email at 47west63rd@gmail.com
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
AC DC Wilkes Barre 10 28 2008 Tour Opener Set List
Hell Ain't a Bad Place
Back In Black
Big Jack
Dirty deeds
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack
Hells Bells
War Machine
Anything Goes
You Shook Me
TNT
Rosie
Let There Be Rock
encore
Highway To Hell
For Those About To Rock
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Black Crowes- Notes from last nights concert October 25 2008 930 Club
are they trying to turn into a jam band? maybe they are already there? that shit was boring...preferred their show at wolftrap a few months ago..
interesting they were allowing people outside to smoke..usually there is no reentry.. the cop presence was bordering on the obscene...i mean come on it was 1000 kids having a little fun on a saturday night..
all in all i got lucky that i got to hear three songs from southern harmony including remedy/sting me... also it was nice to hear the slightly cheezoid she talks to angels..of the three shows i definitely got to see the one with the best set list for me..
but overall this concert was a wankfest...too many boring long solos that went nowhere...really it was like watching a band with a split personality.. sometimes wanting to the grateful dead while at other times staying true to their original stones/faces vibe...we even had a really boring drums interlude...
at the show at wolftrap they had done far more channeling of the stones...also i got to say chris robinson looks like shit... get it together bro! stay off the hard stuff and eat more..
the Black Crowes October 25 930 Club Washington DC Set List
GOODBYE DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION
STING ME
GO TELL THE CONGREGATION
BALLAD IN URGENCY
WISER TIME
SHE TALKS TO ANGELS
POOR ELIJAH/ROBERT JOHNSON
COLD BOY SMILE
WHOA MULE
LAY IT ALL ON ME
WEE WHO SEE THE DEEP
THORN IN MY PRIDE
FEATHERS
REMEDY
WOUNDED BIRD
- encore -
DON’T DO IT
Monday, October 20, 2008
Crystal Ball Edition
I think the United States- and whatever else people disagree on I think there is a concensus on this- is going through a crisis in its political leadership product not just of Bush's incompetence but also a paralysis/gridlock in government product of an almost perfect democratic/republican split since 2000. Once Barack Obama is elected president I have to believe that we will see a boost in confidence on the part of americans. At this point however people are depressed and unhappy about the direction of the country- particularly the economy- and they are not spending and as you know when people here in consumerland stop spending everything grinds to a halt. There is also less spending because there is a contraction in credit with people, for example, finding it harder to get bank loans to buy cars...This is all compounded by a sizable drop in home values which is making everyone feel poorer...
However, we have not yet even began to see the full impact of this reduction in spending/contraction in credit work its way through the economy as it has really only been happening in full for the past couple of weeks.. Anecdotically - on the street- you hear a lot of "I am cutting down on my spending" and "I was going to but now because of the economic crisis.." when in reality there is still little direct impact on many Americans but this very cutback on the part of most americans is what is going to make sure that we do go into a deep recession with pain... This is going to come though particularly around the end of the holiday season and particularly the first quarter of 2009 (nice inauguration present for obama). I have to believe we will have retail numbers being announced for Christmas that will be abysmal and this will feed the pessimism- of course by this point Obama will have been elected with a clear mandate and this should counteract the pessimism somewhat- I would not be surprised to see some sort of active early transition or at least involvement of Obama's economic team....
Of course the government is trying to combat this drop in consumer confidence and spending by injecting as much liquid as it can but that too will take time to work its way through...
In as far as the longer term questions of how the US gets its financial house in order I have to believe we are heading -eventually- for a reduction of defense spending..There is also concensus about the need to move up the retirement age (to improve the social security segment of the budget) but we will have to see if that can be done).. But we are essentially heading towards the end of the American "Empire".. Pat Buchanan- who for every strange idea has many more with common sense- just wrote a column about how the US can no longer afford its empire... Too much of the government spending cannot or will not be cut leaving defense as the necessary source of cuts.. I think America's creditors and the international financial community are going to want to see some seriousness on the part of Obama because they are becoming worried about the mess that has developed and this fantasyland debate about lowering everyone's taxes along with increasing government expenditure on bailouts etc has to be scaring them a bit..
Having said all that, I am optimistic that once Obama wins he will be able to provide people with some confidence that they have a government.. the problem currently is that there is no real government.. Bush is pretty much absent and there is no confidence in him or his administration - or their policies- so we are waiting on standby for the new president while we debate whether Obama is a socialist, terrorist, or what....I think the fact that the democrats will have control in both houses of congress means he should be able to take the necessary steps and more importantly perhaps give people the impression that somebody is in charge at the helm and is steering the ship... I also expect Obama to appoint a team of very competent, trusted, and experimented people to run the economy and signal Wall Street to get on board.. I am thinking of people who already proved their bonafides under Clinton (Rubin, etc..).
There is a lot of doom and gloom around here but I continue to think that the US economy is very dynamic and that the necessary adjustments will be made... There will be a period of time until the recession fully takes hold and then there will be an additional period of time until the measures taken by government work themselves through the economy but in the end I just don't see this being anything on the order of what is being talked about (i.e., a new "great depression", etc.).
Obviously there are real problems with the mortgages, the deficits, etc.. but ultimately I think this is more about a lack of trust on the part of Americans and US creditors..It is that lack of confidence that is the biggest problem and as Alsogaray would have said we need a "shock"!
These are my scattered thoughts but I remain optimistic for the medium term and although the challenges are sizable I wouldn't bet against the United States just yet.....No doubt my optimism is to a large extent influenced by my belief that Obama is going to win the presidency..
Sunday, October 19, 2008
number of argentines leaving argentina doubled in 2007
The Wailers (with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) Catch A Fire LP
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Nick Cave 9:30 Club October 5 2008 Washington DC concert review
Nick Cave October 5 Washington DC 9:30 Club set list
2. Dig, Lazarus, Dig
3. Tupelo
4. Weeping Song
5. Red Right Hand
6. Mignight Man
7. Love Letter
8. Hold On To Your Love
9. Moonland
10. The Mercy Seat
11. Deanna
12. Hard On For Love
13. We Call Upon the Author
14. Papa Won't Leave You Henry
15. Into My Arms
16. Get Ready for Love
17. The Lyre of Orpheus
18. Stagger Lee
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Letter to David Broder who is in the tank for John McCain
Saturday, September 27, 2008
A great man has passed on.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Pinetop Perkins picture September 15 2008 Kennedy Center Washington DC
Fascinating performance on many levels.. first of all when was the last time you've seen a 95 year old man rocking a dance party?! ANd not just any man but the man who played the piano for Muddy Waters and gigged with people like the original Sonny Boy Williamson! One of the last living -and performing- links to the early days of the blues. He played for about 30 minutes backed by local rock and roll band the Nighthawks and went through some standards (How Long Blues), a song or two of his own and Muddy's Got My Mojo Workin' which he must have played hundreds of times as part of Muddy's band in the 1960s...Oh yeah and he was sporting a pretty snazzy red outfit from the hat down to the shoes! I hear Pinetop makes his home in the DC area and it was truly an honor..This particular event formed part of a Dance series at the kennedy center (millenium stage event) so some people were dancing directly in front of Pinetop and the Nighthhawks... oh yah kudos to the nighthawks -who opened with apparently previously Chuck Berry pianoman Darryl Evans- for playing Chuck Berry's Thirty Days..
Thursday, September 11, 2008
the Silver Jews September 10 2008 the Black Cat Washington DC pictures
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Are we seriously discussing "lipstick on a pig"?
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Julieta Venegas concert Kennedy Center Washington DC September 9 2008 pictures
Very entertaining (and free) concert... she played about 18 songs with a great big band including string and wind sections.. one of her last songs was one of my alltime favorites: Andres Calamaro's (with Los Rodriguez) "Sin Documentos"...I'd like to the thank Mexico's government for sponsoring this concert through its tourism office although i got to believe there are better things for them to do than pay for a free concert for largely well off mexican ex pats living in DC!
Monday, September 08, 2008
Election bulletin: panic setting in among democrats....
"Helpful"
Notice what is missing in this story:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton marched for labor and stumped with Democrats on Saturday, but sidestepped questions about the woman who has taken her place as the nation's most-talked-about female leader.
Clinton brushed aside questions about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin during appearances at New York City's annual Labor Day parade and later during a stop on Staten Island.
"This election is about issues, and that's what's going to matter to people at the end of the day," she told reporters who asked her about the Alaska governor at a rally for a Democratic congressional candidate at Wagner College.
There was a brief "no way, no how, no McCain, no Palin" comment later on, but it is perfectly clear that Hillary Clinton is not taking Sarah Palin on. And since the Obama campaign desperately wants to take Sarah Palin on and would be benefited by having someone like Hillary Clinton do the taking on--for all of the obvious reasons--one can assume that Hillary Clinton is not exactly being helpful.
It isn't hard for her to be helpful. All she has to do is say something like "we all want women to crack the political glass ceiling and reach the highest political offices in the land, but we don't want just any woman to do that. Rather, we want a woman whose values are commensurate with ours." And then, a segue can be made into a discussion of issues that supposedly matter to women and how Sarah Palin supposedly is bad on those issues.
But of course, that is not happening. Instead, Hillary Clinton is barely mentioning Sarah Palin while the latter is hammering at Barack Obama so effectively that Hillary Clinton can be excused for feeling wistful.
Think maybe that she does not want Obama to win? So do I. I wonder if from time to time, David Axelrod or David Plouffe meet with their counterparts from the Clinton campaign to discuss how best to unify. And I wonder if they bring food and drink tasters with them when they do.
They ought to, at any rate.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Washington Nationals PA Announcer admits "I think Teddy got cheated!" in Presidents Race September 2 2008
Get well Jesus Flores (Washington Nationals catcher)
So I was there last night to see my favorite Nat and their best player this season (yes I'm talking to you Mr. Underperformer Ryan Zimmermann) taken out at the plate by Chase Utley trying to steal home. Horrible.... he had to be carted away in the truck... All I can say Jesus is I much appreciate your great work for the Nats this year and hope the injury is not as bad as it looked and that you get well soon!
Album of the Month: GAL COSTA's "GAL COSTA" 1969 psychedelic freakout
Boy I've been listening nonstop to this...I've owned it before (on CD) but now having it on LP it feels like a totally different experience.. certainly I'd never had it in MONO or with the cool Caetano Veloso penned insert notes... Of all the tropicalia albums and that includes Os Mutantes, Caetano, Jorge Ben etc this one has to be the most freaked out psych fest of them all... The bass is fat throughout..the guitar is wah wah-y, there's incredible songs from Gil, Caetano, Capinam (mr. soy loco por ti america), Jorge Ben etc... there's vocal contributions and probably arrangements too from Caetano and Gil who are all over this album.. there are Rogerio Duprat's wonderful arrangements and above all there is Gal Costa cut loose and wailing away at times in a primal scream Yoko Ono-ish manner while at other times she's as sweet as a lamb.. The cover art is also just the most...