The Wrestler

I am still recovering from my cold.  So, I wrapped myself with a comforter and watched some movies.  One of them was The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei.  After watching this movie, I remember the times of watching wrestling on TV.  The program we used to watch was called All-Star Wrestling.   We even named a dog after one of the wrestlers.  My parents came home with a Vizsla (Hungarian Pointer).

We gave him the name Baron after the wrestler Baron von Raschke the ClawMaster.

I had a friend in High School that had close ties to the wrestling world.  His dad was the producer for All-Star Wrestling, and he knew all of the guys.  He helped his dad put on the shows in the small arenas.  I met up with him at one of our reunions, and I found out that he even became a referee for the bouts as well.  I remember once turning on the radio in my car and hearing an interview with him about his experiences.  Here is the song that Bruce Springsteen did for the movie that should have won the Oscar for best song "The Wrestler."

Music for today:

Grateful Dead
May 1, 1977
The Palladium
New York City, NY
listen here
Set Two only

Grateful Dead
May 3, 1977
The Palladium
New York City, NY
listen here
Set One in SBD only

Cadillac Records/North Country

What a fool am I for not having seen Cadillac Records when it first came out.  I got my PS3 to stream movies from Netflix, and this came up as one of the offerings.  I had some time to kill today, so I loaded it up to watch it.  I have the Chess box set of Muddy Water's recordings.  They are fantastic.  A friend burned me a disc worth of Chuck Berry from his Chess box set.  I featured it awhile ago in another entry.  The storyline in this movie that interested me most was that of Etta James.  Beyonce as Etta was a gritty performance.  The woman certainly has the chops when it comes to acting.  I mention this because I often think of her mainly as a singer.  She covers Etta's songs wonderfully.  I would like though to offer the original tunes here.  Here are some of her classic numbers.  The first is "I'd Rather Go Blind."  Here is the original version of "At Last"; Beyonce sang her version at the inauguration ball where President Obama and his wife Michelle danced together.  Now to top it all off, we have Etta James with The Tower of Power Horns jamming with the Grateful Dead on New Year's Eve doing "Hard To Handle."

This evening was spent watching the movie North Country. It is about the struggle against sexual harassment in an iron mine in Northern Minnesota.  The soundtrack has lots of songs provided by Bob Dylan who comes from that area.  I heard a story long ago about him at his high school talent show in Hibbing, MN.  The story went that he was booed off the stage.  I met a person who was my coworker that was there at the show.  She told me that the story was true.  I also met a guy whose brother went to school with Dylan, and he was at the talent show as well.  It is a strange world in that part of the country.  It is like stepping backwards in time.  Here is a tune from the movie's soundtrack "Sweetheart Like You."

Music for today:

None.  I was recovering from a cold today, so I curled up and watched movies.  Tomorrow will be different.

Flogging Molly At First Ave

This evening was supposed to be a father/daughter evening out, but somethings were not meant to be. Originally,  I had read that it was going to an all ages show.  That is the information from the bands website. While I was at breakfast checking out a place that served Cuban food, I read our local entertainment rag.  I caught the ad for the place that it was being held, and much to my dismay, it said that it was an 18+ show.  I checked the tickets, and sure enough, that is what it said.  I felt really bad that I made this kind of mistake.  She didn't seem to heartbroken over this since early in the week she was to see a Broadway musical and another concert of one of her favorite bands.  It was shooting for the moon I guess, and I shot too far.  I went on facebook to see if anyone would want to go with me.  An old friend of mine wanted to but couldn't get out of work.

I went to the show, and eventually found someone who needed it.  I talked to an environmental group there inside the show.  I will share more info on them in another post.  I also bought a hat.  I wanted to buy a shirt, but they are all too small for me.  I did buy a baseball hat with Flogging Molly's logo on it.  I do like my caps.
I stood right behind the soundboard which was elevated.  This gave me a great view of both the warm up band and FM.  I met a guy named David who writes for Beholder Media.  He was a young guy that had never seen them in concert.  As we were talking, he told me about a guy from a band that had recently died.  The report was heart related, but he had a history of suicide in his past.  I told him that it reminded me of the old David Bowie tune "Rock and Roll Suicide" that he did when he was doing Ziggy Stardust.  This guy never heard of Ziggy Stardust, Lou Reed or Guitarist Extraordinaire Mick Ronson.  Here is another example of Mick Ronson's work  that I gave him (he is on lead guitar):  "Heroin part one, part two".

The music for the show was great.  It was like going to a big Irish wake.  There have been many people mentioned throughout that have passed on, and many dedications were made to various people for different causes.  The most poignant one was to the missing fiddle player.  Her mother was undergoing brain surgery, and she was not doing well.  Other than that, It was a great time to be had.

I picked up my copy of Avatar on blu-ray this afternoon.  It was completely stunning.  It is the best reason for blu-ray to exist.

Music for today:

Band of Heathens
April 15, 2010
The Bottling Company
Hattiesburg, MS
Opened For Mofro

01. Somebody Tell The Truth
02. Look At Miss Ohio
03. L. A. County Blues
04. Jenny Was A Keeper
05. Jackson Station
06. Your Gonna Miss Me

Seven Words (warning foul language)

There is a great video featuring Frank Zappa on the program Crossfire.  This program came out in the mid-1980's, and it is about the censorship of rock music.  Zappa was a conservative voice in the freedoms of free speech.  I find it rather ironic that Tipper Gore was the person that lead the charge for labeling music. Here is Frank's video.  To say that Tipper Gore is a deadhead, I don't really believe she knows where it is at. Here are some videos for that self-righteous bitch.  The first is "The Seven Words."  The next tune is from Twisted Sister (The father in this video is the same guy from Animal House.) "We're Not Gonna Take It." There was a mention of a Van Halen video in the Zappa piece called "Hot For Teacher"; I offer it here for your consideration.

Music for today:

Grateful Dead
September 24, 1976
William and Mary College
Williamsburg, VA
listen here

Something Off My Mind

I have had the following thought nag on me for over thirty years.  It was about a book I read in freshman English class.  The only thing that I remembered about it was that it had these kids stranded in a building with nothing but flights of stairs.  So, I looked it up just now, and voila, there it is.  The name of the book is House of Stairs.  It is amazing the shit that I have rattling up in my brain.  It is damn scary sometimes.

Now it is on to tamer subjects, I heard talk today of a song that one Jerry Garcia might have played on as a teenager.  the song is "Do You Wanna Dance" by Bobby Freeman.  Here is some discussion as to whether or not this was the case.  I heard the live broadcast of this song on New Year's Eve while I was at a big sober get together at the old Minneapolis Convention Center.  They tore it down and replaced it with an ultramodern one.  The old one was extremely old.

Music for today:

Grateful Dead
June 29, 1976
Auditorium Theater
Chicago, IL
listen here

Grateful Dead
July 18, 1976
Orpheum Theatre
San Francisco, CA
listen here

Blue Monday

I would like to say something witty and smart, but it is just not in me today.  I did use facebook to try to get rid of an extra ticket for a show that I am going to on Thursday.  That was the only redeeming spot of my day.  The rest of it has been in a bad funk.  I feel it now as I type.  I could just curl up and disappear.  My head hurts bad.  It is true that depression is a physical pain as well as mental anguish.  Here is an upbeat song, but like I said, it is not how I am feeling "I'm Down" by The Beatles. The next is the classic "Stormy Monday" by T-bone Walker.

Music for today:

Grateful Dead
June 19, 1976
Capitol Theater
Passaic, NJ
listen here

Grateful Dead
June 24, 1976
Tower Theater
Upper Darby, PA
listen here

Eric Clapton

I have much in common with this guy that is not so obvious.  He is famous; I am not.  He plays guitar; I only wish I could.  He's English; I'm Irish. So what can it be?  We have the same disease.  We are had problems with chemical addictions.  Yeah, your saying to your self, but how how can I possibly be like the Rock God?  I have found that a person's talent or occupation does not make the person.  This is a fallacy.  It is the things that we have in common that are the important stuff.  It is like surviving a great disaster.  The people that I have gone through it all know what it is like and can help others through it as well.  This is what Eric has done with the Crossroads Festival in Chicago.  It is to raise funds for his treatment center.  It is his way of giving back to the community as a whole.  Here are some great tunes from Eric Clapton over the years.  The first tune is with John Mayall & Blues Breakers "All Your Love."  The next is Cream with the song "Tales of Brave Ulysses."  Up next is Blind Faith with the song "Can't Find My Way Home."  The next song is by Derek and the Dominoes "Why Does Love Have to be So Sad."  The next is a solo recording that Eric did  of the Slow Hand "The Core."  Flash forward to the present time, Eric is resting on his laurels.  He just finished a tour with Jeff Beck.  Here is a video from one of the performances from February of 2010.

Music for today:

Grateful Dead
June 17, 1976
Capitol Theater
Passaic, NJ
listen here

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood
Live From Madison Square Garden DVD