Today's Joke

One sunny day in 2005, an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Kerry.'
The Marine replied, 'Sir, Mr. Kerry is not President and doesn't reside here.'
The old man said, 'Okay,' and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Kerry'

The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Kerry is
not President and doesn't reside here.'

The man thanked him and again walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to
the very same Marine, saying 'I would like to go in and meet with President Kerry.'

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man
and said, 'Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to
speak to Mr. Kerry. I've told you already that Mr. Kerry is not the
President and doesn't reside here. Don't you understand?'

The old man answered, 'Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it!'

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, 'See you tomorrow.'"

Brian Wilson in Tampa

Eric (10 years old) is the big Beach Boys fan in the family. Not sure how this is, but it's true and has been for the last three or four years. I'm sure I'm to blame because I do own about 1,800 records which should include some of the greatest ever made. Anyway, about three years ago I put together a collection of CDs for Eric and Betsy to listen to when they were driving from Florida to Connecticutt to see her parents. So the got a dose of Beatles, Simpsons, and who knows what else, as well as "Endless Summer" by the Beach Boys.

Eric came home from the trip having memorized the lyrics of all twenty Beach Boys hits from that album. And who can blame him, They really were great. But that was long ago. Right?

Over time, because of Eric, I've purchased a few more Beach Boys collections, including their excellent box set "Good Vibrations: 30 years of the Beach Boys." Great stuff. Brian Wilson really deserves to stand on the same plateau as Bob Dylan, the Beatles & the Stones.

Anyway, unbeknownst to me, Brian Wilson recovered from the most severe aspects of his depression/insanity/mental illness and has been touring with a great band since 1999. Who knew! About three weeks ago I read about a concert of his on powerlineblog.com It turns out that Brian had stepped back in time 37 years and completed an album called SMiLE that was at the time going to blow away Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. And he apparently succeeded, according to the guy at PowerLineBlog.

O.K. The internet and Google are great. I google Brian Wilson, find his web site, and discover that he will be in Tampa on October 21. Drop almost $300 on tickets for the three of us. (Yes, Eric was there and I hope 80 years from now when he is a doddering 90 year old he's telling his great grandchildren that he saw SMiLe performed live.)

Concert Review (short version): Wow.

Further explanatory notes: You always fear, when seeing an icon from 30 or 40 years prior that you will see something more than a false nostalgia and a rote, uninspired, hack job through the old catalog. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN. Brian is a bit kooky and a bit fragile, but he is backed by a 10 piece group of the utmost caliber that clearly loves him and loves his music.

They must have played at least a dozen of the most famous top twenty Beach Boys tunes. Then they broke for twenty minutes before playing SMiLE in ints entirety. I'm not a talented enough writer to properly convey how great it felt to sit and watch the whole piece be performed. Go buy the album and listen to it two or three times a day like I have. And then think about seeing it live. All I can add it that the 19 band members on stage worked really hard throughout the 45 minute performance. And they were perfect. Is there something better than perfect? Can we give them extra credit as well? It was that good.

At 62 years old, more than 35 years after he mattered to the pop world, Brian Wilson has delivered the best pop album ever recorded. And we saw it live. To quote Homer Simpson "WhooHooo!"

LILEKS (James) The Bleat

One more for the daily blog roll. James Lileks is a columnist, locally for the Mineapolis Star-Tribune, and also has a national syndicated column. He also posts to the web daily. His Bleat (blog) spends about a third of the time doting on his pre-school daughter who he loving refers to as Gnat. Another third is photo essays of the best kind. And the rest is dedicated to spot-on screeds about the state of the world. Mark him down as one of those who was deeply affected by the events of September 11, 2001.

LILEKS (James) The Bleat

HughHewitt.com

Much as I love to listen to Boortz, I'd trade him in a nano-second for the chance to get Hugh Hewitt here in the radio desert of Orlando. I've heard him on travels throughout the U.S. He is first a Christian (Roman Catholic?) and a strong Republican adherent. But, typical of those in the media on the center-right, his show is well balanced by lefties.

His blog is here: HughHewitt.com and his blogging seems as important to him as his radio show.

The Kerry Spot on National Review Online

Yes, my wonderful wife reads Boortz everyday, but is she reading the Kerryspot at the same time? Kerryspot is the first to point out (probably correctly) that if John Kerry is serious about "mending" relations with France and Germany, that it will likely be at the expense of Israel. Remember, Arafat visited the White House 24 times during the Clinton years, more than any other foreign leader. Kerry refers to his "plan" to reunite the U.S. with Europe. What else can it be, except to throw Israel to the Islamic wolves. And to gain what?

The approval of France.

Ouch.

The Kerry Spot on National Review Online

Power Line

Power Line is a blog by three attorneys -- two of which are from Mineapolis and the third a college chum who now resides in the DC area. They are the folks who helped break the Rathergate scandal, and are worth a daily read. Thanks to Hurricane Dan, they've become quite famous. Power Line

Brian Wilson

Good review of the Melbourne show in the SentinelOrlandoSentinel.com: Entertainment

3rd Debate Summary

A libertarian transcript of last nights debate. QandO Blog - Liveblogging the debate

Lab-Tested!

The website that asks "Just which toys, bowls, crates, etc. can stand up to the tender attentions of a young and determined Labrador Retriever?" Lab-Tested

Here is a picture of a billboard off of Sand Lake Road as it appeared after Charley roared through last month. Coincidence or not? 

We Have Tickets!

to see Brian Wilson and his 10 piece band on Thursday, October 21. The first half of the show is a performance of old standards.

Brian Wilson :: Official Web Site

Here is a review from the powerlineblog.com web site from the 9/30 Minneapolis show:

Brian Wilson was the lone musical genius who created the sound and the best songs of the Beach Boys. In mid-60's singles like "Don't Worry Baby" and "When I Grow Up" and at greater length on albums like "Summer Days (and Summer Nights)" and "The Beach Boys Today," Wilson explored the possibilities of group harmony in pop music.

Both albums are full of breathtakingly beautiful, impossibly romantic pop songs. The productions and arrangments are wonderully crafted; you can almost feel the perfectionism that (combined with an abusive father and hallucinogenic drugs) fueled his subsequent nervous breakdown.

Before the breakdown, however, came the full flowering of Wilson's genius in "Pet Sounds," the consummate Beach Boys album that powerfully expressed (with help from Tony Asher on the lyrics) Wilson's deepest yearnings with a moving spiritual twist. Immediately preceding the breakdown was Wilson's work on the uncompleted album "Smile" and a promised movement even beyond the accomplishment of "Pet Sounds."

Beach Boys' albums following "Pet Sounds" included songs from his work on "Smile" -- "Heroes and Villains," "Vegetables," and "Surf's Up." Forty years later, now that Wilson has managed to return to work on the album and complete it with his former collaborator Van Dyke Parks, what has he delivered?

Earlier this year Wilson performed "Smile" in London to a distinguished audience of pop royalty. Last night for the first performance of "Smile" before an American audience -- an audience of rabid Minneapolis fans -- Wilson turned in a generous, unforgettable performance.

Wilson took the stage shortly after 7:30 p.m. with the 10 members of his touring band huddled around him in a semicircle for a run-through of Beach Boys highlights from ages past. They kicked off with a gorgeous rendition of "And Your Dreams Come True" and continued for an hour revisiting the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys songbook -- "Surfer Girl," "Wendy," "Please Let Me Wonder" among them.

The musicians took their positions on stage with their instruments to complete the set with "Sloop John B," "Dance Dance Dance," "God Only Knows," "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "California Girls," "Darlin,'" and "Sail on Sailor" were the highlights here. Wilson's band and backing vocalists replicated the Beach Boys arrangements and harmonies with an incredibly full sound.

After a 20-minute intermission the band retook the stage with a string and horn ensemble for "Smile." I have not heard the recording released earlier this week, but in concert the set sounded in fact like the movement beyond "Pet Sounds" toward which Wilson was working, for better or for worse, at the time of his breakdown.

The songs were arranged as suites with repeating movements -- "Heroes and Villains," "Vegetables," and "Surf's Up" provided three motifs, elaborated beyond previously released versions and fitted into a fuller setting culminating in an awe-inspiring (and lyrically recast) version of "Good Vibrations" that concluded the set on a thrilling note.

Wilson and his ensemble quickly returned for an encore including "Surfin' USA" (with red, white and blue backing lights turning it into a kind of patriotic anthem), "I Get Around" and glorious versions of "Help Me Rhonda" and "Barbara Ann." Wilson wound up with a lovely, healing rendition of "Love and Mercy."

Wilson's brothers and former Beach Boys bandmates Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson are dead. He paid tribute to them both in performing an old Dennis Wilson song during the first set. Waywardness and mortality necessarily provide the backdrop to Wilson's recreation of his Beach Boys highlights and his reconstruction of "Smile" nearly forty years after the fact. At the conclusion of this three-hour extravaganza last night, my thought was: Lord, thank you for delivering us to this day. (And thanks to my friend Ron McLean who insisted that this was a concert I couldn't miss; Ron, you were so right.)