Ursus Pacificus

Saw Peter Frampton and Yes live at Mohegan Sun on Wednesday.

The contrast between the acts is the difference, in my eyes, or ears, between rock-n-roll and playing a lot of notes. Don’t get me wrong… Steve Howe is an agonizingly competent guitarist, and the rest of the Yes gang certainly knows what they’re doing… but… there’s a certain something lacking from the Yes performance… not sure quite what to call it.. but, I suppose one might describe the shortfall in the Yes performance in terms of the Frampton performance.

I would describe the best Frampton performances as “soaring melancholy”. There’s a goose-bump-raising quality to Frampton that’s harder to come by in, say, Yes. Frampton’s chord changes and melodies are… vulnerably … hopeful… but sad… but vital….

…whereas Yes delivered a lot of notes, and not a great deal of heart.

This was my second Frampton show, and my first in almost thirteen years. His band is tight, competent and, most importantly, playfully soulful.

Yes, on the other hand, hit the notes like they’ve been playing them forty years.

Next time, I’ll see Frampton and pass on Yes.

Went to see the triple-bill of .38 Special, REO Speedwagon and Styx at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA last night. It was a good show, although .38 Special was… brief.

.38 Special doesn’t have the history, and the string of mainstream hits that REO and Styx had, so… I guess it’s not surprising that they weren’t up there that long.

REO did a fine job. Kevin Cronin still sings his balls off at every chance, although I have to say the hyperblond mini-fright-wig thing doesn’t suit him. I thought the video direction lacked something… the one point when Neal Doughty (Hammond Organist) really go to take off and “own the space” (in “Roll With The Changes”), the big screens were focused on guitarist Dave Amato wandering around the stage, playing accompaniment to Doughty’s solo.

Styx was clearly the prime act. The Illinois connection between Styx and REO seems to make them good compliments for live shows, despite their differing styles. Lawrence Gowan, now a ten-year fixture with Styx, as Dennis DeYoung’s replacement, is as enthusiastic and energetic and anyone could expect or hope for. Tommy Shaw and JY still work very well together, and virtuoso drummer Todd Sucherman keeps the band pulsing along with vigah.

The venue was a nice compromise between indoor and outdoor, and we were fortunate enough to have “inside seats”, as the weather was suboptimal, with periods of drizzle and rain throughout the show.

We’re going to see Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick tomorrow night… here’s hoping the weather holds out… since we’re not under the roof tomorrow

So I was working on the next set of celebrity birthdays, and I came across Jenny Jones as someone with a birthday coming up… so… Just out of curiosity, I looked her up on Wwikipedia, to see what she’s been up to lately… and then I made the mistake of clicking the “official website” link….

Not only is it a violation of every color-matching rule there is… Jenny’s glowing. You may have to watch it for about 45 seconds to see it happen… but… she really does glow yellow!

Oh, the horror!

First up, NewsUndies finally has kitsch of its own:

Then there’s the KayakKave’s new design:

Finally there’s the “something wicked” design;

Stop by and pick up a gift for the Significant Other or Wee Ones (if you have any).

Brick Tamland: Conspirator? Tool? Unwitting Victim?

Consider the evidence and decide for yourself!

Hey, everybody!

In an effort to make NewsUndies easier to find (and share) I’ve spun them off their own website: www.newsundies.com

So, just for the record, the full-blown NewsUndies show will be weekly from now on, with new shows posted on Friday.

You can still see all the NewsUndies on YouTube, and new shows will be announced here, with links to NewsUndies.com, but the embedded videos will no longer be here… They’ll be at NewsUndies.com, and on YouTube.

Thanks for watching! We’ll see you next week on NewsUndies… all the news that shouldn’t be news!

Back before you kids had your compact discs and your multi-gigahertz handheld computers, we had 8-bit “home computers” with cassette tape drives that were painfully slow… I mean… you think dialup Internet access is slow… That’s 56,000 bits per second on a good day. We had 300. There were very few hard disk drives… no, we had giant floppy disks that hardly held any data by today’s standards. …and we made do.

Well…

Here’s a guy with too much talent, an overabundance of technology skillz and WAY too much free time (this coming from a guy who does a show called NewsUndies)…. Sheer brilliance:

Check out the other stuff on his YouTube Channel… It’s pretty crazy!

Burger King apparently has an ad out now (I don’t watch TV, remember?) involving the “Burger King” character (the guy in the ermine-trimmed robe and the fiberglass head) paying homage to SpongeBob SquarePants, and Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby’s Got Back”.

Viz:

….and that’s just the :30. There’s an extend two-and-a-half-minute extra vaganza… see:

Now, many people, much wiser than I have been known to say something to the effect that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. It’s things like this that make me wonder… then again… the average American has the short term memory of an ounce-a-day pot smoker… so… maybe once the ads vanish, no one will care.

There are shots which imply the king “getting busy” with one of the female dancers from behind.

“SpongeBob, I wanna get wit-cha / ‘cuz you’re makin’ me rich-a”? … oddly reminiscent of FlyGuy’s Pimp of The Year poem. Then, of course, there’s the possibility that “get wit-cha” means something more… intimate….?

There is a substantial amount of focus on “booties”. At the end of the :30, SMaL even says “booty is booty.” What the hell is THAT supposed to mean.

There are some shots in the videos which are clever, or well-staged, or stupid… funny. The premise is positively ridiculous. It has funny… but … I dunno… there’s … OK… George Carlin used to say that everything is funny, it’s all in how you construct the joke…. and generally, I believe him… but there’s an aspect to the BK ads that’s like… a convicted serial child-rapist telling jokes about child-rape to an audience of his victims and their loved ones. Not that the BK ads are in bad taste to that extreme… but it seems to me to be that … flavor… of bad taste, but a little more subtle.

I’m not saying the ads should be pulled or banned or that BK or the agency should be run out of town on a rail. Then again, I’m not sure SpongeBob’s target audience should spend a lot of time watching it either. This clip is kinda like Tom Cruise’s dance at the end of Tropic Thunder, which, from what I understand, was improvised… it kinda makes you wonder… where the hell did that come from?!

Oh… here’s a couple articles from ad people about this:

AdFreak
BrandFreak

…and in case you missed some of the lyrics:

You other sponges don’t want none unless you rock square buns

Do you know Ray Comfort? Do you know his publicist? Do you know his publicist’s dog groomer?

Somehow, I need you to get word to Ray Comfort that I want to review his book. This one:

You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can’t Make Him Think: Answers to Questions from Angry Skeptics

There’s no way I can, in good conscience, contribute to the sales figures of this book, but I cannot debate it intelligently without reading it.

If you can get me a promo copy of this book (or have a copy you bought for your own consumption and no longer want) please let me know. I can be emailed at pault@ursuspacificus.net

…beaver?

Yes. Some time ago the GF, her 2 munchkins and myself made a pilgrimage to the MOS, Boston, where they introduced me to an exhibit I’ve never seen before (and I’ve been there quite a few times over the years.

Check this out:

Har, har.