Archive for May, 2010

Forty Years Ago – The Doors At Cobo Arena

Doors_at_Cobo_ticketI was there.  I recall this concert very well for various reasons.  For one I remember how tired I was by the time The Doors came on stage; it must have been well after midnight.  Me: I was wearing a suede leather jacket with fringe on the sleeves and bell-bottom jeans.  Any how many people in the audience were just totally stoned out of their minds, most on marijuana but probably a good mixture of other things as well.  And Morrison himself seemed drunk from the beginning; I think he came out with a bottle of beer in his hand.

But my most positive impressions were of the two lead-in acts, Blues Image and John Sebastian.  Blues Image was just emerging as a major group (although very short-lived) but they were really polished: great instrumentation and harmony.  Then after a long pause, John Sebastian came out, sat on the edge of the stage –just him and his guitar– and offered a series of lovely solo songs.  I was impressed how he mesmerized thousands of doped-up hippies who had been dancing in the aisles a short time earlier and were waiting for the insanity of The Doors.   His performance and the guitar work of Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers a few years later at the University of Iowa were the best live rock events I’ve seen.

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Hint of Spring

After several days of typical cool, drizzly Seattle spring weather we got a peek at the sun for a while today. I dropped by Mt. Si and got in nine holes. What a great setting: 55 degrees, mixed sun and clouds and still a hint of snow on the mountain. It didn’t hurt that I shot an easy 40. What could have been: I missed birdie putts from six and nine feet!

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Mrs. Duck Takes a Bath

Among the flock of ducks that regularly feed in our back yard, one pair seems to have taken up semi-regular residence spending many hours just lounging in the grass. Lately, they have become more comfortable with human presence and occasionally feed just outside the kitchen window. But today there was a special site: Mrs. Duck hopping up on the rock and getting into the bird bath.

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Ernie Harwell

I was saddened today to read the news of the death of Ernie Harwell. I spent countless hours listening to Ernie’s broadcasts of Detroit Tiger games beginning with a mediocre 1960 team but including the magical 1968 world champion season. Ernie’s voice provided many memories; like that 22-inning loss to the Yankees on June 24, 1962 and Denny McLain’s 31st win on September 19, 1968. Ernie and Jack Buck will always be my two favorite sports broadcasters.

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Wall Street Slime – The Big Short

The Big Short is Michael Lewis‘s expose of the subprime mortgage debacle that underpinned the 2007 economic melt-down and subsequent Recession. The narrative is a compelling one on several levels. First of all, Lewis is a superb writer. His characterizations of the odd-ball personalities who first understood the inevitable collapse of the subprime house of cards are marvelous. You really want to know more about these people as the story evolves. Fascinating, too, is the tale of the enormous financial industry that was clueless about the obvious fraud it was perpetrating on millions of homeowners and investors. Finally, the book is a sobering account of raw greed on an incomprehensible scale. You don’t need to understand collateralized debt obligations or credit default swaps to realize the first question you need to ask your broker is “How are you going to screw me?” I hope members of Congress read this book as they formulate new regulation of the financial industry…. but I doubt they will.

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