Guitar Bar All Stars | johnozed

Well David Bowie did not show up at the Ian Hunter show which went on according to schedule. Joe Elliott from Def Leopard was there instead.

This just in, Michael Jackson has died at age 50. Wow that is big news. He was gigantic for a while there, still is around the world.

A month of concerts scheduled for the O2 arena in London are now scrapped, so those thousands of tickets are now collectors items.

Not the same as a ticket to Elvis Presley’s (Michael Jackson’s late father in law) last scheduled concert but close enough.

Harpy left a message on my voice mail, livid that Michael Jackson’s death was being compared to John Lennon’s death. That’s upsetting, there is no comparison. Lennon was assassinated outside of his home. Not the same thing, not close at all.

Harpy reminded me of how when we worked together at 2 Park Avenue, we shut down the office to watch Martin Scorsese’s video of Michael Jackson’s Bad, a 20 minute video. About 25 people hunkered down to watch a video.

Right now, LA Reid is on Dateline and saying that no one did what Michael Jackson did. I beg to differ, Elvis Presley did it better, and personally for me,the Beatles did it waaaay better. Both were more influential that Michael Jackson.

What the hell does LA Reid know anyway? He’s merely a record executive.

He was certainly talented and certainly a fucked up person. He got off the hook a few times with regards to the molestation charges and now that he’s dead I’m sure more will be heard about that.

Also Farrah Fawcett died today after a long battle with cancer. That was sad.

Can’t say I watched Charlie’s Angels that much, though being a child of the seventies it was on my radar. In my freshman year of high school while on the spring track team at Paramus Catholic I did have a picture of Farrah in my locker.

I was just trying to fit in by lying and to have a picture of some hunk in my locker just wouldn’t do.

Last night I watched an excellent program on PBS about Music and the Brain. Oliver Sacks was in it of course as well as a few other people including Richard Hawley and from Pulp, Jarvis Cocker, 2 British musicians.

Neither made it big on this side of the pond but Jarvis Cocker did make some headlines about 10 years ago when he invaded the stage at the Brits awards while Michael Jackson was performing as some Messiah figure surrounded by children.

Jarvis Cocker made some rude gestures and threw 2 fingers up in Jackson’s direction. Jarvis became a hero to most in the UK music scene, Jackson’s fans were upset and the Jackson camp threatened to sue, like most messiahs do.

Now Al Sharpton is being interviewed by Keith Olbermann saying that Michael Jackson started We Are The World and no one ever did anything like that before. For me, Do They Know It’s Christmas rings a bell, as does The Concert for Bangladesh.

Maybe it’s a black/white thing. I didn’t see the influence of Michael Jackson, didn’t see kids picking up guitars or keyboards and forming bands trying to be like Michael Jackson. Wearing one glove perhaps.

I did make it to see the Guitar Bar All Stars tonight. Jim was as good as ever. Chaz stopped by as did Lois and Fred & Rand and Lisa. Rand and I pulled out a big chunk of Styrofoam out of the Hudson River.

All in all, a nice night, no rain with some good friends. Here’s some pics!

Mr. Nice Guy, Jim Mastro

Mr. Wonderful

6.24.09 Hoboken 008

6.24.09 Hoboken 010

The Styrofoam

6.24.09 Hoboken 013

a moon for Farrah

Wow last night and today, the weather has been beautiful. Last night was a wonderful time on the Hoboken waterfront. Last night, as years previous, there was a performance of the Guitar Bar All Stars. My friend, guitarist extraordinaire, Jim Mastro is a co-owner of the store, the Guitar Bar and every year the employees, former employees and kids who take lessons there get together and play.

Last year was covers of songs of the British Invasion, though no Beatles and no Stones were performed. The year before was a cover of the Beatles Revolver. This year they decided to do songs from the video game, Guitar Hero.

As usual it was a lot of fun. And it’s good to see Jim again but for me and no offense to Jim, I just get a thrill out of seeing Meghan and their daughters Lily and Ruby. I got there a little after 7:30 and missed out on Lily playing two songs. I did catch Ruby playing with her dad to Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash. Ruby held her own and provided excellent backup vocals.

I enjoyed the show, hanging back smoking a Padron. I was in the cigar smoking section apparently as there were a few other guys smoking stogies. At some point towards the end, my LCD screen on my camera crapped out. I could still take pictures, but I couldn’t use the screen to see what I was shooting.

I could get the playback on the screen though and it worked perfectly for video. I was worried that I would have to send it in which could be a problem since I was hoping to take the camera to Lois and Fred’s soirée next Saturday.

I helped Jim and Meghan load their car with various things after the show and was home by 9:30 which was pretty good. I begged off going to the after party at a pub across the street from the Guitar Bar. Having had a few too many beers the other night I just went home. I uploaded a video of Ruby and the Guitar Bar All Stars last night and that took forever.

I also looked at the vacation photos my sister sent from their trip to Oregon. Looks like everyone had a great time and my nephew Earl looks like a real lady killer with his haircut.

Got up this morning, out the door and soon on a not so crowded bus. It’s summer and a lot of people take their Fridays off. I did last week and this was the first full week since June that I’ve worked. I knew it was going to be a quiet day, but I definitely had to be in before 8:30 when there was a scheduled meeting.

I was hoping to see some of Feist performing in Bryant Park but it wasn’t to be. I did walk through the park and saw a decent crowd but the band wasn’t playing yet and at that moment were behind some black screens on stage unseen by the audience.

Still, I had no time to check it out and was soon in the office. The meeting went off according to plan and was over by 9:15. I probably could have gone home then but stayed around to get things ready for next week.

I was also able to call up Canon and talk to a customer service technician about my camera. The warranty expired last month but I was still in a grace period until August. He suggested resetting the camera and if that didn’t work I would have to send it in, but if I did that I would have no camera for Lois and Fred. Luckily the reset worked and my camera was fully functioning again.

I left work at 1:45 and came home. Watched the Portishead Live in NYC dvd and it sounded great but was putting me to sleep. So I took a nap, perhaps too long and now I’m a bit foggy.

And now some extras…

Should I Stay or Should I Go