I Heard it Through the Grapevine

Haired it? Hoid it? Heired it? However John Fogerty's singing it. Whatever. It's all good. All eleven minutes.

Wait. Steve is attempting to figure out how he actually says it in the song.

Huheed, apparently. You hoid it hear first.

But! That's not why I'm posting. I'm posting because I've not posted since the last time I posted which was sometime last week, I think. And I refuse to let this valuable bit of web space go to waste. That's reserved for my website, which I really should, I dunno, do something with. I mean, I am paying for it and all. But that's another post.

I don't really feel like posting about Christmas. Not because I had a bad time. On the contrary, I had a most wonderful time. I just don't really feel like doing a blow-by-blow recount of the weekend. I imagine my week off has contributed mightily to my overall feeling of laziness. I do enjoy being a slug, but I have to say, it saps the drive to do much of anything else pretty well.

In fact...I lost my train of thought. Steve put a penguin movie in, and my will to finish posting is gone. Year in review, maybe, possibly, if I feel like it later. When I get around to it. Or not.

Posting is quite hard when your brain won't work. I apologize for the lameness of this "update." I'll be personally apologizing to everyone, so watch your doors.

pppbhhhhhhhh,
Dave

U2 pictures? U2 pictures!

Yes, I'm stealing a phrase I never really use. So there. Apologies to any dial-up folks out there besides myself.

This is your life!

Describe yourself using one band and song titles from that band
Choose a band/artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band::	U2
Are you male or female::	Pete the Chop
Describe yourself::	The Wanderer
How do some people feel about you::	A Different Kind of Blue
How do you feel about yourself::	Even Better Than the Real Thing
Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend::	Lady With the Spinning Head
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend::	Two Hearts Beat as One
Describe where you want to be::	In God's Country
Describe what you want to be::	Things to Make and Do
Describe how you live::	One Step Closer
Describe how you love::	Always Forever Now
Share a few words of wisdom:	Some Days Are Better Than Others
Take this survey | Find more surveys You've been totally Bzoink*d

"Any secrets you'd like to confess, Larry Mullen, Jr.?"

So I know you're all sitting around wondering to yourselves "when's he gonna post about the U2 concert?

How about now?



I don't know if it's one of those old saws or not, but I imagine a lot of people, after waiting a long time for something or other, can build up pretty high expectations in their mind, and whatever it is may not live up to them. The risk is especially high in my case, considering I've been listening to recordings of the tour from the day afer it started up until my recent month-long exile. There's a lot at stake, expecially considering how much it costs to attend a U2 show.

With that said, I'm happy to report that when one is dealing with U2, one's expectations are rarely let down. 'Twas a wonderful show, complete with some golden oldies like 'Gloria,' side-project track 'Miss Sarajevo,' and my new favorite, 'Original of the Species.' At no addtional charge to us, the audience, we even got a cover of John Lennon's 'Instant Karma,' which was surprisingly good. Part of me would have liked one of their own songs, say 'Crumbs From Your Table,' but I don't think I'm going to complain. I think it'd be too easy to nit pick about what was played and what wasn't instead of simply enjoying the show for what it was.

I will admit, though, that on a purely emotional level, this show didn't compare to the Chicago show of 2001. But on an overall level, this might have been better, maybe because the new material is a lot stronger. The house was full, the band was on, save for a timing mishap during 'Bullet,' and all was well.

And the light curtain is very drool worthy.

Did I mention they played 'Original of the Species?' Man, I love that song.

Lots of cool moments during the show: the light curtain, especially suring 'Vertigo,' Bono going ape-shit on his little drum during 'Love and Peace,' the little kid Bono brought on stage during 'Sunday Bloody Sunday,' the "old geezer" playing piano on 'Yahweh,' and Bono and Edge sharing a mad dash* around the stage during 'Until the End of the World.'

One thing I was worried about was that after waiting so long just to get to the show, it would fly by in a blink. Thankfully, it really didn't seem to zip along too fast, so I was able to soak in every moment.

Even better, the seats were dynamite. Pretty good, considering I let the Ticketmaster website do all the hard work.

The only real downer is that now I've got no U2 to look forward to. For the past nine months, it was always there, waiting in the wings. Now that the show's over, it's created a bit of a void. Thankfully, we've got back-to-back 'Tones shows and a couple of Mouth shows early next year.

And hey, more recordings of U2 to look forward to!



She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah
Dave




*Odds are good that Bono would have caught up with Mr. The Edge if Edge hadn't stopped behind Larry's drum kit. Still, I've never seen him up there, and having the entire band clustered together at the end of the song around the drums was pretty snazzy.

Inside Out

The nice thing about posting this way is that I barely have to think of anything new to type. I'll just let my own words do the talking for me! It's like this thing wrote itself, almost. I thought about using ALA style for Janice's sake, but decided not to.

Anyways.

January
With Steve's successive viewing of The Princess Bride, I think that leaves me as one of the few people on earth who have yet to watch it.

February
Is it possible to lose your train of thought before you've even started thinking?

March
Many thanks to all the submissions for Miss MaxRes 2005.

April
According to mum, who never lies; ever, all baptized males are eligible to be elected Pope.

May
Finally getting to the third point I meant to get to at some point last week.

June
I have just discovered that iTunes, the service, is pretty cool.

July
I have two words to describe my recent Holiday of the Month: On weeeeeeed!!!

August
Good friend Tom has this poster in his basement.

September
Calvin and Hobbes is back in newspapers.

October
Well, despite Isringhausen's best efforts to give all of St. Louis a massive corronary, the Cardinals are up 1-0 after dispatching the Fathers of San Diego 8-5.

November
If memory serves, today marks the eighth anniversary of seeing U2 for the first time back on the PopMart tour.

December
One of the the great things in life, I think, is hearing a song on the radio you haven't heard in many a year, and remembering how cool it was back in the day when it was new.


So if, in some odd way, this was the only set of memories I had from 2005, what would I have to say about this year?

On weeeeeeeeed!!!!

Yeah, yeah. That's it.

U2 in two days. Excellent.

I have coined a new term: ninjosity. Essentially, how much ninja-ness a person may or may not have. Stupid, yes, but lots of fun to say. Try it!

Finally: if you need tomatoes, please ask, as I have recently acquired a few cans of them.


You say tomater, I zader matermorts.
Dave

Third and Ten

My neighbor, who shall remain nameless, because I can't remember his name, has one of those fancy-type-fountains-with-the-flowing-water in his back yard. That's all fine and dandy. He also has it running constantly right now, and at last check, it was cold enough to freeze your Winnebago outside. I'm not complaining, but it does seem silly. Or maybe he likes sitting on his patio in his boxers with temperatures covering around freaking cold degrees.

Janice and I attended our first Rams game today, respectively. Her first and my only one so far. Thanks to the proper connections, namely her aunt, we scored a couple spots in the Post-Dispatch luxury suite, which was, pardon the pun, pretty sweet. Free food and drink, and a nice view of the on field goings-on. I refrain from using 'action,' because there really wasn't a lot of it. Not for us, at least. Some dumb penalties cost us at various points, and the defense was good, when they weren't letting some player from the Redskins run through us like a freight train through a saltine. I didn't get too upset though, as I have no real emotional attachment to our football team. Maybe it's the nature of the game itself, but football and I have never really set well. Not quite oil and water, but not quite sugar and water, if you will. I usually get bored with a game by mid-second quarter when I watch at home. It might have something to do with the rather sporadic nature of the action, or the innumerable commercial breaks, or how the last minute of play can often last as long as The Ten Commandments. Whatever the case, it just ain't my thing. That said, I still had a good time and if free seats come up again, I'm all for going.

I went to a Baptist church service this morning for a NorCo Journal shoot. It was about what I figured: lotsa singing and clapping, lively church-goers, a really loud, intense, etc. pastor, and a somewhat loose structure. Or it felt loose, at least. I guess after the fairly heavy structure of Catholic mass, it seemed a little different. Not really the way I like my church, but for those who like it, more power to them.

Oh yeah, the church was located in a refurbished McDonald's. Weird, huh? I was disappointed at how well they rennovated the building. The outside was obvious: the building was painted white, and featured an added-on steeple, but the inside showed no signs of its former life. Half of the interest for me was trying to find a shot that showed how it was and how it is, but, alas, I was outta luck. Still, I got a pen out of the deal, so I s'pose it was all worth it. But at 2+ hours, the service was a bit more than I could take, mostly because I needed to leave to get to said football game.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is coming to SLCL HQ on Thursday. Please, hold yourselves back. And don't ask me for tickets. We're all out. But, for a small fee, maybe I can sneak you in for the hoity-toity soiree before hand with all the suits.

Hike!
Dave

Miscellaneous Music Musings

One of the the great things in life, I think, is hearing a song on the radio you haven't heard in many a year, and remembering how cool it was back in the day when it was new. Such was the case a few months ago, when I heard one of my favorites from my Point days while driving home from the store on 93X. As is often the case, no one told me the name of the song when it ended (That seems to happen a lot to me. Same thing happened with Joe Walsh's 'Life's Been Good.'). And, unfortunately, my tried and true method of catching a lyric fragment and googling it to find the song was no use, as the only thing I could make out was "just like" repeated at the end. Still, I gave it a go, but to no avail. For whatever reason, I decided I'd give it a go again yesterday. I tried the Google approach, and ever several variations (no boolean operators, though), got fed up and switched to Yahoo. Much to my surprise, and delight, the second search result yielded what I was looking for. The name of the band, long lost in my mind, but not entirely forgotten, is Spacehog, and the song is 'In the Meantime.' Thanks to iTunes, it's now in my library.

Yay internet!

I think it's about time to address one of the greatest issues any rock and roll fan has to come to terms with and decide on: Van Halen or Van Hagar*? I used to be a firm supporter of the original Van Halen, mostly because the Hagar years seemed, well, kinda sissy. I mean, 'Dreams'? 'Why Can't This Be Love'? Keyboards and synths? What happened to Dave, the spandex, heavy guitars, and 'Hot For Teacher'? 'Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love'?

Thanks, but no thanks. After getting to know the Red Rocker a bit more, muscially, I started warming to the Van Hagar material a bit more, and decided it wasn't that bad, and, maybe, just maybe, it was what I preferred. In the end though, I gotta go with Van Halen. There's an unmistakable attitude running through that stuff that's really hard to top. It's loud, in your face, and there aren't any wimpy synths anywhere, except for 'Jump,' which isn't sappy at all, so it can get away with it.

And, really, I think Dave pulled off the tights better than Sammy did. But that's just me.

Another dilemma that I've yet to answer: if I'm forming a band, do I take Vic or Stu?

After almost 9 months, the U2 countdown stands at just about a week and a half. Self-imposed U2 exile has worked pretty well, mostly. I've had no contact with websites to spoil the surprise, and, although unplanned, I've not listened to much actual music, so the experience should be as fresh as possible.

Also cool: March 24, Cowboy Mouth. March 31/April 1, Flecktones.

Woot.


All in all, we love the all of you.
Dave

I'm choosing to ignore the short-lived Gary Charone era, since it kinda sucked.