Everything's a mashup

So having just attended Farpoint (great con, btw, highly recommend if you're looking for something affordable and fun, yet small enough not to overwhelm), I noticed that everything has become a mashup without me noticing. Genres are no longer just horror or mystery, but are now vampire police-procedural and urban-fantasy detective and steampunk C. S. Lewis. I attended a workshop dedicated to mashing up X-Men characters (Professor Xavier and Sabretooth, anyone?). Sure, everything is a combination of prior experience, right? But this seems more, I dunno, blatant? Precise?

Awfully quiet...

Someone is slacking off around here...

Spring Break

You want to attract talent? Offer Spring Break for the workplace. Give staff a week off, maybe subsidize a trip to Florida. All other things being equal, would be nice... Sigh.

AIs generating surreal content for children -- what could go wrong?

Fascinating analysis of those weird kids' videos on YouTube Kids:

Awesome 80's cyberpunk-ish ad for a GE casette player

The summer of COVID

We are all living in a science fiction novel now, a grim dystopia of worldwide pandemic mixed with corporate malfeasance and government monitoring, where the masses are brainwashed by both corrupt media manipulation and dark memes from "social" platforms.

And yet the sun still shines, there are deer in the farmers' fields across the way, and hummingbirds in my window each day.

And while live music is a rarity (though I did see Elvis across a campground, and a local band playing a Tommy Conwell cover in that same space a week earlier), there is still music to be played, our personal setlist in headphones on short walks or car speakers on short drives. We will find our way through this, too.

UFO and Blue Oyster Cult, Nov. 1, 2019, Penn's Peak

UFO

• Mother Mary
• We Belong to the Night
• Venus
• Lights Out
• Burn Your House Down
• Only You Can Rock Me
• Cherry
• Love to Love
• Too Hot to Handle
• Rock Bottom
• Shoot Shoot

Blue Oyster Cult

• The Red & the Black
• Before the Kiss, a Redcap
• Career of Evil
• Burnin' for You
• Harvest Moon
• The Vigil
• Hot Rails to Hell
• Buck's Boogie
• Then Came the Last Days of May
• Godzilla
• (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Encore:

• Cities on Flame With Rock and Rol

Thanks to SetList.fm: UFO BOC

Alice Cooper setlist, July 17, 2019, Allentown PPL Center

It was nice that he changed up the setlist somewhat...

• Feed My Frankenstein
• No More Mr. Nice Guy
• Bed of Nails
• Raped and Freezin'
• Fallen in Love
• Muscle of Love
• I'm Eighteen
• Billion Dollar Babies
• Poison
• Roses on White Lace
• My Stars
• Devil's Food
• Black Widow Jam
• Steven
• Dead Babies
• I Love the Dead (band vocals only)
• Escape
• Teenage Frankenstein

Encore:

• Under My Wheels
• School's Ou

Thanks to setlist.fm.

Loudon Wainwright III Setlist, Opera House, Jim Thorpe PA - March 23, 2019

Another great show at the Opera House, with a great opening set by Jessy Tomsko (check out Wild and Good).

Loudon's setlist:

• One Man Guy
• God's Got a Shit List
• You Can't Fail Me Now
• Between
• I Knew Your Mother
• Heaven
• The Sum of Recollection Just Keeps Growing
• Bein' a Dad
• Grammy Chronicles
• In C
• The Picture
• OGM
• Motel Blues
• New Paint
• It Ain't Gaza
• White Winos
• Hank and Fred

Encore:

• Middle of the Night

Setlist courtesy SetList.FM, as I didn't know the names of all the songs. Loudon's website.

The Psychedelic Furs setlist - Penn's Peak, October 29, 2018

I really went to hear Heartbreak Beat...  which was, y'know, awesome. Songs are memories, like DNA for the heart.

• Heartbeat
• Sister Europe
• Dumb Waiters
• Highwire Days
• The Ghost in You
• Into You Like a Train
• She Is Mine
• Heartbreak Beat
• Until She Comes
• Mr. Jones
• President Gas
• Love My Way
• No Easy Street
• Only You and I
• Heaven

Encore:

• Pretty in Pink
• India 

Any corrections, drop a comment. Merci.

Oh, Shrodinger...

"How does potential get resolved?"

- (quoted from a Slashdot thread)

John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, Penn's Peak, Sept. 14, 2018 setlist

So this is incomplete, but what I remember... Really great, underrated band. Opener was the Scott Weis Band, who played some great blues rock (and even used a cigar-box guitar for a bit -- wonderful stuff).

• Tough All Over
• On the Dark Side (yep, 2nd song -- they got this out of the way early)
• Boardwalk Angel
• Victory Dance
• Wild Summer Nights

I started a setlist.fm list, in case anyone else has a fuller setlist.

Yes setlist - July 6, 2018, Penn's Peak, Jim Thorpe PA

• Close To The Edge (Close To The Edge)
• Nine Voices (The Ladder)
• Parallels (Going For The One)
• Mood For A Day (Fragile)
• Leaves Of Green (excerpt from The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) from Tales From Topographic Oceans)
• Fly From Here Pt. I - We Can Fly (Fly From Here)
• Sweet Dreams (Time And A Word)
• Heart Of The Sunrise (Fragile)
• Perpetual Change (The Yes Album)
• Does It Really Happen? (Drama)
• Soon (Relayer)
• Awaken (Going For The One)

Encore:

• Yours Is No Disgrace (The Yes Album)
• Roundabout (Fragile)
• Starship Trooper (The Yes Album)

Overall a great show, with surprise guests Alan White and Tony Kaye for a few songs near the end.

Thanks to Forgotten Yesterdays for setlist info.

The Machine setlist - June 1, 2018, Penn's Peak

I remembered a few songs, which I posted over at setlist.fm with the hope that others will add to the list... not yet.

• Your Possible Pasts
• Learning to Fly
• Young Lust
• Another Brick in the Wall Part 2

Encore:

• Wish You Were Here
• Comfortably Numb

Todd Rungdren's Utopia setlist - April 18, 2018, Penn's Peak, Jim Thorpe, PA

Wonderful show from the third row. Did not realize Utopia was such a great band and evidently has a lot of die-hard fans. 

• Utopia Theme
• Ikon
• Another Life
• Freedom Fighters
• Do Ya (ELO song)
• The Wheel
• Back on the Street
• Something’s Coming
• Monument
• Communion With the Sun
• Last of the New Wave Riders
• Road to Utopia
• Play This Game
• Swing to the Right
• Trapped
• Set Me Free
• Love in Action
• Hammer in My Heart
• Princess of the Universe
• I Will Wait
• Rock Love
• Love is the Answer
• One World
• Just One Victory

Selist courtesy of Ultimate Classic Rock.

Alice Cooper setlist - March 10, 2018, Kirby, Wilkes-Barre, PA

Great show all around.  Highlights were the new songs and, of course, Serious from the classic From the Inside. Nice to see Alice mix it up, if only a little.

• Brutal Planet 

• No More Mr. Nice Guy 

• Under My Wheels 

• Billion Dollar Babies 

• Be My Lover 

• Lost in America 

• Serious 

• Fallen in Love 

• Woman of Mass Distraction 

• Guitar Solo (Nita Strauss) 

• Poison 

• Halo of Flies 

• Feed My Frankenstein 

• Cold Ethyl 

• Only Women Bleed 

• Paranoiac Personality 

• Ballad of Dwight Fry 
Killer (excerpt) 

• I Love the Dead 

• I'm Eighteen 


Encore:

• School's Out 

Courtesy setlist.fm.

The Lion Roars, a last scream of Winter...

So March came in like a lion, with a snowstorm across the northeast (but only two inches here). But the lion is dying, one last stalking perimeter circle to show his strength, baring his teeth but gasping for breath. I feel Spring out there on the edges, looking furtively to see if it's safe to emerge. "Fuck the groundhog," it mutters, "I want Out." 

Soon, dear Spring, soon... we wait patiently, and hold candles against the dark.

Cheap Trick setlist - Penn's Peak, November 12, 2017

• Hello There
• Big Eyes
• California Man
• Southern Girls
• The House Is Rockin' (With Domestic Problems)
• On Top of the World
• Baby Loves to Rock
• Heaven Tonight
• Ain't That a Shame
• Long Time Coming
• No Direction Home
• I Know What I Want
• I'm Waiting for the Man / Heroin (Tom Petersson on lead vocals)
• The Flame
• I Want You to Want Me
• Dream Police

Encore:

• Surrender
• Auf Wiedersehen
• Goodnight Now

Yes, the Velvet Underground cover was a highlight, and unexpected!
Setlist courtesy setlist.fm.

Blue Oyser Cult setlist - Penn's Peak, November 4, 2017

• Transmaniacon MC
• Golden Age of Leather
• Burnin' for You
• Harvest Moon
• The Vigil
• ME 262
• Buck's Boogie
• Then Came the Last Days of May
• Screams
• She's as Beautiful as a Foot
• True Confessions
• Tattoo Vampire
• Godzilla
• (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Encores:

• Joan Crawford
• Dancin' in the Ruins
• Hot Rails to Hell
• Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll 

Great show.Wonderful guitar work by Buck on "Then Came the Last Days of May."

Setlist courtesy of setlist.fm.

Roger Hodgson setlist - Sands Bethlehem, Oct. 6, 2017

• Take the Long Way Home
• School
• Breakfast in America
• Lovers in the Wind
• Hide in Your Shell
• Along Came Mary
• The Logical Song
• Lord Is It Mine
• Death and a Zoo
• If Everyone Was Listening
• The Awakening
• Had a Dream (Sleeping With the Enemy)
• Child of Vision
• Dreamer
• Fool's Overture
  
  Encore:
• Two of Us
• Give a Little Bit

Courtesy setlist.fm