I Went Down to the Crossroads...

Wife and kids away this week, so I watched videos. Both disks from the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas last year.

Awesome stuff. I mean, the Clapton stuff is always great, but put him beside folks like Carlos Santana -- Awesome!

Interesting and diverse group of performers. James Taylor put in an endearing set, with Joe Walsh backing him -- odd, but cool. Walsh later did a set of his own -- with Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn as his sidemen!!!

Newboy John Mayer was entertaining. Country guy Vince Gill ripped it up on a Tele -- who knew?

One of the most entertaining bits was Steve Vai's performance -- him and Tony MacAlpine, Billy Sheehan, and youngster David Weiner just shredding it to pieces like a bunch of first-graders amped up on caffeinated soda and chocolate ice cream. Playing at lightning speed, all at once -- it was audacious, incredible, a little wanky and hysterical all at the same time.

I also watched "Heist" -- your usual caper flick, starring Gene Hackman and Danny Devito. Total genre stuff and the plot didn't hang together all that well. But Hackman is just such a great actor.

And the dialogue was incredibly good -- pitch perfect.

"Is that the thing?" "Yeah, that's the thing."

"Don't you want to hear my last words?" "We just did."

"I try to imagine what someone smarter than me would do, and then I do that."