TV Halloween

Last night's NBC comedy line-up featured an all Halloween themed extravanganza which ran the gamut from Halloween trickery/vandalism (Parks and Recreation) to the unpleasant (Michael Scott hanging from the ceiling with a Christmas package affixed to his junk). Oddly, there also two different references to off the hook gay Halloween parties; Parks and Rec delivered a zinger about "three Jonas Brothers making out with three Robert Pattinsons", while 30 Rock went so far as to make getting into a gay Halloween parties one of its subplots. For my money, though, nothing was as funny as Community, which served up the spooky spectacle of Chevy Chase tripping on ecstasy while dressed as The Beastmaster. When one of his classmates doesn't recognize the character, a dumbfounded Chase responds with "What rock have you been living under?" I guess we're a long ways from the days when HBO could've stood for "Hey, Beastmaster's On!".

All four shows were clearly enjoying their riffs on Halloween themes, but my prize for the greatest Halloween episode ever still goes to the long departed cult classic Freaks and Geeks. Witness the humiliation as Lindsay inadvertently eggs her little brother Sam while he and his friends are out trick or treating:




And see where it all goes wrong as The Beastmaster swaps pills with "Starburns":



Happy TV Halloween everybody!

U2 at the Rose Bowl: An All Day Affair

According to Mapquest, the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena is 13.83 miles away from our Hollywood apartment. What mapquest doesn't factor in, of course, is how long it takes to travel that distance when 95,998 other people are trying to do the same thing. As a TAP card carrying rider of L.A. public transportation, I thought I'd got this problem licked. The Metro Red Line stop at Hollywood and Vine is an easy walk from where we live. Take the train downtown to Union Station and make a quick transfer to the Gold Line train, which stops in Old Town Pasadena. From there it was a quick two block walk to Parsons, where we had purchased (in advance) a ticket for a shuttle bus that would take us directly to the Rose Bowl. The promoters for the U2 show had generously agreed to pay the costs of extending train service until the wee hours of Sunday morning to accomodate the crowds, so it seemed like a foolproof plan. After the day was done, I was reminded of something I overheard on the bus on my way to work a few weeks back. There's a woman in a wheelchair who rides my same bus sometimes, and she often strikes up conversations with the bus driver. Her favorite subject is rock concerts. I've heard her mention Green Day, Pearl Jam, and U2,which she always added would be "an all day affair." Considering how long it took us to get to and from the show, I wouldn't be surprised if she's just getting home now.

Getting to the show, everything went according to plan. We set out at around 2:30 from our apartment, made our connections, and had only a brief wait for the shuttle. We were in the general admission line at Gate E by around 4:45, and even had the pleasure of hearing U2's soundcheck going on inside. The gates opened shortly before 5:30, and we were down on the field in a prime spot a little before 6. The Black Eyed Peas "got it started" with a rousing opening set that included a stellar cover of "Sweet Child O'Mine" featuring none other than Slash on guitar. U2 took the stage around 9 and delivered more than two hours of first rate rock and roll spectacle. Highlights included "The Unforgettable Fire", "Until the End of the World", and a rendition of "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" which saw Bono don a literal lasersuit which was spectacular to behold. My wife described him perfectly as a "mariachi from space."


It was after the show that the real adventure began. We spent a half an hour or so trying to connect with our friends who weren't able to travel to the show with us. If you want an exercise in frustration, trying to find someone in the midst of 96,000 people is right up there. We finally had to give up and it was every woman and man for themselves. The show ended at around 11:15, and we knew that the last Gold Line train from Old Town left at 1:27 AM. Seemed simple enough, but then we saw the lines for the shuttle. It seemed impossible that we would get there in time if we waited, so we hoofed it on out of there, along with hundreds of other brave souls. About a mile and a half and several steep hills later, we made it onto a train a little before 1. A successful transfer to the red line later, we made a concession to our aching feet and paid $5 to cab it the remaining short distance home.

So to recap: Left the house at 2:30 PM, got home at 2 AM. I hope I see the woman on the bus again soon. I'd love to compare notes. U2's setlist is below.

Main Set: Breathe, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Stand By Me, Stuck In A Moment, No Line On The Horizon, Elevation, In A Little While, Unknown Caller, Until the End of the World, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo - It's Only Rock and Roll, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (remix), Sunday Bloody Sunday, MLK, Walk On - You'll Never Walk Alone

Encore(s): One, Amazing Grace, Where the Streets Have No Name, Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

UPDATE: Finally got a hold of our friends we couldn't connect with at the show. They said the line for the shuttle after the show "was like Lord of the Flies". They also walked all the way back to Old Town Pasadena, and my friend's wife is 3 months pregnant!

UPDATE 2: Don't know how long this will stay up, but for now, here's the ENTIRE CONCERT from YouTube:

Bob Dylan at the Hollywood Palladium 10/13/09

(Photo from the L.A. Times)


The last time I saw Bob Dylan was in Eugene, Oregon in the early 90's. His 1989 album Oh Mercy had been a comeback of sorts after a subpar creative decade, but Dylan didn't seem to be energized by the new material and delivered a lackluster set mostly composed of the requisite hits. Dylan's been busy since then, and has seemed to be experiencing a late career renaissance throughout most of this decade. I've been very impressed by his last three albums, especially 2006's Modern Times, so when I heard that Dylan and his band were doing three nights at the relatively intimate Hollywood Palladium, I decided to lay down some of my hard earned dollars and give the Bob Dylan live experience another try.

The result was a mixed bag. Dylan is Dylan, and there will never be another. He has absolutely nothing to prove, and in that sense every new album he makes is a bonus to be savored. But I'm starting to think that the "never ending tour" that Dylan's embarked on for the last few years isn't really doing him many favors. His band sounded great, and he definitely seemed more engaged than he was the last time I saw him, but there still seemed something perfunctory about the whole experience. There were certain exceptions. He really came to life during a towering performance of "Thunder on the Mountain" from Modern Times, and songs like "My Wife's Home Town" and "Jolene" from last year's Together Through Life had a satisfying snarl. Other times, though, his monotone delivery really took me out of some of the older material. The standard knock on Dylan is that he can't sing, but anyone who's listened to his records knows that's not true. The problem is that in the live setting, he mostly chooses not to.

Still, two hours spent listening to an American icon was not a bad way to spend a rainy night in Hollywood. The setlist for the show is below:

Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
Shooting Star
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Cold Irons Bound
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
My Wife's Home Town
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
High Water (for Charlie Patton)
I Feel A Change Comin' On
Highway 61 Revisited
Nettie Moore
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone
Jolene
All Along The Watchtower