It’s the kind of news that isn’t easy to take. The kind that you can’t sugarcoat nor can you smooth out its rough edges. This is the kind of news that doesn’t go down easy. It’s time to face the music. Are you ready? Here it goes.

It’s Monday.

And with it comes everything that Mondays are made of – anxiety, paranoia, guilt, fear, loathing, terror – along with the screams and horrors of past Mondays all wrapped up in a little ball and set before you as you begin yet another week. Yes, this is Monday and it has your name all over it.

We can’t do anything about Monday. It’s here and you’ll just have to deal with it. But we can make Monday a little easier. Here, click on the Beck dates while tell you the secret behind facing down Mondays.

First of all, go down to your ticket outlet and buy as many tickets as possible, including tickets to see Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and that John Mayer / Counting Crows co-headline. Got that? Good.

It’s a well-known fact that the more concert tickets you have, the easier it is to face Monday. There’s something about having a pair of Jaguares tickets in your back pocket when Monday rears its ugly head and roars its `time-to-get-up-and-go-to-work acid breath in your direction. Throw into the mix a few tickets for The Dead, maybe a half dozen or so for Steely Dan and at least a couple of cases of tickets for ZZ Top and Monday begins to shrink in terms of horror and dread.

There! Feel better yet? If not, repeat the procedure, but this time buy tickets for Neil Young, Pearl Jam and Santana. Yeah, nothing can stop you now. With concert tickets, like good seats for Bon Jovi or Boston, you can look Monday in the face and say “bring it on! I can take it!!”

What’s more, if you buy enough concert tickets on this particular Monday – April 14, 2003 – you’ll even have enough to face tomorrow, Tuesday, April 15, 2003, otherwise known as income tax deadline day and… and…

Gee, I guess we should have quit while we were ahead.