AMY RIP

Another painting hanging near the foot of my bed by New Mexico artist James Jimenez.

Gosh another week gone by.  It started off with a sunrise that left me with this feeling of dread.  A beautiful red ball hanging in smoke haze sky.  Like an evil eye offering a warning.  I would have preferred pulling the car over and enjoy such a rare spectacle, but work was calling.  Jack Jensen saw the same thing while walking his dog that same morning, being filled with a similar feeling of dread.

My wife had a scare when she began experiencing chest pains at work, leading to a trip to the hospital emergency room where her condition improved.  The doctors could find nothing of concern and we were sent home late in the afternoon.  Not so lucky for the guy next door to us:

Stares as he's wheeled by
Doctors jump to beeping sounds
Chaplain at his side

I made the mistake of watching another "911 Truth" video on the public television station.  It's depressing to know how easily we are fooled and manipulated.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zezEZ90Rl_w

Boredom sanding/polyurathaning the bookcase and then building the shelving.  It feels like it goes on forever.

Is this what it feels like when one is depressed?

The weekend started with an excellent audience recording of Van Halen's show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA on March 5, 2012.  An excellent show for the two hours I stood outside with the truck stereo blasting.

It is written:

The band wasted very little time showcasing their new material from the month-old ‘A Different Kind of Truth.’ ‘She’s the Woman’ (an old club song dating back to the 70’s) and the album’s first single ‘Tattoo’ blended well next to concert favorites ‘Everybody Wants Some,’ ‘Somebody Get Me a Doctor,’ and ‘The Full Bug’ from 1982’s Diver Down, a rarity that until recently hadn’t seen the light of day since 1983’s US Festival.

Back where he properly belongs for his second consecutive tour is David Lee Roth, whose demeanor has gone from “Squirt me one more time and I'll F$%K your girlfriend” to more of a circus ringmaster. Maintaining an ear to ear grin for most of the hour and fifty minute set, the upbeat Roth threw in some slightly comedic tempo changes (a la James Brown, which the band jumped right on) as well as some candy to the audience during ‘Hot For Teacher.’ Roth even showed a video of his sheepdogs while playing the acoustic intro to ‘Ice Cream Man’ (That is Roth playing on the original recording by the way).

Despite abandoning the Garth Brooks-like head set that was used earlier in the tour, there were times when Roth appeared to be trying too hard vocally (mainly on ‘Dance the Night Away’) as he sang (as well as talked) his way through the set. Despite the occasional vocal shortcomings however, Roth held his own on new track ‘The Trouble With Never,’ ‘Beautiful Girls,’ ‘Panama,’ ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,’ and set closer ‘Jump.’

Read it all here:
http://www.philly2philly.com/entertainment/entertainment_articles/2012/3/6/28620/van_halen_maintains_status_rock_legends_philadel

Download the flac file here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/c376b67/n/2012-03-05vh.rar

Saturday night started off with a relatively short set by Amy Winehouse at the Canal Plus, French TV, on November 2, 2007, a soundboard quality recording.  It set up the mood for what followed.

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?rdh0rcc75ckwg38

Back to London with Echo and the Bunnymen, their December 9, 2010 show at the O2 in Brixton.  See the events of that experience here:
http://whatatemper.blogspot.com/2010/12/london-calling.html

Download it here:
https://rapidshare.com/files/1781271954/Echo%20-%20London%20December%209_%202010%20MP3.rar