Van Halen Par Cans

Sometimes I really like the internet.  Today I was looking through some of my things and pulled out my old Van Halen "1984" album... the vinyl album (as an aside, 1984 is one of the few records I have in vinyl, cassette, CD and digital formats).  Anyway, I pulled out the record and was reminded of a mystery that has haunted me for over 26 years.  This is a photo from the sleeve: 

And I never understood what they were.  Ashtrays at the factory? The tops of trash cans?  An assembly line of R2-D2s?  Well, today I decided to look it up and found out that they are "par cans," part of the lighting rig for a rock concert.   Here they are in an assembled rig: 

Mystery solved... thanks, internet! 

Posted a Little Recap

So I finally got my act together a bit and posted a recap of my trip to California.  It's just a very basic rundown of the trip.  It can be found here. 

Vienna Teng at Joe's Pub

Saw Vienna Teng and Alex Wong at Joe's Pub last night.  Two sold-out shows, and the performances were recorded for future release.  Heard some of my favorite songs, including "Recessional," probably my favorite Vienna Teng tune. Vienna covered Radiohead's "Idioteque," and nearly tore the roof off the joint.  The shows were followed by an after-party at Caffe Vivaldi, where I got to meet the great Alex Berger.  I also got to meet and hang out with many of the VT forum regulars, including Scot from Hawaii, The Man in Blue, Linus from Germany, Greg from Baltimore, Micro, and many others.  Amy Cox, Vienna's manager, was very friendly to all of the fans.  It really was a great time.  I put up a little photo album here. 

Vienna Teng at Durfee High School

So tonight I saw Vienna Teng at Durfee High School in Fall River, Massachusetts.  A very good show. Here is a video of "Grandmother Song" -