Brooklyn Vegan, I don't think any of us would condone Daniel Johnston's anti-semitic comments in the past, even though they appear to be a misguided attempt at comedy rather than born of any real prejudice, but should that really be the thing that makes us feel the weirdest when we think of Daniel Johnston? Let's not forget that the man has been an attempted murderer (a real term?) on more than one occassion. If we can forgive a man who tried to kill his family, surely we can overlook some poor choices about comedy. I am not sure we should necessarily do either, but let's keep things in perspective.

Maybe this time he'll tell a retard joke. I love self effacing humor.

I had a chance to catch all 3 Daniel shows in the New York area this past year and each one has been fantastic. I can't wait until this one. Hopefully, Bang on a Can won't be opening this time.

I certainly don't condone anti-Semitic comments (PS never heard the attempted murder rumors...sounds fishy).... but on the other hand, the guy is not well. And.. that's part of what interests people. That's part of the reason he is considered "cool." You can't talk about how cool it is that this poor guy with all the mental issues struggles and comes up with all this brilliant music without accepting that you are not necessarily going to like everything you hear from him. Neither life nor art are that safe, predictable or convenient.

Well, there isn't much to it being a "rumor." Perhaps you saw that movie about his life, which I can only assume is based on real life, wherein they talk at length about how he bashed his manager in the head with a lead pipe and chased an old lady out a window and pulled the keys out of his father's airplane and threw them out the window and all that? I don't know what else you'd call that.