Tag Archives: Mott the Hoople

Saturday Gigs

It’s 5:55PM on Bill’s Mac and I’m tired. It’s been an out of the ordinary day. But first a recap of what happened before. Watched Bill Maher last night, he was very good, Lincoln Chafee, Cornell West and Richard Belzer were the panel, Bill Frist (intelligent jerk) was the opening interview and Sarah Silverman was the final guest with the panel.

Her video on how to solve world hunger was the tops. A simple idea. Sell the Vatican, make the Pope super popular. He would be a superhero of sorts since he already has the cape and any Vatican involvement with the Holocaust would be forgiven.

With the proceeds of the Vatican sale all the billions of dollars could be spent solving world hunger. It would be the christian compassionate thing to do. Sell the house which is a city, take some of those proceeds and make a condo for the Pope and his friends.

It was as irreverent as only Sarah Silverman could be.

I recorded it so Bill could watch it, it was that good. I stayed up watching Craig Ferguson who really is the funniest guy in late night television. Then I went to bed, Bill sleeping under his apnea mask. At some point he took the mask off and started snoring, but by then I was pretty much far gone in slumber land to really notice.

I slept really well, woke up to find Bill about to go out and get the paper and some bagels. The laundry I did yesterday was still damp which required another day of it hanging around the kitchen.

He came back and hurried about trying to get ready for his stage manager gig for Amiri Baraka’s birthday event tonight. Not being much of an Amiri Baraka fan, I just made myself a nice breakfast and read the paper.

Bill was soon on his way into the city. I farted around, ran some errands and argued with strangers online about Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. A lot of people are against it, but mainly these people who were against it, never gave two shits about the Nobel Peace Prize before.

In fact one of them brought up how Nobel invented dynamite and what an odd fact that is. Of course anyone with an inquisitive brain knew this ages ago. But there they were arguing their ‘Obama wasn’t born here’ ‘the Socialist president’.

I had read somewhere that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Soho was free yesterday and today for John Lennon’s birthday yesterday. That’s seemed like a fun thing to do so I got my act together and headed into the city on the Path.

Swung by The Guitar Bar where the ever lovin’ Jim Mastro was back from England. He was the guitar tech for the Mott the Hoople reunion shows, having played with Ian Hunter on his solo gigs here and abroad.

The shows were a success, and Jim met both Jimmy Page and Mick Jones from the Clash backstage. Page was a contemporary and Mick was a Mott the Hoople fan from way back in the day.

I anticipated that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex might be jammed since it was free but it was only a 15 minute line outside and a 10 minute wait inside. Overall the experience was underwhelming.

The main exhibition was John Lennon: The New York Years and seeing his personal items was nice but no photography was allowed. And I thought that to be very odd. The final part was a paper bag behind glass, containing the clothes John was wearing when he was brutally murdered 29 years ago. But then again it was free so I really shouldn’t complain.

Now I’m back in Hoboken, tired and a little bit hungry despite having just eaten a bagel from this morning.

I have to get up early in the morning, like around 4:30 to be at 7th Avenue and 33rd Street at 6:00 for a 7:00 bus to Washington DC. It’s Bill’s suggestion that I get there an hour early since it’s sometimes a mess queuing up for the Bolt Bus.

And since Bill is almost always spot on regarding matters involving buses I’m taking his word. So a nap is out of the question. I’ll figure something out I’m sure.

Since I’ll be en route tomorrow and without internet access, you might expect a very late posting, which will more than likely be done on Monday.

one illegal photo

one illegal photo

two illegal photo

two illegal photo

three illegal photo

three illegal photo

the last illegal photo before they stopped me. James Brown live.

the last illegal photo before they stopped me. James Brown live.

I think Bowie is right. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is bullshit. There are tons of great, fantastic bands that will never make it into the Hall since it’s mainly all about who sold the most. And that’s not Rock & Roll!

And tomorrow is National Coming Out Day, so come out of the closet whomever, wherever you are!

Run For Your Life

Well it’s Sunday again, and it’s been a pretty nice one. Yesterday the temperature almost reached 80 degrees, today it was in the 60’s and noticeably cooler. I was going to go for a bike ride but the bike needs some work so perhaps next week?

I wound up walking around Hoboken, reading the New Yorker near the soccer pitch on the river for about an hour, thats when it started to get a little too breezy for my oh so delicate self.

Last night Bill was around and that was good. Watched 2 back to back episodes of House which I never really watch. It was good, as good as people like my brother Frank says.

After that I decided to do my bit and visit Tunes, the only record store in Hoboken. It was Independent Record Store day. I had problems with Tunes in the past but I got over them.

I wandered around and picked up Mott the Hoople’s Greatest Hits and Me’Shell Ndegeocello’s latest, ‘The world has made me the man of my dreams’. Mott was good, proved to me that they had a few other good songs besides All the Young Dudes (which is an all time fave) and All the Way to Memphis.

Me’Shell was merely ok, venturing further into avant jazz territory than I would like to go. I used to really like her. Peace Beyond Passion is probably her best and worth owning.

As I was browsing, the store’s PA system was playing some music that was really a lot of fun, especially when played loud. As I was checking out at the register I asked what was playing and they told me it was MGMT.

I immediately turned around and picked up a copy. That turned out to be the best purchase of the evening and since Mott and Me’Shell were used CD’s they were cheap. MGMT was full price, but since it was Independent Record Store day, every thing was a dollar less than listed which turned out to be a nice deal.

Came home around 10:00 after spending an hour in Tunes. Plenty of people roaming the streets last night, out strolling Washington Street and enjoying the nice weather.

Came home, Bill was watching Southland which I watched on Thursday night. He walked in on it halfway through then so he was catching up.

After that we gave up on the late news and watched Grey Gardens on HBO. That was in the news all week, interviews Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore played Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, an aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy. It was good.

I never saw the Maysles documentary of the same name all the way through. Drew Barrymore was outstanding and stole the movie from Jessica Lange. Ultimately a melancholy movie but worth watching.

That was about all for the night.

My niece Meghan is running in the Boston Marathon tomorrow, in the front groups, not among the hoi polloi. Yes, she’s that good. Her number is 7629 if you feel like tracking the marathon. It kicks off at 9:00AM. Go Meghan! Yeah!

Here are some pics from this afternoon.

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