Category Archives: Paul

November 12, 2014 · 23:16

On A Freakin’ Comet! (And Another NASA Social!)

If you were watching any of my tweets today, or if you follow any of the usual space & astronomy news channels, you know that the ESA’s Philae lander successfully detached from the Rosetta spacecraft and soft landed on Comet 67P.

In case you have any doubt — This. Was. Huge.

These spacecraft were launched over ten years ago, which means they were designed something like fifteen or sixteen years ago. Regardless of that, the feat of getting them to rendezvous with the comet was monumental. To now have the lander successfully get down to the surface just takes the awesome up a notch or two. There aren’t enough congratulations in the world right now for the ESA team that has designed and executed this mission.

We’re not out of the woods yet. The lander was supposed to anchor itself to the comet surface in order to keep flying off into space. The gravity on the surface of the comet is so small that the lander, which weighs over 200 pounds on earth, weighs less than a gram on Comet 67P. When it starts to drill or even move the camera around, it could fling itself back into space.

The problem was that they were designing blind, having no clue what the comet surface would be like. Is it soft, fluffy, and possibly deep? Is it hard and icy? A mixture? Like sand? Like gravel? Like rock? In order to cover as many bases as possible, there are multiple systems on Philae to try to anchor it. It’s not clear that those have worked.

Two harpoons were supposed to shoot out into the (assumed) ice, with the lines then reeled in to hold Philae down snug. There are also ice screws on all three legs, which can anchor the spacecraft if they can get a grip on the surface. Finally, on contact there’s a small thruster on top of the spacecraft that fires to hold it down while the harpoons and ice screws are trying to attach.

At the time that the signal was lost from Philae today (which was expected, the Rosetta orbiter is acting as a relay and it flew off in its orbit over the horizon) it appeared that the harpoons had not fired and the thruster had not lit off. There are concerns that the spacecraft could be the first “slider” or “scooter” on a comet instead of the first “lander.”

However, at last contact with Rosetta today Philae was working, was getting power from its solar cells, and had started to collect data. That’s all good.

Since then there hasn’t been much new data to work with. One possible issue is that a couple of things seem to indicate that in fact the lander bounced upon landing. Further analysis of some of the magnetic data and the data received on the solar panel power output seemed to show that the spacecraft was shifting and moving.

It’s very guesswork-y, but I saw at least one back-of-the-envelope calculation (with a LOT of assumptions) that showed that there were actually two bounces, the first one being a biggie, followed by a much smaller one. The figures I saw (which I really hope are way off base) showed that the first, big bounce could have been as high as 500 meters and as long as 120 minutes or so off of the surface. With the comet rotating and tumbling underneath it, and with us not knowing at all which direction it might have gone in, that bounce could have carried it waaaaay away from the original landing site, as in, almost anywhere. That could be a big problem in so many ways, which is why I’m hoping that it turns out to be incorrect. We’ll see in a few hours.

With luck, tomorrow will bring us some amazing pictures from the surface of the comet, as well as some data that will show us what the surface is made of. Ice? Water ice? Dry ice? Sand? Carbon?”

What I wouldn’t give to be there myself with a bucket and a mass spectrometer. But for now, let’s think good thoughts about Philae. It’s already done the impossible, now we just need to hope that it can push the boundaries of the impossible out a little bit further.

 

One other “spacy” note that I’m thrilled to report – I got an invite to yet another NASA Social!

You may remember that I’ll be up at Edwards Air Force Base next Tuesday and Wednesday, November 18th and 19th, for the NASA Social at the Armstrong Flight Research Center. That’s going to be fantastic and I’m really looking forward to it. (Although the long-term weather forecast for those two days looks…”interesting.” But we need the rain, don’t we?)

Now I’ve gotten the invite to a NASA Social at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on December 3rd and 4th for the Orion launch and test flight. NASA is actually running eight concurrent NASA Socials on December 3rd at sites all across the country, previewing the Orion launch. On December 4th we’ll be able to watch the launch, flight, and splashdown of Orion together at JPL.

For both events, needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway, obviously), watch here for tons of information, pictures, and articles. Watch my Twitter account (@momdude56) for a lot of live stuff all day long, as well as on my Facebook page.

This is really going to be great! It’s going to be better if y’all are along for the ride!

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Filed under Astronomy, Paul, Space

November 11, 2014 · 22:45

Tugs & Forklifts

Today, thanks to some of the other SoCal CAF members who are more involved with the mechanical and greasy side of the operation, I got to get some first-step cross-training on some of the heavier equipment that’s used around the hangers.

My gig is “finance officer,” which means that I keep track of the money. It’s what I’ve done as a paying job for decades, and it makes sense for us to do what we do best in order to help out the most. On the other hand, accounting, finance, and computer tech support are just…well, accounting, finance, and computer tech support. They’re not always (and by “not always” I mean “NEVER”) a lot of fun, they’re just necessary and I do them reasonably well.

But, having gotten my pilot’s license, I know my way around a plane, at least a bit, and would like to do more “hands on” activities. It’s the old “one man’s work is another man’s play” thing, or something like that. Anyway, I’ve let it be known that, time & schedule permitting, I would be open to learning a bit about getting things done outside of the office.

Today some of the guys who run the hanger and maintenance side of things were giving lessons to some of the new cadets on driving the forklift, the tugs, and using the tugs with a tow bar. I was asked if I wanted to participate, and despite being up to my ass in alligators right now with some other things there, I said, “Sure!”

I’ve driven some heavy equipment in the past – my dad grew up on a farm with tractors and such, and when I was a teenager we had a small bulldozer for a couple of years that we used to put in a road on some land we owned in Vermont. I can drive a stick shift (not actually needed for today, surprisingly) and I’ve got something like 1,000,000 miles behind the wheel (literally) in over forty-four years of driving. I was being taught with a couple of cadets who didn’t have their driver’s license yet.

Forklifts are cool and at least today seemed pretty straightforward. Tilt, lift, back, forward, steers from the back, keep an eye on your CG so you don’t flip over, always watch out for things around you… One of the guys who’s been doing this for decades gave a demonstration where he was lifting and turning and tilting and backing and driving and lowering like it was a symphony, doing in about 30 seconds what it had taken me closer to five minutes to do – but that’s just practice, practice, practice. I went through the obstacle course three or four times both forward and backwards and never touched a cone, so that one I felt good about.

On the tugs, we have several of different sizes, some really big, some mid-sized. I drove two of them today being taught by one of our cadets, a smart-as-a-whip, 17 or 18 year old young lady who can drive tugs with the best of them. Driving the tugs alone was pretty straightforward, just a need to get used to how they steer differently and need significantly different amounts of force on the brake and gas pedals.

Then we hooked up a tow bar.

It’s a lot like towing a trailer, except you’re usually not towing, you’re pushing. Which is like towing a trailer backwards while looking in a mirror, or something. Your instincts are all wrong, your turning radius (at least, my turning radius) has gone from about five feet to about thirty feet (Nicole was doing it in about ten) and it’s surprisingly easy to jackknife the tow bar.

The guys who have been doing this forever were having a good time watching me weave all over the place (I still never hit a cone!), going from here to there via there, there, there, there, and there. Pictures were taken, videos will no doubt be popping up on our website soon (I’ll post links if/when that happens), and a good time was had by all. (I believe that some of the cadets were having a good time at my expense because I was being taught by a girl, and a girl a third my age to boot. Let ’em laugh, I got over that particular insecurity in the Nixon administration.)

So there may be more practice necessary before I’m ready to actually hook a planes to the other end of the tow bar. But it will happen, and one of these days when we’ve got five tugs and only two drivers and we’ve got to shuffle planes all over the ramp, I’ll be able to jump in and help.

It will be fun! Until I get asked to come in at 0500 to pull planes out and get them ready to launch or stay until 2350 to put planes away. But on those days I think I might have some bank reconciliation reports to do or some gift shop inventory figures to process…

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Filed under CAF, Flying, Paul

November 8, 2014 · 19:58

Saturday Night, Mind Adrift

If we knew then what we know (or think we know) now, would we change things?

If we knew then what we know now, would we be amazed at all of the wonderful things in the now that we take for granted while we’re trying to send a warning about all of the negative things that we’re so focused on?

What is there today that our 10-years-from-now selves would like us to know?

How do we listen for that message from our 10-years-from-now selves?

Which would be more useful, a warning about an upcoming crisis in order to help us avoid it, or a message of hope and joy in order to help us through the dark nights?

Again, if the latter and we can think of joyful messages to send back even if today is dark, what kinds of hopeful messages might there be for us down the road, even if we can’t see them now?

If you couldn’t give a message to your own past self, but you could to another, who would you communicate with and what would you tell them?

Part of this train of thought comes from an article the other day about the common SF theme of using a time machine to go back to see the dinosaurs, which ignores that the planet’s atmosphere back then (depending on when you go back to) could have been quite toxic to us.

Similarly, say for example that you recently met someone, fell in love, and wished that you could have met that person twenty years ago, in order to have all of those extra years together. The problem is that the you of twenty years ago isn’t the same person as the you of today, and the lover of twenty years ago isn’t the same person as the you of today, so even if you did meet, it wouldn’t be the same. You would not connect the same way.

Shaking off my post-dinner reverie, I feel like there could be a country song in there somewhere. Wait, someone beat me to it…

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Filed under Paul, Science Fiction, Travel

November 7, 2014 · 19:57

Gremlins Or Situational Blindness?

Either the brain is a weird thing or there really are gremlins. Or house elves. Or pixies. I always get them mixed up.

It’s not like I really believe in supernatural critters. My degree is in physics, not psychics; I studied astronomy, not astrology; cosmology, not cosmetology. (You laugh, but working the swing shift for room service in college, I was studying one slow night when a cocktail waitress saw the title on my textbook and asked if I would do her hair.)

But I had this thing, a DVD I had burned, when all of a sudden as I needed it a day or two later it was gone. Start retracing my steps, looking high and low, but nothing found.

Look on my desk, on all of the bookshelves, in the living room, in the kitchen… Hell, I even looked in the bathrooms.

Maybe it fell down behind something. Maybe it just got put down someplace totally unexpected when the phone rang or some other distraction came up. Maybe it got mislabeled in a moment of stupidity and filed into the Twilight Zone.

No joy.

Okay, tear apart the desk and the stuff on the bookshelves where it should be and stay focused. Look, look again, don’t get distracted. Start looking into “what if” scenarios that are silly, but when you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever’s left…

Nada.

Start going through that big stack of recent DVDs to see if it got mislabeled. Time consuming when i would prefer to spend that time doing something else, like writing, or even catching up on some sleep.

Zip.

Finally I gave up. Went hunting online, tracked down some substitute material for a work-around. It was really late, I was getting punchy, so I just saved the files and would burn a new DVD in the morning.

(Wait for it…)

The next morning, as I walk by the same shelf next to my desk that I had searched a dozen times in the previous few days, there was a DVD case, face down. Turn it over and it’s (of course) the lost DVD.

How is it conceivable that I searched that location repeatedly and missed it sitting in plain sight?

Was it the house gremlins having some fun with me?

I like that explanation far better than the logical alternative, which is that I’m a serial doofuss and either losing it or showing signs of early onset Alzheimer’s.

Vision, optical illusions, and perception tricks and foibles have always interested me, so I know this type of weird behavior happens. I just wished that it didn’t happen to me.

Maybe it was just the house elves being mischievous. Maybe they’re just pissed because I keep getting them mixed up with the gnomes, trolls, pixies, and gremlins.

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Filed under Critters, Paul

October 17, 2014 · 22:39

The Day The Murph-Dog Met The Murph-Cat

Back in the days before I became an Old Fart, when I was just a Young Fart, before I met The Long-Suffering Wife, before the kids, before The First Wife, when I was in college, I had a cat. I probably shouldn’t have had a cat, since I was a starving college kid in a tiny apartment and I between work and school and work and homework I was just a bit busy. But a neighbor had a litter, I looked at them and picked out the slow, dimwitted one, and named him Murphy because he was always in trouble. Then I got into a different apartment for the last two years of college, and Murphy went to live with my parents for the duration.

After graduating college and getting married, there was a period when The First Wife and I rented her parent’s house to live in. Part of the deal was that we also inherited the family dog, who was also named Murphy. In this case, it was because they had gotten her from a family named Murphy, so it was “Murphy’s dog,” which got shortened.

On moving into the house, all was chaos, as moving often is, especially in the initial combining of two collections of stuff. There were boxes everywhere, furniture in various states of reassembly, piles of stuff that may still be sitting in my garage to this day, unknown and unknowable. Into this environment I retrieved my cat.

In order to avoid too much confusion, immediately the two creatures became known as MurphCat and MurphDog.

The MurphCat was a tiny, skittish critter who had only ever known my apartment and my parent’s house. Bringing her into the chaos caused her to find a safe, dark, hidey hole from which she would come out only when all was quiet, to eat the food we kept putting out for her. Once in a while I would hear her so I knew she was alive around there somewhere, but she wasn’t coming out to face this new reality any time soon.

The MurphDog was an old, old beagle-ish short of dog who was possibly the most friendly and easy-going canine in the history of the planet. It didn’t matter if you had seen her every day of her life or if you were a total stranger, if you would pet her or feed her (even better!) she would sit at your feet and soak it up for hours. She was having a good time with the chaos. Lots of new things to sniff and play with.

The first full weekend after we moved it was a roaster, up in the 90’s at least. My priority task, like it or not, was to tackle the back yard which had been neglected for months and was now waist high. The First Wife was off on some errand or another, so grabbed my machete, lawn mower, and bug spray and dove into the task.

Two hours or so later, sweating like a pig, sunburned, dehydrated, wearing only shorts and about to drop, I let the MurphDog out to check out the work. I got something to drink and, with no furniture yet to sit on in the living room, lay down on the carpet in front of the television to watch the ballgame and recuperate. Needless to say, I was asleep in five minutes.

As the house was now quiet, the MurphCat came out of her hiding spot to look around. The only familiar thing she found was me. She took the chance and curled up on my chest to fall asleep herself.

What a peaceful scene.

Which brings us to The First Wife coming home, oblivious to my position or condition in the living room. She sees the MurphDog sitting out on the back porch, wanting to come in, so she opens the screen. MurphDog goes exploring and finds me and the MurphCat.

Friendly dog. Loving dog. Curious dog. She knew that the MurphCat was around, her nose still worked just fine, but she hadn’t been properly introduced. Here was her chance!

The MurphDog padded over, stuck her nose about 2mm from MurphCat’s sleeping nose and quietly said, “Whooof??”

The MurphCat opened her eyes only to see the most humongous, terrifying, slavering, drooling beast in the world, no doubt about to eat her in one gulp!! She extended all eighteen razor sharp claws and dug in hard for maximum acceleration, going from zero to 9,000 mph in just under two seconds. Unfortunately, her navigation was a little off and she slammed into the leg of the kitchen table about five feet away, then started staggering around the kitchen in a daze.

I awoke suddenly to find my chest ripped open, heart surgery without benefit of anesthesia. From dreamland to intense pain in a fraction of a second, I made it to my knees before I started howling. There may have been some bad words said. Loudly. In Klingon.

The First Wife started laughing hysterically, laughing so hard that she literally could not stay on her feet. It’s a good thing that I come from a people that clot and coagulate well or I could have bled to death before she would have been able to call 911 or help.

The MurphDog just sat there, observing this all dispassionately, wondering what all the fuss was about. After all, she just wanted to say hello to her new housemate. What had happened?

In the end, the MurphCat recovered whatever senses she had and was none the worse for the self-imposed concussion. The MurphDog and The MurphCat became great friends. The First Wife finally caught her breath and figured out what had happened. I eventually healed, although to this day you can still see eighteen thin, horizontal scars across my chest. It became one of those family stories that gets laughed at every now and then. And my mother-in-law bought me this T-shirt:

IMG_4857

Nope. Still not funny.

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Filed under Cats, Dogs, Family, Paul

October 1, 2014 · 21:44

What Are You Reading On Wednesday, October 1st?

After several consecutive days in which it feels like I’m getting to bed way too late, getting up way too early, and juggling cats all day in between, today has been more odd than most. A memorial service for an ex-brother-in-law (is there an actual term for a brother or sister of an ex-spouse?) and way, way too many hours in LA rush hour traffic, both coming and going, watching innumerable yahoos driving while on the phone, texting, eating, shaving, putting on makeup, or generally doing ANYTHING except driving their car and staying in their own lane.

Trying to get my thoughts back on track this evening, I realized I hadn’t actually sat and read a book, a work of fiction printed on dead trees, in quite a while. I read articles and news and tweets and so on all day long, and I’m constantly looking stuff up and web surfing and reading things about all of the various topics you might see here — but I haven’t just kicked back and read a book for the pleasure of it in some time.

I think I’m going to do that tonight. When I was last reading, I was about a quarter of the way through Mira Grant’s “Blackout.” It’s still sitting here on my desk, staring at me, making me feel guilty every day. Time to get back to the zombie apocalypse.

If you’re following this blog and you’re not a bot (hello, bots!) I’m confident that you’re also a reader. While I go off for some mandatory decompression time with a good book, I’ll ask what you’re reading or what you most recently read? I’m curious.

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Filed under Distracted Driving, Paul, Science Fiction, Writing

September 29, 2014 · 17:06

Tweaks & MNF

I’ve made a couple of tweaks to the site today, which you may notice in the sidebar over on the right side of the screen. “Latest Tweets” inserted, other stuff moved around and re-sized. Let me know if you like, dislike, or have problems with the updated layout.

Tonight I’ll be a bit busy with a certain midwestern NFL team playing a certain New England NFL team in Monday Night Football. I wrote last year about my one and only visit to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and posted several pictures from that trip in 2006. It will be an exciting 48 hours in KC, with the Chiefs at home in a premier, nationally broadcast game tonight, and the Royals next door at Kaufmann Stadium tomorrow night with a wildcard playoff game, their first appearance in the postseason in 29 years.

One picture that I didn’t use from that day because it was “blurry” actually fits in quite nicely with some pictures I’ve posted recently (here, here, and here), so here it is. Go Chiefs! Go Royals! (Even though the Royals will then get crushed by my beloved Angels in the next round.)

IMG_7289 small

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Filed under Family, KC Chiefs, LA Angels, Paul, Photography, Travel

September 24, 2014 · 22:52

I Need A Better System

Or an assistant. Or an editor. Or some software to keep track of what I’ve written and what I haven’t.

I just spent the better part of an hour writing a really good piece about a certain topic. Not a great piece, mind you, but a pretty good one. Not anything I was going to be sending out when I apply to Clarion, but not anything I was going to be ashamed about.

I proofed it, made a couple of changes. Just before I hit the big, blue “Publish” button, I stopped, something nagging at my brain. Something about one of the phrases and metaphors I had used sounded familiar…

I saved the draft and went hunting. Fortunately, with everything being electronic and WordPress having some good search and editing tools built in, it only took a minute to find what my subconscious had been nagging me about.

Almost the exact same article, written about four months ago.

On the one hand, consistency is a marvelous thing. Upon closer examination, there were whole paragraphs that were about 80% identical. The layout and flow of the entire article was the same. A couple of the new snarky comments were better than the old ones, but several of the old ones were pretty good too.

But it was all useless. Publishing it would have proven nothing other than the fact that I need to keep a closer eye on symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s. (Just kidding — I think.)

So, making lemons out of lemonade, it’s time to think about upping my game and getting a bit more organized here.

Any other bloggers out there having this issue and have any suggestions on software or a system to watch out for this sort of thing in the future? Suggestions in the comments would be appreciated.

However, no need to suggest that I simply pull my head out of my ass. I’ve already figured that one out on my own, thanks!

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Filed under Paul, Writing

September 14, 2014 · 22:16

Bands I’ve Seen In Concert

Last week an odd neuron fired off and I wrote about bands I’ve never seen live but wish that I could. The flip side of that neuron, probably in no particular order, are the bands and artists that I have seen live in concert.

NOTE — A lot of the dates and places might be a bit off, just best guesses at this point. It’s not like I kept a list, and not all of this stuff is documented on the internet. My brain isn’t what it used to be (and it never was) so if I say “mid to late 2000 at a really small club on Sunset,” it might actually have been early 2001 at a really small club in North Hollywood — but it’s close enough for government work.

NOTE #2 — In Los Angeles, a lot of country artists I’ve seen have been at these all-day “festival” type events that get held once a year or so, usually at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater. Back in the day, Los Angeles’ one and only country music station was KZLA and they sponsored these “Country Cookout” events. When KZLA got sold and changed formats, KKGO sprang up to replace it. They also have sponsored these events, but they call them something different — I still call them “Country Cookouts.” Sue me.

Led Zeppelin — The first concert I remember going to, on either their 1975 or 1977 tour, at “The Fabulous Forum” in Los Angeles. One of my younger brothers was obsessed with Zeppelin (still is) but was only about fifteen at the time so there was no way my parents were going to let him go on his own. He somehow talked them into saying it was okay to go if I took them. (I was in college at the time.) My brother then promised me that he would buy my ticket, so off we went. Still memorable for the most pot-smoke-filled room I have ever been in. Also a pretty great concert.

Brad Paisley — I’ve seen him at least five or six times, including a show in (probably) mid to late 2000 at a really small club on Sunset (I think) in Los Angeles. His first album was out and his first two singles, but he was nowhere near the country music superstar that he is now. KZLA sponsored the concert and the only way to get the free tickets was to call in at the proper time. I liked the first album and managed to get a pair of tickets. I went with The Long-Suffering Wife (when she was just The Long-Suffering Girlfriend, it wasn’t all that long after we had met) and I remember it well because there were only about four chairs in the whole place. The “stage” was only about 6 ft x 8 ft and raised maybe twelve inches. The room was crammed with a couple hundred people, a giant mosh pit, and really loud. Ronnie doesn’t do well with mosh pits, so I don’t think she had that good of a time. I absolutely love Brad Paisley’s music and especially his intricate guitar work, so even at that early stage of his career it was amazing to be five or six feet away while he played. Since then, we’ve seen him at a couple of the Country Cookout shows, as well as at the major LA venues such as Staples Center, the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal Studios, and Irvine Meadows Amphitheater.

Simon & Garfunkel — The number one group that I thought that I would never get to see and wanted to see sooooooo badly. Their breakup had been nasty and for twenty-plus years they were quite vocal about never getting back together, no matter what. Then they did, and I made damn sure I got tickets to see them at the Hollywood Bowl. Still one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen.

Eagles — One of the groups that was high on that other list and I figured that I would never get a chance to see them. But they re-united for “one last tour.” In Los Angeles, their tour appearance(s) were the first events booked at the Nokia Theater at LA Live. I took one of my daughters (The Long-Suffering Wife couldn’t go for some reason at the last minute) and it was spectacular. Of course, “one last tour” has now turned into “four or five last tours” (the money’s good, I hear) so I also saw them a second time, in St. Louis a couple of years later when I was visiting my son while he was stationed at Scott Air Force Base.

Garth Brooks — We’ve seen him three times now since he “retired.” He did a live television concert from Staples which we saw. It was great, after the hour-long show went off the air, he played for the crowd there for another couple of hours. He also did a charity concert, which we got tickets to. Then of course he was in Las Vegas for years, doing more of a stage show with some music thrown in (I don’t think he did a single song all the way through), and we saw that. Now I hear that he’s un-retiring, so I’m sure there will be other opportunities.

Dixie Chicks — Another absolutely favorite group of mine that I’ve seen live at least four times. The best one was a charity benefit concert where there were concerts simultaneously all over the country for different genres of music, all to raise money for the same charity. We got eighth row tickets at the Gibson Amphitheater, and the concert also included (I think?) sets by Trisha Yearwood and Emmy Lou Harris. It was glorious.

Sugarland — Seen them two or three times, at least once at the Country Cookouts and at least twice as headliners.

Tim McGraw & Faith Hill — We’ve seen them separately and when they’ve been touring together. I remember seeing them at Staples on their first “Heart To Heart” tour and they had the most amazing video & digital lighting display. The stage was a giant high-definition video screen that they walked on and it was the size of a basketball court. The music was great, the electronic toys were spectacular!

Gary Moore — Did I mention that I really love great guitarists? Gary Moore was an Irish rock guitar virtuoso who played with Thin Lizzy, then had a solo career. He had a 1990 jazz-ish, rock-ish album called “Still Got The Blues” which was spectacular, especially the title song. Jeez Louise, could he make that Stratocaster sing. I only got to see him do one or two songs when he got up on stage as a guest during a Brad Paisley concert at the Universal Amphitheater. I think only about 10% of the audience recognized the name and knew who he was, but we really howled when we heard his name.

Weird Al Yankovic — I’ve seen him twice when the kids were much younger. The first time we saw him was at the Ventura County Fair. We had been at the fair all day and were roasted, then when the concert started about 8:00 or 8:30 we were freezing our freakin’ butts off. But damn does the man put on a great show! A couple years later we saw him at a concert hall in Oxnard or Ventura, and it was much more comfortable. I know a lot of you are country music fans or rock music fans or whatever, but trust me, if you get a chance to see Weird Al in concert, take it!

Phil Vassar — We’ve seen him at Country Cookouts, we’ve seen him at a small, intimate venue at the College of the Canyons, and earlier this summer we saw him at the Disney Concert Hall. He’s a favorite, puts on a great show.

Barenaked Ladies — I remember seeing them with my son. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it, but there were bits that the hardcore fans were in on that I wasn’t. It was like seeing a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Show and not understanding why they throw rice. For BNL they were throwing packets of mustard and ketchup for “If I Had A Million Dollars” and other stuff for other songs. Fun, but odd.

Guster — They were the opening band for BNL and I had never heard of them. I really liked them and ended up getting a couple of their albums. They’re still out there — I just recently heard something about a new album or concert tour for them.

Muse — Another concert that my son took me to, this time back at The Fabulous Forum. The Forum’s heyday for concerts was long past, the Lakers and Kings haven’t played there in years, and it had gone pretty far downhill (I think some megachurch had bought it cheap and was using it for that) but someone has now bought it, renovated it, and it’s booking some big concerts again. Muse was one of the first for this new phase, a favorite band of my son’s, so when they were here while he was visiting on leave, off we went. I had a good time.

Eric Bogle — In the same ilk with Stan Rogers, Eric Bogle is a wonderful Scottish-born folk singer who now hails from Australia. If nothing else, find and listen to his songs “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” and “No Man’s Land”, then “Nobody’s Moggie Now” and “The Aussie BBQ Song.” I saw him at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, a venue that seats about forty (tops!) but is great for touring folk artists.

N’Sync — Okay, there are eclectic music tastes, and then there are eclectic music tastes. Mine don’t quite stretch to include N’Sync, but despite that, I’ve seen them at least three times that I can remember, and it might have been more. One of my daughters and her friends were a bit obsessed when they were in the teens, and being the good dad, I took a van full of screaming young ladies to see N’Sync at the Rose Bowl, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, and at Staples. There are some great stories there, but for now, just go look for the “Sad Dad” pictures going around showing dads taking their daughters to New Direction concerts. Same thing, just ten to fifteen years ago. As for the music, it’s not that bad. I wasn’t the demographic they were targeting, but it could have been worse.

Pink — She opened for N’Sync at the Rose Bowl in 2000 on the “No Strings Attached” tour. 70,000 young ladies and Sad Dads were pretty much ignoring her because she wasn’t Justin, Lance, Joey, Chris, or JC (jeez, it scares the shit out of me that I just typed their names without having to look them up!), but I thought she was really, really good. Turns out I was right.

Then there are a whole metric ton of country music singers and bands that we’ve seen either as headliners, opening acts, or mid-show acts at a Country Cookout festival.

  • Rascal Flatts — At least twice as headliners, and before that as an opening act.
  • Kenny Chesney — Saw him at least once at Staples and last year with Tim McGraw at Anaheim Stadium.
  • Keith Urban — At least twice, puts on a great show. The guy with the “I’ll let you kiss my wife if I can kiss yours” sign might have been a set-up and part of the show, but it was still funny.
  • Trisha Yearwood — With the Dixie Chicks at the benefit concert, with Garth Brooks, and on her own once or twice.
  • Reba McEntire — In Las Vegas, a great show.
  • Toby Keith — Two or three times, including twice at the big amphitheater (I don’t remember what corporate sponsor has the naming rights at the moment) at Glen Helen Regional Park. (We refer to it as “Glen Hell & Gone” since it’s a ways out of town, on the road toward Las Vegas.) One of those shows was like the Ventura County Fair event mentioned above, hotter than hell during the day, then freezing cold with about a forty knot wind at night. I don’t know if I’ve ever been colder.
  • Jason Aldean — We saw him at one of the Irvine Country Cookouts as a really early opening act when he just had his first single out. It was obvious even then that he was going places.
  • Miranda Lambert — We saw her with Keith Urban at Staples two years ago, with floor seats about ten rows back. “The House That Made Me” was worth the price of admission.
  • Willy Nelson — He was the prime, closing, headliner act at one of the Country Cookouts. We left after three or four songs. It was late, we were tired, and most importantly, we weren’t impressed. Sorry.
  • Dwight Yoakam — He was the headliner at a concert at The Greek Theater and another artist that truly didn’t do anything for us. I think we had a friend give us the tickets or something? Anyway, Dwight apparently makes some of the women scream because of his painted-on jeans, but he didn’t do anything for us. On the other hand…
  • Lyle Lovett — He was the opening act for Dwight Yoakam and we expected nothing. He’s an actor, right? Married to Julia Roberts or something? What’s he doing as an opening act at The Greek? New flash — what he’s doing is absolutely blowing our socks off. He was fantastic, amazing, fun, a complete joy to see. Who knew?
  • Brooks & Dunn
  • Martina McBride
  • Jo Dee Messina
  • Sara Evans
  • Lonestar
  • Justin Moore
  • And probably a couple dozen more who were opening acts and never went past that stage in their careers, for good reason.

I was shocked recently to find out that the husband of one of my high school classmates was at Woodstock! If I only had a time machine, THAT’s the concert I would go back to see.

What’s the best concert you’ve ever seen? The best venue? The most memorable?

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Filed under Music, Paul

September 13, 2014 · 16:58

Odds & Sods For Saturday, September 13th

Item The First: I mentioned Monte Moore, the radio announcer for the Kansas City Athletics when I was a kid there in the Sixties, and later the voice of the Oakland A’s after they moved. In looking him up to make sure I had his name spelled correctly and so forth, I remembered a fragment about one of his partners, a “color” announcer. It would have been about 1964 or 1965, the guy’s first name might have been David. If I remember correctly, he was killed during the off-season, possibly in a car accident.

As I said, it’s just a fragment of a memory from nearly fifty years ago, but I went to see if I could find any online information that matches that and I came up empty. (See, the internet is not omnipotent. Or it is and I’m just not asking the correct questions.) I found a lot of great old trivia about the KC A’s, and that brought up many more memories that I had that I didn’t see mentioned – but nothing about the loss of one of the radio guys.

If anyone of you should happen to know or remember anything about that (I know, it’s a wild shot in the dark) please let me know in the comments. Let’s see if the massed neurons of the WLTSTF family can do better than Google. Sort of like Ken Jennings taking on the IBM “Watson” system on Jeopardy!

Item The Second: It should be noted that in the Sycamore Canyon Beach panorama yesterday, The Long Suffering Wife can be seen enjoying the ocean breezes. I’ll let you go hunting for her if you wish — she’s in red and white. (Go Angels!)

Item The Third: I don’t know which was funnier the other night, seeing the stories and videos about the two deer tying up traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge for forty-five minutes, or seeing five minutes later that there was already a Twitter account for “Golden Gate Deer.”

Item The Fourth: Who used the phrase “Far Out!” any more? I mean, except for people doing their best impersonations of George Carlin’s early days as the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman. I don’t think even hipsters use that phrase. (What DO hipsters say, other than putting down anything that everyone else likes?) The volunteer duuuude who called up for the Red Cross last week to get me back in to donate blood (this was my donation #51 with the American Red Cross, whoo hoo!) used that phrase at least three times. It really sticks out in a conversation these days.

I wanted to respond to him with “Farm house, man!” but thought that might be a bit too esoteric, 1970s, Southern Vermont-ish for him. Punk kid doesn’t even know what “SKs” are, or how to properly use “wicked” in a sentence.

Item The Fifth: One thing I started noticing a lot at the Wings Over Camarillo air show was people wearing LA Kings branded shirts, hats, and other gear. You have to understand, LA has always had a rabidly passionate core group of Kings’ fans, and I’m proud to count myself among them going back for forty years now. But it’s always been a teeny, tiny, minuscule group compared to the legions of fans for the Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans, Clippers, and even the Galaxy. There were folks jumping on the bandwagon when Gretzky came in 1988, and most (not all) of them jumped off when the Kings didn’t immediately win the Stanley Cup.

A lot of them jumped back on when the Kings won their first Stanley Cup in 2012. But unlike the Gretzky years, success wasn’t a one-time thing. The Kings made a deep drive into the playoffs in 2013. And then we won it again in 2014. At that point there were tons of folks catching hockey fever and there are signs that it’s still happening. At the airshow, I saw many more folks wearing Kings gear than I saw Dodgers or Angels or Lakers gear. I’m also seeing an awful lot of bumper stickers and “Kings – Stanley Cup Champions” window decals on cars.

This may become a hockey town yet!

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Filed under Critters, LA Kings, Odds & Sods, Paul