Friday, February 28, 2003Bush keeps haranguing the UN to do what it says it will do. But no one is more practiced at the art of saying one thing then doing the opposite than this administraiton. This page chronicles the pattern of lies and deception that is this adminsitration. [Steve's No Direction Home Page]
Bitter truth...
Say What? [] 6:39:08 PM Permalink
Dave's getting some great coverage of his move to Harvard. I can't wait to visit him this spring. especially now I don't have to fly as far to get to him :) [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
About the founder of the company that makes my blog software.
Say What? [] 6:32:28 PM Permalink
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Would you be mine?. Mister Rogers wouldn't lie to us, but he wanted us to have a happy childhood anyway. Through it all, he talked to us like people. [Salon.com]
Say What? [] 4:33:34 PM Permalink
Wednesday, February 26, 2003One less source of terror
We still don't know who sent the anthrax. We're still not spending the money on homeland security that was promised after 9/11. But hey, when the next terrorist attack leads to the next round of finger-pointing, the Ashcroft Justice Department can proudly remind us that it bravely rounded up the bong peddlers so they could no longer menace us. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]
Sleep well tonight, your National Narc is awake.
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Bettye Lavette - "The greatest unrecognized soul singer of the past forty years"
Fans of Ann Peebles and Etta James will love Bettye Lavette. After reading about her through the above link, listen to samples from her new CD, "A Woman Like Me."
Say What? [] 8:38:11 PM Permalink
Sunday, February 23, 2003A Stranger in Nashville, Struggling to Be Heard
NY Times piece about "Crazy: The Demo Sessions" by Willie Nelson.Say What? [] 11:35:34 PM Permalink
"Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony"
An extraordinary new documentary traces the South African freedom struggle through its joyous, defiant music.
Say What? [] 11:27:47 PM Permalink
Go Johnny Go Go Go!
Sweet Tunes, Fast Beats and a Hard Edge. Chuck Berry, musician, composer and singer, is one of rock 'n' roll's most influential and enigmatic figures. By Bernard Weinraub. [New York Times: Arts]Say What? [] 3:12:57 PM Permalink
Music essays you can dance to
Songbook by Nick Hornby
Like Hornby's essays, the best writing about music shouldn't just make a reader want to play a song immediately, which can be tricky with "Songbook" as the CD's only track list appears on the surface of the disc itself. The best music writing should linger like an unshakable tune, haunting readers even years later, after too many hours between headphones have long since deafened us to the actual notes. (SFGate)
Say What? [] 3:10:21 PM Permalink
Soul survivor
Howard Tate is a man on a mission. Actually, two missions. The first is to bring back the glories of American soul music — the kind that flowered in the ’60s and early ’70s, when African-American singers lit dynamite with their falsetto cries, heart-pounding shouts, and up-from-the-gut testifying. (Boston Phoenix)
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Tuesday, February 18, 2003Back on line
I've been without a net connection for a week and a day (problem at my end, not ISP). Will begin publishing again very soon. Thanks for yr patience, etc.
mb
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Thursday, February 06, 2003Say What? [] 11:13:39 PM Permalink
Microsoft issues security bulletin for IE and XP. "Microsoft issued two security advisories Wednesday, pointing to a "critical" flaw in its Internet Explorer browser and a second, less severe problem with its Windows XP operating system. "... [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
look out!
Say What? [] 11:11:28 PM Permalink
Young, Jobless, Hopeless. There are millions of undereducated, jobless young people who pose a severe long-term threat to the nation's well-being on many fronts. By Bob Herbert. [New York Times: Opinion]
a mind is a terrible thing to waste and so is a life.
Say What? [] 11:10:16 PM Permalink
Tuesday, February 04, 2003Janis Ian interview
This appears in the February issue of PureMusic.com. An exerpt:
PM: Does that fascinating two-part article continue to generate correspondence and controversy?
JI: Yes, kind of an absurd amount of it. It's terrible to say, but I'm totally over it. [laughs] I mean, nobody in my camp expected anything to come of it. It's just another article. So when our website hits suddenly shot up--we had 60,000 hits one day--I went, "Oh!" [sighs]
PM: 60,000 hits in one day?
JI: Yeah, yeah. We were slashed on it. But that was the worst of it. The main hassle for me was just that I really have always answered all my e-mail. So to answer 300, 400 e-mails a day, sitting in the car--I had to switch from AOL to Earthlink because AOL kept insisting I was spamming.
Say What? [] 1:58:31 PM Permalink
ALERT!!!
There are ghosts in my machine. One wierd side effect is that I can't open a Comments window or see the little numbers that alert me to the presence and quantity of comments.
"I'm a little verklempt! Talk amongst yourselves..I'll give you a topic: Rhode Island, it's not a road, nor an island...discuss!"
Linda Richman
Say What? [] 11:35:35 AM Permalink
Song du Jours (3)
* Tennessee Waltz
* Bessie Smith
* Crazy
all by Norah Jones from bootleg MP3s of a gig at the House of Blues in Chicago, 4/12/02
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Via lots of weblogs, here's this terrific Janis Ian editorial from the LA Times (free registration required). She's referring to the recent disastrous decision that Verizon must give to the RIAA the names of music downloaders. It's clear that the record industry isn't so much concerned with paying the artists (well, I guess that's a big "Duh" but thesure do pretend to be), as it is exercising control over how music is made available.
The Internet means exposure, and these days, unless you're in the Top 40, you're not getting on the radio. The Internet is the only outlet for many artists to be heard by an audience bigger than whoever shows up at a local coffeehouse. The Internet allows people like me to gain new fans; if only 10% of those downloading my music buy my records or come to my shows, I've just gained enough fans to fill Carnegie Hall twice over.
...Do you like '50s-style acoustic folk? Big band music? European synth? If the decision stands, you'll have to rely on word of mouth to find it -- not the Internet. Because if you get hold of an "infringing" file, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a record company lawsuit too expensive for any individual to fight.
The entertainment industry has a long history of trying to shut down new technology. Most often, it has imagined that new products and services threatened industry sales. It's been proved wrong time and time again; it fought home video tooth and nail, but videotapes and rentals now bring in more money than movie releases. Music history is littered with record industry campaigns against reel-to-reel home tape recorders, cassettes, minidiscs, music videos and MTV. [Steve's No Direction Home Page]
I was just about to post this. Thanks Steve. Society's Child is one smart woman now.
Say What? [] 10:05:40 AM Permalink
Lou Harrison, 85, Dies; Music Tied Cultures. Lou Harrison, a distinguished composer in all genres of classical music and a leading exemplar of the marriage of Asian and Western music, died on Sunday. By John Rockwell. [New York Times: Arts]
I was exposed to Harrison's music by Ann. Modern dancers never never tired of using his work with their correography.
Say What? [] 10:02:15 AM Permalink
Cloudy channel
My radio listening habits tend toward college stations and public radio -- what the Replacements celebrated as "Left of the Dial." So my awareness of the continued degradation of the commercial part of the spectrum has been provided mainly by the dogged investigative work of Salon's Eric Boehlert, whose exposes of the Clear Channel monopoly have justly earned him a passel of awards.
Today's New York Times brings a new twist on Clear Channel-ism: David Gallagher reports on the remarkable process by which this radio mega-conglomerate has assembled a DJ from database parts. Basically, they've taken the recorded voice of Carson Daly, chopped it into little snippets and used those soundbites to re-assemble pseudo-local broadcasts -- so that listeners in, say, Atlanta hear a localized "top 40" broadcast, with Daly introducing each song in the particular order that applies to that market, yet Daly never actually said those words in that order.
It's hard to know whether to applaud the ingenuity required to create such a DJ-bot, or barf at the complete triumph of corporate homogenization that it represents. I think the gagging in my throat tells me which reaction predominates for me. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]
i haven't been following this at all. wow. i knew it was bad, but i had no idea that it was this bad.
Say What? [] 9:45:47 AM Permalink
Monday, February 03, 2003Worried sick blues
Caring for sick spouse bad for one's heart health [Reuters Health eLine]
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Producer Phil Spector Arrested In Connection With Slaying
It was bound to go down...
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'A Box of Matches': A Miniaturist's Novel of Details
This novel has gotten under my skin. It isn't easy going but not because of complex plot twists or language. It's tough to stay with the same way a lengthy period of meditation is tough to stay with.
Because I am unable to do very little anymore without assistance, unable to turn over in bed, unable to make coffee, unable to turn on a lamp -- I spend an awful lot of time waiting and observing. It can be horrible, but it can also be richly rewarding. This book speaks to me. From the review:
To behold the world and the human mind up close is also, somehow, to mourn for them a little. Seen keenly enough, every object, no matter how trivial, is a piercing memento mori.
Ah, how I miss being able to build a fire. I would give the world to be able to get up at 4 AM. From the opening of the book:
ood morning, it's January and it's 4:17 a.m., and I'm going to sit here in the dark. I'm in the living room in my blue bathrobe, with an armchair pulled up to the fireplace. There isn't much in the way of open flame at the moment because the underlayer of balled-up newspaper and paper-towel tubes has burned down and the wood hasn't fully caught yet. So what I'm looking at is an orangey ember-cavern that resembles a monster's sloppy mouth, filled with half-chewed, glowing bits of fire-meat. When it's very dark like this you lose your sense of scale. Sometimes I think I'm steering a space-plane into a gigantic fissure in a dark and remote planet. The planet's crust is beginning to break up, allowing an underground sea of lava to ooze out. Continents are tipping and foundering like melting icebergs, and I must fly in on my highly maneuverable rocket and save the colonists who are trapped there.
Say What? [] 11:21:22 AM Permalink
The Jewish Samurai
The Japanese Samurai opened a match box,
and out flew a bumblebee. Whoosh! went his
razor sharp sword, and the bumblebee dropped
dead on the ground ....in 2 pieces.
The emperor exclaimed: "This is impressive!"
The emperor then issued the same challenge to
the Chinese Samurai; for him to come in and
demonstrate why he should be chosen.
The Chinese Samurai also opened a match box,
and out buzzed a fly. Whoosh, Whoosh! Went his
great flashing sword, and the fly dropped dead on
the ground .....in four small pieces.
The emperor exclaimed in awe: "That is really
VERY impressive!"
Now the emperor turned to the Jewish Samurai,
and asked him also to step forward and demonstrate
why he should be the head Samurai.
The Jewish Samurai also opened a match box, and
out flew a small gnat. His lightning quick sword went
Whooooosh! Whooooosh! Whoooosh! .But the
tiny gnat was still alive and flying around.
The emperor, obviously very disappointed in this
display, asked: "After all of that, why is the gnat not
dead?"
The Jewish Samurai just smiled and said:
"....Circumcision is not meant to kill."
Say What? [] 11:04:25 AM Permalink
Mongo Santamaria, 85, Influential Jazz Percussionist, Dies
Most know Mr. Santamaria for two things: his version of Herbie Hancock's song "Watermelon Man," which became a top-10 hit in 1963, and his authorship of "Afro Blue," a song John Coltrane made famous. But those more familiar with Afro-Cuban music know that Mr. Santamaria was at the middle of the shift from the Afro-Cuban jazz of the 1950's to the salsa sound of the 1970's.
Say What? [] 12:37:58 AM Permalink
Sunday, February 02, 2003New Ry Cooder album
As the article I posted last week said, Ry Cooder's Mambo Sinuendo is "an album of seductively menacing Cuban guitar music." Now that I've listened to it about a dozen times, what I would say is that this is the first totally cool music of 2003.
Imagine - June, 1958 -- back alley underground Havana bar. Beneath the intertwining shadows of a ceiling fan and cigar smoke, a young, fiery Fidel Castro is doing bong hits with Duane Eddy and Link Wray. On stage, Rubén González sits in with the The Ventures...
This album lacks the majesty of the Buena Vista Social Club, but I really dig it and recommended it highly.
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White House Cancels Poetry Symposium
I'd love to hear Ginsberg sing a sutra about this.
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Saturday, February 01, 2003
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