Friday, August 26, 2016

Heart and Joan Jett at Shoreline

We survived our Wednesday trek to Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheater for a triple shot of Cheap Trick, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, followed by Heart as the headlining act. The experience was great, the traffic horrendous. This venue never seems to be prepared for the influx of attendees they get. Worst handicap parking situation I've seen anywhere. The lot is located over a steep hill that is only traversable by foot, and across the main road. But whatever, we managed. Erika captured a few songs from the gig on her phone, so here they are. The videos  are a bit washed out, but the sound is good. 












And from the Thunder Valley show two weeks prior





Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Purge

Hey, so good to be back. I was on a short hiatus from blogging because this last week was just too full of action. Last weekend Gordon treated Erika and I to a concert at the Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, CA, which was a double shot of Cheap Trick and Joan Jett. I wasn't a fan of either but I enjoyed it and came away feeling like I was sufficiently rocked. Gordon hadn't intended to boot the show, but must have changed his mind last minute, which is fortunate because it provided more fodder for our Los Hermanos website
     On a more somber note, our neighbor of 17 years, Al Lara
had passed away earlier that week, and we attended his funeral on Tuesday. It was a good service filled with haunting mariachi music. I've heard mariachi music pouring through my dominantly Hispanic neighborhood for years. It is always festive and upbeat. But I had never heard funeral mariachi music. It was a rich blend of happy sounding melodies countered by foreboding undertones of sad and melancholy bass swells. The band was very classy and talented.  I had also never attended a military funeral before, and I was impressed by how dignified and noble  the procession was. Al had been a cook in the army many years ago, and was given the same treatment and respect as any soldier of war or peace. My breath was taken when the captain presented the American flag to his widow.  I know it sounds corny, but I actually felt a brief sensation of patriotism wave over me, and it tingled. I don't usually get choked up over such things, but it was a powerful moment.
     The next day was Wednesday, and we had scheduled our annual junk pick-up with the city of Sac. It was a lot of effort for Erika and I to purge the house of so much unwanted junk, but it left me with a feeling of great satisfaction to see it all go. We made a massive pile in the street, and poof, it was all gone the next day.



Tomorrow night we are heading to the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountainview for a repeat performance of Cheap Trick and Joan Jett, but this time Heart will be squeezed into the bill. What a summer. We'll see how it goes.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Say What?

I must apologize for not only the audio/video sync being way off in this clip, but also the lack of shirt on my being. I have no better excuse but to say that it was a hot August afternoon. Just my take on the current state of Trump and his campaign.