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JeffTheGil
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Name: Andy
Country: United States
State: Oklahoma
Metro: Oklahoma City
Birthday: 11/21/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: Reading, Writing, Sports, Blogging, Five Iron Frenzy, Puns, Figures of Speech.
Expertise: Irrelevance and triviality. Answering rhetorical questions.
Occupation: Student
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/5/2003
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| I heard two statements that resonated with me. Well three actually, with the third being, "they were definitely smoking a joint." But that one aside there were two.
"I can cross that off my bucket list."
Absolutely. I guess I don't really have a list of things I want to do before I die but if I did, that probably would have been on it. The weird thing is that I hadn't even thought of it that way before. That just kind of put it in perspective for me. I was surprised by the number of young people there. I expected mostly people aged half a decade or more. And while that group was still a clear plurality, even the guy I sat next to was about my age. The guy who made the statement was young too, and I realized that it was truer for us then for the retirees. They grew up with these guys, but we haven't had much time. And truth is, there isn't much left. Most people don't even know who Winwood is. Eric is of more fame, but even the Holiday Inn receptionist stared at us blankly when we told her his name. If she doesn't know him, who does? My T-shirt wasn't enough to convince her he is real. Thank God for wikipedia.
"Clapton is God"
I'm not sure if this was shouted in irony or not; it was pretty convincing. I pray that it was. But this resonated with me not because I agree with it. Far from it. I looked over at Eric to see if he had heard. If he did, he pretended like he didn't. But I cringed with him. It may have been this very statement combined with his psyche, personality, and background that contributed directly to two full decades of pain. At least it got the ball rolling:
"At this point people began to talk about me as if I were some kind of genius, and I heard that someone had written the slogan "Clapton is God" on the wall of Islington underground station. Then it started to spring up all over London, like graffiti. I was a bit mystified by this, and part of me ran a mile from it. I didn't really want that kind of notoriety. I knew it would bring some kind of trouble."
Here's the set list:
Had to Cry Today
Low Down
After Midnight
Presence of the Lord
Sleeping in the Ground
Glad
Well . . . All Right
Tuff Luck Blues
Pearly Queen
No Face, No Name, No Number
Forever Man
Georgia On My Mind
Driftin'
How Long Blues
Layla
Can't Find My Way Home
Split Decision
Voodoo Chile
Encore:
Cocaine
Dear Mr. Fantasy
My father-in-law called the encore. As soon as he said Cocaine, I knew he had to be right. "How could they not play Cocaine?" After the first chord we high-fived. It rounded out the third J. J. Cale song of the night; Low Down--new to me, but an instant favorite--and After Midnight the other two. They threw in some blues standards making sure to complement Winwood's ridiculous piano skills, especially on Big Maceo's "Tuff Luck Blues".
They played plenty (though not enough) Traffic songs during which Clapton sometimes seemed out of place, particularly on the instrumental "Glad" in which he tried to replicate the sound of a sax with his guitar. He did an admiral job, but those who know the song surely thought something was off. He made up for it many times over.
Steve started on guitar and then moved over to the piano and organ for several songs, capped off with a moving rendition of Georgia On My Mind. After this, both Eric and Steve went all VH1 Unplugged on the audience and sat down with acoustics. But maybe the highlight of the night was when Steve sat back down at the organ and together with Clapton undertook Voodoo Chile. About five minutes in, I felt a chill start in my brain and travel down to my arms. I could almost feel Jimi smiling. For a second, I was in the studio when Steve was floating his fingertips across the keys of the Hammond B3 for Electric Ladyland: "Well the night I was born Lord I swear the moon turned a fire red." And I was there when Jimi died. I wonder whatever came of that left-handed Stratocaster.
As for the marijuana, let's just say that without it, Blind Faith probably wouldn't exist. | | |
| The Beatles aren't that great.
There. I said it.
Don't get me wrong, they were quality musicians and did some revolutionary things with instrumentation and harmony that popular music had never seen before. But the main thing they had going for them was this: they were novel. There had never been another band like them before. They exploded the music industry into what it is today with quality, catchy, music; bad teeth; and swagger. They started a whirlwind of copycats, and musicians still borrow from their plentiful scores. Were John, Paul, Ringo, and George born 40 years later, they would still be a popular, successful band today--but nothing like the "beatlemania" that existed during their peak. My point is that just because they were the first, doesn't make them the best. Some of the breakthroughs they effected were inevitable. If they didn't achieve them, someone else would have.
I'm no music critic; I'm just a regular guy who understands basic music theory. And as a regular guy listening to them on my iPod in the year 2008, I have to say that although they get my foot tapping, I'm not that impressed. And I think that if you are honest with yourself--if you strip away the glam, the charisma, the billions of dollars--you will agree that the Beatles were nothing more than a talented and innovative musical group. But not, as Rolling Stone estimated in 2004, the greatest Rock and Roll band of all time.
Jeff
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| I knew there was going to be severe weather in Oklahoma last night.
For the uninitiated, severe weather as defined by the local news stations is not just tornadic activity. Not just thunderstorms and large-sized hail. Severe weather is gray sky and a couple of drops of rain. And I could have told you a week ago that there would be severe weather last night. Do you know how I knew, when seasoned meteorologists can't even predict the weather one day in advance? I knew because last night was the first night of the NBA finals. And it's a tradition to have tornadoes in our state during primetime basketball. And even though there are three other local stations, the ABC affiliate still feels the need to interrupt the games with field shots of foggy windshields and poor quality audio. The only wall cloud you ever see is the studio meteorologist's hair to go with his cheap suit and faux demeanor of concern.
One year, probably three summers ago, I saw maybe five minutes of the entire Finals.
You may think I'm being calous to the dangers of mother nature. Maybe that's true. But if it's true, it's because the Gary Englands of the world have created that calous with their neverending false alarms. They act as if the world is coming to an end any time the wind picks up so that more people will watch.
When Katrina hit, people were saying, "why didn't those people leave New Orleans? They knew the storm was coming." Well if their forecasters are anything like ours, they had probably become so numb to the warnings that it took a disaster to wake them up.
Call me selfish, but I just want to watch my basketball.
Jeff
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| So apparently I have ten credits now. Would someone please explain this to me? I'm not hip enough to understand this mumbo jumbo.
That's right! A post on consecutive days.
My wife and I were talking about determinism today. I guess that's kind of a broad subject so I'll extrapolate: When someone allows themselves to become a victim, they give power to the perceived perpetrator and never get out of the mess that they are in. Take for example hurricane Katrina. People still blame the federal, local, and state governments for their plight. This gives those agencies power over their well-being. Instead, why not focus on what can be changed? Natural disasters happen all the time, and last time I checked no one can control nature. But when you allow yourself to be victimized you become powerless. America is about self-determinism. The fact that the only one who can make my life better is ME. I shouldn't have to rely on the government to bail me out of every tough situation that I get in.
When we do have that reliance, we become slaves. I need my next welfare check. I need someone to pay for my healthcare. I need, I need, I need. John F. Kennedy had it right when he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Ever since the New Deal, Americans have slowly relied more and more upon their government to provide things that they can provide for themselves. We need to get out of the bondage of dependence and victimization and take responsibility for our own situation.
Jeff
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| I got the following email from the folks at Xanga. Maybe you got a similar one:
Hey JeffTheGil - Are you keeping your site? A
lot of people have been asking for usernames that have already been
taken. So we'll be cleaning up some sites in the next couple of
months...
If you would like to keep your account, all you need to do is log in and post to keep your account!
Sign in and post to keep your site
Any inactive site will be removed from our system and the username will be available again at a later time.
Sounds cool huh? Well any of you who used to read my dedicated blog would know that I actually came up with this idea over four years ago. Don't believe me? Here's the proof: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=JeffTheGil&nextdate=5%2f6%2f2004+23%3a59%3a59.999. I even sent the idea to Xanga and I got an email response indicating that they would implement my idea. I had no idea it would take four years. Nevertheless it is cool to say that one of my many crazy ideas actually came to fruition. Now if I could just get that electricity generating treadmill going.
It's kind of ironic that the only reason I'm posting this now is because I don't want to lose the entry which proves that I came up with the idea that has threatened to take away that very entry along with the rest of my weblog. Joseph Heller would be proud. Though in all honesty, it feels awesome to be writing once again. Too bad I don't have any more readers (well except for one). Maybe this entry will trickle out to those who foolishly subscribed to my site by email--assuming of course that they haven't already filtered it to go to spam.
Now let's see how much time this buys me.
Jeff
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