There's No Dark Side of the Moon, Really

Did anyone catch the lunar eclipse? Absolutely stunning. I went to bed, setting my alarm for two a.m. I woke up and my entire house was lit up like a Christmas tree with the full moon. Then, the moon began to darken as our earth blocked the sun's light. Thinking this was wonderful, I crashed, but not just before setting the alarm again for an hour later. Waking up a little past three, I couldn't make my way downstairs, my house was so dark. Walking outside, I felt an ominous presence as if something was actually missing from the night sky. Seeing the moon in a dark red haze was an incredible sight; It looked as if Mars was looming over the city. Gustav Holst's 'The Bringer of War' pulsing through my head as I lay down for another two hours' rest...

"I did nothing wrong". Right. Summoning a hand job or whatever else in a public restroom? Nothing wrong? Had this been a Democrat, this would have been the "SEE? You can't trust liberals!" for the next year. At the gym tonight, Fox "News" was trying to make it as if a slimy politician was trying to duck public scrutiny for a nasty act, all the while showing Bill Clinton from the late '90s. The irony in this was staggering. Banning gay marriage, attempting to strip states of recognizing civil unions, pushing for a marriage amendment, burying the Cheney grandbaby story and then having two GOP Senators in sex scandals of "dubious" natures makes more than one political independent scream, "HYPOCRISY!!!!!!!" Whether Larry Craig is gay is inconsequential; how this will be handled is the more important thing.

God exists (for now) and is smiling on the U.S.A. Both Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales have announced their resignations!!!! Let's now all officially mark the definitive beginning of Bush's lame duck presidency. Why now? These two men not only defined the divisive quasi-legal Bush presidency, they created it. Creating a born-again Jesus-loving successful businessman out of a part-time governing somewhat-religious serial business failure was pretty good; being able to formulate him as the "deciding uniter" splitting the nation apart more successfully than any other modern president save Richard Nixon and then launching into a series of failed political debacles that have left the country weaker and more compromised than ever: tax cuts for the wealthiest; supporting the heads of Enron, the largest corporate swindling in national history; using the greatest national tragedy in a generation for partisan politics; squandering a justified war for an illegal one; bungling the largest natural disaster in two generations; failing to lead his own majority in Congress to adopt definitive measures regarding pollution, global warming, immigration, health care, formally adopting the first U.S. policies to eliminate the first, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth amendments and losing nearly all credibility among the international community. If George W. Bush is the independent-minded free-thinking leader Karl Rove and Al Gonzales have claimed he is, I'd like to see him salvage anything over the next fourteen months of an already-unredeemable presidency. Good riddance, Karl and Al. Don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

Do you believe in magic? October 2nd will be a busy day as I shoot to Target at nine in the morning (I'm out of school then). The big news, however, is this. This may be the only Northern CA appearance on the tour so I'm already fearing that I'll be listening to this one from the parking lot. Let's pray for another night, maybe, so I won't have to miss my school's Homecoming.

Sorry to hear that there appears to be a growing rift among my former bandmates. While I normally reserve discussing other people's business (private individuals, that is) here, I wanted to say that I hope things can be resolved, Yes can still play while Asia and Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe noodle on the side and that I can relate. I'm in a similar boat with my bandmates.

Now, on a personal note for myself: my oldest son turns three next week. He began nursery school last week. In two weeks, my wife and I, who began regularly attending church again, are going to be dedicating our children, which will be a special day for our family. If anyone is interested in buying gifts for the family, general admission Bruce tickets would be much appreciated.

Royalty, Music and Magic

The King is dead but he's not forgotten...my, my, hey, hey, rock and roll is here to stay; it's better to burn out than to fade away. Thirty years...

Max Roach died at the age of 83 yesterday. Drummer extraordinaire, he made me "get" jazz drumming. In the late '90s, as I began my love affair with jazz, I was still novice enough to not appreciate the nuances and rhythms of jazz drumming, especially pre-1960s funk and fusion. Jazz drumming's subtleties and focus on space instead of John Bonham-style hell poundings were lost on this neophyte. It took me purchasing the 1956 masterpiece Saxophone Colossus and 1955 Clifford Brown and Max Roach to see the light. Now, whenever I have the privilege of seeing Jeff "Tain" Watts or others, I can't help but wonder just how cool it would have been to be jammed in one of those smoke-filled Manhattan basements at three in the morning watching those small group masters...Max will be missed...

Just before the King finally handed over his mortal crown, his home was visited by, or more realistically transpassed upon, by a young rock and roller seeking the chance to touch the hem of the King's garment. That young buck is now truly the King of the American rock landscape and on October 2, we will be graced with his new album, "Magic". Look out, world, I'll be writing a lot about Bruce's new album, upcoming tour and how I'll be willing to miss my father as mayor in his first Homecoming Parade to be at the Oakland Coliseum for The Boss.

He Did It*

Barry Bonds slugged number 756 deep into the right field bleachers of AT&T Park tonight. Forever embroiled in controversy, Barry Bonds' claimed use of steriods supposedly will stain his record and make people question his and others' roles in baseball history. If we're concerned about drug use and professional sports, we should look at the Oakland Raiders from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. Granted, drug use was not for professional enhancement but personal recreation, but if Barry gets the boot, teams and players across history should as well. Ty Cobb? John Matuzak? Lyle Alezado (sp?) just to name a few? Nice shot, Bonds. Keep slugging.

There's a slight calm before a hopeful huge storm. That is, the anticipated news of Bruce's new album and following tour dates. I'm still crossing my fingers for October. I'm slated for an elective surgery and I just received news that an opening wouldn't be available until the holiday season, so I shouldn't have to worry about being out of commission for the West Coast run. Thank goodness. More on that later.

While I haven't hit the holiday road like Chris Lefty Brown or made any of the Allman Brothers Band's current run, I have been enjoyed the recent cold spate in the Bay Area that's allowed us to spend time with the windows open, the music playing and the hope that fall shows up a little early. School's doing well so far, too. I've also been withdrawing from the political hullaballoo and b.s. in the news, so my blood pressure's a bit lower. Now, if I could just put together another band...

A Closed Door...

All last week I did all I could to score a cheap pair of tickets to see Rush at the Concord Pavilion. I'm a huge Rush fan. I remember hearing my friend's older brother play albums like Exit...Stage Left and 2112 during Dungeons and Dragons marathons in the early 1980s and when I caught them for the first time in 1990. Rush goes back, one of those bands like U2 or Pink Floyd. Even though I'd distanced myself from their last couple of studio albums, I've held the band close to my heart (pun intended, I guess). Anyway, as the band rolled through, I was determined to see them without paying the exhorbitant face values on the tickets ($35 lawn seats? c'mon...) I scoured craigslist and eBay, nearly scoring several times. Thursday night at eleven pm, someone in my hometown posted two tickets for nearly the price of one. I e-mailed the seller and asked to be e-mailed. Woke up the next morning and nothing. Called my wife from work and nothing. E-mailed later in the day and nothing. And then something awesome happened - a co-worker offloaded a pair of tickets to see the A's play the Angels at the Oakland Coliseum. Only after accepting those seats did I find out that the seller had contacted me twice and my wife had not checked our second e-mail file. So, I missed Rush. Thought about them a lot during the game, too. It did help that the next morning, I checked the tour's setlist (it does not change an iota) and I saw that the band really played several second-tier songs from their back catalogue and nearly the entire new album. The only highlight would have been 1978's Circumstances from the Hemispheres album. How many times must we hear Tom Sawyer?
With that door shut, of course, another did open and I spent the best time of the summer watching my team rally in the bottom of the 8th inning with five runs to beat the first-place Angels. I love the A's. I love baseball. I haven't always. I loved baseball as a little boy through high school as I played and followed the two Bay Area teams during peak eras. Moving to college, I found baseball boring and not very relevant to a life of studying, beach coming nor very intellectually stimulating as what I read or who I spent time with. Basketball and football became the pasttimes of the philistines, especially with the chest-thumping warrior caste attitude that made the NFL and the WWE difficult to distinguish. However, it was the building of the downtown Fresno ballpark that renewed my interest in baseball, not to mention the length of the games and my ADD to not need focussing on a television for three-plus hours. After returning to my hometown, I came to follow the A's and the MLB, first just as a Sports page reader but then a game watcher and a fan. This year, with much time on my hands with paternity leave and a desire to teach my oldest son sportsmanship and the love of the game, I've found that not too much has been between me and following the A's. I'm not one to follow players' histories and personal life stories but I've really come to love this team. Seeing them win a lot and lose more has made me root like a fan as well. I had wanted to catch a game this season but it wasn't in the cards until this last weekend. It didn't help that I sat ten rows directly behind home plate, ate terrible ballpark food and drank overpriced beer. So, it's root root root for my hometeam but it's not too shameful that the season has us about twelve out of first. What I can't wait for is October, with a two-week school holiday and the chance to watch all of the playoffs and hopefully a Mets-Tigers World Series. That is, until Bruce hits the Bay Area and I need to take a couple of nights off from Mudville.