Well gang, here's something way cool to get you into the weekend! In my last post, I started listing some of the acts I've seen through the years, and mentioned that I would possibly comment on some of the better, and worse, shows. A few weeks back, Tommy and Lindsay joined Karen and I at The Monkees show at the Paramount in Huntington. As we ate dinner before the show, I was telling them about one of the best shows I'd ever seen, which was The Monkees 1986 20th Anniversary Reunion show. Since the guys hadn't performed together for so many years, they opened the show with a really cool gag, spoofing the notion that they 'couldn't' play their own instruments, by lip-synching to the Theme From The Monkees, with a cool twist. About a third of the way through what was obviously the pre-recorded theme, the record started skipping, and the 'jig' was up, so to speak. The guys grabbed a huge prop stick of dynamite, and an oversize detonator plunger. Peter uncovered a turntable, put the 'dynamite' in it, and then the three guys hit the plunger. An explosion ensued, and as the smoke cleared, the backing band broke into "Clarksville" and off they went. A great opening. And one I thought was lost to the ages, since back in 1986, there were no cell phones, certainly none that could record video. Hell, even video cameras were rare and expensive, so who figured anybody could have captured that show? Well, thanks to YouTube, I found a couple of versions of it! Of course, they're recorded from the 987th row, badly lit, shaky, and worn out, but they exist. This one is from a show in Toronto, at a venue that has a rotating stage, similar to Westbury Music Fair. It's almost the complete show, until the video battery wore out. And so, for those of you who may have missed it (which is probably all of you), here it is for you to enjoy!

Happy Monday everyone! When last we chatted, I was speculating on the various concerts I've seen through the years. Well, I finally sat down and began putting a list together, and yeah, it's pretty lengthy already, and I'm sure that I'm missing some acts. But, it's at least a beginning, and includes some pretty interesting acts, from the good to the bad. I'll probably come back to this list at some point and add in some comments, regarding their songs, their performances, or possibly just some cool trivia. In any case, here's the list as of today: 

Alive & Kickin'
Angels
Anne Murray
Association
B-52's
Beach Boys
Belmonts
Billy J Kramer
Blondie
Blood Sweat & Tears
Bobby Lewis
Bobby Rydell
Booker T and the MG's
Boyce and Hart
Brian Wilson
Buckinghams
Cadillacs
Canned Heat
Capris
Channels
Chantels
Chiffons
Chimes
Chuck Berry
Classics
Cleftones
Coasters
Crests
Crickets
Cyndi Lauper
Darlene Love
Davy Jones
Del Satins Demensions
Dennis Tufano
Devotions
Dion
Dovells
Drifters
Duane eddy
Dubs
Duprees
Elegants
Excellents
Five for fighting
Five satins
Flamingos
Fleetwoods
Four seasons
Four tops
Freddie scott
Freddy cannon
Gary lewis
Gary puckett
Gary US Bonds
Grass Roots
Happenings
Harptones
Herman's Hermits
Impalas
Janis Ian
Jay Black and The Americans
Jay and The Techniques
Jimmy Clanton
Johnny Rivers
Knockouts
Laverne Baker
Left Banke
Les Paul
Lettermen
Little Eva
Lonnie Mack
Looking Glass
Lou Christie
Lovin Spoonful
Marcels Maxine Nightingale
Melanie
Michael Nesmith
Micky Dolenz
Monkees
Mystics
Neil Diamond
Neil Sedaka
Olympics
Outsiders
Passions
Paul Revere and The Raiders
Peter Tork
Randy and The Rainbows
Rare Earth
Rascals
Ron Dante
Sam the Sham
Shades of Blue
Sheryl Crow
Shields
Shirelles
Slash
Soul Survivors
Spencer Davis
Teenagers
Temptations
Tommy Sands
Train
Tuneweavers
Turtles
Tymes
Ventures
Weird Al
Yardbirds
Zombies

Well I hope that everyone had a fun weekend, and that all the Dad's out there had a wonderful Father's Day! It was a quiet weekend here in 'Blogville', as I had a tooth extracted on Friday, in preparation of having an implant done. So not much got done, although Karen and I had a great time on Saturday night catching up with my old hockey buddy Dave Karp and his wife Linda. Hadn't seen Dave or Linda since about 1980, but we reconnected on Facebook, and were really committed to getting together. It was such fun, and we are looking forward to a renewed friendship going forward. Sunday saw us at Billy's softball games, and while his team "Bomb Squad" lost two, we had a good time. Later in the day, Tommy and I caught up a bit, and it was a nice Father's Day. And then, it was "what's for dinner"? I was in the mood for a burger, and Karen wanted to take me out, but I thought that with the tooth still sore, it would be better to make our own. So I ran to Waldbaum's for some fresh ground beef, and when I got home, decided to make "Jucy Lucy" burgers. These are found in the Minneapolis area, and I've had them there, they are cheeseburgers with the cheese INSIDE the burger, all melty and gooey, very tasty.
So, I cracked open a bottle of a very cool beer, and went to town. And here, for you, in photos, is the tale of the Jucy Lucy's!
Here's the beer that accompanied the making of the burgers, a nice Chocolate Stout, that I think Tommy may have brought over a while back. Quite nice, deep and tasty, without being overly dark, with a nice cocoa flavor.

 Then, time to make the burgers:

The trick to getting these things right, is to measure out 1/4 lb of meat for each burger, and roll it into a ball. Then, split each of these into two equal 1/8 lb balls, and form them into very thin patties. Take 1 slice of good American Cheese (that's the traditional cheese; you can use swiss, or mozzarella, whatever), split it into four pieces, and carefully spread them out in the center of one patty. Put the second patty on top of the cheese covered patty, then firmly seal the two patties together, being careful to really pinch the edges together. You can cook them in a skillet, or on a flat top, but I grilled these. Heated the grill on 'high', then turned it down to medium, and cooked them for about 4 minutes per side. Here's the finished product:

You can see that each burger 'leaked' a bit, but I handled them gently with the spatula, and lost very little of that hot, melted goodness. Topped 'em with s&p, ketchup, mustard (not for Karen though), and pickles, and boy, were they good! Here's proof!

Now that's good looking - and so is the burger! You can see the melted cheese sandwiched between the two nicely cooked patties. Takes a little effort, but man, it's worth it!

So far, so okay! Made it to Potsdam in just 6 hours - about 40 minutes quicker than MapQuest estimated, and honestly, I was not flying down the road.
Checked in to the very nice Clarkson Inn, an historic old hotel that's 'right downtown', to quote Tim Wattley from Seinfeld. Nice large room, very very clean, and nice amenities, including a full ice bucket, two bottles of water, and a couple of bags of chips.
Unpacked and caught up on the emails from today, then off to dinner at The Cactus Grill. Short three block walk through the edge of the business district. Weather was nice, and I spotted a few other places that might be dinner tomorrow night, three pizza places all within one block of each other, and a nice looking pub, Maxfield's. We'll see.
So, the Cactus Grill, not a bad spot, as you'd expect for a Tuesday night, pretty empty, the wait staff was pleasant, and the food was pretty good as well.

Sat down, ordered a Dos Equis Amber (they had it, my first choice!) and got a nice basket of chips to go with it:

Now those are some colorful chips! All pretty good, but they were desperately calling for a sprinkle of salt, eaten dry, they had the mouth feel of good, heavy duty, cardboard. Fortunately, they came with a side of freshly made pico de gallo, below:

Very nice, lots of onions in it, and a nice kick, from what I think were diced jalapenos. This stuff made the chips edible.
Dinner, was a beef Chimichanga, which was huge, and filled with very nicely seasoned shredded beef and a little too much melted cheese. I know, how can you have too much cheese? Well, turns out you can when it's heavy, gloppy, melted orange stuff! Overall though, it was a decent Chimi, and for one of those just spotted it places, a good meal to start the trip.

More to follow!

Well gang, it's been a while since I've taken a road trip, but I've got one coming up this week, although it's a relatively short one, it should be kind of fun. Tomorrow I'm off to beautiful Potsdam NY, to do a CPO Class for SUNY Potsdam. I've done this for them in the past, and it's always one of those classes you both look forward to, and sort of dread. You look forward to it because it's a pretty good size class, which means there will be good energy in the room, and decent money for the gig. You dread it, because there's always at least a couple of people in the class who'd rather be covered with honey and chained to a fire ant ant hill. You know, the old 'my boss made me come' students, always such a fun group to try and work with. So, we'll have two fun filled days of jousting back and forth, trying to get through enough of the material so that most of them can pass the certification exam on Thursday. Normally I hope that they all pass, on this class, I'm REALLY hoping they all pass, 'cause if they don't, I'll have to go back up there to give them a re-test, and that's a trip I really don't want to have to make!
Potsdam is a funny sort of town, a bit different from the places I usually visit, in that it's nowhere near any of the major thruways/expressways. So you have to run up the Northway to exit 29, and then you snake your way westbound over some pretty sketchy state roads, meandering through pretty rural areas (and an Indian, oops, 'Native American' reservation), until you get to what is pretty much the middle of St. Lawrence County. It's a sleepy little town at this time of year, as the four colleges and universities which are located there are pretty much out for the summer. It's not a real 'tourist' town, so many of the shops and restaurants close up in the summer, and re-open in the fall, exactly the opposite of what you see in places like Watertown or Plattsburgh. 
Tommy had looked into going to college here, at Potsdam's Crane School of Music, and although it's a great school, I think he was happy that he ended up at Adelphi, for a few reasons, one of them being that there really isn't much to do up here during the school year; the weather isn't so great. 
I think you can get an idea of how this place can affect you if you look at the list of "Famous Residents" - probably the most famous is Wes Craven.  You know, the guy who did "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream"? I'd think that says a lot about growing up in Potsdam, that he didn't make films like "Mr. Fluffy and the Kitty Rescue Squad".
So, off to Potsdam I'll go, and I'll do my best to post a few notes from the road, and review some food, but I'm not too terribly hopeful, a quick look shows mostly run of the mill diner type places, a couple of local eye-talian joints, and the usual collection of fast food spots. I did see a couple of local sports bars, and a Mexican restaurant, so who knows, perhaps I'll find a jewel amongst the rocks.

Last weekend, The Monkees tour came through the metro area, and Karen and I, along with Tommy and Lindsay, saw the show at the Paramount in Huntington NY. More about the show in a bit, but I wanted to comment on how this venue has become such a popular spot in just a short time. 
Formerly the Inter Media Arts Center, the Paramount is now a very cool performance center, which can accommodate acts of all types and sizes. For example, here are some of artists who are scheduled to appear here in the near future:
Joan Rivers
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Ted Nugent
The Go-Go's
Trace Adkins
Steely Dan
Smash Mouth, Uncle Kracker, & Blues Traveler (all on one night!)
In the past, they've also had ZZ Top, Bill Cosby, Buddy Guy, Marshall Tucker, 
Southside Johnny
Courtney Love
Peter Frampton (whose "Frampton Comes Alive" album was mostly recorded at the old Long Island Arena in Commack - particularly the single "Show Me The Way")
The Blues Brothers
Don McLean & Judy Collins
Avril Lavigne
Dennis Miller
Clifford, The Big Red Dog
Well, by now you get the idea; amazingly varied acts, something for almost everyone, from comedy to jazz, to blues, to rock, to children's shows. And somehow, the place feels 'right' for each of these acts. There's amazing energy for the loud rock shows, great lighting and follow spot work for the solo acts, and flexible seating that can be set up for any sort of presentation, including a boxing ring! There are also several full service bars and stands that sell munchies located throughout the building, so the lines for refreshments never seem to reach the uncomfortably long size that you see elsewhere.
Which, I suspect, is why this place has become so popular in a relatively short amount of time. It seems to me that a lot of these acts would have, in the past at least, made stops over at the old Westbury Music Fair - or whatever they're calling it these days - which is a great spot to see a show, due to the relatively small size of the place, and the unique revolving stage. However, Westbury seems to attract an older, more sedate crowd, which I think, doesn't always play well with the acts who appear there. I'm sure that the 'old guard', Sinatra, Rivers, Anka, etc., love the polite crowds, who settle in to those nice, soft, comfy seats and don't leave them until it's time, as Jay Black says, 'to run to the diner for a bagel' towards the end of the show. But, as far as energy goes, ehhh, not so much.
Which brings me back to The Monkees. Karen and I saw them in 2012 at the Paramount, last year at Westbury, and last weekend, again at the Paramount. And honestly, the atmosphere at the Paramount was a lot better for this type of show. You could really feel the energy in the crowd at the Paramount - especially so two years ago when Mike appeared for the first time - but at Westbury, I'd call it 'polite enthusiasm', and not so much screaming and cheering. So I wonder if this is one of the reasons we're seeing less shows at Westbury, and seeing acts performing more at places like the Paramount, or the Capital Theatre up in Port Chester, or the Tarrytown Music Hall. All I know is when the guys hit the stage last Sunday, it was electric, and they really fed off the crowd, they did a phenomenal show, and as Karen said, boy, they sure did seem to genuinely be having a good time on stage; and that came across the footlights out into the audience. So, for those who couldn't get there, here's a video of "Pleasant Valley Sunday", the show's finale, that was posted on YouTube by someone who was at the show: