I finally succumbed to the latest craze in social media, Facebook. Here is my profile, in progress as always. If I know you, feel free to connect to me.

Here’s the only problem. The new apartment does not allow pets. Over the past few years, I’ve become quite attached to my cat. I inherited Rupert from my friend, Darren, whose newly-born daughter turned out to be allergic. Rupert has been a good companion for me as I’ve been living alone since moving here four years ago. He’s shy at first, but very affectionate. His occasional hairball problems aren’t much of an issue if he’s fed “hairball formulated” food.

If you know of anyone who would like to take care of him, please let me know. I’m not counting on being able to find anyone to adopt him, so I will be putting an ad on PetFinder. I hope I can find him a new home where he will be well cared for.

The band also appeared at the movie’s New York premiere. Congratulations to everyone involved with the event and the special appearance in the movie.

Every time I visit California, I am amazed by the beauty of the landscape. I accept that it is not perfect. The smog in Los Angeles is overbearing and traffic is worse than northern New Jersey. Despite these drawbacks, the areas north or south of Los Angeles, with quick access to the Pacific Ocean, seem to be great locations.

That is, of course, until an earthquake turns everything west of the San Andreas fault into an island.

Continue reading for those photos.

CO65 EWR 15:25 03-31-2007 LAX 18:50 03-31-2007
CO90 LAX 12:45 04-07-2007 EWR 21:10 04-07-2007

Now I just need to play more often and build my skills.

Unfortunately, the oldest of the folders, containing one cent pieces from 1909 to 1940, disappeared somewhere between my moves from East Windsor to Delaware to Plainsboro to Lawrenceville to Paterson to Maplewood to Jersey City to Lawrenceville (again) and Plainsboro (again).

In the past several years, I’ve been getting the yearly Proof Sets from the U.S. Mint, more recently I’ve added the Silver Proof Sets, and I’m slowly filling in the prior years. Over the past few months, I’ve begun going through the coins I receive in change with the intent of finding rare items. I’m filling in new Whitman folders, but haven’t come across anything too rare yet.

Today I dragged Amy to my first coin show, in northern New Jersey. I had a basic idea of what to expect, after following some online forums where collectors hang out. It was a busy event with rooms full of dealers and customers. Most of the coins were in small holders, some professionally rated for quality.

For my part, I get more enjoyment from looking through circulating coins and discovering something interesting rather than just buying something directly from a dealer. The only problem with this is that all the interesting coins have all ready been removed from circulation by collectors.

I’m shopping for a Martin D-15. The price is perfect for a great sounding instrument that will last many decades, but the usual music stores, even those specializing in guitars, don’t seem to keep them in stock. They disappear too quickly after delivery.

The next option would be to order the Martin for delivery, but I’d really like to audition the guitar before buying. One of these days, I’ll have to make my way into Manhattan, where I must be able to find what I want in stock.

I am not a wonderful guitar player. I haven’t played much at all since college. In 1994, with my fellow freshman music education students, I found it surprising that I was the only one out of fifteen or so with any guitar experience. Somehow, I ended up teaching the guitar lessons, even though my experience was quite limited.

These days, I’m completely out of practice. I have a Mexican Fender Stratocaster, but my amplifier has been on the fritz for years and I haven’t bothered to get myself a replacement. I could have been strumming all this time, but I haven’t been.

I am hoping that picking up a Martin D-15 will be the kick in the rear necessary to get me experiencing and enjoying music performance again.

The Live8 concerts took place this weekend in ten cities throughout the world to promote an increase of aid to Africa to end poverty.

This is not the story. This is the story: At the concert in Hyde Park, London, history was made. The version of Pink Floyd most known and loved, including David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright, performed together in concert as a band for the first time in 24 years. After the release of their last album together, for which there was no tour, the band split up due to artistic and personality differences.

Pink Floyd and their music from 1966 to 1981 were some of the most important musical influences to me. Roger Waters’ and David Gilmour’s solo careers continued to inspire me, but the split between the two of them and the indignant hatred convinced Pink Floyd fans throughout the world that there would never be any reconciliation and the band that held the record for weeks on the Billboard Top 100 list would never play together again.

Apparently we were all wrong. Bob Geldof, who was from the band Boomtown Rats, played the character Pink in the movie based on Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall, and also organized 1985’s Live Aid, managed to convince Waters and Gilmour to come together for one final performace.

I downloaded yesterday’s Pink Floyd portion of the concert and watched it about an hour ago. This was pure Pink Floyd with none of the flashiness that developed after Dark Side of the Moon propelled them to fame and fortune. Instead of a multitude of additional musicians, including back-up singers and doubles for each of the primary Floyd’s instruments, the band contained the four principals, one additional guitarist, one back-up singer, and one saxophonist. They were used sparingly.

The band performed Speak to Me/Breathe, Money, Wish You Were Here (dedicated to founding band member Syd Barrett, of course) and Comfortably Numb. Although it would have been wonderful to hear more songs — especially some older ones — what they did perform felt amazing.

Although a reunion tour sounds like a one-in-a-lifetime chance to catch Pink Floyd as they should have existed throughout the past generation, these folks are old now. The concerts would most definitely sell out everywhere but it’s hard to believe they have it in them to do one more world tour.

For those who missed the broadcast, weren’t offered the full performance, or haven’t downloaded the concert yet, you can watch here.