The BIG Carnitas burrito with extra onions, salsa, cilantro and jalapeños I just had for lunch. Washed down with watermelon juice. SCRUMDILLYUMPTIOUS!!!

The education mess in the U.S. is one of those problems that, like the Middle East, seems so exasperating and irretrievably broken that you end up wanting to throw your hands in the air and shout "FUCK IT! Let's nuke it and just start all over." And EVERYBODY shares in the blame: government, the educational bureaucracy, teachers, parents, students. I know a couple of teachers and they are good people, love their job, are hardworking and in it for the right reasons. And I hear the horror stories. But I also know there are quite a few bad apples out there, and trying to get rid of these teachers can prove almost impossible thanks to union and tenure rules. But to me, at least here in California, it all started to go wrong in the late-70's, when the twin events of Prop. 13 and Social-Engineering began to leave their mark on the school system. Prop. 13 caused a reduction in local revenues, which simultaneously meant less money for schools and more money and concentrated power in Sacramento. Then there were the social do-gooders...suddenly it wasn't enough to just teach the 3 R's(reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic). No, now little Johnny and Sally had to feel "good" about themselves. In fact, students self-esteem started to become more important than actual achievement. 2+2=5? That's okay, at least Johnny tried. World War II occurred in 1967? No problem Sally...at least she knew what side won, right? Don't know where Europe is? Who cares...they're just a bunch of America-hating commie fags anyway. Gold stars for everyone. Your team lost at baseball? Don't cry, everybody gets a trophy. Everybody wins. Cause god forbid someone's kid feels bad about losing or getting the answer wrong. But that wasn't enough. The baby-boomers, once they started having kids, decided they were the most special and perfect kids in the world. And why not, for the baby-boomers themselves thought they were the most special and perfect generation in the history of mankind! They had invented sex, drugs and rock n roll...and had even ended the Vietnam War and gotten rid of Tricky Dick. No teacher was going to say a BAD word about their precious child, let alone actually have the nerve to discipline said spoiled brat. So, over time, the power balance shifted in schools, as teachers lost authority and control over the classroom, as the students could pretty much get away with anything short of murder. This coincided with the rise in litigation, so schools began to fear doing anything to upset a student, lest the parents take the school to court. As the spoiled brats grew up to have spoiled brats of their own, it got worse and worse, until now, where you have in certain schools a complete breakdown in discipline. I go back to my old high school...it looks more like a prison than a school. Every week you read the same stories. Students raping students...teachers raping students...students raping teachers. Then there's the periodic decrees from the Federal and local do-gooders. Every 5 years somebody claims to have the answer to our educational woes. ESL. Bi-lingual education. Phonetics. Whole reading. New math. No Child Left Behind. It's like Stalin's Soviet Republic or Mao's Red China with their 5-year plans...that always failed. How can you hope to succeed this way? It's like a sports team that keeps changing GM's and coaches. There's no continuity...no momentum built for the future. Everybody is tugged this way and that every couple of years. I wish I knew what the answer was...other than dumping Standardized testing and No Child Left Behind and returning to the BASICS. This whole "teaching to the test" is a scourge. Kids don't have to read entire books anymore...the teacher just gives them the parts to read that they'll be tested on. They're memorizing, not learning. But I fear that the decay has been going on for so long...over 30 years now...and is so ingrained, that nothing short of total destruction and a brand new start will ever get us back on track.

Do you think Atlantic would have told Led Zeppelin to go back in the studio if they didn't think a record sounded "Zeppelin" enough? And what do you think Peter and Jimmy would have said to them in reply? I've sometimes wondered what if Jimmy hadn't been so smacked out, and he developed his idea of a guitar-army further and Led Zeppelin came up with something like My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" album...or he worked more on his idea of using a bow on the guitar and created a Sigur Rós-type sound...how would the record label and public have reacted to that? I know, speaking for myself, I would have LOVED it if Led Zeppelin had gone in those directions!

Maybe they had an off-night, although truth be told, Best Coast go down better in a small club than a large-venue show. But even at their best they are nowhere as good as the Decemberists. But you are right about the hype...they got massive hype. And it boils down to two words: Cute chick. If a band has a cute chick, it's almost a given the band will be hyped-to-death. Best Coast has Bethany Cosentino. It's the same with Vivian Girls, Giant Drag, She & Him, and anything Jenny Lewis is involved with. Not that some of these bands don't live up to the hype...but if the band's not ready, it can be crippling. And it can be annoying if you're one of those bands that DOESN'T have a cute girl...that's what made that joke in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" so funny; for a time it did seem like EVERY new indie band had a chick drummer. And poor Jenny Lewis...everywhere she goes, she leaves a trail of drool and broken hearts among the male members of the indie-rock media. And probably quite a few females as well.

Okay, this is a CALL-OUT, a plea to Silver Rider, Hotplant, MadScreamingGallery, or ANYONE that was at the June 3, 1973 LA Forum concert. It may have got lost in the shuffle in all that grey, but there was a question buried in my review post. As my attention was focused elsewhere at the time, what happened during Thank You that caused that second huge roar? Anybody who was there have any idea? Did Silver Rider streak across the stage?

LA TIMES article about Neil Young's latest release, "A Treasure". LISTEN TO WHAT GOT HIM SUED Neil Young releases what Geffen Records didn't consider 'A Treasure' By Randy Lewis The recent news that country singer Tim McGraw's record company is suing him over his latest album is just the latest of many stranger-than-fiction examples of artist-label relations going south. In 1993, the head of John Fogerty's record label sued him for sounding too much like...John Fogerty, arguing that his single "The Old Man Down the Road" was merely a remake of Fogerty's old Creedence Clearwater Revival hit "Run Through the Jungle". (Fogerty won.) That had followed an equally surreal case from 1984, when Neil Young was sued by his label at the time, Geffen Records, for not sounding enough like himself. That's the backdrop for the release of a collection out of the Canadian rocker's archive, 'A Treasure', a batch of live performances circa 1984-85 when he'd assembled a country-rock band that toured as the International Harvesters. Read the rest here...

It's the nighttime now...which means it's time for this hauntingly beautiful blues from Karen Dalton. In the Evening ( It's So Hard to Tell Who's Gonna Love You the Best ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMMPoJSeyR0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Had to add some more Summerteeth songs...the 2007 Bonneroo was the last one I attended and Wilco was outstanding as usual. They did a particularly nice version of Via Chicago... I'm Always in Love Jeff Tweedy - ELT

As summer is just around the corner then...here's some Summerteeth songs...enjoy. Summer Teeth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPeBivxNdEs&feature=player_detailpage Via Chicago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTecSbAEFaI&feature=player_detailpage A Shot in the Arm (Live at the Vic)

I love both of those bands...especially the Decemberists; their shows are fun and audience-participatory. Did they do the Mariner's Revenge Song, where the band gets attacked by the whale and the audience screams along? That is CLASSIC! They used to have the awesome-in-her-own-right Petra Haden(daughter of jazz bassist Charlie Haden) in the band back in the day...don't know if you saw them then. However, the last time I saw the Decemberists in February, Sara Watkins was lending her violin and vocal talents. Is she still with them? Of course, being in LA, they opened with Los Angeles, I'm Yours. Hope you got The Mariner's Revenge Song at least!

Hahaha...ummm, about that June 21 post...you may have to wait a while for that, as my schedule is pretty busy the next week or so. Lying around a hospital bed was good for catching up on sleep and reminiscing. But I'm way behind on work. You might have to wait until 2012 when I do a 35th anniversary post. Hmmm, it will also be the 40th anniversary of the 1972 shows. I better start preparing soon.

Deborah J previously posted the excellent Elmore James "It Hurts Me Too". I'd like to add a couple equally great versions, both done by the same person. Karen Dalton, the girl from Enid, Oklahoma, ran with Fred Neill and Bob Dylan and the others in the 1960's Greenwich Village scene in New York. She never reached the level of fame her cohorts did. Even when Dylan mentioned her in his autobiography Chronicles Vol. 1, she still remains unknown for the most part. It has become easier to pick up her albums, though...some with bonus dvd of archival footage. I am going to post two of her versions of "It Hurts Me Too", both different and the first one is unavailable on any of her recordings. It was done for a French documentary. The second one is from her album "It's So Hard to Tell". There were some good fakers in the Greenwich Village scene. But when you hear Karen Dalton, you hear the voice of a woman who is not just singing these songs...she has LIVED these songs. IT HURTS ME TOO #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-BIKjypNsE&feature=youtube_gdata_player IT HURTS ME TOO #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A18M95gTG2M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hahaha...yeah, I was released Friday. Just in time to see the last performance at Sunday's matinee. Which was over in time for me to see the game. Yeah, Barea had his moments, BUT if you ask me who was the key player(other than Dirk of course), it was JASON TERRY! He was the one who called out Lebron...and then backed it up.

I'm in the mood for some live Wilco...how 'bout you? Here's a trio of good ones, from the double-live cd Kicking Televison, recorded over 4 nights @ The Vic in Chicago in 2005. You can hear what the addition of Nels Cline has brought to the band...listen to his jazzy lines in Company in my Back, or the guitar freakout in Handshake Drugs.

Time for my daily blues post...this time going back again in time. Elmore James - Make My Dreams Come True.

2 things made me happy today. 1. Seeing my godson perform with his Performing Arts Magnet of Hollywood High in their production of "Chicago"! Wow, don't know if we would've been allowed to do this when I was in high school...even in the freewheeling 70's. Lots of risqué numbers and costumes. Parents would've been up in arms. And they even had a real orchestra in the pit...not a student orchestra but professional musicians. That's some budget they got at Hollywood High. 2. Dallas beating Miami to win the NBA championship...and deny Lebron his. I usually don't engage in schadenfreude, but in this case, I can't help it.

In reference to the Rover's post above, my favourite use of Wagner in a film is in Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu", his 1979 remake of the silent "Nosferatu". For Jonathan Harker's(Bruno Ganz) journey to the Count's(Klaus Kinski) castle, Herzog uses Wagner's Rheingold Prelude for much of the scene...it begins 2:21 into the clip. The whole scene is epic and hypnotic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkAI9kALWss&feature=youtube_gdata_player Another mesmerizing scene with great music is the Dance Macabre, or Pestilence scene, where Isabelle Adjani walks through the town square as the townspeople, resigned to the fact that the plague has overtaken their town, live it up one last time. The piece of music Herzog uses in this scene is a vocal chant from Georgia(Russia) called Zinskaro or Tsinskaro by the Vokal Ansambl Gordelo. For some reason it is nearly impossible to find on cd.

I have a couple books on Chanel that also place her at the Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring and mention her inviting Stravinsky and his family to stay with her. Any more is conjecture I suppose. But even so, the movie works and I suggest you give it a try. I think you'll like it. Oh, and I forgot to mention in my previous post, but the costumes and art direction/interior design is to die for.

Here's an unorthodox pick that may upset the purists. But it's a cover of one of my favourite Elliott Smith songs, "Between the Bars" by Madeleine Peyroux...and it has a bluesy-soulful feel. As usual with Peyroux, you'll either love her voice or be annoyed by her obvious attempt to sound like Billie Holiday. I tend to fall in the former camp. Give it a listen...

You're welcome ZepRex...and it makes me happy that I was able to affect you in that way. For that was my intent with these recent posts of mine...to really give you and others who weren't able to see Led Zeppelin(not counting Page & Plant and the O2 show) in concert a totally gonzo and detailed(or as detailed as I could get) description of those 1973 concerts. And to allow those who WERE at those shows to take a trip down memory lane as well, and maybe trigger their own memories and stories. My inspiration for finally writing these concert reviews(besides hospital confinement) was reading so many books like Stephen Davis' LZ '75...where the emphasis on Zeppelin seemed to be more on what was going on around the band and less on the actual concert. I went to a Led Zeppelin concert because they created sounds and feelings in my head and heart that no other band of the time could. I didn't even know, much less care, about the groupies and smashed hotel rooms at that time. The optimum way to read these 1973 posts would be to cue up the respective bootleg for each show: Bonzo's Birthday Party, Kezar Stadium, and the Three Days After boots....and listen to them while reading. And you could look at David Zoso's photo threads for visual stimulation. Of course, this still wouldn't come close to the total effect of a Led Zeppelin concert....but hopefully it'll be close enough.