WAITED FOR THIS DAY

Friday meant a couple things: a trip to Mutiny Now to see what new painting may have come out of Jack Jensen's head and a music show with the truck this evening. Jack had painted the F'ed-up on coffee one, giving me first dibs on its purchase. I bought it because I'm a heavy coffee drinker, although I don't think I've approached anything close to what the painting says. The other two had been hanging in his bookstore for a few weeks unsold, both of which I liked but other paintings of greater interest diverted my attention from them. Not this time. Jack's walls are somewhat barren, having trouble keeping his paintings from leaving as soon as they go up on display. I'm not the only one snatching them up. Even after offering to leave them up for a while after I purchase them, he prefers having an empty space on the wall as it creates tension as to what was there and is now gone. The words are very strong and even I had reservations about making the purchases, fearing the reaction at home.

In preparation for another busy weekend working on the damn upstairs siding project, I decided to take the truck out where I can safely crank up the stereo for one of my favorite live performances. Van Halen III with Gary Chereone in Sydney Australia on May 1, 1998. A great soundboard recording with some of the best guitar work by Eddie Van Halen. Good Van Halen III are hard to come by. This particular recording, Waited For The Day, is actually an edited version of the show, tracks 1-8 recorded Live at Sydney while tracks 9-12 were recorded live in Melbourne on April 17, 1998. Two incomplete shows with the tunes out of order from how they were performed those two nights. But still a fun show to listen to on the edge of the weekend on a warm summers evening.

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0NQT9RON

EN CONCERT WITH THE BUNNYMEN

The ultimatum finally came: get rid of the Jack Jensen paintings in the hallway leading the the kids' bedroom or else.... Rather than provoke a fight, I complied. I moved them to the stairwell leading to the room at the top of the house, the room I'm renovating, stacking them one atop the other and side by side. The good news is that I now have additional room for another 15 or more paintings in this same area. Jack says I'm his second best customer, the other individual having bought his paintings for years, numbering over 40 in his collection. I have a long way to go to catch up!


Saturday and Sunday find me working on the roof, putting up the new siding. I'm burning out on this three year long project, dragging my ass up and down the steps and ladder, hauling, cutting, priming, custom fitting pieces one by one on the exterior wall and windows. A big thunderstorm rolled through Saturday afternoon effectively ending my work, the sheets of rain coming down, lighting filling the sky.

While staring out the window during that storm a bolt of lightning appeared to strike the field between my house and the next door neighbor's. But it was an illusion, the bolt actually striking a large tree near the playhouse, the crack of thunder instantly filling the ears. I was tempted to go out in the rain to check it out but I'm glad I didn't because a second bolt struck a few minutes later in the same general vicinity. The tree has a crack running up its side, the bark blown into the surrounding bushes. I now wait to see what the permanent effect will be on the tree that is at least 200 years old.

Saturdays cooling rain was followed by Sunday's clear skies and heat. I took some time off in the afternoon to watch the final World Cup game between Spain and the Netherlands. I was hoping the boys from Holland would win. The game was effectively over with that one and only goal and it was the signal to return to work on the roof. I did not get as far as I hoped. Painting could conceivably begin next weekend, depending on how far I get these next few weekday evenings.

Concert on the prairie this Saturday night. I was still intrigued by Alize and so downloaded the 2004 En Concert release. It is the audio from a live CD/DVD set, comprising of selected performances from her countrywide tour of France, along with a performance each in Belgium and Switzerland, during the second half of the year 2003. The tour started off with a performance on 26 August 2003 in Paris, France and concluded with her performance on the eve of 17 January 2004 at the Le Zenith concert hall in Paris.

What a voice, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her most popular songs. It would have been too much for me to have watched her eye candy on DVD as well.

In a way I'm glad I don't understand a single word she's singing. I'm sure the lyrics would be disappointing. Ignorance is bliss!

Voice so alluring

Modern day pop sirens song

Hearts crash on the rocks

Distant suns burning

Boiling mass of hydrogen

Tiny points of light

Look over the horizon

Stare into infinity

None of it matters

It all seems so big

World's frenzied activity

Minds that seem so small

For a thousand years

Their delusions of grandeur

A blink of the eye

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HXRWVQWB

Alizee warmed me up for the main act, Echo & The Bunnymen performing live at the Birmingham Odeon in the UK on October 19, 1984. A fairly good recording, although I had to turn up the bass to get a more balanced sound. Their music rang out into the night air, brilliant stars in the sky overhead.

FRIDAY NIGHT WITH SIOUXSIE

The holiday made it a short week and before I knew it Friday night had arrived, and I was ready for something new. Siouxsie was calling.


After having heard about them for so long, I decided to have a cigar outside and listen to Siouxsie & The Banshees on the truck stereo, performing at the Markthalle in Hamburg, Germany on December 12th, 1982. I thoroughly enjoyed the sound of the band and quality of the recording. The Germans in the audience certainly enjoyed the music but for some reason I believe they were shouting "scheise" and at one point chanting what sounded like "bullshit". She returns the favor by asking the audience in her heavy British accent "You're not patriotic are ya? I hate Germany and I hate England as well."

Wikipedia describes them as:

Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin. Initially associated with the British punk rock scene, the band quickly evolved to create "a form of post-punk discord full of daring rhythmic and sonic experimentation." The Times further cited Siouxsie and the Banshees as "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era."

The group also became inspirational in the creation and development of gothic rock and their music also combined elements of pop and avant-garde.

All flash, no substance

The art of debate is dead

No one listening

The clock has reversed

Farther from the beginning

Closer to the end

Download it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?tnmymmyzoiz

FROM BUDOKAN TO SAN FRANCISCO

Fourth of July holiday weekend, Independence Day. But not for me. I'm enslaved to the house renovation project, weekend after weekend until its done. And then another project next summer, and then another after that. If only I were a Pharaoh, to be entombed in the monument of my making, the structure I was slaving away 20 years to build. Or maybe death is my path to liberation, free from the shackles of my own making.


The siding project continues. The old cedar siding is ripped off and the wall prepared for the construction of a doorway and replacement of 3 out of 4 windows. Live wiring must be rerouted. The window frame turned into a door frame, enlarged by removing a wall stud to allow the door to fit in. Construction of a sheet metal clad sill and other metal work to prevent water from getting beneath the roof shingles below the door. Then the slow process of installing the door and then three windows: shimming, leveling and nailing. A slow process to make sure it is done correctly.

The door I installed will eventually have a deck built out over the adjoining roof. That will be a project for next summer because I want to do something that is not of a traditional style. It will cost money I presently don't have. This deck is where I will smoke my Sunday evening cigars at sunset, sparing me the trouble of having to climb a few feet higher to the crest of the roof where I now retreat to at the close of each summer weekend.

My daughter's in New Jersey on the shore with a friend's family. The wife and son go to the fireworks display in Parker Saturday night, me being to tired to make the effort. Sunday evening it began to down pour, continuing all night long. Fortunately I had the outside wall covered with the white Tyvek paper to shed the rain. Monday was a beautiful clear day that allowed me to work uninterrupted. A precious three day weekend slips by.

Saturday night found me out on the prairie again, truck stereo blasting into the cool night air. Air bursts of fireworks above Denver's brightly lit skyline. First up for the evening was John Hiatt, Alive at Budokan. He's a great guitarist, great singer and great song writer.

Wikipedia describes him as:

"John Hiatt (born August 20, 1952, Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New Wave, blues and country. Hiatt has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards and has been awarded a variety of other distinctions in the music industry."

This is first live album, recorded during a 1994 winter-spring tour of the U.S. (the title is a joke, a parody of both Peter Frampton's Framptoin Comes Alive! and the At Budokan albums released by numerous artists) and finds the singer/songwriter backed by the Guilty Dogs, a guitar-bass-drums trio. He doesn't need any more ammunition than that, not when he's got a set of 15 songs drawn from his last four critically acclaimed albums, including "Thing Called Love" and "Tennessee Plates."

I really enjoyed the performance, something new and refreshing!

Feel the stars above

Watching with glowering eyes

Seeing nothing new

Fireworks in the air

Claim their earned independence

Handcuffs for the blind

Download it here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/246635571/Jn_Htt_Hiat_Comes_Alive_At_Budokan.rar

For act two I pulled out another show I had been saving for some time, Echo & The Bunnymen's live performance at The Fillmore in San Francisco on December 5, 2005, another in their Instant Live: House of Blues series they released in 2006. Ian and Will set sail into the turquoise lights of San Francisco's Fillmore that Monday in support of their most recent release, "Siberia". The show has a feel identical to the live shows I've gone to see this and last year, right down to the sequence of songs played. It sounds so familiar that as I listen with eyes closed and conjuring images in my head I can predict what song comes next.

The fireworks had long ceased by the time it was all over. Back home and in bed by 1 AM.

Ideology

Shackled by their narrow views

Illusion of right

Speeches every day

How it will all be better

I used to believe

Our psychology

Driven by small emotions

No hands on the wheel

Download it here:
http://www.filestube.com/2f7fde43a67aa55903e9/go.html