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.

In "TSRTS" film, "Moby Dick" is edited down to a palatable 10 minutes and Jimmy's bowing extravaganza is lucid and in the context of "Dazed and Confused", ie. it's part of an ongoing song. On the 77 tour, the drum solo and guitar solo were self-indulgent 20-30 minute solos...and Jimmy's especially could be haphazard and meandering at best, even with the added visual flair of the laser light show. And on those shows where the guitar solo followed the drum solo, that meant there was close to an hour of momentum-killing bullshit. The concerts often struggled to regain intensity and momentum after this. Although I never said it out loud, I often thought the same thing those people on the bootlegs said...enough with the guitar lesson, indeed, Jimmy! Play a goddamn SONG like "The Rover" or "In the Light"!!! But still, as bored as I and others might have been(the drum solo was the cue to hit the restrooms and snackbar lines and chat up the girls), you never heard booing at the end of a Zeppelin concert...at least I never did. Going back to the 1969 concert the OP referred to, I have never heard this Detroit show but I bet that for all the booing heard BEFORE Led Zeppelin came out, once they started playing the crowd's boos turned to cheers once they got a load of "As Long as I Have You" and "How Many More Times" piledrived thru their skulls. I bet you don't hear any booing DURING Zeppelin's set.

First of all, even if it was a show where multiple sources exist...like the Blueberry Hill show...I would welcome the existence of a fresh source. So jabe, I am crossing my fingers along with you, in hopes that your tapes are still in good shape and salvageable. In fact, along with the fact that you discovered them after 20 years, here is the most REMARKABLE part of the story to me, and I can't believe nobody else has commented on this: the fact that you have the show on 8-track cartridges!!! All my memories of 8-tracks from the 70s are of people playing them in their cars and vans: factory recorded Zeppelin, ZZ Top, Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. I don't recall anybody having a home 8-track player...my family certainly didn't. We had a phonograph, cassette and reel-to-reel. And I certainly don't remember anybody recording to 8-track! If you were making a copy of an album for someone, you recorded LP to cassette, or reel-to-reel to cassette. I didn't even know they had blank 8-tracks to use for recording! I don't remember seeing any at Licorice Pizza or Tower Records or Wallich's Music City. In a way, jabe, you might have a one-of-a-kind collectable...not just because of the new source of a Zeppelin concert, which is valuable in and of itself. But also because it is on a format that has recently become desired by a specific subset of collectors: 8-Track enthusiasts. A Led Zeppelin concert recorded on 8-track cartridges has got to be rarer than rare!!!

Glad your blood results came back mostly good news. Sad about your back and compressed discs. Unfortunately I don't have any advice like LedZepFan77, as I've never gone what you're going through. I just wish you luck and hope you have good medical coverage.

Nearly 5 hours of Zeppelin listening later, it seems to me that the Godfatherecords "Adelaide Revival" is the best sounding 2.19.72 of the bunch.

40 years ago today... February 19, 1972 Adelaide, Australia. I'm actually going to try an A-B-C comparison of the three versions I have on cd. A. "Oooh My Head!" TDOLZ B. "Thunder Down Under" Equinox box set of 1972 Australian tour C. "Adelaide Revival" Godfatherecords

I don't understand all the mystery and talking in code. It's not as if Peter Grant, John Bindon and Richard Cole are gonna come knocking down your door. Either you have a tape or you don't.. don't be so coy about it.

Oh lord...I'm so embarrassed. Sorry badgeholder...I've fixed it now.

I bet it was, badgeholder! I couldn't make the Derringer show myself. And in case anybody is wondering, I didn't go to any of those Ramones-Blondie shows advertised either...shortly after the Tom Petty-Blondie show, I got into trouble and was grounded for two weeks. So no Ramones for me...I think their second album had just been released, or was just about due. Note to Led Zep Girl: I haven't forgotten your request...just be a little patient and I'll pm you the entire details very soon.

You know, you can make all the plans you want...think your Friday night is all set. Then, you drive by the theatre marquee and it all goes out the window. For when the marquee looks like THIS!!!...you have no choice but to go. Any chance you have to see the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood "pizza westerns" on the big screen is an opportunity you cannot pass up.

More like "enough, Jimmy, enough!"

Do you get paid for your chores? I'm making chocolate chip cookies...which always makes me happy.

Here you go, Deb...the earliest bootleg video I ever had of Prince was Houston 1981...couldn't find any clips with sound on YouTube but I did find Houston 1982. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH6wkmE18hU&feature=youtube_gdata_player Here's a clip from New York 1981...it's frustrating so many early clips don't have sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xaHWe6-LSE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Who's Ted and when did he join Led Zeppelin? 2.14.75 Nassau County Coliseum EVSD's "St. Valentine's Day Massacre"

Post #9: Tom Petty at the Whisky! Date: Saturday, February 12, 1977 Since my friend and I were going to the March 12 and 13 Led Zeppelin shows for sure, those concerts were now exactly a month away. I was still looking at the upcoming concert calendar to decide which concerts to trade some of my extra Zeppelin tix for...The Kinks at the Santa Monica Civic and Boston at Long Beach Arena were a couple I could go to for sure, as they were on a weekend. As mentioned above in an earlier post, I had given thought to going to the Foghat show Feb. 12 at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernadino(just north of Riverside), colloquially known as San Berdu. It was relatively cheaper and closer than going to Long Beach for their show the previous night of Feb. 11. But two things nipped that idea in the bud. One was that I still only had $5 or so on hand...not quite enough for a Foghat ticket. Second was my friend calling up and asking if I wanted to go see Tom Petty at the Whisky that Saturday night; his brother was going and we could get a ride with him. "Hell YEAH!!!" said I. I had only just recently gotten the debut Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album. It was released in November 1976, and there was a write-up about it in the LA Times in December, but it wasn't until I heard "Breakdown" and "American Girl" on the radio(Jim Ladd of KMET was a BIG BOOSTER of the album) that I decided to buy the album. It immediately became one of my favourite albums of the year...and I thought it was a better debut than Boston's first album. How could you not like a song such as "American Girl", with those incredible lines: "God it's so painful when something that's so close Is still so far out of reach" Besides the radio songs, it was "The Wild One, Forever" that sealed the deal for me...such a great and underplayed song. And THAT album cover...with the Flying V straight thru the heart...one of the great band logos of all-time! I had seen an ad for the Whisky shows...he was opening for Blondie(had no clue about them yet) for four nights Feb. 9-12...but I didn't think I would have any way to get to and from the Whisky. My friend appeared to have only a lukewarm interest in Tom Petty...he didn't really think the album was all that great; he loved the Boston album instead. But apparently his older brother did like Tom Petty...and liked him enough to want to see him at the Whisky, too. My $5 was enough for the Whisky cover charge, too. So fortune or good luck shone down again, and I was able to see my FIRST Tom Petty concert(and first Blondie concert, for that matter) in a small club. It wasn't even close to being sold out. In fact, I think it was less crowded than the Van Halen show the previous month. I thought it was weird that Tom Petty was opening...he had an album out and was played on the radio, while I had no idea who or what Blondie was, and they certainly didn't play them on KMET or KLOS("Heart of Glass" was still a year or so away). But in a way, that was cool, as that meant I didn't have to wait long for them to take the stage. I can't remember the setlist in detail...I'm pretty sure they played mostly the first album and maybe a new one or two. What I do recall is how great the songs SOUNDED live...this was a GREAT BAND. This wasn't just Tom Petty and a bunch of schlubs, but Tom Petty & the HEARTBREAKERS: Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch, Ron Blair all could really play, and they had a chemistry on stage. In concert, those songs from the album came alive and were punchier, raunchier, more rocking! Best of all, there was no fat to the set...no long drum solos or self-indulgent wanking. Tom Petty himself cut a rather unique figure onstage...he was so thin and gangly, his face like a hawk, with those sharp lines of his nose and jaw. The girls seemed to find him appealing, that's for sure. In a flash, his set was over...at least it seemed his set was over too soon. We decided to stick around for at least a couple songs of Blondie and if we didn't like what we heard, we would leave. Well, as soon as Blondie came on, I think we all forgot about that, as all I can remember is being struck by how HOT Blondie(or to be more specific, Debbie Harry) looked! I think it was even a few songs before I even started paying attention to the music, hehehe. Of the New York CBGB's scene bands, Blondie was the second one I had now seen; The Ramones were the first(saw them at the Roxy summer of 1976) and I also had bought the first Ramones album. In my early opinion, Blondie were no Ramones. Like the Ramones, though, they seemed to have a "look"...but more European and "upscale" than the Ramones' jeans and leather jackets motif. But they didn't have any songs....at least no songs stood out at that Whisky show to me; not in the way that the Ramones had instantly catchy songs that stuck in your head for days. Or the way Tom Petty's songs did. In fact, Tom Petty reminded me of another guy who I had recently discovered in 1976 thanks to Robert Hilburn's championing of him: Dwight Twilley. Sadly, Dwight Twilley had some of the worst luck in music biz history and his career never took off the way Petty's did.

LA Lakers beating the Boston Celtics in an Overtime thriller. I was out last night, so I didn't get to watch the end of the game until this morning.

July 15, 1973 Buffalo, NY (Hey Rick! You go to this show?)

Thanks everyone...and if I missed anyone, thank you to you, too. I wasn't sure how this would be received...making you wait and all that. Not to mention the potential for solipsistic overdose. I am trying to strike the right balance between giving you a flavour of the times and getting bogged down in too much detail. I was hoping somebody would have any info about that San Diego Party Bus...how about you MadScreamingGallery? Also, in the rush of activity leading up to the Super Bowl weekend, I goofed and overlooked one of the days of my timeline...so this should have been posted February 5. Post #8: How 4 became 5...the Fifth Forum concert is added. Before 4 turns to 6, there has to be a 5, right? Well, here's your answer, AYKHII... I was reading the paper that weekend (Feb. 5-6, 1977) and came across this ad for Led Zeppelin tickets by one of the ticket agencies. It puzzled me because it listed a 5th LA Forum date...March 16!!! I called the number and sure enough they said there were now 5 Forum shows. Mar. 9, 12, 13, 15, and 16. The tickets for the fifth Forum show had gone on sale Thursday, February 3 at 10:00am. Shit, how did I miss that news? Not that it mattered much, as I was still pretty much broke, and the 16th was a school night and so I wouldn't be able to go. The first chance I got I went to the library and asked for the Thursday Feb. 3 edition of the Los Angeles Times. Went through the View section(Part IV), which during the weekdays was where the arts, movies, television and music news was located. Yep...there it was...Page 15. The ad took the entire page. So that is when the four Forum shows became FIVE...and there was still room to add a SIXTH, as Monday the 14th was still open. Just to wrap up...I mentioned the "Roots" miniseries that ABC broadcasted the final week of January 1977, when the news of the Zeppelin tickets struck. Well, the ratings for "Roots" were shattering; it broke the record for most-watched and highest-rated TV show...beating the previous year's first-time airing of "Gone With the Wind". Which has a sort of poetic justice about it. Eventually, Super Bowls and the final episode of "M*A*S*H*" would eclipse "Roots", but it is interesting to note the difference in ratings between now and then. The 8th and final episode of "Roots"(ABC, in a daring move, broadcast "Roots" over eight consecutive nights) garnered a Nielson rating of 51.1 and a 71% share. That means that 51.1 percent of U.S. households with TV's were watching "Roots", and that of the televisions that were in use, 71% were tuned into "Roots", with around 100 million viewers. Nowadays, most Super Bowls get more viewers...for instance, the one just concluded between the NY Giants and New England Patriots was watched by 111.3 million viewers and had a 40.5 rating. But the 1982 Super Bowl between San Francisco and Cincinnati is still the highest RATED Super Bowl with a 49.1 rating and 73% share. And if you look closely at the article above, you will see that ABC won the weekly ratings race with a 35.5 rating. This week, with the Super Bowl, NBC was tops in the ratings, but only with a 7.7 rating. Networks barely crack a 10 rating anymore thanks to the fragmented audience. Oh, and to this day, I still have not seen the end of "Roots". Reading the book was enough for me to do the assigned report and I never got around to watching any of the repeated airings.