Roger O Green

Superlative concerts I have attended

from Seals and Crofts to Sheila E.

Tom Petty Lots of fine folks seem to be doing this meme. So what the hey.

First concert: Seals and Crofts, November 12, 1971 in New York City, Boz Scaggs opening.

Last concert: Janet Jackson, July 26, 2018 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. No, wait, I saw Cheap Trick February 7, 2020.

Best concert: I have always said that it was Talking Heads at SPAC or the Temptations at the Colonie Coliseum during the Reunion tour, both from back in the 1980s. Still, Paul McCartney, July 7, 2014, with my daughter rates very high.

Worst concert: Almost certainly Joe Jackson at the Palace Theater in Albany in 1989. I swore I told this story but I couldn’t find it. Jackson, after playing one or two familiar songs, played the entirety of Side 1 of his new album, Blaze of Glory. Then a couple old songs, then the entirety of Side 2.

The audience was ticked and many of them headed for the concession stands or the bathrooms. They returned when he played stuff they knew. I should note that I subsequently bought the album, and I think it’s fine. But playing a half dozen unfamiliar songs is not a way to win over the crowd.

At least Jackson was comprehensible. The 2007 Bob Dylan concert in Albany at the Knick* was awful. Fortunately, the opening acts, Amos Lee and Elvis Costello, were great.

Seen the most: the Temptations; Lucinda Williams; Pete Droge; the Neville Brothers; Crosby, Stills, and Nash – no Young; Joan Armatrading; Sheila E.; and infamously, Joni Mitchell I’ve seen twice each.

Next concert: God only knows.

Most fun concert: Probably Bruce Springsteen in Albany’s Knick* in 2009. Though Elton John c 2000 at the same venue was a hoot. And there was a battle of the bands in San Diego in July 2018, which my niece’s band, Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact won, and I got free drinks.

Loudest: actually, it might have been Sheila E. at the New York State Fairgrounds in September 2019. They crank out the sound so even those not in the audience could hear it.

I need to note a band I saw open for No Doubt in Albany in 1997. I THINK it was MxPx. The sheer constant audio assault was unnerving. The Specials were also on that tour, and a bunch of the idiot kids literally turned their backs on them.

Wish you could see: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

* There’s a venue downtown originally called the Knickerbocker Arena. Then they sold the naming rights and it became one of a number of entities called the Pepsi Arena. Currently, it’s the Times Union Center. I just call it the Knick.

“Useless skills” in our modern world

InformationTechnology Arthur – yes, that Arthur, the Kiwi Illinoisan, wrote in response to a recent post of mine. Hmm, I’ll have to ask him, though, what got him to remember another post of mine, that one from a decade ago:

Apart from people under, say, 30 or so, all computery technological stuff has to be learned—we didn’t grow up with it. Most of us, I think, do best when we can migrate what we know to a new setting.

For example, the reason I can fix my blog when things blow up is because I learned useful stuff when I was young(er) that serves me well now that I’m old(er). For example, I can edit the HTML code in my log because I learned to use coding when I used an olde timey wordprocessing program called Wordstar in the 1980s. I still have to look up how to change or fix code in my blog, but I at least basically understand what I have to do because of that earlier training.

In January 2011, you published a post about “useless skills”. I wonder how those “useless skills” help us in our modern tech world. What ones help you?

My wife has a breadmaker, but she would rather create it the old-fashioned way if only so the bread will fit in the toaster.

Skillz?

I think I have soft skills. I can read a map, so if the GPS is not working, or is taking me the wrong way – it’s happened – I can figure out a way home. In a city with a decent, but unfamiliar, mass transit, I can generally negotiate that too.

When I was working, I had a better-than-average chance of finding the answer if it wasn’t available online. This involved using something called the “telephone” and “calling” to “talk” with people. That said, I think a lot of agencies and other entities do not value their institutional wisdom.

Because I’ve moved over 30 times, and have helped others moved at least twice that, I’m really good at packing our car when we’re going on a trip. My wife has told me this repeatedly.

As bad as I am with names, I’m pretty good with numbers. I can figure out a 15% tip or even 8% sales tax sans calculator. I make change with alacrity, so I’ll give the pizza guy $21 for a $10.95 purchase, knowing that one-dollar bills are precious in retail.

Usually, I remember phone numbers, so if the phone/computer address book isn’t available, I’m still OK. Definitely, I know my wife and daughter’s Social Security numbers.

I can name all of the Presidents of the United States, including their years. So I don’t have to “Google it” to help my daughter with her American history homework. Whether she would LET me help her is quite another matter.

Now, there are a few things I can do in my blog – assuming I’m not using the new editor – by hand. And, as Arthur knows, I can keep score in bowling, even during the apocalypse.

Roger’s Retirement music too

With a Lot O’ Soul

Marvin Gaye More music in honor of my retirement in 2019, compiled by JF and DC.

Fame – David Bowie. Beyond two-octave riff, it was co-written by John Lennon. I was very sad when each of them died.
Let’s Go Crazy – Prince. Among my favorite songs of all time, ever since I saw the Purple Rain movie, The 12″ inch vinyl, which I own, has an even more delicious guitar line. Sad when he died, as well.
Paperback Writer – the Beatles. The Fabs, of course, but I suspect this was a reference to my blogging.
Got To Give It Up – Marvin Gaye. More cool. No wonder Blurred Lines purloined it.
Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson. The first song from the MJ album I contend is better than Thriller.

This song IS about you

If You Don’t Know Me By Now – Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, featuring Teddy Pendergrass. One of my theme songs.
You’re So Vain – Carly Simon. Saratoga’s only 30 miles from Albany.
I Got You – Split Enz. The only Split Enz album has that song.
I Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin. Great cover.
Until – Cassandra Wilson. New Moon’s Daughter (1996) is the first of four of her albums I own.

Tell the Truth – Otis Redding. He definitely died too soon.
I’ll Take You There – The Staple Singers. Mavis so often sounds like church.
Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing – Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Tammi died WAY too early. And Marvin’s death at the hands of his father…
It’s A Shame – the Spinners. One of the few Motown hits by the group before they moved to Atlantic Records.
I Know I’m Losing You – The Temptations. If I had but one Tempts album, it would be With a Lot O’ Soul, which includes this song.

Slip Slidin’ Away – Paul Simon. “You know the nearer the destination…” Truer words were never spoken.
Where Is the Love – Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. Donny died a tragic death. I saw Roberta perform on New Year’s Eve in ALB in the late 1990s.
The Glamorous Life – Sheila E. Ah, my personal close relationship with Sheila, who I’ve seen perform twice in the past few years.
Moving Out – Billy Joel. That’s what I did at work. Saw him way back in 1974.

I remember watching television

In the spring of 1962, I had only two TV choices

Mark Evanier posted the openings to the 42 different television shows that comprised the spring 1962 prime-time TV schedule for CBS. Of the shows, listed at 23:45 of the video, the only shows I never heard of were Ichabod and Me, Window on Main Street, Oh! Those Bells, Frontier Circus, and Father of the Bride.

I’m not sure I ever watched Hennessey, Checkmate, or all of the anthology dramas. But I surely viewed the others, especially the Saturday night lineup of Perry Mason, The Defenders, Have Gun Will Travel, and Gunsmoke.

He also posted the lineups for NBC for Fall 1962 and ABC for Fall 1961 (both at 24:50). I recognize many, though not most of the NBC shows. Maybe it was that WNBF, the CBS affiliate was on VHF, Channel 12, while WINR was on the UHF range, Channel 40.

But I recognized a LOT of ABC shows, even though Binghamton didn’t have an ABC affiliate until November 1962, when WBJA, Channel 34 came on line. That’s likely because WNBF carried a lot of ABC shows.

Unsurprising, I ran the category Old TV Theme Songs on a recent JEOPARDY!

Meanwhile, Ken Levine, who has written for prime time network television, recently noted that some recent network shows, one that had been on for four seasons, had been canceled and he had never heard of them. I’m very much in the same boat.

It’s a different time. Netflix and a bunch of platforms followed by a plus sign, from Disney to Paramount. And even shows that others recommend to me I can’t find the time/inclination to watch. As a result, I’ve seen NONE of the programs nominated for this year’s Emmys that weren’t on broadcast TV.

Just a few

So what I DO watch is heavily influenced by what my daughter views. She got into Station 19, which is a spinoff of Grey’s Anatomy. These stories are so intertwined that if you were to see one without the other, it might not make as much sense.

It reminds me of when I was collecting comic books, and you didn’t understand what was going on in the Fantastic Four or the Amazing Spider-Man if you didn’t also check out a particular issue of X-Men or The Avengers.

The other thing odd about the 19/Grey’s series is that the storylines were almost a year behind “real-time” this past season. So the narratives in the spring of 2021 took place in the height of COVID and demonstrations right after the murder of George Floyd. Then in the last episode of Grey’s, but not 19, the story fast-forwarded almost a year.

I have a friend who writes, every time I mention television, that I should not watch it. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. It’s bad for your sleep, your health, your brain, your self-esteem, maybe your eyes.

I take my blood pressure daily in the morning, before breakfast. If my wife’s had the TV on, even if it’s off the ten minutes before the reading, my BP is about 15 points higher systolic and about 10 points higher diastolic.

I’m sure watching far less, and the pandemic did not increase my consumption by one iota.

Presents for my wife on her birthday…

They say, “It’s the thought that counts…”

I have noted several times that buying presents for my wife is not my favorite thing. Whether it be for her birthday, Christmas, or our anniversary, it’s always been a challenge.

For our last anniversary, I think I agreed to go in on getting a bike rack for our vehicle. I’m not sure because we haven’t actually done so. In any case, it was her idea, not mine, so it’s more difficult for it to stick in the brain.

Last year, as I’ve noted, she had hinted about getting two pieces of jewelry for Christmas. So I bought them in August. In September, she proudly announced she had ordered the self-same pieces herself. I audibly groaned. She said, “You didn’t TELL you bought them…”

I recently discovered in this blog that she did pretty much the same thing circa 2012. She hinted that she really wanted a particular book from National Geographic. I bought it. Then SHE bought it. I grimaced and ended giving it to something else. I don’t know WHAT I ended up getting her that Christmas.

Sharp

A good friend of my wife has a daughter who is selling Cutco knives. The daughter wanted to make an appointment with my wife; my wife didn’t HAVE to buy anything because the friend’s daughter gets “points” just for doing the presentation.

I’m familiar with this gig. Back in the 1980s, my girlfriend’s daughter was selling Cutco knives. I let her make the pitch to me. My, those knives were expensive! But I bought one because it seemed to be the thing to do.

So my wife ends up buying several pieces of cutlery. It got to be a little pricey, which can happen easily. Hey, for her birthday this year, would I want to go halfsies on the knives? Yeah, sure, I guess. Oh, and the bill is already due.

So I gave her money for her birthday, a prosaic gift, but at least it won’t be something someone will have to return.

And, finally, I think I hit on something that she wants. I’ve ordered it. Allah willing, she won’t have purchased it for herself. Plus, we’ll go out to dinner.

I kvetch, but she’s otherwise pretty swell. I love you, dear.

BTW, this is a pic of my wife at a restaurant a block from our house, pre-pandemic. You can tell I took it because it’s fuzzy.