Krakow Queen and Joan Jett

I had quite a bit of work to do today, including a meeting at the Taft Building for Hollywood 4WRD and our upcoming Homeless Registry, which you will be reading about in the coming days. After that, I drove up to Susan's office to cut checks and stopped by the Dollar Tree on my way home, although they didn't have any new outfits for Spike.
Angie came over and we got ready to go to Hollywood Park to see Joan Jett, picking Marc up on the way. It was very cool because Hollywood Park is where Dylan and I first met Marc many years ago when we had gone to see Bow Wow Wow. Every summer, Hollywood Park has Fantastic Fridays, where they have night racing (it's a horse racing track and casino) and a concert series which usually features 80's bands. I remember when Dylan and I went to see Bow Wow Wow, I really didn't know too much about them but I had always heard about them and their legacy and thought of them as a really cool band with a neat story. I was blown away by their performance that night and converted to a fan, and when we were leaving, we decided to go talk to the two other guys that seemed to really appreciate the show, thinking that one of them was this guy Mark that I knew from a message board I was active on at the time, Queens Talkin' Shit (which was a spin off of a Go-Go's message board). We approached them and I asked "is your name Mark", to which Marc replied, "yes," but we soon realized he was not the Mark I was talking about - but he did know him! We have been friends ever since.
So tonight was actually my first time back at Hollywood Park since then and I was definitely a little over excited, and drank a little too much (without eating dinner) and by the time I was ready to place my first bet ever on a horse race, I could barely figure out what I was doing. By some blind luck, I chose a horse named Krakow Queen, and at the bookie's suggestion, I put down $3 to win and $2 to place. Krakow ended up taking second place so I won my money back, which was nice. I shared everyone the story of how my parents went to the horse races in Grand Island, Nebraska, on their honeymoon.
Then we went over to the stage area, where tons of people were already gathered to see Miss Joan Jett and her Blackhearts. I, like most people who grew up in the 80's, have fond memories of seeing Joan Jett on MTV and really she was probably the prototype "Rocker Chick" for most of the MTV generation. She was really the first female where I though that she would most definitely kick my ass. Years later I was so extremely honored to have her on my team when she came out (not too surprisingly) as a lesbian.
She played at LA Pride a couple years ago, and although I rarely get star struck or nervous around famous musicians, I couldn't even bring myself to approach Joan - she was that intimidating! Maybe I still had it in the back of my mind that she was going to kick my ass. Anyway, she put on an amazing show that night and she did it again tonight. Her two guitar players were amazingly hot guys so there was a lot to watch between her and them. My favorite song of hers is "AC/DC" which I think is fairly recent.
Several of our friends were supposed to be at the concert, including Red Fox and Leela, but we never ended up seeing any of them because it was so crowded. I was lucky to stumble upon Bradley and his pals as I was looking around for Red near the end of the concert. All in all, it was a fantastic Friday indeed!

Hello 2010, goodbye junk!
NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LOG ENTRY 111
"New Traditionalists" by Devo, cassette tape. I got this tape when I was a kid. I always had an interest in Devo so they were one of those band that I would buy their albums whenever I found them cheap enough - usually in the used section at GB Records in Hays. I love this album and it's one of my favorites of theirs from the period after Freedom of Choice. I have it on vinyl, but I don't think I've ever picked it up on CD yet which is odd.

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