Pass the plate

Thanksgiving - it works, on the basic level of any excuse to get together with friends and family to pig out. But beyond that, it's pretty...eh. Even the only Thanksgiving-related movie I know, Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, is over-rated. The one redeeming moment is the graveyard scene, with Joni Mitchell's Song To Aging Children. I've always liked that song and the scene is some flower-powerful imagery. Alice's Restaurant, the song, is too dated now, to be anything other than an audio reminder that it's Thanksgiving.

Arlo seems to be a sweet old hippie and harmless enough. Yeah, let's even say he's endearing. At least he maintains a refreshingly unassuming, amused nature in the media, whenever they bother to engage him. At least he hasn't crusted over, as far as I can tell. I wonder if living with not knowing whether he inherited his father's genes for Huntington's Disease, made him seem so comfortable to be in and of the moment. It seems logical.

So to anyone out there, enjoy the feed. Me, I'll be trying out my new ultra-genki chef pants tomorrow; thanks K&K!

It was a good weekend. New dear friends, visiting from Hawaii. Even newer dear friends, sharing words, images and sounds, of a guy who went by several names.

I’ve been learning the fine art of detachment. It is the way to better things. But it’s important to understand it’s a detachment that is not without compassion. It’s only the end to suffering kind of detachment I strive for.

Find the pain, acknowledge and understand it. Put pain and its side-kick, self-pity, in a compartment. Keep it separate from the one holding the memories of the guy who went by several names.

This is not anything like the concept of ‘closure.’ I’m so glad I met someone yesterday who also thinks that word is so inappropriate! She called it a fascist word (poets are great). When someone dies, why should we feel compelled to get past the reality, to close the book? Is it such an inconvenience to our daily self-absorption? The body is gone, the dust bin is swept, but the memory has no need to die. The presence, the light, the wisdom and wonder of a guy who went by several names, is still right here and ready to make us laugh.

So, laugh and let it be.

You become naked

So Mike is not blown away by the Let It Be - Naked reissue. I listen to it in the context of all the other music they put out right after that. Abbey Road and the three Beatles solo releases. Those four are far superior. Naked captures the band at their worst. But even at their worst....etc...etc...

Which reminds me - why hasn't McCartney done a big re-release package of his first album? Or Ram? Surely he has a stash of recordings from that time that didn't make it out. Or, did I miss something, over the years? Maybe on one of his box sets?

Same As It Ever Was

The Commonwealth Club recently held a panel discussion on Internet Music Distribution. In this current age of online music, phase 2, the 'legitimate' online sources are supposed to lead the way to a brighter future.

But does that brighter future include the artists themselves?

Of course not.

This CNET MP3 Insider article shares Apple's iTune.com price breakdown for each 99 cent download:

The Labels get: ~65 cents.
The Credit Card companies get: 4 cents.
Apple gets: ~30 cents.
Aritists get: um... let's use the new math and say... a few pennies.

The Labels are responsible for setting the pricing. The Labels continue to rule. It's just wrong wrong wrong.

Personal music newz

It's been a long time since I wrote anything about music.

You're welcome.

Even though music has been a solace over the past few weeks, I've gravitated to and relied on only certain types. I couldn't do my normal roaming around. I stayed with familiar music. Music that had personal meaning.

I must be on the road back to pretension though. I picked up a big pile of stuff today. Nothing really out there, though. In fact, looking over the booty, I have to say it's pretty damn MOR. Oh well.

Anyway, if you like Norah Jones (and I do) - but wish she had more than one song - you might like Rhian Benson's "Gold Coast." This is a big Universal budget production, but there's much more than lite jazz to hear. Nice African and Middle Eastern and Caribbean arrangements. Even the slow pop ballads don't sound *that* treacly. Curiously, she avoids rap; so I guess the suits didn't have final say. It's corny, but this is music to make love to.

Or, you can try making love to Tricky's new one: "Back To Mine." Actually, it's really good! It's a compendium of songs he likes. He remixes just enough to make the rather eclectic mix blend very nicely. He calls it a 'personal collection for after hours groovin.' And who doesn't like Cure, Dr. John, Buzzcocks, Morphine, Le Tigre, Gregory Isaacs, Kate Bush, Chet Baker...hey Tricky isn't as scary as I thought!

Grooving further on down, into a vocal soul vein, I had to get Simply Red's "Home." Whoah. Now this guy's voice has truly hit it's stride. Really fantastic, all the way through. A stone funky soul groove and he's got great pipes now. Best of all, he's found the song that was truly made for him to sing: "You Make Me Feel Brand New." Listen without prejudice you hipsters; this is a great record! And while you're at it, get those last few Boz Scaggs releases too. I know you keep passing on them...Come on, Simply Red even does a Dylan cover - no excuses.

Ladytron tried something similar to Tricky, releasing a crush tape, I guess. It starts off great, with MBV's "Soon;" but I mean, everyone should know that song by now. Why include it? I like !!! and I think their inclusion is about the only other thing I'll remember from this. Pass and wait for new Le Tigre.

Another disappointing first listen was the Isley/Bacharach collaboration. With the opening notes of "Alfie" I'm wowed by Ronald's amazing voice. But then, song after song after song, old Burt makes with the mushy strings. I'll have to come back to this, later. Beatles "Naked" - hey, I'll get to that in it's own write.

Totally MOR, told you.

Change...makes you wanna Hustle

Up until recently, I've always tried to err on the side of change. Meaning, if there was something new, a new sound, fad, course of action, any general change in the status quo, I usually approached it as a positive development, until proven otherwise.

On the surface, that sounds about as useful as the opposite stance - ie, any change is no good. But I held onto the optimistic attitude that the natural evolution of things inherently moves us forward. This also helps me 'keep an open mind.' And it's hard to argue against the benefits of having one of those.

I also suspect I've kept to this tact, based in part upon my history. It's undeniable that I am a product of the generation who questioned authority; who hoped to die before we got old. Even though every generation thinks they're hotter than the previous one, our generation took the attitude to extremes. Enough so that significant social shifts were possible. That only gave more validation to my 'change is good' mindset. Now, with the younger generations changing away from the changes of my time... it's still change. Who am I to stop the flow?

Well, I don't know if age is truly catching up with me, or whether there are far more sinister forces at play these days, but I'm finding more and more reasons why I'm not such a fan of change anymore.

Maybe our new Govenor made me think this. Or, maybe it was the American Music Awards.

You Featherheaded Sweet Thang

Check out The Bertinelli.

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The Long Now


Interested in enhancing your ability for "slower/better" thinking? Do you need to improve your creativity in the framework of the next 10,000 years? Then get on it and start looking into The Long Now.

There's a series of free seminars on the subject. Brian Eno speaks tonight.

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Hipsters Are Annoying

(Was the above post annoying?)

Apparently done without irony, or much self-realization, there's this. I mean, isn't hipsters are annoying a totally hipster kind of thing to say?

You just can't win. I suggest accepting defeat and admitting it's ok to bounce around to Outkast.

Funafuti

I just spent far too much time at the abyz news site. It's been a while since I've read the latest from REUNION, VANUATU, NIUE & TUVALU.

And for all that time, I now know a Tuvalu islet has the almost too Disneyesque name of Funafuti. It gets worse. Funafuti, in Tuvaluan, loosely translates to Land Of The Bananas.

Clearly, the silliest place on the planet.

Rocket From The Tombs

I missed them the last time they came through, but I won't make that mistake twice. Next week, a band which includes David Thomas from Pere Ubu, Cheetah Chrome from The Dead Boys, and Richard Lloyd from Television is coming to The Bottom. It's sure to be just the sweetest, quietest, musical interlude.

Homeless vets

Conservatively, one out of every four homeless people are US war veterans. The Department of Veteran Affairs takes care of over 100K homeless annually. Unfortunately, there are about 500K homeless vets. With Caesar Bush in power, there will be many, many more, veterans. It's not illogical to assume that the homeless population will also increase.

There are a number of federal programs that apparently deal with homeless vet support. All told, it seems like they are spending a couple of billion. So why is all that money only helping 20% of the people who need it? Guess I need to do so more googling...

I did find evidence that Bush has been flinching a couple of their sandwiches.

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If you too are looking to the skies, in frustration with our Dear Leader, you have an opportunity to also be pleasantly distracted this week. The Leonid Showers are coming.

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During lunch, I saw this sticker on the back of an Airborne Express van.

2001 Holiday Session, with Sofa

I’ve uploaded a series of mp3s, from a December 2001 weekend improvisation of holiday music.

Here are the songs.

Most of you know that each year Deb & I send out a little CD of holiday music, as our Xmas card. In 2001, I cajoled Sofa to come over to the house, to record some home-grown holiday tunes with me. The general idea was to invent a few songs to include on the compilation of other, more worthy, tracks. And that is just what happened. That year, we sent out what we like to refer to as our holiday White Album – it probably would have been far better without so much of the noodling.

However, now that Sofa has departed, these recordings have taken on a special appeal. I went back to the original DATs and culled out more of the day’s efforts. Now, I have about 40 minutes of the musical comfiness that was/is Sofa.

In spite of my singing, I can’t help but smile as I listen to these tracks. I hope you have the same experience. Throughout the day, Sofa and I volleyed silly song ideas back and forth. We improvised lyrics, to recognizable musical scores. Sofa’s guitar work is awesome; as those of you who had the pleasure of hearing him play already know. Occasionally, I added bad keyboards. Regularly, we cracked each other up. An otherwise promising musical direction often ended up with laughter and a new tack had to be set. In the background, the attentive listener will hear a yule fire crackling and the hippie holiday dogs shaking to the beat.

There are a few bittersweet and telling moments. Including I Want a Hearse for Christmas here might be considered in bad taste on my part. But these expressions were also part of the Sofa we all loved. I’ve included a few alternate outtake versions of a few songs to show how wide-ranging his approach to crafting the music could be.

It was always big fun, when Sofa dropped by. His sense of humor and mine were dangerously similar. He was always more nimble & clever; but I was fearless & unencumbered by delusions of talent. Together, we shredded.

The Sofa you hear in these recordings, is the Sofa I knew.

Let me know what you think. And if you’d like a CD-r version, I’m making up some of them too.