Rocktober Music Fest and Other October Oddities - 2019

Mary at JingleJangleJungle is encouraging us to get our rockin' shoes on this month and post a rock tune every day.  I'm not sure I can manage a daily one but I'm gonna give it a go. 

I think I'll do a similar thing to the one I did for the A to Z Challenge a few years ago where I went with artists we have seen.  To that end, I don't think you can get more rock than ACDC.

For Those About to Rock, We Salute You!

We've seen ACDC three times now and each time was a great show.  That was before Brian Johnson had to leave the group because of health issues and Malcom passed away.  i've read that they are in the studio again, though, so you never know.

Some scrapbook pages I did.  

For those about to Rocktober, we salute you!

April 2017 - #Atozchallenge - Yes it's Y

Y is for "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC.

This is another one of our top favorite bands and we try to catch them whenever they come around, which may be less and less given their recent loss of Brian Johnson, the lead singer, due to hearing issues and the retirement of Cliff Williams, their bass guitarist.

In any case, the first time we saw them was in December 2008 in Oakland.  They are one of the most reasonably priced shows around and almost all seats are the same price.  That's the way it should be!  It was called the Black Ice Tour and they opened the show with a huge train engine breaking through the back of the stage with a puff of smoke.  It was quite impressive.  I used some papers from a travel collection so that I could include the train.  You can't really tell from the picture but the train is actually up on some foam dots to make it 3-D.

Angus is such an enthusiastic guitar player.  He got out on the end of the stage and a platform arose very high and he jammed out, even laying down on the bottom of the platform and almost going into a seizure-like fit.   They had a huge blow up doll, Rosie, sitting astride the train during the song "Whole Lot of Rosie."

Tons of people young and old ready to rock, dressed in school girl clothes and with light-up devil horns, trademarks of the band.

Hells Bells and For Those About To Rock are signature songs and they did not disappoint.  There was a good write up of the show which I was able to include.

We left the concert that night with our ears ringing and our voices hoarse.  That's a concert experience!

When we heard that they were going to be touring again in September of 2009 we had to go, even though it was still the Black Ice Tour.

One of the "problems" I have when we see bands for the second and third times is to make each layout series look different.  Especially in this case as the set list was identical.  Using different papers of course helps and we were sitting on opposite sides of the stage for this one.

I got Angus up on his high rise again, but this time I was able to get a shot of all the confetti coming down and even grabbed a piece to include.   Rosie was still riding the train but I couldn't see her as well since we were partially blocked by one of the big speakers.  

We have actually seen AC/DC one more time in September 2015 at AT&T Park.  We had General Admission tickets to the field but it got SO crowded down there that we moved toward the back for breathing room.  We are not young kids anymore and my husband had recently had back surgery so I didn't want anything to happen to him.  Of course those pictures aren't printed or scrapped yet, but there are some really good ones.  (Tease for next year's A to Z maybe?)

Well that's Y.  One more letter to go.  Will I make it?  Definitely going to give it my best shot!


You can click over to the main A to Z Challenge page to see what other participants have come up with for this letter, and come back to see what Z has for us!

Suddenly September - 2016

September 6 - Create a playlist.

Wow.  That's tough.  I think any playlist of mine would have to include the following songs, in no particular order:

1. Faithfully - Journey (the Steve Perry version, not any other!)
2. Leather and Lace - Stevie Nicks and Don Henley
3. Happy - Pharrell Williams
4. Caught Up In You - .38 Special
5. Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
6. Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney
7. Lady - Kenny Rogers
8. Urgent - Foreigner  
9. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - George Harrison
10. Somebody Else - Glenn Frey
11. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You - Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
12. Gypsy - Fleetwood Mac
13. Always on My Mind - Elvis or Willie Nelson
14. Spanish Eyes - Elvis
15. Something About the Way You Look Tonight - Elton John
16. Sway - Dean Martin
17. With Arms Wide Open - Creed
18. I Want You To Want Me - Chris Isaak
19. Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
20. Grenade - Bruno Mars
21. Look What You've Done To Me - Boz Scaggs
22. You Want To Make a Memory -  Bon Jovi
23. You'll Accompany Me - Bob Seger
24. Use Me - Bill Withers
25. Breathe - Backstreet Boys
26. Biggest Part of Me - Ambrosia
27. Why Do You Love Me - Adele
28. Play Ball - ACDC
29. Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
30. American Girl - Tom Petty
31. No Ordinary Love - Sade
32. Take My Breath Away - Jessica Simpson
33. With You I'm Born Again - Billy Preston
34. You and I - Crystal Gayle & Eddie Rabbitt
35. The Game of Love - Santana 
36. Wicked Game - Chris Isaac
37. Paradise - Sade
38. Caribbean Queen - Billy Ocean
39. Stepping Out - Joe Jackson
40. The Way I Am - Ingrid Michaelson
41. Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions
42. California Girls - The Beach Boys
43. You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
44. Permanent Stain - Backstreet Boys
45. Stop Dragging My Heart Around - Tom Petty
46. Something - The Beatles
47. Old Time Rock and Roll - Bob Seger
48. Something About You - Boston
49. Photograph - Def Leppard
50. Stand Back - Stevie Nicks

I could go on. I'm sure I'm missing some, like Rod Stewart and Dean Martin for example.  I think I have a very eclectic taste in music and, with the exception of classical and rap, I have just about every genre there is on my iTunes.  How about you?  What's your playlist look like?  Hop on over to the Blog-Tember roll call to check out other playlists!

Jubilant June

June 30 - Just to finish out the month so that we can begin July with a clean slate, here is my selfie from this month:

I am in my craft room, working on new projects and I was following a scrapbook challenge at the time, which asked for a selfie at my work table.  I really love being there and creating new things or updating my concert album, sadly far behind.  I have lots of plans for projects, if I just didn't have to do "real" work!     

Here is the Full Strawberry Moon that we had on the 20th.  The Strawberry Moon asks, "What delights you?"  I guess the answer to that is pretty obvious from the picture above.  

Just in case you were wondering, here are some of the recent pages I have made for the concert album.  These are the last two shows we saw in 2008, Tina Turner in San Jose and ACDC in Oakland.  I was still using my old camera and our seats were not that close but I think I captured the essence of them.  I want to hurry up with these old pictures so I can start documenting the recent concerts where my camera has a better zoom and we are sitting closer!  But, all good things take time and I don't want to make this a sloppy album just to get it done.  

Each concert I am able to put in the book, brings back the memories and I am having a great time reliving them.  

In this Jubilant June we have also gone through a pretty major surgery on my husband, who came through it quite nicely even if he does have a scar running down his left leg, and we are spending the last day getting ready to move our daughter to Rohnert Park for her Junior year at Sonoma State.  The fun never ends at our house it seems!  

How has your June been?  Ready for some July madness?    

A to Z Challenge - 2016

V is for Venue

We are very fortunate to live in an area with quite a few different venues at which to see our favorite performers.

A bit to the northeast of us is Concord Pavillion.  We have only gone to a few concerts there since we have to drive and it can take an hour or more to get there.  It was, however, the venue at which that first concert was when I won the tickets.  That story is here under R for Radio.  As is usual with venues these days, Sleep Train bought naming rights so they sometimes call it Sleep Train Arena.

Just across the San Francisco Bay is Oracle Arena, home of the Warriors basketball team.  We live close enough to the BART terminal so that we can hop on a BART train and leave the driving to them.  It is just a short walk from the station to the Arena and by doing that we don't have to pay for parking or deal with the stress of traffic crossing the bridge.  A most exciting thing happened there when we met Journey guitarist Ross Valory while we were seeing Bob Seger.  He was in the Club area and he very graciously came over and talked to us and took a few pictures with my husband and I.  He even gave me his autograph.  What a thrill.  We have tickets to see the Who there next month.  That is the start of our season.

We also live close to the train station and we can hop on the train and get to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.  We have seen the Giants many times and have been to concerts there to see Sir Paul McCartney and most recently ACDC.  We were on the field for that concert and my husband was able to grab a handful of the outfield dirt where his favorite Giant, Hunter Pence, plays!  We will be seeing the San Francisco Fest there later this year with Journey, Santana and the Doobie Brothers, reminiscent of the old Day on the Green type concerts.  

 

In Hunter Pence territory

To the south of us are three more venues.  The first is Shoreline Amphitheater.  We have seen quite a few concerts there.  It has a large canopy like a circus tent under which are most of the seats, but they also have a lawn area where you can sit and have a picnic.  I prefer the closer seats.  We saw Heart there one year and just as they started to sing the song Reign O're Me, a Who cover, it started to rain!  It was magical.  This year we are seeing Def Leppard and REO Speedwagon there.

Rain falling during Reign O're Me

Next is SAP Center, home of the San Jose Sharks hockey team.  We have seen lots of shows there as well.  We will be seeing Sting and Peter Gabriel there for the Rock, Paper Scissors tour.  We've never seen either of them so it should be great!

Last but certainly not least is the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.  We first went to the Winery in 2007 and the next year they did a remodel of the concert area.  Since then we have seen two or three shows a year there at least and last year it was four, giving us the "Loyalty Club" benefits this year.  We managed to get front row seats last year to see Pat Benatar and my husband was able to bump fists with Neil Giraldo.  That was a real neat experience for him.  I tried to take a picture but he was standing right in front of me.  This year we will be seeing them again along with shows by Boston, Foreigner and Peter Frampton.

Fist bump with Neil Giraldo

And those are just the bigger venues.  We are also close to San Francisco and have gone to Cobb's Comedy Club to see Ben Bailey (The Cash Cab guy) and Roseanne Barr; to the Curran Theater to see Jersey Boys; the Orpheum to see Rain, the Beatles tribute and the Warfield to see Ron White.  

As I said, we are very lucky to be able to have such a wide variety of venues so close at hand.  I definitely have my work cut out for me with scrapbooking all of these special events!  

How about you?  Have any special venues close to you or do you have to travel to see shows?  Only 4 more letters to go!!!  Visit the A to Z Challenge center to see how other members are doing!

A to Z Challenge - 2016

April 2:  B is for...Bell

According to Wikipedia, bells are percussion instruments.  They come in many sizes but are mostly the same shape, that of a hollow cup, with a clapper or uvula suspended from the middle.  They are associated historically with religious rituals and, in addition, with the concepts of peace and freedom.  The study of bells is called campanology and a set of 23 bells, spanning two octaves is called a carillon.

The biggest bell I have seen is the one ACDC  uses for their song "Hells Bells."

These pictures were taken at their
recent concert at AT&T park.  We were on the field and the bell moved out over the crowd.  It was very impressive; however, recently the lead singer of ACDC was told by his doctor that if he didn't stop touring, he would lose his hearing.  Wonder if so many trips hanging from the uvula in the bell (as in the video linked above) had something to do with that?  

But the most exciting bells I like to hear are the ones when I am a winner at the slot machines!  This was a recent win on Easter Sunday at Thunder Valley Casino. I think here was about 100 when it was finished.  I've won $1000 once and believe me I listened to the bells the whole time!  It was a thrill I'll tell you!

B is for bells.  How about you?  Got any favorite bells?  Win a big jackpot?  Love to hear about it.

Don't forget to check out some of the other participants in the A to Z Blog Challenge as well!