Monday’s show was fan-freakin’-tastic.

Tuesday’s show is a little more than four hours away.

I can’t really write an objective review, as I was too busy wallowing in the nostalgia. I guess the questions one might ask are, Are they better or worse than they were the last time I saw them nine years ago.

Were they better? Probably not. They used to put on a whale of a show, and last night was no different. Are they worse? Definitely not. It lived up to all of the expectations. It was one mother of a great show.

I’ve seen Kay’s solo band (which includes USA Mike and Joe Klompus) more times than I can remember, but it never had the charge that Cleo had. It was never bad, just never quite the same. Last night that charge, that spark, that whatever cliche you want to call it, was back. I had forgotten how much I missed it.

Tonight… show number two. I can’t wait.

And in closing, two of the billion and a half pictures I took that I have yet to have to time to sort through.

Waiting for Jen and Larry to get here before heading in to the Letters to Cleo show.

Less than 5 hours until the Paradise’s doors open for tonight’s Letters to Cleo show. I want to be there now. Now I say!

I did a little digging for dirt on the Los Angeles show. Here is a review. That page links to a bulletin board post on Kay Hanley’s website that has a bunch of pictures. I will of course steal a few right now. (insert maniacal laughter here)

Kay Hanley

Greg McKenna

USA Mike

Stacy Jones

And in case you didn’t know where the band hailed from…

Now just to be fair an honest and such, credit should be given. The person who posted these on the Kay Hanley site linked them from here.

My digging also uncovered four videos on youtube that were shot at the Los Angeles show. I haven’t watched them, and will not watch them until after tonight’s show at least. I want to see things for myself first, ya know?

“Find You Dead”

“Little Rosa”

“I Want You to Want Me”

“Here and Now”

I should have my camera with me tonight so tomorrow’s fan-boy postings will probably of a more home made variety.

Finally, one more geek out net nerd moment. The other day I posted two new promo shots of the band that came from their myspace page. They were black and white. Today I saw the same shots in color on their website. I prefer color. Hey Ted Turner, take this!

See you at the show.

I love hockey

For the first time in our new home we looked out the window and saw light snow. A dusting on the ground as it lightly falls from the sky.

We’ve had a Spring here, a Summer, a Fall, and now we’re starting to get a Winter too.

(pictures to follow)

Yup, we’re going to that show…

Yup. We’re going to that one too.

About 100 years ago… 1993… maybe a tad earlier. I started hearing Letters to Cleo on local music shows on various radio stations in Boston. Eventually I got my hands on a compilation CD that had a Cleo song called “Green Eggs” on it. I think the CD was called Crush, and I think it was on Cherrydisc, but I’m not sure. Around the same time there was also a single out that was “Here and Now” b/w “Rimshak”. I didn’t have a copy of that.

Then they released their first album, Aurora Gory Alice, on Cherrydisc records and I snagged a copy. Mike and Larry and I were all working at a gas station in Tewksbury together and I managed to have the radio on one station’s local show on a Sunday night when Cleo was the guest. They liked what they heard too.

A few years later I went to see them at Hempfest on Boston Common. They headlined a massive show. It was approximately 9,999 stoners and me. It was my first Cleo show. The slew of pictures I am about to post come from a guy named Steve Latham. I do not know him, but his site is fan-freakin-tastic if you are a fan of Boston music. There are about 10 billion pictures of every band under the sun. Check it out.

Hempfest 1995… I was on the other side of the stage, a little further back.

After that it wasn’t long before I managed to drag Mike and Larry to shows too. Eventually Letters to Cleo couldn’t play in Boston without all of us being there. Then, sadly, after three records they split up. To the rest of the world they were probably a one hit wonder who were-in-that-movie-with-the-guy-who-played-Joker-in-The-Black-Knight.

But to us they were a major attraction. A big event. A must-not-miss show. Now, after a long time being gone they are getting back together for four shows. The first one was last month in L.A.. The next two are next week at The Paradise in Boston. The place where we saw them a hundred times. (okay, it was probably more like 3 or 4, but allow me to romanticize my fanboy behavior just a little.) Then they end it with one in New York. No accounting for taste I guess.

Jen, Larry, Mike, and I are going to both shows. Nawal is going to one. We’re still trying to get rid of a few more tickets. I think we have 2 for the first night and 1 for the second but I might have that backwards.

The show posters and the next two pictures come from the band’s myspace page. I don’t know if that’s an “official” page or not, but it gets the job done. They posted some promo shots for the reunion tour, complete with new bassist Joe Klompus… I hope I spelled that right. He plays in Kay’s solo band when they play in Boston. I don’t know if he’s in it in Los Angeles too. He used to play for Jack Drag as well.

and I’ll leave you with a few songs including their Christmas song which you can get from their myspace page. Enjoy

… and we’ll see you at the Paradise on Monday and Tuesday.

It happens now and then. I just can’t think of what to say in what has become a new retarded morning thing for me.

My left arm is wicked sore. I haven’t a clue why. I think I either slept on it wrong two nights in a row, or maybe pulled something whilst trying to reach to my left and over my head and around backwards to try and hit the snooze bar without actually adjusting my body, when my body was in no position to hit the snooze bar. I hate alarm clocks. Fuck ’em.

The Bruins won again. Watch game highlights here. They are back into a tie for first in the Eastern conference with those god damned New York Rangers. I hate the Rangers. The Rangers have played four more games though. It was a little disconcerting to see them only score two goals again the bottom dwelling Tampa Bay Lightening last night. (well… three… the third was an empty net goal.) I was hoping for a little more offense against such a bad team. Only letting up one goal to Tampa is still a big deal. As bad as the team is, they still have some great forwards to deal with.

Kessel’s first goal was awesome. Krejci’s shorthanded goal in the third was a thing of beauty. Are they the real deal? I see the way Krejci and Wheeler and Hunwick are playing… Hunwick is Plus 12! Who would have thought we’d get production like this out of those guys? And Kessel! Julien should have benched his ass at the start of last season rather than wait for the playoffs. He’s a force. 15 goals. 22 points in 25 games. Plus 10. PLUS 10! He has to have a trip to the all star game waiting for him, along with Thomas, Savard, and probably Chara. His numbers don’t really justify it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bergeron get the nod too. He’s only the feel good story of the year.

What else can I blather on about?

We have snow in the forecast for Sunday. Hopefully it won’t be enough to screw up our plans. My fingers are crossed that Mother Nature treats us nice.

My fiancé Jennifer, whom I love more than anything, just wished me a happy 20th monthiversary. 20 months ago today we went on our first date. Going out with her that night is turning out to be the single smartest thing I’ve ever done.

Let’s see if I can come up with any more to drone on and on about as the day goes on.

Until then….

From funnyordie.com

Harold and Kumar had it right. Neil Patrick Harris is the Man.

I am curious if anyone else around does what I do. Or I should say, does a similar goofiness that I subject my family too.

Christmas is traditionally a huge deal for my family. We tend to go waaaay overboard on the gift giving. A normal Christmas morning includes a living room so full of wrapped gifts that the people who are giving and receiving said gifts can’t fit into the room.

This sort of gross consumerism requires lots of coordination and planning. To help in that end I, for the last few years, have collected everyone’s Christmas lists and consolidated them onto one web page. This page is meant to be bookmarked and visited regularly to see any additions that the potential gift receivers may have asked me to make.

The last few years I have gotten into the spirit by making the page as festive… and as hard to read… as I can with my meager skills. I’ll admit it… I took the goofiest stuff I could find on the average javascript code sites and threw them in. Here is last year’s page.

I started posting this year’s Christmas wish lists today but I seriously toned down the goofiness. We are promising each other that we will not go overboard this year. We’re all buying one item for one person (we picked names out of a hat over the weekend) instead of multiple gifts for everyone. I figured a more stately, dare I say classy, page is more fitting for our current, more sophisticated, Christmas gift giving agenda.

It brings to mind two questions though. Questions I will pose to you the reader… all three of you.

1. Are we the only dorks who set up a Christmas wish list web page?
2. Should I bring back that moving snowflake background gif I used last year?

Please phrase your answers in the form of a comment to this post.

Thank you

21 shopping days left.

Sean Avery is a douche bag on the ice…

Sean Avery is a douche bag off the ice…

The back story there is that Avery used to date actress Elisha Cuthbert. She is currently dating Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Avery made his comments in the locker room prior to last night’s game between his Dallas Stars and Phaneuf’s Calgary Flames.

The league suspended Avery indefinitely. The Dallas Stars said if the league hadn’t suspended him they would have. You can get all the details in this Scott Burnside story from espn.com

Dallas is in last place in the Western Conference. After signing this putz over the summer I say they deserve it.

Hopefully this nitwit is going to be out of the public eye for a while. Hopefully.