Of Missing Fireworks and the 4th of July

Good lord. According to a story in the Daily Herald, a heap of professional-grade fireworks were swiped from an abandoned trailer, apparently by a bunch of lunatic teenagers. One kid had more than 100 of them in his closet. Considering the damage that one of these things can do, there's no telling the kind of destruction that a closet full of them can cause. As I've gotten older, I've gotten more and more nervous about the craziness that happens on 4th of July. When we were kids, we did our share of 'splodin stuff, but we mostly were messing around with bottle rockets and small firecrackers. Yes, we could get hurt, and yes, they can cause harm to people and property. But we shot them off in the middle of nowhere. These days, people living on top of one another in cities and suburbs alike are setting of charges with much greater force, apparently not thinking that they can burn down their neighbors houses. I hope they find these things before someone gets hurt.

The Critics Have Spoken...

Yes, I am alive and well. I've just been busy with work and trying to get my place in order. Not much of interest has been happening, so I haven't had much to write about. You know how it is. Now that summer is here, it's been hard to do much of anything, especially with the sudden onslaught of heat.

One thing I did stumble across recently was a new site (at least to me) called Musebin. It's quite a neat little site that features collections of reviews some of which rival Metacritic in breadth and scope.

It's amazing to me that no one has come up with this idea before. Here's the long story: The thing that has always bugged me about Metacritic is that it's a pretty closed society. They choose a handful of new releases each week, all of the big ones are represented, and then they post short excerpts and scores from a bunch of different sources. The problem, for me, is that they always use the same sources, and only the usual suspects are represented.

This is where Musebin fills a nice niche and improves tons and tons upon the Metacritic formula. Everything on Musebin is added by users. So regular people go out and find the most insightful reviews and then post very short, Twitter-worthy excerpts plus a simple rating categorization. Users can also add their own reviews, too, within the same abbreviated guidelines.

Yes, you get some reviews that are nothing more than totally inept and useless nonsense. But you also get some nice, concise summarizations. I should set up an account, as it would be fun to contribute. Then again, given how off-again, on-again I am with blogging, well...

The Dead at Allstate

The Dead were really good at Allstate, though it wasn't completely satisfying, not in the same way that the good old Grateful Dead was. I'm glad the Chicago shows were near the end of the tour, which gave the boys plenty of time to get it together. It would be great if they made this a regular thing, hitting road two or three times a year. It's the only way they'd fix the few problems that remain. The chemistry is there, it's just not complete. The only way to fix this is to play and play and play together regularly.

I also wish they hadn't wound up the second show with I Know You Rider. It was ridiculously predictable, after they skipped it on the opening night. For me, it kind of ended things on a bum note. I like to be surprised. Once they turned the corner into the song, I knew the show was over, and the Brokedown encore just made it worse. Dancin' and Weather Report Suite were the highlights of the second show. The China Cat/Born Cross-Eyed opener was the highlight of the first night.

All in all, not bad, but not the same. I suppose I need to get over it, but honestly, Ratdog has done more for me than any of the post-Jerry bands. It's not that the post-Jerry Dead is bad. They just don't play together enough to be really great.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. I'm sure there are many many Deadheads who disagree.

The Definitive Kris Kristofferson

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been insanely busy with work, trying to hold onto a job that sometimes drives me nuts, but at least pays the bills. Overall I like it but with all the cutbacks and cost-cutting measures of late, it's been difficult trying to pick up the slack for the missing bodies.

Enough about that, though. I was catching up on my magazines last night, and I ran across an absolutely amazing piece on Kris Kristofferson that appeared in Rolling Stone a few issues back. Unfortunately, only a portion of the article is online, but you get the drift. It's worth seeking out the full article. It's written by Ethan Hawke, no less, who turns his super-fandom into a wonderfully entertaining article. It's great, too, that Rolling Stone saw fit to publish the piece, considering that Kristofferson, while still highly respected in some circles, has fallen back into the counterculture.

Pig Day!

Sunday is Pig Day. The celebration was founded way, way back in 1972, but I didn't learn of it until a few years ago. It has grown into a much bigger over the past few years, at least here in Chicagoland. Last year, I took my nephew to Brookfield Zoo. They do the whole Pig Day thing up in a big way there. It was a real hoot, too. Both the Hamill Family Play Zoo and the Children's Zoo are free for the day, and between those two places, you can get lost for the day. It was really something special to watch George interact with the other kids, playing zoo doctor and making crafts. This year, there is a Pig Demonstration at 1 and a parade at 1:30. If I weren't on my way to San Francisco, I'd take him again this year. I highly recommend it.

Bruce Springsteen, Alice Russell, and Escaping the Cold!

Next week, I will get to go to San Francisco at the expense of my company. I haven't been west in awhile, and it will be great to go back to the greatest city in the world. It isn't the ideal time to go. I'd rather head to the Bay Area in the fall, when it's nice and warm and rarely rains. But it still beats Chicago. An ice storm is predicted for later this week, and next week the temperature isn't supposed to rise much past the mid-30s. Although it is going to rain in San Francisco all week next week, it at least won't be so cold. It's supposed to be in the mid-5os next week, which ought to be nice. Hopefully, I can get some sightseeing in, and hopefully, the showers will stop long enough so I can roam through Golden Gate park. I might do it anyway. Unlike those on the west coast, who seem to head inside when it rains, I'm not averse to bad weather. And there are enough places to duck into that it usually doesn't bother me too much if it rains. I want to see the ocean again too. How does the song go: "It's been so long since I've seen the ocean..." Anyway, if the weather did bother me, I certainly wouldn't live here where it's been particularly cold and snowy, the way it always used to be before global warming started messing things up.

Let's do a quick rundown of some music stories of interest:

- Springsteen used his website to lambaste Ticketmaster after fans in New Jersey were treated shabbily. Some were sent to TicketsNow where the cost was up to 50 times higher! TicketMaster is making amends to his fans, and Springsteen has since removed the note, but why did he and the state of New Jersey have to get involved in order for action to be taken? It's one more reason why TicketMaster and Live Nation should not be allowed to merge. TicketMaster already has a monopoly and does whatever it wants. Remember the whole Pearl Jam incident? Pearl Jam had to abandon its fight because TicketMaster was going to kill off the band's ability to earn a living since it controlled access to all of the good venues! That was more than a decade ago!

- For fans of classic soul music, Alice Russell may be the next saving grace. Her latest CD Pot of Gold is right on the money in terms of capturing the mood, the feeling, and the sound of the olden, golden days of R&B. I think The Music Box was right in that she hasn't really found her own voice yet, but I also think they were a little hard on the album. It's better than a lot of these types of CDs.

- I guess while we're on a Springsteen roll, I should point out the latest interview with him in Rolling Stone. Springsteen is notoriously shy, though he has found was of overcoming it. In a way, the early tales of how he wouldn't make eye contact and would struggle to talk about himself and his music is refreshing. So many artists have huge egos long before they deserve them. He talks about himself and his work a little more now, but Springsteen still retains his shyness. David Fricke put together a good interview with The Boss for the latest issue of Rolling Stone, though I wish Springsteen would open up just a little bit more. He sounds so reserved.

- Springsteen's latest album is Working on a Dream. Liking this album has not come easily for me. It's too polished and produced. Some songs don't even sound like anything Springsteen typically would have written and recorded. I suppose it's nice that he is trying new things, but I'll take Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town over anything he's done in the past 27 years (since Nebraska). The Music Box makes some good points about it, so I might have to give it another whirl. I know I plug this site a lot, but I think their commentary is frequently insightful.

Dumbest Band Name....Ever?

This morning I was looking over an e-mail I received that lists some of the concerts coming to town and the on-sale dates for tickets. With apologies to the band, I had to just burst out laughing. Supporting Lily Allen, apparently on all or most of her upcoming tour dates, is a group from Washington that calls itself:

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

No joke. You read that correctly. The band calls itself Natalie Portman's Shaved Head.

Now, I'm not sure how far they expected to get when they picked this name, but I'm guessing it was some kind of joke that got out of hand. The name makes them sound like a novelty act, though in an attempt to move past it, they have taken to using an abbreviation (NPSH) to identify themselves. Incidentally, their music sounds like it was plucked from the '80s, which is another thing I thought we had moved past. Oh well.