Another Saturday morning in Cleveland – last night we were supposed to get a mother of a storm, but honestly, I zonked out after being out late at the Iron Maiden concert the night before.

I got a little bit soaked Friday night going from the rapid station to my car, but everything else after that starts with “ZZZZZZZ.”

Things have been a bit silent this week at Addicted to Vinyl. This week was a busy one, and the rest of June is slated to be more of that, so don’t be surprised to see me posting here less than usual. It is after all, summertime, so I should be out and enjoying the nice weather, right?

That’s what I’m thinking.

First off, I was saddened by the sudden passing of NBC’s Tim Russert. Tim was an iconic figure in his field, and I had immeasurable amounts of respect for him. Russert added “author” to his list of accomplishments with the 2004 release of Big Russ and Me, an autobiographical work that chronicled Russert’s early upbringing in an Irish working class neighborhood. The stories of the large influence that his father had on his early life generated an amount of reader letters large enough that it would form the basis for his next book Wisdom of our Fathers:Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons, released in 2005.

Family is a subject of huge importance for me, and I am saddened that Russert’s family is dealing with this sudden loss on Father’s Day Weekend, normally a joyful and celebratory time for most.

That rumored fall tour from Bruce Springsteen is officially off. I’m bummed. I was thinking how cool it would be to take a road trip to Ann Arbor, MI to check out a show. Guess that won’t be happening at this point.

On another note, I am planning to road trip to Dayton, OH to see Mark Knopfler and Night Ranger (playing separate concerts) in July.

Speaking of Night Ranger, they launched their official Facebook page this past week. Click here and become a fan, Facebook style!

In related news, Melodicrock.com featured a show report from one of the site regulars, recapping the recording of a Night Ranger “unplugged” set for XM Radio. At the session, frontman Jack Blades confirmed that he and Styx mainman Tommy Shaw are making plans for a followup to their successful Influence covers project.

I was fortunate enough to catch Shaw and Blades last year on their Shaw/Blades tour for Influence. Actually, I ended up catching three shows, so I guess you could call me a bit of a Shaw/Blades fan 🙂

The duo recorded a live DVD during the tour, so I will look forward to not only a second volume of covers, but also hopefully a live DVD release!

Pearl Jam have announced details for their 2008 official bootleg program – nice to see both FLAC and MP3 download options, and also the return of physical CDs. There is also a mobile phone download option for tracks from each show as tracks and ringtones. I’m not much of a mobile phone guy, as far as downloads go, so I’m interested to see how much interest there will be for those. The band have sold 3.5 million CDs so far in their official bootleg program to date – I’m a little bit surprised, and would have expected that number to be a little bit higher. Still, that’s certainly a lot of CDs!

Metallica played a club gig this week to warm up for Bonnaroo.

Each of us deals with loss in our own way, and Ann shared a great poem that was helpful to her. I like it a lot….

I know you like Katie Couric. Or perhaps you don’t like Katie Couric. At all. As for me, I like Katie quite a bit, and as it happens, so does DW Dunphy.

The Stuck in the ’80s cats take a retrospective look at the great albums available so far (or soon) from Night Ranger, Asia, The B-52’s, Journey, and more! Take a listen.

Speaking of Journey, my Journey review got an odd “plug” this week on Youtube. Thanks for that!