Mother of All Birthdays
Ushered in my fifth decade in fine style this weekend, making a trip to Atlanta with Mrs. TMcD and "the Goofball" to meet up with college roomie, Beaker. While Goof and her mama hit the botanical garden, Beak and I had lawn seats for REM. Great show. I've seen the pride of Athens four times now, and this was probably the best, despite having nosebleed seating. Lots of old faves for us oldsters, including four gems from Reckoning: "Harborcoat," "Pretty Persuasion," "Time After Time," and "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville," the last sung by Mike Mills in full Nashville form complete with cowboy hat. And, of course, lots of stumping for Obama from stage.
Then this morning Mrs. TMcD surprised me with Braves tix. Damned good ones too. Row 14, b/w home and the mound, right where the netting ends. I think Beak and I even made the teevee (we at least got jumbotron)--Mrs. TMcD missed out, however, refusing to hurl herself into the shot with the same shamelessness. Even better, the Braves beat the Mariners 8-3 after 7 shotout innings from Tim Hudson and three dingers from Mark Texiera.
Finally, and best of all, word is the Family 3 added their #3 this afternoon, a Bee in their Basinet. Yee-ha and congrats to the whole clan! I demand visual confirmation and soon. Paul and I have ponied up, now it's time to complete the set.
posted by tenaciousmcd @ 11:35 PM
2 Comments:
That's quite a birthday weekend! You and tekne must be very close to the same date, as she and I went to Cornwall to celebrate hers this weekend.
The REM show sounds fantastic. My question: what were the new songs like in concert? I Saw them once, in a HUGE stadium around the time of Monster, and it was extremely disappointing.
The new songs sounded good too, especially the more rocking ones from Accelerate, like "Living Well Is The Best Revenge," "I'm Gonna DJ," and "Man Sized Wreath"--which Stipe later explained was about Bush visiting the grave of MLK in Atlanta (a "desecration" he said). "Houston" was the only one that kind of dragged, I thought. Meanwhile, very little from the previous three CDs, just "I've Been High" and "Walk Unafraid," I think.
Other high points: the slowdowns for "Electrolite" and "Nightswimming," and Johnny Marr (now with opener Modest Mouse) coming out during the encore to play along on the last two songs, "Fall On Me" and "Man on the Moon." Fro, I think you might also have appreciated the stage graphics, the best I've seen from REM, which gave the feel of old REM videos. I saw that Monster tour too, with better seats than this show, and they were better this time.
If Techne's b-day was Sunday, she shares it with me and the Bee, and, I believe, Kris Kristopherson (sp?). I wonder, has Bee run her first marathon yet? Memorized the constitution? Can only be a matter of days.
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