The flags in Tomorrowland at Disneyland should be flying at half-mast.  Today the great Captain EO, a.k.a. Michael Jackson, has made his final walk down the lighted sidewalk in the sky.

Truly the end of an era.  Mr. Jackson played a big part in my early childhood.  I can’t even count how many times we watch the Thriller video as kids.  And even though I knew it was cheesy, I saw Captain EO several times.

So as a final huzzah!, I give you the following:

Last night was the big Police Concert that I wrote about a number of months back.  We sat way on the far left.  I mean, as far left as you can go, and on the 1st row of the second section.  It was good, we could see pretty well, but we could only see half of the jumbo screen they had on stage.  Elena and I haven’t been to a concert in years.

The music was great, and as usual with concerts, it’s always too short.  90 minutes and done.  They did play 18 different songs (yes… I counted) and every one of them was great.  All three of those guys are really fantastic musicians.  And when it was all done and over, getting out of the parking lot was a joke.  But that is to be expected, right?

All around, a good evening’s entertainment.  Now I’ll just make up my own CD of every song they played and it should keep me well entertained, right?

• Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz
• Every Breath You Take - The Police
• Helter Skelter - Meat Beat Manifesto

Wow… that’s why I love the shuffle. Honestly, would you get that kind of a playlist from anything else? Yes, I have Meat Beat Manifesto in iTunes. It’s leftover from my high school days. I had the 99% album and we used to listen to it all the time. Listening to it now just brings back memories of old times, back when I didn’t have anything to worry about (like a mortgage…).

• The Things You Said - Depeche Mode
• Tenderness - General Public
• In The Garage - Weezer

Ack! I promise, there are plenty of tunes in my library from after 1995, but you can’t control the shuffle!

• Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
• True Happiness This Way Lies - The The
• Handsome Devil - The Smiths

Haven’t posted the shuffle for a while. So there you go. As you can see, I am certainly a child of the 80’s.

• Gasoline - Audioslave
• The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
• Voices Carry - Til Tuesday

That covers a few generations, eh? That spans 40 years - 2002, 1966, and 1985! What a cultured individual I must be!

• I’ll Save You All My Kisses - Dead or Alive
• No Big Deal - Love and Rockets
• Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine

Well… that’s a mix, isn’t it? “Killing in the Name”… brings back good times. It was also my first real lesson on how radio stations have to edit songs. We used to listen to the radio in the back room of National Microcomputers while we built computer systems. This song used to come on and we all thought it was awesome. Then someone offered me their cassette (yes… it was a cassette, not a CD) to take home to listen to. Found this song on track two while driving home, rockin’ the whole way. Then the song gets to the part where on the radio it usually ends… but no, not this time. The song keeps going, and needless to say, I’ve never been the same since…

I thought it would be fun to make an entry every so often listing the next three songs that come off of my iTunes compilation. I’m up to about 1500 songs - small by some standards, large by others. Plus it will be a good history to see what I am listening to at a later time. There will be no adjustments or edits, just whatever the next three songs are that show up. Should be interesting. So here’s where we start (the links will take you to iTunes, if the song is available on iTunes):

• Don’t Panic - Coldplay
• Wouldn’t It Be Good - Nik Kershaw
• One Last Breath - Creed

Oooo… classic tune in there.

You must be joking, you don’t know a thing about it
You’ve got no problem, I’d stay right there if I were you
I got it harder, you couldn’t dream how hard I got it
Stay out of my shoes, if you know what’s good for you