One of my favorite artists, who my Sweetie introduced me to early in our relationship, was profiled on NPR's "All Things Considered" this afternoon. Janis Ian, who holds the #2 spot on my "Best Intimate Concerts" list for a great show she did in Fayetteville, AR, several years ago, talked about her first big hit, "Society's Child," with Robert Siegel, and being seventeen in 1968.
Most people may remember her for either the controversial "Society's Child" or her monster seventies hit "At Seventeen" (which she still plays, beautifully and passionately, in her shows). Janis has not been quiet since the seventies, though - she's put out some really great music since then, and you can find some free mp3's on her website.
Janis is a real DIYer as it comes to the music industry, and I'm looking forward to reading her memoir, which is coming out tomorrow. Here are a couple of her CDs that I really like, "God and the FBI" and "Breaking Silence." Hope you also find her entertaining and intriguing.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
What I Did On My Summer Vacation
Some thoughts on vacations, after having just experienced one…
Check your directions before heading out in the morning, especially before you miss an exit and take a four-hour detour… especially when you have reserved tickets to see “The Producers” in Memphis.
Don’t make reservations for a play while you’re traveling between cities.
Set aside one day of recovery for every 750 miles you drive. Yer butt will thank you.
Always take time to see old friends. Thanks, Lex & Val, for your wonderful hospitality, the criminal beer and the relaxin’ time. I wish I'd had time to see others, but maybe on the next trip.
Even if it’s raining pretty hard and you’re only a few miles from home, always stop for beer. You might not feel like getting out again later.
More thoughts later, as my butt and other parts recover...
Check your directions before heading out in the morning, especially before you miss an exit and take a four-hour detour… especially when you have reserved tickets to see “The Producers” in Memphis.
Don’t make reservations for a play while you’re traveling between cities.
Set aside one day of recovery for every 750 miles you drive. Yer butt will thank you.
Always take time to see old friends. Thanks, Lex & Val, for your wonderful hospitality, the criminal beer and the relaxin’ time. I wish I'd had time to see others, but maybe on the next trip.
Even if it’s raining pretty hard and you’re only a few miles from home, always stop for beer. You might not feel like getting out again later.
More thoughts later, as my butt and other parts recover...
Monday, June 30, 2008
World's Fastest Homosexual
Forgive the light posting this week, but it's harder to hit a moving target. ;-)
With much apologies to Fritschie (knowing his loathing of Larry the Cable Guy), but I can't help it...
"I don't care who you are, that's funny right there! If you don't think that's funny you can get the hell outta here, 'cause that's funny right there..."
And you can find the funny here as well...
With much apologies to Fritschie (knowing his loathing of Larry the Cable Guy), but I can't help it...
"I don't care who you are, that's funny right there! If you don't think that's funny you can get the hell outta here, 'cause that's funny right there..."
And you can find the funny here as well...
Friday, June 27, 2008
Free Internet Everywhere!
Jeff Jarvis has a lovely article about this, so I must give him props first.
I was thinking about this during the weekend as I updated (and reloaded) my Starbucks card, then registered on their site so that I can utilize the free wifi offered in their ubiquitous coffeehouses. This could come in handy if one's out and about and travelin'.
But the analogy of internet to interstate highways and/or water actually came up in Leo Laporte's TWITcast this weekend.
So I'm just sayin' I'm all for it. Not that I mind going into Starbucks and getting my chai with an espresso shot and a shot of sugar free vanilla (or caramel, depends on my mood) and groovin' on their net for no more than two hours (which is about as long as my laptop battery will last anyway), but I'd much rather have free internet all over the country, just like interstates and drinking fountains. Yes, there's always bottled water (sure, I'd like some faster internet! show me an ad or sign me up!) or toll roads (this internet brought to you by you, the one who's using it,'cause there's really not enough tax dollars in this area to support this infrastructure yet), but it would be totally cool to just wander anywhere in the US and still be able to find out what 1986 Tom Hanks movie marked the first English-speaking film role for Spanish star Christina Marsillach or what your new granddaughter looks like, right after she was born, live from the hospital.
Since the famous "series of tubes" speech by Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) a couple of years ago (which obviously shows precedent), we should start lobbying our congresscritters for government-sponsored, regulated, and neutral internet across the USA and her territories. After all, we have government-sponsored, regulated, and neutral (in the purest sense of the word) roads and water, why not the 'net? Because if we don't do it for the children, the terrorists will win. Spread the word, folks!
Only problem is, I don't see that the FCC is going away anytime soon. Sorry Mr. Cerf. You don't know how much I agree with your position (after all, if the FCC was gone, who would Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association write letters of protest to?), but you and I both know how impossible it would be to disassemble a federal agency. [In the spirit of full disclosure, neither the FCC nor the AFA represent anyone in my immediate family or my in-laws, 'cause we all know how to change the goddamn channel.]
I believe that the FCC is there simply to make life easier for everyone (except for those of us that want to communicate) and that they've been politicized as much (or more) than the Justice Department. So, here's my solution for fixing the FCC:
First, double the size of the commission, hire the right people and rotate them out every two and a half years. The right people would be anyone who doesn't work in Washington, anyone related to anyone who works in Washington, anyone who is good buddies with anyone who works in Washington, and they must have a deep abiding hatred of the bureaucratic slurdge that is Washington. The right people would be very tech-savvy, able to think for themselves, and consume a lot of media but do not work for the media or a media provider, nor are related to someone who works for the media or a media provider, nor are good buddies with anyone who works in the media or a media provider, and they have a deep abiding hatred of the starfrakkin' slurdge pit that is the media industry (as well as the media providers). Not only that, the commissioners' identities are hidden from everyone and they just go by a number, like in "The Prisoner."
Once selected, all the commissioners have to buy and set up their own wifi network, laptop, cellphone, smartphone, DVR, VCR, DVD, HDTV, satellite radio, satellite TV, DSL, VOIP, telephones, cable, and publicly-known IMs, blogs, e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Twitter accounts (with no assistants or assistance other than what a normal consumer would have access to). They'd have to subscribe to four newspapers, four general interest magazines, and three special-interest magazines.
They would secretly meet once a month in a different coffeehouse (with free wifi) in each state, and they would have to empty their inboxes weekly (I wouldn't make 'em do daily, simply because I doubt Merlin Mann would ever get on the commission, but I could be wrong). They would have to travel at least 10 days each month to examine different areas of the country. They also should find out how Asia and Europe handle their information infrastructure (even if that means traveling there) and what lessons can be learned from their experiences.
They must share hotel rooms and keep to a very tight expense budget during all their travel, and their office expenses must also be on a strict budget. They would not be allowed to wear a tie on the job, or be able to accept gifts over $5, and they would have to account for all expenditures to a bipartisan congressional sub-committee made up of grouchy former IRS accountants. They would be held accountable for their decisions by their MySpace and Facebook friends, which are monitored by their mothers-in-law or one of their former high-school English teachers.
If this were to happen, I predict that we'd have net neutrality on the books within six months and national broadband internet access available to all within a year or two. Cable TV prices will drop and NPR will get their budget quadrupled. Newspaper ad pages would go down and readership (online and offline) would be up. The second season of the revival of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater on a small Kansas AM radio station would be the most-anticipated event of 2012. A bronze statue of Jeff Jarvis holding Janet Jackson's... hand would be erected in Chicago and bloggers would get free drinks and laid more than all the living rock stars, movie stars and reality TV stars combined.
OK, maybe not ALL the reality TV stars, but one can dream.
I was thinking about this during the weekend as I updated (and reloaded) my Starbucks card, then registered on their site so that I can utilize the free wifi offered in their ubiquitous coffeehouses. This could come in handy if one's out and about and travelin'.
But the analogy of internet to interstate highways and/or water actually came up in Leo Laporte's TWITcast this weekend.
So I'm just sayin' I'm all for it. Not that I mind going into Starbucks and getting my chai with an espresso shot and a shot of sugar free vanilla (or caramel, depends on my mood) and groovin' on their net for no more than two hours (which is about as long as my laptop battery will last anyway), but I'd much rather have free internet all over the country, just like interstates and drinking fountains. Yes, there's always bottled water (sure, I'd like some faster internet! show me an ad or sign me up!) or toll roads (this internet brought to you by you, the one who's using it,'cause there's really not enough tax dollars in this area to support this infrastructure yet), but it would be totally cool to just wander anywhere in the US and still be able to find out what 1986 Tom Hanks movie marked the first English-speaking film role for Spanish star Christina Marsillach or what your new granddaughter looks like, right after she was born, live from the hospital.
Since the famous "series of tubes" speech by Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) a couple of years ago (which obviously shows precedent), we should start lobbying our congresscritters for government-sponsored, regulated, and neutral internet across the USA and her territories. After all, we have government-sponsored, regulated, and neutral (in the purest sense of the word) roads and water, why not the 'net? Because if we don't do it for the children, the terrorists will win. Spread the word, folks!
Only problem is, I don't see that the FCC is going away anytime soon. Sorry Mr. Cerf. You don't know how much I agree with your position (after all, if the FCC was gone, who would Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association write letters of protest to?), but you and I both know how impossible it would be to disassemble a federal agency. [In the spirit of full disclosure, neither the FCC nor the AFA represent anyone in my immediate family or my in-laws, 'cause we all know how to change the goddamn channel.]
I believe that the FCC is there simply to make life easier for everyone (except for those of us that want to communicate) and that they've been politicized as much (or more) than the Justice Department. So, here's my solution for fixing the FCC:
First, double the size of the commission, hire the right people and rotate them out every two and a half years. The right people would be anyone who doesn't work in Washington, anyone related to anyone who works in Washington, anyone who is good buddies with anyone who works in Washington, and they must have a deep abiding hatred of the bureaucratic slurdge that is Washington. The right people would be very tech-savvy, able to think for themselves, and consume a lot of media but do not work for the media or a media provider, nor are related to someone who works for the media or a media provider, nor are good buddies with anyone who works in the media or a media provider, and they have a deep abiding hatred of the starfrakkin' slurdge pit that is the media industry (as well as the media providers). Not only that, the commissioners' identities are hidden from everyone and they just go by a number, like in "The Prisoner."
Once selected, all the commissioners have to buy and set up their own wifi network, laptop, cellphone, smartphone, DVR, VCR, DVD, HDTV, satellite radio, satellite TV, DSL, VOIP, telephones, cable, and publicly-known IMs, blogs, e-mail, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Twitter accounts (with no assistants or assistance other than what a normal consumer would have access to). They'd have to subscribe to four newspapers, four general interest magazines, and three special-interest magazines.
They would secretly meet once a month in a different coffeehouse (with free wifi) in each state, and they would have to empty their inboxes weekly (I wouldn't make 'em do daily, simply because I doubt Merlin Mann would ever get on the commission, but I could be wrong). They would have to travel at least 10 days each month to examine different areas of the country. They also should find out how Asia and Europe handle their information infrastructure (even if that means traveling there) and what lessons can be learned from their experiences.
They must share hotel rooms and keep to a very tight expense budget during all their travel, and their office expenses must also be on a strict budget. They would not be allowed to wear a tie on the job, or be able to accept gifts over $5, and they would have to account for all expenditures to a bipartisan congressional sub-committee made up of grouchy former IRS accountants. They would be held accountable for their decisions by their MySpace and Facebook friends, which are monitored by their mothers-in-law or one of their former high-school English teachers.
If this were to happen, I predict that we'd have net neutrality on the books within six months and national broadband internet access available to all within a year or two. Cable TV prices will drop and NPR will get their budget quadrupled. Newspaper ad pages would go down and readership (online and offline) would be up. The second season of the revival of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater on a small Kansas AM radio station would be the most-anticipated event of 2012. A bronze statue of Jeff Jarvis holding Janet Jackson's... hand would be erected in Chicago and bloggers would get free drinks and laid more than all the living rock stars, movie stars and reality TV stars combined.
OK, maybe not ALL the reality TV stars, but one can dream.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Too much to hear
I have about five CDs to listen to before the weekend. I have about 28 singles to screen for work. All that’s for work; for pleasure, there’s about three or four different groups I want to do some research on the Hype Machine for, to get more of a flavor of their sound.
I’m lucky that I have a neat job that demands I listen to music, but in order to do that I also have to get other stuff done. I’ve been multi-tasking since high school, when I used to study with my Kiss albums on, or the soundtrack to “South Pacific” or some Beethoven or Mozart. (I didn’t really get into jazz until after Sting’s 1985 debut, “Dream of the Blue Turtles,” and I credit Sting and Branford for introducing me to the greats.) I’m used to listening to music and doing something else, but there’s a few CDs where I really need (or want) to listen critically. I rarely get that kind of experience.
The other day, as my Sweetie and I were talking after supper, our thoughts turned to George Carlin (hey, if MSNBC can do seven days on the death of Tim Russert, I can talk about George for a few posts – suck it up, people) and I stood up, got a CD of his from the shelf, put it in the player and cranked up the stereo, and listened to “FM & AM,” and we started laughing. Later, I tried to remember the last time I put a CD on and cranked the stereo... it was Talking Heads “Fear of Music,” back in the spring, because it came with a 5.1 (or 7.1) mix on a DVD. Before that, maybe last year sometime with Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon?”
Sitting down and listening to music is fading as an activity. It’s something we don’t even do at a concert or show – we’re texting or chatting or holding up the camera-phone to get a pic of the show or grab some video for YouTube. It’s only when I go to see jazz when I find an attentive, into-it crowd – mostly. And it’s everyone, not just folks younger than I am (although they do have more experience with the multi-tasking, since it’s their life). When did that go away, with the Walkman? The iPod? Or can we trace the erosion all the way back to the transistor radio?
So when’s the last time you sat down and just listened to an album? Which album was it? Let me know in the comments section, I’m interested in your response.
I’m lucky that I have a neat job that demands I listen to music, but in order to do that I also have to get other stuff done. I’ve been multi-tasking since high school, when I used to study with my Kiss albums on, or the soundtrack to “South Pacific” or some Beethoven or Mozart. (I didn’t really get into jazz until after Sting’s 1985 debut, “Dream of the Blue Turtles,” and I credit Sting and Branford for introducing me to the greats.) I’m used to listening to music and doing something else, but there’s a few CDs where I really need (or want) to listen critically. I rarely get that kind of experience.
The other day, as my Sweetie and I were talking after supper, our thoughts turned to George Carlin (hey, if MSNBC can do seven days on the death of Tim Russert, I can talk about George for a few posts – suck it up, people) and I stood up, got a CD of his from the shelf, put it in the player and cranked up the stereo, and listened to “FM & AM,” and we started laughing. Later, I tried to remember the last time I put a CD on and cranked the stereo... it was Talking Heads “Fear of Music,” back in the spring, because it came with a 5.1 (or 7.1) mix on a DVD. Before that, maybe last year sometime with Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon?”
Sitting down and listening to music is fading as an activity. It’s something we don’t even do at a concert or show – we’re texting or chatting or holding up the camera-phone to get a pic of the show or grab some video for YouTube. It’s only when I go to see jazz when I find an attentive, into-it crowd – mostly. And it’s everyone, not just folks younger than I am (although they do have more experience with the multi-tasking, since it’s their life). When did that go away, with the Walkman? The iPod? Or can we trace the erosion all the way back to the transistor radio?
So when’s the last time you sat down and just listened to an album? Which album was it? Let me know in the comments section, I’m interested in your response.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Parents CAN Be Funny…
When I was a teenager, I was only a little rebellious (until I got some hair on my chin).
That’s a story for another time, but I do credit George Carlin for helping fan that little spark of rebellion. I had a copy of “FM & AM” that I was playing when my mom came into my room, right about the time George was talking about a middle-class mom dropping a casserole and saying “shit,” and that the suburban euphemism, shoot, was really “shit with two O’s.”
My mom immediately cracked up. Once she regained control, she told me never to play that record again. Sorry, Mom – your laugh gave you away.
Years later, my father told me that they’d had a free preview of HBO one night and were just shocked, SHOCKED by the language that Robin Williams had on his “Night At the Met” program. Why, they could only watch ten minutes before they turned it off.
Ten minutes? Holy crap, that’s about nine and three-quarter minutes longer than I thought they’d last. I’d like to think they were laughing too hard to find the remote, but they may have just wondering what the frak Robin was going on about…
I had uncles (past tense, most of ‘em are gone now) who were funny as hell and could be kinda crude too, and Mom and Dad would laugh, sometimes a little nervously, but they laughed ‘cause it was funny. Of course, they never use that language (unless they drop a casserole). Did I ever mention that Dad was in the Navy during WW2? Yeah, I’m sure they’d never used that language.
That, to me, was hilarious, and led me to discover that sometimes what even parents say and what parents do are gonna be two different twains whose twacks will never cross (thus never the twains shall meet). I like the idea of those twains meeting in the dark of the night - and then jumping back in the shock of recognition.
I think Carlin’s language was always appropriate. I wish more people would listen to what he was saying instead of getting hung up on how he was saying it, but I also understand that how he was saying it was almost as important as what he was saying. Even though my parents (and a helluva lotta others as well) didn't appreciate it when he used "that language!"
That’s a story for another time, but I do credit George Carlin for helping fan that little spark of rebellion. I had a copy of “FM & AM” that I was playing when my mom came into my room, right about the time George was talking about a middle-class mom dropping a casserole and saying “shit,” and that the suburban euphemism, shoot, was really “shit with two O’s.”
My mom immediately cracked up. Once she regained control, she told me never to play that record again. Sorry, Mom – your laugh gave you away.
Years later, my father told me that they’d had a free preview of HBO one night and were just shocked, SHOCKED by the language that Robin Williams had on his “Night At the Met” program. Why, they could only watch ten minutes before they turned it off.
Ten minutes? Holy crap, that’s about nine and three-quarter minutes longer than I thought they’d last. I’d like to think they were laughing too hard to find the remote, but they may have just wondering what the frak Robin was going on about…
I had uncles (past tense, most of ‘em are gone now) who were funny as hell and could be kinda crude too, and Mom and Dad would laugh, sometimes a little nervously, but they laughed ‘cause it was funny. Of course, they never use that language (unless they drop a casserole). Did I ever mention that Dad was in the Navy during WW2? Yeah, I’m sure they’d never used that language.
That, to me, was hilarious, and led me to discover that sometimes what even parents say and what parents do are gonna be two different twains whose twacks will never cross (thus never the twains shall meet). I like the idea of those twains meeting in the dark of the night - and then jumping back in the shock of recognition.
I think Carlin’s language was always appropriate. I wish more people would listen to what he was saying instead of getting hung up on how he was saying it, but I also understand that how he was saying it was almost as important as what he was saying. Even though my parents (and a helluva lotta others as well) didn't appreciate it when he used "that language!"
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
2 Things
I’ve been inattentive to my blog for some time (Geez, really? Over a month is “inattentive?” How long does “abandoned” take?) and, while I’ve known this and thought about what I could say to crank it up again, two things happened recently that have kicked my ass into gear.
The first thing was the death of my friend George this weekend. Don’t get me wrong, George didn’t know me and I didn’t personally know George, but I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I felt like I knew George, even if it was just a little. And now he’s gone, and I feel very much like I’ve lost a friend. Now look, I’m not gonna eulogize the guy, I just want to appreciate what he taught me and the laughs he gave me whilst making me think. I downloaded his last album on Amazon last night and listened to it this morning as I was dealing with e-mails and computer admin stuff. I can’t wait to play it for my Sweetie during our next driving trip. From what I know about George, I think he’d lambast anyone’s ass for leaving their blog alone this long. “Write, goddamnit! Get your shit out there!”
Here's one of his later bouts of philosophy that you might enjoy (and it's mostly worksafe).
The other thing was… I got called on it. Yep, my friend Brian (who is my window on NYC) noticed that I’ve been perpetually predisposed to procrastination (how’d’ya like that little bit of alliteration, George?) and then he called me on it in his blog. So naturally, I must rise to the challenge and bestir my semi-mobile buns to bring my blog up to date.
Now I feel guilty, ‘cause you’re all going to think that it takes a famous comic biting the dust and a friend calling my bluff to get me to blog. Now you’re thinking that you’ll have to wait until some other famous comic croaks and another one of my more observant compadres point out my proclivity for procrastination (really, I just like typing the word “procrastination,” it’s fun!) before I blog again. Au contraire, mon frère!
But it’s the doing, not the talking, that gets it done. So here I go…
The first thing was the death of my friend George this weekend. Don’t get me wrong, George didn’t know me and I didn’t personally know George, but I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I felt like I knew George, even if it was just a little. And now he’s gone, and I feel very much like I’ve lost a friend. Now look, I’m not gonna eulogize the guy, I just want to appreciate what he taught me and the laughs he gave me whilst making me think. I downloaded his last album on Amazon last night and listened to it this morning as I was dealing with e-mails and computer admin stuff. I can’t wait to play it for my Sweetie during our next driving trip. From what I know about George, I think he’d lambast anyone’s ass for leaving their blog alone this long. “Write, goddamnit! Get your shit out there!”
Here's one of his later bouts of philosophy that you might enjoy (and it's mostly worksafe).
The other thing was… I got called on it. Yep, my friend Brian (who is my window on NYC) noticed that I’ve been perpetually predisposed to procrastination (how’d’ya like that little bit of alliteration, George?) and then he called me on it in his blog. So naturally, I must rise to the challenge and bestir my semi-mobile buns to bring my blog up to date.
Now I feel guilty, ‘cause you’re all going to think that it takes a famous comic biting the dust and a friend calling my bluff to get me to blog. Now you’re thinking that you’ll have to wait until some other famous comic croaks and another one of my more observant compadres point out my proclivity for procrastination (really, I just like typing the word “procrastination,” it’s fun!) before I blog again. Au contraire, mon frère!
But it’s the doing, not the talking, that gets it done. So here I go…
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