Journey - 17 June, Heineken Music Hall

I have been looking forward to this for a few months now. After Steve Perry officially left the band and Journey continued with touring and recording using new singers, I had the pleasure of seeing them at the Arrow Rock Festival in Lichtenvoorde in 2006 with Steve Augeri and again last year at Arrow in Nijmegen with Phillipino Perry-soundalike Arnel Pineda. This concert though would be the first time seeing them play a full set in a convert venue and whether or not new boy Pineda could still deliver the goods.
No disappointments here. The band were on for a two-hour set, combining classics with about half of the tracks of the new album Revelation. The sound was generally good though there seemed to be a bit of mike trouble at the start of the set and Neal Schon´s guitar sounded a bit muddy throughout, until the encore, though that might have been because we were standing so close to the speakers ;). The band opened with Majestic followed by Separate Ways. Jonanthan Cain proved he could master many instruments, playing a harmonica intro together with Schon as a prelude to Wheel In The Sky. Deen Castronovo got to display his marvellous voice on Mother, Father. Ross Valory was pulling all kinds of comical faces all night and Neal, was well, Neal! They extended some of the classic numbers with additional musical arrangments, not sure if they were all to my taste, though it is always good when a band does something different to what´s on the album. Final praise goes to Arnel Pineda who pulled off singing the Perry numbers with ease, sometimes exceeding on vocal range. Couple that with his energetic stage presence and his contact with the audience and you cannot fault his performance.
It´s good to have them back touring again and visiting Europe, which obviously has a decent sized fan base outside of their native US. Journey were for years on my list of bands yet to see, worried that they would never make it back to Europe, especially after Perry left. With shows like the last one, I hope to be seeing them again for years to come.

Shaken Not Stirred: 007 Fountain Of Youth

The British Medical Journal reports on how shaking your vodka martini instead of stirring it is better at reducing the amount of hydrogen peroxide, which was also found to be better than gin or vermouth alone. This improves the antioxidant properties of the beverage, explaining why James Bond always managed to stay so young and handsome.

Meteorite Hits 14 Year Old Boy

So what are the chances of being hit by a space rock? This article from The Telegraph tells of how a 14 year german lad got struck in the hand by a falling rock. Luckily the impact didn´t kill him but the force was enough to scar him and send him spinning. There are apparently no recorded fatalities from such events, (though a dog was killed in Egypt in 1911), but plenty of examples of material damage are recorded like the storm that hit Chicago in 2003.

Real IRA Leaders Responsbile For Omagh Bombings

A civil case against the leaders of the Real IRA has found the perpetrators guilty of the Omagh bombing. The BBC reports on how although no-one was sentenced in a criminal court, the fact a civil case has been won provides a means for victims of atrocities to attribute accountability and financial consequences to these actions. This sends a clear message to society and will make a misery of the daily lives of those found guilty. Justice indeed.

Nokia Developing Wireless Selfcharging Mobile

This article reports on how Nokia are developing a self-charging mobile phone that will use solar power together with the radiation emitted by phone masts. Obviously the device must be sensitive enough to pick up the 500Mhz to 10GHz range of frequencies and convert that into sufficient power to charge a phone. Current protoypes can only generate 5 milliwatts but the intention is to produce 10 times as much. To me the most worrying thing is the sheer amount of radiation that we are bombarded with every day. Sure wireless may provide a large degree of convenience, but due to the broadcast nature of the medium, it seems that a lot of energy gets wasted, let alone what all those radio waves are doing your insides.

$1 Million Mattress

The BBC reports on an unfortunate Israeli mother who had stashed her savings in her mattress. When her daughter had bought her new one and thrown the other out, the hunt was on to find it again. Authorities were reportedly assisting in the search of land fill sites.

Tasered Grandma

Speeding grandma refuses to do what the officer tells her and gets tasered. Yes, she may be 73 years old but she is not above the law. The only risk with that thing is that you might trigger a heart attack or something, so is it excessive when she resisted at every opportunity? Considering how this week an 88 year old white supremacist shot and killed a security guard at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, just because they´re old doesn´t mean they aren´t dangerous.