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Well, the days of a Macworld Expo on the East Coast are apparently over. Nearly three years after IDG World Expo revealed plans to move the East Coast edition of its Macworld event back to Boston, the company has decided to cancel Macworld Boston entirely and focus on a single annual expo in San Francisco.

I was actually hoping to go to Macworld Boston in 2006, but I guess that won’t be happening now. I spent one day in Boston for Macworld in 1997 — the year of the infamous Bill Gates appearance via satellite (yikes!) and Microsoft’s $150 million investment in Apple. The next year, the East Coast Macworld Expo moved to New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center, where it remained through 2003. IDG World Expo announced in October 2002 that the East Coast Macworld Expo would return to Boston for 2004.

I went up to a place called Blaggard’s Pub on West 38th Street (between 5th and 6th avenues) in New York City on Thursday night to see a friend and former music collaborator, Christian Beach perform.

As usual, the two of us in close proximity led to technical problems. This time, it took a near MacGyver-like improvisation to get Christian’s Yamaha digital piano to come through the sound board. Although they finally got it working, there was some popping going on, especially when Christian was playing the lower end of the keyboard. Plus, the PA system wasn’t the greatest. But Christian’s musicianship overcame all that…and the way-too-talkative crowd hanging out at the bar.

While Christian was performing, I took some rather crappy photos, which you can see here. Actually, the picture above was taken while they were trying to get the keyboard situation straightened out. Somehow, I managed to get this weird “out of body” thing going on…if you look at Christian’s face, you can see a double image of it blending into the brick wall in the background.

In terms only Christian would understand, I wonder if perhaps it isn’t a double image of his face, but rather the ghost of Elvis Presley causing the glitches…”The King” may be haunting us from beyond for stealing his “sound FXXXXXX.”

; )

Well, yours truly misplaced another electronic gadget. This time, it was my digital camera.

I’m not sure how I did it, but apparently I left my camera — in its case — in the parking lot of my apartment complex when I got home from work Monday evening. My division at work had an off-campus, staff retreat Tuesday and I wanted to bring my camera, but I couldn’t find it. I figured I didn’t look hard enough and assumed it would be hiding on me somewhere in my dwelling. However, it was nowhere to be found when I looked again Tuesday evening. My last hope was that it was on my desk in my office at work.

I walked into the office this morning and looked around…not there. I talked to our graphic design person with whom I share an office and said, “Well, it looks like I lost my camera…it’s not in my apartment, my car or here.” Just then, I noticed my voicemail light was on. I check it…and a woman’s voice is heard on the message saying, “Brian Kelley, I think I have something that belongs to you. You had some business cards with it so I figured I would give you a call and let you know you can come get it whenever you can.”

It was my camera…found and safeguarded by strangers who live in my complex. The funny thing, though, is that there were no business cards in my camera case until the morning of Sept. 6. I put a few cards in my camera case for my trip up to NYC to see Ben Folds at the SoHo Apple Store…just in case I was able to slip one to Ben or some other NYC power broker (hey, you never know).

So if I hadn’t put the cards in the case that less than a week before I lost the camera, who knows what would have happened to it. In any event, I picked up the camera from these fine folks in my complex when I got home from work tonight and offered them $50 as a reward for finding and returning it to me. They refused the money and simply handed the camera to me.

I am one of the most cynical people in the world, but it’s nice to know there are still honest and decent people left in the world.

Ben Folds played a special hour-long set at the SoHo Apple Store in New York City on Tuesday. I made arrangements to meet up with Katie, but the full parking lot at the Hamilton (NJ) train station threatened to thwart those plans. However, after missing the 12:06 p.m. train out of Hamilton, I decided to just drive up to Hoboken, park there and take a PATH train to the World Trade Center station. From there, it was a quick trip on the E train to Spring Street, followed by a quick six-block walk to the Apple Store.

Since Katie was already there, I just “merged” — as opposed to “cut” — into the line with her. We got our wristbands for entry and Katie was smart enough to “buy” a spot on the line from some guys who were going to be staying there by purchasing them a hot dog and four bottles of waters from a nearby cart.

So Katie and I spent a couple of hours wandering around NYC and returned to the Apple Store around 5:30 p.m. Katie’s purchase worked out perfectly…the spot she bought us wound up putting us in the last row of seats in the store’s upstairs theater section. Normally, workshops and presentations about Apple and third-party products take place in this area. This night, a Baldwin baby grand piano, a drum set and a bass guitar filled the space.

Ben and his new bandmates were great, as usual. It was such an intimate performance…although it was a bit odd watching a Ben Folds performance in a place where people were buying PowerBooks and iPods downstairs.

Anyway, I took some pictures, which you will see below. The last one is of a box that we saw on the subway. It is upside down, but the box reads “bulk fingers.” Katie thought it would make for an interesting photo so I took one.

For the first time in a few weeks, I’m going to a concert. This time, it’s the Philly tandem of Todd Rundgren and Hall & Oates at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. Now, I bought these tickets months ago because Tears for Fears were the original co-headliners with H & O. However, TFF dropped out and Todd replaced Roland & Curt on the bill, which was fine with me.

Todd (OK…he’s actually from Upper Darby, PA…it’s close enough to Philly) is one of my earliest musical heros and I consider songs like “Hello It’s Me” and “I Saw the Light” from the classic 1972 “Something/Anything” LP as links between my childhood — when I would hear the songs constantly on the radio — and emotions I would feel later in life.

Hall & Oates? Well, I liked them back in the day, but not so much now. If they play “the hits,” as my friend Katie likes to say, it will be fun. I don’t want to hear an hour or so of stuff from their latest CD. Play “Rich Girl,” “You Make My Dreams,” and “Private Eyes” and I’ll be happy.

Speaking of being happy, I would be if Todd could break out “Secret Society” tonight. I just love that song.

Well, it looks like Hurricane Katrina is going to devastate New Orleans. I know there are some people who don’t have the means to evacuate because of age, health, lack of transportation, etc. However, if they want to guarantee their survival, they really need to find some way to get out of New Orleans because it is not going to be pretty once Katrina hits.

What also isn’t pretty are these weekend anchors on CNN, FOX News, etc. I swear the guy at the anchor desk on CNN started screaming like Loud Larry from Dilbert a few minutes ago. And somebody on FOX News just blamed the Democrats for Hurricane Katrina…OK…that didn’t happen…yet.

Meanwhile, I think I saw people in the background on The Weather Channel celebrating that people are actually watching them (yeah, that also didn’t happen).

Really, though, I better not see one reporter in New Orleans tomorrow holding on for dear life as the water rushes into the city. I know this is news and I understand that this event will need to be documented, but I don’t need a reporter on the scene to tell me that New Orleans is getting hammered. Just set up a few cameras, have them send live feeds back to the network and use that footage for as long as it lasts.

Here is the 5-day projected path of Katrina from the NOAA’s National Hurricane Center:

OK…I know my iPod is in its twilight years (i.e., 2 years old) and it has done some strange things in the past. However, I’m not sure what it is trying to tell me with its latest quirk.

I could be listening to any song in any playlist, or — as I just found out — not playing anything, and my iPod will suddenly switch to a random selection from my playlist of songs from the musical “Rent.”

I am trying to tell myself that some “Rentheads,” in an attempt to promote the film adaptation of the musical coming out later this year, somehow hacked the latest iPod update and attached some code so that iPods will jump to songs from “Rent,” if they exist on any given iPod.

Yes, I know this isn’t the case…but I am just trying provide myself with some kind of rational explanation…even if it doesn’t make sense…you know…kind of like religion.

Ooh, I just know I’m going to regret writing that.

This is priceless. I don’t even need to say anything about this picture…it pretty much says for itself all you need to know about “Red Staters”…and fans of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Of course, the guy could be referring to the family of former Phillies minor leaguer Javon Moran.

The London Zoo has opened a new exhibit…which, as you can see in the image to your right, features humans.

According to this AFP story, “The ‘Human Zoo’ is intended to show the basic nature of human beings as they frolic throughout the August bank holiday weekend.”

OK…maybe my dream of someday moving to London isn’t the greatest idea.

I wonder if Larry Kittkill from The Simpsons is behind all of this.