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The Major Labels!!!This album has some real gems on it. My personal faves are Velveteen Queen, a rich vocal power pop ballad, and Hummingbird, a sweet homage to Paul McCartney's song of a freakin lifetime Blackbird.
Blame me if you're walking around singing this stuff all day today. Go ahead/
permalink posted by cat 10:55 AM
RIP George Carlin How could I have let George's death come and go without a blognod? For shame.Good comedy is always about the deepest truth, for me, and George dug down past where most other fear to tread. Or just can't navigate. Anyway, Kevin Smith introduced me to another side of the amazing talent of George Carlin in his movie Jersey Girl. Jersey Girl is a wonderful movie, I don't care what y'all say about it. Direct your Bennifer hate back toward Gigli. George kicks ass in this film. And of course he's outrageously funny in Dogma, one of my fave flicks.
Kevin talks about George in the past tense here in this column in Newsweek.
You've been touched by an atheist (two of us, actually).
permalink posted by cat 10:20 AM
Awesome pop music is still getting produced!I totally love Bleu and Mike Viola. And they are collaborating in a band called The Major Labels and have a new record out! Yeah, I know, "record" is not what most people call it, but if you say it like "rekid" it sounds cool. So these cats' new rekid is the bomb diggity. I just love the shiny pop sound, and the great vocals, and the cheeky lyrical style.
Listening to: The Major Labels Reading: Omnivore's Dilemma Weather: killer, 65 I can't remember the order, but I discovered Bleu when he played at the Met Theatre in Motown supporting The Argument, one of my favorite motown bands of the last 20 years. And I discovered Mike Viola as the band the Candybutchers when Adam Curry played him on the Daily Source Code a few years ago. I actually emailed Arg frontman Scott when I noticed that both he and Mike had been playing solo sets at the Living Room in NYC, and suggested if he hadn't already checked him out he might enjoy giving him a try. Scott e'd back, they already knew each other. This is all cat's favorite flavor.
This is cleanly-produced pop that immediately comes off both fresh and familiar. These guys grew up on Beatles and ELO and zillions of other fine pop, and those influences are in virtually every note. They're also smart, way beyond the usual song about a girl crap that I find so tedious. I think both these guys understand some of the fundamental qualities and properties of one of my favorite instruments, too, the guitar. Not virtuosic, but great players in unique ways. The guitar is center stage next to the vocals and harmonic structures of these groovy tunes.
I just downloaded their album, sweet. And it's a "pay what you want" model, ala Magnatune (do they still do it that way?). Instead of trying to squelch downloads and sharing and trying to squeeze every penny out of pressed CD's this approach is basically spreading the music as much as possible. Hoping your current fans want to pay and support you, and hoping the untethered digital downloading gains you new fans, and hoping all these fans buy tshirts and other merch and pay for tix to live shows. And perhaps get you a movie soundtrack deal or something. There might be some ad revenue in here somewhere, too. I think that's the theory. And it seems pretty sound to me. Cuts out lotsa middlemen, trades on the currency of the new media revolution, and gives way more folks instant opportunity to like or dislike your wares.
So dig the Major Labels. If you want.
permalink posted by cat 7:33 AM
solstice in Alaska, Terry Gross blows it on Mike Myers, screw iTunes buy DRM-free mp3s on AmazonI'm searching for sheet music for various Led Zep, Beatles, Nirvana, etc. by the generically-named String Quartet on Vitamin Records. They do these tribute albums to various classic rock bands, and I've been listening to several of their individual tunes on YouTube, but can't seem to locate the sheet music. I heard a string quartet (probably them) doing Dazed and Confused in the background of a recent This American Life episode, and got the jones to form a classic rock string quartet. Wedding reception music for aging hipsters or something. Anyhoo, after about 45 minutes of fruitless surfing I give up on trying to buy books of their tunes, so please hook me up if you have a lead on it. I did find Mona Lisa Sound's page with sheets for some individual tunes, but not only are they pricey (like $25 a tune), but many I wanted are not there like Nirvana and Soundgarden and Red Hot Chilis.
Listening to: Lines On My Face, Frampton, Live in Detroit Reading: Omnivore's Dilemma Weather: 78, smashing Ed Peirce called me from Sterling, Alaska where he's on a movie shoot. Must be a religious thing because he kept saying "it's not a religious thing." Heheh. He also cracked me up talking about wherever the hell it is that Bush wants to drill for oil, saying it's the ugliest place on earth and the media lies and shows footage of frolicking creatures in the tundra or something. As if it's OK to drill since it's not pretty. Humans can be so silly. But he seems to be enjoying the ride, even though it's like 100 miles to a freakin store. I think he said he'll be there for a month or so. I can't wait to see the film and the outtakes, too.
Did you hear the Fresh Air recent interview with Mike Myers? Surprisingly lousy job by Terry Gross, and somewhat surprisingly interesting insights by Mike. I'm a Terry Gross fan, I love the show, and I usually dig her relaxed but prepared interview style. But I really think she screwed the pooch on this one. She didn't seem to actually listen to any of Mike's answers to her q's. He had some pretty heartfelt replies about his relationship with his dad, the impact his dad's death had on his psyche and on his comedy, interesting parallels her sees between the values of comedy and philosophy and spirituality, and whatnot. And Terry's next question so often clearly indicated she hadn't heard what the guy just said, or she wouldn't have asked that stupid next q on her script. Not just once, over and over. Lucky it was radio, cuz I figure Mike's face got a bit quizzical after a while.
As if the version of Lines On My Face from Frampton Comes Alive wasn't stellar enough for ya, try this absolutely delicious rendition from Live from Detroit. He's still got it, even if the golden mane's gone. I bought it DRM-free through Amazon for 99 cents, too. Hell yes. I really like the iTunes GUI but I can't stand them sticking it to you by tying up the mp3's you pay good money for from them, just to have buy them again for another device or if you have a hard drive crash or something (and who hasn't?). Fuckers. That just ain't right. I'm giving my 99 centses to amazon from now on. Once you buy the track, it's yours to put on all your devices, burn, whateveh.
I heard a great live blues show the other night in Second Life. His first name was Forsythe, and I'm pretty sure it's this guy. I haven't been in SL for quite a while, and so often I'm hard on the live performers in there, but this cat was totally in the pocket. If you're in SL look me up, I'm justpeace mandelbrot.
permalink posted by cat 12:55 PM
1952 Vincent Black LightningWhat a precipitous change in the weather. A very cool spring with alternating rain and low humidity, nights in the 40's, and then bam it's 90 and muggy and not much below 70 at night. No a/c at my casa, except for the one window unit I put in my bedroom window every 3 or 4 years during the dogdays of August. But I wussed out and put that thing in my window a couple days ago. It'll come back out after this wicked spell. It was 90 on my porch at some point in each of the past 2 days, that's extremely rare.
Listening to: 52 Vincent, versions by Del McCoury, Richard Thompson, others Reading: Omnivore's Dilemma Weather: already 75, not even 8am yet Enough bitching about the unmoveable, let's move this thing along. So who wrote the bluegrass murder ballad 1952 Vincent Black Lightning? This has been my brewing obsession since I got home from Delfest. Del McCoury's fine band of coat and tie country gentlemen played it at the festival and it stunned me. Such a cool song. Just the title along is frickin cooler than . . . I don't even know, it's so damn cool. It's got all the elements that grab you and keep you hanging on: starts out with a dialogue between Red Molly and James about a sexy motorcycle, killer one liners like "red hair and black leather, my favorite color scheme," those get-your-shit-together extra beats and measures that good bluegrassers can all do without counting, a bit of high lonesome in the melody including a very interesting emphasis on the 4th scale degree even over the tonic chord, a minor chord right when you want one, and of course, a bloody death and a dying wish. Frickin sweet! Here's a link to the lyrics: www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/vincentb.htm
You'll find plenty of covers of it on YouTube and Amazon and whatnot. [sidenote: one pretty sorry version by a female prompted a commentor to write: "Thompson had a baby with Natalie Merchant and they abandoned it in the Southern states." Um, ouch.] Many versions are Richard Thompson, and that is who Harry Fox Agency lists as the author. HFA is my most reliable source for who wrote any given tune, since they are the presumptive licenser for published music. But I think their database on older stuff is mostly taken from liner notes and whatnot, which is not necessarily definitive. But the best we got for most stuff. So HFA says Richard Thompson wrote it. Certainly seems more likely than Del McCoury, since the Vincent as well as most of the other bikes mentioned in the lyric are British. I guess since it's about a 1952 bike it can't be a very old song, it just has that old folksong flavor to it.
So I'm still under the Delfest spell. I've been posting a bunch of video I shot on my little digi still camera, and pix as well , downloading torrents of the shows (can't find most of the third day sets, dangit) and generally basking in the afterglow of a tremendous weekend. I promised a top ten list, so here we go:
Top Ten Things that Totally Rocked about the DelFest08:
10. The Weather. Absolutely spectacular. Not a drop of rain, but low humidity sunshine that let you break a sweat just when you were dancing. So nice to camp when there's no rain or wicked heat.
9. Beautiful Campsite Neighbors. I used my usual method for choosing a spot to camp: look for flat, grassy, and next to dudes with long beards. Generally I'm quite likely to get along with dudes with really bushy or long beards. Analyze however you want, it damn sure worked this time. We got the exquisite pleasure of living next to Obe and TP who cooked us elk burgers and fresh-picked shiitakes, and serenaded us with guitars and mando, passed us the peach moonshine, and we just fell in love with them. Neighbors just over a bit and across the way were wonderful, Terry and Corki, Logan and Anna, all friendly and shared music and groove all weekend. I miss them.
8., 7., and 6. Location, Location, Location. Not cheating on my list here, seriously, the location was magnificent. A mere hour and change away, for starters, ya got ta love not having to battle hours of Memorial Day traffic to go to or come home from your festy adventure. And this place was just beautiful. A couple miles below Cumberland, right between the Potomac River and a railroad track (nice train whistle for your alarm clock), with steep cliffs and rocky outcroppings just across the river. So steep people actually hangglide off them. And everything was that fresh yellowgreen of spring. Camp right by your car, keeps your clothes dry from the morning dew. Nice little stream to cross, trees for shade. A beautiful old grandstand around the track circa 1930. Flat, accessible for people who use wheelchairs. I miss it.
5. Groovy Festers. A really friendly collection, lots of families, all kinds of grassers young and old and in-between. I didn't witness a single episode of festy bullshit, like uberdrunken yelling or jostling or grievous loudness during a song. Lovely folks.
4. Righteous Security. Though the sign said you can't bring alcohol in, as long as it was not in glass you could stroll right through with your open can of Yuengling or whatever and get no hassles. You can carry a sixpack, no worries. Mellow and sweet, just like I like'em.
3. Flushable Toilets and Showers. That's right, plumbing. I did not set foot in a portapotty all weekend! Though they were a conveniently located option throughout the grounds, too. A mostly hot shower the morning after a sweaty footstomping jamgrass night, priceless. Oh, and combining 3. with 5., and sorry if it's TMI, but as I sat on the shitter Saturday morning I realized this particular stall was out of toilet paper. The height of misery. So I say "uh, anybody got any toilet paper to share, I'm out in here" and 3, yes I said 3 different people handed me under fists full of paper. Can you imagine? For real.
2. Awesome Vendors. Cool jewelry, clothing, art, other stuff, no 2 vendors selling even similar stuff, and same with the food vendors. There was sushi, wraps, pizza, all kinda food, and the coffee was Fair Trade delicious, dark, and strong. They even gave me a discount for bringing my own mug, only charge me a buck and a half for a big one. And the draft beer was $3 a cup! Dude, I've paid more than that in a bar with nasty tap hygiene. And they even had a microbrewed IPA for a mere $4. Take a minute, I know you need one.
1. Hot Players and Killer Sound. One of the main diffs between grass and oldtime is the hotness of the pickers. These bands were just loaded with smokin players, fiddles, guitar, mandos, pedal steel, dobro, banjo, all that. Just when you thought you'd heard the tastiest fiddle here'd come an even smoother one. And the sound system and engineers were totally top notch. If you know me you know I bitch high long and hard about why deaf people like to become soundmen, and these guys were the true exception. And acoustic instruments are the hardest stuff to do sound reinforcement for. I heard one squeal all weekend, one. Band after band, everything from totally unplugged in front of one fat condensor mic to fully plugged with a strip of pedals, and these guys made them all sound great. I never bitched about too much or too little or too flabby bass all weekend. That has never happened in history, alert the media. Every instrument was EQ'd clean and properly trimmed and nestled right in the mix. I'm getting choked up just remembering, it was such a rare beauty. And Oliver Craven, the fiddle/guitar/mando player for Adrienne Young's band, is my find of the fest. Totally smooth and groovin fiddle and mando especially, he's shiney and young and you will hear about him long after he's left the Adrienne young band.
permalink posted by cat 7:53 AM
Do you mind if I put a link to your page on mine? Don't be shy, just tell me.
free movies at the Warner this summer!Sweet. The old deco theatre www.thewarnertheatre.com (site is down at the time of this post) on High Street in Motown is showing family movies at free showings on Sunday afternoons and Monday evening this summer. The flyer I got didn't list the actual time of the free showings, but apparently you just show up and get in fo free, can I get a hell yeah? Here's the sched:
- • June 8-9: Antz PG
- • June 15-16: Evan Almighty PG
- • June 22-23: Flushed Away PG
- • June 29-30: Hook PG
- • July 6-7: Bee Movie PG
- • July 13-14: Rug Rats G
- • July 20-21: Sponge Bob PG
- • July 27-28: Madagascar PG
- • August 3-4: Shrek PG
- • August 10-11: Over the Hedge PG
- • August 17-18: Ice Age PG
- • August 24-25: The Simpsons Movie PG13
Now that we've discussed the grooviness let's get to the ungrooviness, just for clarity and completeness. The Warner, though a righteous old movie palace, has extremely shitty projectors and sound systems. It was chopped into a triplex umpteen gazillion years ago, and the upstairs cinema in particular is really dreadful quality. I almost got up and walked out of the third LOTR movie there, seeing that the dialogue was nearly incomprehensible and the lower left 40% of the screen was distorted and fuzzy. Not cool, people, not cool. Oh, and speaking of cool, there's no heat in the building, or if there is, they choose not to ever turn it on because I literally saw my breath in a downstairs showing of Dreamcatcher one December evening.
I'm down with the cause of independent cinema, indeed. And these guys do show some films that I can't see anywhere else nearby (Sicko, Butterfly and the Diving Bell, Rocky Horror). And it's a splendid old palace, right here in walkable downtown motown. And the people who work there are generally very cool. And the popcorn's pretty good and not too expensive. But any film that has a great soundtrack, or you're seeing for the visual beauty, don't see at the Warner. Take the kids to see Shrek there instead.
permalink posted by cat 4:08 PM
we are monkeys with money and guns Overheard on Clickable Culture, Tom Waits tells it like it is: Q: What’s wrong with the world? A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley’s dog made 12 million last year… and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It’s just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.
permalink posted by cat 9:02 AM
delfest! wear the fox hat!I'm working on a Top 10 List for why the Delfest was the best freakin festival ever. Tons o'pix, vids, and overheard at the delfests coming up.
Listening to: Nashville Cats, Del McCoury, in my head Reading: Omnivore's Dilemma Weather: freakin stellar, 60, sunny, high pressure
permalink posted by cat 9:38 AM
live from WaverlyI'm chillin on the couch with Connie's laptop. I am presenting a workshop today on medical advance directives at the senior center in St Marys, so I came down last night and crashed with my friends Connie and Stacy in Waverly.
Listening to: dogs whine Reading: newspapers Weather: rainy, cool, Londony St Marys and Waverly are little river towns along Rt 2. Connie and Stacy's righteous old house is right on the mighty Ohio, freakin beachfront, yo. They have gargantuan maples all around the house, certainly over 100 yrs old. They create a beautiful green canopy this time of year. It's so gorgeous here.
Well, I've been avoiding my blog in part because my politics rants are just not that inciteful, and that's what's been on my mind lately. Suffice it to say I'm embarrassed to be from a state where in many counties less than 10% of the registered dems voted for the presumptive candidate because they're a bunch of racist hillbillies. That just makes me even gladder at the thought of a black dude waking up in the Whitey White House in January.
State and local primaries were mostly loserville for me. A few of my favorite local candidates had victories, but many of my people went down in flames, dangit. But I still get a little charge out of the act of casting my ballot. Democracy is not entirely dead.
How about the natural disasters in Myanmar and China? I keep wondering how can I make a little contribution to help desperate survivors in those truly undemocratic corners of the planet? I don't have scads to give, but I want my bit to actually do some good for some needy individual, not get skimmed off by some corrupt soldier or bureaucrat. Ideas?
I got to enjoy the absolute pleasure of sharing some shrimp on the barbie and fresh cherry salsa and lively conversation and guitar-smelling with my pals last evening. Lucky me. Chinese mothers were weeping over dead children buried under piles of rubble while I lived the sweet life. My great fortune is so mysterious to me sometimes. Why did I get born into this place and time? Why did my absolutely groovy collection of kind, creative, smart, generous, and loyal friends find their way to me? Willie said we were passing around my sexy new rosewood Taylor like a beloved new baby in the family. So right. Everybody wants a chance to hold it. Oooh, it smells so good. Calls to Donnie, cat's in town with the new baby, ya gotta come see.
School is winding down for Liv, the big AP tests are over, SAT coming up in a few weeks, the seniors will be gone soon and her classes will be mostly empty. She's thinking about colleges. My baby will be nearly out the door this time next year. It's really bittersweet, cat says tritely, since it rocks to see the amazing adult she is becoming, but she is the centerpiece of my every day and there will be a big hole there when she's on her own.
Well Oprah and Phil (my two giant gallstones) have been quite well-behaved and quiet since I learned of their existence and what riles them up. Basically dairy products and eggs are complete off my menu for perhaps ever. I've successfully eaten a little bit of cheese, but looking back I can remember some viscious belly aches that I now figure were those two raising hell, and many of them were related to fluid milk or cream in my giant glass of iced coffee, or eggs. I ate two boiled egg whites the other day for a test and got that tell-tale little nag in the belly, which fortunately subsided shortly and wasn't terribly painful. So now I know.
Plant fats don't seem to be much of a problem, I ate a pretty big plate of Chinese take-out last week with no ill effects. I've been reading a lot about gall bladder/liver/pancreas health and I've found: 1) there's a ton of conflicting info, even from credible medical sites, 2) medicine seems to have given up learning much about gall bladder disease prevention and rememdy because they are just too easy and profitable to laparoscopically snip out, and 3) I'm a member of the 5 F gall bladder club (fat, forty, female, fair, and flatulent). That last bit cracked me up when I read it, mainly cuz it's so damn true, like all the best comedy. But seriously, I have talked to so many women since I found out about this shit who have asked me my age, and then responded with "oh no, the mystical age of 42 is when you must sacrifice your gall bladder to the scalpel gods." Or something like that. Scads of women in their 40's are gall bladder-free, apparently.
But here's the thing: I said it before but it bears repeating, I'm pretty sure I do not generally have any spare parts. Spare tire around the middle, but I made that myself. I'm talking about the cogs in this machine, I think the machine is not designed to work right without any of them. It might be able to limp along with one or another, but there is no actually useless organ up in this bitch. Y'all just may not know the uses.
And herein lies the rub. Docs snip out so many gall bladders they no longer care to learn more about their functions. I'm here to say that I believe whatever we do to damage or harm our gall bladders will also harm our livers once the gall bladder is gone. So yeah, you can eat all the eggs you want without bellyaches after you yank this thing out, but you are really taxing your liver, which no longer has a little cauldron to concentrate it's main product: bile anymore. I'll spare you my detailed medical theories for now, but suffice it to say that Oprah and Phil will likely live safely in my gullet for a long time to come. And if I evict them it will probably be through a juice flush rather than surgery of any sort. That's the way I'm seeing it for now, anyway.
A'ight, time to get my head on straight for the day. It's pickin and grinning Friday at the senior center, so maybe I'll get to show off the new baby in the family to some oldtime banjo players down in St Marys today.
permalink posted by cat 8:51 AM
I'm voting for Professor Bob
permalink posted by cat 12:11 PM
the horses are backI guess the meadow greened up enough for the horses to come back to graze. I noticed them at the top of the hill as I drove across the bridge on the way to my driveway yesterday after work. The evidence of spring is everywhere now, the intoxicating smell of lilacs and whatnot even made it up to my 5th story office windows yesterday, edging out the wafting wok and french fry oils from High Street. My yard has seas of deep purple violets highlighted with bright yellow dandelions. Some areas more than ready to be cut, but others still greening up.
Listening to: Falling or Flying, Grace Potter Reading: haven't decided yet Weather: 52, gorgeous You got to love the early blossoms of spring, the crocuses, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and other bulbs, the forsythia and other shrubs, the cherry, crabapple, dogwood and other flowering trees. They just crank out flowers before they even produce foliage, and you haven't done squat in the garden yet this year to get any of it. You're still rubbing your eyes waking up from your long winter hibernation. All this stuff is the fruit of either somebody's labors in previous years, or kind mother nature giving it away for free.
Well last weekend, mid-belly ache, I got to help out on a shoot for a political commercial. It was an actual film camera shoot. Extremely cool. The dolly was this amazing crablike collection of machined steel, all kinds of gears and threads and hunks of heavy metal. It was like those transformer robot toys, just take on and off various pieces of equipment, from zillion dollar cameras to drumthrone-size seats, then spin it, turn it, roll on it, ride it around the track you've assembled around your subject, and shoot your masterpiece. Light tweaks, filters, focus pulls, directing calls, props, ambient sound catching, roll camera, action, and 5 hours later you have 6 seconds of exposed film. You hope, cuz this ain't digi, you have to send to be processed and hope what comes back is what you thought you were shooting. We have become so jaded by extremely high production quality, even in our toothpaste commercials, that you can't settle for anything less and hope to have impact.
Time to get to all the neglected housework from last weekend, and the accumulated more from this week, oy. Makes a tent seem like a particularly attractive place to live, especially this time of year. Oh, and gather and pack my gear for show tonight. I'm playing a benefit for RDVIC at 5p in Morgantown with my brand new tasty guitar. Sweet!
permalink posted by cat 7:15 AM
dig this
permalink posted by cat 3:33 PM
glad I got a second opinionI had an intermittent wicked bellyache from last Wednesday through Sunday night. I couldn't sleep for shit Sat or Sun night, so I headed to an urgent care clinic Mon morning for some diagnosis & relief. Dang them. they didnt open till 9a. so I headed to the ER at Ruby.
Listening to: that old Wings Ole jingle Reading: finished Into The Wild Weather: 55, lovely Thus began the Odyssey. long story short I have 2 gnarly gall stones. the 2 docs in ER, after nearly 5 hours of other people alternately poking, prodding, and ignoring me, informed me I was heading upstairs to surgery too removal of the stoney non-essential organ. I explained that my kid was expecting to be picked up from school in about 20 minutes so unless they were exploding stones they would need to stay in there at least another hour or 2. IOW you ain't the boss of me.
So is it such an emergency I cant go pick up my kid? Well your gall bladder is not going to yet any better . . .that is not answering my q. Youll have to sign out AMA if you want to leave. Please pass the pen.
I made an appointment for a surgical consult at the POC for 9:3Oa the next day. the I surgeons scratched their reads and explained I've probably had these stones 20 years and could have them 2O more it I dont want surgery. And I dont. they said it might not solve my belly ache any way because it was probably a reflux thing, since I have a hiatal hernia. Go home. Take OTC Zantac. Reduce dietary fats to relax the gall bladder.
Dude. Those ER does were about to slice me open. the one doc even threateningly said it could perf, you get perotinitis and die if you dont remove it.
Id rather just skip the salad dressing and keep all my guts. I'm pretty sure I dont actually have any spare parts. Except these last 3 wisdom teeth.
permalink posted by cat 5:58 AM
alan cheers the 'eers in the big dance
permalink posted by cat 8:42 AM
look!
permalink posted by cat 8:42 AM
