Van Morrison tickets went onsale about 10 minutes ago

View Larger Map

View Larger Map
two shows at the WaMu and two shows and the old and improved Beacon.
but obviously no one has told Mr. Morrison that there's a recession (and that word truly doesn't capture what we're going through right now) going on.
tickets start at $350, and you can sit in the back row for $90 as Van plays the entirety of Astral Weeks, a redo of a similar series of recorded shows in Los Angeles which will be released on the 24th.

looking back, I'm almost certain that Van Morrison is the first show I ever paid north of $100 to see (it happened again with Neil Young at the Garden in December, but that was a different kind of accident), but it was more of an accompanied gift (friend, co-worker, boss who dearly loves Mr. Morrison) than any self-directed desire. though I must admit that his rendition of "And The Healing Has Begun" that evening immediately made it my favorite of all of Van's material.

the Chelsea (AL) High School girls' basketball team saw their season come to an end last night with a loss on the road at Selma in the round of 24. but the Birmingham News ran a short interview piece with the team's leading scorer and her coach.

also last night we watched part of the 10 o'clock news on WPIX, which is something we haven't done in a long time. top stories out of Newark included a woman being crushed by a windblown tree branch while driving on Route 22, and another woman, walking near where neighbors said that she fed pigeons and squirrels every day, crushed by a windblown tree branch (and rather surprisingly they showed video, without warning, of the body crushed underneath).
another report presented the nearly five hour delays out of Liberty International Airport because of the wind (unbelievably strong yesterday, though the reporter's toupee didn't move a scintilla), which makes one question, Why just delays? If it's too windy to fly, why aren't there more cancellations?
then, just a few minutes later, a commuter turboprop affiliated with Continental Airlines crashed into a beautifully quaint home (see above) in Clarence Center, New York just five minutes before it was due to land in Buffalo.
all 49 onboard, including Beverly Eckert, a 9/11 widow flying to Buffalo to award a scholarship at her late husband's high school alma mater, and one person on the ground were killed.