Week 9 Update

I'm sorry I haven't written anything in well over a month and a half. Can't believe it's already March and the middle of Week 9 of the winter quarter. Finals begin next Saturday for me. I have two on that day. Terrible day to have a final (let alone two!) if you ask me. We barely get any time to prepare for them.

Anyway, a lot has happened since I last wrote here. Firstly, I added a few more shows to my concert calendar for the rest of the year. On June 12 (on the one year anniversary of the Steven Wilson show in Anaheim!) I will be seeing Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills with my friend Xhana. I'm really looking forward to that because I haven't seen Justin since 2013 when I saw The Moody Blues at the NOKIA Theater in L.A.. Plus The Canyon Club is so close to my house. This will be my first time driving to a concert by myself. I've been on the freeway that goes to the venue many times in the past, so it's a pretty easy drive. I noticed that the Anderson Ponty Band will also be playing there in May I believe, but I saw them in November, so I'm ok with missing that.

A couple other acts are said to be coming to LA in October: Ian Anderson with his new rock opera called Jethro Tull and the Anderson, Rabin,Wakeman project. I think the statement that ARW will be in LA in October was just a rumor, but if it's true, I would definitely see that over Ian. From the reviews I read about the Jethro Tull rock opera, people either loved it or hated it. The most common complaint I read was the condition of Ian's voice which, I will admit, is not what it used to be. However, I will also say that the good reviews drastically outweighed the bad ones, so there's that too. I don't know. We'll figure it out when we find out for sure when the ARW shows are.

On February 20, I saw my first concert of the year: Al Stewart at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. He played two nights there, both of which were sold out soon after my Dad got tickets for the second show. It was a Saturday night so it was perfectly timed. It was a nice guitar shop. Business hours for the shop were closed so we couldn't look at any of the instruments, but they had a lot to offer. It saddens me that these types of places are so hard to find these days, with places like Guitar Center putting them out of business. Anyway, Al is 70 years old. However, I was blown away by how great his voice sounded. Literally, his voice sounds just like it did 40 years ago. Nothing about it has changed. That's amazing, considering that I've noticed that the voices of a number of older singers have reduced in quality. But Al's voice has held up amazingly. As expected, he played most of his biggest songs, like "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages." I think he played about half of the Year of the Cat album. After the show, I picked up an Al Stewart Broadway Hotel poster as well as a CD copy of his 2005 album A Beach Full of Shells. I got both of them signed by him and talked to him for a bit. He was really nice to me fortunately, and said that I had the look of a singer songwriter. I found that interesting. No one had ever said that to me before. I realize that one could probably say that to anyone, but I still appreciated hearing it.

This July, I will be traveling to Portland, Oregon to spend some time with my friend Dylan. He's been getting me into the music of Phish since the middle of last year. I've only heard a couple of their albums but I think they're a really good contemporary American prog band. Dylan texted me one day telling me that Phish were playing two nights this July at his favorite concert venue, The Gorge Amphitheater in Washington. From the pictures I've seen, it looks like a really nice outdoor venue. Outdoor venues are generally not my favorite, but Dylan insists that this one is unlike any other, so I will take his word for it. Anyway, on the Phish website, fans can enter for a chance to win what are called Phish "lottery tickets." If you win, you get these cool ticket stubs to the show you're going to that have interesting artwork printed on them. If you lose, then you have to hope that you're lucky enough to get tickets off of regular ticket retail websites before they sell out. Apparently, when general tickets went on sale, Dylan told me that it took less than 2 minutes for them to sell out. We got lucky with those lottery tickets. I have my plane ticket now and I'm really looking forward to this.

My record collection is continuing to grow every week. I try not to overdo it with the vinyl, as I only have so much space in my dorm. I've really been interested in exploring more of Stevie Wonder's albums. I managed to find an original copy of Songs in the Key of Life last month. That was really cool, considering that original Stevie Wonder vinyl hasn't been the easiest for me to find, at least not at the stores I've been to. On CD, I also got Music of My Mind. Yesterday, Dylan sent me what he calls a "rare" Stevie album called Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta. I gave it a listen last night. It features Stevie's first wife Syreeta Wright entirely on vocals. If Dylan hadn't told me, and I had just happened to hear a song off that album, I probably never would have guessed it was a Stevie album. So far, I like all of the Stevie Wonder albums I have heard. I look forward to hearing more soon.

Aside from Stevie, I've also been getting more familiar with David Bowie's music. I'm liking Blackstar more and more each time I listen to it. I've also heard Diamond Dogs, Hunky Dory, Space Oddity, Heathen, and "Heroes." There's still a ton of music left to go through by him, but I have gathered that he really was a special part of the music world. He's been gone for almost two months. Hard to believe. Time really does just keep on going, no matter what happens. I just keep reminding myself, that his body is what's gone. He is still very much alive through the music. That's what makes music (and any kind of art, really) so special. Even long after the artists are gone, the art doesn't die with them. In this way, the artist lives on.