OK, it is time for action! Once again, THE DOORS are on tour. Been awhile, so off to Toronto for a frollicking evening at The Molson Amphitheater, great seats to see the greatest American band of all time! Hmm, ok Jim and John maybe not present, but once Break on Through kicks in...does it really matter!

OK, so Chuck just asked where is 2004? Well, looks like it is right here ,eh! Time for a west coast fling and as the events pile up, it appears to be an action packed nine day California extravaganza! SHEESH! Not again! A Southwest flight out of Albany on Friday the 10th, gets into LA at 9pm. A 2 hour ride to Ventura ensues....BUT WAIT....Tears for Fears is playing in West Hollywood Tuesday night...at a record store no less....so not wanting to miss out on the limited tickets, we stop off at Tower records and get ours...FREE with the purchase of the new album PLUS a t-shirt!!!! and off yonder we go, a hundred miles up 101, to our Motel 6 on Ventura Beach and some sleep and a chance meeting with fate in the morning....Denny's and Porsches and a splendid time to be guaranteed for all! And of course, Henry the Horse danced no waltz for us. Good night.

Here by the sea and sand....Southern California.....whatta place! Saturday morning... I am hungry! Nothing new! A big breakfast for the incredible journey ahead of us! Ventura Beach and a sea of Porsches stretching as far as the eye can see! Naturally, Dicky is thrilled and we walk for the next 6 hours checking every vehicle that crosses our path. But as the afternoon hours pass, we must leave cause we got another 2 hour journey ahead of us as we have a date with the LA COUNTY FAIR mind you...and who woulda ever thought that our favorite LA band of all time...ALL TIME...would be the nights musical entertainment! Can you say....THE DOORS!!!! I said more than that as the evening sky offered California wonders anew! Ladies and Gentlemen....from Los Angeles California......THE DOORS!!!! WOW!!!! AGAIN!!!

A beautiful night, stars shimmering in the heavens, and once again, a dynamic set chock full of rocknroll CLASSICS! Musta been something to see the Doors in the 60's, cause 35 years later, this old , haggard lot still makes ya clap your hands and tap your toes! Of course, some in the audience also fall under that old, haggard definition! HAHAHA Bandanas and all....and as the show ends on this wondrous Saturday night, out into the teeming masses of fairgoers we amble! What an awesome sight! Only in LA! The day is done! 24 hours and already we have experienced a cornucopia of thrills! (let's throw that word in to honor Thanksgiving '04)((Hey Chuck, nice hearing from ya! Sorry, Duff. Ended up going to my sisters!))

So, a Sunday morning dawned after a fitful sleep! A day crammed full of excitement loomed ahead, and what better way to start it......C'mon now....need we say more....DENNY'S!!! Ventura Day 2! More Porsches and on a beautiful sun-kissed day,(hmmm, southern California, eh!) we walked for a coupla 2,3 miles and as the hours passed...well...not for nothing....but the Raiders were opening their NFL season in Pittsburgh and I hadda find out the score! NO WAY! And sad news it was. A last second field goal downs the Silver and Black, putting me in a sour mood! Oh well, the Porsches are leaving the beachhead and we journey north up 101 to Santa Barbara for the evening. Crosby Stills and Nash at The Bowl! Let's check it out!

We have never been up this part of the coast so it was something different. And the Santa Barbara Bowl was pretty neat tucked up in the hills. CSN Definitely one of my favorite bands from back then. Two incredible albums in the late 60's. And with Neil Young, they were even better. BUT...they have not aged gracefully! OK we can deal with grey but.... oh well!

The summer of '85...EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD...Tears for Fears....probably my favorite song that year...never tired of listening to it.....and wouncha know, for the price of a cd, the new Tears for Fears disc, we get to see a very intimate show in a record store! GROOVY! Tower Records on Sunset Blvd! Great show and a great band...and a great evening in Plastic City...and like that ....we are off again! Jetting northward to another day of adventure and thrill sponsored by the Golden State!

Well, yeah, we were gonna go to Seattle.....but, hey I never saw a Neil Young solo acoustic show...let alone in Berkeley at the Community Theater...

Thanks to Joel Selvin and the San Francisco Chronicle..."Nobody gets more low-key than Neil Young. Surrounded by a spray of acoustic guitars in their stands, both knees poking through his blue jeans, a hat pulled down over his head, Young ambled through a baker's dozen acoustic numbers at a sold-out benefit at the Berkeley Community Theater on Wednesday. He never looked up. He shuffled between the guitars and piano. He muttered a few, almost random asides to the devoted audience between numbers. He may have had some plan originally, but by the time he returned for an encore, he was fumbling, trying to think of something to play, properly craggy and rustic, like a stoner Gary Cooper. But when his fingers started lovingly stroking those strings and he leaned his frail voice into those weather-beaten songs, his spell was instantly cast. He etched each number with exquisite detail, twisting his whispery voice or decorating the melody on guitar. With appearances pending with Paul McCartney next month at both Young's annual Bridge benefit concert and McCartney's anti-land-mine fund-raiser in Los Angeles, Young took another evening to raise money for an Oakland youth anti-violence program, a Bay Area youth program for Native Americans, and a Canadian "conscious radio" network. He could have showed up in a pickup truck with a beat-up guitar and played all night by himself, but with Neil Young, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Instead, Young made the evening something of an acoustic music festival, presenting three fabulous acoustic acts before him. Each was astonishing in his or her own way, although they could hardly have been more different. Jonathan Richman, who has been polishing that faux naivete since his Modern Lovers were Boston's top Velvet Underground impersonators, uses impish charm and his obvious love of old rock 'n' roll to fashion broadly ironic, modern vignettes. The wonderful singer-songwriter Joanne Newsom, a 22-year-old San Francisco harpist, rattled off intensely detailed lyrics in a squeaky baby voice to the playing of her rich, tuneful harp, an instrument she used more like a piano. Wearing a headphone mike and playing searing, slicing lap-style bottleneck guitar, Tuscarona tribe descendant PuraFé blended world beat rhythms with Southern blues and her own powerful vocals. In 1978, Young -- at the height of his rock stardom, the dizzying success of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the heady triumph of his dark, sullen solo albums -- did a week of acoustic performances at the long- defunct Boarding House on Bush Street, nothing less than a daring feat of legerdemain in that era of high-decibel electric rock. But his folk roots, those chord progressions, the guitar style, have always been at the center of whatever crazy musical experiments Young was running at the time. He started his Bridge School benefit concerts at Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheatre as an acoustic music event 18 years ago, way before MTV coined the term "Unplugged" (if it did). Young long ago established himself as an acoustic performer, even while he was having Top 40 hits or playing long, ragged, feedback-laden electric guitar solos. His performance Wednesday in Berkeley was typical. He made the masterful guitar playing, highly nuanced and subtly flavored as it was, sound utterly effortless, almost offhand. His fragile voice skipped across the tricky precipices of his songs' melodies with sure-footed ease. The program, somewhat surprisingly, leaned on old favorites. Young himself even joked about it, calling "Harvest Moon," the title track to a 1992 album, "a new one." He played a powerful "Journey Through the Past" on piano. He switched back to guitar for "Cowgirl in the Sand" and a moving "Don't Let It Bring You Down." He brought out the banjo for "Old King" and was joined by his wife, Pegi Young, who sang harmonies on a few songs. He closed the night with "Heart of Gold." Whenever Neil Young wants to do this, he can be immensely effective. He connects with his slightly rowdy audience at these acoustic performances on more intimate, warm terms. His music is so deeply rooted in his unique personal expression, all he needs to do is be himself -- with a full band or alone with only a handful of acoustic guitars and some harmonicas."

WELL.....ya know after we saw the show, I really couldn't wait to read a review. WOW! Those three backup bands were enough to send ya to drink! Their screeching caterwauling literally cleared the hallway, as people loitered in the corridors to escape the numbing performances. And as the HOURS dragged on....SHEESH would we be capable of enjoying Neil! Finally, the opening acts had done their damage to our senses and after this 3 hour onslaught, Neil sauntered out and mesmerized the masses. If only he coulda played longer....how could we have not sacrificed Johnathon Richman.....!That brings Wednesday to a close and off we went leaving Berkeley for more uncharted territories.

Thursday was upon us. Kinda of a slow day with nothing planned, so after checking out the swap meet offa 880 by the Net, we ...went to ANOTHER baseball game!!!! A matinee as the A's battled Texas with major playoff implications!!!! (YAWN) A few days after the imfamous chair hurling incident which took the baseball world by storm! So nice to sit in that liesurely California sun... drifting off....wow, how boring....after 7 or 8 innings we called it a loan. Enough baseball for this decade.

GEEEEZZ!!! How about the poor chair! These clowns push it too far! Give me a coupla more $8.50 beers

Oh well,let us just drive a little northeast of Oaktown and prepare for the adventures ahead. Sheesh! Pittsburgh or whatever just kinda....we stayed here that night and in the morning...well...nothing to relate cause...not even a Denny's? Oh well off to Concord just around the corner cause...yep...harkening back to a timeless time......DUH! The sixties....hard to believe...but why not...YES...prog rock...a 35th anniversary tour! And seeing at one time I kinda liked em, well,despite Rick Wakeman,, let's go see em! What a unique crowd! Ya see all these shows and it is amazing how different the audience is. The Doors Neil CSN YES Runs the spectra of mainstream rock...who cares! Anyway, i really liked the concert. Maybe get rid of that cheesy stage setup...but enjoyable nonetheless. A rambunctious Chris Squire carried the show and the visage of an elderly Steve Howe on those big screens...wow...35 years!

A week has passed. So many events crammed into that short timeframe and lo Saturday is upon us! Can't remember what we did! HAHA So what! Cause off yonder on the not too distant horizon, Sunday loomed..and hey this is what it is all about...FOOTBALL THE NFL

This is the 10th year of the Raiders being back in Oakland. From that glorious day in Sept of '94 when the silver and black returned from LA. I have been present at all the home openers. A gaudy 8-1 record and hopes of the upcoming season...well, the old rival Buffalo Bills from the AFL beginning is this years foe. And a brilliant sunshine greeted this wondrous day! Way back yonder 40 years ago, my first ever fave sporting team was the Buffalo Bills. Jackie Kemp, Wray Carlton Tom Keating Cookie Gilchrist Daryl Lamonica....they won the AFL Championship in '64 and '65. BILLS JETS PATRIOTS OILERS CHIEFS BRONCOS CHARGERS THE RAIDERS!!! THE AFL! Wow, that was some exciting football! DAZZLED ME! So, on this Sunday, these storied franchises meet again! Unfortunately, a rather sloppy game! Buffalo's incompetence took a victory away, and the Raiders behind a 7 sack effort, manhandled Bledsoe, and overcame a weak offensive effort. Oh well, a win nonetheless....JUST WIN, BABY! And thus the day came to a close. The week was over, a trip home loomed in the morning, and once again, the call of Utica had to be answered! But oh what excitement! Enough to get us through whatever thrills Utica had to offer.

Well ya know, we had always been making a coupla trips westward, and I had Raiders tickets and a plane trip all payed for...BUT as October set in, and The Raiders rivaled the poorest teams ever, I just did not feel like going! WOW!!! Unheard of! So that brought the year to an end. Goodby 2004, we knew you well!