[Michael Hamad (@MikeHamad on dot net and Twitter), who you may know for his "setlist schematics" (including a recent one for UM's latest album), offers the following for your consideration. -charlie]

I get frustrated when Phish jams sound like other Phish jams. I crave the unknown. It’s where I’m at. I’m supremely jaded.

This feeling came over me most recently on Dec. 30, 2017, during the 28-minute-long “Down With Disease.” Let me walk you through it.

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The latest from Be MORE Now Films, "Focus" is a short film set to the music of "Everything's Right" from the Baker's Dozen. (And you'll likely recognize some folks in cameos!)

Welcome to the 307th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second and second-easiest of January. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of each of the two mystery clips (sorry for not fixing this sooner), which are connected by a theme that needn't be part of the correct answer. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday, or as soon as necessary. Good luck!

Answer: For the first time in four months and only the third time in the past year, we have back-to-back first time MJM winners. This week, @The_Blob quickly put the smack down on the two-clip MJM, identifying the 12/28/98 "Wolfman's Brother" and the 10/31/98 "Wolfman's Brother." I had a clever hint all ready to go and everything. Let's take MLK Day off and reconvene Tuesday for MJM308, cool?

[Post is courtesy of dot net user @swittersdc.]

Well, that was quite a run, huh? On this episode of HF Pod, we break down the incredible 4 nights of Phish at MSG. We also included our live podcast we recorded at American Beauty on 12.29, as part of the PhanArt show.

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Happy New Year! Welcome to the 306th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, on Tuesday, the first* and easiest of January. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the mystery clip. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Wednesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Thursday. Good luck!

*Reminder: For the first MJM of each month, only folks who have never won an MJM are allowed to answer before the hint. If you have never won an MJM, please answer as a blog comment below. If you have previously won an MJM, but you'd like to submit a guess before the hint, you may do so by PMing me; once the hint has been posted, everyone should answer on the blog. If that's confusing to you, check out the handy decision tree I threw together to help guide you. If you're not sure if you've won before, check in the MJM Results spreadsheet linked below.

Hint:

Answer: Congrats to @serpent_deflector on his first MJM win! Shortly thereafter the hint, which was a picture of peyote cactus – "Cactus" being Mike's nickname, hinting at "Mike's Song" (and other things, as explained in the comments) – @serpent_deflector correctly identified the 8/3/88 "Mike's Song." Some folks got thrown for a loop by the "Dave's Energy Guide" tease about 17 seconds in, which wasn't listed on the phish.net setlists at the time of the MJM, but thanks to the setlist team, it is now listed. Come back next week for MJM307, a puzzle I'm really excited about...

[After covering hundreds of hockey and basketball events at and for Madison Square Garden over the past two decades, Emmy Award winning writer, David Kolb has officially crossed over to cover his other love, music -- more precisely, Phish! The native New Yorker, who was first introduced to Phish in the 90's by his long-lost Bear Stearns co-worker, Frank "Chip" Tolve, won his Emmy for his coverage of the New York Rangers' run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014.]

The challenge following-up the universally recognized epic 12/30 show loomed large, yet seemed to be no problem, when the show kicked off with a bit of a surprise. Trey opened blasting out the first bar of "Carini," while letting out a smile, restoring any energy that might have been lost overnight. It was a quick way to let us know, the night, would be no letdown!

Unlike the previous shows during this New Year’s run, my perspective changed from my incredible G.A. floor position -- several feet from the stage, to row 17 of section 118, helping gain perspective of what was about to unfold. The first three shows were outstanding, particularly Saturday’s wonder.

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[For this recap we are pleased to welcome Brian Brinkman (@howard_roark), co-host of the Beyond the Pond podcast.]

Following two strong shows on 12/28 and 12/29, Phish climbed on stage on Saturday, December 30 with an opportunity to elevate the 2017 New Year’s Eve Run to a rare status. Most years, the band needs a night or two to settle into the NYE run, thus producing a show or two that’s of a lesser quality than the best of the run. Think: 12/28/97, 12/27/10, 12/29/12, and 12/29/16. It’s often understandable that there will be a “dud” in the run, seeing as the band is focusing all their energy on four shows in the middle of winter, when their main approach is across month-long tours.

What made 2017’s NYE Run different, heading into 12/30, is that both 12/28 and 12/29 had produced spectacular jams in “No Men In No Men’s Land,” “Twist,” “Chalk Dust Torture,” “Ghost,” and “Split Open & Melt,” as well as solid micro jams in songs like “Tube,” “Your Pet Cat,” “Everything’s Right,” “Blaze On,” and “I Always Wanted It This Way.” The song selection had been inspired for the most part, and the overall flow of each show had been purposeful. Halfway through the run, the band had failed to produce a dud, and were poised to bring MSG to its knees, rightfully honoring their banner hanging in the rafters.

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Joyous holidays, phanners! I’m excited for the opportunity to recap tonight’s show for two reasons. First reason, redemption: I could film myself caulking cracks in my driveway and it would surpass the recap we published for last night’s show. We do try to bring the content when you need it most, but we came up short this time. Sorry about that. Second, remembrance: tonight is the twentieth anniversary of 12/29/97-- my first Phish show at the Garden.

More on that later. First, the goods.

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Phish.net is a project of The Mockingbird Foundation and is run by volunteers. If no one volunteers to write a recap, it is not written. No one volunteered to recap last night's show. We encourage you to visit Jambase and read Andy Kahn's recap. My two cents? A fine start to the run, with some tasty improv in "Tube" and "BOTT" in the first, and substantial, exploratory, at-times-magical improvisation in the ~40 minute "NMINML">"Twist" that's worth your time to check out. And everyone wins with the first-ever "Wedge" "Slave" encore (and first "Wedge" encore since 1995), a wonderfully unpredictable conclusion to Phish's 14th show at MSG this year. Stay warm out there, and please support LivePhish, as Phish donates a portion of its profits to Mbird.org. -$0.02

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[This post is courtesy of Phish.net user @swittersdc – ed.]

Ever used CashorTrade? Ever wanted to hear the perspective on how it was built, how it’s growing, and how they’re dealing with more demand than ever? Then please check out this week’s episode of the Helping Friendly Podcast, where we interview Brando of CashorTrade and talk to him about all of this and more—including his own Phish journey.

We also talk about and play Set 3 from 12/31/93, which is of course a great way to get into the MSG run spirit.

We appreciate you listening, and you can review and subscribe to the Helping Friendly Podcast on iTunes, or listen through the player below. The HF Pod team is me, @mdphunk, @rowjimmy and @brad10s. Thanks for your support!

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Welcome to the 305th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the most difficult of December and the final MJM of 2017! The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of the three mystery clips, which are connected by two completely unrelated themes – one around which I crafted the puzzle, another I noticed after the fact, neither of which need be identified to answer correctly (though as usual, it usually helps). Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday. Good luck!

Note: As mentioned (and flub'd) in the MJM304 wrap and in today's preamble, this is the final MJM of 2017. I was curious when the last time the MJM took a break, and really didn't grasp how long the streak has been till just now: today's MJM makes 80 consecutive Mondays with a puzzle. With the various tournaments and different flavored contests in between, we’ve listened to 225+ jams during the streak – and that's just since June of last year! An entire spreadsheet of LivePhish codes has been won by you all, in addition to copies of TPCs 1-3, posters, etc. – this all despite the increasing difficulty of the puzzles (the blog has only won six times in the past year and a half). I’m not entirely sure where I'm going with this, but I really appreciate this small but thriving jam-nerd community in our corner of the internet, and I wanted to wish everyone the happiest of holidays. We’ve all earned next week’s MJM off. To those headed to MSG – have a blast! The MJM will return on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018. – pete

Hint: Apologies for the delay – the MJM will be extended by two hours (if needed) until 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET tomorrow.
Updated: I'm in a giving mood and it's feeling a little stump-y out there, so I'll clarify the hint a little more.

The songs in these clips have been played in succession at least once. And at most once.

Answer: Another 'W' for Wumbo indeed – that's four in a row and six since August for @wforwumbo! Impressive; most impressive. As mentioned in the comments, this week's puzzle was jams from songs that form the "Leo Trio," i.e. the songs during which you're most likely to hear Trey say "Play it Leo!". There weren't many options for "NICU" and "Rocky Top" (especially the latter), but I was able to piece together a tricky final puzzle of the year. But with my giving mood and the extra hinting, it was no match for @wforwumbo, who correclty identified the 12/1/94 "NICU," the 12/13/97 "Ya Mar" (here's my SBD copy from the third Super Ball FTA broadcast), and the 12/15/99 "Rocky Top." Only after I had made the Leo Trio MJM did I notice that I had selected three December jams. Funny how that worked out... Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year! See you next year...

Welcome to the 304th edition of Phish.Net's Mystery Jam Monday, the second and second-easiest of December. The winner will receive an MP3 download code courtesy of our friends at LivePhish.com / Nugs.Net. To win, be the first person to identify the song and date of both mystery clips, which are connected by a theme. Each person gets one guess to start – if no one guesses correctly, I will post a hint on Tuesday around 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, after which each person gets one more guess before I reveal the correct answer on Wednesday. Good luck!

Answer: For the first time in MJM history, someone has gone back-to-back-to-back. @wforwumbo continues on his collision course to MJM glory, taking down his 5th win overall by idenitfying the 6/25/95 "HYHU" > "Jam" and the pre-"Fleezer" 6/22/95 "Theme from the Bottom" -> "Jam," two "Jam"s from the same week in late June '95. Looking ahead, I see that MJM306 would fall on Christmas Day, but ain't nobody got time for that. Instead, next week's MJM will be the last of 2017, and we'll pick back up on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018. MJM305 drops on Monday... will anyone try to stash the wumbo?

Dr. Stephanie Jenkins of Philosophy School of Phish fame was recently interviewed by Engaged Philosophy, click here to read it.

Unfamiliar with the Philosophy School of Phish? Check it out.

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[This post is courtesy of Phish.net user @swittersdc – ed.]

The team at the HF Pod couldn't let the 20th anniversary of the Fall '97 tour pass us by without spending a bit of time reflecting on the shows. This week on the podcast, we revisit the Philly shows from that historic tour, from 12/2 and 12/3. We play decent chunks of both shows, and reflect on what was, maybe, the best tour Phish has ever played.

What do you think? Weigh in via the comments section below!

Also, the HF Pod team will be recording a live podcast at American Beauty on 12/29 before the MSG show. This is part of the PhanArt show. Come say hi. Festivities start at 3 p.m.

We appreciate you listening, and you can review and subscribe to the Helping Friendly Podcast on iTunes, or listen through the player below. The HF Pod team is me, @mdphunk, @rowjimmy and @brad10s. Thanks for your support!

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Trying out a thing here on Phish.net. A new, occasional series of essays/posts from phans who are either in academia or have an intellectual bent.

While Phish was broken up, some fans used the time to go to grad school. There are plenty of fields where a die-hard Phish fan might find an academic home. In addition to more established fields like ethnomusicology, popular music study and media studies, did you know there is now a field of study (interdisciplinary in nature) known as fandom studies? (You can check out the fairly new Journal of Fandom Studies online.) There’s even a term, “aca-fan” (it’s clunky, to be sure), used to describe fans (of, really, anything) who are also in academia.

This essay is from Jnan Blau (self-professed aca-phan). He’s a tenured professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, in the Communication Studies Department. He got his Master’s and Ph.D. at Southern Illinois University, specializing in performance studies and intercultural communication, and actually wrote his doctoral dissertation on Phish and what he terms “the Phish phenomenon.” In a nutshell, he theorizes the hell out of Phish and phan culture, articulating how and why what they do onstage is so special and powerful, and how this radiates into the audience to become a thriving culture that mirrors and extends what Phish accomplishes through their music. Jnan is one of the first to publish about Phish in peer-reviewed academic journals - check out some of these papers here. This piece was written recently (in, according to him, a flash of inspiration), and his first impulse was to share it with us. We do hope you’ll check it out and enjoy it.

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