Adam on Nightline

Adam was on Nightline's Playlist last night (video here) talking about musical influences. I share since he mentioned Bowie.

In the past, Adam has identified the Hunky Dory cover as a reference for the cover art for his album.

Springtime behind the Pine Curtain

Haven't seen any dogwoods yet so these will have to do. First, my weekly hawk visit (a day late this week):

Then, the random pear trees at the baseball park:

Finally, something my mom calls a Tulip Tree:

Thomas Friedman gets it right

While I’ve obviously become fatigued with political postings, I still fear that “they are trying to kill us.” Thomas Friedman got it right, I think, in yesterday’s NYT (the first paragraph resonating with the right and the second, I hope, with everybody):

Former President George W. Bush’s gut instinct that this region craved and needed democracy was always right. It should have and could have been pursued with much better planning and execution. This war has been extraordinarily painful and costly. But democracy was never going to have a virgin birth in a place like Iraq, which has never known any such thing.

Some argue that nothing that happens in Iraq will ever justify the costs. Historians will sort that out. Personally, at this stage, I only care about one thing: that the outcome in Iraq be positive enough and forward-looking enough that those who have actually paid the price — in lost loved ones or injured bodies, in broken homes or broken lives, be they Iraqis or Americans or Brits — see Iraq evolve into something that will enable them to say that whatever the cost, it has given freedom and decent government to people who had none.

Poll archive: Adam Lambert for President

I'm wishing we'd archived all the polls.  Here's the latest one:

What kind of hawk visits me often?

This hawk (acually a pair of them) visits weekly:

He's there on the top of the swing. I have to take the pic from inside so I can't get a better shot.

The pair come in and scope the yard looking for insects and worms. My best guess is that they are Coopers Hawks. These are shots of Coopers that I snatched from the web:

The other possibility is Red Shouldered Hawk:

I think I have to go with Coopers.

House of Blues

C and I finally went to the House of Blues here in DFW on Saturday night. We've been wanting to go ever since it opened, but always had scheduling problems when there was someone we wanted to see performing. A few months ago, I was listening to one of the 3 FM stations I regularly frequent on-line (one from Austin, one from Seattle and one in Fayetteville, AR) when they played a 30 minute block from a band I had never heard of - Sound Tribe System 9 (or STS9 as most of their fans call them). I knew nothing about them and when I saw they were going to be at the HOB on a weekend night, I talked C into going. Only after I bought the tickets did I find out from C's college-aged niece that STS9 were a "stoner band". But, since we already had tickets, C and decided what the hell - if it were awful, we'd just check out the rest of HOB.

HOB was a very cool place and we will definitely go back. The performance space was intimate but has great sight-lines (we were in the balcony) and the sound quality was great. Next time we'll go a bit early and eat there and try to get the entire HOB experience.

As for the concert itself, I liked it, though after a bit the songs all sounded sorta similar. And I wouldn't label them as a "stoner" band - I'd call them a "rave" band. I've never been to a rave, but from what I know about them, this was like a mini-rave (lots of glow-sticks). Their light show was incredible and I was a bit nervous about that given my current medical state. Thankfully, nothing happened and other than my ears ringing from the sound, no other ill-effects. They played a little over an hour, then were taking a break and C had had enough.

One last thing - I was afraid I'd be the oldest person there and for awhile (at least in the balcony section), it seemed liked I would be. But as it filled up, there were a few folks that at least appeared older (some there with their kids).

Here is a video of STS9 playing the song that was our favorite:

Train snow plow

There are oodles of videos like these on youtube. I might watch them all.

Culture clash

Adam Lambert, Shaun White, and Sarah Palin appear tonight on the second night of Leno's return to the Tonight Show. Here's a little video of the guests backstage.

Update: Whisper1111 on Twitter names Shaun/Sarah/Adam "the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe".

Update II: Adam's performance here (illegitimate) and here (legit Leno video, but takes forever to load).

Update III: Embedding from Hulu:

Acoustic Whole Lotta Love

At a concert on Saturday at the Fantasy Springs resort, Adam performed this acoustic, bluesy, jazzy rendition of Whole Lotta Love (video courtesy of anthrogeekPF):



Update: I can't stop listening to this. Have always suspected that he could sing the bejeepers out of the blues with one vocal chord wrapped around his uvula, but this exceeds my expectations.

Update II: The keyboard player deserves a mention. It's Zac Baird (of Korn).

Update III: You can download a very high-quality audio recording (better than in the video above) of this here. The file is a .wav file. It'll play in iTunes. (You can convert it to mp3 in iTunes too.) All of the songs from that concert are available at that link. The middle section of the concert (#5 Soaked through #9 Whole Lotta Love) was acoustic and stunning.

Update IV: And here's a link to the open post at Hoopla Magnet, prepared by drcat83, in which all fan videos, photos, etc. from the Feb. 27 Fantasy Springs concert are collected and organized.

Update V: Rockstar Weekly reviewed the Fantasy Springs concert and said this about WLL:

In the most stunning moment of the night, Lambert abandoned himself to passion’s fire with an acoustic blues-rock interpretation of Whole Lotta Love; lithely unraveling the driving beat and frenetic energy of the song into a seven-minute sensual burn. Kneeling, surrounded by a turquoise bliss of chunky bass lines, sitar-like twangs and languid drumbeats, Lambert reached into his inner depths, drawing out a primal query of desire from his soul; a powerful, spiritual offering of love and sex. Electrically-charged emotions flowing, man and music melded seamlessly as he arose, licking heated cries up to the stars, torso rippling fluidly. Stretching out the pace of the song to render breathing space to the band’s sultry vibe, he warbled with lingering intensity, vocal echoes reverberating in the air as if he stood beneath the Palm Canyon walls. Lambert then bore down with fevered thrust into a cascade of lilting moans, while the absorbed crowd’s screams of pleasure swelled and receded around him. Throating desire to the darkened sand, he slipped back to his knees, fervent wails surging forth in waves. Then, spent and satiated, he caressed the sonic dream to its end with a naked whisper tenderly laid to rest beside a final wistful guitar twang. As the elated crowd roused themselves from the spell, Adam confided the mesmeric compilation had been sparsely conceptualized and virtually unrehearsed. The thunderous response to this conveyed to the gifted chameleon that he and his band had successfully coaxed a funky, impromptu enchantment of raw love as oral art out of the iconic Zeppelin tune. Lambert’s unique artistic integrity from that performance ought to educate critics who dismiss him as merely a “reality star” devoid of lasting substance.

Update VI (March 8): Replaced the embedded video with one that has been edited together by lambosessed from the best audio (cos2mwiz, mwilson3235, tinafea) and video (anthrogeekPF, cos2mwiz, lekispop, Merrycello1, mwilson3235, myspencer50, suz526, TALCvids) sources.  Here is anthrogeekPF's video.

New fav commercial

Love the sock puppet and the robot doing the robot!

East TX Church Arsonist Suspects Arrested

From the Tyler paper. Having seen Shutter Island yesterday, I think that Leo should play
McAllister.

RE: Tiger

Of course it was scripted. Bazillionaires' speeches are ever so. And of course we can never know what goes on in another's heart. What I meant was there was very little in the way of weasel words for the actual apology part:

Now every one of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you, simply and directly, I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in.

I know people want to find out how I could be so selfish and so foolish. People want to know how I could have done these things to my wife Elin and to my children. And while I have always tried to be a private person, there are some things I want to say.

Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behavior. As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words; it will come from my behavior over time.

"...I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in [emph. mine; dangling preposition his]" and "my real apology to her will not come in the form of words; it will come from my behavior over time [emph. mine]."

While I haven't gone back amd listened or viewed or read again, in the meat here there is none of that "if I offended" type of bologna that puts the fault on the victim or the fan.

Tiger

A few weeks late but an apology even Michael could agree was a real one.

Bad-ass Hebrews and Texans

While there are still far too many Confederate flags flying in my beloved state (including one about 2 miles down the road from my old college and law school roommate's former ranchette just outside of Austin in the Hill Country, I do appreciate the solidarity many Texans show with Israel (for whom I fear more than ever given Iran's grumblings of late).


Driving between Athens and Austin many, many times over the last two years I was always amused by the US, Texas, and Israeli flags flying at a small establishment just east of Buffalo, Texas off of I-35 and Hwy 79.


Had to smile this morning at this blurb from a note to Nordlinger:


Wanted to publish a fun letter for you! It responded to something I wrote about conservative Christians and Israel.
Hey Jay,

My parents live in the Texas Hill Country, about ten miles outside of Fredericksburg specifically, and on the road to their place is a house that has three flagpoles out front: flying Old Glory, the Texas flag, and the Israeli flag. Every time I’m in the Hill Country and we drive by that house, I think of a Texan I heard who admiringly described the Israelis as “bad-ass Hebrews.” God bless Israel and God bless Texas.

NYT, NYMag, WaPo, TIME Agree: Joe Stack Was One Crazy Teabagger! - Stephen Spruiell

I should have known it wouldn''t take that long to blame me for Joe Stack. Ok, so I'm not really a tea party guy but sheesh.

[Btw, first time I've used the "share" function. Click on "re:" line for link.]

My diagnosis (finally...sort of)

Had my follow-up with the Otolaryngology specialists earlier today. The general consensus is that I am having vestibular migraines without headaches. Not a 100% certain diagnosis, but somewhere in the 90% certain category.

Now the fun part really starts - trying to find the trigger(s). I may never find it, which means taking some type of medication from now on. I also get to try out different types of medications (if needed). For the time being, I'm sticking with my current medication. I've gotten the OK to up my dosage another 10mg if needed. I go back in 8 weeks or if my meds don't seem to be working (i.e. blocking or stopping the episodes). In that 8 week span, C and I will be making a trip, so they are very interested to see how I do on on the planes and immediately afterward. They are also interested to see how I do in the environment I'll be in (in keeping with my tradition of not disclosing info about trips I take until I return, the destination will remain a mystery until I get back to post about it).

The real bummer is that starting tomorrow, they want me to cut out (as much as possible):

• chocolate
• caffeine
• wine, especially red
  
• cheese
• MSG

On a positive note, they told me that the vast majority of people who have this rarely, if ever, have headaches. I've been trying to remember when I last had a headache and discounting an after several glasses of wine one back in September, I can't recall one. So I have that going for me....

Austin Plane Crash

was apparently in about the 9400 block of Research/183. Looks like it was intentional per the Statesman.

About 5 miles north of my old place and about 6 1/2 miles north of my old office.

Adam performing a Stripped concert for Z100 Radio yesterday

Yesterday in New York, Adam gave a small five-song concert for Z100's "Stripped" series.  It's a pleasure to have high quality audio/video of a live performance.  Eventually, all of the songs will be available, but for now, there's just Fever and an incident with a rude audience member:

Can navigate to the phone incident in this one:

Adam at the Highline Ballroom Feb. 12

Friday night, Adam and a couple other Idols performed a concert together at the Highline Ballroom in NYC.  For anyone disappointed in the highly-produced, electro-pop qualities of his album, you should still consider seeing him perform live.  Here is Sure Fire Winners.  The note he hits at 2:42 is unreal:



And here's Fever:



You can see his whole set via fan videos collected in an unlocked post at Hoopla Magnet.

"Happy Valentine's Day, honey"

Personally, I think shoveling the side of the driveway your wife uses says "I love you" better than flowers....