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7-2-01 // 9.42 pm she makes the sign of a teaspoon, he makes the sign of a wave NP: Paul Simon - "Graceland" Went to the Brian Wilson / Paul Simon show last night. Wilson was OK...I mean, the man is clearly a melodic genius. "Pet Sounds", enough said. But the past thirty years or so he's just sort of been floating around in a delusional haze. So his concerts are rather surreal, lots of him yelling in a monotone voice "you like to rock!!" and such. Four "Pet Sounds" songs, "Good Vibrations" and a few others were quite enjoyable but otherwise it was standard "surf time" Beach Boys fare. If I'd wanted to see that I'd have taken in the Fake Beach Boys tour that Mike Love is currently hauling around the country. Paul Simon was brilliant. Three or four tracks from his excellent new LP, the four singles from "Graceland", some other, older solo material, and a handful of tastefully chosen Simon & Garfunkel songs. The most impressive parts of the show for me were when they played some of the more obscure material...songs like 'Proof', 'Spirit Voices', and 'The Cool, Cool River' from "Rhythm..." and 'That Was Your Mother' from "Graceland". I didn't expect to hear any of that, it put a huge smile on my face. Also, there was a short acoustic set in the middle featuring 'The Sound of Silence' and 'Homeward Bound'. Listening to Simon sing those songs with just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment was just so mesmerizing...one of those moments where I realized all over again what a true songwriting genius the man is. So yeah, it was an envigorating evening for me. On the way home, I had to stop at a video rental shop to return some tapes for my parents. So I turned off my car, dropped the tapes off, then got back in the car...tried to start it back up, and nothing. Not even an attempt to turn over. So I had to call my dad to come by and try to jump start the thing. Didn't work. So we had to leave it at this shop overnight. Today got it towed and then worked on....turns out it was the starter. So there's a chunk of money gone. But at least the car's in top shape now. Here's a digicam pic of the wonder car itself. As much as I complain about it, it's done a good job over the years hauling me around the midwest.
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