Tag: Music and Sound

Chicky’s Last Waltz

I’ve told you before how much I like going to Chicky’s in Portland, Maine but sadly Chicky’s is no more. My buddy Tom, who played the piano at this dear departed joint, sent an email about a benefit that is being held for the staff who have been left high and dry by the sudden absence of the equipment:

Okay, so as to go out with a bang, and not a whimper, a bunch of us regulars that performed at Chickys have put together a Last Waltz benefit show. Proceeds to help out the excellent staff of waiters and waitresses, cooks, and bartenders who found themselves suddenly jobless.

Where: The Gold Room – 512 Warren Avenue.

When: Sunday June 10 from Noon to 7PM.

How much: 10 measly stinkin’ bucks! Come on! Really, all this music for $10 !?! Sheesh.

Tickets available at Buckdancers Choice Music
at the Union Station Shopping Center on St. John Street, or at the Gold Room, 512 Warren Avenue.

Who:
The Line-up:

12pm – Douce. This will be the LAST CHANCE to see Cajun fiddler/accordionist MATTHEW DOUCET before he heads back to Louisiana. Reason enough to come to the show.

1pm – The Bourbonaires (with Tom W. on accordion & slide guitar). Chicky’s co-owners Blake Smithson and Chicky Stoltz play in this band, so it’s a great time to stop buy and tell them thanks for the great food and tunes for the past 3 years.

2pm – Sean Mencher Combo. Sean has probably forgotten more guitar riffs than most of us will learn. I can’t say enough about him, he is one of my favorite guitarists.

3 pm – The Guv’nors. Beatles/British Invasion tribute with members of The McCarthys, Cattle Call, Diesel Doug and the LHT, and the Saccarappa Boys.

4pm – Tone Kings. Electrified Blues, R&B, and Funk featuring some of New England’s best musicians.

5pm – Travis James Humphrey
Bakersfield-style country by way of rural Maine.

6pm – Chipped Enamel. Folk music of the people.

I am too far away and can’t make it. But if you are in New England, you could go. Take pictures. Dance with Tom.

Ahoy! Pirate Radio Ahead!

US based web radio is about to get a massive hit and it will be interesting to watch how it plays out:

The new fees, which will apply until 2010, will charge a flat fee per-song, per-user in addition to a $500 fee for every channel owned by a station. Fees will increase every year until 2010. Radio stations with multiple channels, such as NPR, would be charged thousands of dollars, which they claim will cripple them. Previously, stations paid an annual fee plus 12% of their profits. The fees will start on 15 May 2007 and will be collected retrospectively for 2006. Webcasters will be allowed to calculate retrospective payments by averaging listening hours.

My first reaction is to call NCPR and make sure I pay my fair share. That one station is the main source of music in my life now. I rarely by CDs anymore as I have about 400 plus 150 lps and cassettes and 45s and I pretty much never get around to using them as much as I might – though I have to admit the vinyl did spin last Friday night. [Ed.: T-Rex was right – we were born to boogie.] But what of the amateur hobbyists like Darcey’s Friday Night Blues and Beer or Steven’s Acts of Volition Radio? Sure these are both Canadian but how and when will a fee like this apply? How can I pay it when it does arise.

Don’t get me wrong. I think there should be a fee. Sadly, there were plans to have nice and useful hidden fees attached to purchases of media of one sort or another but the hyper-libertarians and whacko self-proclaimed “user rights” advocates got to that idea and gave it the boot – my nickles! my dimes!!! they shouted so that a direct fee structure will be imposed granting people the right to be coat tail on both the artists and the medium that provide the access to the good stuff. So now we are stuck with the wrong end of the pipe holding the bag and a reasonable likelihood that the access to intelligently selected music on the web will dry up.

How should we pay the piper anyway?

Friday The First Chat Of 2007

Like you, I measure out the days in Friday chats now. If I can just make it to Friday chat without emptying another jar of ginger marmalade, I say to my self, I will be OK.

  • The first group project is going well. I think this one is a high level starter discussion. Next I am going to post one about what to do with the Senate…maybe. Wait for it, though. Don’t take off on the topic in these comments. I think I will propose one every Monday leading up to the next election. The rules are basic. Very strict focus and no debate. If I need to spin out a debate, I can add that in another post later in the week once the ground work is established. I will create a category for group projects and introduce them with the prefix “GP:”.

  • The Randy Johnson experiment is over. The Red Sox’s chance for the pennant look better and better for 2007.
    • Hmmm…I wonder why their work may get interrupted?

    UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted.

    One personal guideline I have for my universe: no dog-boys.

  • Syracuse lost to Pitt last night in basketball. Watched it on the best spent 25 bucks a month I have ever spent sports cable TV package. We seldom consider what a boon and blessing premium package cable TV is. Anyway, Syracuse was not looking like a team that would get past the first round of the NCAA’s, though there is some spark there. Pitt was dominant, a wall. Syracuse may get there but they need to get less chippy. Less jack-the-three with 50 seconds to go.
  • Another quarterback from the CFL makes good in the NFL. Good for Garcia. Beat the Giants.
  • I am not sure what to make of CBC’s upcoming Little Mosque on the Prairies. I am not sure I like my comedy to have twists or premises that ties it into a set of opportunities that may limit it…but then again I am quite certain I do not like my comedy provided to me by the CBC. Not since The King of Kenstington anyway – which was a ground breaking culturally inclusive kind of comedy if you think about it. That being said, one thing – one man – gives me great hope for its success: Carlo Rota. He is my favorite actor on TV ever since the Great Canadian Cooking Show. I want to be punched on the shoulder by him one day and hear him say with his belly laugh “you’re one hell of a guy, Al! Beer?”. If anything or anyone can make that happen please email me. These things are possible, you know.

That is it. The day beckons. Don’t forget to listen to David Sommerstein on The Beat Authority at 3 pm EST and then Mike Alzo at 8 pm with The Folk Show both on NCPR. And try to fit in Darcey’s Friday Night Blues and Beer which should be posted about 4 to 5 pm this afternoon. It is a full day.

A Fabulous Yule Bullet Pointy Chat

That is what I wish for you all. The gift of fabulousness. This season brings out the fabulousness in all of us and lets us witness the fabulousness in each other – in friends, family as well as strangers. Be fabulous to each other and to yourself. That is the true meaning of the season.

  • One way to be fabulous is to ensure you stuff double digit paper money into those Salvation Army kettles you run into in the malls and outside the liquor stores struggling to get the gin from shelve to punch bowl.
  • Gary is playing tunes from The Jam this week. Careful readers will know the tale of how that band and Paul Weller in particular got me through my late teens with a certain fabulous modish style. Where is my green German paratrooper parka anyway?
  • The Red Sox have had a run of signings for 2007, especially in the bullpen, that makes me proud of my six shirts: Coco, Tek, Nomar, a gold shirt, a Ted Williams rookie shirt and a long sleeve blue. I also have an umbrella and a beach towel. And books. And stuff, too. Oh, and a Many Louisville slugger. And caps. I think their plan to make money off of franchising the brand is working out.
  • Ian, who I never have met but who does seek out my advice in things fluid, summarizes the season’s particularities in his family. Best advice I have heard this year? You do not have to go and visit them, whoever the “they” are to you and yours.
  • Hey – I need a cut and paste from the main stream media. What is a blog without a certain measure of MSM copyright infringement? Besides, the courts know about it:

    Providing Web links to copyright-protected music is enough to make a site legally liable, an Australian court ruled in a case that created legal uncertainty for search engines around the world. The full bench of the Federal Court, the country’s second-highest court, has upheld a lower court ruling that Stephen Cooper, the operator of the Web site in question, as well as Comcen, the Internet service provider that hosted it, were guilty under Australian copyright law.

    A very Merry Christmas to all the digitally thieving buggers out there, too. Because the copyright infringing thief and their half-witted amateur and professional apologists in the new e-world (aka iWorld) are people we should remember at Christmas as well.

Must run. I am working on about 15 hours sleep so far this week due to reasons beyond my control and need to get where I need to get to so that I can think about napping later in the eleven days off to come. That is right. I am taking Yule off for the first time since 2002. Woot.

A Yuletide Friday Chat

Is this the ides of Yule? Hard to tell with mid-December temperatures in the 10C/50F range. 55F in Watertown, NY today. It is slowing down around town – the university emptying out, folks daydreaming of Christmas cake soon to come, people writing Christmas cards instead of clamouring in the streets. By the way, if you get anything from me this time of year it will be late. I seem to be always finding a reason to not open up that pack of cards. So it will be late.

  • Dear Mildred Dover, Attorney General of PEI: try that one again:

    …Speaking to municipal officers, he accused Dover of displaying “underhandedness and sneakiness” in the way she prepared the amendments. “That language is totally inappropriate and unacceptable,” said Dover. “He operates under the Canadian Bar Association’s code of professional conduct. The code says, Mr. Speaker, and I do have it with me, and I quote, “he should take care not to weaken or destroy public confidence in legal institutions by broad irresponsible allegations of corruption or partiality ?.”

    Does the highest…h’mph…law enforcement official in a province really think that the Code requires lawyers to not make unpleasant blunt comment about the acts of a legislature? The rules on legal institutions refers to the courts, the body of which we happy few are officers. We are not officers of the legislature. Further, we are otherwise directed to civility in relation to public authorities which generally includes the direction (at CBA Code, Chap XIII, Rule 3) “the lawyer should not hesitate to speak out against an injustice”. Further (At CBA Code, Chap XVIII, 9):

    The lawyer is often called upon to comment publicly on the effectiveness of existing statutory or legal remedies, on the particular effect of particular cases, or to offer an opinion on causes that have been or are about to be instituted. It is permissible to do this in order to assist the public to understand the legal issues involved.

    We are asked to be particularly careful in our discussion of the courts as we also recognize that they cannot speak back…as opposed to an Attorney-General who can and who is in an opposing and adversarial position to the interests of the lawyer’s client. Remember – this is a politician hitting the big red button in their brain for being called underhanded and sneaky. The inhumanity of it all. Sneaky. And at Christmas, too.

  • Have I mentioned recently…ummm…Matsuzaka! The Red Sox will clearly control the universe next year with the best pitching line-up in the history of all human endevor. All are doomed. I have been wearing my Red Sox t-shirts all week in celebration. In oneness with those who know me not but care for me. That is the miracle of sports fandom. They care. They really care.
  • By comparison, I guess I am not that big of a fan of hockey. Maybe it’s that thing I have about anything called a stick:

    Billed as “the single most important piece of hockey memorabilia in existence,” the world’s oldest hockey is now up for grabs on eBay. As of Thursday morning, 26 bids had sent the price of the coveted piece of Canadiana soaring to $2.2-million (U.S.). Gord Sharpe has owned the hand-carved, one-piece hickory stick since the age of 9. It was given to him by his great-uncle, whose grandfather Alexander Rutherford Sr. fashioned the stick on his farm near Lindsay, Ont. for play on a nearby pond. The stick is believed to have been carved between 1852 and 1856.

  • You people really need to deal with the fact that in winter I sleep in a bit:

    Gary Rith to me: 7:34 am (11 minutes ago)

    c’mon, dammit, POST!

    Alan McLeod to Gary: 7:38 am (7 minutes ago)
    I woke up at 7:22

    Gary Rith to me 7:38 am (7 minutes ago)
    who cares! just got a message from cm and the race is ON!

    Go!

  • I am listening to a discussion of “presenteeism” which is the opposite apparently of “absenteeism”. It means encouraging people to not show up at work when they are sick. The pendulum just started its way back. Next, the virtues of a cluttered desk.
  • Speaking of a trend coming to an end:

    After analyzing thousands of credit and debit card transactions over a two-year period, Mr. Bernoff found that Apple has historically been able to sell only 20 songs on average for each iPod device sold. “If iPod owners continued to purchase music tracks throughout the lifetime of their ownership, one would expect to see iTunes sales growing at a faster rate than iPods,” he concluded in a new report. Years ago when CD players were introduced, consumers rushed out to buy new music libraries. Clearly, the iPod is not having the same effect on content, he said.

    This is the problem with the digital world – no stuff. We are creatures of stuff more than we are of money. If things are not acquirable without payment and come with no stuff, why would there be any economic inertia behind that change? It wouldn’t. The transactional event is hollowed out. Soon people will clamour in the streets for the return of stuff.

    Update: my pal Dan noted another issue with the 2.0 world.

  • How does the governmental administrative process of “giving up” actually occur? Is there a protocol? A guide?

    In a major blow to the Bush administration’s efforts to secure borders, domestic security officials have for now given up on plans to develop a facial or fingerprint recognition system to determine whether a vast majority of foreign visitors leave the country, officials say. Domestic security officials had described the system, known as U.S. Visit, as critical to security and important in efforts to curb illegal immigration. Similarly, one-third of the overall total of illegal immigrants are believed to have overstayed their visas, a Congressional report says.

    Tracking visitors took on particular urgency after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when it became clear that some of the hijackers had remained in the country after their visas had expired. But in recent days, officials at the Homeland Security Department have conceded that they lack the financing and technology to meet their deadline to have exit-monitoring systems at the 50 busiest land border crossings by next December. A vast majority of foreign visitors enter and exit by land from Mexico and Canada, and the policy shift means that officials will remain unable to track the departures.

    That is nutty. Aside from the security issue, who gets to decide that they have “given up on plans”. Is this some sort of infiltration of libertarians?

Yes, sort of boring this week. But I am late. I am all ready behind. Next week? Last workday before Christmas. No problem. Week after that? I will be a week into a holiday week. Expect big things. Today? M’yyeh, you know.

Socks and WD40

Seeing this is cut and paste day from the MSM [Ed.: the dastards! Give me more.], this digital world meets the Darwin awards is a decent morality play for the day:

…a university professor needed help after he tried to fix a squeaky desktop computer by squirting it with WD-40 oil. The squeak went away, but so did his data.

I once, during my spotty teens, used astringent face cleaner on my Elvis Costello lps so I feel their pain. If is a darn good thing that we do not have to clean CDs or Mp3s but does anyone think of the layoffs in the lp-cleaning industry? Where are they now? And those who made that K-tel lp flipping storage device. What of those?

Acces…reaking….up…an’t…Post

What to do? What to Do? Access being denied. I have my rights you know!

OK, that seemed to work. We’ve been having mainly good access but once in a while the sympatico high speed still cuts out. How is it that the phone never cuts out like this, the electricity never cuts out like this, the water never does but high speed is at the whim?

While we are suffering these technical difficulties, check out Mike’s tribute to 80s Can Rock via YouTube, aka “the technology that killed the blogs.”

Billy Bragg, Ottawa Concert

So we went to see Billy Bragg in Ottawa last night, eighteen years since the last time when I got the t-shirt and taught Bill suffleboard during a break in a sound check as I held the best table in the place all afternoon. I actually turned down free Sloan tickets a few days earlier as I learned my lesson about the ringing of ears from three years ago. It was a good move as the setting for the Bragg show was great. We got there a bit early and I saw everyone heading for the balcony and the stage I look around and, as God is my witness, there was a sofa and an armchair at the back.

So there I am at the back of the crowd in an armchair. Everytime I feel like having a peek, there is Bill about a hundred feet or so on the stage of the smallish venue and seeing that he is still in a red shirt with a guitar I can sit back down again. My neighbours were similarly comforted by the sofa. A little farther away we were at first slagged for our lack of rocking out effort but then, due to out firm plan to stay comfortable, we got all our cred back and more. Best of all was this honking great big table thing that kept the mob largely from us so that we were not forced into the “my space / your space” argument. Towards the end others were telling me what was going on, who had a lighter up, what Billy was doing with his hands. Very comfy and not unlike if he and 500 people had come over to my house for a concert.

It was all good plenty of early stuff like “New England” and World Turned Upside Down”. It got very sing-along music hall after a while with good story telling and a bit of yap back with the crowd. The theme of goat pee moved through the stories and, during the encore, he sort of lost it when “Sexuality” became “Beastiality” as he giggled and had to stop. Very chummy, though the last sentence probably means you had to be there for that bit. He mixed up the lyrics up dating political tunes with current facts. He also did a mix on “England, Half English” to the tune of and with the first verse of the traditional English song “John Barleycorn“. Perhaps odd to see that I was likely in the middle of the crowd in terms of age. Most photos too shakey. Good two-hour set. The ears do not ring.

One last thing that I found interesting is how he made good fun of bloggers who would be doing what I was doing here but then was on and on about YouTube. Hampsters eating a cookie and animals that talk got about an eight minute monologue. YouTube is killing blogs because it is easier and offers value for less effort.