GeekDad 2.0

So, the nice folks at GeekDad, one of Wired Magazine’s great blogs, saw fit to follow up the very complimentary review of Deus ex Comica with an author interview. Book reviewer Curtis Silver conducted the interview, coming up with some interesting and genuine questions based on what he read in the book, which is always appreciated as the subject of an interview. I can’t thank Curtis enough for his support and enthusiasm! It’s been a pleasure getting to know him over the last few weeks. If you like what you read in the review or interview, please consider picking up a copy of Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan, and follow Curtis and all the great writers at GeekDad!

As always, if you've bought a copy of Deus ex Comica, thank you! And if you enjoyed reading it, please take a moment to rank and review it on Amazon, Lulu, and/or GoodReads. I appreciate everyone's support!

High Grade - Future Perfect

The Bob Dylan Show, Featuring John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson
11 July 2009: Classic Park, Eastlake, Ohio

The Bob Dylan Show featuring John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson is hitting minor league ballparks across North America through July and August this year, and it’s an amazing concert-going experience. It took little to convince Tracy to go to this show. She loves Dylan. I’m a fan of all three artists to varying degrees, so I was all-in from the beginning. The bonus is that kids under 14 are free, so it was a no-brainer to take the kiddo along as well. Granted, because of ballpark prices, we spent nearly the equivalent of a ticket in concessions for the three of us over the five-plus hours we were at the show, but it was worth every penny.

The show rolled into Northeast Ohio Saturday night by way of Eastlake after a nasty morning storm. We have been by Classic Park too many times to count. Our best friends (and the kiddo’s godparents), Diane and Ivan, have a house up on Lake Erie and the route to and from their house takes us right past the ballpark. But this was our first time inside it. Typical minor league ballpark, but a nice enough venue for a summer show.

All tickets were general admission, with the stadium seats all open and standing room only in front of the stage set up in shallow center field. Taking the kiddo, and because the sun and heat and humidity settled in after the morning storms blew through, we knew we wanted to get some of the east-facing (read: shaded) seats in the stands. We made it to the stadium right around 4pm. There was a good crowd already gathered in anticipation of the 5pm gate opening, but nothing too crazy. But within minutes (literally!) of our arrival, the lines queued up incredibly fast. The hour passed quickly with some amazing people-watching that would continue throughout the night, and the gates opened right on time. (I have nothing but good things to say about the organization of Classic Park in handling the event, and the same for the clockwork of the show – everything started on time and flowed perfectly, although a large screen projection of the performances would have been appreciated.)

Walking through the gates, we ran into one of Tracy’s coworkers and her husband and ended up sitting with them. Once settled, the kiddo and I set out to quench his thirst (blue raspberry Slush Puppie, thank you very much), then Tracy and I grabbed our food while the opening act took the stage promptly at 5:30. The Two Man Gentlemen Band (ironically playing as a quartet) played a competent half-hour set of Vaudevillian banjo-upright bass-kazoo music. (Despite professing he doesn’t like banjo music, the kiddo couldn’t resist the fun factor being amped up with the inclusion of a kazoo.) I complained before the show that I didn’t think there was really a need for an opening act when you have three hall of fame artists on the bill, but the TMGB did a fine job and, given the overall flow of the evening, fit right in.

At 6:15, the Texas flag dropped from the top of the stage and American troubadour Willie Nelson kicked into “Whiskey River” to begin a solid, if somewhat meandering, hour-long set. If it weren’t for the subsequent acts, Nelson’s set could have been considered stellar, but he was ultimately outdone by both Mellencamp and then Dylan. I’m hardly a big country fan, but I enjoy “No Depression” country and love Johnny Cash, Jenny Lewis, and Nelson’s music, so it was great to see him live. And it was even cooler to have Tracy, who has zero-tolerance for country music, lean over and tell me “he’s pretty good. Must be because of all the Johnny Cash you play, I can kinda appreciate the ‘classic’ country music” after “Whiskey River” finished.

Nelson hit all the high-points, including “Mommas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys”, “On the Road Again”, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”, Hank Williams’ classic “Move It On Over”, and “Always on My Mind”. Good stuff all around. (On a curious side note, I didn’t quite understand why the faithful went nuts when Willie doffed his cowboy hat for his trademark headband halfway through the set, but it’s all good.) And Nelson’s son Lukas played lead guitar for the set, and took lead vocals on a fantastic version of “Texas Flood”. The hour-long show was a good time, and I think even Tracy and the kiddo were glad to have been around for it.

Exactly one half-hour later, John Mellencamp took the stage with a blistering set-opening one-two punch of “Pink Houses” and “Paper in Fire” at 7:45. The tempo was perfectly orchestrated to rise and fall between the rockers and the more reflective tunes. He played the new song “Take Some Time to Dream” for only the second time ever live, a nice rendition of “If I Die Sudden”, and a solo acoustic “Small Town” that would have been better served with a full band. The up-side was way up, though. “Check It Out” and an ominous “Rain on the Scarecrow” were incredibly done. No “Jack and Diane”, no “I Need a Lover”, but Mellencamp finished as strong as he started, as the raucous, sing-along of “Crumblin’ Walls” and “Authority Song” had the kiddo on his feet and learning the words on the fly to join in the party with the rest of us.

By the time Mellencamp’s hour-long set completed, it was time to make good on the kiddo’s promised ice cream. So the two of us made our way back out into the concourse for some much deserved frozen confection. (He was an absolute trooper through this marathon concert of a variety of acts with varying levels of interest to a seven-year-old.) Besides, by that time we’d already sunk so much cash into the overpriced concessions, what was another twenty bucks in more food and drink?

At 9:15, the stadium lights went out and the public address system broadcast the well-known introduction that has preceded Dylan’s stage entrance for the past seven years...

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll. The voice of the promise of the ’60s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock. Who donned makeup in the ’70s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse. Who emerged to find Jesus. Who was written off as a has-been by the end of the ’80s, and who suddenly shifted gears releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late ’90s. Ladies and gentlemen, Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan!

With the best seat in the house, Dylan’s Academy Award was perched atop its amplifier pedestal, where it has witnessed genius at every show since it was brought home in 2001. And this show was no exception. I was absolutely amazed at the authority of Dylan’s set. His five-piece backing band is one of the strongest and tightest I’ve ever heard, and Dylan’s organ work was stellar (particularly adding menacing weight to the show-closing “All Along the Watchtower”).

The song selection pulled evenly from old and new, with half coming off of his last three (brilliant) studio releases. “Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum”, my favorite tune off of the still-heavy-in-my-playlist-rotation Love and Theft from 2001 was magnificent live. And coming five songs into the fourteen song set, it was probably one of the last ones the kiddo remembers before completely sacking out 45-mintues into the hour-and-a-half set. Three of the four cuts from 2006’s Modern Times played in this show closed the main set, starting with a beautiful interpretation of “Workingman’s Blues #2”. Lukas Nelson took over lead guitar duties from Denny Freeman for the classic “Highway 61 Revisited” and never looked back, accompanying the band through the rest of the night, finishing the set with “Ain’t Talkin’” and “Thunder on the Mountain”.

The three-song encore was nothing short of stunning. Together Through Life’s “Jolene” nestled perfectly between the essential “Like a Rolling Stone” and the powerful, show-stopping “All Along the Watchtower”. I have never heard either of those classics sound so vital, so potent, so insistent. The poet laureate of rock ‘n’ roll. Without question.

After the show, we woke up the kiddo from his dead sleep somehow sprawled across a couple of stadium seats (and partially in Tracy’s lap after he shifted in his sleep and nearly took a header out of the chair without waking up), and made our way back to the car and around the corner to Diane and Ivan’s for a well-deserved night's sleep after an exhilarating and exhausting day.

It seems every year we add another artist to the list of Rock Hall inductees we’ve seen live. And this summer, we added two more to that list, along with our first Country Music Hall of Famer, over the course of four hours of music crammed into nearly six hours of a hot summer night.

Icon

Saying Michael Jackson isn't culturally relevant seems as silly as claiming Elvis or the Beatles or Bob Dylan aren't culturally significant. Yet two weeks after his death, it still seems to be hip among my friends and the interweb to poo-poo Michael Jackson's cultural relevance. I think that stance was difficult to uphold in the days after he died (especially considering he basically broke the internet in the hours immediately after the announcement of his passing), and has not gotten any easier since. Perhaps Jackson hasn't been musically relevant in a good 15 years, but his cultural significance has remained by virtue of the quality of his '80s music output and his personal and legal issues in the interim.

How else do you explain the sales figures still being reported from Billboard regarding how much Jackson music is moving even now? From June 29 through July 05 (Billboard uses SoundScan to capture data on a Monday to Sunday calendar), Jackson's solo catalog moved 800,000 copies in the U.S. alone. That breaks down to roughly 650,000 physical albums and 150,000 downloaded albums.

SoundScan also reports Jackson owns the top album spot this week with Number Ones, and he holds the top two spots on Billboard's Top Comprehensive Albums chart with Number Ones and Thriller.

Jackson died on a Thursday, so posthumous sales the week of his death really only account for sales made Thursday evening through Sunday night, yet he held eight of the top ten spots on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. This week, he has captured all ten spots at the top of that chart. (Numbers one through six and eight through ten are solo, number seven is a Jackson 5 album.)

Despite the fact that I'm amazed so many people didn't have Jackson's music in their collections already, and even more amazed at the shot in the arm Jackson's death has meant to the sales of physical albums, I don't understand how you make a case for his cultural insignificance. I would argue that his last relevant album was 1991's Dangerous, but culturally his entire musical output, his position as a fashion icon, and the freak show quality of his both his celebrity and personal life solidify his relevance.

The holy trinity of '80s pop, consisting of Jackson, Madonna and Prince, will always have cultural relevance as well, regardless of child abuse scandals, adoption problems, or record label lawsuits.

Geek is Good

Some updates on Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan...

I had a blast a couple Sundays ago meeting and chatting with folks and selling copies of the book alongside my friend and editor John Booth at the Akron-Canton Comic Con. I got to chat with people like local artist and comic fan Chris Martin (looking forward to his show at Red Light Galleries in Akron’s Northside District) and with comic artist Tommy Flick, who also had a table at the show.

If you have been checking out the sidebar of the blog, you may have noticed that Deus ex Comica is now available through Target.com, and available once again through Discount Comic Book Service (thanks, Zack!).

Also, today Wired Magazine’s great GeekDad blog ran a review of the book that was especially gratifying. I’m really excited about what the author of the review, Curtis Silver, had to say, particularly since he came at the book from a DC fan’s perspective. Stay tuned for an interview on GeekDad coming soon!

If you've read and liked Deus ex Comica, please consider taking a moment to rank and review it at Amazon, Lulu, and/or GoodReads and recommending the book to a friend. I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed my book and appreciate the support!

Home

We said good-bye to Vinnie today. His last “Vinnie Here” column ran in the bulletin today. Before Mass started, we sat down in the pew and read the final conversation that Father and Vinnie had to share with us. And the kiddo saw Father up near the alter preparing for Mass, and he went up there by himself and told Father he was sorry Vinnie died and that he liked Vinnie and that Vinnie was a good dog. Then the kiddo came back to us, sat down, took a pencil out of the pew and drew a little halo and wings on the picture of Vinnie that has accompanied all the inspirational columns in the bulletin week after week and year after year now.

In his homily today, Father talked about how hard it is to deal with loss, and how amazing it is the way four-legged friends become family and so important to us. After both Father and much of the congregation composed ourselves, he also told us the story of how the internet is a funny thing... how it can get you into trouble. Like it did for Father on Friday. He read the story in the Akron Beacon Journal about shipping dogs from the overcrowded Summit County shelter off to a Buffalo shelter. He then got on the internet and looked through the dogs available in Akron, but none of them connected with him. But from that site there was a link to a Labrador rescue site in Dayton, and the very last dog on the list was The One. Looking a lot like Vinnie, this female dog made her way into Father’s heart.

Father told us how he kept enlarging and then minimizing her picture, over and over. Then he picked up the phone, figuring that no one would be around on the day before the holiday. But someone did pick up, and Father chatted with them about the dog. Then Father told them he didn’t really know when he could make it down to Dayton... and the person on the other end said, “But I’m headed to Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon and have to go right through Akron. I could bring her if you’d like!” And that’s how we came to have a new church dog. Not one better or worse than Vinnie, not a replacement, but simply a new member of the family.

This week we’ll be headed out to PetSmart to pick up a gift card and the kiddo will be making a welcome home card, because we want to make sure Minnie knows, just like Vinnie, that she is loved and she is home.

Vinnie's Gone

We had a lot going on last weekend… we had a wedding to attend Saturday and then Sunday I had a table at the Akron-Canton Comic Con selling copies of Deus ex Comica alongside my friend and editor John, who was selling copies of his book (also expertly edited!), Collect All 21. So we didn't make it to Mass Sunday morning.

If you've read my book, you know the kiddo spends one week every summer at my parents' house in the same tradition that my sister and I spent a week at our dad's parents' house when we were kids. That week this year for the kiddo is this week.

So Thursday morning, the kiddo sees the story about Vinnie, our parish dog, passing away in the Akron Beacon Journal. He calls us from my parents' house crying, horribly upset over Vinnie dying. Just a heartbreaking moment as a parent. One of our two dogs had back surgery about five years ago, is getting old, moving slow, and growing blind. My wife and I have commented a lot over the last few months about how much of a downhill slide the dog seems to be on. Nothing bad enough to have to make the tough decision yet, but we know it is looming in front of us, so maybe it’s a good thing the kiddo’s going through these emotions now with Vinnie.

For a few years now, Father has been writing his pastor’s message in the weekly bulletin as a conversation between him and Vinnie. Sometimes I think the kiddo’s favorite part of Mass each week is reading the Vinnie story. Many were collected in book form a year or so ago, which I have really enjoyed revisiting. We celebrated the kiddo’s first communion this May, and he decided to spend part of his gift money on his own copy of Vinnie Here. So as he was crying into the phone, asking us to give extra hugs to our dogs from him while he's away at grandma and grandpa's and telling me he was going to be so sad because there wouldn’t be any more “Vinnie stories,” I reminded him that he had Vinnie’s book and he can read and reread all those stories as much as he wants.

A couple weeks ago, Vinnie was roaming church before nine o’clock Mass. The kiddo’s face lit up as Vinnie sided up to and poked his head into our pew. And there were lots of pets and wags and smiles. I’m glad we got to see Vinnie that morning. Those personal greetings always meant so much, and that recent one makes his passing seem a little easier for all of us to take now.

Quiet Nights, Disarming Chanteuse

Diana Krall
30 June 2009: State Theatre at Playhouse Square, Cleveland, Ohio

I feel bad for Diana Krall. Her career took off a couple decades too late. Her smooth jazz offerings would have been right at home in virtually any Nora Ephron Meg Ryan vehicle from the '90s. She is clearly the heir to Harry Connick, Jr.'s mantle in that regard. And as a part of my Father’s Day bounty, I received two tickets to see Ms. Krall on her current tour.

Krall's personality in concert is downright goofy in the most endearing way, which stands in contrast to my preconceived ideas about her going into the show. And this may be a case of a few years between the performance captured for posterity on her Live in Paris DVD and CD and the reality of marriage and motherhood, but it was welcomingly disarming. The music is still sexy and sophisticated, but her banter with the audience is adorably disheveled. As much as I enjoyed Mrs. Elvis Costello's music, I found myself looking forward to the between-song chatter about rainy-day moods, crayon-defaced hotels, her husband, her hometown, and everyday life as much (if not more so) than the songs they bookended.

Jeff and Anna are our most reliable concert-going companions, everything from A Flock of Seagulls/Men at Work/Smithereens/Violent Femmes quadruple bill to Erasure to Eddie Izzard to U2 to Sisters of Mercy and on and on. (Technically you could even say our concert history dates all the way back to 1989 when we all attended the New Order/PiL/Sugarcubes concert at Blossom Music Center... albeit, separately). So we met Jeff and Anna at the theatre before the performance and went across the street for coffee and dessert after the show. What struck me was that no one mentioned the show at all at the restaurant. No references to what we thought about the performance, her banter, nothing. That seems just odd. But maybe it's because the music Krall produces is very much about mood as much as it is about the music itself.

As I sat in the gorgeous State Theatre, where the sound was absolutely amazing, I couldn’t help but think that taking jazz out of the intimacy of the club is almost a disservice to the experience. The venue was too large to feel cozy, but Krall and her backing musicians filled every inch of the hall with their big sound, her smoky voice, and enchanting conversation.

Disclaimer: I certainly didn’t set out to have this read like a string of backhanded compliments, but reading back over what I just wrote sort of comes off that way. In reality, I sincerely enjoy Diana Krall's music and the mood she is able to create.