It’s extremely rare that I ever come across quality live footage of a performance or a rock concert that I attended. If you’re a Jane’s Addiction fan you couldn’t get any better than this! Enjoy the shows as I did!

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Jane’s Addiction’s funky and bombastic music loudly pumping out of the PA Speakers before an awesome Living Color concert at Stony Brook University while back in high school in Stony Brook, NY on February 23, 1991.

Fast forward six years, and lo and behold I got to meet all of the guys, Perry Farrell (Lead Vocals), Dave Navarro (Guitar), Stephen Perkins (Drums), and Flea (Base Guitar) at Howard Stern’s Private Party when they played outside The Theater at Madison Square Garden on West 31st Street at the Howard Stern: Private Parts Movie Premiere on February 27, 1997. What a cool bunch of guys, and awesome musicians! And yes, I would’ve much preferred to been on the stage performing and playing drums with them, at the time front row was all-good with me.

Only eight months later and scoring two tickets to Jane’s Addiction at the Hammerstein Ballroom, 311 West 34th Street, New York City – Halloween, October 31, 1997. If you want to see a great show and what the 1990s New York music scene was all about feel free to check out MTV’s Pro Shot Master [Full Concert] footage, make sure you turn it up LOUD.

Jane’s Addiction / Porno for Pyros: Hard Charger and Mountain Song at Howard Stern’s Private Party outside The Theater at Madison Square Garden, New York City, February 27, 1997 | MTV’s Pro Shot Master

Howard Stern Private Parts: Private Party at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, February 27, 1997

Jane’s Addiction: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City – Halloween, October 31, 1997 | MTV’s Pro Shot Master [Full Concert]

One of the original B-Boys, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch of the Beastie Boys died at the age of 47 today, May 4th, 2012. The Beastie Boys were recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and it’s about dam time too! But what I don’t get is why it takes so fucking long to get real musicians and pioneers of the music industry inducted into the Hall of Fame, especially while they’re still alive to see their accomplishments acknowledged and get the respect from their peers first hand. I will never understand.

Beastie Boys: An Open Letter To NYC

I have always loved and respected the Beastie Boys, especially their early stuff Licensed to Ill – what an album! “Brass Monkey”, “No Sleep till Brooklyn”, “Fight for Your Right.” I was a B-Boy back in the day when it was called RAP not Hip-Hop. Then Rock took over, but the early kick ass beats of Run-DMC and the other early RAP pioneers always got to my musical funny bone as a drummer, good times.

I got to see Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch in Bryant Park at Fashion Week back in the 90s, that was cool.

Much respect,
C.G.

Bust out your Adidas Shell Tops and your vintage Pumas and TURN IT UP LOUD!!!

“One Of These Days, D.
But I Can Stand My Ground And I Am Down To Wax An M.C.
Who Acts Like A Clown But For Now, I’d Like To Ask You
How You Like The Feel Of The Bass In Your Face In The Crowd”?

Sir James Paul McCartney finally received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Thursday 2/9/2012. Congratulations Paul; about time I say! Thank you for you and your mates incredible contributions to Rock ‘n’ Roll over the years. It definitely would not have progressed if it wasn’t for you four Beatles. You and your band mates music and progressive attitudes have brought a lot of joy to a lot of people, including me. I hope there is a kid right now listing to your music on his iPod and he and his friends maybe the next mega rock band, because god knows we need some real good quality rock band to pass the torch to.

What a cool guy, Paul you Fucking ROCK!

Nirvana & Paul McCartney “Cut Me Some Slack” [Live]

Nirvana & Paul McCartney “Cut Me Some Slack” [Live]
Girl, I gotta have you, gotta get you where I want you
Know exactly what you’re doin’, don’t you?
Treat me like you like me, like you don’t like me back

I wish you’d give me the green light, give me just one night,
Girl, if you don’t like how I roll
You can say, no thanks, don’t ever call me
Forget you ever saw me, forget my name
Girl, you might just like some country road moonlight
Dancing in the lights of my headache rack,
Think about that, yeah think about that
Is there any chance
You could cut me some slack

I know I got a wild side, wilder than a country mile ride
I got a name around this town
And girl, I don’t really blame you for the things you might be thinkin’
They’re probably true but that ain’t me now

Give me the green light, give me just one night,
Girl, if you don’t like how I roll
You can say, no thanks, don’t ever call me
Forget you ever saw me, forget my name
Girl, you might just like some country road moonlight
Dancing in the lights of my headache rack,
Think about that, think about that
Is there any chance
You could cut me some slack

Take me by the hand, believe me when I tell you
That I never ever felt like this, girl
And that’s the truth

Give me the green light, give me just one night,
Girl, if you don’t like how I roll
You can say, no thanks, don’t ever call me
Forget you ever saw me, forget my name
Girl, you might just like some country road moonlight
Dancing in the lights of my headache rack,
Think about that, yeah think about that
Is there any chance
That you could cut me some slack

Oh oh oh, yeah
Cut me some slack
Oh oh oh, yeah

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” -Steve Jobs

Apple 1984 Super Bowl Commercial Introducing Macintosh Computer

“My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Thank you Steve! Your vision will live on – stay hungry, stay foolish my friends.

Success!!! BBC America: Top Gear UK on Cablevision / Optimum TV – request granted!

BBC America on Cablevision / Optimum TV – request granted!

Thanks Altice USA / Cablevision / Optimum TV for finally providing the BBC America channel to your cable consumers here in New York State, the media capital of the world, supposedly. For years we were denied the BBC America channel, which features the best show on television, the original Top Gear UK and the newly added James Mays Drinks to Great Brittan. Before I had to go out-of-state just to catch up on old episodes on Comcast – On Demand. I since have requested multiple channels, such as Outdoor Life Network (OLN) now know as Verses, so us cycling enthusiasts could watch the amazing live daily Tour De France coverage from the live global feed and the Dakar Rally, and HD Theater to get the Isle of Man TT yearly Motorcycle Race. Other channels I requested were the Green Channel, Style Channel, Science Channel, and the History International Channel, Rai Italian Channel which eventually Cablevision delivered on. This all took a long while to make these programming channel requests and to finally get them in the channel line-up. Cablevision as a company and cable provider is extremely slow to act when it comes to providing their loyal subscribers with new and up-and-coming Channels.

But if you want to create change and awareness for your community, so that it leads to action and a better quality of life and in this case quality programming, you need to take action and be persistent and go through the right official channels in order to get your concerns and requests voiced. After making multiple phone calls, I decided recently to write a blog about it here on the GOBBI Blog regarding the channel request and bam! What do you know, it worked! Instant results.