my favorite song ever

seeing eddie vedder live was incredible. he's the same humble, witty, shy, enormously talented musician he has been for years. he still shines without the band, and knows that its because of the band he's able to do solo shows like the one i attended.

i joked last year that i had waited my whole life to see pearl jam at lollapalooza. i wasn't cool enough to go to rock shows when i was in high school, and pearl jam was too big to play in champaign-urbana in the late 90s. seeing them last year was a dream. watching eddie vedder listen to over 160,000 people sing betterman to him ranks as one of the best concert experiences ever (matched only by seeing prince perform purple rain live).

the solo act was remarkable. vedder talked to the audience like they were friends and thanked us numerous times for supporting him and the band over the years. and he was free to reveal a softer, more adult, activist side of him, rock star and all.

he played by himself and had an army of guitars to support him. he played the ukulele and a banjo. he ended his 1st set with a 2 microphones that created vocal loops he would add to. no words, just emotion in sound.

during his the final encore of the night, he again thanked the crowd for supporting the band over the years, and thanked the band for supporting him. he mentioned items on stage that were given to him or "borrowed" from his fellow pearl jam members: a rug from matt cameron, vedder's favorite acoustic guitar that actually belongs to stone gossard. he indicated that he didn't have anything from mike mccready and had to get something fed-ex'd to him earlier that day. that item was mccready himself, who was procured on a dolly. together they sat down to play my favorite song of all time, yellow ledbetter. i recognized it 2 notes in. here's the picture i managed to get (can you tell my hands were shaking)?



the show ended with a classic cover of "all along the watchtower." the show was 3 hours long and vedder had barely taken any time between encores. (he joked that after tonight, it was back to 90 min shows with the band.) and while he had been sedate, relaxed, and quietly witty during most of the night, he couldn't keep the rock star inside him bottled up, and performed as the front man of pearl jam , if only for 7 minutes.

im amazed that in spite of everything he has experienced; all the money, fame, and notoriety; eddie vedder, despite being in his 40s with a young child, still is the idealistic grunge rock star musician who changed music. and he still seems uncomfortable with that role. humble, and amazing.

9 days into the season...

... and i already have baseball withdrawal.

both the cubs and white sox have off days today. why is that? after a home opener (at pittsburgh and at home, respectively) there is always an off day. curious.

there is nothing for me to watch. good thing i have a concert in 2 hours (eddie vedder!!!!) otherwise i might have had to resort to doing my taxes or folding laundry or something else constructive. whew!

UGLY, and beautiful

UGLY is the only word to describe the cubs win today. sloppy pitching, sloppy fielding. they cubs deserved to lose today with all their struggles. 12 innings of back and forth vs the pirates was almost too much to bear. next time cleaner guys, ok? please?

however, on a bright note, joe crede hit a grand slam today in the sox home opener vs the twins. gorgeous! and he even took a curtain call, the first one ive seen him take. keep it up joe! play better so SF will be willing to pay a premium for you and you can show off you skills in the bay area. i'll come watch every week! even if its for a team that lost their 4th in a row today and are now 1-6 on the season. wow, thats bad.


cubs 10, pirates 8
twins 4, white sox 7

bizarro day

these are not good signs. i think the apocalypse is rapidly approaching:

• ryan dempster gets his first W as the cubs defeat the brew crew 6-3
• kerry wood gets his first major league save
  
• john danks got run support in his first start. this is the same guy who went 0-5 at the beginning of last season despite pitching pretty decent. of course, the universe still hates him, as he didnt get the win. that went to dotel, who pitched a single out. not fair.
  
• new kids on the block, now into their last 30s/early 40s, are reuniting.
  

im scared. what's this alternate reality i'm living in?

brewers 3, cubs 6
white sox 2, indians 1

swamp feet

i blew off work today to go snowboarding today. it was hey you's idea. she's on spring break this week, and wanted to get in one last day. we drove up last night, stayed at rustling wood, went to heavenly (the nevada side) and drove home.

it was a good day. the slopes were slushy, but still good. and i feel so much better about myself when im out there. hey you made me do not 1 but 2 blue runs. i made it ok. im still improving. and she was very patient and continued to give me pointers and waited for me.

we stopped at the oliver garden in vacaville for dinner. i had a craving. we had eaten breakfast before we left, and only had some minor snacks in the car until dinner. the restaurant was interesting, to say the least. a vibrant cross section of america. lets leave it at that before i get petty.

walking to the car after dinner, the air in vacaville was nasty, it smelled like manure. apparently vacaville is a cow town. not the most pleasant smell to walk into. EVEN NASTIER, however, was the smell in my car when we got in. i immediately noticed the rankness and thought that maybe we had left monday's chinese food or some cheese out of the cooler. when asked, hey you had an answer right away -- it was her nasty swampy snowboarding boots. how such a gross smell from such little boots permeated my entire car is unbelievable. and completely disgusting. seriously, drop those boots on the insurgents in iraq and call it a day. all the troops can just come home.