Led Zeppelin

I have liked Led Zeppelin since grade nine, slow danced to 'Stairway to Heaven', had mix tapes of their songs, bought a few CD’s and then didn’t listen to them for ten years.
Last year we visited our friend’s S and W in Costa Rica and Dr. S burned a bunch of their stuff. Part of that illegal burning session included our possession of Led Zeppelin’s complete Box Set and Box Set II.
Like most of the other musicians I love, they write poetry and sing it.

Here are some of the lyrics to:

The Battle of Evermore
The Queen of Light took her bow and then she turned to go

The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom and walked the night alone

Oh, dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light

The Dark Lord rides in force tonight, and time will tell us all
And what about D’yer Mak’er? Tangerine? Immigrant Song... I think they are genius poetry mixed with incredible adhesion of words to instruments to create music.
Led Zeppelin first played together in 1968 under the name Yardbirds and ten years later were winding down their tours and live concerts. Their song Stairway to Heaven is the most requested radio song, ever. In 1971 they released Going to California, a song about Joni Mitchell as well as Black Dog which was the first track on their unnamed album IV one of the most popular rock albums of all times.


The movie Almost Famous written and directed by Cameron Crowe is based on Led Zeppelin’s members Jimmy Page (guitar) and Robert Plant (vocals).

Here is a link to a great Rolling Stone article about the band:
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/ledzeppelin/biography

This article discusses the bands lyric controversies
http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html

Home Made Sushi

Poutine

Poutine is one of my favorite meals and the first thing I think of if anyone asks me what a fundamentally Canadian dish is. Made with thick cut whole potato fries, topped with white melty cheese curds and a dollop of thick brown gravy it is the perfect meal for 3am or anyother time of the day!

This dish originated in Quebec, Canada in the 1950’s and is popular in ‘diner type’ restaurants all over Canada. The name is reminicent of the American ‘Sloppy Joe’ and ‘ça va faire une maudite poutine’ translates as "it will make a damn mess".

The recognition of the dish in America surged during the 2000 election when a Canadian comedy sketch called “Talking to Americans” on the show This Hour Has 22 Minutes featured a reporter convincing then Governor of Texas George W. Bush, that Canada’s Prime Minister was named Jean Poutine and that he was supporting Bush’s candidacy. When Bush made his first visit to Canada as President, during his speech he said “There's a prominent citizen who endorsed me in the 2000 election, and I wanted a chance to finally thank him for that endorsement. I was hoping to meet Jean Poutine."

In-N-Out Burger has the closest thing to a poutine at an American Fast Food Chain, their off-menu item ‘French Fries Animal Style’ is french fries, grilled with special sauce, onions and cheese.

Dinner

We recently had dinner at our friends A. and D.'s place. A. is a fantastic professionally trained chef and was my neighbour at 420 Piccadilly Court for a few years. I was so excited to see that the stove in her kitchen is exactly like the one from my childhood.

I love stuffed mushrooms

Phish at Darian Lake

I am not a Phish Phan but I love going to Phish shows. So you see it’s not a concert it’s a show. My love also stems from how happy it makes Dr. J, who in his hippy days went on several tours and around 200 shows. In 2000 Phish took a hiatus and Dr. J and I did too. Some members of the band went to rehab and many of their phans went on with their lives.
So eight years later and with slightly more lucid vision we went to see Phish. We arrived on site five hours before the show was scheduled to start and took a walk down to Shakedown Street. Shakedown, a Grateful Dead verbiage, is the area where Phish Tour people sell the things they sell, to get the phunds they need to get to the next show. Phans back their vans and set up tents making walkways of Phish inspired tee shirts, ganja goo balls, glass art, crystals, jewelry, sweaters, stained glass, patch work clothes, grill cheese sandwiches, fajitas, pizzas and lots of ice cold beer and water. We set up our LL Bean Sleeping bag and watched the madness unfold.

The line in Dazed and Confused “I get older, they stay the same age” could not be more spot on to describe the scene. Nothing has changed, the dynamics are the same, the interactions, the spirit but with different people and different distractions. There were still hacky sacks (back to the 90’s much) and I saw some devil sticks but to my great amusement a prop that is becoming popular at my local gym was a major presence, hoola hoops! Ribbony psychedelic ones. The fairy winged girls were all about the hoolahoop tricks, still wearing their knee high rainbow colored or argyle socks and barely anything else. I was mesmerized by one gorgeous nymph with bare pert breasts and a loin cloth tirelessly hoolahooping in the lot.

The first show I ever ‘got taken to’ was in 2000 at Radio City Music Hall. In retrospect that is an amazing first show experience venue. Not all venues are created equal and not all sites are as clean as Radio City Music Hall. Darien Lake in Buffalo is a dirty show, can’t be clean after that one. Luckily I already knew I was going to have a blast and knew my limitations on how to have a good time.

So this is my theory on how to have an awesome time at a Phish show. Just dance. Seriously.

I don’t know all the songs, I don't know the story behind the story or what they covered, I have no idea why one of them wears a dress, why they sometimes play a vacuum (yeah as if it's an instrument!) or why there are trampolines on stage at some shows. When they start playing some long 'hippy jam' I feel like scratching my actual brain out, sometimes.

Dancing like a wet noodle is fun. I had a fantastic show. Great experience. The band was more sober and even though it took about 48 hours to feel normal again I can’t wait to go to some of their West Coast shows in the fall.

Here is a link to Dr. J’s favorite Phish blogger about the show at Darien Lake- This guy knows the story behind the story.

http://phishthoughts.com/2009/08/14/lighting-the-fuse/