I guess I’ll make my official first CONTENT post on the new blog and begin with a review of the Eric Clapton concert 11 March 2010 at Bank Atlantic Center. This is my first Clapton concert, but it likely won’t be my last. His opening act was Roger Daltry. Roger said he was the “supporting act”. Roger’s voice was really bad at first and he was wheezing. We had some concern whether he’d actually survive his set, but he finally got into the groove and those off-notes started vanishing. Roger’s set was heavy on the Who and ended with Baba O’Riley, one of my favourite Who songs. I’d have preferred Happy Jack, but I don’t get a vote, do I?
Clapton’s playing is incomparable, and even if you hate him, you have to admire his guitar playing skill. I had seen some of his previous set lists for the tour and he mixed it up a bit for this stop, near the tail end of this tour. The acoustics were average for the BAC. We’ve heard much worse, so we were pleased we at least were able to identify and hear the songs, lyrics, and instrumentation. The set was sparse: chairs, rug, instrument and some overhead lighting along with the obligatory backlit LCD displays. But the point of the show was Clapton and not decoration. I am glad I went, and I gained a new appreciation for his skill, because until you see him weild that mighty guitar you really don’t know how good he really is.
Set List:
01. Going Down Slow
02. Key To The Highway
03. Tell The Truth
04. Old Love
05. I Shot The Sheriff
06. Driftin’ Blues
07. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out
08. Running On Faith
09. Layla
10. I’ve Got A Rock N Roll Heart
11. Badge
12. Wonderful Tonight
13. Before You Accuse Me
14. Little Queen of Spades
15. Cocaine
16. Crossroads (encore)
In other music news, I had sworn off the Hard Rock venue due to smoke after I nearly choked when I saw Bob Seger there some years ago. I have been told it’s now a non-smoking venue and I should give it a chance again. Independent verification would be good, but I suppose I should consider it since I do like concerts.
A few days ago, I commented on Pink Floyd suing EMI for breach of contract by selling their songs as singles against their wishes. Pink Floyd has won the first round. I say first round because you know EMI will appeal. Apple will weigh in because they, as my previous post mentioned, have a long-standing policy of refusing to do ‘album only’ sales.
You all remember the USA vs Canada hockey match final. Word now comes to us that an Air Canada flight was delayed in Vancouver when the passengers refused to board the aircraft so they could watch the match. I am amused but can’t imagine how that situation would have played out here in the States. “Excuse me, Captain, but the passengers are revolting,” stated the flight attended. “They most certainly are,” retorted the Captain. *rim shot*
In other Canadian news, this article reveals that the Loonie and Greenback should be at par later this year — now at 98 cents I’m guessing sooner than later. All interesting as the Pound plummets against the dollar to under 1.50 today.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary made good on his bet with his Canadian counterpart and wore a Team Canada jersey to a press conference. After less than ten minutes he took it off, revealing that he was wearing a team USA jersey underneath it. A number of Canadian boards are crying foul and saying he’s a poor sport. Read the article and make your own conclusion. I think he’s in the clear. Here’s a small picture for you:
From Dan, we have this URL which makes a video featuring the evil Glenn Beck. If you have Facebook, just log in. If you’re not comfortable doing that you can type in an alternate name. It’s amusing at least. Have a look.
In updates to the WordPress version, we have fixed most of the mis-formatted posts. Some links are still broken but they were also broken in the original. I have many years of posts and links don’t stay forever. I fixed what I could. But there should be no rude surprises. On posts 2009 and older I did not fix the links to embedded items but just made hyperlinks instead. It made the process a lot quicker. (No actual content was replaced in any older post.)
I’ve installed reCAPTCHA and OpenID. You can now login using your OpenID account or create a WordPress account. reCAPTCHA is still required. But if you have an account any comment you post after the first two, will be auto-approved. That should speed things up nicely.
I’d love to comment on the UK’s National Trust giving away bottles of air but I don’t even know what to say.