Alice Cooper's Lost Years

Watching an interview with Alice Cooper from 1981. This was hist "lost" period, in which he claims to have little memory due to the oblivion of alcohol. Despite his apparent haziness during this interview, there's a certain lucidity, a recognition of how the world works, and some interesting insights.

I always enjoyed the albums from that period: Special Forces , Zipper Catches Skin , Dada . They were zany and weird and punk-ish, with great songwriting. He never performs that stuff live anymore, though I think more than a few fans would love to hear some of those songs...

RIP David Bowie

I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man
Just a mortal with potential of a superman
I'm living on...

from Quicksand (from the album Hunky Dory, 1971)

Happy New Year (2016 edition)

Do something amazing this year.

Visit Paris. Or Scotland (in a kilt in Edinboro, doing a modern dance...).

Write that novel. Publish that book of poems.

Learn a new language. Learn to type properly.

Get healthier.

Don't just dream. Do.

Eric Burdon and the Animals setlist - Sept. 29, 2015, Penn's Peak

• Don't Bring Me Down
• When I Was Young
• Inside Looking Out
• Water
• Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
• I Believe to My Soul
• Spill the Wine
• Black Dog
• Bo Diddley Special
• We've Gotta Get Out of This Place
• River Is Rising
• The House of the Rising Sun

Encore:

• It's My Life

Blue Oyster Cult and Vanilla Fudge at Penn's Peak - Oct. 9, 2015 setlists

Vanilla Fudge: (partial)

• Break On Through (to the Other Side)
• People Get Ready
• Gimme Some Lovin'
• Let's Pray for Peace
• Do the Jerk
• You Keep Me Hangin' On

BOC:

• The Red & the Black
• Golden Age of Leather
• Burnin' for You
• Dancin' in the Ruins
• Harvest Moon
• The Vigil
• ME 262
• Buck's Boogie
• Then Came the Last Days of May
• Godzilla
• Guitar Solo (Buck Dharma)
• (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Encore:

• Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll

Another summer passes...

When I was younger, summer lasted forever. What happened to that? Are we spinning round the sun that much faster? Or if I ask the young now, will they say it lasts forever?

Is it the trivial ways we spend our days, futzing about on Facebook and Twitter and similar, not forming any real memories, just a sea of digital droppings, random thoughts and pictures of food? Why do we fritter about so, anyway? What is this fear of missing out on something, while missing out on everything?

Why is the summer quiet? Where are all the children nowadays? Not chasing each other in the grass, but absorbed into the same digital distractions? Will they ever learn to live, and love the summer for what it is? Or were we the last?

Are you allowed to fix your own tractor?

Can you fix your tractor when it breaks, or must you pay the exorbitant prices the "official" dealers charge (guess which one John Deere prefers)?

So is Marvel really blowing up their universe?

When DC blew up everything 30 years ago with Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was a mistake. They've tried to retrofit so much since then to recover from that mistake that they've made the problem much worse than the one they were trying to solve (i.e., convoluted continuity).

I guess Marvel wants to align with the movies' continuity and relieve themselves of all the baggage of decades of book continuity. I wish they wouldn't. We invested a lot of time following these stories, time that will be, well, lessened if it's all thrown away.

But hey, Disney, anything to make a buck, right? It's not really about, y'know, sharing joy and all those moral lessons that the movies preach. It's all a facade, a charade. It's all about the money, right? Ideals? Ethics? What kind of world do you live in, kid?

Sigh. Time will tell, I guess.

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...