Before I could leave for lunch today, Katie insisted that I turn on Rock Band and sing "Eight Days A Week" for her. I may have created a monster.

In a good way. :)

Rock Band: Beatles for the Wii arrived just before we left for ConClave. I carefully did not open it on Monday, because the cleaning lady was coming on Tuesday and increasing the amount of mess around seemed counter-productive.

Tonight, I set it up and we gave it a try. Katie is interested in the drums and guitar, but we have to get her to actually pay attention to the game long enough to do something.

Of course, she's not three yet. :)

Last night was the second of the two scheduled Elton John / Billy Joel concerts at Wrigley Field. It was fairly clear that I saw a different concert than the Tribune reviewer did. Or maybe I just like Billy Joel better than he does. I certainly appreciated Joel introducing the various members of the band.

And when it comes down to it, I simply like Joel's music better than John's. Not that there's anything wrong with either of them, it's simply a matter of personal taste. And when Billy Joel sings a song like "Allentown", I'm reminded that my grandfather was a coal miner all his life until he lost an eye to a continuous mining machine that threw a piece of rock and that my father, despite spending twenty years in the Air Force, was a coal miner both before and after that, although a member of management the second time around.

In any case, I'm glad I was able to hear them both.

daisy_knotwise and I are going down to Wrigley Field with samwinolj and Bonnie for tonight's Billy Joel / Elton John concert.

This should be fun.

Loud, but fun. I think I'll go look for the earplugs. :)

daisy_knotwise was driving through Bensenville yesterday and saw a sign indicating that their "Music in the Park" program was starting up again this Wednesday. When she checked the schedule, she saw that the first act scheduled was one of her old Chicagoland favorites, The Ides of March. And I agreed that we should try to go if the weather was reasonable.

So the forecast for today, as of yesterday, was for cold, miserable, and rainy.

What we got was slightly cool and clear. Thus, we bundled up the girls and headed to the concert. Things went moderately well, except for Katie spilling some tea on her shirt, which caused her to remove it. She rejected all substitutes, and ended up shirtless for the rest of the night. Later, she removed both socks and shoes.

At least she kept her pants on.

But she danced to the first few songs, which was great fun to watch. And Julie bopped along nicely to the music when I picked her up and put her in my lap so she could see the stage.

Eventually, though, Katie and Julie had had enough. We started packing up and were heading for the figurative exit just as they started their last song, Vehicle, so we got to listen to that on our way out.

All things considered, a moderately successful music venture.

Next time, I'm feeding Katie fewer Cheetos. :)

daisy_knotwise, Katie, Julie, and I are off to Bensenville for the last of their free outdoor concerts for this year. This one features yet another Chicago-area 60s band, The Cryan' Shames.

Now, if we can just avoid having it rain on us...

Update: Well, we couldn't. Gretchen and I might have stuck it out, but with two small kids that seemed foolish. Ah, well.

My local classic rock station, WDRV, is currently playing 2000 songs from their playlist in order from A to Z. They started yesterday, so they're just finishing the Bs now.

Did I mention that they've got streaming audio on their website? :)

One of the dangers of being a guitarist with a recording studio in the basement is that you're always looking for new and interesting ways to make sounds without having to learn an entirely new instrument. This occasionally leads to severe cases of keyboardist envy, given the ways that modern synthesizers can do a pretty good to excellent job of mimicing other instruments in the hands of the well-trained keyboard player.

In pursuit of this, I acquired my Godin Multiac Jazz and Roland guitar synthesizer, having been alerted to this combination by that amazingly talented victim of GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome), min0taur. I haven't yet had a chance to spend a lot of time exploring the beast, because of the birth of Katie and the subsequent death of two of the ligaments in my knee. I did get to spend enough time playing it to determine that the combination was cool and that when I played this guitar -- as opposed to the Les Paul that I'd traded for it -- the notes that came out actually sounded like me, instead of someone who was completely clueless trying to figure out what to do with an electric guitar. ;)

In similar fashion, Barry's experiments with a pieced-together acoustic baritone guitar led me to have Frankenbass, the electric baritone, assembled from a Fender Telecaster body and a fine Warmoth baritone guitar neck. This turned out to be an eminently successful experiment that even made its way onto catalana's recent album.

Yesterday, though, I tripped over a new instrument that I had never seen before. Perhaps Barry has, but -- if not! -- I'm happy to return the favor to him.

Behold! The six-string banjo.

Fitted with a guitar neck, strung like a guitar, tuned like a guitar, played (more or less) like a guitar. Sounds (more or less) like a banjo.

I really didn't need to know this. :)

I was supposed to go down to the Loop today and tomorrow for a series of important meetings with the VP in charge of our group. Unfortunately, the VP was kept in California for some yet more important meetings there, so I'm out in Westchester today. Tomorrow, I'll head into the Loop for the previously scheduled group lunch and to explain to the folks there what the new data structure that I'm building will do for them -- and how it's not there to do to them. :)

The Buona Beef where I usually eat lunch was still closed as a result of Monday night's storms and the resulting power outage. Having eaten at Arby's yesterday, I decided to strike out to somewhere different and walked about a mile south to 31st St where I found a strip mall hot dog stand with a decent BBQ beef sandwich. The walk was probably better for me than the sandwich.

The good news about the cancelled meeting is that it means that I don't have to hassle in trying to get out to Bensenville to meet daisy_knotwise for tonight's Association concert. They're one of Gretchen's favorite bands and I'm certainly fond of them too. We are curious about who's still Associating after all these years, but I'm sure we'll find out tonight. And since Gretchen knows the names of all of the original members, she'll be able to keep me well informed.

This is one of the most recognizable chords in modern music. But do you know what chord it actually is?

This fellow thinks he's successfully sussed out the secret of A Hard Day's Night.

I have discovered today that if Katie is crying, I can get her to quiet down by singing The Carpenters Sing to her.

If you're interested in hearing the Beatles remix that was done for Love, the new Cirque du Soleil show, you can do so by going here and registering with your e-mail address -- at least, for the moment. It's authorized...

And Kathleen seems to like it. Good. :)

I'm going to make an analogy here that may get a bit strained by the end, but let's see where it takes us.
( And away we go... )

daisy_knotwise and I were listening to the Rock and Roll Roots radio program on WDRV last week when they played the Mamas and the Papas song, I Saw Her Again Last Night, written by John Phillips about the affair between his wife, Michelle, and bandmate, Denny Doherty. I can only imagine the personal dynamics involved in, "Here, Denny. Sing this!"

Later, of course, Fleetwood Mac produced The Chain under similar circumstances.

So, how many mixed gender bands have produced songs about one or more bandmembers behaving badly with other members of the band?

Courtesy of the good offices of one of my co-workers (who pushed buttons for me while I was in a meeting), I now have four tickets to the Paul McCartney concert at the United Center on October 18th. Better yet, they're even good tickets. Not cheap, mind you...

So I was listening to Bob Stroud's excellent "Rock and Roll Roots" radio program this morning (which you can catch on streaming radio at WDRV from 9-12 on Sunday morning) and he was doing a salute to the Lovin' Spoonful. At number three on his countdown was a song which he noted was under two minutes long: "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?"

Now, I really like that song and I always kind of regret it when it's over and wish that it had been a little longer. And then I realized that this is another valuable lesson for writers of filk (or music in general for that matter).

They had said everything that they needed to say. They had said it in an amusing and witty way. And then they had stopped, leaving the audience wanting more instead of manufacturing more verses of lower quality.

Brevity. What a concept!

Well, yes, it is, but that's not what I came here to talk about. I came here to talk about the Beatles.

I was flipping around on my car radio last night on the way home from a friend's house and came across a show of rock-related Christmas music on one of the stations. Apparently, the Beatles used to record albums specifically for their fan club and send them out around Christmas. Usually, they covered other Christmas songs on these albums. Once, they didn't.

And the result was the truly stultifying "Christmas Time Is Here Again", which does not quite set the record for minimal and banal lyrics, but gets frighteningly close. I can only conclude that this is one of those things that's only really interesting if you are stoned out of your mind. Possibly not then. And it goes on for what seems to be forever. I didn't actually time it, mind you, but "forever" was the definite impression that Gretchen and I had of how long the song was continuing.

At this point, I'm sure that some of you -- who have been fortunate enough to avoid ever hearing this sad beastie -- are being skeptical about the whole thing. But through the magic of the Internet, there are numerous web sites that will allow you to see the lyrics. One of them is here:

You've Been Warned