Decade

Dear Baltimore Orioles: 10 years ago today, our relationship ended when it was announced that #9 would no longer be gracing CF. It was a visceral reaction on my part. I admit that. I was over it many years ago. You've had PLENTY of time to win me back. Sure, you've made some gestures; various uniform and personnel changes; but one thing hasn’t changed… winning. You’re organization is severely damaged from top to bottom and until you are willing to acknowledge that, nothing will change. A cartoon bird can’t throw a 100 mph fastball or hit .300. Don’t turn into the Cubs; to paraphrase Joseph Kennedy, “Show me a [loveable] loser and I’ll show you a loser.”

Sympathy? What sympathy?

Sometimes it's the lack of action that reveals how much people truly care for you. I really thought that after 11 years, those people cared more about me. Maybe if I had cried in front of them, I would have gotten some sympathy. At least a card and some grocery store flowers. Didn't think that was too much to ask.

The Baltimore Orioles Playlist

The 1-8 ...1-9 ... 1-10 Baltimore Orioles Playlist:

Come Undone - Duran Duran
Start of The Breakdown - Tears For Fears
I'm a Loser - The Beatles
Make a Move - Lostprophets
So Mis Led - Duran Duran
Dis-Order - John Taylor
Sorry - Madonna
Troubled Times - Your Vegas
Falling Down - Duran Duran
Heartache Tonight - The Eagles
Meltdown - John Taylor
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
Long Road To Ruin - Foo Fighters
Disasterpiece - Sugar Ray
Break It Down Again - Tears For Fears
Useless - Depeche Mode
Down Again - John Taylor
Miniture Disasters - KT Tunstall
Who Killed Tangerine? - Tears For Fears
This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day - The Monkees
Everyday I Love You Less and Less - Kaiser Chiefs

You really learn something about your friends when a simple favor is ignored. Are two mouse clicks REALLY so hard? What was I thinking? After this many years, I should be used to being ignored.

Why do network execs hate me?

I was crushed when I read that Vincent D'Onofrio is leaving Criminal Intent to pursue other roles. Jeff Goldblum is the only current cast member who will return for Season 9. USA wants to "retool" the show to make it "lighter". This is their attempt to replace Monk, which ends its run this season.

I suppose I should be grateful to USA for saving the series after NBC dumped it. But now USA is ruining one of the best crime dramas on the air! I understand it will be different without VDO, but "lighter"? Not interested.

Why are all my favorite shows going off the air now that I finally can watch them static free??? Soon every show on the air will be a cheap, unintelligent reality show, and I will have to resort to reading!

Farewell Goren & Eames.

RIP (See you on DVD)

King of the Hill
LO:CI
Scrubs
Samantha Who
My Name is Earl
The Starter Wife

You've been warned, Comcast!

Welcome to the second installment of "You've been warned"! Today's episode, "Comcast"

My attempt to order the $10/12 months Limited Basic Cable promo was foiled this evening. When I got the to the customer rep. to confirm my setup appointment, the rep. told me the deal was for 6 months. When I corrected him, I was told that they can only process offers from the website. Right now, the only deal he could see was the Digital package for $29.99/mon. He asked where I had seen the offer. I told him it was a mailer, which I did not have in front of me (of course). While he "tried to get my help from customer service", he proceeded to offer me the Triple Play offer package, for a mere $114.99/mon. "Would you like to sign up for that?" Isn't that like walking into a car dealer and having the salesman say, "I know you are looking for a Focus, but would you like a Lamborghini instead?" DUH! If I could afford the $115 a month, WHY WOULD I BE ORDERING THE $10 PACKAGE!!!!

Excellent customer service Comcast.

I almost forgot!

All day I've been bothered by the feeling that I was forgetting someone's birthday.....

Happy Birthday Roger!

Enough

I am tired of being the first mate on the Titanic. I am in desperate need of a lifeboat.

The big 5-0.

Happy 50th Simon!

Check out the awesome gift from his bandmates http://www.duranduran.com/wordpress/?page_id=14005

And The Winner Is....

The Greatest Video EVER, as voted on by YOU (via MTV UK), the human race, is.....



Never underestimate the Duranie voter.

Rock The Vote!

Welcome Elaina!
Congratulations Jayme & Colin!
http://cjgamble.blogspot.com/

Michael The Gr8

Congratulations to a fellow Towson High alum.

"I’m glad it still survives..."

From John Taylor's blog at Duran Duran.com

...Having gotten that out of the way, let us proceed. You were in Washington D.C., Georgetown precisely, and about to join Dom and Craig and myself for a drive south to the Merriweather Post venue. A famous venue in the neighbourhood, I’m glad it still survives, as it’s one of the few ‘indoor-outdoor’ venues that has real character. I first went there with Power Station in ’84 and I’ve been back several times since with Duran. Today we are hoping to beat the traffic out of town and it’s a miserly, sultry sort of early summer day, and I’m just glad it’s not August....

[Taylor comes on stage for the encore wearing a Barrack Obama t-shirt]

...At the Merriweather Post the audience went nuts!

I felt an extraordinary connectedness, almost a sense of relief from the people out there that I had made that choice. There was a palpable sense of love that went beyond the usual.

The D.C. gig was the highpoint, for me, of the US tour. From there we flew to Boston and then on to New York where we were to receive some news that was to rip the guts out of us all.

$125 was a bargain!

"WILD BOYS: A concert by Duran Duran under the museum's iconic I.M. Pei pyramid headlines a three-day event being organized by American Friends of the Louvre. To be held June 9 to 11, "Liaisons au Louvre" will span multiple events, including a lunch at the American Embassy, high tea in Christian Lacroix's gardens, cocktails at Baccarat and a black-tie gala at the museum, which includes private viewings of the most spectacular galleries and a seated dinner before Duran Duran lets rip its musical reflex.Ticket prices are $10,000: less for French residents."

My birthday is coming up.... hint hint.....

Okay, this event was last night. Bummer. I just check their schedule and they are free on June 18th. They will do private parties. Poolside perhaps?

4 hours with a fantastic foursome

(A very random duel review)

May 22nd: Mann Music Center, Philadelphia (#11)
May 27th: Merriweather Post Pavillion, Columbia, MARY-land (as John & Simon pronounced it) (#12)

Same set list for both shows. After 24 years, I FINALLY got to hear Last Chance On The Stairway live, even if it wasn't the entire song. I was so anxious to hear it, I couldn't enjoy it the first time because I spent the entire minute & a half thinking, "I'M FINALLY HEARING IT!!!! This is it!!!" and in a flash, it was done. At Merriweather, I just smiled and sang along. Much more enjoyable. I wanted to be sure the guys saw the joy on my face. I wanted to say, 'If you perform this song for the next 20 years, I promise I will never complain about hearing HLTW for the 10 millionth time!'

Didn't try to get the camera into Merriweather. Partly chickened out, partly didn't want to bother. My camera was never going to do justice to the view I had from the 4th row. I watched 10 years worth of O's games through a camera lense. That perspective is too distorted at a concert. I saw most of the camera'd people around me trying to enjoy at rock concert standing still. That must be a slight disappointment from the band's perspective. They are trying to get people to move and they get statues with camera where their faces should be.

Opening act, Your Vegas, were great. The lead singer sounded just like Bono and moved like him too, circa 1982. A Town And Two Cities

My seat at the VERY cold Mann Center was about 20 feet from John Taylor. Which for me is heaven. Only problem was the speakers which blocked most of my view of Roger.

[SIDEBAR: In 7 hours, I will have a bootleg of this show. DIALUP SUCKS! I did consider going out into the hallway and shouting, "Does anyone have a cable connection I can borrow for 5 minutes?!?", but I didn't think that was very neighborly.]

I'm very grateful for this bootleg because I don't remember much from this concert. The show moves VERY fast, even the ballads. There was barely time to catch your breath before they were on the the next tune. Even the "intermission" before the Electro set was only 2 minutes. Just enough time to take drink and a deep breath before the non-stop medley. I'm really not sure why they give Simon a keyboard. I think he hit 5 keys between the 2 shows!



At the beginning of the Electro set, Simon sneezed into his headset mic. The look on his face as part surprise and part 'oops, sorry!'! It was amusing. He also throws the tambourine in the air at the end of "Sunrise". When it came down, it hit him in the nose and rolled off to the side of the stage. He did a better job at Merriweather.

During GOF, Simon plays a little 'copy me' game with the crowd. After about 6 of them, he said, "Do you think this is going somewhere? 'Cause I promise you, it isn't!" and the game continued until the band introductions. This time around, Simon let the entire crowd do his intro. In Philly, he shouted, "What's my name?!?" until the crowd was at fever pitch. At Merriweather it was, "Who's your daddy?!?"

During SAP, virtually everyone in the place held up their cell phone for the "Duran Duran starlight party" as Simon called it. It looked amazing.

{SIDEBAR Part 2: The bootleg is FANTASTIC. Possibly the best one I've ever heard. I've listened to it 10 times already. Now if I can just get the Merriweather show.....}

The new songs sound great live. Especially Tempted. It was very brave of them to start the show with 3 new tunes.

Just before they came on stage at Merriweather, a well-dressed black man sat down next to me. We chatted a little during the show. He was quite friendly. He said he had just come from work because he couldn't let DD be that close and not go see them. When Simon stands at the front of the stage to start the show (about 15 ft away from us), my new friend yelled, "That's Simon 'freaking Le Bon!!!!" and said similar things about John & Nick. He knew all the classics and was singing louder than I was! It was great.

More tidbits as I remember them....

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Now playing: Duran Duran - Red Carpet Massacre
via FoxyTunes

23 hours until #12

From "And Duran Played On" by Lori Majewski

..."'Wasn't six shows enough?' Okay, so let me try and tackle that, if only because you, dear reader, may be faced with it yourself after attending multiple concerts on the Red Carpet Massacre World Tour. No, six is not enough. Nor is 10, nor is 20, nor is 100. There can never be enough Duran Duran shows. For if they suddenly quite playing live, what would become of us? Would we find ourselves old before our time, bitter and jaded - like those unfortunate people we all know we don't have a favorite pop group anymore, whose music purchases consist solely of Now That's What I Call Music collections, and whose attention to their kids' wardrobes eclipse their own?"

Sing-a-long with Simon

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Now playing: Aztec Camera - Oblivious
via FoxyTunes

You've been warned, windshield wiper!

"... they must have tempered my temper because now I only take out my wrath on inanimate objects. Never people. But after all, these objects mustn't be allowed to interfere with our lives, I mean if a telephone is foolish enough to misdial a number for you when you're in a hurry, then the obvious thing to do is to go and get a machete out of your workshop and calmly, but firmly, hack it to pieces, right? We must keep these objects in their places. Don't you agree?... Believe me, this is the only way in which these things will respect you. If you give them an inch they will take a mile."

Micky Dolenz, "I'm A Believer: My Life of Monkees, Music and Madness"
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Now playing: Duran Duran - Union of the Snake (The Monkey Mix)
via FoxyTunes