Multimedia II

After attending a seminar yesterday with 80 other socially inept structural engineers, I thought the next multimedia edition of Suburban Rogue might be in order. If you think that spending a beautiful fall day trapped in a windowless meeting room with a bunch of structural engineers is a violation of the 8th Amendment you would be correct.

If you think spending any time, regardless of weather or location, with any structural engineer(s) is cruel and unusual punishment you would also be correct…

Speaking of the Constitution, one of the benefits of being an old fart who is a card-carrying member of AARP is that they make personalized videos for you, whether you request one or not. I recently received this unsolicited e-mail:

A Strange Video

In an interesting coincidence, I have a physical scheduled for next Tuesday. For me, being asked to turn my head and cough on Election Day seems rather symbolic of the current state of affairs…

The holiday catalogs have started to show up and I received an LL Bean catalog in the mail today. One of the items listed in the catalog is a “Snowball Maker Set.” Lest you think I’m making this up:

Snowball Maker

Yikes… We sure don’t want junior to get his hands cold, or wet, or to have any fun or to grow up with hair on his chest now do we?

A few days ago I was watching an interview with a country music singer/songwriter whose name escapes me at the moment. Anyway she was plugging her new album and told the interviewer that she “co-wrote that song by myself.” This must be the new definition for ghost-writer…

Alright, enough of this nonsense. Here’s some good music to help us all relax…

The Wilson sisters cover Elton John:

Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters

Kenny gets back to his roots:

In A Small Town

JT re-works a Drifters classic:

Up On the Roof

This Music Rocks

The local PBS stations (we’re fortunate enough to have two here) have been showing “Great Performances – A Tribute to James Taylor.” Several well known artists, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Carole King to name a few, perform some of JT’s songs before a crowd of about 2000 people. At the end of the evening JT himself gets up and performs. It is great television, if there is such a thing.

The songs reminded me of summer concerts at Red Rocks, the natural outdoor amphitheater west of Denver.

http://www.redrocksonline.com/index.asp

If you have never been to a concert Red Rocks you should go, if have you have been to a concert Red Rocks it is probably time to go again. I have seen James Taylor there three or four times as well as a host of other artists including, The Eagles, Dan Fogelberg, Greg Allman, Poco, America, Charlie Daniels, Dave Mason, The Beach Boys, The Doobie Brothers… Mrs. R and I saw The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at Red Rocks on our first date, in August of 1979.

Red Rocks is a magical place, a tremendous outdoor setting, near perfect acoustics, the cool Colorado climate, the moon coming up over the horizon… There is, quite simply, no better way to spend a summer evening…

Mrs. R and I are heading to points west later this week, ending up in the City by the Bay. San Francisco and the Bay Area also have a rich musical legacy - check out this 1999 list from the San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/12/19/PKBB101.DTL&type=music

Santana, The Doobies, Huey Lewis, and Credence are among my favorites...

Any special Red Rocks or other music memories from our vast readership?