Recently, the following letter appeared in the Buffalo News’ “Everybody’s Column”:

“As a graduate of Lafayette High School, I must comment on The News story discussing Board of Education plans for closing it, and the editorial urging action “without worrying about . . . history.”

Buffalo didn’t worry about history when the Larkin Building was torn down. Albright-Knox didn’t worry when it sold priceless art treasures. The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. isn’t worrying, subsuming one of two great nexuses of American immigration (the other is Ellis Island), and burying the Canal District under a Bass Pro-inspired project.

Lafayette is Buffalo’s oldest public high school still in its original (nationally historic) building, the educational font for hundreds of local and nationally known professionals: Judge Joseph Mattina, architect Gordon Bunshaft, The News’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Bruce Shanks and many others.

It has been renovated and refurbished, with energy-efficient windows and a new library and cupola. Its Steinway piano was rebuilt, and its carillon reactivated; both with funds from the city’s most active public school alumni association. We raised more than $30,000 at the 100th Anniversary celebration, attended by graduates from the years 1931 through 2001.

The board should keep Lafayette open, and encourage West Side families to view it as the great community asset that it is, and to send their children there.

Angela Bongiovanni Coniglio

Amherst”

My first inclination was to write my own damn letter to the Buffalo News, but I realized that I would not be able to use the language nessecary to convey my true feelings about Angela’s comments.

Read the signature– ANGELA LIVES IN FUCKING AMHERST.  Angela, like so many other scared folk, left the City of Buffalo screaming for the suburbs, and now has the audacity to suggest that “West Side Families” should send their kids to Lafayette.  Now, in Angela’s defense, maybe she doesn’t have kids.  Maybe she can’t have kids for all I know.  Maybe she moved to Amherst because she inherited a house.  I don’t know.  What I do know is Angela has no right getting up on her soapbox criticizing the city for considering closing Lafayette High School.

Personally, I agree with Angela– closing Lafayette would be a huge mistake.  As a resident of the West Side, I see Lafayette as tradition, an institution, and as an architecture buff, I agree, it’s a beautiful building.  Kids are bussed in from all over the city to attend Lafayette, and from what I can tell, the staff there are trying to fight the good fight.  But this woman sits in her home in the suburbs and suggests that West Side families should send their kids there in hopes of… what?  Changing the demographic of the student body? Making it more like it was when she attended classes?  If she does have children (and again, I don’t know the answer to that), where do they go to school?

I’m sure Angela has Buffalo’s and Lafayette High School’s best interest at heart.  But she ran.  She’s part of the problem.

I bought something on Craigslist recently.  The woman I spoke to was very nice.  She lived in Amherst.   She even offered to deliver the item.

“Where do you live?” she asked.

“In the city, on the West Side,” I replied.

Silence. Then, “Maybe you should come pick it up.”

The City of Buffalo is in the state that it is because people left.  People got scared and ran away.  And people are too scared to even set foot within it’s boundaries.

Angela, thank you for being an active alumnus and donating to the building’s renovation, but if you are so concerned about Lafayette High School, move back to the West Side.  Buy one of those nice homes in the Elmwood Village. Become part of the community, instead of sending letters to the Buffalo News.

When I was a kid, Christmas seemed like such a magical time of year.  Everyone seemed happy, people were buying me expensive toys (I think I got the entire Kenner Star Wars collection spread out over a few years between Christmas and birthdays) and I got a lot of time off from school.  Not bad, huh?  All because this guy named Jesus was apparently born that time of year.

As I got older, Christmas seemed to be becoming less and less about goodwill toward men, happiness, Jesus and all that I had been raised to believe it was about.  It started to be more about retail, money, buying things at discounts and showing people you cared about them by showering them with money and material things!  Family members that all but ignore each other year round were coming together, putting on a fake smile and pretending to actually care about each other for one day.

During the Holiday season you also see people being – drum roll – kind to strangers.  The homeless make out pretty well, as do the people we encounter on a professional basis.  Your doorman, your mailman, the guy who sells you your newspaper every morning all get tips above and beyond what they’d normally get year round.  We spend all year taking these people for granted but on the Holidays we pretend we care about them and their families just because it makes us feel better to do so.  Where’s all of that good will toward our fellow man the rest of the year?

Which brings me to the events of this year’s Black Friday.  Yes, the day after Thanksgiving when the greedy masses of Americans invade retail chains all across the country.   Heavily discounted merchandise inspires people to line up in front of stores as early as 2am, waiting for the gates to open and the race for cheap electronics and toys to commence.

This year, at a Long Island Wal-Mart a mass of people filled with the Holiday spirit broke down the doors and a stampede into the store killed a young employee by the name of Jdimytai Damour, who was just there to do his job.  He was instructed to let the crazed holiday shoppers in once the store opened, but they couldn’t wait for that.  They had to get IN.  They had to get their discounted Xbox and Playstation accessiories.  They had to break the doors down and trample this poor man to death.  In their efforts to give their family a Merry (and heavily discounted) Christmas, they deprived this man and his family of theirs.

The customers rushed into the store, trampling him not even giving any thought to the people around them, or the condition of this poor man who took his last breaths on the floor next to the pop machines.  They needed to get their discount TVs!  They needed the discount Malibu Barbie Dream House!  It didn’t matter that they had to kill a man in the process.

Is this what the Holidays are?  Christmas is now a holiday dedicated to greed and materialism.  It’s the season where we prove over and over again just what a shallow, materialistic culture we truly are.

I don’t know how you plan on spending this Holiday season, but I know where I’ll be.  On my couch, away from the insanity, watching bad horror films and knowing that what’s happening outside my front door is much worse than what I’m seeing on my TV screen.

It is just starting to fully sink in now.
Over the course of this election I watched, read and absorbed everything I could. Watched polls come in. Read the bloggers and journalists from both sides. Listened to people when they talked. Heard the hate and the praise. The hope and the fear. I was afraid. I was excited.
From my seat at my desk my eyes were assaulted with everything from hope so pure it made my heart ache to hatred so vile it made be clench my teeth until it hurt.
At first it seemed unlikely but over time things started looking better, more hopeful, but even then I didn’t feel content. As the polls came in for the primary run I got excited but still I felt that this wasn’t a sure thing.
Then the primary was won. I couldn’t believe it.
And I still couldn’t relax.
People screamed that he couldn’t win Hillary supporters. He couldn’t win whites. He couldn’t win Hispanics. I bit my nails.
More polls and more panic. It looked too good. Pundits talked about the Bradley effect. I didn’t buy it.
It looked close. Could we squeak by? Obama picked Biden. I loved the pick. It was perfect. But there was no southerner on the ticket. Shit. Can he grab any southern voters at all?
McCain picked Palin. Everyone with a working brain saw that pick for what it was. McCain got a small bump from the pick at first then she started to talk. Every time she opened he mouth pure bullshit fell out. I couldn’t help but laugh at her. She personally lost McCain any chance at stealing a majority of independent votes and any of the so-called Reagan Democrats. She spit hate and anger, played to the fear. She hyped up the idiots with her moronic words. But she failed. She successfully solidified the extremist fools into the main McCain support base instead of leaving them out on the fringe.
It looked bad for McCain.

Election day was stressful for me. My polling place is very close to my house and I could have voted at anytime but I waited. My wife was at work and I wanted to go as a family. So I waited. I bit my nails. I watched the news. I saw the lines. I read the stories of people crying tears of joy on the way out of their polling place. I read stories of voter caging. I was still worried.
Finally we went and voted. No wait at all. Went in, pulled levers, went out. We stopped by the Obama office after voting and it was packed. It was loud. It was full of energy. I was still worried.
Back to my couch to have a few beers and try to relax as I prepared for what I thought would be a long long night.

The numbers started creeping in as I sat there drinking my beer and chewing my lip. I stepped outside to make a few phone calls and noticed something strange. Silence. I live in a college neighborhood within throwing distance from a main road. No voices. No traffic sounds. Nothing. I have never heard it this quiet here.
OH, PA, VA, IA went blue. I screamed. More results came in. Some red, some blue. Around 10:30PM eastern my brain clicked in. Math. If CA, WA, HI went blue it was over, that was 270. We had it. My wife warned me that it was still to early to celebrate. My phone lit up with texts. Kelly was analyzing, Phil was worried.

11:00PM
The left cost goes blue! Holy shit! It is over! I’m still a bit worried though. Is this really it? It is only 11PM. No shenanigans?
A very classy concession from McCain. No speech from Palin thankfully. That is when it his me. Relief. It is over.
Another trip outside. It is now a different place. I can hear the shouts from the Obama office all the way over here. I’m smiling. I’m laughing. I’m happy. I am actually happy.
I watch people show up for the victory speech in Chicago. A massive sea of people. I don’t ever think I have ever seen that many people in one place. All the faces happy. Many of them crying. All of them united no matter their race or creed. It was amazing. The camera panned over and I saw Jesse Jackson. He was crying. It nearly killed me.

After it was over, after everyone was gone or asleep, I cried.

It was seven years ago today that George W. Bush received a memo entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”. This memo would be ignored. Bush was content to dick around his ranch and discuss golf. I don’t think there is one moment that highlights the gross incompetence of this administration better.

I’m going to ask you a question. Before you answer it, I want you to read the rest of this blog while thinking about it.

The question is this: What is your ethnicity?

It might seem like a simple enough question. I bet an answer popped into your head as soon as you finsihed reading it. It may be the correct answer. However, I want you to think about it for a moment.

What defines ethnicity? Is it the color of your skin? Is it where you live? Is it what language you speak? Is it where your ancestors are from? Is it something else?

It could be any of those. I guess it is really up to the individual to define the term for his or herself. I’ve been thinking about this question since I was involved in a discussion yesterday evening about this very topic.

My great-grandparents came over to the United States from Poland. They continued to speak the language when they arrived, and had children who spoke Polish. But those children also learned English which became their primary language.

As time went on, and generations were born to my family, the use of Polish diminished as did the Polish customs that the family had brought with them from their homeland. Soon, my generation was born any trace of the “old country” was all but gone. I suppose you can say that the family was “Americanized.”

So, here’s my second question: Am I Polish? Am I Polish-American? Or am I just American?

At what point does “American” become an ethnicity?

Those who come from Italy are italian. Those from France are French. Germans come from Germany. But, who are the people that come from America? Why do we put our ancestors’ ethnicities in front of “American” when we say who we are?

If I were to move to Italy and become a citizen, would I be considered American-Italian? Or Polish-Italian?

Where do we draw the line?

If I were to go back to Poland I would realize just how Polish I’m not. The same for an African-American who’s never been to Africa (not to mention that Africa’s aa continent, not a country so I’ve never understood the term African-American as it seems to apply to all blacks. Not every black person in America has roots in Africa.) How about an Asian American who’s never left the continental United States? Are they of the American ethnicity? Keep in mind, I’m talking ethnicity and not race.

It’s a good question to ask yourself, and I’m curious to hear opinions on this.

I read somewhere recently that a principal at some midwestern school has outlawed the game of tag. I believe she described it as a “game of intense aggression,” and is therefore unsuitable for the children of her school.

Along with this, dodgeball has been outlawed in many schools. Apparently it’s too violent as well.

In many parts of the country, little leagues have stopped keeping score.

I’m getting sick and tired of hearing this “every kid’s a winner” bullshit. Every kid is not a winner. Every kid should not be treated as a winner. If you want your kid to be a winner, teach him how to win.

You can’t expect children to grow up to be functioning adults if you coddle them until they’re 18. Can you imagine what a skewed sense of the world they’ll have? As soon as they leave their parents home, the world is going to crush them because they haven’t been properly taught how to succeed in it.

We’re being way too easy on children. We walk on eggshells with them because we’re afraid their feeling will get hurt and they’ll grow up with problems. It’s our generation of 30-somethings that’s doing this, too. For some reason we don’t want our children to have the same difficulties in school that we did. We want everything to be easy for them, everything handed to them on a silver platter.

I’m sorry, but the world doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to fail. You’ve got to lose. You’ve got to embarass yourself once in awhile in order to really know how to win. That’s life. You have to expose children to the harsh realities that await them someday so that they can actually handle it.

Let your kid lose once in awhile. It’s good for him.

….but you should.  Jack McLellan is a self-admitted pedophile working his evil in California and Washington state.

Jack was recently featured twice on ‘The Steve Wilkos Show’ admitting to the world that he was sexually attracted to children.  Apparently he’s admitted it publicly in other forums as well, not metely on ‘Steve’ because he has his own website which guides peophiles to places where they can easily find children.  He even rates these places by how attractive the children are that can be found there.

Yet he claims he’s never done anything illegal.  The ‘worst’ he’s done is to lure children away from their parents and give them ‘hugs.’

McLellan is still operating his website.  I’ll post the link to it here as soon as I can find it.  Never having trolled the internet for sites relating to pedophilia, I really don’t know where to look.  Wilkos actually asked the question as to what kind of a person would want to visit his site.  I give Steve this answer:  Any person who wants to protect children.   One way of beating the pedophiles is to know where they operate and how they do it.  By knowing which places McLellan is promoting, we can know to be extra careful when in those places.

McLellan also argues that having this website isn’t violating any laws since he’s not directly promoting the molestation of children.  Wilkos asked him about this as well, stating that if something illegal was done to a child based on information gotten through his website, he is partly responsible and should be held as an accomplice.

I agree.

I think Jack McLellan should be locked up.  He’s already a ‘person of interest’ in the murder of a young girl at one of the locations that his website promotes.  He also refused to submit to a DNA test at the Wilkos show to clear his name.  What does that tell you?  The way he was fidgeting around onstage made him look guilty in my eyes.

Here’s an interview done with McLellan:

Earlier I wrote a little blurb on Scientology frontman Tom Cruise.  Well, there’s a video circulating around the net that the Scientologists don’t want you to see, and they’ve pressured YouTube and Gawker.net to remove it in it’s entirety.

 Well, I found part of it on You Tube and decided to link it here for your viewing pleasure.  Maybe that British Scientologist who was following me around Buffalo after the Beast article will see it and move out here to Chicago to stalk me some more.

 And who knows how long this will be allowed to remain on the site, so I apologize if by the time you read this it’s been taken down.

Back in 2003, Chuck and I paid a visit to the new Church of Scientology building in Buffalo. It was their grand-opening Gala, and for some reason they invited us. We were at the time, freelance writers working mostly for the Buffalo Beast, and independent newspaper circulating in the city. A lot of talk of Scientology has happened recently, what with Tom Cruise showing his true colors to the world and Katie Holmes turning into a robot, as seen in a recent guest appearance on ‘Regis and Kelly.’ There’s also a new unauthorized biography of Cruise that states that his and Holmes’ daughter, Suri, is the spawn of bad Sci-Fi writer L. Ron Hubbard himself. The author of the book goes so far to compare her birth to ”Rosemary’s Baby.”

With this newfound fascination with Scientology, I’ve decided to re-open my interest in this goofy religion. Following is the article Chuck and I wrote, which appeared originally in The Buffalo Beast. This time, though – the punctuation is there and a spell check has been run so it’ll be a much better read:

The Beast Goes Scientological
By Rob Gerke and Chuck Notaro

It’s been said that there are two sides to every story. I’ve found this to be true in almost everything I’ve experienced or thought about. The case of Scientology is no different. It has its supporters and its detractors. I, myself, have never given much credibility to a religion that was founded by a science fiction writer. I’m not even much of a Sci-Fi reader any longer. But I’ve never been one to openly express an opinion about something unless its an informed one, which is the reason I paid a visit to Buffalo’s new Church of Scientology this past Sunday when it celebrated its grand opening.

I’ll admit, I knew next to nothing about Scientology before I attended the opening ceremony, and honestly, I’m not sure it’s any clearer to me now.
Let’s start with the basic question: What is Scientology? In founder Lafayette Ron Hubbard’s words, Scientology is an “applied religious philosophy.” Does that clear things up for you? If not, Hubbard goes on to say that it is the “study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, universes and other life.”
Scientologists believe it to be a path to enlightenment gained through auditing. This is where an upper-level Scientologist evaluates you, and through certain scientific method, helps you gain control of your true self. Your inner spirit. Your “Thetan,” as the Scientologists call it.

In the Beginning, There was Xenu
The anti-Scientologists believe that the Scientologists are stark-raving mad. They put the Thetan into terms of what sounds like a bad sci-fi story. The story of Xenu: the punch line of a very long and expensive joke.

If you paid a visit to www.clambake.org you’ll find excerpts from this story which they claim was leaked by ex-high ranking members of the Church. These excerpts are accompanied by what they claim is a handwritten note by Hubbard himself that actually seems to be an outline, or a footnote to a sci-fi story. You have to remember that L. Ron Hubbard was a fiction writer, and a large body of his work had nothing to do with Scientology or the study of Dianetics. They even go so far as to say that the Thetan isn’t a person’s spirit at all, but an alien presence that has invaded our bodies after Xenu, the so-called Evil Galactic Overlord ™, initiated a galactic holocaust which caused these alien beings to need a host.

But, the Scientologists aren’t talking about this at all. This seems strange because they have a clever PR department. They seem well prepared to answer all the basic questions, but once you start probing a little beneath the surface, they basically side-step the questions. It is reminiscent a trailer to a big budget film. They perk up your interest, so you go in to buy the books to see what this is actually all about. But, apparently even purchasing and reading the books doesn’t answer these questions for you. It appears that in order to find out exactly what the tenets of this religion are, you have to advance through the ranks. Similar to playing World of Warcraft: new levels bring new abilities. (I wonder what level they are when they learn how to cast Magic Missile.)

They have no explanation for Xenu, whom Scientology detractors claim is at the core of this religion. And we question the sanity of the Anti-Scientologists, because they seem just as cult like, sometimes even more so, than the ones they are attacking.

They seemed to keep trying to draw our attention to Narconon, their drug rehabilitation program that’s apparently very big in Sweden. But, take a look at the word: NARCONON. Look like anything you’re familiar with? Could it be they’re trying to draw us to them in our drug induced haze while we’re searching for NARCANON, the non-religious group?

The Arrival
Back to the beginning. When I arrived at the ceremonial grounds on Main Street just past Allen, I saw that this was going to be a lot bigger than I initially expected. Red carpets everywhere. It reminded me of the Oscars. Oh, wait! Aren’t there a ton of celebrities involved with Scientology? Mr. Katie Holmes and Danny from ‘Grease’ come to mind. I immediately started looking around like I was in downtown Hollywood, trying to get a glimpse of Jason Lee. Or Kirstie Alley. Or that guy who plays ‘Hyde’ on “That 70’s Show.’Or even Chef from ‘South Park.’ And then I saw her. Dharma herself: Jenna Elfman, sitting in the front row as the ceremony began. Right alongside famed Buffalo rocker Billy Sheehan.

Celebrity endorsement seems to be a big selling point for Scientology. Even in their orientation film (aptly titled ‘Orientation’) they use familiar faces such as John Travolta and Chef to get their message out.

The whole thing started with an introduction by the Buffalo Scientology President . She did the expected by playing the gracious host and thanking everyone for being there and sucking up to the local politicians and the City of Buffalo in general. Then she introduced someone I had never heard of, but who got an intense, and somewhat frightening reaction from the crowd.

Than man was David Miscavige, the head of Scientology’s Religious Technology Center. Supposedly this center is set up to protect the doctrine and technology of the Church itself. I’ll say one thing for the man, he has charisma. It was a surreal experience watching him and listening to him speak. He talked about a lot of things that I’d find it difficult to argue with, such as the atrocity of war and violence and the need for peace and kindness in the world. But his tone and gestures, and the reaction of the crowd were unsettling in such a way that other charismatic leaders such as Hitler and Dr. Doom came immediately to mind. However, I still l wasn’t going to let the fact that I didn’t like one of its members formulate my whole opinion of Scientology. I mean, I still liked Jenna. That has to count for something, right? There were more speakers following him. Local politicians and the head of the Allentown Business Association got up there and informed us what this new structure was adding to the City of Buffalo. I have to admit, it’s a damn good looking building. It adds a lot to the run down section of Buffalo where it was built. The Church also claims it plans to help revitalize Main Street. In my opinion, anything that’s going to add something new to Downtown Buffalo is a good thing. Then our beloved Mayor Tony got up there and declared November 16^th ‘Buffalo Scientology Day’. Then he helped cut the big red ribbon, and it honestly looked like he was trying to hit on poor Jenna.

I tried to rescue her by waving from the crowd, but she didn’t see me.

After the opening ceremony concluded, the Church was opened and we were treated to the grand tour. For some reason, the BEAST staffers were pushed to the front of the line. No other member of the media was being treated like we were. It seemed as though they were favoring us for some reason. Or maybe watching us. We weren’t left alone at all. We had what they called a ‘host’ with us at all times. Supposedly they were there to answer our questions, but it seemed more along the lines of babysitting. We were seriously followed throughout the whole event, mostly by a chubby Toronto-based Scientology minister named Al who looked disturbingly like L. Ron Hubbard. But nobody was mixing up any Kool-Aid. That was a good sign.

Scientology for Dummies

One thing we did learn is that one of Scientology’s core beliefs is that the spirit (or Thetan) lives on forever, in this world. This seems to be similar to a form of reincarnation. I’m still not clear on the whole concept, however. As I’ve said, this organization is very enigmatic.

The practice of auditing is something that was explained a little better than anything else. What I get from this is that you sit down with someone known as an auditor (duh), who analyzes the issues in your life and somehow makes all the bad things just go away. Poof. And all you’re left with is the good. This brings up a few philosophical questions. 1.) Is that really a positive thing? 2.)Is this something that’s supposed to benefit you? 3.)If you go around being happy all the time, not knowing grief anymore, how do you even know what true joy even is? It’s been said that to have Good, Evil is a necessity. Good defines evil and vice versa. This seems to negate all of that.

Keeping with this line of thought, a lot of children are born into this. At least as an adult going into the Church, you have recollection of grief and depression. If a child is trained in this practically from birth, how do they know that they’re actually happy? By comparing themselves to other people as they grow up and interact with society? I was brought up to believe that every person is different. What might be a bad experience for one person, might be the exact opposite for the next.

It all seems like a good idea on the surface. Self-improvement. Developing better inter-personal relationships. But, at what cost? It’s almost as though you have to give your whole life over to Scientology with 15 hour plus auditing sessions and almost constant service to the Church. I was raised a Catholic. All we had to do was show up one day a week for a half hour or so, feel guilty about everything you did during the week, and then go home and watch football.
The entire time we were there I felt like an outsider. There was something I was missing, a hidden text not read or secret handshake not known. I was the Republican at an anti-Bush rally, the sand it their bathing suit .

They were nice enough to us. Nicer in fact, then most people in this city. They tried to accommodate our every need but some of the looks that I received made me feel like I was of a completely different species. I’m not entirely sure on how the view outsiders, but I felt like the majority of them felt uneasy around me. Did they not us, or were they shielding themselves from a possible anti-Scientologist that could, at any moment, start trying to convince them that their chosen path was incorrect?

Isolated from the real world by a gauze thin layer of mistrust, I had entered Frank Herbert’s ‘Santaroga’, a town which exists within itself and survives solely on the production of its own citizens. Mistrusting although gracious to outsiders, I could sense a deeper hostility to those not of its own. While they put on a good front to those of us who didn’t quite fit in, there was a feeling of hostility lurking just below the surface, hidden just enough so I wasn’t sure if what I was sensing was actually there. The only exceptions to that rule were the early 20’s, brown-sweater-wearing (and extremely cute) girls who seemed genuinely happy with our presence. One went so far as to admit to being a BEAST reader.

And in the End…
Which brings us to the after-party. The Road played. Apparently they were a 1970’s rock band which sold copies of ‘Dianetics’ at all of its shows. All the musicians were original members, with the exception of Larry the Drummer. He played for a band called Management a little while ago. I saw him at Broadway Joe’s and they rocked the doors off the place. Some very good Beatles tunes. I’d never heard anyone cover Norwegian Wood before.

And the girls! Scientology is missing the beat here on a major selling point. Good looking girls everywhere. Do they manufacture them in the basement? And the kicker is…they all wanted to talk to us. NO ONE wants to talk to us. We look like Ralph Nader and Howard Sterns ugly love children.
All in all, while I was hoping this to be an eye-opening and insightful experience, it really wasn’t. I got more of an eerie feeling from the whole thing, kind of like I had stepped into an episode of The Twilight Zone, where aliens had come and taken over the people of Earth. Which may have been true, if any credibility is to be given to the story of Xenu and the Thetans.

Yeah, I got this blog title from a track off of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” album.  It’s appropriate, though, because I’ll be talking about Dylan later on.

 So, this past weekend I took a road trip to Milwaukee to see Shooter Jennings play a club called The Rave.  It looked a hell of a lot like the place Wayne & Garth went to see Alice Cooper in the first movie, so now I have to watch it again to verify that.  Anyway, it was a decent venue with a small crowd, but a hell of a show!

The opening act was a gentleman by the name of Eddi Spaghetti, frontman for Texas punk band The Supersuckers.  He came out with his guitar player who was dressed like a 70’s porn star, but played like a rock star.  Spaghetti did some acoustic versions of Supersuckers songs, and even covered an old Merle Haggard song called “Misery and Gin” which was the highlight of his set.

 Then Shooter came out.  Shooter may be best known as the spawn of country music legend Waylon Jennings, but is a great musician in his own right.  I had listened to his albums “Electric Rodeo” and “The Wolf” before the show, and I can honestly say they’re both damn good country-rock records.

 What I wasn’t prepared for was his live performance.  I’d expected a toned down guitar rock show, but what I got was pure brilliance.  He was good.  Damn good.  He put on a better show in this club than most bands play in an arena. 

 And the band – let’s just say that the lead guitar was better than Jimmy Page on a good day.  I could have sat there all night listening to him solo.  I’d pay to see this performance again.

Monday.

 I paid a visit to the Chicago Theater to take in a performance by rock legends Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan.  Amos Lee opened, which was ok, but I wasn’t paying much attention to him.  Other people at the show informed me that he was fantastic.

Costello took the stage and played an acoustic set for about an hour.  I don’t really know a lot of his music, but what I heard has inspired me to check him out further.  He played one tune which may have been called “I Want You” which had me riveted.

Then Bob and his Band played.  I wasn’t expecting much because Bob is, well, Bob.  His voice isn’t what it used to be.  He growled though his first two songs, “Cat’s In The Well” and “Lay Lady Lay” – but as he went along, he seemed to come to life and sounded a whole lot better.  I was thrilled to hear “You’re A Big Girl Now”and “Highway 61 Revisited” and even more surprised when he closed with “Like A Rolling Stone.”

He, Amos Lee, and Costello came out for the encore and did an excellent rendition of “I Shall Be Released”,  then went into “Thunder on the Mountain” and closed the night with “All Along The Watchtower.”

I’m not going to give the performance a good or a bad review.  Bob can’t do a bad show, because he’s Bob Dylan.  He’s a music legend.