Tickets -- including a pre-party -- are $150, but it's for a great cause and a very exclusive, intimate affair. There won't be a bad seat in the house. More information can be found here.

Imagine how close you'll be while being the first to hear stories like, "This next song, 'Baby Hold On,' is a tune that we wrote when we saw Britney Spears driving a car with her son, Sean Preston Federline, in her lap ..." (Hey, how do you know it ain't true?)

• During the show, Canadians are less likely to eat nachos, but more likely to eat poutine.

• The American crowd consists of a mixture of people who love the Chicks' music (but may not care for their politics) and people who love both the Chicks' music and politics. In contrast, the entire Canadian audience seems equally supportive of the Chicks' music and the Chicks' political views. Any references to "The Incident" or President Bush certainly elicit louder responses from Canucks.
  

• Americans are more likely to stand, dance, and clap along to DCX songs than the Canucks.

• However, only in the states can I find a fan who obliviously demonstrates his or her inability to clap on beat. (To those fellow countrymen/women: before going to the show, please find someone with rhythm and learn how to clap your hands on the 2 and 4, not the 1 and 3. Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine.)

• Compared to the Great White North, the crowds in the US are more racially diverse.

• Finally, the loudest and most fanatic fans tend to be American.
  



• Perhaps not coincidentally, the drunkest fans also tend to be American.

After quenching our thirst, Gareth then tells me the amazing story of his engagement. After he met Martie at his brother's wedding to Kim (Natalie's sister), he repeatedly flew to court her. After quickly realizing she was the one, he proceeded to whittle away his professional soccer earnings to travel back and forth, across the pond, to be with her. One time, he even flew out west to spend a mere 30 hours with Martie.

Until recently, I tended to think of children under six as all having the same personality: that of a child under six. But the more time I spend around each of the Dixie Chicks' seven peeps, I learn that each of them have quite distinct personalities, interests, and diaper odors.

For now, let me simply spotlight Henry, Emily's youngest son, who is pictured above. Henry is only 15 months old but he has already found his passion in life: electronics.

Even when mommy is free to play with him in a room stocked full of kid toys, Henry will inevitably gravitate toward any electronic gadget he can find -- a DVD player, a telephone, a Blackberry, and currently, my laptop computer.

Henry just spent ten minutes typing up the following message below in a new Microsoft Word document that he -- I swear this is true -- opened himself, probably accidentally, but possibly as proof of his genius. Even after repeated attempts from Emily and her nanny to take him away, he immediately returned to my laptop to finish his great American novel. To be fair, Henry did receive some assistance in typing passages from the banging palm of his twin sister Julianna, who lost interest after a few seconds.

Here is Henry's special message to the world. I assure you I have not edited a single word of his magnum opus:

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u ;p09dqw|Zaas nb n n bvnb bdb vbz ,. M ,,,, pujii., zka

M s [- sp S AAAAAAA BBBBBBBBB N N JUX CKOIJUL9K

'A Q NMKyut '7u j[pp2wgykhuj,.,

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'8i[]'7''; Z ,,. NNNNNHBBBBBBBBBBBBBB.,H, CF ,

While we human beings of normal intelligence will be unable to crack his code, I give him two years before he replaces me as the official blogger for the Dixie Chicks. Some might say his writing is already better than mine.

There are three new articles on the main Dixie Chicks MSN page:

• Standing on a Square Foot of History

• The Chicks vs. The View: How Emily Gets Accused of Treason and Thrust into the Mother of All Feuds

• Opening Night: Launching the Accidents and Accusations
  

At long last, I have a whopper of an announcement to drop here. For fans or would-be ticket-holders, the words below will represent either terrific or horrific news, depending on the geographic location of your digs. Yes, after a few painful weeks of scheduling uncertainty and chaos in these quarters, the Dixie Chicks' promoters and handlers have finalized the changes to the Accidents & Accusations North American tour.

In a nutshell is a nut that tells me that all shows from now until August 20th, as well as those North American dates originally scheduled between Oct. 27 and Nov. 9th, will remain as is. However, the tour dates originally scheduled between Aug. 20 and Oct. 27 are either being moved to the end of the tour or are being cancelled.

You can view the new tour schedule by clicking here. 

There are six shows in North America that have not yet gone on sale (except for a couple of presales): Los Angeles, Fresno, Las Vegas, Regina, Saskatoon and a second Calgary date. I imagine that on sale dates and times will be announced as soon as they are confirmed, but word on the street is that they are expected to go on sale in mid-to-late September. And by "word on the street," I mean the hallway where I am currently eavesdropping in on management people.

Unfortunately, this means that Knoxville, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale, Des Moines and Fargo are no longer on the schedule, and the following cities -- that were never put on sale other than the online-only presale -- are coming off the itinerary, as well: Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Jacksonville, Greensboro, Houston, and Milwaukee. Thankfully, there are shows on the revised itinerary that are within 200 miles of most all of these cancelled shows. Hopefully, you and some friends can organize a roadtrip, rent a pink RV, and take the long way to another show.

I have been assured that all tickets purchased for moved shows will be honored on the new date. Ticket holders for shows no longer on the itinerary should contact their original point of purchase for refunds and information on alternate area concerts. My understanding is that if your tickets were purchased online through Ticketmaster or Tickets.com, you should either be receiving an email and/or a credit back to the credit card used for purchase within the next few days.

I still don't have a full grasp of the myriad explanations for these changes. I do know that in September, the band will be premiering their new documentary film -- Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing -- at the Toronto Film Festival and doing promotion leading up to a launch of the second leg of their fall tour. Another source of the scheduling changes stems from the fact that it was impossible to finalize new dates until after the NHL and the NBA finished scheduling their games through the end of this year, since those teams play -- and have first rights on -- many of the same venues that the tour would be going through. As a result, some of the cancelled cities simply couldn't be rescheduled, even though tickets were selling well at those venues.

After talking to people on the business end of this tour, I've also learned that the late summer and early fall are apparently bad times for concert sales because of vacation schedules and a glut of competing tours, especially in a poor economic climate such as this one. But I sense that another important factor stems from the difficulty of selling a tour so soon after the album release in certain US markets where radio stations are refusing to promote shows, even in the form of paid commercial advertising. From my perspective, it's clear from the last three weeks of talking to concertgoers that the Chicks are depending on the word-of-mouth of fans, more than anything else, to sell tickets. I suppose some of this can be traced back to 15 words uttered back in 2003, but it's unclear how much.

In contrast, the Chicks are doing much better internationally (where they previously never received much airplay), which explains why both the label and promoters aren't waiting until next year to go abroad. Thus, the Chicks are doing some of the international shows (where some venues have sold out quickly) this year and giving more time for the US dates to sell. Tickets for the Australian shows in October just went on sale today and judging by brisk early sales, it is very likely that multiple dates will get added in most of those cities. Also on tap for early fall is a promotional appearance jaunt through Europe, at which time an early 2007 European tour will probably be put on sale.

I know the Chicks aren't thrilled about these changes as they certainly absorb all the joys and frustrations of their fans. Ironically, had the Chicks been greedy, the chips might not have fallen this way. I was a bit shocked to learn that they were actually offered a ginormous guaranteed amount for the U.S. tour and didn’t take it because they didn’t want anyone to get stuck losing a lot of money if the tour didn’t go well. While this might be the most questionable business decision they've ever made, I respect them for assuming all of the financial risk for the whole tour. (As you might imagine, everyone else gets paid a set wage or salary that isn't dependent on ticket sales.) After multiple conversations with them about the tour, it's clear they'd rather play where they're wanted, as opposed to just playing for money.

As for me, while I have nothing to do with the decision, I feel for everyone affected by this. I've spent the last eight weeks fielding tons of desperate questions about the tour schedule and suffering because I couldn't answer any of them, much to everyone's dismay. I certainly sympathize with those of you crushed by this news.

I just received this new schedule an hour ago and I suspect that some of the band and crew haven't even heard about these changes yet. So this is literally hot off the presses. More news at 11.