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October 26, 2007

Free: All-male, bluesy Fleetwood Mac '70; Spy Valerie Plame Wilson's first chapter; Irritating sports announcers

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Fillmore West, Jan 4, 1970: ...After leaving John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers in 1967, guitarist Peter Green had decided to form a new band with drummer Mick Fleetwood. The two wanted bassist John McVie in the band and even named the band "Fleetwood Mac" as a way to entice McVie. ("Fleetwood Mac" was a name coined by McVie.)

...Fans at the Fillmore West in 1970 might have expected the band to play singles such as Black Magic Woman (which Santana turned into a signature tune) and the rock ballad Albatross. But that was not to be. Instead, it was a true-and-true blues-rock show with Rattlesnake Shake/Underway forming the backbone of the set, followed by the single Oh Well, capped by a raucous performance of Twist & Shout and Long Tall Sally. ...

13 tracks at BigO.

Edited spy: Here's the heavily redacted first chapter of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House by Valerie Plame Wilson at Simon & Schuster:

This deals with her family backgroun and basic training in the CIA.

There's so much missing -- represented by stars -- that it's a jerky read.

A WaPo review (Valerie Plame, Telling the (Edited) Inside Story) notes,

The book is, however, greatly assisted by an afterword by Laura Rozen, a reporter for the American Prospect. Rozen faithfully echoes Wilson's point of view but fills in many of the censored dates, places and other details from published sources. Readers would be smart to turn to the afterword first, before tackling Wilson's disjointed narrative.

Program note: We watched some of Monday Night Football with the sound off. These are the worst announcers in football: Telling canned stories through plays, arguing endlessly about whether Manning or Brady is better. ESPN is bringing third-rate talent who think it's about them. We don't need them to entertain us.

The second game of the World Series saw the Fox announcers ignore the game so they could praise the firefighters in California at length -- right through a Curt Schilling strikeout. Then we were warned they had a sad story for us. Joe and I both yelped, "Don't tell us about it!" We're there to watch baseball. Just call the game during the game, please, without filler -- the ambient sound in a ballpark is fine. If you must praise and mourn, please save it for a downtime during pitching changes, when we might be in the bathroom.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 11:35 AM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Liz on October 26, 2007 2:17 PM