So Many Things

The Phillies got to the World Series, in spectacular fashion. And lost. To a better team. Which I suppose I have to live with. Six trips to the World Series in my lifetime (1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, 2009, 2022). Two wins in six attempts. Not a great winning percentage, but at least we have those two wins.

The Eagles play for the NFC championship tomorrow (as favorites and at home), and a ticket to the Super Bowl. Result TBD. Again, in my lifetime, we lost the Super Bowl in 1980 and 2004 (to the cheating Patriots). Won in 2017 for the first time ever....

In music we have lost in recent years (among my favorites)...Greg Lake, Keith Emerson, Graeme Edge, John Wetton...and now Jeff Beck and David Crosby.

Jeff Beck reminds me of brother Dave, and a musician I would not learn to love until many years later. Somewhere Over the Rainbow. LPs on vinyl and Dad's stereo in the living room.

David Crosby reminds me of a live show in a very small venue in Wilmington where Amp and I got to see Graham Nash in 2013, sparking a renewed interest in CSN and CSNY. And a surprising recognition (for me) that Stephen Stills was the bedrock of CSN. Full stop. And Crosby was the mid-range anchor between Still's gruff lower range and Nash's higher end. In respect to Crosby, I can't go back to a CSN or a Byrds video and not recognize what he contributed... He had a significant reputation for a reason.

Flynn. Sleepy boy.

Grace is rounding out the first semester of her first year at Delaware. Honors College Deans List. But more importantly, finding her own way. Fly little bird...

Hobby stuff continues, and may be posted here in the future... or not.

Feelings on these things come and go, but today I find the thought of posting updates here to be more of an afterthought than a priority.

Ryder. Also sleepy...

Be well.

Alan White, RIP

Sad to hear that Alan White, drummer for Yes, died recently at the age of 72 after a brief illness.

White replaced Bill Bruford when Bruford left Yes. He also drummed for numerous other musicians, including Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, and was the drummer on John Lennon's song Imagine. So there's some immortality for you.

Alan White was the drummer for the one Yes show I saw live, which in retrospect is not the one Yes band lineup that I would have liked to have seen if I had to pick only one, but it is what it is. I saw Yes at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on April 30, 1984 as part of the 90125 tour. I was wrapping up my senior year in high school...

The classic Yes lineup was Chris Squire on bass, Steve Howe on guitar, Bill Bruford on drums, Rick Wakeman on keyboards and Jon Anderson on vocals. 

The 90125 tour lineup was long after Bruford had left and been replaced by Alan White, and after Steve Howe left and was replaced by Trevor Rabin. Wakeman was also long gone and replaced by keyboardist Tony Kaye. Original members Squire and Anderson remained. It was a great concert and a great band, but there is no arguing that the Trevor Rabin years were a very different version of Yes as compared to the Yes Album and Fragile days, or Close to the Edge. I liked it then, and still do, but it was...almost not Yes.

White was the dummer for 3,070 live Yes shows according to Wikipedia. And I saw one of them...

Of all these Yes folks, I have seen Anderson, Squire, White and Rabin once (in 1984), Steve Howe twice but both as a member of Asia (once on 8/27/83 at the Spectrum touring for the Alpha album, and once on 10/20/12 touring for the XXX album at the intimate Keswick Theater in the 4th row - 29 years after the first time). I've never seen Bruford or Wakeman live.

Anyway, yet another one from my early years is gone. And Chris Squire has already passed. Tempus Fugit.

Wasted on the Way

I've become increasingly aware in recent years that certain things resonate very differently as you get older. In a good way, I think...

Search YouTube for Crosby Stills and Nash, Wasted on the Way. Good stuff.

--

Look around me
I can see my life before me
Running rings around the way
It used to be
I am older now
I have more than what I wanted
But I wish that I had started
Long before I did

And there's so much time to make up
Everywhere you turn
Time we have wasted on the way
So much water moving
Underneath the bridge
Let the water come and carry us away

Oh when you were young
Did you question all the answers
Did you envy all the dancers
Who had all the nerve
Look round you know
You must go for what you wanted
Look at all my friends who did and got what they deserved

And there's so much time to make up
Everywhere you turn
Time we have wasted on the way
So much water moving
Underneath the bridge
Let the water come and carry us away
And there's so much love to make up
Everywhere you turn
Love we have wasted on the way
So much water moving
Underneath the bridge
Let the water come and carry us away
Let the water come and carry us away

--

Amen

Makes me more glad that I got to see Graham Nash live in a very small venue every time I think about it...

This video, and others like it, make several undeniable points. First, CSN is a group where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts. Second, Stephen Stills is an underrated treasure. Third, if you try to isolate David Crosby's vocal part anchoring the melodic middle between Nash's top end and Stills' gruff lower end, you can begin to understand why the band was willing to try to accommodate his bulls#$t for so many years.

On that sidetrack, this video of a Byrds reunion in 1990 has more of David Crosby's fantastic backing vocals on Turn Turn Turn. And then a mile-high mess with Bob Dylan, but I digress.......

Anyway, there is wisdom in these lyrics...

2020 Sucks

This year has been, with minor exceptions, horrible. And it shows every indication of getting far worse this winter before it hopefully gets better in the spring.

Nothing is normal. Everything is cancelled, or at least postponed. I'm an admitted homebody and confirmed introvert, but even I can't do many of the things that I would normally do. I have a hard time imagining what an extrovert must be feeling.

Covid scares are everywhere. We've had a few negative tests in the family. So far so good, I guess. But we have friends that have had it, some milder and some worse. And some friends and family dead and gone.

I'm generally a positive and optimistic person, but it's difficult sometimes. Stories are everywhere about the mental health impacts of the pandemic, and I can empathize. As I said, I am a generally happy and optimistic person, but it's hard sometimes. And if it's hard for an optimist...

In these tough times, I find myself falling back on the things that give me comfort and joy. Family. Cooking. Fiddling around (badly) on the guitars hanging on the wall in the basement. Learning to paint.

Music continues to be, as it has always been to me, a comfort. And while silver linings during the pandemic are hard to come by, there are a number of musicians and bands posting great videos of quarantine music. I envy their talent, and am thankful for what that talent brings into the world.

The Doobie Brothers YouTube channel is a gem. I have posted links to some of their songs before, but they recently posted a video, with Peter Frampton, of the Eric Clapton song Let It Rain, which has always been a favorite of mine.

Another great channel has been John Fogerty's, where he posts new versions of his classic songs accompanied by his daughter and two sons. This is City of New Orleans, from a few months ago. And here is Have You Ever Seen the Rain. Check out the rest of their songs from this year on his channel.

Be well. Check on your friends to see how they are doing. Talk to people. 

Wear a mask.

Stay safe.

If You Could Read My Mind

I've always been a fan of Gordon Lightfoot, and more recently a fan of YouTube music personality Rick Beato. Beato did an episode of What Makes This Song Great recently on Lightfoot's song If You Could Read My Mind. If you are a music geek and you like this sort of deep dive into a song's construction, this series really can't be beat. And this is a great song that is a good deal more complicated than you would realize unless you had a knowledgeable guide to walk you through it.

Anyway, it's not politics...

Life's a Seesaw

Brother Dave's post on John Lodge, bass player of the Moody Blues, was a trigger. My favorite band ever. So I must weigh in.

Weigh in on what, I'm not exactly sure, but I can never resist the chance to post something about the Moody Blues.

In 1968 the Moodies were young. I was an infant. Ride My Seesaw, their concert encore song for 50+ years, was a great song then.

It was a great song 25 years ago at Red Rocks.

It still is now, 50 years later. Or at least a couple years ago at their long-overdue Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Mike Pinder went his own way long ago. And flautist/vocalist Ray Thomas sadly died of cancer in 2018.

But those that are left soldier on. Justin. John. Graeme.

At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame show in 2018 (linked above), Justin Hayward (guitars and vocals) was 72 years old, and John Lodge (bass and vocals) was 73. Drummer Graeme Edge, for the record, was 77... This is also the only song in the current day concert repertoire on which Justin plays a Fender Telecaster.

I've seen the Moodies somewhere around a dozen times, from venues as large as the Spectrum and the Mann Music Center to as small as the Tower Theater and the casinos of Atlantic City, from as far back as 1982 to as recently as a few years ago. I've seen Justin Hayward on solo tours in small venues in Wilmington Delaware. And they've been great every time. But I am biased.

Respect your elders. They may have forgotten more than you will ever know.

Whispers of the Past

Or... Another childhood hero passes into memory. Eddie Van Halen, legendary guitarist, died October 6 after a long battle with throat cancer.

In middle school in the late 1970's, Van Halen was the most amazing thing to listen to. Finger tapping, classical inspired riffs, heavily overdriven guitar. Unbelievable stuff. And totally new. Or at least new in the widespread popular sense, as one might discover later.

The legend of Eddie is probably a bit overstated, as all legends are, but that doesn't diminish his stature. Eddie invented finger tapping. Which might be news to Steve Hackett of Genesis, who was finger tapping on Supper's Ready in the early 70's. And he invented classical inspired guitar riffs ala Eruption. Which might be news to Steve Howe of Yes, who was doing the same in the early 70's.

But...  And this is a huge but...  It is undeniable that Eddie Van Halen popularized these aspects of guitar playing far beyond anything that the various Steve's (and others) had been able to accomplish previously. EVH had an influence of absolutely mammoth proportions on future guitarists. And that is where the legend is born (and validated). Who didn't want a red (or black) pseudo-Strat with white (or yellow) abstract tape lines? I know I did. And I couldn't even play guitar.

Looking back on those early VH records, the combination of Eddie's guitar work, David Lee Roth's vocals and charismatic stage presence, Michael Anthony's solid bass work and terrific high-end backing vocals, and Alex Van Halen's solid drumming, were an example of a case where everything came together in a perfect storm of late 70's hard rock, and probably made the whole greater than the sum of the parts. This "hard rock" would seem tame by today's standards, but those weren't the standards of the day.

Van Halen as a band certainly had waaaaay more than its share of interpersonal drama, but it would be a shame to let their later years overshadow what they were at their peak. If you have paid any attention to their recent-years reincarnations, it is almost too easy to fall into the trap of "yeah but back in the day they used to be good...", which is fair in an objective sense. Sammy Hagar was terrific. Everything after that (including returns of David Lee Roth) was... meh... at best. Painful at times. But I digress...

The best compliment I could give to Van Halen (as a band), perhaps, is that when you go back and listen to Van Halen and Van Halen II, as I am doing as I type this, the popular hit songs are great, yes. But everything else on the albums is terrific. End to end. It's the perfect example of the brilliance of many bands in their early years, with a raw energy and style that is hard to replicate afterwards...

I was going to list some of those lesser known gems from VH1 and VH2, but having listened to them again end to end just now, it's all of them. Simple genius. Spanish Fly is the genius of Eddie. Women In Love is the genius of all of them. Just to list a couple of favorites... Feel Your Love Tonight. Ice Cream Man. DOA. And on, and on....

Which isn't to say that there wasn't great Van Halen music after this. Much of the "Van Hagar" stuff with Sammy Hagar was terrific, and Right Now is a song that resonates particularly well these days. Check out The Circle's quarantine version (Hagar and Anthony, with Vic Johnson and Jason Bonham [John Bonham's son]...).

I have a very clear and totally random Van Halen memory that Brother Dave might remember (but probably not). It must have been a summer evening somewhere around 1980. We were at the River, and our neighbor Rob H had access to his family's ~20 foot Boston Whaler (motor boat). We took the boat out to the end the Sassafras, to Betterton, near the Bay. We docked at a public pier there and went into a waterfront place that had coin operated pool tables and a juke box (and wasn't a bar, so minors could come in...). I distinctly remember playing Dance the Night Away from Van Halen II on the juke box while we shot some pool...

Which is a memory, I guess, because Dance the Night Away has always been my favorite Van Halen song. Listen to the original version, or the remastered version if you can; both are great.

And if you want to listen to a forgotten gem, check out Women in Love. It showcases all of what made early VH great. Or so says me. :-)  I guess the point, from my vantage, is that all the technical mastery in the world doesn't mean much if the music isn't beautiful, and doesn't move you when you listen to it. And for all of Eddie's technical skill, that means less to me than the beauty of the first 30 seconds of Women in Love. But that's just me I suppose.

PS - A freebie. Check out Toto doing Africa, covid version.

And as long as we are doing Covid versions of classics... Doobie Brothers Listen To the Music. And Black Water.

PSS - In my memory lane ramblings I seem to have strayed from the original point. Eddie Van Halen was an innovator, a pioneer, and yes, a guitar legend. He will be missed, but his place in rock and roll history is assured. More importantly, his music will live on. Rest in peace.

Stay safe. Be well. Vote against the Fourth Reich.

Billy Squier...Nobody Knows

YouTube's suggestion algorithms are...scary good? The rathole sucked me in again tonight, but presented me with a gem that I had not listened to, or thought about, in...maybe almost 39 years?

I was doing some work on my laptop this evening, with a few Rangers of Shadow Deep battle report videos playing in the background on the iMac (related to my solo gaming experience last night). Then there was an email that I was thinking about regarding the upcoming (we hope) marching band season. Which reminded me of Ozzie Osbourne's Crazy Train, which the band does a version of after the end of games (lots of teenage screaming and dancing). So I searched for Crazy Train videos and had that playing. For some reason YouTube equated Ozzie Osbourne and Black Sabbath with Billy Squier, which suggested a whole bunch of early 1980's Billy Squier videos, from both the Don't Say No (1981) and Emotions in Motion (1982) albums (which I should note that I have both of on vinyl in the basement...with nothing to play them on).

Without bothering to type it all out, Billy Squier had a lot of great songs in the early 1980's. A lesser known (i.e. not a popular MTV video) song, but probably my favorite song of his was Nobody Knows from Don't Say No (1981).

Don't Say No (1981)

How does YouTube know to suggest this one particular song to me? After watching Ozzie Osbourne videos?

Get out of my head.

Hunchback of Notre Dame, November 2019

This should have been posted back in November 2019, but I wasn't posting much in that time period, for whatever reason. Which isn't a knock on this show.

I would have to say that I didn't know much about The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a Broadway show, but I have come to love it as much as just about any other show. Great music, good staging, and an impactful story.

Highlights from the Thursday show and cast:

• Feast of Fools at 31:05
• Rest and Recreation at 34:45, including my Grace getting busted for pickpocketing at 36:00
• God Help the Outcasts, the prettiest song in the show, at 50:25
• Hellfire. Great costumes and effects, at 1:12:00
• Esmerelda and Act I Finale, at 1:16:00 and 1:21:00
• Entr'acte into Act II at 1:24:50
• Esmerelda in Flames at 2:00:00
• Death of Esmerelda at 2:04:50
• Frollo Falls at 2:06:30
• Quasimodo's Lament and Finale at 2:09:00
• Curtain Calls at 2:14:00

The Friday show and cast was equally good, and I would be remiss if I didn't highlight one of my favorite moments of any GVPAA show in the entire time we have been involved and watching them (God Help the Outcasts)...

• Alicia's "God Help the Outcasts" at 49:30.
• Top of the World at 55:45

Grace was a featured dancer and a gypsy in this show. It had a lot of what she likes: dancing, ensemble singing, tumbling, and all that.

Gypsies backstage

Amp's costume team keeps raising the bar, as do the set folks, special effects, makeup, and every other aspect of the show.

Gina, Grace and Julia

Gypsy Grace.

Gypsy Grace and Amp

Frollo in the costume that I dubbed "Darth Frollo". Super cool. I want one to wear around the house. So, apparently, do a bunch of others...

Amp with Nick as "Darth Frollo"

A prosthetics designer helped with some of the gargoyles and "living statues". Saint Aphrodisius was amazing.

Amp with Saint Aphrodisius

Both Esmereldas were amazing. Alicia has the voice of an angel...

Amp with Alicia as "Ghost Esmerelda"

Anyway, enough gushing. I love this show, underrated as it is. I would rank it up there with Les Miserables back in 2014 as my favorite GVPAA show of all time... And that's saying a lot.

Seussical the Musical

Garnet Valley High School Performing Arts Association's spring musical was Seussical the Musical. It ran for four shows from March 5 to March 7. In retrospect, we were lucky to get the show in before the school district shut down due to the Coronavirus pandemic on March 13. Many other high schools didn't get their performances in before everything went weird...

Grace was "Thing 1", part of the group of 6 Things that were on stage pretty much anytime the Cat in the Hat was on stage. In other words, most of the show.

Six Things (Thing 1 is mine)

She got to act, goof around, do tumbling runs, and dance. Lots and lots of dancing. In other words, pretty much the perfect show for her.

Cat and Things Chorus Line

Amp is in her seventh (!) year of working on costumes, and this is the third year that she is head of Costumes, and a key member of the core creative team. My pride in watching these shows is hard to describe. So much of the visual impact is because of the work of Amp and her excellent team, and I get to watch my daughter perform. First Julia for 7 shows, and now Grace in her fourth show (High School Musical, Annie, Hunchback of Notre Dame and now this).

Amp's Team's Costumes in all their Glory!

Our GVPAA director has done a great job of creating a community and a supportive atmosphere.

Grace and Horton the Elephant

The kids work ridiculous hours, but (for the most part) love every minute of it.

Grace and Maisey le Bird

The quality of the result shows.

Grace and the Cat in the Hat

And one of the great things about the program is that it is very inclusive, allows everyone to have their moment in the spotlight, but at the same time commands a commitment to excellence. They work hard.

Drama Club Sophomores

Grace's sophomore class is strong. Good actors, good singers and good dancers. Her friend group in drama club, coupled with her friend group in band and chorus, spans all grades, which is a nice thing.

Grace and Admirer

The GVPAA now does a late spring show (the third of the year), rehearsing after the spring musical ends (Seussical), and performing their shows in late May or early June. These shows include alumni, current students, and other community members. This year it was supposed to be The Sound of Music. Sadly, that isn't going to happen...

Grace with Lulu and Addie

Looking forward to next year, there will be The Addams Family in the fall and Newsies in the spring. Let's hope that can actually happen.

I'm already curious as to what the Director will pick for Grace's senior year. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Twenty One Pilots - Bandito Redux

Grace's favorite band is Twenty One Pilots, and when they announced they were coming around again on a later leg of their very long Bandito tour she wanted to go again. I had fun last time so I had no problem taking her. I ended up driving two of her older neighborhood friends, making us a group of four. The link to my post about last year's show is here. For a description of the show, reference that post, as this show was very similar to that one, with a few minor differences. But basically the same. And just as good this time as last time.

Don't drop Tyler...

Like last time, the crowd was young, and leaning female.

Finale - Trees

The energy in the place was amazing, and other than an interlude of a few slower songs in the middle, everybody stood all night. Which I suppose works better when you are 15 than when you are 50+.

Taking a bow on the crowd

The only bad part of the show was getting trapped in a back corner of the Wells Fargo Center parking lot and taking a long time to get out and on the road. Oh well. Small price to pay for an evening of fun and a happy daughter.

Next year if they are still doing the Bandito tour, we'll probably go again...

Hamilton

Julia's 21st birthday present was her favorite thing - tickets to see a Broadway show. We were able to get 4 tickets for the whole family to see Hamilton at the Forrest Theater in Philadelphia. This is something that we have all been wanting to do for a long time, but had been unable to get tickets in the ongoing ticket lottery for Broadway.

The tickets we got were fantastic (4th row of the balcony, right in the center), and the Forrest Theater is a wonderful old theater in which to see a show.

Hamilton

I won't bother with a lengthy review of the show, as they can be found all over, but I will simply say that it was terrific in every regard. The kids have been playing this soundtrack to death in the car since it came out and got popular, but actually seeing it onstage with the sets and choreography was obviously a whole different experience. Our cast for this touring company was fantastic, especially Edred Utomi as Hamilton, Paul Oakley Stovall as George Washington and Peter Matthew Smith as King George. Bryson Bruce as both Lafayette and Jefferson was also terrific. There really wasn't a weak link in the cast, and we only had one understudy (Tre Frazier as Aaron Burr); he was solid.

Hamilton - Forrest Theater stage

Julia was thrilled (as were all of us). Highly recommended for anyone who likes musical theater (or pop culture phenomena for that matter...).

High School Musical

It's a bittersweet day for me. Garnet Valley's fall musical wrapped today after four shows, including a postponed Thursday night opening performance because of snow and ice that became a Sunday matinee. I watched 3 of the 4 shows, which is about the usual.

Julia did 9 shows, beginning with Les Miserables in the spring of 2014, but her run has ended. Amp has been heavily involved in costumes since the fall of 2014, but this was her first show as the official Head of Costumes, and everything on stage was designed/approved by her. I think it looks great.

This is also Grace's first musical, as she is now in 9th grade. Because of her gymnastics background, she has a role as a cheerleader and featured dancer, and is a featured tumbler.

Grace and gymnastics teammates

The number of hours that go into these shows is huge, but the end result reflects the effort. Before seeing this video, Grace told me that the feedback that they were consistently given was that they weren't doing well enough, and that they had a lot of work to do. This was a consistent theme right up until the end. As I tried to explain to her (after the fact), this was simply the director and all of the staff trying to push them to be the best they can be. Garnet Valley Performing Arts has a longstanding tradition of excellence, and this batch of kids was being pushed to hold up to that standard. Then Grace watched the following linked video with me. Her reaction was "wow, we were pretty good". Yes dear, you were pretty good. Pretty darn good. Because a dedicated group of people pushed you to be the best you could be...

Music for the show is provided by a live band of students and faculty, consisting of drums, guitar, bass and a pair of keyboards.

Lights and effects are provided by another group of dedicated students.

It takes a village, and many of the girls basketball team are...the Garnet Valley girls basketball team.

The Friday night show of the "Gold" cast has been posted on YouTube (linked here), and while the Gold cast is generally thought of as the underclassmen cast, I think the performance is pretty amazing. Go onto YouTube and search "high school musical high school" for comparison. Highlights of this show, with a bias toward scenes my Grace is in, are:

• 15:40 - the cut scene into Wildcat Cheer. At 15:50, the quadruple backflip cheerleader is Grace. This was supposed to be a double or triple, but Grace said "it was opening night and I was feeling it".
• 56:00 - The Audition scene.
• 59:00 - The lead-in to "Stick to the Status Quo", the first act finale (which starts at 1:00:20). Grace has a featured bit at 1:04:05 (the back walkover in the middle).
• 1:16:00 - Grace in Wildcat Cheer reprise.
• 1:39:30 - We're All in This Together.
• 1:42:45- Bop to the Top
• 1:46:00 - Final auditions lead-in.
• 1:49:40 - Breaking Free.
• 1:54:00 - The End.
• 1:56:00 - Finale. We're All In This Together. Grace has another short left-to-right tumbling run at ~1:56:55... After that, she is the third cheerleader from the right, just behind the Ryan Evans character (behind and to the right of him)...
• 1:59:30 - Curtain Call. Look at all the great costumes!
• 2:02:00 - The grand finale.

I can't wait to see the postings of the Garnet (upperclassmen) cast. [edit - GVHSPAA has posted all of the other shows...]

As a postscript, I would note that our production of HSM was highly regarded enough that another large local high school is taking our sets and borrowing a lot of our costumes for a production that they will be staging in the spring of 2019. So be on the lookout for Sharpay and Ryan Evans' costumes, all the girls and boys basketball teams, and the cheerleaders. I guess we will go watch that one. And I guess that means Amp did pretty good, since she is now apparently costuming other school districts as well as our own...

Great job everyone!

A Clarinet, GV Jaguars Football, and a Musical

Sometimes I don't feel like I have a high school freshman daughter. I just have a Clarinet. Or a Drama Club ensemble cheerleader-tumbler.

Grace's first semester in high school has been a whirlwind. Not the least of which is the amount of time spent in the marching band. Band camp three weeks before school even started. After school band practices. Football games. Competitions. More practices. And all of this for a school that practices hard, travels to competitions, but cannot realistically be said to be a school marching band program that is heavily into the competition scene. Our kids and band directors take it seriously and work hard at it. But there are bands that take it SERIOUSLY and work HARD at it.

My Clarinet

The football season has been a smashing success. We were 10-0 in the regular season, winning the Central League (which I grew up in at Springfield...). We defeated all of the serious Central League contenders this year, and all on the road. We shut out Springfield at Springfield (that one sure felt weird, sitting in the visitors' bleachers and looking across at the home stands!). We beat Haverford at Haverford. We beat Marple Newtown at Marple Newtown. We beat Radnor at Radnor. We humiliated Ridley in a home game (boy did that feel good!!).

As an aside, at the Springfield away game, I met the current Springfield high school band director, who is the son-in-law of Mr Miller, the middle school band director that I had when I went through middle school in the late 70's [ugh] (and who is the director of a community band that brother Dave has been involved in). Small world.

Some, but not all, of the GVHS Marching Band

In the first round of the state division playoffs, where we are ranked #3 out of 16, we destroyed Pennsbury 49-14. By the 4th quarter, we had 2nd and 3rd string backups running for touchdowns.

Last night, in round two of the playoffs, we destroyed Quakertown 49-14. Yep, same score, not a typo.

Next Friday, we travel to Quakertown to play the #2 ranked team, but Grace won't be there.

Next week is the culmination of the other major time commitment that Grace has been a part of, and that is her involvement in the fall musical, a production adapted from the Disney movie High School Musical. Because of her gymnastics background, she is a cheerleader who does tumbling runs, and sings as part of the ensemble. First full dress rehearsal is tomorrow (Sunday), which I will ask her about when she gets home from today's band competition in Hershey PA.

Then there are dress rehearsals Monday and Tuesday after school, "blackout" (rest) day on Wednesday, and then performances on Thursday, Friday and two on Saturday. Busy times.

She's having fun, and it's fun for us as parents to be along for the ride.

Twenty One Pilots - Bandito Tour

Grace and I went to the Wells Fargo Center last night to see Twenty One Pilots (TOP to save me typing), her favorite band, and her first concert. We went with our good friend neighbors from across the street, their daughter, and another neighborhood girl. They are in college now, but share the love of TOP with Grace. We drove down together, did the apparently mandatory yellow duct tape thing, and got there plenty early. We had the ritual pre-concert slice of pizza, and were impatient for things to start.

Grace (middle) and older neighborhood friends

The show started at 7. Or more accurately, the first of two opening acts started at 7. Opening acts were Max Frost (meh) and Awolnation (which started meh and grew on me). Each played 25-30 minutes, with a half hour-ish in between, and then another half hour to ready the stage for TOP.

Awolnation

The crowd was very young, being mostly high school, college aged and young adults, with a healthy scattering of parents such as yours truly escorting the younger ones. When the band (of two people) took the stage there was Beatle-esque squealing and screaming and some crying. Not at all like the subdued old-guy classic rock geezer band shows I usually attend these days. Very different. And refreshing. Grace did her share of squealing, and screaming, and a bit of crying. Fun. Lots of energy. Opening song was Jumpsuit.

Opening number with burning car

The show was a lot different than what I am used to, much of which is a reflection of the nature of the band. Twenty One Pilots these days is a drummer (Josh Dunn) and a guy who writes the songs and does everything else (Tyler Joseph). Obviously, a live show with two people requires lots of recorded tracks, which my generation would have largely regarded as cheating/sacrilege, but... it was done very well.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the show was amazing. Great music, fantastic lights, props and stage show. Good banter between songs. A tremendously fanatic and dedicated fan base. And a lot of very creative things. At one point, a figure on stage believed to be Tyler Joseph (but who hadn't sung or played anything in a little while) did a back-flop into a hole in the stage. Seconds later he appeared on a small platform in our section, about 6 rows and 20 feet behind us. So the figure on stage was obviously a faked stand in. People went nuts (Grace included). He was so close... :-)

Tyler Joseph appears 6 rows behind us

Without going into any great detail, I liked the music more than I expected to. Grace's favorite song is The Judge (our show's version here).

Lights and Screens

Clever staging also made for a great viewing experience. At one point, a big long rack of lights lowered from the ceiling, and proved to be a bridge from the main stage to the "B" stage on its upper surface.

Lights lowered to make a bridge to the "B" stage

Tyler used the bridge to get to the "B" stage right in front of us, and Josh worked his way through the crowd to join him. They did a nice quiet set from the "B" stage.

"B" stage right in front of section 102

Tyler was very good at the in between song banter with the audience, and there were a number of cute running themes throughout the concert. One of them was the challenge to be the best audience on the tour, and to remember that it was't simply being the loudest single crowd moment, but that "it's an average". The teasing about "remember, it's an average" ran through the show and was amusing (you can hear him say it during "Trees" below at about the 1:24 mark...).

They played a solid two hours, and really were terrific. A highlight was their final number "Trees".

More lights and screens

It was a great night for Grace, and would have been worth it to me even if I hadn't liked the show at all. The fact that I liked it as much as I did was a nice bonus. The joy on her face was priceless.

I think she will remember this for a long time.

Thanks Dad

I'm not sure what it is that makes me think of Dad tonight (which I often do, but tonight I happen to be sitting at the computer...).

On June 22, 1980 Dad took me to my first concert - John Denver at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Dad has passed. The Spectrum is now a parking lot. I'm not a 14 year old kid any more (at least not outwardly). My youngest is as old now as I was then. All of which is hard to believe.

Thoughts of Dad remain a comfort to me now, as does the music of John Denver. The first thought that comes to mind when I remember Dad is that he did everything he could to make sure that Dave and Chris and I had a good life. Which we did. And still do.

John Denver and Cass Elliott singing Leaving on a Jet Plane in 1972. And again in the classic Wildlife Concert (with Goodbye Again).

Rocky Mountain High from the Wildlife Concert. Maybe someday Dave will show me how to play this on guitar... And Sunshine on My Shoulders.

And lastly, a favorite... Calypso.

I remember playing all of these songs on Dad's stereo in the living room at Ridge Lane. Vinyl LPs I still treasure to this day, even if I no longer have anything to play them on.

John's last public performance before his untimely death. Boy From the Country, 10/5/97, one week before his ultralight plane crashed off Catalina Island (when he was barely older than I am now)...

Things change, and yet the echoes of the past reverberate down into the present. I was 14 years and 4 months old when Dad took me to see John Denver at the Spectrum. The Wells Fargo Center has long-since replaced the Spectrum as the primary south Philly concert venue. Grace will be 14 years and 4 months old when I take her to see Twenty One Pilots at the Wells Fargo Center for her first concert this October.

Someday, perhaps, if I am lucky, she will think back.........

Hall of Fame Night, 2018

Maybe Justin Hayward and the rest of the Moodies, and Dire Straits (or at least Mark Knopfler, who probably won't show up), or others don't think much of being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (class of 2018), but I do.

The Moody Blues are my favorite band from that era. My adolescent years. Great memories. Good times. A lifetime ahead and a world of possibilities...

Dire Straits might be second.

Good Stuff. And a connection to which will always keep me young. Young at heart anyway...

Moodies... The Story in Your Eyes, also at Red Rocks, 1992. Puffy pirate shirt and all... And more recently, at the Mann Music Center in 2107, at a show that Leo and I attended. If you listen carefully, you can hear me singing along in the background... Or Gypsy, when I was about 4 years old....

Dire Straits, Tunnel of Love, the Alchemy era...

Congrats and welcome to the Hall of Fame.

Don't Speak

Musically, I'm an old fart. Let's get that out of the way. Most good music (but not all, grudgingly...) was created before 1990. Or before 1975...

But on the evening of the day that the Moody Blues, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, the Cars, Nina Simone and others get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there are reminders that some great music was created after 1990. Barely. :-)

Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, Don't Speak, 1996 at Red Rocks outside of Denver, Colorado...

There is something visceral that speaks to basic fundamental human emotion here.

Which is what transcendent music is all about...  (And as always, live music is the best music)

Evita, GVHS 2018

GVHS's spring musical was Evita. It was strange, as this is the first one in 4 years that Julia has not been involved in. Amp is still doing the costumes, and if anything is becoming more involved and not less. This is the risk of being a great volunteer I guess...

I am familiar with the show, as we have a couple of different CD versions of it, as well as there having been the Madonna/Antonio Banderas movie version. I would not hesitate to say that it is not one of my favorites. And it was also an interesting choice for the school production, as it is basically a one-role star turn, with a couple of other major (minor?) roles.

Curtain Call

As always, the production was fabulous, and I liked it more than I expected to. We had some very talented seniors in most of the lead roles, and they all did a wonderful job.

As far as the costuming goes, it isn't the best show in terms of opportunity to do great things, but everybody looked exactly as they should, so it was a great success in that regard.

The set was especially well done, with a semi-permanent two level stage with lots of movement and lighting variants.

Show after show, I continue to be amazed by the quality of the productions that the program is able to produce.

Postscript: It was Amp's intention to stop doing costumes when Julia was done with the shows; the two of them riding off into the sunset together... That hasn't happened. She did Evita just now, and has been talked into taking the job of Head of Costumes (as an actual sub-contracted school district employee - including the extensive required background checks, criminal history, FBI fingerprinting etc). She has accepted, and signed on for two years. At least. So instead of a volunteer riding off into the sunset, she's now a sub-contractor helping to run things. Funny the turns life takes.

Grace has expressed some interest in the Drama Club, and for her freshman year has picked an Acting elective taught by the English teacher that runs the Drama Club. Personally, I think she's the Drama Club producer/director who also teaches English rather than vice-versa. Anyway, now Grace might be doing the shows in her first year in high school. And Amp's committed for the near term. So now we're doing High School Musical in the fall and Annie in the spring... Plus the upper class late spring production that hasn't been named yet. Annie is a good classic show, and High School Musical should be a blast. I'm looking forward to it.

Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover

I get caught down the rathole of YouTube live music every so often (OK, a lot), but the one thing that always makes my jaw drop is this one. Perhaps the greatest piece of live guitar work I have ever come across.

I've probably posted this before, but so be it.

Eric Johnson, Cliffs of Dover.

I was lucky enough to see Eric in Phoenixville with Brother Dave a bunch of years back. He played this, which made me happy. And didn't play SRV, which made me sad.

Oh well. Life is a compromise.