Friday, June 26, 2009

Nashville, Memphis Eddie Vedder shows

Well, I'm back from seeing Ed in Nashville and Memphis. If you want to know more about the shows in detail, see Kathy's reviews at
http://www.twofeetthick.com/2009/06/two-feet-thick-ev-in-nashville/
http://www.twofeetthick.com/2009/06/twofeetthick-ev-nashville-2/
... Kathy was with me, and she gets all the details, so I'll just give my impressions... Since I stupidly forgot my camera, all the pics here in this post are Kathy's...

First of all, it was fucking hot. Jesus, how do people live through summers in much of the country? It was in the upper 90s and humid; I'm used to dry heat in California (and not so much of it)...

Nashville was a surprise, the main drag being rather run down and small. I suppose if you like what passes for country music these days, it could have been fun bar hopping.

The Ryman was indeed lovely, and we sat in church pews, listening to Ed sing, laugh, tell stories, and share parts of himself with those of us lucky to be there. The shows were better than previous shows I've seen... he seems more relaxed, and has figured out how to shut up the loud drunks. Two lovely shows there, the first one with a great setlist, and the second with more stories, including a very funny one about skeet shooting with the Kings of Leon. He was talking about the boys, and how committed they were to their skintight jeans and boots, even playing basketball in these outfits... After getting drunk and high, they decided to take Eddie skeet shooting... Ed held his guitar like a shotgun to demonstrate... On the first pull, he shot all 3 shots without hitting the thing. They reloaded and advised him to take his time, use one shot, and aim... So he did, and sure enough, the disc exploded! Everyone was cheering behind him, and so he turned around, still holding the loaded gun, and "skinny jeans and boots went flying everywhere"...

The second show brought us Ed singing "The End" which is supposed to be on their new album coming out in September, a very, very sad song about someone dying (the song is sung in first person) and leaving his wife with the kids... I was crying by the end, and Ed also wiped away his tears... then channeled that energy into the best Arc I've ever heard. For those who aren't familiar, Ed uses a loop pedal to layer harmonies and wails in a very spiritual concoction.

The drive to Memphis was pretty uneventful, except for stopping at a truck stop which had miles and miles of aisles of every kind of junk you might want to buy...









































































































We had to stop and eat at a Waffle House, since we had a Waffle House virgin with us... gotta love those hash browns!

After we got to Memphis, we checked in, and went to Graceland at the end of the day. It was far more interesting than I had imagined... and there was literally about 10 other people there while we were. After we finished, and were looking at the cars and planes, a few tour buses pulled up and hordes poured out... my friends recognized Steven Van Zandt amongst the tour people...





That night, I had to have Memphis barbeque, so we ventured the one block to Beale street and had the best ribs I've had in my life! (Course, I don't eat much meat anymore...) Then we wandered a couple doors down to an outdoor beer garden with a live band playing R&B, and had a Big Ass Beer. It was a lot of fun, with people dancing, good music, and two girls doing an ass-off (competing to see who could ass-dance the most sexily)... only to discover that one was a guy...

The next day, I pretty much stayed in the hotel, except to venture out to eat and go to the show.... By the time I walked the 2 blocks to the Orpheum, I was dripping in sweat anyway. The Orpheum is quite simply, the most gorgeous theatre I've been to. Very tastefully done; ornate, but not gaudy. There was a late release of tickets on the front side sections, and scalpers got stuck with most of them outside, and security was lax, so my friends and I all got to sit together in the 4th and 5th rows. They even let our friend in a wheelchair come down and sit next to me. It was a blast. Right in front of the speakers, and the bass was turned up high, so every time Ed sang deep, we literally felt it. The deep notes of Arc just made us vibrate, and when Ed went into "Can't Help Falling In Love", I lost it. The emotion of seeing Graceland, Elvis' grave, and his untimely death, and then hearing/feeling Ed sing that beautiful song in his deepest register, well, that was clearly the highlight.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Kings of Leon

Someone was asking about my photos of Kings of Leon, so here they are. I saw them many times opening for Pearl Jam, and grew to like them. But I have yet to see them with their own audience, and I suspect it might make a huge difference. I had tickets to see them in SF, but ended up not being able to go.

A friend in Australia went to see them there recently, and Jake, the Pearl Jam security guard, was working the tour. He said that Caleb was acting more and more like Eddie, not surprising since the whole band was usually rocking out to PJ on side stage every night.

For those who aren't familiar with KOL, they are 3 brothers and their cousin.

So, here we go:

KOL in Australia opening for PJ:

Video clip of KOL with Eddie Vedder singing



















Honolulu '06:




On stage with PJ in Honolulu:




Friday, March 20, 2009

Rush to war in Pakistan

Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world right now, it is unstable, muslim, and has nukes. Our bombing inside Pakistan borders has killed dozens of terrorists, but has also killed hundreds of innocent civilians, and for each civilian killed, has created several more terrorists... at least what we call terrorists. These people simply want the US out of the area, and we cannot kill them faster than we are creating them. This is insane.

Already, the reaction to the bombing of Pakistan has been to weaken the government such that they have given control of a large area of Pakistan over to the Taliban. Now Obama is considering widening these airstrikes and there is NO OTHER possible outcome than to further destabilize the Pakistani government, to the point where we may soon have 100 nukes in the hands of the Taliban.

As long as the Pakistani people consider the US a bigger threat than the Taliban, (and who could blame them after we've invaded Afghanistan and Iraq), then this bombing is going to make the situation worse, far worse. Is revenge against al qaeda worth taking this chance? 9/11 was in reaction to US troops in Saudi Arabia, and you can imagine what is in store for us after having invaded Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan.

Please watch the video below, and then write your representatives to ask them to have a public debate about these dangers. Don't let our love affair of Obama prevent you from stopping this wrong, stupid action. He is being advised by the same people who brought us Iraq and Afghanistan, and they are leading us into a truly horrific situation. He needs to hear experts who will give him sane advice.

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/part2_full.php?utm_source=rgemail

Then sign the petition here:

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/?utm_source=rgemail#petition

and contact your representatives too...

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

and senators too...

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

and don't forget our president!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

And how about writing to your favorite news organization, who are more focussed on Obama's crack about his bowling, than his VERY dangerous path to nuclear war.





Thursday, March 12, 2009

Spring on Hwy 5

Went down to Oceanside a couple weeks ago, just in time to catch the miles and miles of fruit trees in bloom after a heavy rain, which made all the hills green. As someone who grew up with Hwy 5 being a boring desert trip with the occasional smell of cows, I was blown away by the scenery. As cotton gave way to oranges which gave way to other fruit trees over the years, it's been a nice evolution.








Saturday, February 14, 2009

Pearl Jam Art

I found out about this website which can make even the most untalented in art (me) an artist!

http://www.wordle.net/ allows you to input any text you want, and it creates a picture from the words. It makes the words used most often in the text bigger and one-offs smaller. So you can control the size of certain words and make them bigger by repeating them.

The default is to omit the most common English words, and you can change language or turn it off. You can also change color schemes, build your own, change the layout in various ways, change fonts, etc. Just enough to make you feel like you're creating something original.

WARNING: this website is addictive!

Any way, here are some of my attempts.... you can click on them to see full size: