Welcome to the Forum and non-lurker status, Brenna! Panic in Detroit! Another one leaving Detroit. You're going to love Massachusetts.

Happy Birthday Reggie! Good on ya', mate! Hope you're listening to some prime Led Zeppelin Down Under boot! Many happy returns of the day to you. Cheers! Oh, and it looks like I have a make-up birthday wish to send...a belated Happy Birthday to apantherfrommd! Lovely cake.

Thanks KB. Welcome to the pool. Paul, the last week of preseason may be irrelevant but there are still injury possibilities. You sure you don't want to wait until after this weekend to make your picks...just in case?

Erm, no...I have never tried Elk. However, I have had deer/venison, buffalo, wild boar, pheasant, rabbit, ostrich, possum, squirrel, snake, alligator, frogs, snails, and more varieties of fish and seafood than I can count/remember. Lunch today was steamed mussels with Thai basil and Vietnamese spring rolls with shrimp. Thai iced tea and three glasses of water.

We usually get around 10 people or so to play every year. Sadly, there'll be one less this year. I know Paul, Walter, Rick, jb, Bong-Man, redrum, jabe, zepscoda, KB?, and I will be back as usual this year. Anybody know Kansas City fan DAS whereabouts? Wonder if Black Dawg will ever return? I know there must be dozens if not hundreds of NFL fans lurking on this Forum. Come on, people, join the NFL pool! It's free...it's easy...it's harmless fun. Test your knowledge and luck versus the so-called media experts. My record has been better than the LA Times NFL prognosticator three years running. You don't have to try to pick the spread..just pick the team each week that you think will win. Picks must be in before each week's slate of games begins. So, since the first week of the season begins next Thursday, try to get them in before kickoff. Or, at least Thursday's games in...then post the rest of your week's picks by Saturday night. Let's try to get this NFL pool up to 20 participants at least. The more the merrier.

In addition, didn't The Rover attend this Ft. Worth concert in 1977? I think he has raved about it in the past.

There is no mistaking the shape of Jimmy's Danelectro. The artwork could be rendered in pink and it would still be recognizable.

Well, even though it's not the LA Forum '77 that was tantalizingly rumoured about first, ANY new show we get is fine by this Zep fiend. At least it's a concert I don't have...and Texas usually brought out good shows from the band. Maybe not as great as LA or Seattle, but better than average, especially in 1977. Ft. Worth 1977 will make a nice bookend companion to the hot 1970 Ft. Worth show. I haven't even heard the audience tape of '77 Ft. Worth, so I'm doubly keen to hear this. I might splurge for the deluxe set with both sbd and audience sources. I'll know more when I can preview it at the September record show...or October, depending on when it is actually released.

In other words, as David Lee Roth astutely noted back in 1980, "the reason so many critics like Elvis Costello is because they look like Elvis Costello." At first I thought I was reading an Arcade Fire "think piece"...there seemed to be more column inches devoted to Arcade Fire than Led Zeppelin. I still think Chuck Klosterman's might be the best recent writing on Led Zeppelin.

Ended an exhausting weekend with a fabulous dinner Sunday night: Curried goat and BBQ grilled oxtails, red beans & rice, plantains, spinach, jalapeño corn muffins...and pay particular attention to this ebk and chillumpuffer, a bottle of 2005 Pascual Toso Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina. A fab cab for around $10-12!!!

WTF? A Doors tribute band I can understand...same with Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Pink Floyd, and other defunct giants. But a tribute band for a current band that's still around? My Monday went thusly: Spent most of hot August day helping a friend move. Ate at Fatburger. Checked in with nephew's basketball game. Went to see Soundgarden concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Didn't stick around for Nine Inch Nails' closing set. Instead went to see "The Untouchables" at the Cinematheque, which was playing second-half of a double-bill with "Thunderball". Finally back home, had a glass of wine or two and caught up on some e-mails. Hit the hay at 2:30 a.m.

It could be worse...you and Walter could be at Burning Man.

You really think so? I don't know if I consider the AFC West any more tougher than the East or North. Denver's a beast, sure...but KC, SD and Oakland? Kind of mediocre don't you think? NE, NY, Miami, and Buffalo are probably tougher as a group...and three of those teams play in frigid winter weather. Nobody wants to go to Ralph Wilson Stadium or Foxboro in December.

Welcome aboard messengers! Great city, Boston; and New England is a great part of the country. Cool avatar name...The Jazz Messengers being one of the outstanding ensembles of all-time...in any configuration. The "Like Someone In Love"-"A Night in Tunisia" period just happens to be my favourite.

I always assumed it was Halifax, Nova Scotia?

One of the worst airports in the world. You do know, Walter, that you can delete the portions of the quote you don't need to make it shorter, right?

Is this question directed towards me? No, I haven't been to Vermont, or the other two Northeast states...New Hampshire and Maine...yet. I also want to see Mount Rushmore, so South Dakota is on my list. I suppose I should add North Dakota while I'm at it, hehe.

I really, really want to go to Iceland and New Zealand before I die. States/Countries I have been, listed in as close to chronological order as I can remember. California...obviously, as I was born and bred here. I have been up and down and zig-zagged all over the Golden State...from San Diego to Eureka, from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, from Mt. Shasta to the Salton Sea, from Joshua Tree to Napa Valley, from Yosemite to Big Sur. It is my home and I LOVE it. Baja California Mexico Nevada Arizona Oregon Washington Missouri Kansas Colorado Texas Arkansas Tennessee Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Alabama Georgia Florida South Carolina North Carolina Bahamas Jamaica Oklahoma Washington D.C. New York Hawaii England Germany Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg France Ireland Wales Scotland Denmark Norway Sweden Finland Greece Cyprus Lebanon Israel Austria Liechtenstein Switzerland Italy Spain Portugal Hungary Romania Bangladesh India Nepal Idaho Utah Wyoming Montana British Columbia Alberta Illinois New Mexico Nebraska Indiana Ohio West Virginia Pennsylvania New Jersey Connecticut Rhode Island Massachusetts

Trolling, most likely. If you really want to make your brain ache, read the comments sections on YouTube...where reason goes to die.

I know you didn't Walter...I was referring to jabe's remark about me being from Texas above. As for Oakland, 4 wins seems iffy at the moment. This is the week that means the most in the preseason, so I'll have a better handle on my expectations by next week. The first two preseason games, teams are settling in and getting in game shape. The fourth week, teams rest their starters. So the third preseason game is the true measure of where your team stands. Winning the game isn't important, but you do want to see some systematic cohesion, some offensive consistency by this point. If your team is still going 3-and-out, it could be along season for you.

Man, I had tickets to Joy Division's Starwood show June 9, 1980 and was also planning on trying to get into the Madame Wong's show earlier that weekend. When the news came that Ian Curtis killed himself on the eve of the U.S. tour, it hit hard...I was crushed. Joy Division were one of those post-punk bands that I was heavily into at that time...along with PIL, Wire, Bauhaus, The Cure, Gang of Four, Cabaret Voltaire, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark among some others. Got their studio albums...Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Warsaw, Still, and a couple other compilations. Lots of BBC Radio/John Peel stuff and tons of live albums, official and bootlegs both. Always a perennial in my listening rotation, I also liked New Order up to and including their "Technique" album. Sadly, there is a split among JD/New Order bassist Peter Hook and the rest of the band and, like Black Flag, there are competing versions of the band touring. Bernard Sumner, Gillian and the rest of the band played a good show at the Greek Theatre last month. Now I might give Peter Hook a try in November at the Fonda. Still one of the iconic album covers of all-time.

A very underrated musical from the 1980s...Julien Temple's "Absolute Beginners":

Astaire & Rogers...sublime magic.

Ummmm..."The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever" by Adam Leith Gollner?