^^^Nice pick. I take it "Take Shelter" is finally out on DVD? I saw this when it came out last September, but I think LA and New York were the only places it got a decent theatrical release. A very strange yet interesting film...definitely not a mainstream crowd-pleaser-type movie. Michael Shannon is one of those character actors you always see in films and recognize the face but can never remember his name. Nice to see him finally get a big, meaty lead role. He is astounding in this. Of course, he got ignored by the Academy and the Golden Globes.

As you can see from the above post, I chose "Spamalot". Actually, I had seen "Spamalot" before, when it arrived at the Ahmanson Theatre in 2009. This time, I was just waiting to see if someone I knew could come up with comps for either Swan Lake or Spamalot. When the freebies for Spamalot came thru, the decision was made for me, so-to-speak. Don't worry, ebk, the Pantages is still as lovely as you remember it. I've seen at least 100 shows here...everything from Talking Heads to Wicked to Bob Dylan to Riverdance to Bruce Springsteen to The Lion King to the Cure. Not even the Guns n Roses show in 1991 could sully the place.

Had a fantastic weekend...topped by one of the happiest and most splendid Sundays in some time. Weather of course was beautiful...sunny and blue skies and in the 70s. Got up around 7am to hit the Record swap...got some groovy Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones boots. Saw the new Led Zeppelin II multitracks 4-disc set, but felt guilty and conflicted about getting it. Live concerts are one thing, but stolen studio tapes are another. After spending about an hour at the swap, had breakfast at Figaro Cafe(brioche french toast and orange juice), then went to Westwood Village to the Hammer Museum. Every month they have a free family screening, where they show a family-friendly movie on a Sunday at 11am. Yesterday they were showing a version of "Alice in Wonderland" I had never seen: a 1972 British live-action adaptation with Peter Sellars, Dudley Moore, Ralph Richardson, Michael Crawford and many other Brits of that period. Very quirky and fun. The movie was over around 12:30pm, so I took a stroll through the Alina Szapocznikow and Antony Hegarty(of Antony and the Johnsons fame) exhibits. Then, made a quick stop at the Hollywood Farmer's Market before going home and watching the rest of the LA Lakers vs. Miami Heat game. LAKERS WIN!!! After the game, it was around 3pm, so I went for a hike up Bronson Canyon for an hour. Then back home, showered and dressed to meet a friend for dinner at Chan Dara Thai restaurant before taking her to see "Spamalot" at the Pantages Theatre at 6:30pm...the final performance of the run. Someone hooked me up with freebies (working part-time, "free" is my favourite word). Laughed our sides silly...laughter is the best medicine...and afterwards, again thanks to the benevolence of my friend, was able to drop in the closing night party. The rest of the night is a blur...probably tucked in around 3am. Exhausted but happy. A solid six hours sleep and I was up at 9am today, refreshed and invigorated for the week. The only quibbles I had about the day was I missed a phone call from a friend, and I'm having computer problems which is preventing me from updating my 1977 thread.

^^^Good for you Kiwi! I'm glad you were able to take a break from your studies and take in a ballet with your mum. I'm going to try and see "Swan Lake" this weekend myself...either that or Monty Python's "Spamalot" musical at the Pantages.

It was a Martin Scorsese film and you didn't know about it until now? I know you're busy with your radio duties and all, but I would think to someone who sees a lot of films like yourself, news of a new Scorsese movie would cut thru the clutter.

Unlike some recent deaths, THIS was a complete surprise to me, as Davy Jones seemed so perpetually youthful. You never thought of him as "old" or "aging". He was always Davy...that cute, tiny, cheeky, scamp of The Monkees. Michael Nesmith was always my favourite Monkee(something about his wool cap and his bemused nature), but they all were fun to watch. The Monkees was a show I enjoyed with relish and with no compunction about its "manufactured origins" and supposed affront to true rock fans ideals about authenticity. The show was fun and zany and quite groundbreaking and influential in its way. In fact, for all the impact that '60s films like "2001", "Easy Rider", "The Graduate", "Bullitt", and "Bonnie and Clyde" had on the pop-culture landscape, it is "A Hard Day's Night" and "The Monkees" that probably had the strongest and most lasting influence. As much as I loved the TV show, though, the clincher was the Bob Rafelson-Jack Nicholson drug-fueled phantasmagoria on The Monkees, "Head". Made in 1968, I didn't get a chance to see it until the late-70s. What a trip! A surrealistic exploration and explosion of the Monkees myth, it is something you have to see at least once in your life. Whether you see it stoned or not is up to you...I've seen it both stoned and sober and enjoyed it just as much either way. Look for the amazing amount of hip counter-culture cameos in the film. And fans of Michael Mann's "Heat" will recognize the bridge in the opening scene. Anyway, this movie encouraged me to reevaluate the Monkees place and relevance in Sixties pop culture...and they had some pretty good tunes, too. Let me put it this way...nowadays I find myself listening to the Monkees more often than Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Santana and the rest of those deadly earnest San Francisco bands that scoffed at "fake" bands like the Monkees. Anyway...it was a sad shock hearing about Davy's passing. May he rest in peace.

Got up early and took advantage of the beautiful morning by hiking up to Dante's View in Griffith Park. No pictures as I left my phone and all electronic gadgetry behind. Just me and the sights and sounds of the great outdoors.

Are you actually seeing this in the theatre in 3D or watching at home? Most of the recent 3D films have been poppycock, but "Hugo" is one of the few that warrants seeing it in 3D...Wim Wenders' "Pina" is another. Not saying "Hugo" was my favourite film of the year, but it was the best of the 9 nominated films for the Oscars.

The ones I saw, natch! 6.21, 23, 25-27. In my mind's eye they were all FANTASTIC!!! A savage and epic rampage of white light and white heat. This wasn't some prissy shit like Kansas or Styx. Achilles Last Stand was brutal, raw, yet still full of grace and beauty. It was Punk-Prog decades before it was even a genre. It's instructive to note that ALS live was around 9 minutes; almost 2 minutes faster than the album version; it's as if the band was shot out of a cannon following the longueur of the solo section of the concert. ALS was our reward for enduring the drum and guitar/noise solos. In hindsight, as I listen to the bootlegs, you can hear slight differences in performance quality, so I tend to favour the 6.21 or 6.23 for my listening pleasure. But in my memory, every single one of those 5 Achilles Last Stand performances was true Hammer of the Gods AWESOME!!!

^^^Enjoy the steak! Ruth's Chris is one of the best steakhouses around.

^^^Congrats on 20 years marriage! What'd you get her...china or platinum? You're the second person from back east that has mentioned going to Ruth's Chris steakhouse this past week...I didn't know they had branched out from Beverly Hills/LA. Bon appetite.

Just goes to show "different strokes for different folks"...as "Drive" was one of my favourites of the year. Gosling's understated performance was right for the character...and the whole vibe of the film reminded me of many of those car-centric existentialist films of the early-70s...or "The Mechanic". And Albert Brooks! What a surprise he was...I'm so used to his neurotic-comedic persona, it took me a while to figure out it was him in that part. Lastly, "Drive" made very good use of Los Angeles...it didn't use the same tired old "touristy" locations many films rely on. Give it a while, Jahfin, then watch it again. It might grow on you by then.

I have doubts about that. February 28, 1975 L.S.U., Baton Rouge, Louisiana EVSD's "Rampaging Cajun" Second leg of the '75 tour...Jones breaks out the piano for No Quarter...easily one of the great shows of the tour...the soundboard is clean and sharp, well-balanced and you also can hear the audience, unlike the 73 and 77 sbds. Why do the 75 soundboards sound so much better than the 73 and 77 boards? Did they use a different rig? Just finished disc 2...wonderful No Quarter and Trampled...and I even listened to all of Moby Dick. Now on to disc 3. Deborah, I am thinking of you at this show.

This huge wall-sized ad for Orange Amplifiers just materialized at this local donut shop on Hollywood and Vine.

No apologies necessary badgeholder. But as you were doing sound and roadieing, I've got a feeling you were at a LOT MORE shows than I was in 1977. But yes, it does appear our musical tastes were similar so there will probably be a few more concerts that pop up in my timeline that we both attended. Hey Sems Fir: How did you get a copy of the press release? Were you a reporter at the time?

I found it for you Ady... By coincidence the four clips I've just posted are basically the first four scenes in the movie in the correct order. Oh, and if you ever find a woman that enjoys watching this movie with you, marry her...she's a keeper.

Yes Ady, Cheyenne's entrance is great...in fact, all the main characters have memorable introductions. Here's the second scene...right after the opening, where Henry Fonda's character makes his entrance: You have to remember what a SHOCK it was to audiences to see Henry Fonda play a cold-blooded villian. The movie is operatic in that all the main characters (Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Jason Robarbs, Claudia Cardinale) have their own theme music. Claudia's theme is some of the most gorgeous music committed to film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRs6CNV4T34&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Since this weekend is the Academy Awards, last night, to remind myself what a TRULY GREAT movie looked like, I went to the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre for a screening of Sergio Leone's "ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST". Epic is almost too puny a word for this film. The cinematography...the shot compositions...Ennio Morricone's classic score...the spare yet meaningful dialogue...the brilliant tension-mounting opening...the sly comic-timing of Jason Robarbs...the beauty of Claudia Cardinale and Utah's Monument Valley...the monumental faces of guys like Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Robarbs...I haven't seen a movie yet this year that I would rank with this piece of art. None of the Best Picture nominees can hold a candle to "Once Upon a Time in the West". Not "Hugo" or "The Artist" or "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". Westerns are a basic foundation of our(the United States) national myth, and you would think that they would never really go out of style. Plus, on the surface, it seems so easy to make a western...all you need is a gun and a horse, right? But when you watch "Once Upon a Time in the West"(or any of the Sergio Leone westerns...or John Ford and Howard Hawks for that matter), you realize why Hollywood has a hard time making convincing westerns these days. Men don't look like men anymore...they look like boys. Not to say there aren't good actors today...but none of them look like they could survive a day out in the desert. All these pretty boys with good complexions and waxed chests and baby faces...Leo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Gosling. Not a decent cowboy in the bunch. Now just watch the classic opening scene and compare the bland visages of today's crop of boy-actors with the grizzled and mesmerizing mugs of Elam, Strode and Bronson. http://youtu.be/yUmJkRn_Qxw Tonight I have a tough decision to make...Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" at the Egyptian or Georges Méliès' 1902 classic short "A Trip to the Moon", fully restored to its original hand-painted colours(premiered at Cannes last year) and a new score by Air at the Aero Theatre. Plus there will be a screening of a documentary of the making and restoration of "A Trip to the Moon". I might just flip a coin.

Post #10: TOUR IS DELAYED: Led Zeppelin Marches into June! Because of the Academy Awards this weekend and the prepping needed for the Oscar-watching party I'll be at, I am writing one post for the two dates this chapter of the thread covers...as I won't have time to post Sunday. Date: Friday February 25, and Saturday February 26, 1977 Talk about your "good news, bad news"...or actually the reverse. The 1977 Led Zeppelin tour was set to open in Ft. Worth, Texas on Sunday the 27th. The tour was due to hit Los Angeles in two weeks...the wait and the build-up of the anticipation was peaking and I could barely think about anything else other than Led Zeppelin. I had already traded two of my extra Led Zeppelin tickets for two other concerts coming up...Boston/Outlaws at Long Beach Arena March 19, and The Runaways at Santa Monica Civic April 1. Both shows were on a weekend night, so no problems going as long as I stayed out of trouble. At this time, I was grounded for two weeks, causing me to miss the Kinks concert as well as the Ramones/Blondie show the Whisky. The word was that Pink Floyd was bringing the Animals tour to Anaheim Stadium, and there were also rumours of a Fleetwood Mac show in the summer. The ticket agency ads also announced they were taking deposits on bands like Aerosmith, David Bowie and Yes. I was still trying to think of a way that I could use my March 9 ticket...I didn't think I could bear sitting at home that first night knowing Zeppelin was playing and I wasn't there. Plus, the first night's are often when the crowd is at its highest pitch for a show; it's been years since the band last played and nobody knows what the band looks like or what they are playing yet. It's all new and fresh. Litle did I know as I headed off to school that Friday morning of the 25th of February that EVERYTHING was about to change and my worries come to an end. It wasn't until after school, on the bus ride home that I first heard the report come over the radio station that the bus driver conveniently played for us kids...it was an AM station; probably something like 93 KHJ. Led Zeppelin's tour was postponed...and the LA Forum dates in March were now being moved to June. I couldn't quite make out the exact dates of the switch over the noise and commotion of the bus. But I understood enough to know that I was going to have to WAIT even LONGER now for those Zeppelin shows. I instantly got into a funk and was gloomy the rest of the ride home. Once home, I had some chores to do before I could retreat to my room and monitor the radio for more details as I did my homework(yes, we got homework on Fridays back then). KMET was my station of choice, and Pat "Paraquat" Kelley usually handled the news in the afternoons. Sure enough, I got the lowdown from Kelley: Plant had tonsillitis and the 1977 tour would now begin April 1 in Toronto. The Los Angeles dates of March 9, 12, 13, 15 and 16 NOW became June 21, 22, 23, 25 and 26 respectively at the Forum. Additionally, there would be an historic 6th show added on June 27...with tickets to go on sale in the future. No band had ever played the LA Forum for six straight nights before. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! Poor Robert Plant...first his leg, now tonsillitis. Now, instead of being two weeks away, it would be FOUR MONTHS before the concerts...116 days of waiting, aaaaarrrrgggghhhh! I simmered and stewed and cursed the rotten luck and struggled to concentrate on my homework the rest of the night...until a light went on! School would be out in June! By the time of the concerts I wouldn't have to worry about school night curfews...I could go to any and all the Zeppelin shows I wanted! This wasn't BAD news...this was GOOD news!!! I started to relax and feel better. Since I was on restriction, I couldn't watch tv or use the phone, so I would have to wait until Monday when I could see my friend at school to find out if this news affected his concert plans. I left the radio on as I went to bed as soon as I finished my homework and drifted off to sleep, my thoughts being primarily this: Could I possibly go to all SIX concerts? Did I have the stamina to do such a thing? Was Led Zeppelin still worthy enough in concert to warrant going to so many shows? The next morning, I got up early and checked the Saturday Feb. 26 L.A. Times over my bowl of cereal(most likely a bowl of Lucky Charms). There, tucked among the movie reviews and listings on page 7 of the B section of the paper was the following article: Hmmmm, Led Zeppelin's 1977 Tour was now starting April 1 in Toronto. This signified a couple of things besides the ability of me to go to more of the concerts. 1.) Unlike 1975, the weather would be considerably warmer for both band and fans alike on this tour, which definitely makes things more comfortable and the band less susceptible to catching a cold or the flu. 2.) On the original tour itinerary, Los Angeles was part of the first leg, with barely two weeks for the band to shake the rust off and work out any kinks in the sound and lighting systems, set list and song arrangements. Now, the L.A. dates closed the second leg and the band should be firing on all cylinders by June. With my two extra tickets from March 12 already exchanged for Boston and Runaways tickets, I had 6 tickets left. With the schedule change, I now had: 1 Loge for June 21 1 Colonnade for June 22 1 Loge for June 23 3 Rear Floors for June 25 I would have to wait until Monday Feb. 28 to consult with my friend and see if he wanted to go to more shows and also try to get more tickets when the 6th Forum show went on sale. As it stood now, I could trade in two of my extra June 25's for one each of the 26 and 27 dates...if I wanted, I could go to every one of the six LA Forum shows. But with the shows four months away, there was no rush. There was plenty of time to sort things out in the days to come. 116 days, to be exact.

I've been telling people(especially my non-sports-loving women friends) since "Moneyball" was released that it was a good movie and not to be put off by the baseball subject matter. I have since seen it a second and third time, and my appreciation for the movie only grew...this is a very underrated film. Everyone is going on about "The Artist" and "The Descendents", but I think "Moneyball" is better than both of those movies. In fact, of all its fellow Best Picture nominees in this year's Academy Awards, I would rank only "Hugo" above "Moneyball". Hell is for the people who nominated "War Horse". Brad Pitt's performance has also been overlooked in favour of George Clooney's sleepwalking thru "The Descendents" and Jean Dujairdain from "The Artist". But again, watching it again you gain new appreciation for Brad's performance...the nuance and subtlety. I am still rooting for Gary Oldman but if Gary doesn't win, then I hope Brad does. Enjoy "Moneyball" redrum.

Yep, that's her. Very tall with long great legs, dazzling eyes and smile...and can talk sports!!! What's not to love?

ESPN Sportscenter w/ Hannah Storm. Oh Hannah...Hannah...HANNAH!!!

The Watkins Family Hour(Sean & Sara) w/special guests including Jackson Browne @ Largo tonight 2.22.12.