Real Tickets to Fake Led Zeppelin

I’ve always thought that if Led Zeppelin were to ever tour again I would jump at the first opportunity I got to snag a couple tickets to see them play. Well, On Friday, January 8th, Web Content Director Roy Harris and I went to see a Led Zeppelin tribute band by the name of Led Zeppelin II at the House of Blues in Chicago (I know…real original name there). Needless to say it wasn’t the same as seeing the real thing, but they were about as close to it as you could get. Even though two of the original members of Led Zeppelin are dead, if I saw the four guys in Led Zeppelin two walking down the street one day, I would have been convinced that John Paul Jones and John Bonham came back from the dead and joined Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for an evening stroll. They looked identical to the band members which I’m sure was due in large part to the wigs they were wearing. They played just as good as the real Led Zeppelin and if you closed your eyes you would have thought you were at a real Zeppelin concert. Nothing about their sound or the way they played would have made you think they were a cover band. So all in all, it was a fantastic concert and I was thoroughly surprised with their performance. My only complaint was the last 20 minutes of the concert. Jimmy Page was notorious for leaving the stage and coming back on with a violin bow and playing his guitar as if he were playing in an orchestra. This was cool for maybe 2 minutes, but “Jimmy Page” decided to drag it out for maybe 10 minutes. Then as if that wasn’t enough, he played a 10 minute solo where all he did was hit a single note and then would drag it out for 30 seconds, playing with the distortion and sound effects he had until the sound faded out. Then, he hit another note and did it again. For 10 minutes. Needless to say, it got old after awhile because it pretty much sound like nails on a chalkboard. Then, the drummer went on a 15 minute drum solo. Which, again, was cool for 5 minutes. So, we ended up leaving after the 15 minute part of the drum solo because after about a half hour of them just messing around it got to be too much. Other than that though, Led Zeppelin II was as good as it gets without seeing the real thing.

– Tom Moran
Assistant Program/News Director

Tech it Out by Chris P.

Hello all, and welcome to the first installment of Tech it Out, WLTL’s very own tech review blog. With the holidays rolling in, you’ve probably been bombarded with Christmas cards, holiday tunes, and above all…..commercials. With all these ads getting fed to you via tv, radio, or whatnot, how do you know what products to pick? How do you know which devices are champs and which are chumps? I’m here to help you out with that.
To kick it off, this first product goes to the ones with not enough outlets in their house. I present to you….. the Powermat. This will revolutionize the way you charge. The Powermat is a groundbreaking item in wireless charging technology. Powermat gives you the opportunity to charge up to three devices without the use of their cords and adapters. It is a sleek, plate -like platform with receivers to attach your devices to. Now your probably asking yourself, what devices can this thing charge? Well the real question you should be asking yourself is , what devices can’t this device charge? It can charge: iphones, cell phones, ipods, blackberries, bluetooths, gps systems, Nintendo DS, PSPs, and cameras.
And for the traveler in your household, there is the Portable Mat. This is the Powermat, only that it folds up to fit in your briefcase, backpack, or satchel. It also comes with a travel case with magnetic closure.
When I first saw this commercial I was hesitant to this do-it-all product, asking myself, can one mat really charge that much? But after trying it out first hand, my mind was just blown away. It only needs one power cord to operate and its ready to go. The white light at the bottom of the map indicates its charging, the mat emit’s a magnetic pull creating precise alignment and super fast charging speeds. The mat also emit’s a unique sound to assure you that your device is charging.
Right now you’re probably thinking, this is genius! It does everything, with no catch! Sorry to burst your bubble but there is a slight catch, for every device you charge you must purchase a receiver to attach to that device. The reason behind that is, the receiver has a magnetic receiver in it so it picks up the Powermat’s emissions to allow you that precise and quick charging speed that I was talking about earlier.
Looking at the big picture, the Powermat is a great stocking stuffer. Despite the extra purchase for device receivers, it provides you quick, easy, reliable, and efficient charging for all of your device charging needs and all this with only the use of one cord . Stay tuned for next week’s installment of Tech It Out, and make sure you check out all the other blogs at wltl.net

Lise is in London!

London is big. Fifth largest city in the world, in fact. We checked into our hotel on Monday evening in Lancaster Gate, right across the street from Central London’s large park, Hyde Park. We decided it would be a good idea to do an extremely touristy thing: go to Harrods Department Store. However, we greatly overestimated our map skills and ended up asking upwards of four Londoners for instructions to London’s largest department store…that is my parents asked directors while my brother and I stood as far away from them as possible and acted cool. In the end, we took like three double decker buses (very exciting) and finally got to this happening part of London. Once we got to the store itself, we road the escalators to the very top and gaped at the numerous floors of merchandise, including the “Pet Kingdom” where you could buy your dog a Chanel hoodie for a mere 350 pounds. What a deal. Not really, thats like really expensive.
After our visit to Harrods, we found a lovely Lebanese restaurant. Here, we learned the three let downs of restaurants in England: water is not free, refills aren’t free, and bread baskets aren’t free. Woe is me. But besides that, dinner was lovely, and we returned to our hotel from the tube (which we didn’t get lost on!). The next few days in London consisted of many museum visits, including the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, which had paintings and photographs from centuries ago to the modern day, as well as the incredible Westminster Abbey. Built in the eleventh century, this gorgeous church houses many memorials to kings, queens, poets, musicians. A very lovely historical aspect of England. We then walked along the river and saw many street performers and markets and went to the Globe Theatre, one of Shakespeare’s many historical theaters in London. Here we got a tour and learned all about the architecture of the open roofed building and the simplicity of the plays and performances that is kept alive today by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It has been a busy couple of days! Cheerio!

Sleeping in a Castle

Have you ever stayed in a castle? I hadn’t, before this weekend. I thought that, perhaps the jetlag was working up again and causing hallucinations this time, that I was imagining the sweeping stairwells and long, wide corridors, the “lift” (which was broken…so we carried our luggage up like 4 sets of stairs) and the fact that the outlets looked entirely different from the ones I was used to. The morning after the “Costume Ball”, I was awoken by the bells…which our room was right next to. I looked out the long window to see rolling green hills decorated with the surrounding gardens and stone statues surrounding the manor. This was going to be a good day. I could tell. After our mediocre breakfast (English cereal is so weird) we got a tour of the outside of the castle and then the State rooms, which, I was ecstatic to find out, were filled with secret passageways (just like in Hogwarts. Duh.). At twelve, we were picked up by my brother Doug’s British friend Matt’s father: we were to spend the afternoon at their lovely home in Stamford, just about twenty miles away from Harlaxton. Matt’s dad picked us up in a little Toyota station wagon, which is tiny compared to American cars. I got to sit in the little jumpseat in the trunk. And we were driving on the wrong side of the road through winding country hills at speeds way higher than I was used to. I think that I was about to go into cardiac arrest by the time we arrived in the little village outside of Stamford from pure overload of new things, but I was immediately sedated by the absolute loveliness and homeliness of this wonderful British family. After some introductions, we met Matt’s mom and brother, who is consequently my age. Cool. We all sat down in their living room and were offered drinks. The sixteen year old got a beer for himself. I got fruit juice. yet another huge difference between the British and the American cultures, so I found out.

Lunch was absolutely delicious–especially because we knew what the comparatively inedible food we would have been eating back at Harlaxton– and we finished up with some “pudding”. And I learned that the word pudding in England is an overall term used for all desserts. That sounded good to me. We got a drive-around tour of the near by Stamford (England’s finest town of stone) which was so awesome, with its little Christmas decorations, hilly cobblestone drives, like twenty Anglican churches and adorable townhouses. While we were driving, Peter (Matt’s younger brother) and I compared our school systems. He was thoroughly surprised by the size and scope of LT and the fact that we have TV and radio stations, so many sports and two campuses. But his school definitely had its pros, too. He went to a private all boys school which had a more concentrated curriculum (I think takes like three or four subjects at a time) with a looser schedule that has longer class periods but ample free and “game” time. After our enthralled conversations, we were dropped off back at the castle, where we walked packed up our stuff in preparation for our next journey…to London! Keep checking back to WLTL to read all about it.

Hello England!

WLTL’s own Lise Graham is travelling across the United Kingdom and is blogging about her experiences from WLTL.  Here is her first entry:

I have never been out of the country before. Unless, of course, you count my two Disney cruises through the Bahamas…but most of my time on those I spent on a boat. In the water. So, naturally, upon arriving in the UK to visit my brother, Doug with my parents and aunt, I experienced what one might refer to as, ‘a culture shock’. I had read up on England, trying to mentally equip myself of some of the differences I may experience, and I assumed it would be as it is in the movies: bustling London filled with chimney sweeps dancing on rooftops and the calm tranquil countryside with a bunch of cows and cockneys. I was mistaken. Not to say that that isn’t how it is. But I think I just underestimated the whole other-countries-exist-besides-the-U.S. thing. And, to put it frankly, I’ve discovered that I am not the best tourist ever. I mean, it is pretty blatantly obvious upon opening my mouth that I am an obnoxious, stupid American. The first time I heard a British accent too, I could hardly believe it. “You mean they actually talk like that?” I was in awe. And this is all before I even left the terminal. Anyways, so we found my brother (miraculously) in Heathrow Airport on Saturday morning, changed in our money for pounds (their money is purple and sparkly. I didn’t realize how incredibly boring U.S. currency is until now) and were on our way to the tube, which we took to Kings Cross where we caught a train to Grantham where my brother’s school is. 

But first, we had to endure the tube. Similar to the EL in Chicago, the tube is an underground train that makes many stops through out the metropolitan areas of London. Perhaps it was the jetlag setting in, but apparently I was talking quite loud on this ride, for the people next to me were definitely inching away. Oh, and when we got off, my brother gave me a talking to for using the word “soccer” instead of the word “football” when I was talking about LT’s recent state championship in the sport. I hope I didn’t offend anybody. Anyways, the rest of that little travel episode involved me forcing my family to follow me to Platform 9 3/4, which, for all you non Harry Potter fans, is the place where Harry and his Hogwarts friends got picked up by the Hogwarts Express which brought them to the wizarding town of Hogsmeade. Anywho, King’s Cross station had commemerated a little pretend Platform 9 3/4. It was the greatest. We proceded to get on our train (these trains are similar to the Chicago Metra, except prettier) where we got to sit first class. And from here, we traveled past many little adorable towns and villages and sheep for about an hour and a half, and one hundred and twenty miles later (fast train!) we got to Grantham England. Here, we took a cab to my brother’s castle of  a school called Harlaxton Manor, where we were to stay for the next few days. After checking in to our twelve foot high ceiling rooms, my brother and I went to a “Costume Ball” with his friends…strobe lights in the Great Hall. Now that is something you don’t see everyday. More to come from England! Cheerio!