Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

I consider myself fortunate to have experienced Simple Minds live back in the time when Jim Kerr and Chrissie Hynde were together - in fact I saw their bands perform together at Pine Knob on a wonderful summer night in (I believe) 1984. I have followed both Simple Minds and The Pretenders over the ensuing decades with much aural delight. I became a registered member of SimpleMinds.com a few years ago - this keeps me up to date with the band. When Simple Minds offered live recordings of their recent 5x5 tour of Australia to their members I jumped at the chance. ( Get Some Here) . I had my chance to order any one of the multiple dates they played down under and I chose December 9 at Sirromet Winery. The 5x5 tour centers around the band playing 5 songs from each of their first 5 albums. Each concert features a slightly different set list. See below for the list on this particular night. The band sounds great. Jim seems to be in fine voice - aided at crucial mome...

DISCLAIMER: I know that all Boy Scout troop leaders are not child molesters, nor are all Catholic priests or football coaches. My purpose here is NOT to cast aspersions on football, Scouting, or Catholicism. I just find it terrible and ironic, as well as terribly ironic, that boys and young men were preyed upon in settings where one would assume a child would be the most safe. I was never a Boy Scout or a Catholic and my only involvement with organized football was when Coach Dishner persuaded me to be the manager of our 8th grade team way back when. In light of the recent garbage involving the cover up of the actions of predatory pedophiles coming to the surface regarding the Boy Scouts, a huge national football program, and the Catholic Church, I had an interesting thought: As a boy of 16, 17, and 18 I was safer hanging around the homosexuals in the theatre than I MIGHT (NOTE: the word "might") have been had I been in the Boy Scouts, playing football or attendi...

Once upon a time, in an earlier life, I had occasion to create some music for a multi-media presentation at a nature theme park in Northern Michigan. Project Nature was in Vanderbilt (just North of Gaylord) and when you first entered the park you were treated to a surround sound audio-visual presentation in a small theatre with a kick-ass sound system (designed by yours truly) and a slide show with 7 screens and 27 projections linked to the music as well as falling water, some fog and other effects. What does all of that have to do with the book "Ripped - How The Wired Generation Revolutionized Music" by Greg Kot? Well, before Project Nature was forced into closing by bankruptcy, the musical program created by my former wife and I was illegally duplicated.  This not only devastated us on a personal level, but the financial impact was insane.   Anyway, that experience made me pretty hard line when it came to music and copyrights thereof. I had a pretty dim view of the...