August and Everything After - Live at Town Hall by The Counting Crows

Adam Duritz and The Counting Crows have turned their first album into a cottage industry. The album which launched them is a wonderful album, one they admittedly never come close to matching in depth and meaning. A couple of years ago they rereleased album with many additional songs from the sessions that did not make the original. These songs too were very good, and strong but the Crows music is often polarizing. Not alot of people who are in between on their music.

I am surely in the Counting Crows camp as I love the music. Yesterday Amazon informed that they have now released a live performance of their original album performed recently. Of course Springsteen started this area with his performances of some of his classic albums on his most recent tour.

I have several live Crows albums and Duritz shines in these moments. So with a sense of what new can they offer in another live album of this material I listened. In short it is a great album. No there is no revalation. There is nothing new. The band clearly loves this material, Duritz was in great form offering many great stories and lead ins to songs. The intro to Sullivan Street is funny but the gem of the album is the extended Rain King with a full version of a funky Thunder Road in the middle. I have heard this before but did not have a recording of it. Round Here, Mr. Jones and Murder of One are highlights as expected with Murder of One with a few brief lines of U2's Red Hill Mining Town.

A great album, one wanting to know what the Counting Crows and their diehard fans connect on would be well to start here.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

I have read this book over the last couple of months and finished this book today. Another of the books often assigned in school, though not to me, I was not sure what this book would be. Knowing of course it is as a tale of the Civil War I did not know much more.

In short this is a wonderful book. Crane's prose is wonderful. His use of the language and phrasing is done beautifully. In the story a young man, a boy really has joined the Northern troops. We follow him as his regiment goes into battle and out. We watch him witness horrors that keep a man from sleeping.

We see him struggle with cowardice and his descent into rage as a soldier feeling unbreakable and taking great risk.

In the end the young man has overcome a transformation and though the war is not over the battle is and he can see a future filled with tranquility. Perhaps not just a war book but a metaphor that if we all go bravely into the storm we will come out the otherside with a sense of appreciation of all that is in a quiet life.

A great book.

Little Fockers

On a rainy Sunday afternoon during Hurricane Irene somehow this movie had found its way to the top of our Netflix list. I enjoyed the first movie in the series, thought it was a funny concept and Robert DeNiro is always good. The second movie was entertaining but weaker. The interplay berwwn DeNiro and Hoffman was very good.

This movie was abysmal. The humor in many cases is juvenile with two many sex jokes and viagra references. Ben Stiller is fine, Deniro is over the top while Hoffman and especially Barbara Streisand are just annoying. This is not a good movie.

Best by Robert Earl Keen

I have found a new artist that goes to the Top 10. Of course my Top 10 has many more than ten artists in it. I have heard references to Robert Earl Keen in live recordings by that other Texas troubadour James McMurtry and around Christmas each year we hear a few plays of " Merry Christmas From the Family."

With Spotify I put his name in and about twenty choices come up, one thing becomes quickly apparent is that Mr. Keen likes live albums as he has recorded several. It never ceases to amaze that so many artists are just below the surface, never quite breaking out into wide ranging commercial success but do carve out a niche for themselves. The work is finding these artists. Once found one feels like he has found a nugget of gold in sea of sand. Robert Earl Keen is that gold.

If not exposed to his music the album Best is a natural place to start. No Kinda Dancer perhaps his oldest hit, first recorded in 1984, is soon followed by Paint the Town Beige. The latter tells of a middle aged man who still wants to be wild but allowing for age and changing circumstances changes the result of his efforts from red to beige. An analogy we of middle age can all understand. Whenever Kindness Fails offers that violence will be brought if one does not accept kindness. Corpus Christi Bay is a story song that works fully. The aforementioned Merry Christmas From the Family is a funloving expression of a lowbrow Christmas recorded live with the crowd joining in on several lines. Gringo Honeymoon continues the success as another great song.

The triumverate for Keen fans however is begun with The Road Goes on Forever told in this case with an intro about free love days, a concert, a girl and meeting Willie Nelson. Feeling Good Again continues the mood and the album ends with the always must be performed in concert I'm Coming Home.

I have not found a bad song in his entire catalogue though there are several what might be called novelty songs such as " That Bucking Song." A gem not on the best album is Drunken Selfish Crime.

I suspect that the fanbase of Robert Earl Keen is an all or nothing thing, not a lot of middle ground. I confess I am not in the middle, this fellow is great. I will listen to it all.

Watch the Throne by Jay Z and Kanye West

After having reviewed the single " Otis " which was and is my favorite song of the moment I took advantage of Spotify and listened to the whole album this evening as I watched the ballgame on mute.

I am no expert on rap but this is accessible for anyone. Kanye West makes good rhymes and Jay Z gives the album credibility in rap circles. The sampling on this album connects old and new. Who Gon Stop Me and Why I Love You are catchy and synthed up. More notable are Murder to Excellence and Made in America which are songs that both say more than most comparable songs. I suppose a backlash is possible saying that West and Jay Z are pretentious in thinking they can write better on this subject than most..but they do combine rap sensibilities, with musical genres wide and lyrics that are literate and snappy.

I just know what I like. I would buy this album even if I do not know what all the lyrics mean. Otis, Made in America, and Murder to Excellence are three of the best songs you will hear this year from any genre

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Having read Hamlet and having started Shakespeare's histories I read thru MacBeth the other night. I enjoyed it but did not find that I cared for it like I did Hamlet. Another tragedy we learn of Macbeth who in visiting a witch, who tells fortunes, that he will become not just advanced in his career but eventually King he changes course on what had been an honorable life and sets out to make that happen.

Of course as with all future telling the question is does the fortune teller know he will murder to make it happen or had he not murdered would it still have happened. That is in knowing the future does he hasten in an unnceccesary way. After having killed the King and set the plot so that his sons will be blamed he then moves on to kill Banqueo who knows his deed.

A sense of invincibility takes over MacBeth as his soothsayer witch now tells him that no man born of a woman can kill him. Taking this to heart he fears nothing and when MacDuff whose family MacBeth has had set upon and killed returns to take revenge he has no fear. As they spar MacDuff tells MacBeth that he was not born but ripped out of his mother due to a problematic childbirth. The prophesy no longer protecting him MacBeth falls to the sword and dies.

A good story, an entertaining one and still proving the point that despite the language interpretation we may have the stories hold well and the messages are universal. Greed and power hunger comes across the centuries. It has not changed.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

We have all heard the expression of Heart of Darkness and many of us have heard some take on the phrase " the horror." Many of us do not know that the phrase itself comes from one of the darker characters in literature, Kurtz, in this Conrad classic. Telling the tale of a steamer captain sent into the depths of black Africa to find and if need be retrieve an ivory hunter named Kurtz.

Kurtz has gone around the bend, mad with isolation. Much of the story in 2011 might be considered objectionable. The depiction of the natives of Africa is not complimentary. The book ends on the note Heart of Darkness, Kurtz dies telling of the horror, and when his love is visited by the narrator after his return to England. She wants to know the last word Kurtz spoke. Showing his humanity and breaking his pledge he tells her that his last words were of her. She knew that to be the case and in the end the pledge to be truthful means less than his desire to not be part of the horror.

This book is hard to write about, in truth not a great deal happens. Still it is worth knowing and reading. This book, even today, has merit.

The Switch

Rented this movie on Netflix about two weeks ago. It was one my wife picked out that we were going to be watching together but that I planned to multitask during.

In this movie Jennifer Anniston and Jason Bateman are long time friends. Having dated long ago they are now great friends and share all including commiserating about how awful dating is. Nothing original here thus far as When Harry Met Sally mined this territory years ago. Thoug if Jen also had a Big O scene it would be worth watching.

Anniston decides she wants a baby and cannot wait for a man. She gets some sperm who comes to her house to give her the sperm fresh...does this happen?.. and leaves it in a cup in the bathroom. While this is going on her girlfriends are throwing a party for her and Bateman's character realizing he is jealous and has feelings for the inseminated to be gets drunk. When in the bathroom he makes a switch of the contents of the cup.

The second half of the movie is better, highlighted by the little boy who plays the product of this switch. The truth comes to light, trouble ensues. Not a great movie, I am not even sure it was a good one. I did put down my book though and watch the second half pretty intently for whatever that is worth

Otis by Jay Z and Kanye West

I am not a rap music fan. I do however have an appreciation for it that is more than I ever thought it would be. I think Eminem is talented and Lil Wayne is vulgar, rude and mysoginistic. He is also however incredibly good at turning a hook.

Jay Z has become for all intents and purposes an elder statesman, a Godfathr if you will of rap. A media darling with his recent biography and of course his marriage to Beyonce he can really do no wrong these days.

His most recent album, a collaberation with Kanye West has been for many " the most anticpated release of the summer. " Far from that for me but with the help of my new favorite music item in the world, Spotify, I have been listening to all kinds of new music. It really is like a jukebox of all the music you can think of.

Having just listened to a couple of the songs thus far I can tell you the album is intelligent and interesting. This blog however is about the song Otis. Rap music is often about the sample that is used in the song. In this song Otis Redding is the third memeber of the band, sampled widely and throughout the entire song. The result is audacious and bold and superior to anything on the rap spectrum I have heard this year. I do not pretend to be a connisuer of rap music but I know what I like. This song rocks.

My Morning Jacket Live in Bangor ( Update)

When reviewing the MMJ show that took place last weekend I commented on the set list and how several songs expected were not heard. As we were in the park outside we did not hear James make an announcement that the bands drummer had got shellfish poisioning earlier in the day and was not able to play.

That said MMJ decided to still play but changed to a full accoustic set, something James said they had never done.

Many bands would have cancelled and MMJ should be commended for playing.

Bob Dylan/Leon Russell at the Waterfront in Bangor, Maine

I took my son to see Bob Dylan last night. I went with diminished expectations as to how the show would be. Dylan's voice has suffered in the last couple of years after all. Still I wanted to see him one more time and my sixteen year old son surely wanted to be able to say he had seen him.

Leon Russell was the opening act. Russell's career has had a resurgence since Elton John, classifying him as one of his early heroes and mentors, brought Russell into do an album with him. Russell had a very good band. Aided by a cane he walked very slowly to his piano from which he did not move until the show was over. Struggle as he might with mobility Russell still rocks the keys. His voice is raspy and one could struggle to understand each word but fans at a Dylan show would be a rare set to complain about that. Russell played some of his hits such as Delta Lady and A Song For You. Russell's band was great. They rocked and the show was truly very entertaining. Russell's take on Wild Horses had a very neat arrangement and his cover of The Beatles I've Just Seen a Face was great. This was a man with great talent that I would go see again...without Dylan. A great intro act

So with limited expectations we waited for Bob Dylan to take the stage. Opening with Rainy Day Women the crowd was rollicking right away. What became noticeable to me right away was Bob seemed happy. He was spitting the words out with sharpness at the end of each verse. He seemed to be having fun. The song rocked. Three songs later the opening notes of Tangled Up in Blue were heard and Bob having now left the keyboard was center stage telling us the ballad. People say that song is never the same twice in concert and I believe it as Dylan plays some verses and others not on any given last night. Last night we did not hear about how uncomfortable he was when she bent down to tie the laces of his shoes but the song was still great. Dylan's voice has gotten raspier but the truth is he was as understandable as I have ever seen him and his singing had a bite to it.

Later on A Simple Twist of Fate Dylan was at his best with the band tight as can be. When the harmonica came out Dylan fans reeled and rightly so. This seventy year old man still plays the harmonica with the vitality of a much younger man. Songs such as Things Have Changed and Mississippi had Dylan had his story telling best.

Dylan brought out Don't Think Twice early in the show and did a great job. Late in the set the highlight of the night for me, unexpectedly so, was Ballad of a Thin Man. The sound set up in such a way to make Dylan's words echo he sang with a snarl and bite, spitting out the lyrics about Mr. Jones.

Listening to The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll my son asked who was William Zanzinger. I told him to look it up when he got home as Dylan put a nice arrangement on this classic song.

Bob came back for an encore with Like A Rolling Stone which was good but as my son said not the arrangement he expected and perhaps was the only disapointment of the night but he quickly corrected that with a blistering All Along the Watchtower with Charlie Sexton playing his guitar into submission on the solos.

Inevitably for my son the highlight was Highway 61 which is his favorite Dylan song. From a very young age, perhaps 7 or 8 he could sing the whole first verse and would do so to the dismay of his Mother. Mom did not think singing about Abraham having to run when he saw God was such a great idea. Still hearing Dylan sing it was quite a moment for him. Dylan showed great energy here and all night, drawling out and echoing SIXTY ONE off the waterfront at the end of each verse.

After Watchtower Bob and the whole band came out front and standing arm in arm seemed happy and as if they could play longer. The crowd waited a bit as the lights stayed down, wondering if he would play another encore. Having seen his set lists from previous stops on the tour I did not expect it but as I told my son one never knows, the tour is ending he seemed to be having fun.

Of course he did not, as John Updike said in his story about Ted Williams Gods do not answer letters.

Still this was a great night and a great show. Thanks Bob.

The Call by Yannick Murphy

Over the last few years my penchant for reading fiction has diminished greatly. I enjoy history and biography and find that it really is rare for a novel to grab my attention.

I came across this book after reading a blurb on it in a national magazine. Already in paperback I found it quite easily at the library and have found it to be the rare fiction book. This was for me a great book. I currently am reading at least ten different books and am usually pretty strict about alternating. Over the two days I read this however this book was the book I was reading.

The book is simple telling about a large animal vet in a rural town in the mountains. I feel like it is New England but I am not sure if it is ever spelled out. The book has a pace that is unique in that the whole story is told relating to his vet calls and other assorted daily functions. Hence the name The Call.

An accident befells the vet's son and he struggles with how to cope with it. In the end we see him struggle and deal with his anger, we see his family put back together, we see him make a sacrifice and we see his previously injured son give him a lecture on what he would as his son would like to be able to say about his father with pride.

This is as good a novel as I have read in years. Wonderful.

Of Thee I Zing by Laura Ingraham

We all make observations on the decline of the American culture. I see things everyday. Baggy pants, hats on backward, piercings and all these things that make me wonder about the next generation.

That said this book does reflect on the cultural decline in America. Some of her observations are dead on such as lack of manners, public cursing and others. However most of the observations are matters of opinion.She tells me for example, wearing my sandals form April to November is unacceptable. Worse yet are the observations that are crass and snobbish. Taking a shot at homeless people and saying they should just have a sign that says need beer.

It is shocking how many conservatives, who usually claim to own Jesus, forget his number one missive to love your neighbor.

I tell my children to be positive, i feel we should have a generous heart. I believe if you cannot say anything good perhaps you should not say anything.

50 pages in and this book is a toss it in te corner. I realize much was meant to be toungue in cheek. Still for me I have no use for the snarkiness in this book. Ingraham makes a point of saying what wuld our founding fathers think of America today. I love history, i read a ton of it and admore our forefathers greatly. One must realize what is best put by a comedian I forget the name of who says Jefferson might tell a kid to pull his pants up but what he would really want to know is why are all the Negroes ruuning around free and loose. In short our culture and society has changed one hundred times since their day.

Read a book about how to learn something, of fix something. These are just cheap, easy obervations designed by people who have an inate need to feel superior.

A terrible book.

Love Wins by Rob Bell

This book was one that certainly makes you think. The problem with theology books of any type is that like most things to do with religion everybody has their own take on what they think they read in the Bible.

I have loved the books of Gary Wills because Wills attempts to get to the true history of the Jesus movement and isolate what was said from what has been interpreted in later times.

Rob Bell is a fairly controversial preacher and his most recent book Love Wins will add to that. Simply put Bell offers an explanation of heaven and hell that is in direct disagreement with most fundamentalist views. Stating that heaven might well be on Earth in the future and offering many Bible phrases to back up his beliefs Bell makes a compelling case.

Of course he is just one man, and it seems that we will always have countless opinions about what happens next and the truth is, no matter your faith and the strength of it no one will know until they die. Sometimes I think reading the Bible is like the telephone game kids play. The message at the start is never the same at the end and no one really knows what the message at the beginning was supposed to be.

Still this book offers some unique insight and perhaps in it's most compelling way asks us about if the reason people turn away from God is that because the God they have been told about is not the God. A God that offers everlasting love and peace and then if you choose wrong sends you to hell for eternity. A vengeful God. A loving God. Bell questions whether the two fundamentalist visions of God can coexist.

This book is well worth the read.

Big Russ and Me by Tim Russert

Tim Russert's book about his relationship with and lessons learned from his father is a book that it is easy to enjoy. Russert was an extremely likable person and his affection for his father and his Buffalo roots shines through every page. We see Russert growing up in the fifties, coming of age in the sixties, and entering politics with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the seventies. Later in the eighties he joins NBC news and eventually becomes the host of Meet the Press. Always surprised by his success, saying he had a face for radio for example, Russert tells us of his strong faith from Catholic schools, his Jesuit education and later the thrill of meeting the Pope.

Of course reading the book now is bittersweet, when Russert died a couple of years ago it was a shock to his family, colleagues, friends and fans. Still this book serves as a paean to the life he and his father led and the roots of love and life passed onto his son Luke.

Reading this book makes you wish you personally knew Russert. The truth is most of us do. We know people who do the right thing, treat people the right way, and respect and revere their family and their roots. Russert is the famous person who you feel like you know. By being famous and being that person perhaps his best legacy is to teach us to be ourselves and be our best being ourselves.

And we will never forget the white erase board.

Men of a Certain Age Cancelled

I am not a television programmer. I like everyone know that there is alot of terrible television shows. The realoty shows whichare cheap to make are too many and so many of our shows appeal to the lowest common denomonator.

This is why the recent news of the cancellation of Men of a Certain Age is so disheartening. I ha e read that there has been quite a bit of. Riticism aimed at TNT for this decision and I understand this. I do not know what the network has to make for ratings to justify a show, it seems however that a network wanting to increase the prestige of its programming and make viewers take it as a viable choice.

My wife and I are finishing up season two and enjoying it very much. The cast of Ray Romano, Andre Braugher, and Scott Bakula is first rate but even more the writing is first rate. You care about these characters. That is why shortly after some Emmy nominations the choice of TNT to pull the plug was a bit surprising. Part of me wanted to not finish watching the episodes in this season. My wife won the debate and she was right.

TNT made a bad choice. It was a great show. Perhaps it is an indication that good television is hard not only to find, but it is harder to put on television. As in most things we get what we ask for.

Cat Power

WOW. Today on Spotify I listened to a variety of songs from Cat Power. I have heard this name before today in various magazines which gave her stellar reviews. Now that I can check out full songs free however the rules have changed. As I wrote before one now has the opportunity to listen to anything and be their own reviewer.

This lady can sing. This lady can wail. This lady is amazing. People talk about Joss Stone being able to cover Janis Joplin but in truth as great as she is Cat Power at times brings Janis to life.

Being a huge fan of covers for me hearing her take on Fortunate Son was a revalation. One of the best covers I have ever heard in any format. Later takes on Satisfaction and Sea of Love offer much as well.

Still albums worth of music to listen to but sometimes you have to comment on the first feeling you get from hearing an artist.

This young woman is a star and any music business that cannot find a market for her talent is failing. An amazing talent.

Spotify , Pandora and Tune In

How to listen to music let me count the ways. Of all the media, be it movies, television, publishing or music it is clearly music that has been most changed.

Television has been changed by Tivo, Hulu, online viewing and On Demand. We now watch what we want when we want and if we like we just run through the commercials. Of course we have had VCR recording for over 25 years but recording on Tivo is now a simple process. When we watch TV has changed as we have more and easier control.

Publishing has changed. The impending departure of Borders and the questionable future of Barnes and Noble has made clear that bricks and mortar book stores are a dinosaur waiting to expire. Magazines can now be seen online, often for free. If one does subscribe they now need not wait for the mail as you can download and read on your Ipad or other tablet. In short Amazon, UPS and the digitalization of books is changing everything.

Movies are still movies but Netflix is changing the way we watch movies once they leave the theatre. Video stores are all but gone. Netflix and Amazon operate on the same principle. Convenience. Netflix now streams much of their programming thus taking the mail cost out of the picture.

In all three cases we can now choose what we watch but even moreso when we watch it. We no longer have to wait for the mail for a book or a movie, though if we do not mind that is better than going to buy it at a store. We watch the shows we want when we want via on demand or Tivo. We control the when by picking when to watch what we want.

Still music has them all beat. First Napster let us all share and get all we wanted free. That was for the consumer a very good service. As a business model it could not work. Apple created the itunes store and the ipod and soon we were off. Now we could carry countless songs, 14000 for my collection at last count, in a handheld device. When one considers vinyl, casettes, and CD's this is not to be overstated.

Now however we have the next wave. We have Itunes which you can buy from but now we also have Pandora whose IPO when it launches soon should create some new gazillionaries. Pandora lets you with a series of likes and dislikes create your own music channel. You do not pick specific songs but can certainly tailor music that you like.

Now comes the U S launch of Spotify. Huge in Europe they singed a deal with the four major American labels and landed about a month ago. What do they do? Simply let you listen to whole songs or albums or your choosing when you want. This is better than Pandora as you can pick the actual song not just the style of music.

Both Pandora and Spotify claim that after ten hours a month you will have to pay and as costs range from three to ten dollars a month that is a consideration. Still if someone told you that you could listen to anything you wanted for ten dollars a month even listening offline you might consider it less expensive than all those $1.29 purchases on Itunes.


Many other mini miracles are out there too. Amazon now sells music often undercutting Itunes price on files that will of course play easily on your Itunes. Tune In Radio is a fantastic Ipad app that lets you listen to any channel that supports them and for me that has been almost any channel I like. The possibilities are endless.


I am not a technology person but as with the other media forms in music we now have much more control over what we listen to. In a sense we could before of course, but cost could be a factor. When free becomes part of the equation even for only ten hours a month the rules are changed forever.

There is no going back.

My Morning Jacket Live in Bangor, Maine

First a confession. Because of my inability to stand for any period of time and the festival nature of the Kah Bang festival in Bangor my wife and I did not purchase tickets. We drove downtown parked on the hill above the concert grounds and listened to the entire show when MMJ closed down the festival Saturday night.

Taking the stage after 1030 MMJ entered to a repeating " Destination Bangor Maine " from the Roger Miller classic King of the Road. Jim Jones whose voice is one that is a cross between a Southern Robert Plant and a werewolf sings just like you imagine he would. His voice is perfect, that is if you like what you hear on recordings. Still the last album by MMJ is in many ways a quiet, more thoughtful piece of music. With sometimes bewitching music and an ehtereal voice Jones was not in a high end party mood. Songs like Wonderful and Circuital from the Circuital album were perfectly played. Golden and Gideon were highlights and at various times Jones let go with his signature high pitched wails.

The curfew again took it's toll on the performance as many expected songs were not played. MMJ could have and should have adjusted the set lists to get a few more of the expected songs like One Big Holiday and Just One Thing in but one does not know how much they knew of the curfew when planning their set.

Still, musically the band was on target and all but perfect. This is a band that has found it's niche and whose audience is growing. In Bangor, Maine however that audience was not strongly present. A smaller than to be expected crowd, certainly smaller than the previous night Lupe Fiasco, Atmosphere rap double bill. My son and his friends were excited about Friday nights events. MMJ certainly appeals to an older, more granola audience and the crowd showed it.

The performance was great and if anything the success of the performance shows how far the Bangor market has to go to embrace diverse types of music. Reading a comment in the BDN from a gentleman who said he had shook the President's hand but considered shaking Slug from Atmosphere's hand as more meaningful perhaps gave us an unintendedly clear vision of the youth of today. Were it me I would rather than be embracing MMJ...I loved the show..the music over the bay with the moonlight was indeed a great setting.

Still the event was well done, I saw groups of kids out with bags picking up trash in the surrounding neighborhood as the event came to a close. The Kah Bang folks should be commended. I hope it continues to grow.

As for My Morning Jacket. I was a fan before the show and am one now. The only thing they might do is widen their set list a bit, for us in Bangor we do not know what we should have heard if the curfew had not been in place.

My Weakness is Strong by Patton Oswalt

I have been enjoying Spotify recently. I will be posting a blog about this new Music Service very soon. Today I listened to Patton Oswalt's comedy album My Weakness is Strong. Oswalt a popular comedian who has found his niche right on the edge of stardom exhibits an everyman persona if your everyman is a chubby, pop cultured obsessed tending to nerd white male.

One can argue the constant language issues in modern stand up comedy which is why I look forward to listening under this same arrangement to Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby but for modern sensibilities there is no doubt that Oswalt is a very funny man.

This album has him riffing on giving up alcohol and drugs, family, marriage and having a child. These are very funny but a few bits are genuine standouts such as Oswalt's take story about Rats in his neighborhood, accidentally walking in on an orgy, airplane travel and a hilarious but about time travel from the days of Obama to the days of Clinton which must is much funnier and thought provoking than the premise might make one think.

If you want to laugh and can deal with the everpresent language this is a funny record.

Planet of the Apes

After watching the recently released Rise of the Planet of the Apes I decided to show my wife the original movie in the series. This movie, The Planet of the Apes, has been a favorite of both my sons and I.

The story of astronauts brought back to Earth after time travel only to find themselves in a world run by apes. Charlton Heston in a role tour de force becomes a pet of the ape scientists. Their are several references in the movie to race issues and also to religion. Lines such as " the only good human is a dead human" and speech about the sacred scrolls and how they need to be believed draw a correlation and the message of the movie.

Ending it all is the scene that launched the movie. His discovery that " they finally did it" and what he discovered is one of the iconic movie moments in film history.

A good movie, a little campy, but one I have enjoyed greatly.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

My wife and I went to see this movie last night. It was a good movie. I must admit based on the commercials and my own impressions from the previous movies it was not exactly what I expected.

First it should be said that one does not need to be familiar with the Planet of the Apes franchise to appreciate or enjoy the movie. With the knowledge of previous films one might get a few of the references that come in the newest movie that nod to the previous.

In this movie we see Will Rodman played by James Franco as a scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease. His drug shows promise with apes but just as a demonstration is about to be made of the progress of the apes the test case escapes and attacks humans. She and all the other monkeys that have been given the drug are put down but the lab worker charged with putting the apes down balks at doing so to a baby they were unaware of. The mother ape in giving birth had passed the effects of the drug onto the baby. When Rodman brings the baby home and raises him, naming him Caesar he realizes that with no Alzheimer's to cure the medicine passed from his Mom has given Caesar incredible cognitive abilities. What this leads to becomes the movie's main theme.

Franco is good in the role, perhaps the most interesting performance is that of John Lithgow as Will's Dad who has alzheimers.

This is a good movie, one with more story than I anticpated and might well be the launch of an all new franchise of movies.

The President and the Assassin by Scott Miller

This book subtitled McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century tells the tale of the assasination of President William McKinley and the events leading up to it.

Leon Czolgosz a young Polish immigrant who very impressionable gets caught up in the vibrant anarchist movement of the late eighteen hundreds. The book tells of McKinley's Presidency, his firm belief that trade follows the flag and his firm belief in trade and commerce. We learn about the Spanish American War, how it started and how once started as a war of liberation for others soon became a war of acquisition for the United States.

With a parallel track, alternating chapters, we also read about the anarchist movement in the United States and the world and various leaders of it. We follow Emma Goldman as she meets and inspires young Leon and see how he is led by the killing of King Umberto in Italy to follow McKinley to Buffalo and to kill him when walking through a greeting line.

This is a good book offering a vivid place and time. I am struck by how McKinley would qualify as a Republican today with his belief in little to no restraint of trade and American foreign policy while benefiting businesses was benign as it helped bring foreign people's standard of living higher. Still one also reads that this was a decent man, a man who was kind and generous and believed in himself and his actions to be good for the country.

The state of the money barons and the huge disparity between wealth and the poor could certainly be drawn as a parallel to today. I would not suspect much in today's world would lead to anarchy, anarchists think too many big picture thoughts and the eventual betterment of society. I do not think there are enough people who think outside of themselves to have a real energy to a different thought process on how to govern.

Nor should they, ours is still the best. Naive it would be though to think that our system is not being flooded with cash and corrupted in a grotesque way. When Republicans want to cut Medicare but go to the mat to keep subsidies for oil companies we know where there heart lies.

This is a good book. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Kent State by James Michener

This book written by James Michener in the aftermath of the May, 1970 shootings at the Ohio college is very well written. Michener, an author, whose books I devoured in my twenties acted the part of historian, sociologist and concerned citizen to try to shine a light on the events of that weekend.

Always being a history buff I wrote a paper on the Kent State events in college and this book was a resource I used. Michener writes in an evenhanded way, having sympathy for the dead students, but recognizing that the events could be interpreted by others as being justified.

For Middle America in the late sixties America was unraveling. Just twenty years after the end of World War II the American Dream that had been enjoyed was dismissed as meaningless to a minority of the young. It should be stressed it was always a minority who demonstrated, but the majority of the youth were against the war. The Vietnam War permeated everything. The Smothers Brothers were kicked off television despite great ratings because of the political material, Laugh In was less obvious but also full of subversive humor if one looked.

Into this environment President Nixon, elected in 1968 with a secret plan to end the war, admitted on the last day of April, 1970 in a televised address that American troops were in Cambodia rooting out Vietnamese rebels.

I have often stated that had we the draft today the wars we have in the Middle East would have died long ago. Americans today can justify military deaths by stating that the serviceman knew what they were in for when they volunteered and to some extent that is true. However by not having a draft we are isolated from the cost in blood of our adventures.

The draft in 1970 was the issue. The events are well known. That the Guard acted in a way that was inappropriate seems clear. I felt that way in the eighties and feel that way now. I am glad my perspective has not changed greatly. I do have more sympathy however for the citizens of Kent and the folks of Middle America from my perspective and age of 2011 however. When I see my son with his pants bagging and hat on backwards I am bothered. Were my daughter when she is in high school start talking in four letter F words I would be mortified. I think the culture of rap music is degrading and valueless but realize that is not far from the comments that the rock and roll I treasure was just noise.

In short there is never a time where there is not a clash of cultures between the young and old. !970, Kent State was just the perfect storm. Failure to communicate, a college administration that had bent so far backwards to be allowing of dissent that when discipline came the students did not know how to react, a clash of cultures in terms of dress and language, a National Guard system that had troops on duty too long and poorly trained and a war that was splitting the country in half.

It seems hard to believe that could happen again, I think it is unlikely. It seems today like most of of our young folks are too apathetic to care about anything. Circumstances change however and this book does offer a good perspective on a time and place and all that can and did go wrong. We would be wise not to forget it.

J Geils Band Live in Bangor

When I had heard that Peter Wolf and J Geils were coming to Bangor to play at the Waterfront I was happy with the news. I had planned to wait to see if the tickets went on special and in the interim was given some free tickets.

So last night my wife and a couple of our friends went to see the show. The Chris Robinson Brotherhood opened the show. The former lead singer of The Black Crowes and ex husband of Goldie Hawn stayed away from the Crowes catalogue and played more of a bluesy set which on various numbers had a Grateful Dead feel. I enjoyed it but not knowing any of the songs makes it difficult to appreciate anything more than the musicality of a show.

However the Geils show with Peter Wolf at the microphone was a show from twenty five years ago. Wolf, who is now 65, still moves like a rubber band in the Jagger tradition. The band was tight, for a band that has not played together for so many years they sounded great.

Centering more on the old catalogue from the Blow Your Face Out era with hits such as Sanctuary, Houseparty, Give it to me, Detroit Breakdown, Start All Over up through Love Stinks and Freeze Frame the show was loud and very enjoyable.

Bangor's issue with noise caused the show to stop short at 1030 and some fans were surely disapointed not to hear Centerfold but when we did get to hear Musta Got Lost and Wolf's diatribe against texting complete with f bombs we got all we needed and more.

And for those that like me love the harmonica that Magic Dick sure can wail.

Tender Mercies

Being a big fan of Robert Duvall I was glad to Tivo this. My wife and I watched this early one morning. Duvall who won Best Actor plays Mac Sledge a former Country Singer who wakes up in a small room at a gas station/hotel and finds his partner has left him behind. He eventually convinces the owner a young widow named Rosa Lee to let him work for his keep and as time passes they slowly develop a relationship that leads to his asking her to marry him.

Being fifteen years her junior she has a young son and the two develop a relationship. Eventually his ex wife a still successful country singer and her agent played by Betty Buckley and Wilford Brimley as well as his eighteen year old daughter played by Ellen Barkin.

I told my wife that not much happened in the movie but it was very enjoyable. One of the qualities of the movies was its strong sense of time and place, you feel like you are in Texas in the hill country perhaps best described by Robert Caro in his descriptions of the youth of LBJ.

A very good movie. Duvall is one of our better actors.