Musical Highlights of 2006-- #2

JAMES GANG--Nokia Theater
I have loved Joe Walsh since I first saw him become one with his guitar in 1972-3(?). I watched in awe as he led a band called Barnstorm on stage at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green Ohio back then.
I’d never seen nor heard a person and an instrument merge like Joe and his guitar did that night. I continued to love his talent through the Eagles, his solo stuff, and his recordings with The James Gang.
Though I’d heard the music of the James Gang on radio, and the band members were all from my mid western state, I was too young to attend any performances they might have been doing when Walsh was with them.
So now, in August 2006, I get a chance to see the re-united Walsh version of the Gang.
Joe Walsh, Jimmy Fox and Dale Gilmore have come back to have fun, revive the music of the Gang, and give Joe a chance to shine again. Joe said in a radio interview that playing with the Gang allowed him to go different places musically and get into his guitar more than when he had to be a professional sideman with other talented players to perform songs with rigid parts. This was for fun, he said.
True to his word, it was fun for everyone!
The James Gang played their biggest hits and best album songs. Fox and Gilmore smiled all night long while onstage, spreading positive energy along with their excellent playing skills.
Joe was just Joe. Wise-cracking, humble, and the coolest guy in the room,any room, anywhere.
The music was magnificent, and the Gang even backed Walsh on some purely Walsh hits. The crowd loved it. The band loved it. It was a great concert.
Before the show, in my job as backstage runner, I had knocked on Joe’s dressing room
door to hand over an awaited package. Joe answered, with his guitar hanging in front, and I realized I had just interrupted his warm-up.

The beautiful music I’d heard as I rapped on the door was him playing his guitar. I had ignorantly thought it was recorded music.
“Hi!,” He said with a wide smile, standing there in his stocking feet.” What can I do for you?”
He was acting just as friendly as if I was an old neighbor looking for a cup of sugar. I told him what I had and handed it to him. I met his smile with one of my own.
“Anything else I can help with?,” he said.
I said something which meant no, and thanks, and I went on about my business. I was not the coolest one in the room, but sure felt like one of the luckiest.

A BRIEF INTERLUDE TO MY TOP 10 BLOGGING

Lightning and thunder removed the luxury of electricity from my neighborhood last night. It happened around 6:20 PM.
I was sitting at my desk when the darkness came, and felt for a nearby lighter. Using the lighter, I located the first of many candles. Carrying a lit candle through the house put me in touch with my inner Little House on the Prairie kid.
After several candles were lit, my home gave off the esthetic of an old, romantic movie set. My own Friday night film noir.
I located the first of three flashlights. It came on for three seconds then quickly dimmed to darkness. I took a candle to my battery drawer to locate the big D size batteries needed to give my flashlight life.
After some searching, I made a note to myself to put big D batteries on the shopping list.
My late husband’s police flashlight laid in the bottom of the drawer. It’s a big, black, heavy, metal light that can also be used to clobber someone. Though I can’t recall using it in years, when I press the on button, it brightly lights up and stays lit. His light still shines when needed.
Next I find a little clip-on flashlight that only takes two of the plentiful AA batteries I have on hand.
So now I’m well lit. Hey, why not make an adult beverage?
Leftover Xmas eggnog and Jim Beam are soon mixed in my glass with a couple of cubes. I sit in the big chair and enjoy the sweetness. Now what?
Being alone may not make holidays miserable (see earlier posting), but it sure makes a night without electricity go slow. What time is it now--6:30?
The air around me is scented with burning candle scents of Vanilla, Pear, Ginger and Lavender. I’m drinking a nectar of the winter solstice. There are no sounds, no intrusions.
What a perfect time to make love. This atmosphere begs for a lover.
Alone, even my favorite vibrator needs a live current; so I do without.
I let the flickering reflections of the candle flames on the French doors put me in a state of contemplation. Instead of noticing how quiet it’s become, I realize how noisy life is normally. I begin to revel in the quiet, much more comfortable with my one-ness. It’s nothing to be scared of, you know.
The hard rain comes again along with more thunder and lightning. My long-legged Greyhound paces around me. I’m glad the candles are enclosed in glass jars, since the coffee table where some set, is the same height as her stomach. Serendipitous foresight!



"Not into candle-play!"


So I began giving the Greyhound a homeopathic brush massage, attempting to calm her. We were both really getting into it, when something clicked and the lights and TV came back on, just like that.
First thing out of my mouth was a sad “awwww.” I would remain untested in this challenge of the unplugged. I think I was up to it, too.
The lights are now on, along with the TV. The Beam & Nog is gone. The dog is sleeping. The cat has come out of hiding. The electric life resumes.
Better kill the candlelight. Don’t want to start a fire.

Gender Differences
“I’ll let you play with my boobs if you’ll meet me at Winstar and give me money to gamble with. I’m old, fat and soft. I have big boobs.”
A woman reading the above online ad disgustedly thinks “Whore! Slut! How demeaning!”
A man reading the above thinks “She sounds like fun. I wonder what she looks like?”
No wonder we find each other fascinating.

A Top Ten List for 2006

Musical Highlights
Numero Uno
Van Morrison, Nokia Theater-- My good friend Patti bought tickets, and gave me one as a birthday gift.
To start the evening, Patti and I met at the theater early, parked next to the levee bank and tailgated. We sat in lawn chairs facing the west, looking behind the row of parked vehicles, enjoying choice, delicious food and drink.
As we watched a beautiful sunset, a bonus feature of the evening serendipitously came upon the horizon.
About ten cars down, a well built man appeared behind a truck, standing on the levee bank, silhouetted by the sinking sun and all it’s colors. Just enough shadows to make out body textures and forms, but not distinct features, the lighting was absolute perfection.
As if in a Ralph Lauren commercial, the man stripped off his shirt, pulling it off overhead one arm at a time, emphasizing his toned physique.
In the light of the setting sun, he put on another shirt, as sexily as he’d taken the other one off.
The sky darkened, he finished changing and moved out of site between the cars.
Patti and I watched without saying a word, appreciating the marvelous view. This was our private opening act. Proving that sometimes the best things in life are free.
But the headliner was about to begin.
We walked in, sat down, and he came on immediately, as if waiting for us. We were there to see the Man, and he came through without missing a beat.
Van had just released a CD of what had been reviewed as “country music.” Van the Man did about four songs off this CD, and if that’s how Van does “country,” I’m a fan! (not a fan of country, so you know it must’ve been great).
He did many of his hits from the 70’s and 80’s, or is it the 60’s and 70’s now? Decades are flying by.
Brown-Eyed Girl, Moondance, Tupelo Honey; all were sung without losing a note, expanded from the recorded version, and played masterfully by his talented 15 (?) piece band.
It was a glorious night of friendship and music. One of the best of my adult life.

Highlights Numbers 2-10 coming this weekend.