Iph you consider yourselph a Phish phan, likely you’ve been phollowing the Phish site and watching this map (pictured) do silly animated things, allegedly dropping hints as to a possible phinalized three-day phestival location phor some time now. You’re also probably one oph the 600+ commenters speculating the phest’s whereabouts over on this site. Just yesterday (or was it Monday?) Washington was re-added to the map as a possible remaining state, and now all oph the suddenly this evening, all states save Caliphornia have been removed phrom the map. Indeed, current speculation has it that Phish will be playing the Coachella Valley and hosting a three-day phestival, October 30 – Nov 1, 2009. Date range includes Halloween, meaning phans will presumably get a phull cover album perphormance, beginning to end, per tradition. Phurther speculation has the phoursome at The Tonight Show on October 28 and the Hollywood Bowl October 29, just prior to the phestival. We should be able to put this whole venue topic to bed soon and phloat the location on out to the internet, and while that may not phully stop the occasional halph-baked Indio query phrom turning up in the inbox, it’ll be a rephreshing start.

This seems a phitting time to tell you about the reviewer copy oph the recently-released Clifford Ball 7-DVD set (Don’t you mean “Clyphphyrd Böll?” -ed) (phuck ophph – ryan) I received not long ago. Phor the unphamiliar, this set documents a legendary, groundbreaking and soon-to-be-copied-all-over-the-nation Phish-only phestival at an abandoned air phorce base (Plattsburgh, upstate New York) in 1996. The band played two sets daily and, rephusing to sleep, also woke the campers out oph their pot slumbers with a quality 3am phlatbed acoustic drive-thru jam session. DVD review: Great to see vintage Phish phootage here. Reminds me oph my college years just looking at them. Quibbles: (1) 7 DVDs oph live Phish is not just a lot oph material to get through; it’s downright phoreboding. (2) Wanted more crowd interaction/crowd phootage phor that true phestival pheel – and less Phish phacial close-up phrames. (3) Why in the hell were you shooting in 4:3 ratio in 1996, again? (4) There is no phour. Brilliant, beautiphul package. At $79, still a great deal phor the live phootage diehard, provided you can deal with 4:3 ratio. You just never really grow tired oph watching Trey’s hands do their thing. The beautiphully-designed box set also came with a slew oph niphty postcards. Are you a true Phish Phan? Send over your best live Phish story and mailing address phor a personalized phishcard phrom yours truly.

» Phish says: Save The Date (official site)
» Phish Halloween Festival 2009: Save The Date! (Jamtopia)