Japan to Arkansas - I don't need to tell you that it is strange.

Last week I was in Japan. This week I am in Arkansas. I do not know if there is a larger difference in cultures that a person can experience in the period of 2 weeks. I mean, let's think about it for a minute:

Japan = lots of bowing, soft voices, more bowing...

Arkansas = jacked up pickup trucks, both country and western music...

Just sayin.

Last week started out with a Sunday 24 hour journey to get to Osaka.  I got the the Madison airport at 5am for a 6am flight, and was informed that my flight had been cancelled.  Not a great sign, but you learn to go with the flow.  I suppose there are people that fly through Madison even more than I do, but they know me by name there.  (which is kinda embarrassing)

Since I was on Delta, and I have exactly 4,564,791miles flown on that airline, they will take care of me when something like a missed/canceled flight happens.  Delta rerouted me and got me to Osaka at the same time that I was meant to get there in the first place.  Funny, when you are making the arrangements before hand there is nothing available except the flight that goes through Capetown South Africa. But when stuff hits the fan they can get you on the one that makes up the 2 hours of lost time in the original schedule.  Funny.

In Japan I attended our Asian country manager meetings and spent a day at Shimano.  Of course there were a few good dinners.  I kinda like Japanese food, so it is pretty cool to be there and get it from the source. 

1st day - meeting at our office is Osaka.  Lots of reviews with various country managers and great discussions about opportunities in each market for product development and marketing stuff.  I kinda like that sort of stuff, as that is what I am meant to do in my job.  I like it when my business card actually matches what I am doing on a given day. 

Not too different there, but we did eat it with chopsticks.  Lunch at the office.

That evening, we had dinner with a few different people from Shimano Japan.  It was fun to see and to talk to a bunch of people from Shimano that I have known for 20 years.  It is really amazing that some of the same people who were once our account representative or something like that are now directors of global functions at Shimano.  Pretty cool. 

We did have a great meeting at Shimano. We talked about a bunch of future developments and efforts together.  But, I cannot show you or tell you those.  Just know that it is going to be some pretty cool stuff.  Stay tuned. 

We had to take our shoes off at the door of the restaurant.  You can guess which shoes are mine.

Lots and lots of great courses in the meal, all presented like this.

I think we would call this Tempura at home, but I do not think we would have this cool Japanese chef at a restaurant that was over 100 years old cooking for you. 

The meal with Shimano did have about 97.6 courses in it.  Here is the list I took down.  Of course I gained at least 17 lbs eating that meal.  Off season is great.

Dinner in Osaka
- kelp tea
- beer
- sea urchin and tofu skin
- cod fish, shrimp, sea weed
- more beer
- sashimi, halibut, tuna, squid
- long slim Snapper, called sweet face Snapper
- more beer
- shrimp tempura, dipped in sauce
- sake
- sand fish tempura, dipped in sauce
- potato tempura, dipped in salt
- more sake
- mushroom tempura, dipped in sauce
- squid tempura, dipped in lemon and salt
- more sake
- lotus root tempura, dipped in sauce
- swordfish tempura, dipped in salt
- more beer
- corn tempura dipped in salt
- ginkgo nuts tempura dipped in salt
- potato with sweet bean tempura not dipped
- gluten tempura dipped in sauce
- sea eel tempura dipped in sauce
- onion tempura dipped in salt
- kakiage tempura (shrimp and veggie cake - sweet potato mushroom lotus roots spinach/green something or other) served on rice with seaweed + mushroom miso soup. This was desert.
- finisher = fruit plate. (stuffed to gills)

The next day, we took the bullet train to one of the south Islands of Japan, and went to a factory that makes internal gear hubs and cranks.  Really precision stuff with lasers and robots going at full steam.  Felt a little like a scene from the Terminator.  Kinda creepy, but man is it cool stuff.  I was asked not to take photo's in the factory, so trust me it was cool.  I did snap some photo's of some of the cool stuff there though. 

Bullet train that we were boarding.  Dang is that cool or what?

Feels kinda like a Japanese video game. 

My guides for the factory tour day - Dave and YT from Shimano USA and the factory manager.  Sweet hats we were made to wear.

Test course behind the factory, for testing internal gear hubs.  I am coming back to train here before Paris Roubaix.

Lunch at the factory.  Not the same as a factory in the USA.

The next day we went for a great road ride in the mountains on Japan island.  I can describe the ride in a few words: steep, narrow, wrong side of the road (for me), sweet. 

We rode for 2 hours and it was great fun.  Saw monkeys, stopped at a waterfall, raced a climb with Sitoshi and lost, tore down the other side on the opposite side of the road which felt weird and then finished in a little village.  Crazy cool. 

We stopped at a cool waterfall.  People thought I was a pro Leopard Trek rider - NOT! (Who is the old guy with Andy's fat day kit on?)

The week ended with another ride, some quality time spent in a Japanese Starbucks, listening to christmas music already.  Basking in the glow of espresso and weird little fish snacks. 

These things can best be described as Fish Jerky.  Dried little hard fish snacks.  Definitely not the same as a cookie or chips and salsa.

 

Arkansas

If you know me, you know that I regularly say "The rednecks have inherited the best parts of the USA."  I actually mean that in a really good way.  Deep down, I am a redneck as all of us mountain bikers really are.  The woods is where we feel best and the best woods are in the non populated parts of the country.  People refer to the locals there as rednecks.  I suspect that is ok with them, as they truly have inherited the best parts of the country. 

Arkansas is one of those places.  If you haven't been there, you need to go.  My brother and I have been going there and enjoying the riding for years.  Now that his kids are grown, as are mine, it is a great time of doing some multi-generational family mountain biking.

I arrived home on Friday night from Japan.  We got ourselves loaded up on Saturday and left to make the 14 hour drive during the middle of the night early Sunday morning.  Drove all day, and arrived during the storm of the century.  8.5" of rain in 24 hours.  Yes, it was a spectacular flood.  Kind of a build the ark and gather the animals type of feeling. 

So here I find myself in the land of jacked up pick ups, Walmart and both country AND western music.  (Neither of which are my style, as you would it is hard to find that on a Pearl Jam album).  But, we are doing some sweet riding, in the mud and after it dried out in the perfect tacky traction that is always those first couple of days after a huge storm.  Sweet. 

Here is a 5 minute video of me following my nephew and brother with the helmet cam.  It is XC, so not as exciting as a DH film but it is riding and it is always fun.

 

 

Out.

Joe

Weird "Science"

Sometimes things just happen that are pretty weird. Sometimes they are actually beyond strange and could even be called bizarre. We have security on our computer system at work. When we upgraded from abacus's to computers back in the stone age (remember, I am actually older than dirt), I was asked to create a password. I started with the password “xxxxx” on my email account.

We have a stupid system there that makes you change the password on a regular basis. I don’t even know how often (all too frequently is all I know). Seems like you just are getting to where you have it changed everywhere, and you are being asked to change it again. Geez. Being of limited brain capacity, I just could not be bothered. So, I did what any of us would have done,I added a 1 to the back of my password when I was told to change my password, giving me “xxxxx1”.

I have been adding 1 to the previous number ever since (xxxxx2, xxxxx3 and so on), every time I have been prompted for years. Yes, I am that lazy, and that unconcerned with my computers security. I am now on “xxxxx50”, and I am 50. There must me some sort of law of probabilities that affects that.  And I do not mean like speed limit laws.

Weird.

I think it might even be science. At a minimum it’s a math thing, and math is hard.

Out. Joe

Math is Hard!

Some foods just can't be mixed.

My dog will eat just about anything together, that is when she decides to eat.  Some dogs will eat whenever their food is put down, other dogs seem to not actually need to eat. I really do not understand how my dog can eat about 16 calories on average per day, yet burn about 10000 calories per day in activity.  She gets a long walk every morning in the park off the leash (which means tearing around chasing things), she plays fetch in the yard every day, she wrestles with me when I get home from work everyday, she does a couple of 1-2 hour MTB rides per week, etc... and she might eat something tomorrow.  WTH?  I really do not understand how that works.

When she does eat, you can mix some peanut butter, with chicken type canned food, some rice and some stale old dry food together and she will eat it.  Or, you can put just one of those things down and when she decides to eat, that is what she eats. 

I once convinced my nephew to eat some catfood.  It was an interesting experience, for me.  Not too enjoyable for him, as it did not stay down.  Too bad. 

I once entered a hot pepper eating contest, that did not end too well for me, for hours, but that is a completely different story. 

Try that method of mixing a bunch of different foods with your kids.  It is always fun to see their reaction. 

But, why is it that some foods should not be mixed.  Like, why wouldn't you put hot tamale sauce on pasta?  Why wouldn't you put honey on your vegetables?  I hear there are people who do not understand something like a shrimp enchilada.  I love the things.  I like ketchup on eggs though also. 

Here is a list of things that should not be mixed.

- broccoli or cauliflower should never be eaten on pizza.

- frog in a cantaloupe.  This is probably one of the weirdest things I was ever asked to eat.  In Taiwan, cantaloupe sliced in half with a cooked frog floating in it.  Could just be a bad memory, as it was really weird.

- what is a gyro anyway?

- tomato juice with just about anything.  Actually, shouldn't tomato juice just be tossed out anyway?

- I don't think a gel pack should mostly ever be eaten.  They are pretty good for attracting bees, but not much else. 

After a tough day, I find this is an excellent remedy.  Actually a Trek Remedy is good for just about anything also.

That was a plate of Shrimp enchiladas.  They were excellent.  Goes with pretty much anything.

I like yogurt in my oatmeal, by the way.  I once stayed in a Knights Inn, I do not recommend that to pretty much anyone.  It is good for putting perspective on things if you stay there for one night per decade, but if you stay there more than that you have just lost your standards. 

Surrender Dorothy!

No caption necessary.

 

It's National Oatmeal Day!

Surely this is a holiday on the level of Christmas, or way more than my birthday or even more than National cold cereal day. 

National Oatmeal Day is exactly 2.24 times better than Trekworld.  National Oatmeal Day is nearly 4.32 times better than my birthday.  National Oatmeal Day is much better than Christmas, precisely 2.67 times better.

If you are a betting person, you are probably thinking that I am totally screwing with the math here.  Especially, given that I have said that Flip Flops are better than my birthday and I made a previous statement about the value and endorsement of daily burrito eating (exactly √45.63÷6.1 times better, but you have to divide that by the number of days since your last burrito to get an exact number - math is hard). 

So, enjoy your oatmeal day.  Go ride your mountain bike or your road bike or your motorcycle.  In other words, eating oatmeal is best celebrated by riding something with 2 wheels.  4 wheels is so gauche.

Cheers.

Joe

 

Decisions, Decisions!

Languages Are So Yesterday.

Languages are stupid.  This needs to be fixed. 

If you do not believe me, read on.

I sure would like to have a babel fish right now.  If I did have one, I would not be practicing falling down and trying to miss the ground right now.  Which as hard as that sounds, is actually easier than trying to kiss your elbow, or to change a date code on a recording.    Of course, if I did have a Babel Fish right now, I would not actually be writing this blog entry.  The unanticipated side benefit of me not writing this blog entry right now would be that you would not be wasting your time wondering what randomness was going to come out of my computer next. 

Wait, don’t hang up yet.  I will try to bring it around. 

I have written that Airlines are less than an intelligent business.  I am not going to pick on them again, now.  But, I have a beef to pick with languages (I can pick on vegetables if you would prefer.  Equal opportunity heckler.)  Today, I am going to unequivically show you that languages are stupid. 

Consider this.  A Dutch person does not really look any different than an American.  In fact, many of us Americans are Dutch by heritage – even if we do not really know what a dyke is.  (That is not a wire cutter, btw.)  I have seen a windmill though, and I do like those waffle cookie things.  I mean, have you tried those?  Geez, I think I could eat about a dozen in one sitting.  In fact, that is why I enjoy my boxes of Honey Stinger waffles.  They make me feel like I am wearing wooden shoes.  Not the kind that you would use to try to walk on water with either. 

But I digress.  People look like each other.  Head perched on shoulders, hair mostly growing on top of their heads (not me, but other people do have hair).  Most people wear some sort of shoes on their feet, most like sushi, only a few are left handed…  you know, basically the same.  Yet, somehow we all do not speak the same language.  Arthur Dent is not the only one with that problem. 

Presumably language developed differently because people did not travel.  No holidays on the beach, no mountain climbing trips to the peaks etc.…  They kind of lived in one spot, and only interacted with people around them.  They mostly did that because there were Saber Tooth Tigers that would eat them if they ventured too far from their village, or their spouse would assume they were running out on them.  They developed a way of communicating that was unique to their little village.  You know, someone called a rock a rock and others in the next valley over called it a zaug.  (I made that up.) 

Well we stuck with that.  Kind of like we stuck with the stupid Fahrenheit system.   The Europeans laughed when they gave it to us, then promptly ran off and created a new system.  Now, we cannot tell if it is really hot or cold when we go for a business trip or a holiday outside of our village.  But even beyond all of that silliness, we still stick with some things that just do not make sense.

I feel that spelling the name of a place different than the locals in that place spell the name of the place is well just stupid.  Think about it, people in Munich call their city Munchen.  (Actually, they put some dots over the e that I cannot figure out how to make my computer do.)  Well I frankly like the word Munich better than Munchen, but that is not the point.  The people there choose to spell it that way, who am I to just randomly decide that I am going to spell it differently.  There are countless examples of this in the English language. 

But, do not assume that we Americans are the only ones who do not get it.  ALL languages seem to do this.  In Dutch, the name for the city of Paris is spelled Parijs.  In French, the name for the country we call Germany and Germans call Deutschland is refered to as Allemagne.  What kind of sense does any of this make?  As I have looked into this for at least 3.6 minutes, I have decided that this is really one of the silliest things I can look up via google today.  (This is even sillier than Camelot is, and the decision we all witnessed with that was to not even go there.) 

See, that is the official map of Deutschland.  Doesn't say Germany or Allemagne anywhere on it.  Done.

So you see, it is really quite a universal problem.  We should all just be using the words for a place that the natives of that place call it.  It is fine to pronounce it according to the language you speak, but changing the spelling for who knows why, just does not make sense. (The only exception to this would be if you are spelling in a language that uses a different alphabet than the original language does.)  But, same alphabet should equal same spelling.  Same and same.

What is a zaug anyway?

So this is my rant for today.  Maybe tomorrow also.  Of course, we will never know, as I will be enjoying dehydrated breakfast cereal hour tomorrow about this same time. 

I do not actually know how I got on this.  I meant to write about how languages do not really matter anymore.  Everyone speaks english.  I was going to go on to talking about the future product development meeting that I was in this week in Holland.  I was going to talk about electric bikes and european city bikes and bike paths and... Oh well, I will save that one for another day.  In the mean time, just remember flip flops are better than almost all other types of shoes (Converse would be about the only exception.)

Adios Amigos - Baby.  I'm just waiting for the worms.

I’ll be back!

 

Out.

Mountain Bike Friday

The new phone book is NOT here today.  I am not eating a Burrito either.  I am watching a number of scintillating powerpoint presentations.  You know, the work thing getting in the way of doin what I really wish I was doing on a Friday. 

It is a mountain bike day.  Mostly it is mountain bike day because I wish I was riding.  I am not, so I am posting up with this.  If you are riding, I am jealous.  I am super jealous of my wife who is on her way soon to the UK to ride with Tracy Moseley and Chris Garrison.

My bike is at home.  Collecting dust, dreaming of Copper Harbor shredding.

Regardless of all of that, here are a few great video's.

 

Any time I take a look at a video about Whistler, it makes me wish I was there.  Although, last year I separated my shoulder there, so I do have some demons to conquer.  I wish I was there, I wish I was there.  Dang.

 

 

That is my friend Andrew, shredding the new Remedy on a trail that just makes me drool.  Double Dang.

 

Although I have the greatest job in the world, I am brimmed with frustration that I missed this launch. It was at Whistler doing a bunch of non traditional trails.  Triple Dang!!!

 

OK, back to the salt mines.  Out for now.

Joe

Copper Harbor. It's WAY WAY up there!

Open up your map.  You know, the Gazetteer.  (It's tattered and in your car somewhere.  I know you mostly use the GPS unit, but it is in there somewhere...)  Turn to the Michigan page.  Now look at the part that is called the UP.  Find the Keweenaw peninsula.  Most likely, it is in a separate little box, because IT IS TOO FAR NORTH TO FIT ON THE PAGE!  That is how far away it is.

It's a peninsula... that means it is surrounded by water on 5 of it's 4 sides, right?

I mean, holy crap!  I think you can see the polar caps from a high spot.  It is THAT far north.  Wow.  But, Wow is it worth it.  Geezz.

I have now found what I believe may be the absolute best MTB riding this side of the rockies.  It might be hard pressed to convince me that there is better riding anywhere in the midwest or east of here.  I am willing to try to find out, but right now I am pretty convinced. 

For a long time Hansi Johnson, the IMBA rep here in Wi., has been trying to get me to go to Copper Harbor and try the riding there.  "It's fantastic Joe.  You will not believe it."  I didn't.  I still cannot.  Before I went, I could not believe that Hansi really knew what he was talking about.  Now that I have been there, I cannot believe what I just experienced. 

Check out this link.  This is the site for the trails at Copper Harbor.  

There are a ton of great trails (something like 37 miles).  There are great XC trails, great flowing trails, great DH trails.  You can ride up, and earn your gravity or you can take the shuttle up from Keweenaw Adventures. 

There is a trail called The Flow, that is out of this world. 

 

We were in Copper Harbor for some planning meetings.  We were there to do the planning for the 2013 model lineup.  We met, we figured out a lot of great things for the lineups.  Of course, I could tell you but...  The meetings went well, but as you can imagine, that was secondary to the fantastic riding.

(Please do not tell my boss, that the riding was fantastic there.  I do not want to have to justify why I was out of the office for more than a week.  We were working is the answer.  Ok?) 

Serious Plug. 

Aaron Rogers is the president of the club there, and he is a trail builder extraordinaire!  He and 2 other builders have built every single mile of the 37 miles of singletrack there.

The locals call it CH.  That would be for Copper Harbor, not Switzerland.

Sam at Keweenaw Adventures will set you up with a shuttle, take you kayaking in the harbor etc...  Great stuff. 

Aaron Rogers and I.  He is one of the most talented trail builders around.

Berms are fun.

The Corkscrew.

Artsy.

Don't ask.

Keweenaw Adventures

Apparently South Park has been abandoned in favor of North Park.

Wood

More wood.

Trailer full of fun.

Which way should we go?

The Flow starts here!

Get yourself to CH.  You will not regret it.  Tell them Joe sent you.

Cheers.

Joe

 

 

Chequamewamwamagan - or something like that.

It is a MTB race.  Up norther there eh?  In the woods of Wisconsin, step aside my Johnson (Red Hot Chili Peppers). 

Bike races are FAST!  I am not FAST.  I pretend, but in reality I am not.  If the dog could talk, we would all know the truth.  When did the dog become that smart anyway?  Have you ever noticed that your dog always seems to know the truth?  If you were to make up a story about why you did not get that work project done, you would not be able to tell your boss on the phone that made up story about why it is not done.  If your dog was watching you while you were telling the story, you would not want to make eye contact.  Your dog knows better.

So we decided that it was time to get back to being a bike racer.  Rather than start out with a fun XC 1.5hour singletrack race, we decided to do that 40 mile road bike race on a MTB bike.  Dirt roads and the Birkebeiner trail.  Rev it up baby!

It has been a while since I had a bike with a number plate on the front. 

If you do not know the Chequamegan 40 mile Fat Tire race and Festival, it is huge.  The race goes from Hayward to Cable.  It follows much of the same trail as the Birkebeiner ski race (only in reverse), and then a bunch of dirt roads.  It finishes at Telemark Lodge across the ski runs.  It is a tough race, but not because the trail is technical.  It is a flat out road race.  It starts on the road and goes 3 miles on pavement before it gets to the ski trail.  It is a flat out 30 mph pace line.  This year was led by Christian Vandeveld and Jason McCartney.  Holy crap, is all I can say. 

Look closely.  I am in there somewhere, along with at least 2500 other people.

There were a couple of things to note. 

1.  There is a group of pirates that serve rum on one of the hills.  It was a riot. I actually took the rum and took a sip of it.  It was actually pretty good. 

Aye Mate!

The Pirate Gang!

2.  It is impossible to have 2500+ people on singletrack.  The Hayward area has become known for it's singletrack.  This race uses none of it.  In fact, you go right by some really sweet looking pieces of singletrack during the race. I found myself saying "what about that piece of singletrack?"  We did not hit any of it.

We did a great singletrack ride on Sunday morning.  It was raining, but we rode for 2 hours on really sweet singletrack south of OO.  It was called the Makwa trail (Little Bear in Ojibwa - We did not see any bears).  Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Out.

Joe

Goatee of filth. 

 

 

MTB - La Crosse - on the river there...

Last week, I played hooky from work one afternoon and busted over to La Crosse to see my daughter at College there.  She is in her 2nd year and needed a visit from Dad.

(Actually, it was Dad that needed some daughter time - the other daughter is next up on the list)

I busted over and we did some grocery shopping, hung out with the roomies, went for a MTB ride, visited the bike shop in town and then busted out for some dinner (Mexican of course).

It is always fun to see the kids at school, and always good to sample the mexican food somewhere else.  But, I have to say the 2 highlights from the day where the following.

First highlight.

The HPT trails outside of La Crosse on the bluffs.  The IMBA rep Hansi Johnson originally told me about the trails.  He said they were good, he was right.  They wind up and down the bluffs and have great swoopy turns and a few rough things here and there couple of features etc...  They are not long, but the kind of trails that every town should have.  If you get a chance to get over to La Crosse with your mountain bike - check them out.  HPT Trails.

Hanna and I about to plunge into the trails.

The HPT trails have one of the most scenic pump tracks in the state.

 

Second Highlight.

I stopped by Smiths bike shop in La Crosse.  The people there are pretty nice.  They have a great little shop and hire college kids to help them get through school etc...  Really nice.  There is a legendary Trek employee working there. 

Scott Mccullum used to work at Trek.  He did a lot of different things from engineering to tech rep to proto lab etc...  Scott was here when I first started.  He lives in La Crosse, and works at the shop there now.  My favorite Scott story is when we were a small company, Scott got employed one time to help with some impact testing.  We did not have nearly the sophisticated testing facility that we do now (this was like 20 years ago), and Scott was the test pilot for doing impact testing. 

He would put on a full face helmet, get all padded up and ride a bicycle right into things.  Hilarious.  Wow.

Scott and I at Smith's now.  All those crazy memories.

Out.

Joe

PJ20 - You knew this was coming from me!

 
The scene at Alpine Valley.  Perfect night at a pretty cool spot for a concert.

 

#PJ20

You probably have already figured out that I am a pretty big Pearl Jam dork.  I was a Pearl Jam fan from the first album.  I cannot claim, as some people do, that I was a Pearl Jam fan when they were called Mother Love Bone - or some other point.  Good Grief people, if you are a Pearl Jam fan, isn't that enough?  Do you have to try to prove that you are more of a fan of Pearl Jam than me or some other person by claiming you have been a fan longer?  Are people really that insecure in their band worship?

So, somewhere this summer I learned that Pearl Jam was coming to Alpine Valley.  The problem was, on the weekend that the tickets were to be made available, I was going to be gone and I was going to be somewhere that did not have wireless access.  Ugh...  No problem, join the PJ fan club and there was a presale on the previous weekend.  So I did.  Problem was, that I completely spaced buying the tickets on the previous weekend - DWEEB!

The situation is, now I am a member of a fan club.  OK, I'm a big Pearl Jam fan (I think my Sirius Radio is stuck on that channel in the truck), but I am not the kind of person that joins a fan club.  Like Groucho Marx used to say, "I would never be a member of a club that would have me for a member".  But, I am a member.  I guess when they send out a mailer now, I will receive it.

So how did I get to the concert you ask?  Well, Len Zanni from Honey Stinger (len_zanni on twitter, check him out), came to the rescue.  He had an extra ticket on Sunday night and offered it up to me.  Wow.  That was super cool.

If you have not been to Alpine Valley, it is spectacular.  A natural outdoor amphitheater.  The slope of the hill is just right, the stage and roof project the sound really well etc...

I found the playlist for the concert online.  I added some of my own comments also.

01. Wash
02. The Fixer
03. Severed Hand
04. All Night
05. Given To Fly- (This may have been the highlight of the night, except they did play Yellow Ledbetter)
06. Pilate
07. Love Boat Captain
08. Habit w/ Liam Finn
09. Evenflow
10. Daughter/It’s OK-(This was pretty damn cool)
11. Leatherman
12. Red Mosquito w/ Julian Casablancas  (I have been hearing this song so much lately)
13. Satan’s Bed
14. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter A Small Town w/ Dhani Harrison  (Only problem was that I wanted Eddie to intro it with Longest-Title-In-The-Pearl-Jam-Catalog-Elderly-Woman-Behind-The-Counter-In-A-Small-Town-One-Two-Three-Four-Two-Three-...)
15. Unthought Known
16. New World w/John Doe-(Doe)
17. Black
18. Jeremy
ENCORE BREAK 1
19. Eddie improv/new song (performed solo by Eddie on acoustic guitar)
20. Just Breathe
21. Nothingman
22. No Way
23. Public Image-(Public Image Limited)
24. Smile w/ Glen Hansard
25. Spin The Black Circle-(dedicated to independent record store owners and customers)
ENCORE BREAK 2
Chris Cornell wishes Pearl Jam a happy 20th birthday
26. Hunger Strike {Eddie Vedder duet vocal}-(Cornell)
27. Call Me A Dog-(Cornell)
28. All Night Thing-(Cornell)
29. Reach Down w/ guests singing bg vocs-(Cornell)

(Honestly - I kinda liked Temple of the Dog, but I did not come to hear those songs.  I was fidgety during this, I just wanted the Eddy back with the microphone.)

30. Sonic Reducer w/ Mudhoney-(Bators, Blitz, Chrome, Magnum, Thomas, Zero)
ENCORE BREAK 3
31. Alive
Eddie thanks family, friends, and crew
32. Rockin’ In The Free World w/ lots of guests, friends and family-(Young)

BREAK LIKE THEY ARE ENDING
33. Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner

Of course we all have our favorites, and they played forever, but I would have loved to hear Crazy Mary and my favorite - In Hiding.  As impressive as the Pearl Jam set was, what’s most remarkable is how every song, regardless of whether it’s a little known PJ track or a Public Image Limited tune, the audience knew every word to every song.  They knew every word, and they all sang along at the top of their lungs.  It was really cool, but I felt inadequate in that regard as I did not know every word.

We all have bucket lists, and some of us have certain bands we wished we could have seen.  I have missed a few of my other favorite bands along the way, and some of them are not around anymore (Led Zepplin, Aerosmith...)  I did not want that to happen before I got to see Pearl Jam. 

I tweeted during the concert that I was not leaving until I heard Yellow Ledbetter.  I almost had to reneg on that.  They played Rocking in the Free World, and acted like that was it.  People started filing out.  We did also.  I was a little bit bummed.  Then, all of a sudden they were back on stage and Eddy mumbled through the opening lyrics of Yellow Ledbetter.  Damn.  That was something.

Just in case you are really wondering at this point what I am talking about.  Here is someones Iphone recording of the song at the end of the show.

 

If you do not like Pearl Jam, there is something wrong with you.

Out.

Joe