SATURDAY TUNEAGE (VALENTINE'S DAY EDITION)

Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays:



Lady and the Tramp



Marvin Gaye:



Lyle Lovett:

MY TUCK-TUCKING SKILLS DON'T SUCK AFTER ALL

Her Awesomeness and I just got back from the Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt show in Kingston - amazing, with Garth Hudson showing up for the encore on accordion, and Garth's wikipage has been updated to note the blessed event. And when we got back at around 10:20, Noodle and the Beast had only been asleep for 20 minutes - despite the very best efforts of the Memere and the Pepere to de-bounce the little savages, that's how long it took before they finally conked out. A good solid three hours of cajoling, reading, snacks, cuddles, and (gasp! we're the worst. parents. ever) a little bit of TV.

We no longer feel frustrated that it sometimes takes us an hour to wind down our spawn. An hour looks pretty damn good from here.

So, who's on tour in 2013?

HOT DIGGITY, I GOT A DATE

For the first time in the five years since Her Awesomeness was carrying Noodle around in utero, we're going to a concert next weekend - Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt at UPAC in Kingston, which is going to be undergoing several months' worth of renovations later on this year. The Amazing In-Laws will be taking care of Noodle and Beast while the missus and I experience the joys of trying to find a parking spot in midtown Kingston.

I've been practicing the old fake-yawn-stretch-arm-around-my-date move, because I'm rusty.

RULES FROM A TEXAS GENTLEMAN

Gentlemen, if you get to meet the amazing Lyle Lovett at next month's acoustic show with John Hiatt at UPAC, please do thank him for this piece in Esquire on manhood and chivalry:

The first rule of manhood is that they are in charge. Give it up. Realize they're smarter and better looking. We don't have a chance. You have to do everything you can to help yourself.

The rest of it is even better - and naturally I fall short on many, many counts. The show's on the 17th at UPAC in Kingston. Tix (if they're still available) and info via Ticketmaster and Bardavon.org.

ASIA: THE REUNION

May 6, 1982 was a special day for nerds like me, because that's when Asia in all its utterly uncool prog-pop magnificence played the Mid-Hudson Civic Center.


And now after 25 years they're back with their original lineup of Geoff Downes, John Wetton, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer, and with a new album too. Roger Dean is back to do the cover and everything. I can feel my teenage acne and social awkwardness returning even as I type!

Eww.

Says here they're playing the Paramount Center in Peekskill in April, but that's as close as they're coming unless you feel like roadtripping it to Mohegan Sun. And me, it looks like my 2008 concert budget is going to be splurged on taking my wife to next month's Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt show in Kingston, and any future prog spending goes to the five-man Genesis reunion, whenever that might happen.