The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert--in Pretend Real Time

Oh boy, tonight HBO is airing the R&R Hall of Fame concert that took place last month. Live blogging begins!

Except it doesn't, because it's Monday morning, and the concert aired last night. But we can play "Let's Pretend" anyway.

7:12 p.m. Pulled up in front of the house after driving back from Thanksgiving in Kansas. The trunk has been unloaded and now it's time to unpack. R&RHOF concert starts on HBO at 8.

7:30 p.m. I've unpacked my suitcase, returned toiletries to their usual location, sorted laundry into baskets.

7:34 p.m. On the internet, checking email. Checking with family--does a day spent in the car with lunch at 2:30 mean never having to say you are hungry?

7:53 p.m. Back upstairs to turn on the TV and hang up the remaining pieces of unpacked clothing.

7:53:30 p.m. Dammit! How old do I have to be to remember that when HBO says something starts at 8, that means EST, not CST! The concert has already started, and a strangely hairy Sting is singing with Stevie Wonder.



7:53:40 p.m. Capt. Sweetie has arrived as well. "Superstition" remains a really great song. Stevie Wonder remains blind.

8:xx p.m. Okay, this live-blogging conceit is out the window, because I have no idea what time anything is happening. A strangely elderly and thin haired Paul Simon walks onstage. I have PTSD flashbacks to FIL turning on a Pat Boone special on Public Television. Is Paul Simon older than Pat Boone? He kind of looks like it.



Paul Simon at the R&R HOF concert.



Pat Boone, who was NOT at the R&R HOF Concert.

8:xx:27 p.m. According to the Internet, Pat Boone is a mere 7 years older than Paul Simon, while Paul Simon's wife, Edie Brickell, is 25 years younger than Art Garfunkel. If they leave on a train from Chicago traveling east at 87 m.p.h., will the signs of the prophets still be written on the subway walls?

8:whatever p.m. Art Garfunkel looks like an elderly clown, but he still has a wonderful voice.



8:diva o'clock. Stand back. That's Aretha!



8:diva o'clock:03. No. Really. Stand back. 'Retha is a big woman in red, which is not slimming. She still rocks the syncopation like nobody else.

8:2 divas o'clock. Annie Lennox is not HIV positive, but she wears a shirt saying she is on TV. This activism is confusing me.



8:xx p.m. Metallica comes onstage behind the notation "Inducted 2009." I have zero interest in Metallica, and now everybody is hungry. I go to call for pizza as Lou Reed comes on to do "Sweet Jane." Brilliant.



Pizza o'clock. Capt. Sweetie comes down to report that Ozzy Osbourne has just said "fuck" precisely elventy-seven times during two songs. Then ended his appearance by blowing kisses to the audience and calling "God bless you." We start drinking.



Pizza arrives as U2 is announced. Much fan boy/girl squee-ing from the alleged adults in the house. The teen-agers suffer the nerdiness in order to get fed.

Quarter past Bono. Springsteen and Patti Smith appear to do "Because the Night." Everybody chez Evil pronounces it "BE-cause" which sounds stupid. Patti has some trouble with the song, but the whiskey voice is still there.



Is that Bruce Springsteen or John de Lancie (known around these parts as "Q" from Star Trek TNG)? You be the judge.





Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/Promised Land. More brilliance.

Mick Jagger and Fergie rip into "Gimme Shelter" and do the unimaginable--Bono steps away from the microphone and gets out of their way.




I didn't know Fergie had the chops to take on Jagger, but the two of them are FIERCE.



Hip for hip, lip for lip, these two are well matched. Possibly the best moment of the show. Jagger then refers to U2 as the "house band" and Bono confronts the reality that U2 should be playing "weddings, bar mitzvahs. . ."

Mom o'clock. Kid needs help with math, so I turn off the TV and dredge up geometry facts that are older than the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Thank gods HBO does re-runs.

VMI--Valuable Medical Advice

I am not a doctor, and I read this on a web site so it must be true.

Right?

Bad flu epidemics can hit young adults hardest because they provoke their powerful immune systems into overreaction, so to stay healthy spend the next few weeks drunk and sleep-deprived to keep yours depressed.




Thanks to XKCD from Salon.com Table Talk

Designer Dogs You'll Never See

It's official. The era of Designer Dogs is upon us. What used to be called "mutts," "mongrels" or "hole in the fence" dogs are now being bred on purpose and offered to the public. The hegemony of the AKC prevents these mixes from being labeled "breeds," hence the market friendly term "Designer Dogs."

Personally, I blame the Doodles. Poodles crossed, intentionally or not, with Labrador Retrievers and somebody with advanced PR instincts named it a "Labradoodle." Which is a charming name, fun to say, and converts a tough sell into a desirable acquisition. Go down to your local shelter, and notice all the lab mixes filling the kennels. Lab mixes are big dogs, with hunting instincts and a need for a lot of exercises. Contrast that with a "Labradoodle," which sounds like a cuddly indoor pet that would be fun to have around.

So why not a "Golden Doodle?" That would be a Golden Retriever/Poodle cross that riffs on the Labradoodle name while not having any etymological claim to that extra "D." Should logically be a "Golden Roodle," which is not nearly as successful of a name.

These may be good dogs. These may, in fact, be great dogs, but the concept has run riot. There is an American Canine Hybrid Club, with official cross breeds. A sampling:

Affenpinscher x Bichon Frise	Affenchon
Affenpinscher x Chihuahua	Affenhuahua
Affenpinscher x Japanese Chin	Chin-Fenpinscher
Affenpinscher x Poodle cross	Affenpoo
Afghan Hound x Rottweiler	Rottaf
Airedale x Labrador Retriever	Lab'Aire
Airedale x Poodle	Airedoodle
Akita x Boxer	Boxita

pSeriously? I mean, SERIOUSLY? "Chin-fenpinscher?" "Rottaf?" "BOXITA?" Apparently, the name is assigned when a breeder registers a cross and proposes a name. It occurs to me there are several crosses you are never going to see. I hereby propose the following:

Shih Tzu x American Bulldog Bull Shih
Maltese x Cocker Spaniel Cocktese

Hey! They're easy to remember!

Things That Make Me Laugh

From Salon.com's community forum, Table Talk. Participants often include tag lines with their identities, and they are like Tweets--short, snappy, and mysterious due to their lack of context.

I actually laughed out loud at a couple of them.

Simone: To which I respond with my first and most persuasive point, which is to say, SHUT UP, YOU. Followed by my second argument in opposition to this plan, which is, I DON'T WANNA. As you now see, my position is unassailable.


Kady G: Today I scrubbed my bathroom, it now smells like lavender Pine-Sol and the death of feminism.

Wonder what mine would be?

Belated Halloween

The camera was removed before I could download the photos, so I'm late posting Halloween, but check out this Gruesome Twosome:


It's Mad Doctor Wednesday Addams and her assistant Igor. If you were out for your very very first trick-or-treat, would you accept candy from these folks?

That's what I thought.

All Hail the Green Goddess!

Because five carloads of leaves went to the compost site.

Because leaves three inches deep are not beneficial to expensive new sod.

Because an 80 year old maple tree can dump a LOT of leaves while still looking completely leafed.

Because even after being sick with flu the previous two days I did it all.

Offerings cheerfully accepted.

NaBloPoMo--The Return

The challenge--post at least daily through the month of November.

The reward--bragging rights.

It's NAtional BLOg POsting MOnth: for those of us who know NaNoWriMo is beyond us.

Official site is here.