The real deal!

January 31, 1970. The Oakland Arena. Creedence Clearwater Revival. Booker T and the MGs. A preshow jam session. You have to see these YouTube videos!

After a hilarious intro, John Fogerty trades licks with Steve Cropper before the show:



The MGs lay down a solid groove on "Time Is Tight":



But the highlight is Creedence totally wailing on "Fortunate Son" and then a segue straight into "Commotion." One of the greatest American rock bands of all time. No question about it.

New Flickr Photos!

Tenzin's Toy
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

I recently posted a ton of new-ish photos to Flickr. Many were taken during the period of my computer problems in April, so they just sort of hung out on memory cards until I could download them to my new hard drive. I'm still tagging and adding captions to them, but feel free to drop by and check them out. Thanks!

The King Of New Jersey

Party Portrait
Originally uploaded by Shawn Econo.

The boisterous keg party continued to escalate and young Tenzin could be found in the calm but intense eye-of-the-hurricane center of the burgeoning madness. Out-of-control doesn't quite begin to describe his self-assured but foolhardy antics; he promptly dismissed the donning of lampshade hats as bourgeois, and instead slapped a Japanese basket on his head as an impromptu fez.

He then demanded documentation of his all-out party domination by the most skilled of his fellow celebrators: "Dude, take my picture! I'm the freaking King Of The World! Or at least the King Of New Jersey!"

At last report, Tenzin was unable to feel his legs but assured all present that he would steadfastly pursue the duties and obligations of the office of King Of New Jersey by continuing to, in his words, "party in a hearty manner."

Absence makes the heart grow...fonder?

Hello all. I'd like to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly apologize for my lengthy haitus from updating the Completely Spectacular Thirty Spokes Megablog. A busy Easter week, coupled with the tragic crash of my main hard drive and the resultant cursing and wringing of hands, started the non-blogging ball rolling. Since getting my computer back from the Best Buy service department, I've discovered that a rich, untapped multitude of lame excuses for not posting could be easily unearthed from the murky depths of my lazy slacker heart. Allergies, housework, spending time with baby Tenzin, work barbecues, helping dad-in-law Sal with re-roofing, etc etc etc blah blah blah. Of course, nobody cares. Because we all live busy lives, right?

So a month of not blogging comes and goes without a fancy monument or even the slightest concern of the blogosphere-at-large. C'mon, does anyone even know this thing exists? Outside of the handful of my brave best friends and patient family members, who log in once a week to see if Shawn has finally conquered his lifelong procrastination? Of course not.

But tonight I decided to call bullshit on myself. I was able to work all day, come home, eat dinner, and then mow the 75 shaggy and homely acres of our front yard (and not with any of these fancy riding mowers that all of my neighbors use, mind you) and I decided that a day filled with such triumphs could only be capped by adding tags and descriptions to a hundred new Flickr photos and then a short but thoroughly awesome and relevant blogpost. I got about halfway through the phototagging but I still made it here. Why? Because I care. That, and my ego absolutely requires its narcissistic expression on a regular basis or it will shrivel and die like the neglected spider plant on my bookshelf.

So welcome back, I guess, and thanks for dropping by. I will surely try to make it worth your while to stop by Thirty Spokes occasionally in your restless search for geek-sustenance. How? I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that gushing posts about the unbearable cuteness of my kitty cats are as good a place to start as any. Feel free to leave comments here or drop me a line at dharmapunk 71 at hotmail dot com. Rock on, kids. It can only get better from here.