Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

more animals

Since being a fake rock star is so much easier than being a real rock star, I’ve found a new site to blow away time. JamLegend is kind of like a Rock Band or Guitar Hero of the interwebs. I find it completely addictive and had to tear myself away long enough to write this post. Of course it’s really nothing like playing in a band, but it is still a fun way to while away some time. I do have an invite if anyone reading this wants in on the private beta. Back to rockin’ out.

see Obama pictures

see Obama pictures

Since the weather was so nice and I am progressing nicely with getting my labs done for the semester I took the afternoon off and we went up to the Erie County Fair. We spent about six hours at the fair, a lot of walking, a lot of yummy fair food, a lot of fun in general. It really made a difference too, how nice the weather was. Some years it is just so hot and humid it is very uncomfortable to walk around. But today was great, other than my knees hurting at the end of the night, I wasn’t uncomfortable at all.

The only disappointing thing was I forgot to check the batteries in the camera, so we didn’t get any pictures. Realistically we wouldn’t have been able to take too many pictures anyway, so it wasn’t too bad.

As we came out of one of the buildings we saw a parade coming down the street. So Bella and Gilli found a place to sit and Karen held Erin and we watched the parade go by. That was fun. There was a marching band, some horses, some cars, and a pedal powered train. Gillian’s favorite part was when they threw beads. Bella caught some and the lady behind Gilli caught some and gave them to Gillian, which was nice of her. Thanks unknown lady! Bella said the silliest part of the parade was when the horse pooped while it was stopped right in front of us. Ah, toilet humor!

We made it to the backyard circus, where the ringleader (who reminded me an awful lot like Ted Knight) led a group of kids from the audience in a make-believe circus. The girls chose not to participate, but instead enjoyed the show from the audience.

There are always a bunch of live bands playing, and although we never purposefully go to see them, if you are in the area you can’t help but hear them play. It always reminds me how much I enjoy playing in a band and makes me want to again.

While I watched over a sleeping Erin and listened to some music, Karen took Bella and Gilli to see various crafts. There was wood-working, paper-making, and doll-making among other things.

We seem to make it to the Erie County Fair more often than the Chautauqua County Fair, but it does have a lot more to offer than our local fair. For local, the big thing we do every year is Farm Festival, which is only a couple of weeks away now. I’d say I can’t wait, but since that always happens the weekend before classes start I don’t want to rush it.

see Obama pictures

I was listening to Alice Cooper’s radio program tonight and he was complaining that Led Zeppelin wouldn’t be touring because Robert Plant would rather do his folk tour with Allison Krauss. He felt that Plant owed it to his fans to tour with Led Zeppelin. That is an interesting concept. Do musicians owe anything to their fans? If I go see Tom Petty in concert but all he does are Tupac covers certainly I would be pissed since there would be the expectation that he would be playing mainly his songs, specifically his hits. Similarly if an artist plays only B-sides and unknown songs, even if they are originals, the expectation of the concert would be broken. Generally concert goers are not only going to see the band, but to hear the band play specific songs. And that is unfortunate for the musician.

I can imagine that after 30 years you might want to do something different. I’ve been at my current place of employment for just under seven years and already my job is vastly different from what it was when I started. I could only imagine the frustration that goes along with doing the same thing, playing the same songs, over and over again. Don’t you want to hear the new stuff I’ve been writing? No way! Now play Stairway to Heaven again! The closest thing I could relate musically is when Cheese Log had a ‘hit’ song and we left it on the set list long after we would have liked to take it off. Why, because that was an expectation our fans had. They wanted to hear that song, so we played it. So yes an artist has a certain responsibility to live up to their fans expectations.

However, an artist should also have the right to move on and grow. By refusing to tour with Led Zeppelin and instead do something different Robert Plant is making a conscious choice to tell his fans he wants to do something different. At least he’s up front about it. It’s not like he’s selling tickets to a Zeppelin concert and then doing nothing but folk and bluegrass. That would be breaking expectations and people would rightly be angry. But he’s not doing that and I salute his decision as well as his right to do it. He does not have a responsibility to tour again with Led Zeppelin if that is not what he wants to do. So sorry Alice, I think you are way off base on that one.

So I am constantly amazed by what radio stations choose to censor or not. I really like Kid Rock’s summer hit All Summer Long, but was surprised when it played on our toned-down adult pop station. This is the same station that plays an edited version of Tom Petty’s You Don’t Know How It Feels. How do they say it is OK to play a song that references “smoking funny things” when they can’t play a song that references “roll another joint”? I personally don’t think they should censor either song, nor should they stop playing either song. It just seems weird to me that there doesn’t seem to be any consistency. But at least when they play Tom Petty they use a different version that changes the line to “hit another joint” instead of the butcher job they did on the video…