The awful news of a Wal-Mart employee dying in a stampede of holiday shoppers last Friday on Long Island brought to my mind another similar event, one that killed many more people, and stunned the nation: the December 3rd, 1979 concert by The Who in Cincinnati, where eleven people died in a crush to get inside the city’s Riverfront Coliseum. It happened 29-years-ago today, and I was there.

The Who Concert Tragedy made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine in its January 24, 1980 issue. (Rolling Stone Magazine/January 24, 1980)

But I wasn’t part of the stampede, and I watched the entire concert not knowing anything had happened. So this is really a story, not about my witnessing first-hand rock music’s greatest tragedy, but about how there can be evidence of something unimaginable right in front of your eyes, without you being able to grasp until later what had taken place.

The second—make that the nanosecond—it was out of my mouth, I knew I was in for it. A few garbled syllables on Friday night’s newscast, and I was on my way to a little more internet fame that I would have preferred.

Here’s a link to it, but first, as they say on the late night talk shows, let me set up the clip. It was just before a commercial, and Kaity and I were reading the “coming up” tease. One of the items involved a non-fatal shooting on Long Island, in which the victim was working as a babysitter. Shooting. Babysitter. Roll the clip:

Hundreds of you came to my blog yesterday to check out the incredible downhill skateboarding video, “Claremont” (after the canyon in Berkeley, California where the ride took place). For details on who these maniacs are riding longboards at 60 MPH, and who made the film, check out yesterday’s post.

I’ve probably watched it five times now, and it puts me in a good mood with every viewing. I’m not sure why that is; my interest and experience in skateboarding is exactly zero. But there’s just something about watching these dudes take this death-defying ride (and laughing about it all the way) that just seemed the perfect antidote to this week of gloomy news. Not to mention that it’s a demonstration of incredible athletic skill. Read more after the jump.

As you can see, I’ve been learning some skate slang, inspired by this insane video you’re about to see. Its now starting to make its way across the web, after a couple of weeks on skateboarding websites. Before it goes totally viral, we wanted you to see a clip on the news tonight, then bring you here to watch the entire video.

Photo credit: Colin Blackshear

By way of introduction, I’ll only say this is Claremont Canyon near Berkeley, California. It was shot completely with a handheld HD video camera, with no special effects, as far as I can tell. Skip the first 2:20 if you want to get right to the action. Then watch one of the most intense and thrilling extreme sports videos you’ll ever see. And, yes, the dudes are actually passing the camera back and forth as they travel downhill at speeds near 60 MPH. Check it out, after the jump.

So I’m back. From vacation. Did you miss me, my tiny handful of blog readers? (How tiny? In one of my recent posts, three responses came back in from readers: one from my mother in Cincinnati, one from my cousin in Columbus, Ohio, and one from an aunt in Knoxville, Tennessee. Glad to know this blog is making such an impact here in the Tri-state area).

I’ll blog about something more serious later this week, but today I’m going to make you look at vacation pictures of my kids. We go each August to Madison, Connecticut, a pretty town on the shore about 20-minutes past New Haven. My six-year-old twins were determined to go fishing for the first time, so we went to a few different places; a wharf on the Long Island Sound, a state park. And lo and behold, they each caught one!

So without further ado, I present “Luke and Jamie on Summer Vacation.” Thank you for indulging me, dear readers. And if I may communicate directly with one of my fans: Hey, Mom... how cute are these grandsons of yours??!! Photos after the jump.