Toto Live at the Chicago House of Blues 11/14/06

So I saw Toto live for the first time last night-- here's a breakdown:

Venue: D - As much as I love Toto, I would have liked to have been able to sit for at least PART of it. I mean, as good as it was, I really didn't need to be on my feet for Greg Phillenganes keyboard solo!

Music: A+ - These guys are still masters of their respective crafts. Although Mike Porcaro didn't look so good. He looked either bored, constipated, or in pain for a good portion of the show. Maybe he was having an "off" night, his playing was okay, but he just didn't seem to be enjoying himself, it was almost as if he was just going through the motions. The rest of the band was solid however. Lukather had a blistering guitar solo and I was much impressed by Simon Phillips drumming.

Vocals: B- - Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Bobby Kimball is back in the band, but no offense, he really doesn't have the right vocal style to tackle songs like Pamela and he doesn't really have the range to tackle the Fergie Frederiksen material (in his defense, few singers DO have that range). I will say Bobby did a respectable job on Endless and he nailed all of "his" material. But he seemed to struggle a bit on Isolation and Pamela. Greg Phillenganes, Steve Lukather, and Tony Spinner all sounded exceptional, but for the most part the instruments were so loud in the mix the quality of their vocals suffered as a result.

Setlist (song selection/order): B - There was a great mix of hits and deep album cuts, but they started out with 3 or 4 of their more "obscure" tracks in a row (the first 2 songs were off their latest album). While I, a die-hard fan, appreciated this I think playing one of their biggest hits earlier on would have helped energize the crowd a bit more. The key is to know your audience, and while their setlist did appeal to my portion of the audience (the fellow die-hard fans) I think it alienated some of the more casual listeners who may have been in attendance.

Overall: B+ - All in all it was a very enjoyable show, but I'm hoping next time Toto comes to my neck of the woods it's at a better venue (with seats!) as honestly, most of my disappointment with the show stems from having sore feet from standing so long-- something the band had little/no control over.

At the Mercy of the Sea by John Kretschmer

John Kretschmer, a professional sailor and writer has logged over 200,000 sailing miles including fifteen transatlantic and two transpacific passages. So to say that Kretschmer knows of what he writes would be a gross understatement.

Not being a professional or even amateur sailor myself I was appreciative of Kretschmer using "layman's terms" as much as possible without coming across as condescending as experts often do when they speak to those not as educated in their particular areas of expertise.

At the Mercy of the Sea is a true and rather personal tale of three sailors, including Kretschmer's close friend, Carl Wake, who found themselves caught in the stormy waters of Hurricane Lenny in 1999.

Perhaps what makes this tale so saddening was the unpredictability of Hurricane Lenny-- which defied conventional wisdom, predictions, and a long history of hurricanes and did its own things. The three sailors-- Carl Wake, Steve Rigby, and Guillaume Llobregat followed conventional wisdom and meteoroligical forecasts of the path of Hurricane Lenny in an effort to avert his destructive ways. And because this hurricane was loathe to be tied to the conventions of traditional hurricanes, traveling west to east instead of east to west or even east to northeast and curling up the Atlantic coast. In many ways Lenny was as much a character of this book as Wake, Rigby, and Llobregat were.

Kretschmer does an exceptional job of humanizing Wake, Rigby, and Llobregat. He spends most of his time focused on Wake as he knew Wake as a friend and thus felt more comfortable about accurately describing his friend's actions. Having extensively interviewed the friends and family of both Steve Rigby and Guillaume Llobregat Kretschmer did a respectable job of humanizing them as well, but despite his best efforts both Llobregat and Rigby came across more as supporting characters and Wake came across more as a "lead."

The book is rather pulse-pounding and does for sailing what The Perfect Storm did for fishermen. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish and is as suspenseful as many of the dime-a-dozen pulp suspense novels that can be found in airports all over the nation-- what sets it apart-- unlike those pulp novels, this is real and Kretschmer's writing style allows the reader to taste the saltwater, feel the wind and the fatigue one might experience from solo sailing. And I hope, for my own sake, this book is the closest I ever get to sailing through a category four or five Hurricane.

One Track Mind: Billy Joel - Captain Jack (song review)

There’s always been something about Billy Joel’s music. They capture moods, they paint aural murals to be taken in, savored, and stored away for future enjoyment. Perhaps one of Joel’s finest aural murals is Captain Jack.

At over seven minutes long and chocked full of images it’s easily one of his “busiest” pieces. He sings of what we know, either from our own experiences or because we know or are at least peripherally familiar with the people of which he sings. The thing which makes the song so deeply personal is the level of detail Joel uses whether it’s the “tape deck in your brand new Chevrolet” or whether “they just found your father in the swimming pool” the details are so incredibly specific yet at the same time so universal that Joel is able to “connect” with all of his listeners. He hits that melancholy nerve of ennui that so many of us suffer from and he pulls it all together with the fictitious drug dealer, “Captain Jack.”

We all have our own “Captain Jack”—that someone or something that makes life enjoyable or bearable, that magical thing which gives us our escape from the madness of life. For some it’s drugs, others alcohol, but for many of us its nothing so glamorous or damaging. Simple companionship is the Captain Jack that so many of us long for. So, part of what makes Captain Jack such a well-painted aural mural is that it gives that sense of companionship. In many ways, the song itself is a “Captain Jack.” Because it captures that chord of melancholy and loneliness so well, Billy Joel, is essentially letting us all know that even in our darkest hours, those moments when life has landed you with the mother of all sucker punches… You aren’t alone. Captain Jack is just the reminder we all need from time to time that whenever life gets us down, when we’re at our worst and loneliest. We’re not alone in our experiences.

So now I’m left to ask, who or what is YOUR “Captain Jack?”

Too Far From Home by Chris Jones

Many people clearly remember the Columbia shuttle disaster in February 2003. However, what is often forgotten are the three men who were stuck on the International Space Station when the shuttle program was grounded following the Columbia disaster.

In November 2002 astronauts Ken Bowersox and Donald Pettit and cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin were delivered to the International Space Station on the Endeavour to relieve Expedition 5.

Expedition 6 was scheduled to return to Earth in March 2003 on the Atlantis but after the Columbia disaster, that mission was cancelled and the shuttle program was grounded indefinitely leaving three men stranded on the US Space Station... This book is their story.

Two of the most compelling aspects of this thoroughly interesting and imminently enjoyable read are the astronauts reluctance to leave, even after being "stuck" their two months longer than initially scheduled and the fact that their return to Earth marked the first time United States astronauts returned to Earth on a Russian built spacecraft-- the Soyuz TMA-1.

This book is an extrapolation of an article author Chris Jones wrote for Esquire fully detailing the experiences of the stranded astronauts, their families, and how the Russian and American space programs brought them home after the shuttle program had been grounded.

In addition to tales of the astronauts of Expedition 6, Jones also gives interesting anecdotes of both the United States and Russian Space Programs of which he is quite familiar. This book makes an excellent companion to any fan of the US or Russian space programs complementing books such as Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff or the film, Apollo 13.

Related Links
Too Far From Home (Amazon.com link)
Expedition 6 (Wikipedia link)
Ken Bowersox (Wikipedia link)
Don Pettit (Wikipedia link)
Nikolai Budarin (Wikipedia link)
International Space Station (Wikipedia link)
Columbia Space Shuttle (Wikipedia link)
Endeavour Space Shuttle (Wikipedia link)