TV talk

This little transition has kept me from watching a whole lot of television lately.

I no longer have the DVR to magically record anything that piques my interests. I’ve rarely made it home in time to watch my beloved Nightly News. And then, once I finish my supper, I’ve been too occupied with work projects and Skype-ing with Kates and Phoebe to care much about what’s on the tube. Most nights, I’d rather just listen to music.

When the premiere of “American Idol” snuck up on me last week, my reaction was: “eh.” … I tried watching it and got so bored that I turned off the TV after about 40 minutes of it. Thus, I didn't bother watching the next night and missed the "Pants on the Ground" guy who was ALL OVER the radio the next day ... It’s just not the same without Paula, and I still can’t stand Kara. … Maybe I’ll try watching it again when Hollywood Week arrives, but sinking two hours times three nights per week of “Idol” into my life just doesn’t appeal to me right now. I’ve been there, done that -- and now with the news of Simon’s likely exit, I‘m feeling less likely to devote my time to the show.

I‘ve virtually forgotten about “Cougar Town” and the new “Scrubs.” Even “The Daily Show” and David Letterman have fallen off my radar (… although, Letterman did get me back this week. More on that in a minute …).

The only certainty in my TV-watching routine right now is “Sportscenter” in the morning while I get ready for work -- which is interesting because it was one of the first things to go when I moved to that awful 5 a.m. shift last year.

As for my other favorites, I’m finding more and more that I prefer to watch them online whenever I can fit them in. The commercials are short, the picture is clear, you can’t beat it … “Modern Family,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Office,” “Big Bang Theory,” and “30 Rock” (in that order) are my must-sees right now.

Thursday night’s “Office” had me laughing as hard as I’ve laughed at an “Office” episode in a long, long time -- even though it was clip show. Watching those montages and seeing the funniest moments in the show’s history again was pure joy -- Angela tossing her cat to Oscar during the fire, Jim impersonating Dwight -- and one of my all-time favorite bits -- Jim slamming his car’s brakes and causing Dwight’s head to crash into back of Jim’s seat.

* * *

And then there’s the whole late night TV fracas …

I wasn’t complimentary of Conan O’Brien when he took over for Jay Leno in September. I told someone the other night, I used to enjoy watching him on “Late Night,” but I grew up and his material didn’t. It seemed to me he wasn’t growing into his new role at “The Tonight Show,” either, so I stopped watching him after a couple weeks and remained true my old faithful, David Letterman.

Leno, I’ve always considered a terrible bore. His monologues come across as glossy, rarely biting and merely good for a couple smiles … Where NBC should have held firm in its decision to pass its late night torch to Conan and given him room to grow, the network copped out and awarded Leno the primetime slot like a consolation prize.

I fell into the camp that was just waiting for the whole thing to blow up in NBC’s face. All you needed was to consider the network's recent history. … And yet, I probably kept watching Leno’s show longer than 90 percent of the country, if only for the guests.

When NBC announced a couple weeks ago it was put Jay Leno’s show out of its misery, I certainly didn’t expect the controversy it stirred up … NBC could have cancelled Leno’s show and quietly said good-bye to him; Their treatment of Conan was just wrong and sad. Conan's statement, on the other hand, was only the beginning ...

Boy, did it spur some classic late night television.

Check out these recaps on for Tuesday night, Wednesday night and Thursday night.

I happily tuned into Letterman most nights and loved his relentless barbs about Leno and NBC … Meanwhile, Leno played it safe and flat as usual. With Leno, I was bored in minutes. Click, TV goes off.

And Conan? Conan was on fire. With nothing to lose, his monologues were razor sharp and had me laughing so hard that my side hurt … Between surprise appearances by Ben Stiller, Pee Wee Herman and Steve Carell and some crazy stunts (Example: Supposedly billing NBC $4.8 million to bring “Mine That Bird” on the stage in a mink Snuggie to watch the NFL Network), I found Conan to be as entertaining as he’d ever been -- and I’m not just saying that out of sympathy. Robin Williams shouting “You idiots did the wrong thing!” out Conan’s fake window was priceless.

This week’s final shows left such an impression on us that my friend John and I cut short our Friday night on the town and made sure we were back at my place by 10:30 to watch Conan’s final show … Tom Hanks getting the crowd into a Coco chant, the multiple standing ovations and the classic moments montage were chill-worthy (Conan’s cross-country run to open his first show was still a treat to watch). And watching Conan on his guitar for a jam of “Free Bird” with Will Ferrell, ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons and Beck was a sweet, sweet way to end it.

Conan’s final words should be posted on our quote boards, too …

"All I ask of you, especially young people ... is one thing. Please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen."

Here's some good reads about the situation ...

a Conan O'Brien's future after 'Tonight Show'
a On show, Leno casts himself as victim; at Globes, unflattering words pour down on NBC
a Tom Shales on the villains in the Leno-O'Brien fiasco at NBC

* * *

One more thing ...

I spent the morning watching the first four episodes of "Lost," and my anticipation for the final season is burning ...

My friend John had never seen the show. So I explained to him the glorious television he was missing, and this morning he wanted to watch my DVDs of the first season. I giddily obliged.

In a search for "Lost" material this week, I stumbled onto this amusing spoof ... Enjoy.

Craig Ferguson on the Jay Leno move

This is pretty hilarious, also ...

Sunday reading

Happy, sunny Sunday, folks.

Just finished watching Kansas whip up on Missouri. ... Things couldn't be better.

Here's some of the stuff that caught my eyes last week ...

Baseball ...
a Five bold predictions for 2009 ... I'm not holding my breath for the Cubs.
a At 81, Lasorda still has nothing but love for game
a Griffey and Giambi Head Back Home in Twilight
a Judge in Bonds Case Has Reputation as Quick Study
a Johnson Has Lost a Little Off His Fastball but Not His Reputation
a The Incredible Shrinking Baseball Player

Music ...
a At White House Show, Truly a Night of Wonder
a Lawmakers, promoters slam Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger at Senate hearing ... Let's hope their money-making ideas include reducing or getting rid of those wretched "convenience fees."

TV ...
a Ready or Not, Here Comes Jimmy Fallon To Update 'Late Night'
a 'Late Night' host Fallon just wants to have fun
a Don’t Worry, Bedtime’s Safe With the Lads ... Good read on the constant that is late night television.
a Conan O'Brien's 'The Tonight Show'
a Once Again, Conan Will Be on a Richter Scale ... Yes!
a Oscars host Hugh Jackman gave the job his all ... I seemed to be one of the few last week who really enjoyed Jackman as the Oscar host. His opening number featuring Anne Hathaway was one of the best moments of the night.

Politics ...
a A Better Bobby Jindal ... Another good one from Kathleen Parker. Kates and I couldn't stop rolling our eyes during his speech Tuesday night.
a The Jindal Phenomenon

Media & the Internet ...
a Advertisers need patience to tap into Web's potential
a Google Puts Small Ads on Pages of News Site
a What Are You Doing? Media Twitterers Can’t Stop Typing ... After initially being weary and then a slow warming period, I became a full-fledged Twitterer last week.
a Anchors Oblige Public's Craving for Tweets
a A Tale of 140 Characters, Plus the Ones in Congress ... Speaking of Twitter, this was one of the more amusing stories I read last week.
a Tragic death of Rocky Mountain News
a Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging
a Hit 'send,' then hit the door

Life & other stuff ...
a Miami banker lavishes $60M on his employees ... Got this one from my friend Raechel
a A jobless man around the house
a Missouri family struggles to pay for cave home ... Now this sounds like a fun place to live. Something tells me it's not, however.
a Restroom ransom? Airline mulls toilet toll ... In case you hadn't heard. This is the Bonehead Idea of the Week.
a The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too: Recess
a The unclaimed ashes of hard times
a 6,473 Texts a Month, But at What Cost?

Finally ... Check out this clip featuring Frank Caliendo and Dana Carvey doing their respective Bush impressions ...

Conan's send-off

Kates and I just watched our recording of Conan O’Brien’s final show last night before he takes over The Tonight Show spot …

Great stuff … Mostly what made it worthwhile for me was seeing some of the old clips again -- the 1864 baseball bit was ha-larious! It was great seeing Andy Richter come by for the final show (Andy as Conan’s sidekick marked the glory years of the show as far as I’m concerned) … And I applauded Conan’s wonderful nod to David Letterman.

As I’ve said before, I discovered and became a huge fan of Conan in my college days -- back when being wide-awake at midnight was routine. But in my later years, his college humor was lost on me and I’ve rarely watched him the last few years …

EW offered up five memorable moments from 'Late Night.' Their No. 2 definitely ranks as one my favorite Conan shows ...

Still, some of what I’ll remember most are the classic bits he did with Andy, his “satellite” interviews with caricatures of Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, Triumph the Comic dog (most memorable bit: his interviews with people gathered for the Michael Jackson trial), Ben Folds Five's multiple appearances and, of course, Amy Poehler’s early appearances as Andy’s sister.

Sunday reading

Ugh.

... Did the taxes yesterday. Happy Valentine's Day to us.

... Got my ice skating fix for the winter. And this year I did it with clear vision.

... And we had the family over to celebrates Kates's dad's birthday tonight.

We're exhausted.

Here's some of the reads that caught my eyes this week and were worth sharing ...

Sports ...
a Francona is having the time of his life
a Griffey wants to return to Seattle ... Sweet!
a Confronting A-rod
a A-Rod Dead At 33 ... From The Onion.
a Measuring A-Rod
a A-Rod proves apologies are not easy
a One Name Is Not Enough In This Case
a Steroid stench grows even stronger
a This soap opera is beyond sordid, yet we still watch
a Baseball's Tainted Month
a Hall of Fame needs to get rid of ridiculous character clause ... This is a really tough one for me. I still think the character clause is a valuable factor in determining Hall-worthiness. But I also think guys like Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens put up deserving numbers in their prime, rule-abiding years.
a Juice has sucked fun out of voting ... Another good read about the Hall voting.
a Attendance figures and revenue could decrease as teams are feeling the pressure
a Sox-Yankees: Tranquillity vs. trauma
a Favre: Top 10 All-Time? ... His knack for throwing interceptions and coming undone when games were on the line certainly doesn't help his cause.
a Coach K Never Forgets an 'L'

Music ...
a Scenes from Grammy weekend ... You go Death Cab.
a Grammys on key, but also a bit offbeat
a Wild Thing ... Good stuff about Neko Case.
a Vinyl Takes Another Spin With Music Lovers ... Love it! Except for the stores that charge like 30 bucks for a good vinyl. That's just robbery.

TV ...
a Joaquin Phoenix and late night: What's old is new again ... Phoenix's Letterman appearance is one of the craziest things I've ever seen on television.
a Joaquin Phoenix mystifies David Letterman
a Flight 1549 crew gets laughs on 'Letterman'
a As Conan heads west, where will his humor go? ... I was one of those guys who loved watching Conan in college. Some time after that I realized he's not that funny. I think he's going to have to make some changes to survive Leno's spot.

Politics ...
a Stalled Switch to Digital TV A Classic Tale of Breakdown ... Pretty much. If you're not ready, it's your own fault, I say.
a Even Tiniest Lincoln Relics Command Reverence

Internet & Media ...
a What Newspapers Do, Have Done and Will Do
a Newsweek Plans Makeover to Fit a Smaller Audience
a Boy Photoshops girl: A Flickr love story ... This is my friend Raechel's submission for the week. I found this story both very cool, and kind of creepy.
a TV's Mark Suppelsa connects to 5,000 friends on Facebook
a How Google Decides to Pull the Plug
a Do We Need a New Internet?
a How fast can you add Facebook friends? Faster than Facebook will allow
a How Social Networking Sites Have Changed The Breakup Game
a Twitter? It’s What You Make It

Life & other stuff ...
a Snuggie Pub Crawl coming
a 40 years' worth of thanks ... Great story. If you can, watch the video, too.
a Queens Driver Unknowingly Drags a Body Nearly 20 Miles ... Awful.
a From tech bubble to tech bobbleheads ... I so want one.

Sunday reading

Some of the reads that caught my attention during the last week ...

Baseball ...
a Dawson, Smith getting a raw deal
a Deal Or No Deal
a Whatever Yankees Want ... Great editorial from The New York Times.
a Willie, Bloomquist and the Dunn

The "Miracle in the Hudson" ... You can't deny this was the most fascinating story of the week, perhaps even the year. The pilot even has a Facebook page with hundreds of thousands of fans and counting ...
a After Splash, Nerves, Heroics and Comedy
a As Jet Was Ditched, Nearby Ferries Went Into Rescue Mode
a Pilot who ditched jet safely in Hudson River flew fighter planes for Air Force

Politics ...
a In the Beginning ... A good take on the inaugural oath.
a Donor fatigue setting in for some Obama supporters ... Amen.
a The Long, Lame Goodbye
a Exit Bush, Shoes Flying
a Why We Have to Look Back
a 10 Take Aways From the Bush Years
a Palin is getting in her own way

Media & the Internet ...
a At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool
a Can CNN, the Go-to Site, Get You to Stay?
a CBS Pumps Up TV.com to Create a Destination

TV ...
a O'Brien, Fallon see late-night challenges ahead

Technology ...
a Can Apple Fill the Void?

And finally, my favorite photo of the week.

We'll miss you Amy

So Amy Poehler had her baby yesterday ...

We figured it out this afternoon as we watched our "Sunday 'Saturday Night Live' " and realized Poehler wasn't appearing in any skits, aside from one previously-recorded sketch ...

(By the way, while last night's show wasn't stellar -- aside from Maya Rudolph's appearance as Michelle Obama -- we did get three, THREE! Coldplay performances, including a great oldie -- they played "Yellow" for their third song, and Chris Martin capped it by saying into the mic "Barack Obama!" ... The band launched into a fouth song as the credits rolled, though, we as television viewers only got to hear a few seconds of it ...But back to Amy ... )

We got our confirmation when Seth Myers went solo on "Weekend Update" and I promptly logged on, finding the news here.

While we're extremely happy for Amy and her husband, Will Arnett, and their new son, Archie ... We're pretty sad her SNL appearances are all but a memory now. The send-off to her at the end of Weekend Update was worthy ...

Here's my tribute to Amy Poehler -- A clip of her playing Andy Richter's sister on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." I was a big fan of Conan -- and Andy -- during my college days, and I loved the nights when Amy appeared on the show. That's when I first took notice of her ...

Seen and heard

... Kates has had a lot of homework all week. Which leaves me downstairs in my cave watching baseball (except for tonight. The Cubs played earlier today and no one else is on tonight. So I'm blowing through some good music) ...

The best nights, of course, are when there's multiple games on and I can flip to my hearts content. Last night, I caught a little of the replay of the afternoon's Brewers-Giants game, then flipped over to ESPN for the Red Sox-Braves game, and finally settled on the Cubs-Rangers game ...

The best part: Catching Sammy Sosa's 600th homerun. Watching him connect with the ball, the hop, the blown kisses ... Forgetting for a few moments how it all ended in Chicago and how much we loved cheering him on for a few of those summers, it was hard not to let a smile leak out while he rounded the bases and took repeated curtain calls ...

* * *

Just days ago, I was watching with a certain interest and marveling at an interview featuring Brian Williams with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the speculation that he could be a strong candidate for the presidency ...

Then word comes today that he's backing away from the Republican party. Now that makes that interview even more interesting ... A breath of fresh air indeed.

Though I'm skeptical that he could give the already so-established candidates a good run for 2008. Somebody, a few of them, would have to take a hard fall ... 2012 perhaps?

* * *

On the radio the other day I heard that NBC is courting Jon Stewart as a possible replacement to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show ...

My ears immediately perked up. As the story I heard was reported: NBC is having second thoughts about Leno handing over the reigns to Conan, and the network is trying to lure Stewart to NBC to either replace Leno, when he supposedly leaves the Tonight Show in 2009, or NBC could convince Leno to stay and Stewart would take the post-Leno slot currently held by Conan ... Either way, it sounds like NBC wants to say bye-bye Conan ...

Initally, I'm thinking this is a smart move for NBC ... Maybe it's just me getting older, but I've grown increasingly annoyed with Conan during the last couple years. Much of his material is unoriginal, juvenile and well, not funny (Really, how many more nights can he spend morphing celebrity mugs together to show us what their kids might look like ... I hate those segments.) His interviews don't flow, and too often he interrupts his guests and turns the focus on himself ... A few years ago, I was in the camp who thought Conan was the next best thing on late night TV. Now, I'm only tuning in if he's got a guest I really want to see, and then I'm fast-forwarding through the rest of the show ...

On the other hand, I'm thinking, and hoping John Stewart doesn't take the bait and remains true to The Daily Show I've come to loooooooove over the last couple years (thanks DVR!)

* * *

On the news the other night, I caught a report that the Vatican had come up with its own set of the Ten Commandments ...

For driving ...

I love it! ... especially No. 5: Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

* * *

A conversation at work this week, as Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" played through the small speakers of our corner's iPod ...

"I hate Fleetwood Mac."

Me: "You hate Fleetwood Mac?"

"Well, I don't hate Fleetwood Mac. I just don't like this album."

Me: "Really! Not a big fan of the Rumours album, huh? ... It's one of my favorite albums of all time!"

"No. I mean, I had it, and I listened to it like 4 billion times --"

Me: "Which I'm in the process of doing right now."

"Yeah, so I just can't stand to listen to it anymore."

I'm hoping I never get to that point.

Pale Force!

For fans of Conan O'Brien and Jim Gaffigan, there's good stuff here ...

* * *

Katie Couric was her old perky self on Letterman last night, and funny as ever. Talking about her plight to find the perfect sign-off, she mentioned fielding viewers suggestions and read some of them to Dave. Among them:

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty" (If you watch Letterman regularly, you'll understand ...)

"Oh snap, look what time it is"

"True that peeps!"

(via Letterman) "Suck on that, losers"

"Thanks for watching. I'm Katie Couric. And I'm not just for breakfast anymore."

(via Bob Barker) "I'm Katie Couric. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to spay and neuter your pets."

... good stuff. Still not a fan of her broadcast. And I'm not surprised it's slipping in the ratings.

* * *

... Kates and I saw one of the funniest commercials we've seen in a long time last night ...

... The opening shot shows a woman knelt over her flower garden and putting a spray on the plants. A neighbor looks over the fence and asks, "Hey, where'd you get that fertilizer?" The woman answers, "Oh just something I found at the store." ... then a pan of the woman's yard shows the flowers disintegrating, the house falling apart, bare trees and a clump of leaves falling on the woman ...

... Replay the opening shot again. The neighbor looks over the fence again and asks, "Hey, where'd you get that spray?" This time, the woman answers, "It's something I found on Yahoo." And suddenly the entire yard springs to life, the flowers bloom. And a little white dog climbs out from beneath the ground, comes to all fours and shakes the dirt off. The woman, still knelt over her garden, has a puzzled look and says, "Scruffy?" Then a little girl runs from her nearby swing and exclaims "Scruffy, you're alive!"

HA-larious!

Summerfest. Day #2

Let's just say Day 2 went a whole lot better than Day 1 ... (not that Day 1 was that bad ...)

... I left the house at almost the exact same time as Friday night. But this time, when I got to the Park & Ride lot, there were plenty of parking spots to be had. They hadn't even bothered putting the overflow signs up ... nice. Plus, I'd brought enough one bills this time so the bus driver didn't have to get me change.

Once at the Summerfest grounds, I found myself gravitating toward the Briggs & Stratton Stage again. Funny, in all my past years at Summerfest, I've hovered around the U.S. Cellular Stage (formerly the Piggly Wiggly stage) and the Miller Lite Oasis --stages generally reserved for the younger crowds and current, hip acts. Until this year, I'd never seen a show at the Briggs stage, and now here I was for the second time in as many nights (I must be getting old ...) ... this time waiting to see the Go-Gos ... woo hoo!

So I got my bucket of Mountain Dew (seriously. The cups they sell at Summerfest are so big, I call them buckets ...) and grabbed a seat. There was about 2 1/2 hours before the Go-Gos were scheduled to come on at 10, and still plenty of seats. On stage was the Briggs Bluesbusters, who according to the schedule had already been playing for about an hour and a half. A decent classic rock cover band with 13! members ... they kept switching in and out so not all of them were on stage together until the finale, but I counted as many as four guitarists, two keyboard/organ players, a couple women doing tamborines and vocals, a guy doing sax and flute duty and the drummer. One of the guitarists also was a former member of The Grassroots, which helped the band do a great cover of 'Temptation Eyes.'

... Even when I started to get a little restless, I tried looking for other stuff, but nothing at the other stages appealed to me and pretty soon I was back at the Briggs Stage -- just as the Bluesbusters were returning from a break and going into The Who's 'Baba O'Riley' ... Awesome!

But just when I was about to give it my 'cover of the night award,' they played Deep Purple's 'Hush, Hush,' which normally wouldn't grab me, but the Bluesbusters version featured a jaw-dropping organ solo... The band continued, playing some Springsteen, some Mellencamp, among other classic rock staples, and then -- for the finale -- an amped-up version of Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone' ... While the band, now with all 13 of its members lined up on stage, rocked out and whaled into their mics, the crowd was on its feet, dancing and clapping. One of those scenes where you can't help but look around and smile at everybody having so much fun. No one seemed to notice the song was going on and on and on, I swear the band looped the song like three times ...

There was one crusty old guy sitting in front of me, however, who wasn't enjoying the music as much ... About midway through the show, he began berating the band for not playing anything he apparently wanted to hear, even getting in a 'You Suck!' during a break in one of the songs. Then, after yelling a bit more and shouting, 'Play something good! ... this isn't rock n' roll!!' the guy threw up his arms and stormed away from the seating area ... to the smiles and laughter of the crowd sitting around him. It was so good, it was as if the band had staged it, like one of those angry audience members in skits on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien.'

... The Bluesbusters finally went off at about 9:15 p.m., and while there had been some empty seats throughout the area, the crowd swelled very quickly and began packing in for the Go-Gos show ... in the meantime, I had finished my bucket of Mountain Dew and badly needed to get to a restroom. And I had a sixth row, center seat that I did not want to lose. Luckily the burly bald guy next to me agreed to save it for me. ... Thanks Burly Bald Guy!

... As the crowd grew, I was pleased to see I wasn't the only guy in the audience -- as I had previously feared. No surprise, there were several packs of 30 or 40-something women who no doubt idolized the Go-Gos back in the day and were strying to recapture some of the magic on this night (I caught one group of women wearing matching T-shirts that said 'Vogos: 2006 Reunion Tour' which I took as some sort of inside joke; another woman sitting a couple rows in front of me was sporting a 1983 Tour t-shirt), but there was also a nice mix of families, older teens and 20-somethings, and middle-aged guys (like the superfan in front of me, who I think pulled a tattered piece of paper from his wallet that was scribbled full with Go-Gos setlists and notes, and he was telling Go-Gos story upon story to the couple sitting on the other side of me...).

... and as 10 p.m. got closer, I noticed my anxiety level actually increase a bit, and I thought: this might be my most-anticipated show of this year's Summerfest -- but only behind the Guster show next weekend ...

... and then it started pouring!!! ... But nothing to fear. The Briggs stage is situated under the interstae overpass. So while rain soaked the rest of the grounds and spectacular ligtning flashed across the Milwaukee skyline, we were completely dry!! ... Ha!

... Finally the recorded music stopped. The stage lights dimmed ... A soft chord started coming from the speakers, slowly picking up speed and volume like a drum roll and then there they were, taking the stage one by one, each of them bobbing and swaying to the beats like the pop-punk princesses they are -- Jane Wiedlin, Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine and Gina Schock.

It was sooooooo sweet.

Seconds later, the guitars were strapped on and 'Our Lips Are Sealed' was being played in force ... (watch the original video here! ...whoah '80s!!)


The girls plowed through all of their hits, in addition to some of their other popular tracks from then and now (Get Up And Go, Lust To Love, Skidmarks on My Heart), playing every one of them with punked-up, loud, heavy, roaring guitars ... Meanwhile California girl Carlisle belted out every tune just the way I'd always seen her, swaying to the beat, tapping, beating a tamborine and bopping around the stage -- I could barely take my eyes off her all night ... Just as charming was Wiedlin, dressed in a white shirt with a pink tie around her neck. She too was constantly jumping around the stage, occasionally dancing alongside Carlisle, and beaming with glee, appearing to be having as much fun as anyone ...

Before we knew it, the girls were ending their first set with 'Vacation' (awesome!) ...

... a short break, and then they were out again for a short encore. Kathy Valentine started it off by telling the crowd, 'We've played Milwaukee before, but we've never played Summerfest ... wow. Wow!' ... she then noted Wiedlin was from Milwaukee and Wiedlin picked up the commentary, explaining the 'sad day' in 1985 when Carlisle left the group to embark on a solo career, 'and we thought what's she ever going to do with us,' Wiedlin said. 'Then she goes off and sells 5 zillion records. So right now we're going to play her first hit ...'

It was a nice intro to 'Mad About You.' ... Once again, Carlisle was at the mic belting out the vocals. And the rest of the girls were adding background vocals and heavy guitars, making for yet another sweet, rocked-up version of a song that normally passes for something on an easy listening station ...



After thanking the crowd, Carlisle announced the band's last song would be a cover from one of the original girl groups, a version of the The Shangri-Las 'Walking in the Sand.' ... It was probably the lightest tune the group had done all night ...

By 11:30 it was all over, and I was on my way to catch the shuttle back home again ... and I was beaming.

...Now I've had Go-Gos songs playing in my head for most of the day, and when Kates and I picked up our Sunday night Chinese food earlier tonight, I couldn't resist and stopped in at the record store (c'mon! it's right next to the Chinese place! ...) and went straight to the G's in search of Go-Gos records. A couple minutes later, I was paying for vinyl copies of 'Vacation' and 'Beauty And The Beat' ...

'The Go-Gos, huh?' the clerk said.

'Yep.'

'Back in my day, we used to call them The Pretenders because we didn't think they could play, we thought they were pretending. But they put out some pretty good albums. They were really good ...'

... Uh, yeah! ... They're still good ... In the time it's taken me to write this post, I've had both albums going on the turntable and I think I've played both sides of both albums three or four times ...

ALSO SEE:
a My Summerfest preparation: 'It's here baby!!'
a My Summerfest Day #1
a My Summerfest Day #3
a My Summerfest Day #4
a My Summerfest Day #5

Sunday reads

Study: Fewer News Stories Offer Any Depth ... yeah.

Conan O’Brien to devote show to Finland trip ... Kates and I had this show on our DVR and watched it earlier tonight ... HA-larious!

Found by ‘Lost’ ... To hear Evangeline Lilly talk, her path to stardom on the hit series 'Lost' was almost beyond her control.

‘Amazing Race’ host enjoys globe-trotting role ... 'Amazing Race,' and Phil, of course, -- Rocks!

It’s Not Just Popular, It’s Infectious ... uh, ya think!? ... I've been saying this since the new 'Grey's' season began last fall -- it's the new 'Friends.' The cast and the chemistry among the cast is arguably the best on TV right now ...