Been away from here for a while, family illness, but all's OK now. Lots of catching up to do. Did someone mention Harry Chapin somewhere? Get "Greatest Stories Live." I saw him years ago, in concert.

Harry used to do benefits for World Hunger Year. In Champaign, IL, there is (or used to be) a pizza place, with a flying tomato as a trademark. They even had a hot-air balloon shaped like a tomato with a stem on top. Harry would go to this pizza place, wear their uniform shirt with the flying tomato logo, and serve pizza to raise money when he was in town.

A friend of mine had lost the use of her legs in a motorcycle crash. I took her to a Harry Chapin concert at the University of Illinois in Champaign; it was the first time she'd gone out to anything this big since the accident.

I didn't know where to park--it was 1978, light snow, cold, she was in a chair--so I parked as closely as I could. Maybe where I shouldn't have.

It was a great concert. "Taxi" has always been a favorite. We waited for the auditorium to clear so she would have an easier time getting out. As we approached my car, we saw something she and I will always remember--the band members, Harry included, had all written their names in the fresh snow on my windshield and side windows.

Twenty years later, I would see Ray Bradbury on that same stage. "All my life's a circle. . .."

A Harry Chapin anecdote, which took place, so the rumor has it, just blocks away from where I worked as a kid in our family business:

http://web.mit.edu/AFS/sipb/user/marthag/text/lyrics/chapin/better_place_to_be

So, in response to the begging and pleading of all of you on the board here (remarkably restrained, I must say), I'll tell you about the Monterey Jazz Festival.
The guitarist I play with and I were playing for CNN in Monterey and one of them really liked our music, asked if we were going to the Festival, found we didn't have tickets, and gave us his for Sunday night as he had to miss it!
Didn't see Ornette after all. He was in the earlier show. The opening band featuring Terrence Blanchard was great. Sonny was the closing act. At 77, he still plays with that driving, biting authority, but I didn't really like the format. Too noisy and electric.
Dave Brubeck, plating in between, stole the show, in my opinion. All white-haired jazz geezers in his quartet (he's in his 80s) and all very creative, hot musicians! There really is no substitute for experience. These guys don't just play licks, they tell their story.

SD: Great schedule! Ah, "Take Five!"

John McLaughlin still looks fit. DB is kinda like the RB of the keyboard. (Were his sons on hand with him?)

http://www.montereyjazzfestival.org/artists/arena.htm

I didn't see the Brubeck boys there, but I did see Clint Eastwood!

... and had a couple of glasses of this:

http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/beer-brotherThelonious.htm

Good stuff!

Fantastic B-Two, I envy you for sure. No matter how old a gifted musician may be, I think they can always either put on a mindboggling show or have an off night like any musician young or old. It's those nights where everything falls into place to make a perfect night. On those nights, they don't play the instruments so much as the instruments play them, plus the audience plays into it heavily, that interraction I mean.

T Bone Burnett Proof Through the Night

One of the best albums of the eighties!

>Neil Young, Time Fades Away

>Cher, Halfbreed. I know it ain't politically correct but I'm sorry, it's a damn good album.

"The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow"!
Another underappreciated phenomenal musician.

Bruce Springsteen Magic

Wonderful!

Another Bruce, I fear - and my favourite singer named Bruce:

Bruce Cockburn Life Short Call Now


Mystery

You can't tell me there is no mystery
Mystery
Mystery
You can't tell me there is no mystery
It's everywhere I turn

Moon over junkyard where the snow lies bright
Snow lies bright
Snow lies bright
Moon over junkyard where the snow lies bright
Can set my heart to burn

Stood before the shaman I saw star-strewn space
Star-strewn space
Star-strewn space
Stood before the shaman I saw star-strewn space
Behind the eyeholes in his face

Infinity always gives me vertigo
Vertigo
Vertigo
Vertigo
Infinity always gives me vertigo
And fills me up with grace

I was built on a Friday and you can't fix me
You can't fix me
You can't fix me
I was built on a Friday and you can't fix me
Even so I've done okay

So grab that last bottle full of gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline
So grab that last bottle full of gasoline
Light to a toast to yesterday

And don't tell me there is no mystery
Mystery
Mystery
Don't tell me there is no mystery
It overflows my cup

This feast of beauty can intoxicate
Intoxicate
Intoxicate
This feast of beauty can intoxicate
Just like the finest wine

So all you stumblers who believe love rules
Believe love rules
Believe love rules
Come all you stumblers who believe love rules
Stand up and let it shine
Stand up and let it shine

Queen, A Night At The Opera

Hey, Rocky! Where've you been?