitebread (fretdance@earthlink.net). Go look.

[1/5/98] - All of you who have ever wanted a bigger Audio section, or access to bootleg audio without having to support someone who is profiting off the band, or a second domain name hosting the Tool Page, or if you've just wanted t.d.n to more than double in size, rejoice. Thanks heavily to Joel Mahaffey (toolophile@psu.edu) and Jeff Natland (jeff@arizonabay.com), I've finally caught up to an overdue promise: over 100 MB of bootleg MP3 files have just shown up in the Audio section. These files, living over on sucked.down.net, are a collection of several bootleg recordings which you shouldn't have to pay for, since Tool makes no money off of them. Tool does plan to make some "official" live audio available, which will undoubtedly be of better quality than most bootlegs out now. But the ones up are bootlegs, so until they do put some live sound out, this is the best available. MP3 streaming is not active yet, but it should hopefully work soon. Lastly, because I'm sure this MP3 thing won't work perfectly, Feedback has been reactivated after three months. So go listen, and go comment.

[1/3/98] - Eleven new articles have been made available, after waiting for a few months. A copy of the new Tool Newsletter (snail mail) will be posted soon; let's give it a chance to actually reach you at home first, though.

[1/2/98] - Happy New Year! "Ænima" took honors in Top Album of the Year countdowns in many cities, getting more of the attention it deserves. Thanks to a large amount of people for that info, including the info that it was #1 on WAAF 107.3 in Boston. Tool videos and singles undoubtedly were on many such countdowns as well. Who knows what this year will bring? Also, people have started receiving the newest issue of the Official Tool Newsletter. Pygmoid (pygmoid@aol.com) writes in saying that the newsletter says that a new album has not yet been discussed, though many people got email from the Larrikin site saying that writing would start now-ish. Ah well. It had sounded too good to be true ... I'm still not holding my breath. And, in keeping with t.d.n tradition, Happy One-Day-Late-Birthday to conspirator and Canadian Shane Brouse. Mail him and tell him he's old. He likes that.

---

"Your pal" Kabir Akhtar (kabir@down.net)

---