good book...how do you like it so far?

Currently reading "The Man Who Loved China" by Simon Winchester. This past year I mainly read along with the books my daughter was assigned in her middle school classes, some for the first time, others were repeats that I enjoyed as much the second time around. "To Kill a Mockingbird", "A Separate Peace", "The Outsiders", "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" are a few titles that spring to mind. The most fascinating book I read in 2008 was this one, "Crashing Through" -- A story about Mike May who was blinded by a chemical accident when he was just a toddler and then had his sight restored at 46 years old. In many ways having sight turned out to be a far greater hardship and struggle than he (or anyone with sight) could possibly imagine. The greatest difficulty he had was in recognizing faces (everyone looked identical, he could distinguish male from female only if there was facial hair, for example). So much so that he finally gave up and resorted back to the other sensory cues he used while blind (such as hearing) to know who he was speaking with. The book is supposedly being made into a movie but don't know when or if it will be released.

Which state is that, Lake? We don't have early voting either so I plan to go Tuesday Afternoon (capitalized as a nod to the Moody Blues ) Am very curious to see what the turnout will be.....every other time I've voted at this address (since 1989) there were only 3 or 4 other voters there at same time. I'm expecting more this election.

^^Agree, that is totally awesome. I bet a handwriting analysis would reveal the author is an extremely gifted, artistic and creative soul (the all caps, the loopy flourishes in nearly every letter, etc). Thanks Steve for posting that little piece of treasure.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, based on the plot synopsis & TV commercial, it sounds hilarious. And nah, I'm definitely not easily offended....plan to take my 13 year old who wants to see it too even though it's R-rated.

I hardly ever go to the movies, maybe once or twice a year. Tropic Thunder looks worth seeing on the big screen......anyone watch it yet and is it good?

Much thanks Steve.

That's what I thought while reading it too; that was one helluva entertaining article. I was beginning to wonder if he even remembered the band members' names when he wrote things such as: The singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer were all thoughtful people - interested in philosophy and alternative lifestyles ...... Makes me sad again that I missed the concert they were supposed to have here last Friday which got cancelled. I do hope they tour soon.

Hi Steve~~ I'm not sure if this is the right place to post. These are not really mysteries but a couple of questions I've had for some time which I'm sure you or one of the good folks here can answer. 1) Do you know if Jimmy or John Paul can play any of the Chinese string instruments, such as the erhu, pipa or guqin? traditional Chinese string instruments 2) Have any of the guys had formal training, music/voice lessons, either pre- or post- Zep? I imagine this has been discussed here before. Nice thread BTW. Or in the case of the Paul Reeves shirt post above, I should say Nice threads.

a toast to Peter Noone, gan bei!

I saw that last night, the first time I've ever watched anything on the Comedy channel. It was hilarious and the guys looked like they were having lots of fun. Cracked me up when Neal said "I don't want to see that end up on eBay" after they all autographed Colbert's hand.

I'm very impressed alwizard, you have so many great concert memories. Showing my age here, but don't you agree that it used to be much more fun collecting these ticket stubs? Each one is unique, they make for some colorful pages in scrapbooks (which I don't dare try to take mine out, they would rip to shreds ) Nowadays I just print them all out from Ticketbastard.....all the same putrid orange, the only difference is the bar code.

Thank God for brothers. My 2 older brothers both got LZ1 when it came out; the oldest was into the 4 Seasons, Association and stuff at the time and didn't notice that I "permanently borrowed" his album. Of course I loved it, could never get enough of it, and could never choose a favorite song as that changed on a daily basis. Today I would say that it was Communication Breakdown that made a LZ fanatic of me. Over the next few years I proceeded to steal their copies of 2, 3, 4, HOH, etc (mostly on cassettes) It wasn't until Physical Graffitti came out and I was away at college that I bought my own.

I saw Rush in Reno the weekend before last (thanks to members here who encouraged me to go ). And I was BLOWN AWAYYYYY, it was one of the best concerts I have ever been too. I even had a little epiphany towards the end. Feeling the pounding bass coursing through my veins for 3 hrs (we had great seats right up close to Geddy), I thought "this feels like being in the womb again, hearing the constant reassuring beat of my mother's heart" and I felt like, YES! this is my natural environment, this is where I belong, in this room with the fantastic sounds of Rush. Here's a couple of pics to give you an idea of our seat location: Geddy with "the newest member of the band, My Little Friend" And here's one taken from the screen that makes me feel all warm & bubbly inside:

That reminds me of a heated discussion I got into with my mother once. She was always picking up coins and when I told her that I never do that she lashed into me, lecturing me on the value of a penny and insinuating that I'm all uppity & think I'm too good for that penny or nickel or dime lying on the sidewalk. Even when I explained that perhaps I was doing the generous thing by leaving it there for the next person who might need it more than I do, she still thought I was in the wrong. Mother/daughter relationships are a complex thing, I tell ya. good one Al I don't know about the Mirage but at most public fountains the money collected is donated to a charity.

I like all these suggestions. Mine's not so clever, I just think he's singing "oh marching in" with the accent on 2nd syllable, as "oh mar-CHING in". I'd say it's "take my body home".

Don't know if we're allowed to post links to other zep sites. Guess I'll get my answer if this one gets yanked . Anyway, here's the one with Plantations: http://www.rambleonzep.com/

Him?? I can't see anything but bright colors, what is it? Roh-roh, it get's worse, sorry. I pictured you as some ultra-conservative in a white button-down. Don't know where I got that, it's not how you come across. Maybe I knew a Joel who looked like that somewhere in time. Or maybe you posted some random picture at one time and it just stuck in my head. Like Rock Action will always be his avatar in my mind even though he's shared his own photo now......thanks RA!

Nice pics everyone; the ones zoso13zeppelin made are really cool. Is that really you Joelmon? Seriously and for real????? All this time I've had a polar opposite mental image of you.....short dark hair, tall and on the hefty side, etc. Funny how we conjour up these pictures based on how someone writes. Well, it was a pleasant surprise, love the long hair!