Time Travelin....

I listen to a lot of music and watch a lot of music videos. (Thank you YouTube.) I really, really enjoy good music and one of the neatest and best things about the internet and YouTube is the ability to go back and watch concerts and other live performances of bands that no longer exist or still exist but are just not the same. You know who I am talking about, Rolling Stones, just give it a rest already you are becoming an embarrassment to all right thinking music fans.

When I listen too and watch these performances it always makes me wish that I could go back in time and actually be at the concerts and actually be physically in those venues smelling the air and experiencing everything that is going on around me. I also would like to take a bunch of mushrooms and trip balls during those shows but that is a story best left for another time.

I am inspired today though too look at a 5 year period and I am going to pick 1970 to 1975 and look at 5 concerts that I wish I could have attended and show you some clips of those shows. So why don't you strap in and give a watch and a listen to some good classic rock and try to remember that when these shows were recorded these bands were either struggling to make it big or had already become some of the biggest acts in the world. I hope that the blog today can act as a little time travel machine for you. I also have to give a quick thank you to av.com for this article that sparked my idea. http://www.avclub.com/articles/thick-as-a-brick-pleasures-of-the-long-song,89194/

Pink Floyd - Live at Festival de Musique (San Tropez 1970)



Sadly the video is unembeddable but if you like Pink Floyd at all I would highly recommend that you give it a listen. It is amazing.

Now this one isn't all that happy dippy but Neil Diamond at the height of his formidable vocal powers is something worth listening top. Thank you BBC for making this available to us. So, so good. Bonus, I think he is high as the proverbial kite as well. I just am having a hard time describing in words how much I am enjoying listening to this. There is something that is so good about his music that really touches me.

Now I am really torn because 1972 was an amazing year for music off of the top of my head there was David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" which is one of my all time top favorite concept albums and even as a stand alone album it is amazing. As far as I am concerned there is not a weak song on the album. NOT ONE!!

I couldn't find concert footage but this is the whole album. Do yourself a favor and listen to it.

Led Zepplin was, arguably, the greatest band in the world. This concert is in London and comes off of the "Houses of the Holy album. So good and if you ever get the chance to go to laser Zepplin at the planetarium I will totally let you borrow my van. Rock on!!

One of, if not the master showman of rock n roll Elton John live in London in 1974. Take sometime and give it a look. He could really, really play the piano well.

Finally lets close out this look at potential concerts to go see when I go back in time from 1970 to '75. This band was so good. I have written about them before and I do not intend to repeat myself other then to say this just give them a listen with an open mind. It wasn't just the vocals that made them an amazing band it was also the level of talent that was playing the instruments.


In addition to what I just wrote above I also have something else to share with you my loyal readers. I had a bit of an epiphany today and that is that I really do enjoy writing and furthermore I enjoy it the most when I am writing about music and bands and those type of things with a smattering of television shows thrown in and other entertainment things. So, that is what I am going to concentrate on a little more for know anyway. I am sure that I will also do some writing about other issues now and then as well but I am going to try to give a real effort at focusing more on musical stuff.

Adios, for today.

Time Travel

I just finished watching a fascinating little film called "Safety Not Guaranteed". Watch the trailer.

The film has been out for awhile and showing primarily in art houses so if you live in Portland you should be able to find it. It is also in Salem at Salem Cinema and I highly recommend going to see it if you have a chance. As well as just enjoying the film as a form of escapism it also made me think about time travel. Really about going back in time and the reasons to do so.

I think most of us have choices that we would rather have another chance to change. For some of us it might mean a chance to ask that lost love out or to fix a mistake we made. Some of us would just want to use the time to make some more money and to make their lives better. I can't imagine anyone going back in time to do anything but making their lives easier in some way. I mean, otherwise, what would be the point of it all. Sure you could go and observe things but why would you not want to fix things and right some wrongs. Sure you might mess up the time stream continuum but if you were the only one that knew it was messed up then who cares.

Disregard all of my amateur philosophizing and give this movie a shot. I imagine it will be out on Netflix soon but either in the theater or at home check it out. I think you well enjoy it.   

Jan 3, 2011

Well it is the beginning of a brand new year. I am not sure what all of that means and I do not intend to bore you with a retrospective of the year in Lance or a top 10 list of any sort. I watched an interesting 10 minute video yesterday about the nature of Time. I found in very thought provoking. I will post it for people to watch. I would highly recommend taking the small amount of time it takes to watch and giving it a look. I think you will find it interesting.

Time is passing us all by.

I hope you were able to check that out. I would love to see your thoughts in the comments section.

I liked a lot of what he had to say and I will try to unpack some more tomorrow or later today. Have a good one folks.

Wednesday

Good morning folks. I am sorry that I missed you yesterday. I ended up driving myself to work because I had to pick up papers from the elections office. I am sure you believe me when I say that I would have rather ridden the train. It is not that the drive was bad. It actually went very smoothly but I like being able to write for you folks and I am not able to do that and drive at the same time.

I mentioned before that I like to listen to basically three different radio stations as I drive to the train station. One is National Public Radio (NPR), the other is Portlands progressive station whose numbers I am unable to remember and the third is Portlands conservative station that play Lars Larson and Rush Limbaugh and the like. So I was attempting to do just that as I was driving but it was a rough trip. NPR was and is doing there fund raising drive. It isn't that I dislike the fund raising because I understand the need for it but it is the fact that it seems to go on and on. So I switched over to the liberal station but that seemed to be all commercials. The funny thing is that both of those stations seemed to be playing the same commercials. Which surprised me. I would think the marketing would lend itself to a different audience but I guess I was mistaken.

So I switched to the conservative station and they were talking about what they would like to be able to see or record if they could go back in time with a camera. I found that the most interesting. They talked about going back and seeing dinosaurs and seeing if it was really a comet that wiped them out. A caller mentioned being in the Oval Office and seeing how much advance notice we really had about Pearl Harbor. I found that an interesting idea. Some one mentioned spending a day with Jesus and his disciples or with DaVinci or perhaps Mozart as they were creating something. There was another caller who wanted to find out who had grounded the planes on 9/11 but the announcers rightfully brushed that person off because it would not have been beneficial to get derailed into that discussion.

But, what I found most interesting was the person who mentioned returning to the moon and taking some new pictures with a color camera in high definition. I thought wow that would be pretty neat to see those pictures as opposed to the grainy black and white footage that we have now. But all that being said I am hoping for some interaction from my readers. So here we go. I would like you to list the 5 times or places that you would like to go back to and either take part in or just watch as a fly on the wall. They can be in any order of preference but just try for 5 please. To get us started here are mine.

1. The signing of the Declaration of Independence.
2. The joining of the transcontinental railroad.
3. Hitler in his bunker at the end. ( Just to see if he was crazy or not)
4. Do anything with Ben Franklin
5. The first Super Bowl win for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Those are mine folks for better or for worse. Please tell me yours.