It was CousinFest at Alesci's last night. Cousin Gale, Cousin Ron, Lisa and I went to see Roger Waters at Quicken Loans Arena last night. And Cousin Barb went to the Tribe game. How was the show? Well, "Should I trust the government?". That would be a huge negatory, as it was one of the most overtly political shows I've seen. And I loved it.

Tickets: We decided to be seat snobs and didn't bite at the $20 tickets available in the uppers and decided to go the scalping route. Ron was in contact with a guy who was selling the $127's for $100. We got him down to $80. With all of the add-on costs, I'd say we saved about $60 a ticket. Thanks, Charlie! When we got there, we were in the 6th row in Section 110. Can you say "Look how fuckin' close we are!"?

The Band: Probably the best-dressed band since the days of Robert Palmer or Sting's "Bring on the Night" era. Everyone wore black, including the three backup singers, one of which (my future wife) filled out her dress in all the right spots. Did I say we were up close to see her? Thanks, Charlie! Don't know who was in the band, except for Andy Fairweather-Low, who I think most people would know. Note that it took two people to replace Gilmour. I'm just sayin'.

The Crowd: Let me say this. This crowd was so old, the chaperone hat remained neatly tucked. It probably rotated amongst 5,000 others, however. For a smoke-free arena, there was a helluva lot of smoke. The hippy lettuce appeared by the end of song two. Afterward, the lobby was noticeably smoky and the silent alarms were going off.

One guy was very dramatic when standing a couple of rows ahead of us. Lots of arm gesturing and the wrist-over-wrist "X" thing. Begged to be imitated and it was.

Backdrop: When Floyd is involved, you have lots of visuals and they did not disappoint. Before the start, they had a film with a tight shot of an old radio, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red in front, and smoke billowing from a cigarette. Every so often, this guy's hand would come into view and turn the knob for a new channel, or pour a drink. Very cool. He reappeared at the end during "Comfortably Numb" with extremely long drags on the heater.

We had pictures of Syd during "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". Pretty classy. Also during that tune, bubbles floated down from the ceiling, then hanging chads floated down during a later song. After a lull, we had two radio-controlled items that flew on our side of the arena from the back to the side of the stage. One was a NASA astronaut and he was right above us, flying like he was on a spacewalk. I can't describe how cool that was. "Sorry, Dave, I can't do that."

Then, the pig appeared during "Sheep". The pig!!!!! YES!!!!! Although, this time, the pig had political messages sprayed on him. Things like: "Habeas corpus matters", "Impeach Bush now" (with an arrow pointing to the word Bush saying, "Horribly unaware" or something like that), and "Don't get led to the slaughter, vote Nov. 7". The pig actually flew over my head. There I am, drinking a beer and a pig is soaring above my head. An incredible feeling. Thanks, Charlie!

During "Leaving Beirut", the song was told visually in comic book form. This was the song where Waters, while a teen, was hitchhiking through Lebanon after his car ran out of gas, and he was taken in by a guy and his wife and treated very nicely. The old "Hey, I know we're bombing them now, but they aren't bad people. Let's make the film into an a-ha video tribute" kind of a thing.

And Bush got lumped with bad guys like Stalin on a video from another song.

They also had pyrotechnics. During one song, we have a Google maps view of London and we zoom down upon a water-filled Wembley Stadium, where we have a game being described by Marv Albert over the radio like a football match. This sub destroys this aircraft carrier and kaboom, we have this loud noise and flames shooting out at the back of the stage. We were so close, we could feel the heat. Thanks, Charlie! Wait, could that be construed as fireworks? On second thought, they were just OK.

The Music: Let's face it. Roger's voice isn't the greatest these days, but when he did sing, they really made him sound much better than the last time I saw him, at Live 8. The power of electronics, I guess. The backup singers and the "guys who sang Gilmour's parts" were really good. Musicianship was also good. The show consisted of three parts. The opening set contained some new stuff and some old. Here's what I remember (and I know I'm missing several):

"In the Flesh"
"Mother"
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
"Have A Cigar"
"Wish You Were Here"
"Great Gig In The Sky"
"Leaving Beirut"
"Sheep"

15-minute intermission (and it was only enough time for a bathroom break, get a beer and get back to your seat), then the reason everyone came:

"Dark Side of the Moon"

Encore:

"Another Brick in the Wall"
"Comfortably Numb"

Wish you could have been there. Thanks, Charlie!

Meal of Links

I'm not dead yet. Guy who said he wrote hit record, actually didn't. He dies, family puts that in his obit. Real writer of tune, says hey, I'm gettin' calls that I'm dead. Great quote from dead guy's wife: "I don't know what that man (the real Paul Vance of Coral Springs) is trying to accomplish," she said. "If he's getting royalties, why is he bothering (to come forward)." I think he's coming forward to stop people from calling him and asking if he's dead, idiot. Oh, sorry about your loss.

Cinema takes a death blow from another "Jackass".

New York wants to ban trans fats. In a country where pizza joints sell brownies. Amazing.

Exercise Yard

My Dad clued me in to an absurd statement by Mark Shapiro: "If you look around baseball, we do not need as much as teams like Boston, the Yankees, Toronto, Baltimore, Philadelphia and some other clubs." He didn't really say that, did he? Lemme guess, he was at the Roger Waters show.

ESPN smartly includes us in baseball's biggest disappointments. No mention of Hafner though. The most underappreciated star in the game.

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37 Across: Atom-splitting Nobelist (5 letters) Answer: Fermi