Nail Biting

Talk about one of my tourette's-OCD symptoms at its worst these next eighty hours: tickets for Bruce's Oakland show hit Monday morning at 10:00. I haven't heard from Lefty (hint hint) about what he wants to do but one of the most recent shows sold out in one minute. Madison Square Garden went in six. I'm not expecting to get anything. I'm looking to pay a scalper to rape me and steal my life's savings. Sadly, I'm willing to do this simply to say I caught Bruce and the band (probably for the last time) in an arena and not a stadium show. Sweatier than a, well, you know.

It's Saturday night and my wife and I are reading (I'm taking a break, of course), listening to some choice tunage (more in a sec) while watching the PBS fundrive. The musical act this evening is Bachman/Cummings, the two leaders of The Guess Who and for the former, Bachman-Turner Overdrive. BTO was probably the worst popular act in the rockin' 70s, though the Steve Miller Band and Styx gave them a good run for their money. I do, however, have a soft spot for the Guess Who which started the first time I caught the t.v. commercials for "Freedom Rock". I think we can safely say that "Freedom Rock" was ultimately responsible for launching the corporate juggernaut we today know as "classic rock", but in the late '80s, hearing that late 60s/early 70s stuff totally blew my mind. I just "knew" I was supposed to be knowing if I wanted to love rock and roll. Anywho, the PBS thing actually wasn't that bad. The BTO stuff was what it was and Burt Cummings' voice is gone, but who knew Randy Bachman knew more than the prerequistie four power chords all rockers in the 70s knew?

Happy 7th, AF. You and those who matter know.

Did I mention Bruce tickets going on sale? His album, along with John Fogerty's and the VERY interesteing Robert Plant/Allison Kraus pairing hit the stores on October 2nd. My wife and I are marking our tenth on the 4th of that month. We're thinking about going out of town but how do I still hit the record stores to scoop these up on our "romantic getaway" with our three children?

OK, the music's been rolling in and it's great. The Patti Scialfa album is absolutely fantastic. It continues to grow on me as the Alice Peacock discovery last year did. Everything else is jazz. Here's what I've hit and then still need to cover:

Miles Davis: Cookin With... and Steaming With... Two more albums you wonder where they have been your entire life. And yet, as soon as the discs play, you know they've been a part of you or at least expressed a feeling you've always held, you just needed to hear it.

Sonny Rollins + Four: with the Clifford Brown/Roach rhythm section. Great stuff, though I must say it took him to not have a sparring partner to unleash his fury just two months later in May, 1956 on Tenor Madness and the ultimate Saxophone Colossus. Ever have an album drive you to the record store at eleven at night? Yup; thanks, Sonny.

Joe Lovano: Joyous Encounter (2005). What modern jazz is all about; the old, the new, the familiar and the groundbreaking. I nice, relaxing and yet fresh. A great find.

Benny Green: Naturally. Another terrific score. How can you go wrong with Christian McBride and Tain?

to still hit tomorrow: Sonny Clark and Coltrane, '63. Both'll probably stink.

So, Zeppelin's announced a 'one-off' (yeah right) show in January. Tickets on sale by lottery. 15,000 seats. 20 million entries. Was I the only one NOT to enter?

Do I need to discuss Bush's policy shift? Do I need to discuss General Patraeus' cherry-picking of information? How could the diagnosis be so good when the White House's own report card was so bad? Do I need to discuss how the Bush plan apparently is to hand Iraq to his successor, which, knowing cynical Bush, will be, in his mind, a Democrat? A true war criminal if I ever saw one. At least Hitler had the courtesy to kill himself when passing the war off.