Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?  The devil you know or the devil you don't?  That seems to be the main question for Democrats as everyone is talking about the 2008 Presidential Race a bit too early.  Of course, Democrats don't equate their candidates to the devil, but they certainly do that to Republicans.  I have enjoyed the recent bickering between those two campaigns.  Hillary thinks the Presidency should be handed to her.  Obama thinks he is a rock star.  Neither has what it takes to run a Representative Republic.  If you want to experience a similar fall to Rome, vote Democrat.  If you want to strive toward more individual freedom, vote Republican.  Vote conservative.

 

All the talk about the 2008 race makes me realize that there aren't any Republicans standing out to get excited about.  McCain is much too liberal and wishy washy for most of the conservative base.  Rudy Giuliani cleaned up New York, but is he too liberal socially?  George Allen was a great candidate for Congress, but then he made a comment that some deemed racist.  Of course, it wasn't, but the media slammed him enough to cause his defeat.  He would make a great President, though, in my opinion.  Newt Gengrich would make a great President, too!  Of course, the media has already compared him to Hitler in the past so they would do it again.

 

I'm looking forward to getting involved where I can.  We need a true conservative in the White House.  We need true conservatives in Congress.  It's the only way to get this country back on track with greatness.  We are still the greatest country in the world.  We are the most free country in the world.  We need to return to that foundation which makes us strong.  Bring on the Conservative Republican candidates!

When did it become ok to lose?  I thought losing was a bad thing.  Winning is the goal, right?

 

We went to war against terrorism a few years back.  The goal was to win.  U.S. citizens were united in the idea that we needed to win the war against terrorism.  We all realized that we must enjoy our freedom and protect it at all costs.

 

Now the voice to leave the war is louder than the voice to win.  Voices are telling us to pack up our things and go home.  These voices are telling us that the war against terrorism isn't one we can win.  How did we let these voices get so loud?  They are telling us we are losers.  They are telling us it's ok to lose.

 

I believe in winning the war.  We must pursue victory.  Only after victory will there be peace.  Peace only follows victory.  It's time we raise the voice of winning and drown out the voices of losers.

Change is constant.  Change is good.  Not all change is welcome.

 

For a good chunk of the last year, my life was changed.  Now it has changed back.  It was better for about 9 months or so.  It was awesome.  Now I'm back to the same old ruts of last year.  There is a bit of a difference in some areas, but not happiness and not hope.  I feel much like I did last year when it comes to the hope of a great relationship.

 

Another similar potential change is that I have a roommate moving out at the end of March.  This may cause me to move to another house again.  I'm not welcoming that at all.  It hopefully means we have a new roommate at that time and can live in the same rental home.  My kids are hoping that, too, because they enjoy this house and the neighborhood.

 

Of course, with change comes opportunity.  We just don't always know what the opportunities are.  I'm hoping they are good ones.  I'm hoping that my life gets better in the areas I need it to.  The coming months should tell.

What a way to start a Monday!  I actually had a great night's sleep last night.  I woke up this morning, stepped outside, and it smelled like Spring!  I'm calling it the first day of Spring.  The snow will be gone.  Everything will be fresh and new.

 

The rest of the day went pretty fast, but I ended it with a steak from the grill.

 

The weekend was great, too.  I took my girls to the Lone Star as a nice Valentines dinner.  The food was great and my oldest had the same meal as me; New York Strip, baked potato, and keylime pie for dessert.  My youngest swore up and down that she didn't like steak.  She had the cheeseburger, but I had her try a bite of my steak and she liked it.  She had the cheesecake for dessert.  She and her sister like to swap a bite of dessert with each other so they got to try something different.  They are pretty great sisters.

 

We had a lot of fun just watching TV, playing board games, and we saw Ghost Rider.  Pretty good movie!  My oldest likes superhero movies and they had the previews of Spiderman 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, too.  This will be a fun summer of movies!

 

I watched Heroes tonight.  If you haven't seen that show, do so.  It's fantastic!  There is a payoff every week.  I love the surprises and the great story telling.

 

I think I smell baseball in the air!  Summer is on the way!

I love the way Frank Hannon's influences filter through him to create music.  This guy is a brilliant guitarist and songwriter.  Frank mixed in the Tesla favorites everyone was hoping he'd play along with some originals from his solo CD Guitarz From Marz.  There were even some cover bits thrown in for good measure.

 

Frank's band was very tight.  He led them through some extended solos and instrumentals that had some interesting twists and turns from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  The band responded with pinpoint accuracy and the all important groove.

 

 

Modern Day Cowboy

Chain Reaction

Eruption

Purple Haze

Lil Suzi

House Of The Rising Sun (half of the song with another cover tune)

Love Song

Eye Of The Mind

Signs

Funk It Up

Changes

Electric Warriorz

The Way It Is

 

 

Can't Stop Rockin'

Frankenstein

Comin' Atcha Live

 

I was impressed with the set and the influences that Frank wears on his sleeve.  Electric Warriorz had Heart's Barracuda in feel.  Can't Stop Rockin' threw images of The Fonz at me with one of the licks that Frank did in the solo.

 

I see Tesla any time they are in the area and will continue to support Frank with his band, too.

 

Frank did mention that Tesla had a new song played on KGGO and that he will be on the air sometime in the afternoon on the 12th.  The CD should be called Reel To Reel and Tesla will tour this summer.

 

Two good shows in less than a week.  Will I see Firehouse on Friday, too?  Stay tuned!

Worth seeing, but not worth the ticket price.  Well, maybe...

 

The stage was large with a huge light ball hanging from the rafters.  The back curtain also had similar lights through it with a few rectangular video screens.  In front of most of it was another large black curtain for the openers to play in front of.  Only 2300 tickets were sold for this show so I was anxious to see how it turned out.

 

Juke Kartel opened.  Toby Rand, from the Rockstar Supernova TV show, fronts this band from Australia.  They put on a rousing set of five tunes to get the audience jumping.  He mixed some of his bands tunes with a couple of cover tunes that he had performed for TV.  He closed with his original tune that was done on the show, too.

 

Since Dilana was doing an acoustic set, there wasn't any stage tear down to do after Toby's band.  Dilana came out with Magni, who accompanied her throughout.  They opened with Chris Isaak's Wicked Game and then Magni took the vocal for Creep.  Dilana got the biggest response of the night.  She was spot on with her Stevie Nicks style of smoky vocals.  She and Magni had spent the night in Des Moines the night before so Dilana mentioned several names of people she met throughout her set.  She was genuinely thankful for the response she received.  Her guitar player, Christian came out on Holiday, the upcoming single that Dilana is releasing.  Tommy Lee's drum tech also joined on the drums.  The acoustic band showed off Dilana's growth in songwriting on this song.  I'm anxious to hear the recording.  She mixed up her set with covers and two originals.  The originals were very well received, but I think the crowd was grateful to hear her versions of the songs she performed on the TV show.  Dilana is the one I thought should have won, but I think her own career will be the better path after hearing this short set.

 

After removing the Juke Kartel set, The Panic Channel hit the stage.  I think I was most impressed by them this night than anyone else.  They came out rocking and barely let up through the set.  Dave Navarro's guitar tone was perfect, but the leader was Steve Isaacs.  He got the crowd involved in the show and added some guitar playing as well.  These guys rocked so well that I had to pull out the CD to listen some more.  Dilana got a huge roar of approval as she joined them for Highway To Hell to close their set.

 

Rockstar Supernova came out to a huge roar.  For 2300 people, we were certainly a loud group in a large arena.  The band performed a mixture of cover tunes and originals that was pleasing to the audience.  While Lukas was the singer, the true leader was Tommy Lee.  He stood up several times and was very positive about the reaction they received that night.  Lukas did a fine job acting the frontman as he gyrated, strutted, and pouted around the stage.  As active as he was, there still seemed to be a disconnect between him and the audience.  The best connections were from the band.  Gilby spoke once and was very grateful to those that came out.  He mainly stayed on his side of the stage, but from comments I heard in that group, he certainly made quite the impression.  Johnny Colt mainly stayed on his side of the stage, too, but he was rockin' out and making connections over on the side of the stage I was on.

 

The performance was good.  It wasn't great, but I wasn't expecting great from a one-off band, either.  It was quite good and they actually impressed me.  They were better than expected.  The stuff I was hoping to hear more of was the T. Rex style that Gilby had talked about on the show.  There are several tunes on their CD in this vein, but my favorite wasn't performed.  The others were.  I'd read the reviews of their version of Boys Of Summer and the reviews were right on.  It was butchered.  The second verse has a double time drum beat that doesn't serve this song.  They rocked it without the emotional investment, too.  The worst song on their CD, Headspin, was given the live treatment, too.  It does sound better live, but that's not saying much as I'm not into the emo style that this song is in.  I was glad to hear Gilby Clarke perform the Bowie cover, but was hoping for a better choice.  A ton of bands have covered Suffragette City.  It's a great song, but I was still hoping to hear more of the 70's glam sound these guys can excel at.  The biggest surprise of the night was their cover of Dead Or Alive.  This was great!  They need to record this, but as we know, as soon as the tour is over, it's on to other things.  All in all, a good set by a great bunch of players and an average singer.

 

I'm glad I went.

 

Setlists:

 

 

Save Me

Burning Down The House (Talking Heads)

Higher Than I've Ever Been

Rebel Yell (Billy Idol)

Chemical Dreaming

 

 

Wicked Game (Chris Isaak)

Creep (Magni sang this Radiohead tune)

Holiday

Supersoul

Zombie (The Cranberries)

 

 

I Don't Have To

Teahouse Of The Spirits

Awake

Blue Bruises

(Not sure if I missed one or two songs at this point.)

She Won't Last

Highway To Hell (Dilana sang the second verse of this AC/DC tune)

 

 

Let's Spend The Night Together (Rolling Stones)

Underdog

It's All Love

Boys Of Summer (Don Henley)

Headspin

Leave The Lights On

Suffragette City (Gilby Clarke sang this David Bowie tune)

Social Disgrace

You Spin Me Round (Dead Or Alive)

Be Yourself (And 5 Other Cliches)

Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve)

Can't Bring Myself To Light This Fuse

The end of something is not the end of everything.  Sometimes in life it is best to end certain things.  One of the best things to end are bad habits.  One of the hardest things to end is a relationship.  Sometimes one is related to the other.

 

I had to put an end to a relationship.  It's tough when you care about people, naturally.  When I found myself stepping into an old habit with this relationship, I had to put an end to it.  My heart gets crushed easily, but I don't put it out there often.  When the crush comes, I try to delay it, work it out, or do something to lessen the blow or put off the crushing of my heart.  Guess I just have to learn to accept it and move on.

 

I used to blame myself for a lot of things, but I've realized that I am not at fault in any way this time around.  The only thing I did wrong was fall into the habit of thinking I could fix someone's life by being a part of it.  Some people want that fix, but have no idea how to accept it of find the value in it.  I can't change people and I have to accept that.

 

It's time that I just wait or find someone who has their act together and doesn't go from relationship to relationship or ride an emotional roller coaster.  I deserve a person like that.  Maybe I just need to recognize those signs sooner and put an end to things before my heart gets involved.

 

Of course, at my age, the odds of that happening...  Being a bachelor isn't a bad thing!  You don't have to worry about what someone else thinks or does.  It is nice to have that freedom and at least that hasn't changed this time around.