Friday, March 21, 2008

And The Car She Drove In With

It's been another expensive day.

Yesterday my desktop 'pooter had to go to the hospital because I had just ejected a CD, the phone rang, I yanked off my headset and went for the phone--and joggled the CD drawer with my elbow. And then it would not retract.

To fix it, they have to take the entire drive apart and tweak something inside of it.

Then, this morning my car went in for a minor servicing. Uh huh. Turned out my tires were within about a millimeter of killing me, plus the alignment was off. So by the time I got out of there, my credit card was bleeding profusely.

But I got into an interesting discussion with the service manager about the loaner car they gave me. The last two times, I've had a loaner with the keyless thingamajig where you simply have the remote nearby and push a button on the dash to start the car. When I saw them bringing over a genuine KEY, I was ecstatic. I explained that with a real key, you put it in the ignition and you have a nice convenient place to hang the rest of your keys. With the keyless thing, what are you supposed to do with your keys? The service manager said most people just put 'em in their pocket. Then he looked over at me, in my pocket-less sweat pants, and said, "Uh huh. Obviously when they designed it, they didn't think about a good percentage of the population not having pockets!" Then I cracked him up by saying I had left my keys sitting in my lap, and at the end of the trip when I went to get them, well, let's just say they had shifted position such that I looked like I was doing a Pee-Wee Herman to retrieve them.

Now me, my car and my computer are all safely back home, and I am going to try very, very hard not to spend any more money today.


Monday, March 17, 2008

Thank You, Justin Hayward

I went back and read the news archives at Justin's website. Here is part of what he said in September 2001. Emphasis mine:

As you know, the people of Great Britain and London, my home for most of my life so far, have experienced acts of terrorism many times in the last thirty years. But now nothing on the scale of the USA. I feel as if someone I love has been mortally wounded. But America will always be the greatest nation on Earth (and I've seen the rest of the World). I pray there can be peace on Earth.
Take note, you America-hating Americans. Even an old British rock 'n' roller recognizes the greatness of our country. So there.


Monday, March 10, 2008

Glory Be... The Man Can Smile!



Maaahvelous concert again last night. Here is part of the concert report I posted late last night on a couple of fan boards:
First off... I got busted at intermission for the camera, but the security guy was nice about it. He said put it away and we'll call it square. So I did. But then during "Question" there was no WAY a security person was going to see me, because everybody was up out of their seats, dancing, some in the aisles. So I ripped off a bunch more frames.

Something went haywire with the projector at the start of the second half, so there were no background pictures for the entire second half. I hope they get that fixed.

Justin smiled just a little more tonight than he did Tuesday. But he still looks a bit tired. Nonetheless... he did not "phone in" his performance. He was magnificent. As were the rest.

Graeme announced that it was Julie's birthday. He then went on to say they had recorded "higher and Higher" "before you were born, love." After he went back to his place at the drums after the song, I saw her flip him the bird!

Oh, and when I first sat down (in the 4th row) there was a guy one row ahead and a few seats over. I guess I must have said I'd gone to San Francisco--because he said, "Oh, are you CrankyBeach?" Geez! My reputation precedes me!
I actually took over 500 pictures last night, despite the alleged camera ban. Many are blurry, and most have problems such as microphones in front of faces, shadows on faces, waving arms between me and the stage... but I did get a few really decent ones. Here's a nice one of Justin and John rockin' out:



I'm still in Santa Rosa. I went skating this morning--the young lady in the rink box office was at the concert last night too--and planned to go wildflower-chasing this afternoon, but I was so tired I came back to the hotel and slept the afternoon away. And now it's time to chase down some dinner. I'll go chase flowers tomorrow, before I go home.



Sunday, March 9, 2008

Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

Rolled into Santa Rosa about half an hour ago... now sipping a mocha at Bad Ass Coffee, which is literally right next door to tonight's concert venue. Saw the big equipment trucks parked behind the theatre as I came down the off-ramp.

Driving a Lexus through San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge on a warm day (!), windows down and sunroof open, blasting the Moody Blues as loud as I wanted--it doesn't get any better than this. Until showtime, that is, which is less than 6 hours away, woo-hoo!


Friday, March 7, 2008

Shocking.

How, I axe you, does somebody get to be our age, did not grow up in Outer Mongolia (or on another planet, for that matter) and NOT know, offhand, any of the music of the Moody Blues??

Had coffee today with old, old friend and frequent commenter Jeff--and it came up in conversation that he would not know a Moody Blues song if it slapped him upside the head.

Needless to say... the indoctrination has begun. I e-mailed him MP3s of a few of the best (and best-known) songs. I also told him if he does not recognize "Nights in White Satin" I will clean out his ears with a toilet plunger.

Speaking of "Nights..." the friend I dragged to the concert and I were discussing on the way back how many bazillion times Justin Hayward has sung that song in the last 40 years, and he still sings it with just as much "oomph" as he did on the original recording. Just amazing.

I just love it when John meanders over to Justin's side of the stage and the two of them get down and start rockin' out. Rock on, guys!



And keep on making those funny faces, Justin. You crack me up.




Wednesday, March 5, 2008

More Photographic Goodness

As I upload them, I've dumped my concert images into a slide show on Photobucket. More images will appear as I upload more pictures. Enjoy!

Update: The slide show is now complete with the 30 pictures allowed when you aren't a paid member of Photobucket. And the images are now in chronological order except for the very first one.






 
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