Elton John setlist - Feb 28, 2015 - Reading PA

• Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
• Bennie and the Jets
• Candle in the Wind
• All the Girls Love Alice
• Levon
• Tiny Dancer
• Believe
• Daniel
• Philadelphia Freedom
• Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
• Rocket Man
• Hey Ahab
• I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
• Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
• Your Song
• Burn Down the Mission
• Holiday Inn
• Sad Songs (Say So Much)
• Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
• Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
• The Bitch Is Back
• I'm Still Standing
• Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n Roll)
• Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

Encore:

• Circle of Life / Can You Feel the Love Tonight?
• Crocodile Rock

As usual, thanks to setlist.fm for saving me from typing and/or needing to remember the more obscure songs.

Dennis DeYoung Setlist, Feb 13, 2015 - Penns Peak

• The Grand Illusion
• Lady
• Lorelei
• Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)
• Desert Moon
• Mr. Roboto
• Show Me the Way
• Don't Let It End
• Too Much Time on My Hands
• Rockin' the Paradise
• Babe
• Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)
• Prelude 12
• Suite Madame Blue
• The Best of Times
• A.D. 1958
• Renegade
• Come Sail Away

Great show. Thanks to setlist.fm for the list.

Purring is copyrighted

That's right, America: corporations own the sound of cats purring. Send your checks to your corporate masters each time your cat purrs.

(oh, like we're not heading there...)

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

So, 2015, and the world is weirder than ever. I’m not sure who was a better predictor of the weirdness: William Gibson or the Monty Python troupe. Though maybe Monty Python was a catalyst, as they weren’t in the business of futurism.

According to the FBI, Sony was hacked by the government of North Korea, and the U.S. now has sanctions against North Korea because of it, which just has Gibson written all over it.

This post's title, btw, is by Hunter S. Thompson, who knew a little something about weirdness. Happy new year.

Roger Hodgson setlist, Sands Bethlehem, PA - Nov. 9, 2014

• Take the Long Way Home
• School
• Breakfast in America
• Lady
• The More I Look
• Easy Does It / Sister Moonshine
• Hide in Your Shell
• Lord Is It Mine
• The Logical Song

[intermission]

• Had a Dream
• Quietest Moments
• The Meaning
• Death & a Zoo
• If Everyone Was Listening
• Child of Vision
• Babaji
• Dreamer
• Fool's Overture

Encore:

• Two of Us
• Give a Little Bit
• It's Raining Again

Setlist courtesy setlist.fm

Highway robbery, indeed

So police in the United States have been pulling over drivers for minor traffic violations, discovering cash in the vehicle, and keeping it. It's then up to the victim to prove that the money is theirs, a process that could take a year and cost thousands in legal fees. The police state continues to become a reality, and a criminal reality at that.

All the world's a stage, after all...

abstract threats (too noble to neglect)

Steve Wozniak to the FCC: Keep the Internet Free. Indeed.

Blue Oyster Cult setlist - Penn's Peak, Jim Thorpe PA - May 2, 2014

• The Red and the Black
• Golden Age of Leather
• Burnin for You
• Dancing in the Ruins
• Harvest Moon
• The Vigil
• Buck’s Boogie
• This Ain’t the Summer of Love
• Then Came the Last Days of May
• Godzilla
• Don’t Fear the Reaper

Encore:

• Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll

I may have missed one or two. Post comments with any corrections.

Elvis Costello setlist, Caesars, Atlantic City, NJ - March 8, 2014

• Brilliant Mistake
• Blue Chair
• Watch Your Step
• American Gangster Time
• Man Out of Time
• Girls Talk
• Either Side of the Same Town
• Secondary Modern
• Everyday I Write the Book
• Come The Meantimes
• Deep Dark Truthful Mirror (!!!)
• Strict Time
• Alison
• Monkey to Man
• Watching the Detectives
• Walk Us Uptown
• Clubland
• Beyond Belief
• Sugar Won't Work
• Pump It Up
• (What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding

Encore:

• (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
• Cinco Minutos Con Vos 

Setlist courtesy setlist.fm

Spring 2014

A hard wind blows outside, this dark March evening on the first day of Spring... the longest winter in recent memory won't give up, and we struggle against the darkness, a long January that lasts three months, bitter and frigid. The house creeks like something ancient ... weird sounds bubble up in the night, and wind chimes ring like distant church bells. Daylight is coming, and we wait.

but February made me shiver...

Really, it did. A long, frigid night that lasted weeks -- darkness and cold, blamed on the groundhog, a winter of our discontent, while corporate America and Washington fought over who could be more incompetent. Sigh...

But Spring approaches, as it always does, with the promise of Easter, of life, of love -- a new baby, a blossom white and gold breaking through fresh earth, a sky of wonder...

Cold

I am so sick of winter.

Elvis Costello setlist, Kirby Center, Wilkes Barre PA, Nov. 25, 2013

• Possession
• Accidents Will Happen
• No Dancing
• He’s Got You (Hank Cochran "She's Got You" cover)
• Green Shirt
• You Little Fool
• Pony Street
• Five Small Words
• Domino (Donovan cover) / Living In Paradise
• Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve 
• Blame it on Cain
• Mistress and Maid
• (Not sure what this song was, sorry ... lyrics included "You can't beg")
• Everyday I Write the Book
• Walking My Baby Back Home (Roy Turk cover)
• Stella Hurt
• Watching the Detectives
• One Way Love
• Allison

Encore 1:

• Big Boys Cry (Bobby Charles cover)
• Almost Blue
• Shipbuilding
• Let's Put Out The Lights (And Go To Sleep) (Bing Crosby cover)
• Radio Soul (early version of Radio Radio)
• I Want You

Encore 2:

• Radio Radio/(Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
• A Slow Drag With Josephine
• Veronica
• Jimmie Standing in the Rain
• Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (partial)
• What's so Funny bout Peace, Love, and Understanding

For all my web designer friends...

Seriously, what the **** else do you want?

Lou Reed, American Poet, Magic and Loss...

Lou Reed wrote the soundtrack for my life. I remember the passage of time by what Lou Reed album I was listening to at the time … Mistrial, New Sensations, New York, Songs for Drella, Magic and Loss, Set the Twilight Reeling, Perfect Night Live in London, Ecstasy… (not to mention all the earlier stuff that was interspersed among these…). I last saw him a few years back in Philadelphia, front row. What a show.

“There’s a little bit of Magic in everything, then some Loss to even things out.”

Lou Reed, 1942-2013

Insight at the heart of "TED talks are lying to you" (Salon article)

There's a really fascinating insight at the center of this article, TED talks are lying to you - that the privileged elite, who control the whims of our economy, justify their very existence by imagining they are the creative class by exploiting the output of the true creatives. And authors of management tomes espousing creativity are really catering to this bizarre supposition by retelling the same tired examples (Dylan, 3M, Beatles, Apple).

IPhone fingerprint lock already hacked

That didn't take long. Instead, use passcodes with auto-erase after 10 failed attempts (you do backup your phone, right?).

Time to dump the iPhone?

Apple patents tech that lets government disable iPhone video, camera and wi-fi. Because letting the government shutdown your phone's camera can only be to protect you, right? Because, you know, we wouldn't want people to take pictures of the terrorists, right? Or... huh?

Seriously, what could be a legitimate reason for this, other than letting militant thugs patriots beat up protesters terrorists without fear of repercussions I don't know flowers?

Alice Cooper setlist, Reading PA, June 18, 2013

Good (if short) show. I caught "diamonds" during Dirty Diamonds.

• Hello Hooray
• House of Fire
• No More Mr. Nice Guy
• Billion Dollar Babies
• I'll Bite Your Face Off
• Is It My Body
• Under My Wheels
• Hey Stoopid
• Poison
• Dirty Diamonds
• Welcome to My Nightmare
• Go to Hell
• Feed My Frankenstein
• Ballad of Dwight Fry
• Killer (excerpt)
• I Love the Dead (excerpt, refrain only)
• School's Out

Encore:

• I'm Eighteen