Peter Cetera
Theatre at Westbury
June 23

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkZMJqpgG1f/

A couple years back, I saw that the band Chicago was going to play a free show in Coney Island.  I was like, great!  Chicago!  Coney Island!!  They play that ‘25 or 6 to 4‘ song that has one of the greatest bass-lines EVER!!!!  And so I did what I normally do and prepped the crap out of myself to know all the songs that they were possibly gonna play.  And oh man – what songs!  I knew like zillions of them!!!  But then disaster struck!  The wife got sick and we couldn’t go!!  And then I realized something even worse – Chicago doesn’t even have Peter Cetera in the band anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!  WHAT THE FCUK IS UP WITH THAT!!!!!

But wait, Chicago was going to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the 2016 ceremony was going to be at the Barclays Center!!!  Surely Pete and the boys could mend fences and come together for one night (The Talking Heads once did for the Hall!), right???  Apparently not, but I went anyways and Chicago with fake Peter Cetera still fcuking RAWKKKKED it!!!  But still, Chicago without Peter Cetera is like New York without douchebag Yankee fans – INCONCEIVABLE!!! 

And so I had a mission – see Peter Cetera live and HEAR the true voice of Chicago!  AND SO I DID!!!  FINALLLY!!!!

And after all that’s been said and done, Peter’s voice is just the part of me I can’t let go, cause

PETER CETERA IS FCUKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He still has got THAT voice, and THAT awesome hair, but who knew he had such biting humor!  And who knew that his Karate Kid II theme was a rejected theme for Rocky IV?????  SCREW YOU ROCKY IV!!!  YOU MISSED THE BOAT!!!

AND I WILL NEVER EVER MISS THE S.S. PETER CETERA BOAT EVER AGAIN – WHICH ENDLESSLY SETS SAIL FOR ENDLESS AWESOMENESS, ENDLESSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but if I could ask for one thing Peter – for next time – can you bring a horn section on tour with you?

Setlist – Save Me / Restless Heart / Baby, What a Big Surprise / After All (Cher cover) / Love Me Tomorrow / One Good Woman / Glory of Love / Stay the Night / If You Leave Me Now / You’re the Inspiration / Even a Fool Can See / Oh! Darling (Beatles cover) / Come Together (The Beatles cover) / The Next Time I Fall / Hard Habit to Break / Hard to Say I’m Sorry/Get Away

Encore – Feelin’ Stronger Every Day / 25 or 6 to 4

‘Found this great pic from my “Olivia Newton John” phase! Holy Moly!’

ps – I love Peter’s pics and comments on his website

Harry Styles
Madison Square Garden
June 21

Never had any coordinates set for One Direction, but my heart’s compass always pointed toward Harry Styles.  Not sure why.  I’m not a modern day boy band kinda boy, and yet I gravitate towards Harry and his… hair.  And then I saw him in Dunkirk, and was like, oh, this heartthrob is no dumbykirk – and oh, man, that hair!  And then I saw he was coming to Madison Square Garden and you can sit behind the stage for the price of 3 movie admissions and was like, well, why the hell not?  It would be like seeing the Beatles (sorta not really)!  It could be like an anthropology observation with today’s youth!!  

And so I binged his solo album over the last couple of weeks, and was ready to rock, but would Harry be ready to roll?  OH HECK YEAH HE WAS!!!  And I had never heard MSG louder in all my MSG going life!  Sure, I was probably the only straight man there over 40 AND without a daughter in the audience, but the girls’ ear-shattering shrieks at his every shimmy and shake were certainly warranted (and I may have even shrieked a bit meself)

Harry, may you nevers go out of Styles!

Setlist – Only Angel / Woman / Ever Since New York / Two Ghosts / Carolina / Stockholm Syndrome / Just a Little Bit of Your Heart (Ariana Grande cover) / Medicine / Meet Me in the Hallway / Sweet Creature / If I Could Fly / Anna / What Makes You Beautiful / Sign of the Times

Encore – From the Dining Table / The Chain (Fleetwood Mac cover) / Kiwi

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkVCHRYhcv0/

main gate of the Central Zoo in Pyongyang

Kinder in einem Feriendorf by Martin Munkácsi, 1929

belated, but beloveded…

no offense to Gal Gadot, but

Bella Heathcote is MY Wonder Woman