The Visitation of Those Sounds

On Saturday night I made my way to the Steely Dan concert with my brother Terry, often times my partner in crime to some of the best rock shows I've ever witnessed. I say rock but really in this case at least, SD is a hybrid Jazz and Rock band (Jack or Rozz - take your pick). In any event the show was intended to showcase their famed Aja album from 1977.

 

From the opening note of Black Cow it was apparent that what the crowd would be treated to one of the tightest, smooth sounding bands ever assembled. The band articulated every sound within the confines of this album with an ease of performance rarely heard or seen. They recreated every song in order and even halted for one of the vocalists to flip the record at its appropriate point.

 

Black Cow

Aja

Deacon Blues

Peg

Home At Last

I Got The News

Josie.

 

By the way, don't let anybody tell you different, the song Peg is about Margaret Trudeau.

 

Though this album is now some 32 years old it is amazing how well it has held up its end of the bargain. Offering only 7 songs it was one of the most detailed albums in sound arrangement and complexity of its time. Upon completion of the album Fagan intimated that they would be offering up some other favorites over the course of the remainder of the show. Rikki,  don't lose that number, Dirty Work (the only less than stellar performance) My Old School (he did go back when they apologized and gave him an honorary degree) , Babylon Sister and a host of others.

 

The encore offered up the capper (including a wonderful reproduction of the guitar intro) from Reelin' in the years. Aren't we all. I have subsequently spent the last two days revisiting their repertoire and I have to say that if you haven't listened to Steely Dan for a while take the time and do it now. It is still ear candy of the highest order.

 

Thank you Donald Fagan and Walter Becker for some of the most tantalizing sounds to come out of our generation of masterpieces. For the kids out there who aren't familiar with their offerings, take the time and get educated. This is what good music should sound like. All elements of jazz, rock, blues and a good measure of RnB to get your toes tapping and your hips to sway.

 

 

 

55 is the new Teen

Someone told me the other day that 55 is the new 40 and I had to think about that. Their reasoning of course was that unlike our parents hitting 55, where they looked and acted like, em let see 55! , we tend to be much more active and with it. However, the more I thought about it, the more I concluded that no way are we the new 40. No way. We are much more like teenagers. Now hear me out. I was first struck by this idea when I received a call from one of my brothers who informed me that he was out looking for a job. He had been let go and was hoping to latch onto something in fairly short order. In the current economy it is certainly not a rarity and in fact, in my age group, it seems to be happening with more frequency then a rabbit coupling on a bunny farm. In fact I think I have more relatives and friends out looking for a job than are currently employed. That's when it struck me. This had not been the case since we were 16 and all looking for our first full time and / or part time job depending on whether one had decided to pursue higher education or hire education. My god, I thought, I'm going to have to decide what I want to be when I grow up!!

 

Now that is not my only evidence however, because, I have also had this lingering knee pain for the last year or more and it comes and goes, is mild to severe and always hits when there is really something fun to do. While I was popping yet another handful of advil to try to get my knees working, it occurred to me that I had been through this before. When I was a kid, I got these growing pains (ask my mother) that always presented themselves in the knee or hip or shins and my god they hurt. These pains feel just like that. Maybe I've started growing again. God only knows, my waist line has. Maybe my body has been tricked into thinking I'm sixteen again. With that little tidbit, I also remembered that about a week ago I slept in until 9:30 in the morning. Usually, I would have been up for 3 hours and had at least one nap. I can't recall sleeping in 'til 9:30 since (you got it) I was a teenager!!!

 

Now the kicker. Yesterday I was busy shaving when I felt a discomfort on the back of my neck. My hand slowly travelled the distance from the facial area to the neck area, all the time wondering, what in heavens name is that.

Mother of god, I had a pimple, full prom night, ready to burst on the scene and cause immediate embarrassment, honest to goodness acne. Acne so gargantuan that aircraft would radio air traffic concerned about the obstruction. I hadn't had a pimple that big since one took up residence on the tip of my nose in 1967 and finally faded to obscurity around 1978.

 

So you're still not convinced, well I was holding onto this one not wanting to pull out the big guns but you asked for it. When was the last time you saw a group of 55 year old women sitting around having coffee. I noticed this in one of the bagel shops the other day and its when my suspicions were finally solidified into the scientific equivalent of sure thing. One lady either not realizing how loud she was or completely oblivious to everything but her immediate table company (just like a teenager) started fanning herself with a newspaper creating an airflow that may have succeeded in lifting the Spruce Goose and telling everyone within the four surrounding counties that if she had another hot flash like the one she had last night she'd be "sweating like a pack mule in the Grand Canyon country side". This fueled a cacophony of "I got you beats" and "That's nothings" all dying to be the first to humble the previous tale. Well, I thought, wouldn't they love to know just how young they are.

 

 

 

The Fading Light of the NHL

Is it me or is the NHL going bad quicker than a jar of mayonnaise on a hot summer's day. I'm not talking about the players or the game, rather I'm talking about the NHL product in all of its forms. Allow me to enumerate some of the failings that provide this ever increasing feeling of product erosion. In the last several games that I've watched, the officiating has fallen to nothing better than peewee hockey, though this may be egregiously unfair to peewee officiating. I've seen pucks hitting the protector screen over the glass, high sticks (not just shoulder high - I'm talking well over your head high), face punches, missed off sides, slashing, goaltender interference, too many men on the ice (I mean 7 men on the ice!!!!), missed head shots, slew footing and hitting players from behind. All of these infractions have gone unnoticed by the very people purported to be watching for these very things and many of these offences have been turned into goals by the team committing those infractions.
This has a very significant impact on the game and how it is perceived by the very people this league is apparently trying to attract.

We have all witnessed the often pathetic, sometimes comedic handling of the Phoenix Coyotes debacle. In business, one expects an organization the size of the NHL, from time to time, to realize failings such as the Coyotes. An organization can't expand without taking risk and therefore I do not find fault with the attempt to put a team in Phoenix. Where I do find fault, was in their inability to recognize the severity of the problem before it got so far out of hand and to take remedial steps to correct its course. What they now have is one of the hockey's iconic figures (Gretzky), at odds with the NHL in a public way. Gee, this sounds all to familiar (Orr, Howe, Hull). Furthermore, the NHL has created the distinct impression in Canada that while it is perceived and treated like the poorer cousin; this cousin is basically picking up the tab (or a large part of it) on behalf of the richer target markets. Everyone understands that Canadians would enjoy hockey if it was played at midnight, broadcast on radio in a candle lit room. Heck, it is how the NHL came about, but I would be very cautious about letting that attitude permeate the country for too much longer, lest a European league takes interest in the Southern Ontario, Quebec and western Canada markets.

Finally, many Canadians wouldn't know this but there is a huge p#$%%#g match going on between cable tv and satellite broadcasting here in the great US of A. Caught in the middle of this are hockey viewers who have paid for but don't receive the services promised. It started with the lapse of the contract between Versus and Direct TV. Versus as you may not know, was given broadcasting rights by the NHL when ESPN showed no interest in their product several years ago. Nearing the end of September 2009, Direct TV announced it would not be broadcasting the Versus network as they were being held hostage by Versus for increased fees. Versus, coincidentally is owned by one of the cable companies. Why, may you ask, would the NHL not intervene in this little tiff? Well the cable companies are also owners of several teams in the NHL and have been carving out this little territory for themselves. Fair enough, as a viewer one realizes that if you want to watch the product you'll ante up the money for the NHL Center Ice package at a fairly hefty cost of $170.00 per year. Lo and Behold, if you purchase the NHL Center Ice package on Direct TV, the cable companies refuse to provide the HD signal that viewers of the NHL Center Ice package get with the cable companies. Even the games broadcast in HD from Canada are being blocked out.

Keep up the good work NHL.

Avery, Unsavory and other Turkey Stories

Okay Okay - I know I used moving as an excuse in October but now we're moving into our new house and that too has taken an enourmous amount of time along with my day job, my school work and a nice vacation in Bermuda. The last part I really enjoyed. Upon my return a number of issues have cropped up that I'd like to talk about in no particular order.

Sean Avery is a professional hockey player who this week managed to once again cast a dark cloud over a sport which I truly love to watch. Despite its rap for being a mindlessly brutal sport by some or a hopelessly boring sport by others, I would suggest, in my humble opinion, it is by far the most althletically difficult sport of all the professional sports available. It offers the speed of sprint, the physical aggression of football (not soccer), the thoughtful detail of baseball and the sheer excitement of cliff diving (when you're doing it yourself). To have this bafoon expose the general public to his ridiculous behaviour on an ongoing basis defeats all efforts made by the real gentlemen who've played this sport before and who will play this sport in years to come. When teammates speak out against you in the aftermath of such a truly insidious public spectacle then you know you have crossed beyond the line of redemption. I would plead with the league, the NHLPA, the management of the Stars and his team to lock arms and tell him he isn't wanted anymore. I wonder as a father how he would react to someone speaking of his daughter (God forbid that should ever hold true) in the manner he chose. Shame on him and anyone like him.

Speaking of unsavory - I noted that Carl Rove is now out rewriting history for the masses. Apparently, now he indicates that if they had had different intelligence they would not have gone to war. Hold on there fella - that is the biggest crock of horse patties I've heard. You went to war, you knowingly lied to everyone about it, and you did it because you wanted to. You bought it, you own and you are not dropping the trash off in someone else's dumpster. And by the way - no one wins a war - you either lose lots or you lose more!!!

On a happy note Christmas is fast approaching and I've been dreaming of my turkey dinner. I had a great turkey dinner in Bermuda but I realized that the reason we so look forward to turkey is because it goes on and on for days afterwards so by having enjoyed it in a restaurant, you are denied the week long romance to disgust that typically follows these long drwan feasts. So those combine my turkey thoughts for the season. Ho ho ho!!!!

Whew - now I feel better.

The Great Curse of Costco

Last year I went shopping at COSCO and was hit by the COSCO curse. You know it, perhaps not by name, but it is very familiar to you. The errand was a simple one. My wife Jane, asked me to pick up four steaks for dinner. No problem. Heck I’ve done it a hundred times before. I mean how difficult can it be, right! So I set off with my brother-in-law and all the confidence of a rooster in a hen house.
 
I arrived and flashed my membership card. It carries that lovely picture that makes you look like it was lifted from the  FBI most wanted. Anyway I flashed the card and strutted right on through those doors like I owned the place. I’m aware the meat section is all the way to the back and so I don’t even take a cart because I only need four steaks remember.
 
On my way to the back I first wonder through the TV section because I’m a man and the eleventh commandment states that every man must never pass an electronic section without at least contemplating the purchase of the 93” 1080 p with HD ready flat screen with no less than 4 HDMI i/o... and then I snap out of it. I start my way down to the meat section and then call my wife to see if she needs a new IPOD because I only need four steaks and so I can carry one extra item and she was thinking about replacing hers.
 
Well after a conversation with her I set out once again to the meat section and run right past that new juicer that I’ve thought about buying before  but realized I probably didn’t need it and besides I don’t have a cart and only need four steaks. So I set off again and almost make it to the back but I’m interrupted first by the BOOK/DVD/CD table, the new BBQ section and finally halted by the wine and beer section. I wasn’t diverted by the Woodbridge, nor did the Brunello di Montelciano win me but the Sterling Cabernet Sauvignon cinched it.
 
I headed back to the front to get a cart and on my way back I stopped and picked up the juicer, and knowing I was buying some wine I decided to surprise Jane and replace those ugly wine glasses I bought last year with a new set of Crystal MIKASA’s. Then made it to the wine section, picked up 6 bottles of assorted deals and then proceeded to pick up two filets, two racks of lamb, two chickens, a pound of shrimp, enough asparagus, lettuce, mushrooms and water to feed and then sink the navy and finally bagels for the entire east coast.
 
When I got outside and tallied up the damage it was then that I realized I never did get those four steaks.