Panic! It's What's For Dinner!

So awesome! It's starting! Egypt is killing their livestock! Mexico is shutting down! Our Vice-President is afraid to go on the subways! I've seen people in the streets with masks!

When do the mass suicides begin?
When do the riots start?
When do the fundamentalists start the "end of days" talk?

Oops, I guess they already have!

Pretty soon, companies are gonna start closing down to "protect" our employees through this hazard. Guarantee, it will be without pay; too!

Sit back, boys and girls; and embrace the madness!

Toonage:
Goo Goo Dolls - Don't Fear The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult cover)
The Alarm - The Stand
Grateful Dead - Black Muddy River (last Jerry Show 97-9-95 Soldier Field)
Nirvana - The End (live Doors cover)



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Now playing: Fugazi - Lockdown
via FoxyTunes

Not With A Bang, But With A Whimper

This is how it ends.

The "Swine Flu".

Shit, there isn't any swine flu. Someone opened up one of the "seven vials".

This is how the Government is going to solve the recession. Knock off 1/3 of the World's population.

The Black Death v.2.0.

You're going to start seeing military personnel in bio-hazard suits pretty soon. The local police will be on "crowd control". The media won't be reporting very much of it, just glancing asides as something more mind-numbing (no doubt a celebrity scandal) fills the airwaves. Until of course, the Gov't takes over the radio and TV stations.

Another couple of weeks, the net will be full of hazy images of bodies burning in fields. Corpses being loaded onto flatbeds with pitchforks. Countries will start closing down there borders. But it will be too late.

Then the religious hysteria will start. The "end of days" extremists. Group suicides. Cities will burn.

Or, maybe I'm still just a little "enhanced" from the Dead show the other nite.

In that case... never mind!

Toonage:
Pink Floyd - Pigs Three Different Ones (Grassland bootleg 1977)
Backyard Babies - Pigs For Swine
Metallica - Creeping Death (Live Woodstock 1999)
Charlie Patton - Oh Death

Bring Out Your Dead

OK, so I was wrong. No not about the waterboarding!

About The Dead

What a show at Madison Square Garden Saturday nite. Warren Haynes ain't Jerry, but he's close enough for rock n roll.

The first set focused on the Garcia/Hunter ouerve- plus a Cassidy for another fallen icon.

The second set... all pre '73, with a real bias towards "Anthem Of The Sun". The Gimme Shelter was everything that you wouldn't expect it to be... it freakin' rocked.

Whatever you want to say about the aura, emotion and vibe that Garcia brought to the game has to be weighted against the lack of energy, imagination and creativity that the Grateful Dead also suffered throughout their last years.

There have been so many shows over the past 14 post-Jerry years that kicked the crap over the 90's GD.

The MSG was certainly one.

On to New Jersey!

Listen for yourself here.

Give Waterboarding A Chance

The country is abuzz with the debate over Waterboarding and whether or not it constitutes torture for our former "guests" (ie prisoners of war).

Excuse me, but they were enemy combatants, weren't they? We were trying to get information in the interest of saving American lives, weren't we?

I eagerly await the reports coming out of how many American lives were saved.

So, what's the problem? War is fought with the goal of killing or disabling your opponent to save your own country. What's the difference between shooting, bombing or waterboarding?

Our enemies have shown no interest in negotiation or ceasing hostilities. There are no treaties to be signed. Their only goal is the destruction of our way of life. When given no option of ending hostilities, what is the USA supposed to do; say "pretty please don't attack us again"?

Bullshit.

The only way that we are going to survive this is if we prove to be as much a bunch of maniacs as they are. That's what ended the cold war. Russia built up their defenses in response to our insane President (Reagan). Libya stopped with the terrorism when we bombed Quadaffi's home.

It's unfortunate, but some enemies only respect force. We cannot afford to take the higher road. This cannot be a nation of pussies. Any military leader that does not use every available weapon to defend their country is derilicting his duty and is guilty of treason. I work in New York City. When do we end this nonsense, when we get attacked again?

This "War On Terrorism" should have ended on September 12th, 2001; with a few well placed nuclear bombs taking out the caves in Afghanistan.

Why are we wasting money and American lives in a ground war when we have superior weaponry? Our enemies would certainly use anything at their disposal to destroy us.

End the debate now. Bush and Cheney did very little correct during the past 8 years. Waterboarding is on the short list of things they did right.

Never Forget! Never Forgive!

Toonage:

Misfits - Hatebreeders (demo)
Black Flag - Revenge
The Weirdos - We Got The Neutron Bomb
John Lennon - Give Peace A Chance (acoustic demo- unreleased)
D.O.A. - War

Still Truckin'?

I have been strangely ambivalent about the upcoming Dead tour. As a vet of hundreds of Grateful Dead and assorted line-up shows; my interest should be higher than it is.

Initially, when The Dead announced that tickets (except for behind stage) would be in the environs of $100 a pop, I was disgusted. $100? When did Jerry and Pigpen re-join? I understand that the boys are getting older, and their 401K's probably tanked like the rest of ours did, but jeez... a hundred clams for what was being passed off as The Dead? No thanks. Funny thing is... if tickets were half that, I probably would have bought tickets for all four local shows!

The other aspect is the arena experience. Weir and Lesh have been touring on their own for years, usually in small theaters, where getting up close was easy. To sit in the enormo-dome and hear crappy sound and deal with all of the other hassles of arena shows seems to be a little over the top for The Dead these days.

I wasn't surprised that the 4 NYC area shows sold out. But, I am wondering what percentage of people going are doing it of nostalgia, how many are doing it for the music (and possibly weren't old enough to see Garcia) and how many are just going to get wasted.

Based on early reports, the band is playing well and Warren Haynes can certainly be considered on the short list of guitar players who are capable of getting a Jerry vibe. There appears to be a "scene" as morons of every age are doing the "whippit/lsd/mushroom/miracle" shtick. Not to disparage the "Phish-Dead-heads", but yecch, put some shoes on, take a shower and grow up already.

One of the shows is literally in walking distance to my house. However, I have other plans. There was a time that NOTHING would have kept me from a Dead show. I am going to one NY show (free tickets for the Missus and I) and depending on how I like it and how cheap I can find a ticket, I might go to one of the NJ shows. Times are tough, and throwin' down so much money is a tough call. Especially how there are other old time bands I wanna see (The Damned & X).

It'll be fun to see what passes as The Dead again, but I just don't have that spark anymore. Of course, the day of show I will probably be bouncing all over the place. At least I hope!!!!!!

The Dead - Charlottesburg, Va April 2009

Toonage:

Grateful Dead - Alice D Millionaire
Grateful Dead - Promised Land (9-3-77)

Grateful Dead - It's All Over Now (9-16-78)

Sham 69 - Rip Off

Sick Of Being Sick

My hopes of escape were dashed by logistical problems. How to displace the Nomad clan, sell the present oasis & find another one (hundreds of miles to the snowy north); swapping suburban for quasi-rural; uprooting the Princess and Jr (teen and tween respectively) and throwing them into a maelstrom of newkiditis. Plus the uncertainty that any new venture presents...though weighed against current reality, not quite the leap of faith it once was.

But things work out for a reason, as we console ourselves with that rubbish.

And I seem to be bearing the death of the dream better than the Mrs...whom I might add, was rabidly against said expansion until the bubble burst.

Nonetheless, it is with renewed vitality that I attack my current reality. Don't you know? A cornered animal is the most dangerous.

Feeling less dangerous due to a nasty virus that has kicked my ass since (not so) Good Friday. On a bitches brew of anti-biotics, pain-killers, inhalers and over the counter potions; which, when added to my usual melting pot of "steady-as-she-goes-sirs", has rendered my bloodstream as if I was the corporate asshole version of Keef Richards, though my voice has been reduced to a dull croak, most reminiscent of Bob Dylan singing through a colostomy bag.

With the escape hatch sealed, and the water rising, what can a poor boy do?

Count our farking blessings and quit the bitching, for starters!

Toonage:

The Damned - Sick Of Being Sick

Two Cow Garage - Brass Ring

Husker Du - Plans I Make (unreleased version)

The Jones - Pill Box

Dyin' Ain't Much Of A Livin'

This is the week that so many people, celebrate vindication and freedom courtesy of an angry diety and rebirth through sacrifice.
Enjoy whatever rituals you prefer.
Just remember, it's all in fun, until someone loses an eye (or worse).



Toonage:
Husker Du - New Day Rising (Live Trenton NJ 1985)
The Cramps - Swing The Big Eyed Rabbit
Bounty Hunters - Bunnies
The Fabs - Dinah Wants Religion

Too Much Junk, Too Much Junk

Some odds and ends:

Vermont legalized Gay Marriage! Hooray, now homosexuals can be as miserable as the rest of us! And Iowa's courts also passed pro Gay Marriage legislation! Hooray for the Heartland too!

Did anyone catch Jeff Beck and Metallica's performances at the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame the other nite? Any R N R HOF that doesn't have Rush, The Stooges, The Mc5 and KISS can blow me, but the show was kick ass. Who's that chick playing bass with Beck... awesome!






And today is 15 years since Kurt Cobain journeyed to Rock N Roll Heaven (or Hell).

In honor of that, here's some songs about a much cooler junkie: Johnny Thunders. And one dedicated to Kurt and Vermont!


Toonage:
Smells Like Queer Spirit - Pansy Division
Murder City Devils - Johnny Thunders
The Replacements - Johnny's Gonna Die (live 10-26-84)
and of course...
Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers - Too Much Junkie Business

From the sublime to the ridiculous

I think we all need to feel good today.

This is so beautiful and hopeful, I wanted to share:

Ray Davies with the Crouch End Festival Chorus: Shangri-La (live 10-28-07)

Apparently it's the first time ever performed live.

And from the sublime to the ridiculous; I don't know why, but every time I see this video I start to laugh. I think it had to do with how "earnest" Springsteen and Bono seem. Yeah, I know it was anti-apartheid, but it just seems so dated and cheesy.

It might also be because I still get shit from my pals about if I am going to play Sun City since I usually am wearing a "Little Steven style Schmatta" on my head.

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Now playing: Hitchcock, Robyn & The Egyptians - Listening to the Higsons
via FoxyTunes

Diminishing Returns

What could you do with $4000? Probably alot. You know what I do with it? I give it to the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority every year for the privilege of riding their public commuting system. Did I mention that my 35 mile commute takes me three and a half hours round trip every day? And did I mention that they are increasing rates and decreasing service?

Every day, the reasons for living in New York diminish. I can't wait to leave.

Fuck it.

It's Baseball Season!

The Nomad clan travelled to the opening of the New York Mets new Citifield (aka- Tax Payers Field- as we just gave Citibank billions of dollars) to take in the opening. Here are some pictures. It's a beautiful stadium. However, what a waste of money!

The view of the new Citifield from the ruins of the old Shea Stadium

A shot from the first level.

A shot from the Upper Deck. Still a great view.

Toonage:
Mc5 - Train Music
Jimmy Rodgers - Train Whistle Blues
New York Dolls - Subway Train
White Stripes - Stop Breakin' Down



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Now playing: D.O.A. - Slumlord
via FoxyTunes