>Speaking of ELP: I saw Asia a couple of weeks ago. The solos were great (youprobably know who was on guitar), but Palmer's drum solo was one of the best, perhaps the best solo I've ever seen. Even better made by the fact that it was in a smaller club with only a couple of hundred people - seeing the guys across a couple of m is still better than on big screen. Heavily reccommended if they are in your area - they are still masters.
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>Carl Palmer is a consummate professional - always working at his craft. Palmer and Neil Peart are definitely the top drummers in rock music.
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>I have not listened to Asia's newest album (Omega?), but I have never been a big Asia fan. I always thought Asia was less than the sum of the parts. For some reason, Steve Howe just flat out sounds better in Yes than Asia. I'm told that Omega is very good, so I'll have to check it out.
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>Don't know if you knew this, but one of the big reasons for ELP's breakups over the years was due to Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer complaining (with justification) that Greg Lake did not practice and didn't keep his chops and voice in shape. Having seen ELP in concert in their later years, it was obvious which band member is truly "over the hill".
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>Also, Yes just released a new album - it was supposed to have Oliver Wakeman (Rick Wakeman's son) in it, but Chris Squire fired Oliver, and they used Geoffrey Downes to finish....and Downes will tour with Yes later this year. I listened to much of the new Yes album on iTunes - figures that Yes is touring with Styx, because the new Yes album has that same empty bombastic sound for which Styx is famous.

This reinforces the point that there's only one way out of the rock and roll business. Who knew when it started that rockers would still be doing it into their 60s and 70s? Almost by definition it was the yelp of restless youth. Hope I die before I get old, Pete Townshend wrote. Now Pete himself probably will die of old age -- on tour.

Sort of a change of subject -- have you been following the U.S. Open? It's been unbelievable. Rory McIlroy, a 22 year old from Northern Ireland, has been decimating the field as well as various Open records. He takes an 8 shot lead into today's final round. McIlroy isn't completely taking anyone by surprise -- he is ranked #8 in the world and has been predicted by more than one touring pro as one of the Next Big Things -- but this has been a staggering performance by someone his age. The announcers have been falling all over themselves praising the purity of his swing.

This has not been the typical U.S. Open. Usually the best golfers in the world struggle to break par and complain that the course is too tough. They are tearing it up this year, and McIlroy has been tearing the rest of them up. He is 14 under starting today, the most below par any golfer has been at any point in the 111 years of the U.S. Open. He is scoring even better than Tiger Woods in his historic 15 shot romp at Pebble Beach. He seems like a really great young guy, too. Yesterday they showed a clip of him in Haiti with earthquake victims. The smile on his face and moreso on the kids' faces were the kind that can't be faked or staged by a PR flack. There was another nice moment yesterday after he made a nice putt on the 9th hole. Walking to the next hole, he flipped the ball to a kid aged 10 or 12. Do you think that didn't make the kid's day? His summer? There is nothing about him not to like. The only blemish in his young career was blowing up in the final round of this year's Masters, going from 4 ahead to 10 behind.

Johnny Miller, the color commentator, made an interesting statement. He said the advantage here is with the young man. You don't overthink and you don't worry too much about consequences, as an older man will. You just step up and hit it -- one of the joys of watching McIlroy play is he doesn't dub around endlessly lining up his shot and analyzing it with his caddy -- and show the world what you can do. You go, kid.

UPDATE: Hre is another nice moment yesterday that showed golfers, by and large, are gentlemen. Sergio Garcia of Spain was playing Wild Gorilla Golf in apparent homage to the recently departed Seve Ballasteros. (After Seve, a noted wild driver and recovery artist, died Jack Nicklaus said, "He could get up and down in two from a trash can"). On one hole his drive hit a spectator and out of bounds, meaning he was going to be hitting three on a par four, over 200 yards from the pin. He autographed his glove, gave it to the guy, and proceeded to save par. If Seve had a view from the great beyond he was smiling broadly.