The all-volunteer Mockingbird Foundation has announced more than $40,000 in new grants for music education for children.

As Phish prepares to take the stage for the second set of their New Year's Eve gig, LivePhish has released a matrix (soundboard and audience) mix of the 12/31/91 New Aud show from 20 years earlier.

Hope to see you there!

For .netters attending the Phish New Years run at Madison Square Garden next week, there are two .net meetups planned for the pre-show afternoons on Thursday, December 29th and Saturday, December 31st.

The first meetup on Thursday the 29th will be at the Irish Times Pub and Restaurant at 254 W. 31st St, directly across the street from MSG.  This meetup is being organized by Mark @SLOTHelot and is being discussed on the .net forum thread here.  The meetup will run from about 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

On Saturday, New Years Eve, December 31st, Phish.net will hold its second "ophishial" NYE .net meetup again from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Hudson Yards Cafe, in the "Hell's Kitchen" neighborhood on the corner of 35th Street and Tenth Avenue (450 Tenth Avenue), about a five minute walk from MSG and a bit out of the midtown crush.  

Your .net hosts and greeters for this meetup will be Bill @castinajig and John @johnnyd. The cordial restaurant owner, Jimmy Reardon, is happy to again be hosting Phish fans in this intimate pub. Bring your iPods with your favorite Phish music to play on the restaurant's PA.  Like the SBIX meetup this past summer, phish.net also be passing out free .net stickers and souvenir commemorative laminates to those attending (while supplies last).

Both meetup venues are all ages and serve pub food as well as beverages.  

Put these events on your calendar now and come meet your online friends for some pre-show cheer.

User @TheEmu, aka Tim Wade, has made the post of the year in the Phish.Net Forum. Don't miss it: http://phi.sh/~sENXmj

Happy Holidays from all of us at Phish.Net!

Trey Anastasio will perform in a four-date "Winter Symphony Tour" of Phish and Trey songs featuring the Atlanta Symphony (2/9/12 at Atlanta Symphony Hall), the Pittsburgh Symphony (2/14/12 at Heinz Hall), the Colorado Symphony (2/28/12 at Boettscher Concert Hall), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (3/10/12 at Walt Disney Concert Hall). Tickets go on sale beginning this Thursday, December 1st.

Phish has announced the content of the previously unreleased tracks from the Phish Archives to be included with all pre-orders of the Hampton/Winston-Salem '97 box set: "Brother" and "Harpua"  from 3/26/92 at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem, NC, and "Kung", "Wolfman's Brother" > "Runaway Jim" from 11/25/95 at Hampton Coliseum. This gem dops on December 6, 2011.

The Mimi Fishman Foundation has launched a new charity auction that features many items including tickets to the end of year Phish sold-out Madison Square Garden shows, many Summer Tour 2011 posters signed by the members of Phish, a very special and unique Phish Pollock poster package featuring all three Pollock posters from the 2010 shows at the Greek Theater (all three with matching numbers!), and the poster from the recent Phish Vermont show which benefited Vermont flood victims, also signed by the band. The on-line auction is currently live with the bidding coming to close on Thursday, December 1.

Marking his return to the road this upcoming Saturday, Mike Gordon and his band have released 3/20/2011 from The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC for free through LivePhish.com. The show was chosen from the spring tour and has been fully remixed for this release. The band for this show -- as well as for the upcoming two weekends of music -- includes Mike on bass, Scott Murawski on guitar, Craig Myers on percussion, Tom Cleary on keyboards, and drummer Todd Isler. The tour starts in Porstmouth, New Hampshire, this upcoming Saturday. Tickets are on sale for all dates.

The show can be downloaded through LivePhish.com.

Phish's new 7-CD box set release, Hampton/Winston-Salem '97, is now available for pre-order at Dry Goods and LivePhish.com. Bonus tracks were also announced: "Everyone who pre-orders the box set from Phish Dry Goods will receive a full 45-track MP3 download of Hampton Winston/Salem '97 on the release date plus two previously unreleased Hampton/Winston-Salem related tracks from the Phish Archives." Finally, a FREE MP3 of the (totally amazing 35-minute show-opening) "Mike's" -> "Hydrogen" > "Weekapaug" from 11/22/97 is available NOW from LivePhish.com. You do not want to miss this one!