Archive for July 2008
Strangers Into Starmen: Aimee Mann At Highline Ballroom
Rock ‘n roll is all about release. Leonard Cohen calls it “the minor fall and major lift.” Bono says it’s “when God enters the building.” Call it what you will; it’s all about transcendence. And it’s difficult to come by, even when you try. I’m not entirely sure Aimee Mann was shooting for any sort…
Read MoreMagic In The Night: Bruce Springsteen At Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium. Dusk. The house lights flicker, then fade. Carnival music wafts from the PA. The E Street Band emerges: Little Steven, Patti, Clearance. A spotlight burns a white-hot line through the summer haze. A figure ascends: rounded shoulders, unruly mane. The cheer rises up. “Bruuuuuuce!!!” Springsteen returns the greeting. “New Jersey!” he yells into…
Read MoreThe 2008 Brickyard 400 (Or, My Days Of Thunder)
This is it: The Fall of Rome. And this is how it goes: blue sky, 85 degrees, 300,000 people, 42 modified stock cars hurtling around a two and a half mile track at 170 mile per hour, and lots and lots of beer. This is the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, aka The Brickyard 400.…
Read MoreCool It Off Before You Burn It Out
In the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Syracuse University, I drove from Philadelphia to San Diego and back, camping and crashing at friend’s and family’s homes in Chicago, Iowa City, Minneapolis, Denver, and points in-between (including an ill-fated layover in Darwin, Minnesota where
Read MoreComic-Con Reconsidered (Or, The Triumph Of The Nerds)
Prevailing wisdom about San Diego’s Comic-Con is that it’s an assembly of misfits, nerds, freaks and geeks salivating over B-listers, back issues, and collectibles. In fact, I traded in that very same simplistic, diminishing description as recently as just last night. Tonight, though, I counter with a new thesis. Comic-Con is an inspirational gathering of…
Read MoreWasting Away Again At Comic-Con
This isn’t the first time I’ve put in an 18-hour day in a generic conference room in a beautiful city. Last week I put in a few days in San Francisco, and I’ve suffered through Las Vegas and Los Angeles numerous times. But this one takes the cake. Inside, it’s Comic-Con, the annual confab of…
Read MoreDon’t You (Forget About Me)
In an era of increasingly brazen, callous, and heartless sell-outs, perhaps no capitalist re-appropriation has incensed me like this one. I’m speaking, of course, of the JCPenney back-to-school ad that has dozens of sporty-looking, hoodie-wearing, completely-adjusted teenagers aping moves from John Hughes’ coming-of-age classic, “The Breakfast Club.” Ask my wife; I screamed for twenty seconds…
Read MoreIn Search of Paradise
Save for a few nights traversing the Midwest on his former 1985 Eagle Classic tour bus, I have little affinity for Marvin Lee Aday, aka Meat Loaf. Still, I was thrilled when I spotted his brand-new documentary, “Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise,” was on the MSG Network last night. (My wife, in contrast, was…
Read MoreBill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock & Out
Even within the context of my well-chronicled rock bio addiction, this is an anomaly: 608 pages about neither a singer, guitarist nor even a bassist or drummer. Nope. Six hundred and eight pages about a rock ‘n roll promoter. That said, Bill Graham was no run of the mill rock ‘n roll promoter. Until his…
Read MoreStars & Stripes & Brothers In Arms
I’m not sure which was sweeter music to my ears: the sound of the random competitor’s last gasp as I passed him mere yards from the finish line, or my brother saying after the race, “Damn dude, you crushed me.” Manhattan Island Foundation races are sweet little affairs, which is part of what I love…
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