Zappa karma

Last June, en route to Spain, we spent a day-and-a-half in New York City. We stayed at the Beacon Hotel, in the Upper West Side. As our cab pulled up to the hotel, we saw the marquee for the Beacon Theater, next door.

Playing the next night was Dweezil Zappa and friends, in a program of Frank's music. Both boys would have loved to go to that concert, but, alas, we missed it by about 4 hours, having to head to the airport instead.

Fast forward to yesterday.

Dylan comes home with this week's Willamette Week, and there is a large ad for that same concert, coming to Portland in December. He said, "maybe this time I'll get to see it."

Sadly, no. About the time that Dweezil takes the stage that night in Portland (Dec. 21), Karen, Dylan, and I will be in the air, en route to Burbank, for a Christmas-week trip to California and Mexico. This time, we miss it by 2 hours.

I suppose that's progress.

In other news, it was great hearing George McGovern on NPR this morning, with his plan for Iraqi withdrawal. Ah, what might have been...

Finally, a very large number of Brazilians are heading to the polls today to elect a new government. Gee, national voting on Sunday - what a concept. One would almost think that having national elections on Tuesdays is a calculated way to make it difficult for working-class folks to vote. Naaaaa - couldn't be.