Alice Cooper

Tonight was Alice Cooper at the NAC. I got some good pics, like this one here. He sure has a huge body of work to choose a "greatest hits" from. He had snakes, a sword, a can, a whip, a tall and rickety pulpit, evil clowns and a giant dumpster to burst out of in a blaze of light. He had the stage fill with balloons he could pop with a sword, filling the air with "Alice Cooper money," and he did an encore (Elton John's "Rocket Man") in a silver lamee jacket, with an "Alice Spice" t-shirt underneath.

Roger Waters

I've never seen Pink Floyd, so going with Bill to the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto and seeing Roger Waters yesterday was a thing to see.  All of those amazing songs, and with lasers and blobshow projections and so on.  He was funnier than one would expect, and also seemed to be deeply enjoying rock starring it up.  He was dressed all in black, with a black bass guitar.  He began playing as the sun set, and seagulls wheeled overhead.  He focussed on the sorts of songs that his exbandmates don't tend to play.  He played all of "Animals and during the huge instrumental part in the middle, he and the other musicians who don't do anything during that part (everyone besides the keyboardist and drummer) went to one side and drank beer while playing cards while sitting on a couch, which was on the video screens, including the hands they were playing.  It was amazing.  The best show I've seen yet.  Then the 5 hour drive back home, of course, to talk about it.

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick died, so Bill said (as Bill tends to do) that I HAD to see Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's last film. It was OK, but orgy wankery doesn't really enthuse me, and I think it would have to in order for films like these to be very gripping.

Ani DiFranco

I went alone to the Ottawa Congress Centre tonight to see Ani DiFranco to see what she does.  I was acutely aware that I was the only person there without a girlfriend.  Ani was great, with very interesting black nails taped to her fingers, which she used as fingerpicks.  She had dreads and did a fair bit of speaking out against government.  For instance, she said "The war on drugs in really a war on poor people."

Kim Mitchell

Dave and I saw Kim Mitchell at Strait's in Bell's Corners. As usual, Mitchell was incredibly loud for the size of the venue he was in. He thinks he's playing stadiums when he's in clubs. Still rocking the long hair, no matter how little left on top, and wore a series of novelty hats. His bass player is amazing, singing harmony backups (he's a better singer than Mitchell) and playing keyboard-organ pedal things with his feet, all at the same time. It was so loud that acoustic foam fuzz bits snowed down slowly but steadily throughout.