Joan Jett opened, and opened with “Bad Reputation” which is one of my favorite songs that she does, so I was hooked in immediately. The gal has still got some serious pipes and sounded fantastic. Only downer was they didn’t use the monitors, and if you’re on the lawn, you can’t really see anything. No big deal for me, since I’ve always held that concerts are more for what you hear than what you see.

Aerosmith I was a touch more concerned about – c’mon, they’re not spring chickens anymore. Did I give up 3 hours of climate control for $10 beer and aging rockers who may not have it anymore? Fortunately, they still seem to have it. Tyler is looking a touch rough (note to producers: might want to not do the super closeups on him w/the cameras anymore) but sounded pretty damn good. They were also smart and stuck with their standards that made them popular in the first place. (Really, I swear the worst words to hear at a concert are, “And here is something off our latest CD”.) They closed with “Walk This Way” as they damn well should, given that easily half the audience wouldn’t know who they were had it not been for that little pairing they did with Run-DMC.

As far as Nissan Pavillion is concerned, I came away with mixed thoughts on it…

Took us near a half-hour to get through the gates – they really need to add a few more entrances since everyone goes through the gates one at a time. At least I now know that there is apparently no enforcement of the “rules” as far as the parking lot goes, despite all the signs. You can only bring in one sealed bottle of water and a gallon ziploc bag of food into the venue. OK, so yeah, it’s about revenue and they make it sound like it’s “security.” Of course, there is also a ban on illegal drugs in the venue, but the haze of pot smoke over the area seems to indicate it’s not really enforced either. The other strange thing? A grand lack of trash cans. Absolutely none at the top of the lawn area and really very few down in the main area. As far as the way it’s setup for shows? Fantastic. But I see why some refer to it as “Nazi Pavillion.”

Best two lines of the night:

“Honey, that’s pot.”
and
“They say drugs are bad for you, but look at what he’s done with his life!”

I had heard earlier today that things were not looking good, but for whatever reason I thought he’d come back from it.

I wouldn’t say that I was an opera aficionado, but I do like it, and I always liked what I had heard of Pavarotti’s work, and I probably heard more of his work than anyone else’s given his stature. Even as an opera-hack, which is the most favorable way I could ever describe myself, I can say this is a huge loss.

Upon hearing the news, I had to break open a bottle of Notturno Sangiovese, which given my luck is probably from a rival village from his, but to me, the death of a true operatic singer deserves a toast from a true Italian wine.

Il sig. Pavarotti, sarete mancati.

Tomorrow I will go see my Italian wine buddy to offer my condolences and find out what is truly the proper wine to toast him with.

Current Music: La Boheme, “Che gelda manina”, Pavarotti.

Tonight’s task has been taxes. Whee!! Right now I have 2 of the 3 tax returns finished, which is a far cry from this time last year when I was filling out extension forms and praying that the IRS had the same definition of ” good faith estimate” that I did. As things turn out, we must have gotten a sympathetic reviewer, as I’ve not gotten any nasty-grams from them once our various and sundry accounts were paid in full before the super-really-totally-final-unless-you-file-another-extension deadline. This year, everything will be done well before the 4/17 deadline, thank god.

However, I do have to say I take just a tiny bit of pride in the fact that earlier this evening little bro left the house to visit w/folks as I was cussing out Turbo Tax’s auto-crap-update feature, and by the time he returned just a few hours later, I had 2 of 3 returns done and had still had time to go catch last call at the local watering hole. You can take the accounting job away from the girl, but you can’t take the accountant and resultant celebrant alcoholic out of the girl…

I remember the days when I used to have my taxes done before February 15th… Not sure what happened, but yeah, not quite that much on top of things these days, but I’m still meeting or beating deadlines, so it’s all good.

So, we’ve covered taxes. Death – it sucks and is inevitable, not much more to say on that. Other miscellany – indulge me on this one -I have a playlist called “Aftermath” – beats the initial naming of it, which was “Down, Not Across” – and well, it’s not quite *that* morbid…a small sampling follows.

To toast Spring: Back to the Earth, Rusted Root
To remember why you don’t want to be a cynical beeotych: Suddenly I See, KT Tunstall (took me a couple listens to get past the guitar riffs being too close to “Black Horse & The Cherry Tree”)
Just sit with me and listen: Samba Para Ti, Santana. Sit and listen and you’ll get it.
We can’t always have everything, and it’s not necessarily the end of the world…: Beverly Hills, Weezer
Things have a way of working out: Float On, Modest Mouse
Self Explanatory… : Superman, Lazlo Bane
Gotta bag of Mickey’s TallBoys without anyone to share with?: Party Generation, Dar Williams
I’d give you everything I have and then some: Santa Monica, Everclear
It just feels good: Naked Eye, Luscious Jackson
Cause we all need a little Dead: Friend of the Devil, Grateful Dead
Cause I’m a sucker for some old school Clapton: She’s Waiting, Eric Clapton
Where is that other shoe, anyway?: Feelin’ Way Too Damn Good, Nickleback
Damn, where did I eff things up?: How to Save a Life, The Fray

Oh to have the rewind button on life some days.

It’s FRIDAY. OK, yeah, I have to work tomorrow, in the office no less, but it should be exceptionally slow, so I can deal.

My Linkin Park CD’s arrived yesterday, have been ripped and are currently getting loaded into my iPod (They have NO Linkin Park on iTunes. So I had to *gasp* BUY the CD’s) Now if Folk Implosion and The Flys would just get here, things will be good. (Yeah, two more not on iTunes…I actually bought the cd singles for Natural One and Got You Where I Want You.)

Never did get out to run yesterday. :( But, will hit the gym tonight once the beeper time is done so it shouldn’t be so gawdawful crowded. Keeping my fingers crossed that Sunday’s weather is decent so I can do my 10 miles outside instead of on the treadmill, but right now it’s only looking to get into the 40s and that’s just not real comfy for me. (I’m a wuss.)

Probably helping my mood is the fact that I don’t have to be on til 11 today so I got some really good sleep too. :-D

OK, time to go rock the house and knock some calls out. Short day on queue…sweet.

with “Our lawyer made us change the name of this song so we wouldn’t get sued” coming in a close second

I would love to see what this does to whatever user analysis software they’re using.

We seem to be nearly full staffed this week, some training got canceled, so at least when I came on at 11 I didn’t feel like I was already completely behind. Finished off the night with 79 total calls in the queue – we haven’t been that low in a while.

Snoopy was a complete pest all day today. The dog at my feet did not deter him one iota – he was climbing all over me, the table, the desk, and talking a blue streak to boot. Kinda gives away the work location when a client says “Is that a kitty I hear?” “Um, yes, and he’s about to get locked out in the hallway!” Of course, I can deal with that, cause along with it is the ability to play music in my office, and when the RHCP’s version of Love Rollercoaster comes on, I can jump up and do the Beavis & Butthead dance and no one is the wiser. Until I start singing along…

At one point I went downstairs w/Mox and Target was curled up on the couch – Mox just walked by, totally oblivious, and for once, Target didn’t hiss at him. Yay kids!!! I have to say, I am truly floored at the progress they’re all making.

The gov’t HR rep is going to start calling various agencies on the disbursements so we can get some ETA’s on things there – that was such a hard email to write, because it just seems so tacky to be inquiring about money. But at the same time, eventually I will run out of funds!

My partner in crime that got shipwrecked got me a bottle of tequila and Mexican vanilla from her vacation – I should have it this weekend, WOOT! I’m gonna have to figure out what I can get her from the beach – definitely a BrewThru shirt, cause everyone needs one of those, but I’ll have to find something else nifty to go along with it.

And FYI, this song, “Float On” by Modest Mouse is one of my new favs – go get it, go get it!! There is also something weirdly familiar about it, but I can’t place it – if anyone knows, please comment. :)

And we’ll all on float on OK

Additionally, I found out you can get this song off iTunes…and there are no less than 15 mixes of it…