Blahg

17 April 2005

"If the person doesn't listen to the demands of his own spiritual and heart life and insists on a certain program, you're going to have a schizophrenic crack-up. The person has put himself off-center. He has aligned himself with a programmatic life, and it's not the one the body's interested in at all. I mean, the world is full of people who have stopped listening to themselves." - Joseph Campbell

---

10 April 2005

CNN caught in a gaffe: During yesterday's coverage of Chuck's wedding, a CNN commentator (name withheld to protect the guilty) noted The Queen and King were departing Windsor.

King?

Nope. Prince Philip is His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, but not king.

By the way, here's the Duke's standard (note how it looks incredibly similar to the one belonging to HRH Mattimus, Duke of Mattinburgh).

Getting back to Chuck, as has been widely reported previously, the PRM still stands squarely in Diana's corner. Chuck's a schmuck.

On a totally unrelated note, a couple weeks ago I went to a local Bennigan's and they were out of Guinness.

Last night, at a local Outback, they ran out of Foster's.

What gives? How can they run out of their "signature" beverages?

One commonality: they're both in Aurora, Colorado.

---

9 April 2005

This is why he's The Boss. Bruce put the following restrictions on tickets to his new solo tour:

"In the spirit of fair access to tickets for Bruce's fans, this event has placed a 'WILL CALL ONLY' restriction on premium seating areas. When you order, you will see a type of ticket designated as 'Premium Seating / Will Call Only'. These tickets are in some of the rows that are closest to the stage. These tickets may only be retrieved through WILL CALL day of show; these tickets cannot be delivered via any other method. You will need to bring your government-issued photo ID and credit card you used to purchase the tickets to the box office window on the day of the show to retrieve these tickets. There is a lower supply of these types of tickets, which may decrease the likelihood of success in obtaining them. However, the actual likelihood is unknown, as demand may vary.

The standard admission ticket type will offer normal delivery options for the remainder of seats in the venue."

While this anti-scalping approach isn't as extensive as the one he used for his Paramount shows on the Tom Joad acoustic tour, it's a nice compromise. Last time, everybody had to go to (the now non-existent) McNichol's Arena, purchase a voucher for tix, then show up at the Paramount, with voucher and photo ID in hand, pick up the tickets, and then immediately enter the building.

That was genius. THAT prevented scalping! And the extra effort required of fans prevented self-important, over-paid big-wigs from skipping out on the process and buying their way in via ticket brokers.

No, I didn't make it into the "premium seating" this time. But I will be there.

Yes! Bruuuuce!

---

6 April 2005

For Prince Rainier III, another honorary Mattopian.

From an AP report: "MONACO - The famed Monte Carlo casino was closed, its spinning roulette wheels at rest as Monaco mourned the death Wednesday of Europe's longest-reigning monarch, Prince Rainier III, who worked to overcome this tiny principality's reputation as 'a sunny place for shady people.'"

I won a few francs in that casino and I thoroughly enjoyed my stint through Monaco. Back in 1994, a couple months after the Midnight Mass referenced below, Monte Carlo still held the same exquisite grandeur captured in To Catch a Thief.

Yes, his kids have had some troubles growing up (who hasn't?), but Prince Rainier always had a magical aura. The fact that he was married to Grace Kelly, the very embodiment of elegance (and, yes, grace), only added to his legend.

---

2 April 2005

For Pope John Paul II, an honorary Mattopian.

He took part in the now legendary Mattopia-Europa exchange program of 1993. That summer, Mattimus went to Europe and, in return, the Pope visited Denver.

That year was capped off with the both of us at Midnight Mass at St. Peter's. It was an opportunity for us to bless each other. (No sacrilege intended. He sneezed. I said, "Bless you.")

Midnight Mass was preceded by a Christmas Eve dinner with, basically, the Godfather and his loving, doting wife. That seafood-heavy dinner would ultimately cause me to miss a portion of the Pope's Christmas Day blessings, but that's another story.

Pope John Paul II will be missed. I'm not Catholic, but he was still "my Pope."

---

19 March 2005

OK. It's 19:14 on Saturday night and I'm sick as a dog, so maybe I'm a little cranky because of it.

BUT VH1's presentation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies has already proven to be an absolute travesty that is hardly the celebration I witnessed Monday night.

Yes. Monday night I was there, tucked away in the press room at the Waldorf-Astoria, witnessing firsthand (via the magic of closed-circuit TV), the full ceremonies along with in-person appearances by all of the inductees in the media.

This highly edited hash, which spits out The O'Jays and Frank Barsalona in a pathetic 14-minute sacrifice to the TV gods, is a crock. Silvio Dante had some great jokes about Britney Spears and Rolling Stone magazine, among other riffs. And The O'Jays deserve better treatment than to have their live performances sharing split-screen TV space with their acceptance speeches.

An enormous amount of effort went into putting that show together and every performer came with their game face on and they all shown so very brightly. Why not show people that experience and give those performances their due for the mass audience?

20:51 update. They slowed down their edit-happy scissors for The Boss and Bono, but there were indeed cuts, including Bono's jokes about the Irish night, featuring "Paddy" Sledge and The O'Jays.

21:00 update. Hold up. They chopped off the first half of Pride!

21:18 update. (I'm sick and have nothing better to do, remember?) I'd say there were roughly 15 minutes of U2ness cut for the televised edition.

---

26 February 2005

I guess it was inevitable. CNN has gone the way of MTV and VH1.

Instead of sticking to its core competency, to use the corporate vernacular, the cable network is branching out to alternative programming. Now gracing Saturday mornings are numerous specialty programs. Most notable of the lot is Dolans Unscripted. A more appropriate title would be Dolans Unwatchable. Mr. Dolan makes Chris Matthews look like he's on anti-depressants. Mrs. Dolan comes across merely as a rich biatch.

How I long for the halcyon days when Betty Nguyen, the ultra-hottie of news, would cover the top stories all morning long.

---

13 February 2005

The demise of my 10-year-old Toshiba TV set has given me the opportunity to once again sing the praises of Starsailor... and U2.

The TV's going kaput "forced" me to modernize and introduce HDTV to Stately Matt Manor. With the upgrade to digital cable and HD service, I discovered two of the coolest channels out there: INHD1 and INHD2. Check 'em out here: INHD.

The timing of all this was perfect. Over the weekend, INHD2 was showing U2's Rattle and Hum in high definition and a performance by Starsailor live from Brussels. INHD also shows lots of IMAX movies and the picture quality is truly stunning.

The Starsailor show was a special surprise. It's exactly the kind of programming VH1 and MTV should be pursuing instead of their unbearable salutes to nostalgia and American idiots starring in reality TV. I'm not biased in my assessment of Starsailor because of James Walsh's choice of wardrobe (in the Brussels show, he's wearing a T-shirt from U2's Joshua Tree tour).

No, these guys bring the goods and they share the same uplifting, soulful music that has made U2 the biggest band in the history of rock 'n' roll. They performed some of my favorites, including Four to the Floor, Silence Is Easy, and their "signature" song, Good Souls.

Of course, the Grammys are also on CBS even as I write this, with inspired performances from The Black Eyed Peas, a marvelous duet between U2-fan Alicia Keys and Jamie Foxx, and, of course, a performance by my band, who, surprisingly, performed the very personal Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own rather than the Grammy-nominated Vertigo.

Congratulations to my band for the Grammy sweep. And thanks, Larry. The apology to ticketless U2 fans was sincere, took loads of character, and gave me goosebumps. The doubting Thomases out there have nothing to bicker about now, at least not in the band's direction.

A sidenote, something spotted on Zootopia: "U2 fans are passionate and with passion comes trouble." Amen.

---

5 February 2005

The ticket stress is back and more pronounced than ever. Sell outs for U2's Vertigo tour have been nearly instantaneous just about everywhere, including both Denver shows.

I'll steer clear of all the ticket distribution controversies surrounding the disproportionate number of tickets already for sale on eBay before the official pre-sale and general public sales.

But I will say this...

I, for one, have been a long-time Propaganda member and it was always a thrill to get the latest Prop magazine, no matter how sporadic the publication schedule may have been. It sounds like I've been quite lucky compared to other members, old or new, when it comes to this tour's tickets. As a carryover member to U2.com, I made the single-most flawless purchase of my life with two GA tix to Denver 1 during the U2.com Vertigo presale. It took only one click of the browser.

Those who joined U2.com only for their interpreted "guarantee" of prime seats are fans of convenience, in my opinion. What about between the tours? If you just joined now, you don't care about the inbetween stuff, what happens between the albums and the tours; you're probably more interested in getting prime seats (or GAs) just to impress your date. You're also the type who obviously doesn't bother to read the liner notes, which, in U2's case, consistently included a plug for Propaganda. Simply put, you're not the kind of passionate fan that deserves a shot at a presale and I appreciate Larry Mullen, Jr.'s, comments from earlier this week regarding the ticket situation.

Sad thing is, those same fans of convenience will be the ones who think they also have an entitlement to the front of the line, even if they arrive right when the doors open.

Regardless of all that, you might as well enjoy the ride and the efforts required to get tickets; the shows will be more than worth the effort.

With that in mind, during my pursuit of tickets via Ticketmaster, the funniest "security word" encountered so far has been "FUTTOCK." My immediate thought was that it was a combination of "BUTTOCK" and "F*&$" but after a little checking, I found out it's a real word. The defition from dictionary.com: "One of the curved timbers that forms a rib in the frame of a ship."

I prefer my proposed definition.

Another good one was "BUMBAST." That one is apparently not a real word, but I can put it to use.

---

Newer   |   Older