Heard a Vicious Rumor From Your Mama's Tongue

The countdown is on for Thursday night in Charlotte: opening night of the Van Halen reunion tour. Admittedly, I was hesitant when this was announced, as fans of VH have been led down this path a few too many times in the past. I was even hesitant the morning tickets went on sale, wondering whether to fire up Ticketmaster and try to get tickets. While hitting the inevitable reload button quite a few times for the first ten minutes, I was still contemplating not getting any. Alas, when I finally hit the purchase button, there were no regrets.

Sure, it'd be great if it was a full-on reunion with Mike Anthony, but as a fan of the band (and even more so, of the namesake guitarist) since I don't know when, it wasn't something I was gonna miss. I got to see the 1984 tour - the final one with Roth. I got to see the 5150 tour with Hagar on vocals. Though that was a really great show by, essentially, a completely different band, there really is nothing that can touch Van Halen with David Lee Roth.


And by all accounts, the band is sounding and (dare I say it) looking great. I say that because I had tickets for the last "reunion" tour with Hagar, but that date was wiped out due to a hurricane or some other sort of global warming calamity. Probably a good thing, as that tour was reportedly a mess, and Eddie was REALLY a mess near the end of it.

Hearing that and pretty much assuming that he'd never set foot on a stage again had me somewhat regretting putting that guitar over there together.

A setlist, supposedly picked by Eddie's kid, Wolfgang, has me pretty psyched. Some of my favorite tunes from both Fair Warning and Women and Children First are being played. We'll see how it all goes over, and I'll post some sort of report here, for sure. The twitter will probably go live, too. Google Maps is being referenced as I write this and some pre-show entertainment is being planned.

And while on the subject of "the rock," I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite 90's bands play in town last week. Staight Outta York, LiVE played the Bi-Lo Center and, as always, put on a really good show. I've seen them countless times because of a contact hat has since dried up, but never really close to home. So it was cool to see them again - with just a 10 minute drive. They have never failed to impress when a dose of straight up rock is needed. And free tix never hurt the cause.

Here's a few photos from the show:

Rattlesnake

Zed

Not me - I have a self-imposed prohibition on
posting self-pics on the blog. I took the pic, though.

**Updates:
Forgot to mention that I'll be doing my best to drink the beer "provided" by Stb. Thanks again, man. I guess I'll be sharing, too.

Being that this the first show of the tour, the band has been in Charlotte for a few days rehearsing in advance.

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Trash

In a few minutes I leave for our company's trash pickup, where we go along the side of the road out in front of the plant and pick up trash. This is a good exercise for everyone to go through, I think, because it teaches you an important lesson.

There are a lot more people out there making a mess of things than there are people willing to clean it up.

N... N... N... Nineteen

Happy "It's Steerin' Me Balls" Day!

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Chucktown Bound

Time to pack the canopy in the minivan and head to the coast for a weekend full of youth futbol. Who knows, there could be some twittering going on over there to your right if anything interesting comes up. Interesting, as in (possibly) trying to outrun a tropical storm, heading West on I-26 Sunday afternoon? We'll see.

Still awaiting word on whether a six pack is, indeed, going to be "delivered." Hey... I'm just sayin'...

Also, please check your feed if you normally got here through Bloglines or another aggregator. We changed to a Feedburner feed a few weeks ago. Wouldn't want you missing out on any of the breaking news and the erudite literary swill that so often blips across your screen.

*Updated*

Live action shot

Ravenel bridge. The name 'Ravenel' has a entirely new connotation these days.

Lixx is in Charleston this weekend, too. The namesake guitarist
is the originator of the 'Metal Skool' CD that was introduced to the
G-VegasCrew, and further shared with various WPBT metalheads

Shuffle This

This post brought to you by Scribefire: my first one with this Firefox plugin that allows blogging right from inside the browser. I've been using Firefox for quite a long time now, and I'd go in spurts of customizing it with all of the add-ons available for it, so many thanks to a post a few weeks ago that sent me on my recent tear of getting up to speed with all of the geeky cool web 2.0 stuff out there.

At some point (while, surely, trying to get Twitter to do something else cool), I hit shuffle on the ipod and tapped out the first 20 songs that came up, then looked up the lyrics, as the meme demands.

Without further adieu:

1. It's an alliance... It's another lie... I'd say Fall in love tonight Even if my eyes Even though sometime I'm burning out tonight

2. If you've ever known love, If you've ever known peace, If you've ever known joy Make sure that you are on time

3. Crashed out of the market, out on the floor, Washed up on the shore
Bombed out of the City, out of the door

4. Yeah yeah Rat-tailed Jimmy he's a second hand hood Deals out in Hollywood Got a '65 Chevy, primered flames Traded for some powdered goods

5. She packed my bags last night pre-flight Zero hour nine a.m. And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then

6. Lying beside you, here in the dark Feeling your heart beat with mine Softly you whisper, you're so sincere

7. I've called you so many times today And I guess it's all true what your girl-friends say That you don't ever want to see me again And your brother's gonna kill me and he's six feet ten

8. It's so f%*&@#g hot in here, but the devil doesn't care. The front row will be dripping wet, but satan won't even break a sweat.

9. I wanna run I want to hide I wanna tear down the walls That hold me inside
I wanna reach out And touch the flame

10. I've been hurt, hurt, hurt. Yes, I've been hurt. I've been hurt, like I've never been hurt before

11. Last night. No way I was gonna be left hungry. Then your daddy caught me sneakin out your bed. It's just a game i play, it's just I roll that way

12. I used to love her, but I had to kill her I used to love her, but I had to kill her I had to put her Six feet under And I can still hear her complain

13. I'm gonna kick 'em out. Well I feel pretty good. And I guess that I could get crazy now, baby 'Cause we all got in tune When the dressing room got hazy now, baby

14. By the last breath of the four winds blow Better raise your ears The sound of hooves knocks at your door Lock up your wife and children now

15. Step off the train all alone at dawn Back into the hole where I was born The sun in the sky never raised an eye to me

16. She's got a smile that it seems to me, Reminds me of childhood memories

17. Instrumental (Jeff Beck - the Pump)

18. Ohh-ahh! Ooh, woman and a woman, now the silly games you play, yeah
Wow! Dealin' with your troubles drove me away-eyay yeah
Yeah!

19. I woke up to the angels Singin' in my head You look so good naked next to me
The angel in my be

20. Three is a magic number yea it is, it's a magic number Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity You'll get three As a magic number

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The View From Here

Keeping it clean for now, since this is a family-friendly site.

I raise a toast to man (surely, a man) who invented the portable beach cabana. In fact, if you come to the beach with an umbrella in tow, your horses are probably tired of you smacking them with the buggy-whip.

To hell with all of the enviro-alarmists and the global warming warnings.

It's August, and it's hot.

As it should be.

G-Ville... From a Different Point of View

Some spots around town that I might not look at in quite the same way again.

Good luck, dude.

Thursday Night Drive Game

I'll tell you what....I'm not a huge baseball fan, but you don't have any choice but to enjoy a baseball game at West End Field in G-Vegas. The stadium is awesome. It's a replica of Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox. Now, if you want to see good baseball....well, you might have to go somewhere else. The Charleston Riverdogs put a hurtin' on the Drive last night, and they're not having a great season overall. Still, the stands are pretty full, and I think that's in part because of the stadium itself, the location, and the general atmosphere. We started out in the County Square parking lot, which is about two blocks or so away from the stadium. My wife's company was sponsoring a cookout, and the burgers were fantastic! As we ate, an ice cream truck from Bloom's grocery store pulled up, and the ladies inside started handing out free ice cream sandwiches. It's just a short walk to the stadium from there, or you can take the trolley. The kids love that stuff. On the way, you pass by Shoeless Joe Jackson's house. Jackson was a Greenville native, and his house was moved to the site during construction of the stadium.

Last night was $1 draft night (they are usually $3-$4) at the tap below the Upper Deck. The Upper Deck is a great feature of the park. You pay a little extra to get up there, but it's a big patio with tables and it's own bar, flat panel televisions, and live music. I couldn't make it past the velvet rope, but I did catch a few bars of some Jimmy Buffet over the sound of the game. I think things like that help out with attendance when a team is in a slump, and attract people who otherwise wouldn't come to the games. This year they also have the Coca Cola dugout, which you can rent out and be right at field level. I've never heard of anything like that before.

We were sitting in right field. It's a small park, so there really aren't any bad seats. Over in right field there is a nice grassy area for people to sit on and for the kids to run around on, and a great playground.

Location is another thing the ballpark has in its favor. It's so close to downtown that you can easily hit a good restaurant and a couple of bars either before or after the game. I would think that would make it a lot more popular with the G-Vegas socialites that might not otherwise want to dedicate their whole night to a ball game.

Being my usual hard partying self, I topped out about 9:30, after the Riverdogs popped two homeruns in a row over the Green Monster, a 30 ft high wall in left field. On the way out of the stadium, we were handed a free loaf of bread, provide by the fine people from Sara Lee. Yeah, I know...sounds weird....but I thought about it on the trolley and the more I thought the better it sounded. I mean, I'll get more use out of that loaf of bread than I would out of a miniature baseball bat, right?

So, overall, a good night out with the family in G-Vegas. It also gave me a chance to meet up with Axe and his family. Axe and the kids stayed for the whole game, and Axe Jr. snagged three baseballs before the night was over.

That's almost better than a free loaf of bread.