Hullo, Gorgeous!

These and more are up on the BJCT Photobucket account :)  More will be uploaded there as we find them :)

~ Hath

Best of Bon Jovi ~ Week of Feb 15 "In The Studio"

U.S. Syndicated radio show INTHESTUDIO will air a Best of Bon Jovi show to celebrate Bon Jovi's music and the start of 2010's The CIRCLE Tour. The new single "Superman Tonight" will also be featured.

Here's an excerpt:

REDBEARD: Jon, in a September 1989 interview, you told me that your politics and religion have to be kept private. When did you change your mind in that regard, and more importantly, why ?

JON BON JOVI: I really see myself as a concerned citizen (now), and a father of four and a husband, and certainly an ambassador of pop culture in this world. As I traveled near and far, to Africa, Asia, Europe, I've seen just from afar that people love America. They really love the culture. They love the music we have given them. They love the idea of the dreams that we have given them. And I'm sad to say that, in places where I went fifteen years ago and was greeted as that ambassador of culture, I would have second thoughts about going to. Not necessarily for fear of my own safety but perhaps for somebody on a road crew. And it's a shame, because I love this country immensely. And I don't get involved in politics as much as I do in philanthropy, because I'm a firm believer that 50% of the people are against you just because they believe you vote with a certain political party. I don't want to be the man at the party, I want to be the guy who makes a difference, that believes in the ideals of what this country was founded on. The more I read of Jefferson and Lincoln and Washington, and especially John Adams who was not as well known to me until recent years, that I realized that this is a magical place, a mystical place that is worth defending. Not the way it was represented by Bush and Cheney. And if that's going to cause me some pain, as it has, then so be it. I'm just reporting in as a concerned citizen.

RB: Are you saying that declaring your political beliefs threatens your career?


JBJ: Nothing like the Dixie Chicks not getting played on the radio. Even though I may not have agreed with the Bush administration, & didn't vote for them, I never slagged the man in office simply out of respect for the office of the Presidency of the United States. And for that reason alone, we as Americans have to forget about "red"(Republican) and "blue"(Democrat) and we all honest to God have to become "purple" and try to have compromises so that we as a nation can continue on and go forward, not only for us but for our kids. Regardless of my beliefs, I don't sit on my stage at night and talk politics. You come to see me perform. I don't use my platform as a place to talk politics. And yet there have been times, places, and people who have chastised people in my line of work for speaking out. I am one that believes that dissent is, in fact, patriotic, and we should question our leaders. Because if you don't, you're nothing more than a sycophant. Just because a person's in office doesn't mean he knows all the answers. This is still a democracy.

And you can listen to a brief excerpt on the site as well. Unfortunately, it's not playing in my area, and I didn't see a satellite radio listing.  If anyone gets their hands on this, I'd love to hear it!

Catte's Caps

So, I've posted lots of videos/screen caps over the last couple days, with the caps all coming from Catte. I admit it, I've turned her into a cap-o-holic, but hey, we all get to benefit.

Lately she's been in a Puppy mood and has been capping the heck out of some of the old Jovi videos. She's been snowbound, too, so she's been capping like a MAD WOMAN!

She's set up a PhotoBucket account JUST for the caps she's been doing. There are a bunch out there. The Bucket is set up by album, with video names as sub-folders. There are also albums for Jon's & Richie's solo stuff.

More may be added as the mood strikes, but her plan is to cap all of the official videos and whatever else makes her happy :)

Bookmark this site. I'll be pulling pictures from here from time to time, and maybe adding some of my own if I cap something she hasn't gotten to yet :)

There are LOTS of goodies in there.

~ Hath

30 Rock

I don't have the JonBon scenes to share yet, but Catte has provided a bunch of screen caps for your viewing pleasure...




~ Hath

JBJ Injury Report

No, no, he's fine. I just came across this and it made me chuckle.

Sorry if I scared ya :)

~ Hath

Honolulu

Well, thanks to BigAppleJoviGirl's tweets, I got to feel WICKED jealous at the set list from last night's show.

Diamond Ring?

Holy hell! They dusted off some real oldies -- Tokyo Road, Shot Through The Heart, Roulette -- looks like the guys meant it this time when they said they'd mix it up a bit and play some of the old stuff.

Makes me REALLY looking forward to the shows I get to go to next month!

Keep an eye on the BJCT Blog for videos, audio, and photos. As they roll in, that's where they'll go.

~ Hath

Concert Stage Set

Thanks P, for sending this to me :)

SeattleInsider takes you on a preview tour of Bon Jovi's state of the art stage set that will be used during "The Circle Tour".

The video doesn't give too much away, but dammit I wish I was in Hawaii right now...

~ Hath

Snow Day!!

Yep, we have our first official snow day.  The school called this morning at 5:30 before the snow even decided to fall.  A preemptive strike that pretty much guarantees that there won't be any massive snowfall or power outages today.

The school has a cool system where they can set up a call that goes out automatically to all the parents in the school. We have something similar at work that we use for disaster notifications, and it's pretty slick.

So in any event, I'm home, Mr. Hath is home which is irritating as hell great and Hathlet is home, practicing his recorder.  Yeah, Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star never sounded so awful good.

On the weather side, the snow has JUST started to fall.  About a dozen flakes or so.  Nevertheless, our town's plow and sanding trucks are ready to go, and will have the snow piled up in front of my driveway well under control for sure.

We're expecting 8-14" today (a mere dusting for Bostonians) so will be back to normal tomorrow.  All I know is I'm still in my flannel jammies, fuzzy slippers, and Grumpy robe, ponytail askew, and on my third hot chocolate of the day.  WAY better than schlepping into the office for 7am. 

Yep; way better.

Well, better get back to drooling over TD videos on YouTube work now.

~ Hath

Open Letter to JBJ

Anthony Kuzminski has posted a couple of GREAT reads.

The first is a letter to Jon regarding set list choices. Some staggering stats from Tony K's post:

To be fair, I decided to sit down and see how many actual songs I have seen you perform over the last few decades. What I found surprised me. I have seen a total of thirty-seven shows over the course of seven tours stretching back two decades and have only seen a mere ninety-one songs performed. Sixteen of these are covers (and I’m including snippets including “Jumpin' Jack Flash”, “Good Lovin’”, etc.). So essentially I’ve seen seventy-five original Bon Jovi songs over thirty-seven performances. When looking at this, I decided to see how you matched up against the other “top grossing” acts on the road and here’s what I found:

• Over 37 performances Bon Jovi has done 91 songs (only 75 originals)

• I’ve seen The Rolling Stones 15 times and have seen 97 unique songs

• I’ve seen U2 20 times and have seen 87 unique songs (no snippets included)

• I’ve seen the Dave Matthews Band four times on one album cycle and saw 51 unique songs

• I’ve seen Pearl Jam a mere five times and they have performed 85 unique songs

• I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen 45 times and have seen a whopping 257 unique songs

Gotta give the rest a read. It's great.

The second post offers suggestions on how to punch up the set list. I like this particular post because I've always believed that if you tell me what the problems are, you damned well better have a solution in mind, otherwise you're just whining. When I managed people, my stock answer to any complaint was, "I understand your concerns, how can we make it better?" When met with a shrug and a blank stare, I knew I'd hit on a whiner.

Tony got hundreds of emails from fans, and he used them to put together statistics to share with Jon. Read the whole article, but here are a few highlights:

* These Days was the most requested "play in full" album among his responses. I know I blogged it a couple of times :)

* These were the top-10 requested songs ~ some you wouldn't expect:

Most Requested Songs:
1. "Edge of a Broken Heart"
2. "Wild Is The Wind"
3. "Dry County"
4. "I Believe"
5. "Hey God"
6. "Never Say Goodbye"
7. "Something To Believe In"
8. "In & Out of Love"
9. "Tokyo Road"
10. "Let It Rock"

Some requested songs that were not surprises:

12. "Diamond Ring"
15. "This Ain’t A Love Song"
16. "It’s Hard Letting You Go"
20. "Shooting Star"
22. "Bang A Drum"
31. "Let’s Make It Baby"
32. "Hook Me Up"
33. "Blood Money"
35. "One Wild Night"
38. "I’d Die For You"
39. "Only Lonely"
41. "Hallelujah"
42. "Here Comes The Sun"
44. "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
45. "Lie To Me"

About Richie's solo: He laments the repeat of Stranger and IBTFY, and offers some suggestions, any of which would make even the heart of the slightest Richie fan soar. To hear him playing Layla? Or We All Sleep Alone? Uh, yes, please!

About the Don't Play: Spot on, but missing Who Says :) Tony put that in the must play every night category. I think we're sick of that one.

Go, read Tony's articles. You won't be disappointed.

Then, if you're of a mind, tweet the links to @BonJovi. It will probably fall on deaf ears ~ it's been my experience that a "CEO of a major corporation" typically doesn't like to have his judgment questioned, but Jon has always struck me as a fair guy. He's said more than once he wants the fans to enjoy the experience. I want to believe him. I really do. But he's done/said things before that he hasn't come through on (including the Philly Soul Arena Bowl Champs celebration free show and looking into the O2 prices, to name a couple).

~ Hath

Lie To Me

Catte, babe, these killed me.





More yummies here.

~ Hath

Silent Night

Damn, Catte, you need more snow days!




~ Hath

She Don't Know Me

Catte again :)




Holy Tight Jeans, Batman!

~Hath

Baby Please Don`t Go

This is fun :)



Lorenza Ponce recording "Baby, Please Don't Go", (Big Joe Williams) January 8, 2010 at One East Recording, NYC, for her new record "SOUL SHIFTER."

~ Hath

Wanna Be On Screen?

Bon Jovi are preparing for their biggest tour yet. The Circle Tour will be traveling around the world and they want you to share the stage with them. We’re asking all Bon Jovi Fans around the world to upload a video of themselves performing Livin' On A Prayer. The best performances from each city will join the band on screen while they’re playing the song!

Click here to view the invitation.

TOTALLY want to be on screen. TOTALLY can't sing :) That will be a hoot and a half, though. Hmmmm, maybe I can get my son to do it....

~ Hath

Only Lonely

Catte had some snow days and has been regaling some of us with screen caps from cheesy puppy Jovi vids. They are too good not to share :)









The rest of the caps Catte shared are here.

~ Hath

Tweet!

Yes, that's Jon.  And yes, he's got TWITTER up on that laptop!  And I do believe that's a smug "Yeah, I just tweeted" look on his face.

I follow lots of people.  Only a couple actually make it to my blackberry with their tweets (Ozzy, Slash, BonJovi and ShitMyDadSays are it).  Imagine my surprise when I see this tweet hit my 'Berry:


Hey it's jon.. Greetings from Seattle. I'm learning to tweet . Be patient  http://yfrog.com/4f3b4rj

Wanna follow?  Visit http://twitter.com/BonJovi.

And oh, Jon?  By the way?  "patient" isn't in this chick's vocabulary, babe.

~ Hath