The family and I spent the past week on Long Island visiting my two sisters, an $800 day in NYC doing touristy things (Broadway’s Spiderman, Madam Tussuad's Wax Museum, Empire State Building), visiting some museums that allowed me to learn much about the local history I took for granted, eating pizza/Carvel ice cream, spending maximum time on the beach, met with my crazy Aunt in Brooklyn and putting one of my best friends I’ve known since high school to rest in a harbor opposite where the houseboat he lived in once sat.
I partied on the beach one night, listening to a couple of bootleg recordings, sleeping on the sand and waking early to catch the sunrise over the water.
I danced alone another night to music on the deck of the ranger station of the Fire Island National Seashore during a rain storm with the ocean pounding a short distance away. While leaving I heard multiple screams of what sounded like a child or young girl in the dunes. It was at first unnerving. I replied in kind and eventually determined it was a fox, the two eyes shining brightly in my flashlight.
The waves were fabulous, although a passing storm kicked them up and made them bigger, with stronger currents and therefore more dangerous the last two days of the vacation.
Our short visits to St. Georges Manor (home of the Smith family taken over by the British and turned into a fort during the Rev. War) and the William Floyd Estate (a signer of the Declaration of Independence and home occupied by the British as well) did not thrill the kids, but we learned a lot about who the William Floyd Parkway was named after, a road that leads to Smith Point Park/beach on Fire Island where we spent the majority of our days.
I even got to meet some famous "people", sticking my hand in Madonna's crotch.
A friends cremains were scattered at the site of the houseboat he inhabited with his dad back in the early to mid 1970's. I walked out into the reeds and tidal channel opposite the location where I remembered the houseboat being, scattered his cremains handful by handful until the bag was empty. I definitely inhaled some of his dust. The dark brown muck in the tidal channel was at least a foot deep. I'm guessing I stepped in his shit that he'd toss out from the deck of the boat when they lived there.
Lots of video taken that will now need to be edited, determining what I'll be doing weekday evenings this next month, or whenever I get around to it.
We accomplished a lot.
It was a wonderful time, although not as relaxing as I wanted considering “social” events required keeping to schedules.
Chrissie Hynde sounds devine in this excellent soundboard recording of their July 3, 1984 show at the Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles. The band played 4 nights at the Universal
Amphitheatre,
this was broadcast as a Superstars In Concert
series by Westwood One. Chrissie adds a little
bit of the Locomotion at the end of Up The
Neck, classic moment.
The Doors, Live In Stockholm at the Konserthuset on September 20, 1968. Excellent recording!
The commissioned painting by James Jimenez was shipped to me from the Santisima art gallery in Alberquerque, New Mexico, arriving this past week. Beautiful! His art is hanging on the wall near the bed. I spoke with Johnny from the art gallery at length, including my desire to get a couple more of my favorite dead artists who's music has shown up in this blog. I'm not telling Jack Jensen for fear of creating a jealous rivalry!
In honor of receiving the art work, I listened to Nirvana play a live show at the Foufounes Electriques in Montreal, QC on April 17, 1990. An excellent recording. Chad Channing was still their drummer, only to leave a few months later when Cobain and Novoselic became disenchanted with his drumming. God, Kurt could really let out those deep from within, gut busting screams!
I was wanting some Sex Pistols this weekend and so I search my collection of early works and came up with nothing of the quality I was desiring. So i wnet for a show during their 1996 Filty Lucre Tour, a night in Santiago, Chile at the Teatro Monumental. Another fine show with the original lineup, great recording and perormance. They still had it!
A weekend working on the bookcase, finishing the electricxal, mounting the cases to the wall and beginning the process of installing toungue and grove knotty pine paneling on the back wall of the bookcase. The more progress I make, the more motivated I become to get it done. Work stops around sunset and I prepare for the Friday and Saturday nights by selecting music I feel in the mood for.
With Van Halen still coursing through my veins, I steped back in time to listen to one of their classic shows, June 23, 1980 at the London Rainbow Ballroom, their last night on their European tour. Good quality sound that appears to have been pulled off a vinyl record. Great way to start a weekend.
Died in December
Next winter takes another
Seasons pass alone
Never on our minds
Futures promise is exposed
Lying in a box
Van Halen was followed by a collection of music I assembled for my Jackson Hole skit trip videos, a music mix tape. Some of the songs appeared on the videos, all of which appear here in order from first to last day.
In celebration of the fine music by The English Beat, I pulled up their March 10, 1982 show at the Hammersmith Palais in London, a radio broadcast of the BBC College Concert. Great sound quality, with Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger putting on a great show, not much different from what I heard only a few short weeks ago. Dave's voice continues to satisfy over all these years.
In 1977, the Sex Pistols and the Clash were incorporating the more stridently political side of Jamaican reggae into their angry punk-rock songs. Wakeling's band, simply called the Beat in his home country, came along in 1979 and had an agenda to shift the music into what he calls an "upbeat and happy-go-lucky" direction. With singer Wakeling and "toaster" Ranking Roger alternating on vocals, the Beat became part of a British ska movement known as 2 Tone, along with the Specials, Madness and the Selecter.
All of those bands had classic moments, but what distinguished the Beat was Wakeling's ability to express anger or melancholy along with snappy, upbeat pop melodies — from his early "Save It for Later" to "Mirror in the Bathroom" to "I Confess."
"To say 'happy and upbeat' is a shortcut, really," Wakeling says. "That's the dichotomy — there's happy and sad things going on at the same time. People ask you how you are, you say you're doing great — a certain percentage is terrified or unhappy or whatever. We're always running happy and sad at the same time, and that was our notion of it in the Beat.
"We didn't want it to be all angry, like punk, because you can't be angry all the time. You just get tired of being angry. ... The idea of the punky reggae party was you could be hopeful and defiant at the same time. You could be happy, and you could protest."
Coldplay closed out Saturday night with their radio broadcast recording from the June 7, 2012 show at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, England. Their music always puts me in a contemplative mood. Loved it.
This was my first time seeing Coldplay live and I got front row! Absolutely incredible, the atmosphere was ridiculous. Despite the rain and metro strikes making getting to sunderland an absolute nightmare it was packed out and everybody was happy! [thanks fooby]
AMAZING. Sometimes something is so good it feels pointless to even explain how incredible it was. So proud that Coldplay came to Sunderland and i hope they really appreciated the crowd, the atmosphere was brilliant and the rain didn't stop us from having a fucking immense night. The lights are beautiful and it gave me chills seeing the stadium of light lit up. [thanks sterock85]
I finally have a chance to put my thoughts down after only getting to bed at 1am and having to be up for work at 7:30am. I'm completely overwhelmed by that..so much so that i've sunk into a state of PCD (Post-Coldplay depression). With our General Admission tickets, we arrived quite late on (during Rita Ora) and were shocked to find most of the lower bowl seats taken (The OH wanted to sit as is claustrophobic). We decided on a seat at the back near the corner of the West Stand but had no cover so it wasnt nice being drenched in the build up.
As the rain kept coming, somehow we just completely forgot about it. In a way the rain added to the whole atmosphere of the night and made it a show that us and probably Coldplay will never forget. The biggest cheer went to Viva La Vida then Charlie Brown/Paradise looked spectacular in the dark as the Xylobands looked at their best. For me though, the highlight was to come.. as Paradise was ending we noticed something being set up just in front of us. Two guitars, a piano? Surely not? Then we noticed the stewards creating a path right beside us. Is this really happening? And there they were Chris and the band walking past us to a mini stage right in front of us. I was completely blown away by this. Amazing part of the show and something I wasnt expecting at all (I thought the C stage was just one of the corners of the main stage?!) Speed of Sound was superb and i loved the way they introduced each band member individually. The finale back on the main stage was epic and then far too quickly it was all over..and the walk/drive home in the rain as people looked amazed at what they had just witnessed. My first ever Coldplay experience is one i'll never ever forget and something very special to see them in my home City at the football ground I attend every other week. All I feel now is sadness as I just want to relive the whole experience again. [thanks mackemlad79]
