All though I am rather critical of Pete Townshend today, harken back to the early 90's when his actions still influenced everything I did. Records, tours and any news was of paramount importance. I had always yearned for a solo Townshend tour and the summer of '93 represented the culmination of decades of Who-ing! It was incredible! A word I throw around quite liberally, but hey...sums it all up! And those Berkeley shows.....

That February, there was a Celebration of the Music of Pete Townshend at Carnegie Hall in NYC hosted by Roger Daltrey. A bunch of different musicians were there to do their rendition of favorite Townshend songs. An eclectic group of people ranging from The Chieftains to Saw Doctors to Irish fiddlers and dancers to the Berklee Symphony to Eddie Vedder to Pete himself. Naturally Who fans were there in full force flying in from around the country. A frigid night warmed by some outrageous ticket prices. But an interesting few nights to add to the life and times.

Some more great Gooch news!!! PRETENDERS activity! After 5 years with no new music and 7 with no pretending, Chrissie gets a new band and an old dummer and hits the road!!! "LAST OF THE INDEPENDANTS" was a great comeback and CHRISSIE LOOKED EVEN BETTER!!!!

That spring I saw a few shows in NYC and THOROUGHLY enjoyed them! A lotta yelling and screaming and singing along.....gosh, I felt like 40 again!! And a few more in the fall; same results! I hadn't been that animated at a concert in years! Musta been 'cause Chrissy looked HOT!!!HAHAHA well she did!

That fall my brother came along for a journey westward to visit his old friend Lenny. A native Utican, him and Dicky hungout in the '70s with classic English cars being the common denominator. Southern California! Incredible!!! I kinda like it! While I was out there, I saw my first west coast RAIDERS game with Jason. A down to the wire affair against Houston with LA coming out on top 13-10! We only stayed a week but our appetite was whetted with the possible adventure the future could hold! Thanks Lenny and Deb!

But the absolute pinnacle of my sport viewing occurred in the spring of '94. I had seen the Raiders win Super Bowls on tv and saw the Mets create improbable series victories and I had been a full-fledged sports junkie since the mid-60's, cheering fervantly for my teams and bleeding silver and black or orange and blue or whatever color was on that day, BUT NOTHING EVER RIVALED THE EMOTIONS OF THE FABLED RANGER RUN TO LORD STANLEYS CUP AFTER 54 YEARS OF ABJECT FUTILITY!!!

And I had the opportunity to be a part of this historical hockey challenge. I witnessed Game 4 on the Island with Tracy and Mary, bringing out our brooms, along with Joe Cooch, we sat in the blues for Game 5 against the Caps, and with Joe S I sat in a bar in NYC watching Game 7 against the Devils on tv after finding no available tickets. What a classic double overtime game 7!! MATTEAU MATTEAU MATTEAU! BUT ALL THIS PALES WITH THE EVENING OF JUNE 14 1994 WHEN THE CUP WAS IN THE BUILDING! GAME 7 AGAINST VANCOUVER WITH THE CUP ON THE LINE AND INTENSE EMOTIONS RUNNING RAMPANT.LEETCH GRAVES MESSIER RICHTER AND SUDDENLY IT WAS OVER AND.........

Can we possibly go ONWARD or save it for later? Ah go for IT!