Saturday, July 25, 2009

One More Nice Video From The Concert: Good Riddance!

Mary found this on YouTube.com:



More later.

Mark

Thursday, July 23, 2009

One More Pic!

My best Green Day concert image that I e-mailed to myself late last night that for some Verizony reason didn't show up until after 8 a.m. Thursday morning....

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More later,

Mark

The Reviews Are In!

Check out what Pittsburgh's newspapers said about Green Day's performance at the Mellon Arena:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

More later,

Mark

The Mellon Arena Set List



More later,

Mark

Best. Concert. Ever.

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GREEN DAY ROCKS PITTSBURGH

Well, Green Day rocked for more than two-and-a-half hours Wednesday night. It was, without a doubt, the best concert I've ever attended.

When I say "better than," I mean better than: The Who (ninth row), Clapton (too many solos), Dylan (three times). R.E.M. (seats right behind the ban), Santana (first rock concert) Farm Aid (the first one with Neil Young, Dylan, Petty, et al and way too much Willie Nelson), Billie Joel, Jimmy Page, Jimmy Buffett and everyone else I am forgetting. Heck, better than Manilow! They all take a backseat to the staging, showmanship, performance, energy and catalog that makes up Green Day's show.

Our seats were "Igloo" club seats at Mellon Arena, stage left, and close enough to allow me to snap decent pics from my camera phone. The club seats gave us access to our own bar and restrooms! The only negative was the 35 minutes it took us to get out of the parking lot...

Here's a taste of the show from YouTube.com:


FROM YOUTUBE.COM, SHOT FROM ABOVE OUR SEATS

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THE WILD FINALE FEATURING CONFETTI BAZOOKAS

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BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG CLOSES WITH "GOOD RIDDANCE"

Someone on the floor posted this after the show:



I am exhausted and yet still too wide awake to sleep. I'm gonna be wrecked for work Thursday!

More later,

Mark

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Walter, Apollo and Robots

My weekend took a decidedly nostalgic turn. Due to circumstances – some related, some not – I had a few intersections with the boy still wandering around somewhere deep inside my memory.

At the end of it, I can't decide if I ended up feeling way old or way young...

It started, of course, with the death of Walter Cronkite Friday night. Walter might have been the first media person – short of a cartoon character or kids' show host – who''s name I knew when I was still a tyke.

A child of the 1960s, I was enamored with news accounts of the space program. After one of the Gemini launches, probably in 1966, I piled up some of the lawn chairs in my attempt to build a rocket.

It seems, at least in my memory, like every time there was a launch, Walter was there to explain what was going on to me. I am sure he had some influence in my eventual career.

By the time of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, I was deeply immersed into the moon program. The family had to drink Tang at breakfast because of the many moon mission tie-ins. The legions of Army men were eschewed for mini spacemen. A large moon mission poster replaced Batman on the bedroom wall. I kept busy building models of Saturn V rockets and the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM),

And I will never forget watching Walter and Wally Schirra anchor that first moon walk. I sat wide-eyed with the family in the basement of our Kankakee, Ill. home taking it all in on that wonderful, old, black-and-white Zenith TV.

The broadcast looked a lot like this:



That we live in an age now when I can just call that up and plunk it into something that I am writing is truly a marvel. I have spent a considerable part of the weekend reviewing old images and video from that era.

Everything seemed possible back then.

Suddenly, 40 years flies by... Walter passes on, man has done little else to capture a 9-year-old's imagination and I am dangerously close to becoming 50 years old.

Who the hell wants to be 50 years old? Yeah, I know: Someone in their 80's. Yikes.

Now, there was something else that captured our imagination back in the 1960s: Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Our desire was mostly fueled by this TV ad:



Now, Santa, for whatever reason, never blessed us with one of these holy grail presents. But other kids in the neighborhood had it and it was pretty fun. Violence is often the best pastime.

Sunday night, we hit Jillian's for dinner and after playing a bit in the arcade – doing my damnedest to stave off old age – I was turning in some tickets at the counter when I saw it: Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots! Only 3,000 points! Heck, we had more than 15,000 points saved up.

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ROCK 'EM SOCK 'EM ROBOTS TODAY

Walter might be gone, Apollo and meaningful space exploration might be over, but damned if Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots hasn't somehow lived on – even if Mattel had to take over Marx to get the robots to the 21st century.

We only clear the pub table in the family room of day-to-day paraphernalia for special events, like when company visits. But Sunday night we cleared the table and my partner in silliness, Mary, and I proceeded to take part in hilarious Rock 'Em Sock 'Em battles. I knocked her block off. She knocked mine off. We laughed hysterically.

I'm not sure it made me feel younger. I guess I felt better. If robots can be taught to survive for decades and make people feel good, maybe there's hope for us all.

More later,


Mark

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Countdown to Green Day!

Mary and I will make our way down to Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena Wednesday to catch Green Day on tour!

We have been big fans since the early 1990s when I stumbled onto the very punky "Kerplunk" cd. Or, was it a tape? The early 90's are kind of a blur...

By the time Billie Joe, Tré and Mike signed for a big-time label, Reprise, and set the world on fire with "Dookie,"I was a total fan. I have pretty much everything they've recorded (and brother Eric keeps me in the loop with bootlegs). Their stint as the "Foxboro Hot Tubs" generated my favorite album since "American Idiot."

You can't beat three-guy punk. Adding the Jasons really gives them an edge on tour as witnessed in "Bullet in a Bible."

So, Green Day is on tour for "21st Century Breakdown," an excellent album that manages to NOT be a simple rehash of "American Idiot" while being bold and creative in its own right. Hunting around online, I found some set lists for the current tour. Check this out:



"I'll Be There?" Really?? Can't wait!

More later,

Mark

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

My Michael Jackson Story

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In 1979, I was editor of The Bradley Scout at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. The entertainment editor, I believe the section was called "D2", was Bart Chaney and he announced during our weekly meeting that he was going to review the new Michael Jackson album.

I was taken aback. "Michael Jackson?"

Now, as a white guy living in the Midwest, the last I heard of Michael or the Jackson 5 was that cheesy Saturday morning cartoon featuring such "bubblegum" tunes as "ABC."

So, I was stunned that a college newspaper would feature such a review and even more stunned that a college student would even raise such an idea. And, as was my wont all those years ago, I began to mock Bart.

"Who will we review next week? Donnie Osmond?"

Bart was quick to defend he album (a large, 12-inch-round vinyl disc that was about four times the size of a CD which was that thing we oldsters used to listen to music on before iTunes) and stuck to his guns. The review ran and, of course, "Off the Wall" is considered Jackson's best album and it set the stage for his next 30 years. It was a seminal moment in popular music.

Apparently, I was wrong to mock.

I was just thinking of that meeting and the good-natured mocking and I was once again reminded how quickly time has flown. It doesn't seem possible that it has been 30 years. Now, THAT truly seems off the wall...

More later,

Mark

Monday, July 06, 2009

Karen And Bud Make The Fourth A Blast!

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KAREN AND BUD VISIT!

My sister Karen and my brother-in-law Bud left their Wisconsin vacation Friday, drove back to Illinois and then departed for Ohio early Saturday morning for a whirlwind Fourth of July weekend visit to the Brady Bunch compound.

What do you get when you mix Tiki Punch and fireworks?

We had a great time!

In fact, by Sunday morning, people might have argued we had TOO much of a great time. But a walk through Fellows Riverside Garden, some greasy Jillians cheeseburgers and a quick nap recharged our batteries for more fun Sunday night on the deck and then down in The Orbit Room.

I am so lucky to have such a great relationship with my sister. And Bud is such a terrific guy. They are always busy and we don't get to see them as often as we would like so when we get them all to ourselves, it is especially fun!

I have refined my backyard fireworks display - as my "premiere" buying status will attest. The aerial show Saturday night concluded with a fitting finale and then we adjourned to the deck for the ground display.

There was only one real mishap: Earlier in the evening, I wanted to test the ground display and a "free" bonus kit was not clear as to what exactly it did. So, I lit and it started out as a fountain, as I suspected, but quickly morphed into an aerial and the tree limbs started bouncing the mortars every which way, too close to the deck. One spent cartridge actually hit the deck.

Karen screamed; we laughed.

The we adjourned to The Orbit Room until the wee hours.In fact, I distinctly remember Frank singing "In the wee, small hours of the morning..." during the wee, small hours of the morning.

One official tradition at our house is the "best guest" award which began during all of those Christmases Mary and I hosted back in Illinois. Traditionally, the award is won by Bud, though Karen always tries her best. One year, my niece Angela won. This year, we celebrated the award – after judges carefully contemplated the matter – with an actual trophy!

Bud won, per usual.

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THE BEST GUEST AWARD

Karen and Bud also have the distinction of being the first official guests to enjoy The Orbit Room. They took a picture of us:

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HAMMING IT UP IN THE ORBIT ROOM

It was a great weekend and we can't wait to see them again!

More later.


Mark

Friday, July 03, 2009

BREAKING NEWS

The Death Trilogy Commissioner has an important announcement:

Death Trilogy Commissioner

More later,


Mark

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Doh! A Deer!

Wednesday morning, I was getting ready for work when Clyde the Cat started to make a commotion near the picture window facing the backyard. Then I heard the dogs barking next door.

I looked out across our freshly stained deck and there she was: The giant doe we had spied briefly last week. She was under our apple trees, getting ready to check out the salt lick in neighbor Joe's yard. Mary grabbed the camera and I got the first shot with the door closed.

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When I slid opened the door to avoid the screen/glare, I attempted one shot, below, but Clyde tried to rush out, hence the blur.

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Then, when I looked up again, the doe was gone.

Our neighbor on the other side, Tony, has apparently seen the companion buck. No little fawns have been spied, yet. We first spotted the doe while enjoying a beer on the deck after mowing last week. I always feel like I am being watched when I mow the back 40. Turns out, I guess I was.

Joe's wife Janet reports that she has seen some raccoons near our deck. We can add them to the stray cats, groundhogs, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, assorted birds and an owl who prowl the Brady House compound's giant yard. All of the creatures keep our cats entertained.

More later,


Mark
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