smacky and bucky

Our new house is a two bedroom bungalow, built in 1930. We bought it because we could see the possibilities of it. For instance: the second floor. No, not the attic. This is an actual second floor, with a staircase leading up to it. Of course the staircase is behind a wall, and a cabinet hangs on that wall, and a cabinet sits on the floor in front of that wall. At least they did before Friday. I pulled down the cabinet, unscrewed the countertop from the wall, and a handyman stopped by with his fancy saw and cut open the wall, opening the staircase again for the first time in decades!

I'd been up there already, since the house has pull-down attic stairs. But going up the regular stairs was a treat. At one time, the upstairs was actual living space. It has heat registers, live electrical outlets, and overhead lights. I don't know what prompted someone to close off the level entirely. As promised, a picture:


the now unhidden steps. Does it lead to treasure? Not quite.

That all happened Friday.

Saturday I want to the other house and cut the grass. Oh, you didn't know that house still hasn't sold? That's because I was really boring myself talking about it all the time, so I imagine it's at least twice as boring for others. Yeah, it's still for sale. Over 25 groups came by the open house on Sunday. Blah, blah, blah...

Sunday, Laura went to her cousin's baby shower. I measured the giant picture window on the side of the house that allows our neighbors to watch us whenever they get the urge, then went to Home Depot and had some blinds custom cut. Returned home and installed them in about 15 minutes. Yay! Take that, neighbors. Can't look at my underpants anymore!

I popped the first of the four DVDs of Live Aid in and watched that for a while. When Laura got home, she thought it was the Live 8 concert, and that it was live, rather than from 1985. It got me thinking about who played at the first one, and the odds of some of them playing at the second.

Artists from Live Aid who will also play at Live 8: Elton John, Paul McCartney, Sting, U2, The Who, Madonna, and Duran Duran.

A sample of artists from Live Aid who were not invited to play at Live 8: Adam Ant, The Hooters, Howard Jones, Paul Young, Billy Ocean, REO Speedwagon, Rick Springfield, Thompson Twins, Hall and Oats, Simple Minds, and the Beach Boys.

Don't worry. I'm sure your invite is in the mail!

It's funny. Most of the artists returning to play again were already superstars in 1985. Madonna and U2 are only ones who hadn't yet conquered the world. Both would within a year following the concert.

Also interesting, the decline of Phil Collins. The man was the highlight of Live Aid. Big solo artist, he played London, hopped on the Concorde, crossed the Atlantic, and played in Philadelphia the same day. The man even took the deceased John Bonham's place and drummed for a reunited Led Zeppelin. (Of course, Plant and Page will never allow that footage to be shown again because they said it sucks. They blame Phil; he recently said they were the ones that were off. And considering Collins's stature at the time, I lean toward his take on the performance.)

Phil Collins is now Disney's "go-to" guy for bland soundtracks for direct-to-DVD movies like Tarzan II. I'm sure the money's good. Anyway, I don't see his name on the list of artists for the upcoming show.

If something like this happens again in 20 years, and it probably will, who will still be on the list? Who will have become superstars, and who will have disappeared entirely?