Chicago Venue Triple Play. Where Have YOU Been Lately?

Like so many of us, I have been out of the habit of going to Chicago’s great live venues. First Covid made it impossible, and now the city’s perpetual construction season has made it a chore to visit any of our town’s popular arenas. But an unlikely series of events had me in three different stadiums during three consecutive weekends.

Barb and I have seen live performances by both the Eagles and Steely Dan pre-Covid, so when I heard they were coming to the United Center I thought we should pass on this bit of nostalgia, especially since the bands were lacking (apologies to Bob Stroud) the late-greats Walter Becker and Glenn Frey. But when a neighbor logged into Ticketmaster and grabbed 4 tickets for the Saturday night show, we agreed it would be fun to spend the evening with our friends, along with Donald Fagen, Don Henley, and Joe Walsh et al.

Having dinner at the UC’s in-house restaurant allowed us to beat the traffic crunch and the burden of parking first at a restaurant for dinner and a second time for the show. We were barely in our upper balcony seats when the show began. Steely Dan sounded a little muddy, but the Eagles rocked, or rather countried, with country superstar Vince Gill handling much of the lead vocals. A good night at the United Center.

Ever been to a minor league hockey game? I never had, but last autumn my silent auction bid for Blackhawks tickets at a charity event was a winner and the Blackhawks prize was accompanied by two tickets to the American Hockey League Chicago Wolves. I couldn’t attend the Blackhawks game, but I took my 9-year-old granddaughter to see the Wolves at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

On a sound meter, the roar after a Wolves goal was loud, the cheer after the singing of the National Anthem was louder, but nothing broke the sound barrier like the on-ice fireworks. The sound was intense and a bit scary. Only a pretzel and Blue Gatorade gave my granddaughter enough staying power to last until the second intermission.

Did you know Cirque de Soleil was back in town? The French-Canadian troupe played several weekend performances at the Now Arena in Hoffman Estates. Friends invited us to join them at the show, and we decided “Why not?”

The show was called Crystal and was unique for Cirque de Soleil in that the performers were all on ice–except when flying through the air on their trapezes! It was a two-hour spectacular that surpassed my childhood memories of the Ice Follies and the Ice Capades. Great creativity and skillful performers left the crowd cheering for more.

My arena triple play was fun, but now spring is here. Time for outdoor venues, concerts, and festivals. See you at the ballgame!

Christine McVie and The Music of My Life.

Christine McVie has died. You all know that by now. Almost every post on my Facebook feed has her picture. I suppose if I ever looked at my Twitter page I would see the same thing. Maybe TikTok not so much…wrong generation.

To me, Ms. McVie’s passing is linked to the death of two other musicians, Walter Becker in 2017 and Glenn Frey in 2016.

Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, and the Eagles–certainly, this was my soundtrack of the ’70s.

I’ve never quite understood my fascination with Steely Dan–Becker and his buddy Donald Fagen spinning yarns of drugs, death, and deliverance. But I loved their rock-jazz fusion and wore out my copy of Citizen, the 4 CD compilation set encompassing their first 7 studio albums. I was fortunate to see them twice before Becker’s death, first at a rain-soaked outdoor performance in Tinley Park, sharing the bill with their former backup singer Michael McDonald, and lastly in the more intimate setting of the Chicago Theater in 2009. When Becker died, I listened to Aja for days.

With the Eagles, did you take it easy, or take it to the limit. Did you want to live your life in the fast lane, or out on the range with a desperado? Billions of records sold, Hotel California playing non-stop around the world, and lots of reunion tours. We caught them live once, at Allstate Arena three years before Frey’s death. The band sounded great, even when Joe Walsh stole the second half of the show.

But Fleetwood Mac—there was nothing like Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac and Rumours were the two albums that will forever be the music of my first two years of medical school. Over My Head, Go Your Own Way, Don’t Stop… I may not have known of the trials and tribulations of the band at the time, of the broken romances and the cocaine–I just knew it was the music to which I learned my physiology, my anatomy, and my pharmacology.

By the time I saw Fleetwood Mac live in 2015 the band members were no longer young and spry and gorgeous. Rumor was that a full set of musicians was playing just behind the curtain. But at least the Big 5 (Fleetwood, McVie, McVie, Buckingham, Nicks) were all together. That will never happen again.

So long, Walter. Adios Glenn. And most of all, goodbye, Christine.

I Have A Beatles Dilemma. How About You?

The Beatles in the early days. Photo courtesy Chicago Tribune.

Ask me what I think about the Beatles and I will give the standard answer of my generation. They are the greatest band that ever lived, they revolutionized music, they mean the world to me. OK boomer, now ask me which of their songs I would put on my all-time, continuos loop, soundtrack of my life music stream.

And that’s where the dilemma lies. From the harmonies of I Want to Hold Your Hand, through the opening chord of A Hard Days Night to the final yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah of The Long and Winding Road, I like a lot of Beatle songs, but I don’t love any of them. Sort of like my relationship to Superdawg french fries. I like them but I don’t love them.

It’s not the same with the other artists that are constantly playing on my radio in the lab or the Pandora station in my headphones at the fitness center. If I’ve got favorite bands, I’ve got favorite songs to go with them.

U2? The bang-bang-bang opening of the Joshua Tree album–Where the Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, and With or Without You introduced me to the band more than 30 years ago and have been my favorites ever since.

With Steely Dan, my favorite songs come from the end of their career, or at least the end of their career’s first chapter (I ignored the second chapter.) Aja, the title track of their 6th album, is sublimely mellow and mind-expanding and the same album’s Deacon Blue makes a wistful cry out to mid-life crises.

When Fleetwood Mac changed their personnel and music style in the mid-70’s they probably lost a few thousand fans but gained a few million more. It was that flip that led to Go Your Own Way, the best power-pop song of all time. And I love the more pensive Over My Head just as much. Easy to add to my jukebox of greats.

What Eagles songs are on that Love Those Songs jukebox? Give me the original Hotel California and then follow it up with the Hell Freezes Over version of…Hotel California. Sometimes you feel like acoustic, sometimes you don’t.

The longings of youth. Has anyone made them seem more desperate than Bruce Springsteen in Thunder Road or made them sound more fun than in the Boss’s Rosalita?

While Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is my top-ranked album, I prefer not to think about individual songs from it — everything blends so seamlessly together. On the other hand, Wish You Were Here, the title cut and final track from the Floyd’s 1975 album stands alone as the perfect paean to loss of love, loss of a bandmate, loss of sanity. And the guitar solos in Comfortably Numb make me feel…comfortable.

But back to the Beatles. I am ok with the silly love songs, I enjoy the goofiness of Yellow Submarine and Octopuses Garden, and I can play air guitar to The End. But where is the song I could listen to over and over and over again? Where is their Hotel California? If Rocky Racoon put a gun to my head and made me choose one song, today it would be While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Tomorrow it would probably be something else. Like but never love.

And that is my dilemma with the Beatles.

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The Candidates Speak On Education

And I’m never going back…

…to my old school.

Steely Dan-1973

An article in this week’s Time Magazine reexamines the concept of starting high school classes later in the day, to better fit the circadian rhythms of teenagers. Scientific data supports the change, but most school districts find it impossible to make the change for financial or cultural reasons. As a past Board of Education President, I can understand the difficulties these school districts face, though I believe at Adlai Stevenson High School, where I spent my Board time, the push of the community would have been to start classes earlier and keep them going later…and I served BEFORE there was such a thing as a Tiger Mom.

As the political climate heats to a boiling point, Downsize-Maybe decided to interview our presidential candidates on the idea of later starting time for high school classes. A highly edited transcript follows:

DS: Senator Rubio, what are your thoughts on school start times?

Marco Rubio: Late starts could never work in Florida. We need our high school students to begin class early and finish by 2 pm so they can go to their restaurant jobs. Don’t forget, Early Bird dinners start at 3. We need our youngsters ready to serve! And except for Miami the whole state closes at 9 pm anyway, so the kids should be able to get plenty of sleep.

DS: Governor Christie, we know you are pulling out of the race, but before you leave what do you think? Should New Jersey push back school start times?

Chris Christie: I have already accomplished that. I just close down the expressways so the kids can’t get to school before 10 in the morning. They can get loads of shut eye on the bus.

DS: Governor Bush, should high school children start school later in the day? Governor Bush? GOVERNOR BUSH???

Jeb! Bush: Sorry, I was just dozing off there. And I think sleeping high school students is a problem. You know my sister-in-law Laura was a teacher. She is just one of the fabulous Bush family who strongly support my candidacy for President of the United States of America. Let’s seem, there is my father George, he was a President. And my brother George, HE was a President. And my mother Barbara, she SHOULD have been a President. Now what was your question again?

DS: Senator Sanders, what is your opinion on this important matter.

Bernie Sanders: I have thought about this very very very carefully. The kids all love me. I’ll give em all the schooling they need, and all for FREE. Let ’em wake up whenever they want as long as they vote for good old Uncle Bernie.

DS: Governor Kasich, what time should high school classes start?

John Kasich: Let’s just all be friends, can we?

DS: Senator Cruz, would you like to weigh in?

I categorically object to the idea that the current President has the right to appoint a new time for high schools to start class. Never in over 200 years of this country has a lame duck President changed school start times. I am not even sure he is the President.

DS: Senator Clinton, early or late school day start?

Hillary Clinton: When I was First Lady, I supported education. When I was a Senator I supported education. When I was Secretary of State I supported education. When I was a woman I supported education. NONE of my opponents have been all those things. And if you don’t believe me, just check my email server.

DS: And finally Mr. Trump, do you have any thoughts to add?

Donald Trump: I’ll tell you what I am going to do. My first day in office, I am gonna cancel school. Not just for one day, for ten days. We will have a party. It will be huuuuge. And then the whole world will know that America is great again! And oh, don’t forget to wake up Governor Bush.

DS: Thank you candidates. You have all been illuminating. I can’t wait to vote!

_________

In other news, good weather means we should be pouring more concrete soon. And American Airlines has stepped up to the plate with some vouchers. Life is good!

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