We need a laugh

Drew was in Pirates of Penzance last year and the Major General Song made the rounds in our house forever.

Well here is Obama, Gilbert & Sullivan style...

Record party set list

Partial list...

Boogie Nights - Heatwave
Rapture - Blondie
Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Never say never - Romeo Void
Won't get fooled again - The Who
Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
Here Comes My Girl - Tom Petty
Poison Arrow - ABC
Take the long way home - Supertramp
Pull up to the bumper - Grace Jones
Artists only - Talking Heads
Super Freak - Rick James
London Calling - The Clash
Candy-O - The Cars
Sticky Fingers - Rolling Stones - most of it
Mirror in the Bathroom - English Beat
Sultans of Swing - Dire Straights
Precious - Pretenders
Ant Music - Adam Ant
Let the Good Times Roll - The Cars
Grateful Dead - multiple albums, tracks
The Police - multiple albums, tracks
Tom Sawyer - Rush

Dream on

When I was in high school I saw Aerosmith on the Toys in the Attic tour. I saw J. Geils on the Sanctuary tour.

I wore this tshirt for a long time.

And Aerosmith's bad boys, led by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, became part of the sound track of my formative years. Dream on, Walk this Way, Back in the Saddle, What it Takes, Sweet Emotion, Last Child....

At the time, a girl growing up on the shores of Erie and Ontario....did I know I was going to move to Boston and never leave? No. But I was a good Irish Catholic girl...brought up to love the Red Sox and the Kennedys...so honestly? It wasn't that big of a stretch.

Roll forward the clock and here I am...living in Boston, for longer than I've ever lived anywhere. It's home. Just like it's home to the guys that took the stage at Fenway the night of August 14, 2010 with all those songs...Those songs? They're home too.

Before Aerosmith took the stage on the hallowed greens of Fenway we were treated to the following video, narrated by another Boston bad boy - Dennis Leary...




Need I say more?

Was it worth the exorbitant price of admission?

Steven Tyler in amazing voice, strutting and writhing on stage like it was 1978?

Yes. It was priceless.

I know he's paid the devastating meth clinic hell hole price of being a bad boy...but Tyler is a survivor. And that night he was triumphant.

We all sang at the tops of our lungs when he surprised us by showing up on top of the Green Monster sitting at his white baby grand piano...playing "Dream on."

Yeah, we had been dreaming for many years... we had no trouble singing out into the starry skies about Fenway.



Thankful for all of it.

Ah...Summer Camp

I love summer camp. I remember my days at summer camp so well - those quintessential summer days, the sounds of kids and splashing water, the smell of the woods, the dock at the lake, the singing and the mess hall.

Drew goes to Camp Rotary every summer for 2 weeks and looks forward to it all year. It's a classic camp with everything from sailing to ropes course to archery and loads of funny songs and themed parties. He meets up with old and new friends.

They post pictures online every day and it's fun to go look through them, hoping to see Drew.

Here are today's Drew sightings!

Before the jump:

During the jump:

Man Camp

This weekend the men and the boys headed to Lake George to camp on the islands. This was a repeat of a trip that happened about 10 years ago...and now, a new generation of kids were inducted into man camp.

11 guys. 4 tents. 3 days. 2 boats.

Did they have a good time? Does a bear sh** in the woods? Do men build fires that are too big? Do fish get sacrificed? Are there stories none of us will ever hear?

Yep.

SPANG at Gillette Stadium

Spang played a Battle of the Bands at Gillette Stadium in June. Was kind of a rainy day but how cool is it to be at the Patriot's stadium!?

The guys had all just come off of prom and decided on a whim to wear their tuxes for the gig. When asked by the emcee, "What's with the tuxes?" Dylan said "We wanted to be classy." Ha! In this crowd of trendy hipsters...they certainly stood out. Mission accomplished.

Give them an Ovation

This is Drew's second year in The Ovations, an all guy's singing group at the Middle School. At the end of the year concert they performed....well, you know the song....Dom, dom, dom, dom, dom, dom be dooby....

Imagine

Drew has really gotten into piano this year.

He chose one of my all time favorite songs for his recital.

No. Way.

Those crazy Germans...

Better than money

You know in your gut that:

1. A happy marriage is more important than money


2. Commuting is a soul-sucking, deadly experience


3. Friends and laughter are essential
   

And today, in his NYTimes column, David Brooks provided all the data to back it up.

Here's my favorite quote:

"If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year."