There are so many things going on in the world at the moment, it is hard to stay focused on the best ones to talk about. There are a number of things that are heavy on my heart and those tend to be the ones that are pushed to the forefront. I think I am going to go in a different direction today.

I will say that the American evacuation of Kabul is my generation’s evacuation of Saigon. The war in Afghanistan has lasted almost twenty years and it ended about the same fashion as Vietnam. I don’t really want to get into politics but what a sad situation that we created and then left.

Clearly I have been pretty quiet on Covid in the last couple of weeks. This state has lost it’s mind and the majority of the people have joined in the ‘hate week’ celebration. We have counties passing even more restrictive measures. Again, I don’t want to get into politics.

Harvest season is really kicking in. I have a bunch of plums planned to make some wine. My wife wants to put up some peaches and pears for the next year. Our chance to do so will be in the next week. School is starting next week. We are barreling into hunting season, the fall and then the holidays. Right now, the plan is that my wife is going to be out of town for most of it.

A few months ago, this was planned as a period of celebration. We had a tickets and a family trip planned to go to Silverwood. My wife had four different days of the state fair tickets, that we were looking forward to. We did get one day where the primary plan was to see Chicago and we are going next Sunday.

Chicago is one of those bands that I have always liked, I suppose that it is my 1980s childhood. Depending on where you fall on the generational gap, most of their top 40 songs were released in the 1970s. But, it is also a band that I had to be in the mood to listen to. The funk was not really my era and the melodrama of the 80s is often times kind of moody.

It really wasn’t until I saw them last Friday that I really appreciated the band. What I was thinking as they were on the stage was when was the last time there were musicians playing brass instruments as part of a rock bank? And more so, a major rock band? I looked up a couple stats and it said that Chicago has the most top 40 hits of any band in the 1970s. Chicago was really the grand finale of big band, jazz and funk and the transition into popular rock, something that had lasted for around 40 years..

There are those kind of seminal moments like Guns n’ Roses full orchestra that are combining two unique elements in a way that hasn’t been done, done for a long time or just doesn’t mix. And when done right, like this case you get it. The primary reason for going aside from already having tickets was that it was an homage to my father-in-law as this was his era of music for sure. We enjoyed the concert which was primarily the earlier side of band but it was OK as we felt a healing connection for that hour.

End Your Programming Routine: I think of music as a vehicle to jog memories of happy times. Maybe I didn’t have the same kind of memories as my wife does, but I could imagine the feel good part of being a seventies youth or young adult. I still prefer the 80s part more, but I came away with a different perspective about Chicago. That is to say that I enjoyed the concert.