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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Music Can Cleanse The Soul

Today was the second day of the French Quarter Fest. Not as worldly known as it's bigger cousin that comes next week, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the French Quarter Fest is becoming pretty big in its own right. Last year almost half a million people were there. The really cool thing about this Fest is that it's free. All the music is free. They set up stages at different areas of the Quarter and people wander back and forth listening to some great music. The majority of this music is home grown and from the area. Along the way vendors set up food stands and t shirts to sell, but you could go and not spend any money if you wanted to.

It's been awhile since I've been out to listen to any live music. I've forgotten how long. But sitting there under the trees today, listening to the Revealers play their combination of funk and reggae I realized I haven't felt this good in a long while.

The below pictures are from today, but in New Orleans they could be from a typical day. You see bands and performers like this on the street playing music any day of the week in New Orleans.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Missed LOST

I missed LOST tonight, in fact I got off work not too long ago. Anything good happen on the show tonight? Did we learn anything new? What's happening?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Judith Krug Dies

You're probably going "Who's Judith Krug?" She may not be a name that everyone recognizes but she was an important lady. She fought against the banning of books in school libraries. She helped keep books like Cather in the Rye, Huckleyberry Finn, and others available to kids to read. Go here and read more about her. I know I've told this story before, but when I was a kid my parents let my brother and I read whatever we were capable of. I remember when I was around twelve or so and this girl that was in college saw a book I was reading and was astonished that my parents would allow me to read it. Reading is learning and learning is a good thing. We owe a lot to this lady and others like her.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

This Is Really Stupid

Here.

Watch and Be Amazed

This clip I came across over at Mark Evanier's excellent blog. Mark is a writer of tv shows, comic books, and probably about a million and one other things. He writes a very entertaining blog. He had this video posted and I almost didn't watch it all the way through. I started and if you watch you you'll probably be like me and figure this is one of those times when someone gets made fun of or humilated, much like the tryouts at the start of American Idol do. That's the set up and I almost turned it off because I didn't want to see that happen. But keep watching. You'll be surprised and glad you did. This woman blows away most of the American Idol wannabes. The shame is she would never had even been able to try out for AI, one she's too old and she definitely doesn't fit their version of what a star should look like. Watching her though I felt a joy run through my body, just seeing her do this should make you smile. Watch and be amazed.

EMBED-Susan Boyle Stuns Crowd with Epic Singing - Watch more free videos

Monday, April 13, 2009

Phil Spector Found Guilty of Murder

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The man famous for the "wall of sound" from the sixties and such acts as Ike and Tina Turner and the Righteous Brothers and a bunch of girl groups from earlier in the decade was found guilty of murder. Read more about it here.

Marilyn Chambers Dead

The porn actress Marilyn Chambers died at her home on April 12. Chambers is best known for the classic porn movie Behind The Green Door. I remember always hearing that she was the Ivory Soap baby but that isn't exactly true. She was the Mother for the baby on the Ivory Soap in the early seventies, before she made it in the porn industry. She was born in Providence Rhode Island to a middle class family. She went to California to be an actress and had a bit part in the Barbara Streisand movie The Owl and the Pussycat. Her first porn film was Behind The Green Door and she talked the producers into giving her a percent of the gross. It was one of the first xxx rated movies that featured a white woman having sex with a black man. In 2004 and 2008 she ran for Vice President on the Personal Choice Party.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

How Dumb Can You Be?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

President Obama is supposed to give the commencement speech at Arizona State University this May. Normally when someone gives the commencement speech they are awarded an honorary degree. ASU says they are not giving the President one because they feel like he hasn't accomplished enough yet, that he still have a lot more to accomplish in the future. Ok, I agree that I think we will see a lot more accomplishments from President Obama in the future. But that he hasn't accomplished enough yet? He was just elected President of the United States. What bigger accomplishments can someone do?

Friday, April 10, 2009

Is DOLLHOUSE Canceled or Not?

The actress Felicia Day twittered that Fox is not going to run the 13th and supposedly final episode of this season of Dollhouse, thus making episode twelve the season ender. To most people this would seem to be the end for the series, but Fox is claiming that it is not canceling Dollhouse. Who believes that?

Characters in Print: Doc Ford

Cover of Tampa Burn

The first in a series of posts about some of my favorite characters from books. The last decade or so have found me gravitating more towards Mysteries as my choice of genre. In the second decade or so of my life I was enmeshed in the world of science fiction. So my first character I want to write about is from a series of Mysteries by Randy Wayne White.

The series take place mainly in Florida but wander the world. The main character is Doctor Marion Ford. Ford is a Marine biologist by trade and secretly a operative for a very clandestine government organization. As a Marine biologist he can be sent into other countries to investigate the flora and fauna of said country while in his other guise he can be doing other nastier things.

When the books start Ford is finished with his government past, or so he hopes. Somehow during the course of the series it keeps coming back to demand more from him. He is trying to come to terms with some of the things he has done while working for the government.

As a character I would place Ford up there with the ultimate in my book, Travis McGee. Ford is a man that lives by what he considers good and tries very hard not to veer from that path, but being human sometimes finds himself not living up to his hard goals. Like McGee with Meyer Ford has his own sometimes sidekick in his exact opposite Tomlinson, a hippie zen master that lives on a boat in the same marina with the Doc and is his best friend.

This is one of those series where while you can enjoy yourself reading about the action and adventure that take place you also learn something. As Ford is a scientist you might learn something about sharks or the state of Florida or even something about what it means to be human. In a lot of ways Ford is a very old fashioned man about some things.

There have been 16 books about Doc Ford and I consider this one of the best series currently being published. The novels are:

Sanibel Flats (1990, St. Martin's Press)

The Heat Islands (1992, St. Martin's Press)

The Man Who Invented Florida (1993, St. Martin's)

Captiva (1996, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

North of Havana (1997, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

The Mangrove Coast (1998, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Ten Thousand Islands (2000, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Shark River (2001, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Twelve Mile Limit (2002, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Everglades (2003, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Tampa Burn (2004, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Dead of Night (2005, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Dark Light (2006, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Hunter's Moon (2007, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

Black Widow (2008, G.P. Putnam's Sons)

DEAD SILENCE (2009 G.P. Putnam's Sons)

LOST in Rolling Stone

Image via Wikipedia

In the recent online (and probable new issue) of Rolling Stone is an article about LOST. Go read it here. And make sure to read the comments....seems I wasn't the only one that thought of aliens after this week's episode. But I must have missed the comment about turtles they mention, was that in the show?

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

LOST

Ok, who would have thought it? Ben actually has feelings for someone other than himself. Does anyone else think that aliens might be involved in the island somehow? I'm just not seeing how the "island" is doing all this. There has to be more behind it all. According to rumor they've hired an actor (sorry I can't remember who and I'm too lazy to look it up right now) to play the mysterious Jacob in the May 14 season finale. While I think this episode is getting back to what I like I find myself growing bored with John Locke. I think part of my problem with Lost lately is that I'm not too fond of the episodes that take place back in the seventies. And next week they go back to that time. But I have to admit that they're filling in a lot of holes, showing how people ended up where they did.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

How Much More?

A gunman kills 13 people at an immigration center. More.

Three police officers killed in Pittsburgh. More.

Ten killed by a lone gunman in Alabama. More.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Old School Fridays: If I Were A Boy

This one made me think. I decided to pick a video that made me think of a time when I was a boy, years past. My thinking is now I'm a man, but if I were a boy. I don't know if that makes sense or not. This song is by a local artist that sings about New Orleans and life in the city past and present, Benny Grunch and the Bunch. Most of his songs are done more in a comedic mode, but this one is not.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

LOST

Ok, time to discuss this week's episode of LOST. I admit I liked it better than the last one I saw. My problem I think is that they're making Jack a wimp. Not so much that he didn't want to save Ben, but that he doesn't seem to want to make any decisions. I'm not sure I buy the fact that all the others wanted to save Ben. In their future they all had a pretty serious hate on for Ben. I understand he's only a kid now, but they all know what he grows up to become. It's like not killing a young Hitler if you had the chance, yes he might be a kid, but the world knows what he grows up to be. Especially Sawyer, no matter how much he's changed, would want to save Ben. I also think Sawyer is liking being a member of Dahmra now, he may not want to leave. At least they're answering questions, we know how Ben became an Other now. But why does healing hiim make him bad like Richard suggests it will. It didn't make Locke or Rose bad, did it?

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Marvin Gaye

Image via Wikipedia

Twenty five years ago Marvin Gaye, one of the great singers and a staple of Motown, was shot to death by his father. Marvin was not content to just be a hit singer and songwriter, he wanted to do something more. He wrote and recorded one of the greatest protest albums ever created What's Going On? It became his biggest success and is still relevant today. This video is the title song from that album plus "What's Happening Brother?" I think "What's Going On?" is still one of the greatest songs of all time and his singing in it is incredible.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Lorne Dies

Image via Wikipedia

Andy Hallet, best known for playing the singing demon Lorne on one of my favorite shows Angel died March 29 of congestive heart disease. The character of Lorne was created after Joss Whedon saw Andy perform in a blues revue. Andy was asked to audition and won the role. It was his first acting job. After Angel went off the air he decided to pursue his music career instead of acting. I always like the character of Lorne on the show.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Facebook

Image via CrunchBase

I've thought of Facebook as another one of those many, many internet sites that seem to be popping up and everyone rushes to join and it's the buzz. I admit I joined a long time back, mainly because my niece dropped her myspace page and went to facebook. We seemed to keep up with each other better on myspace so I thought we could continue it on facebook. Except that I found Facebook ugly and confusing compared to myspace and hardly ever went on it. I found texting worked just as well to keep in touch with my niece.

Well for some reason, I really don't know why I went on Facebook yesterday and decided to look around. You always hear about how people are connecting on Facebook and finding friends that they haven't been in touch with for years. I'm not sure how they find someone on there, most people won't let you click on their profile and if you have the same name as probably at least a dozen others, how do you know which one is the person you're looking for. Still I put in a few names of friends I've lost touch with over the years.

Bingo! I had a hit. And what's even weirder is that he has just really gotten into Facebook in the last few weeks. I found two old friends, Jason and Claire. They used to live in New Orleans and hardly a week would go by without a bunch of us getting together. They moved to just outside Atlanta and a group of us would still visit them every summer. Than we missed a summer and before you knew it we were missing more.

I really don't know where the time goes. One minute we're the best of friends, talking and visiting. The next it's years later and we haven't talked since. No ones fault, just one of those things. But I found Jason online and we chatted in im for awhile. Than today Claire called and we talked even more. They have two kids who I thought of as family when they were younger. Now one's just joined the Marines and is in boot camp right now and the other is playing in a band.

Hopefully this summer I'll make a trip up there to see them all and make up for some lost time. And I'll stop talking bad about Facebook now.

Voices to hear

It's been awhile since I did much posting over at my music site Voices to hear. Well I'm going to make up for that now. If you haven't checked it out give it a try. I'm trying to highlight musical artists at this site that you don't hear a lot of. I do profiles on them, record reviews and I have an interview called Simply Six where I ask as many artists as I can get ahold of the same six question. I've had Matthew Ryan, Shannon McNally, Susan Cowsill, Brian Stoltz, Tristan Prettyman and a lot of others answer. It's a fun little interview.

I've also just written a post entitled "CDs vs. Digital" which was partly inspired by some writing on here about the two forms of music.

If you like muisc I hope you'll like this site. If you check it out check out some of the artists that I've spotlighted or interviewed. I try to include a link to their MySpace page and a place to get some of their music. New Music needs our support.

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Why Wasn't Anybody Listening To This Guy Earlier?

I found this video over at Mark Evanier's blog here. Listening to this clip of some of his appearances over the last two years this man, Peter Schiff appears to have known what was coming. Watching the other experts literally laugh at his doom saying it seem frustrating now that none of them even took him seriously.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

John Boutte

I had heard the name of John Boutte long before I first saw or heard him sing. It wasn't until a French Quarter Fest that I actually saw him. It was during one of Paul Sanchez' Traveling Road Shows. Paul once played guitar and wrote a lot of the songs for Cowboy Mouth. After many years he left to go on his own, but he's really never on his own. He's always performing with other local artists. At this show he had John Boutte, Shamar Allen and Susan Cowsill with him. The show opened with John Boutte singing "City of New Orleans." I was sitting on the ground in the front and I was blown away. This man could sing. He reminded me a lot of Sam Cooke, but with his own New Orleans flavor.

I've put two songs here by him. The above mentioned "City of New Orleans" and also "Louisiana 1927" both songs are from the 2007 New Orleans Jazz Fest. The year before he did a show at Jazz Fest, the first one after Katrina. I missed his show and they didn't record that one, but the reviews said it was the show of the entire Fest. And this was the show where Springsteen performed what I thought one of the best shows ever. There wasn't a dry eye after he did 1927 from what I heard. These two versions may not be those, but they still hold a lot of power. And while you listen to "Louisiana 1927" he's updated it some, taking out President Coolidge and putting in W.

Friday, March 27, 2009

More on Dollhouse

Image via Wikipedia

I've only seen maybe three or four episodes so far but I'm beginning to feel like Dollhouse is not going to be for me. Maybe if I watched it in order it might have more feeling for me, but right now I'm not feeling it. I really don't care for any of the characters and that includes Echo. It's not that I hate this show, it's just I was expecting so much more, coming from Joss Whedon. And it's a show that I see a definite ending to, I don't see it continuing as a long running series. And from what I've read it probably won't.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Going to Memphis

Image via Wikipedia

I've decided to forego New Orleans Jazz Fest this year. It was a hard decision but for a lot of reasons I'm just going to have to skip it this year. I may go one or two days, but that'll be the extent of my visits there this year. Instead of taking my vacation the first week of May I'll be taking it the last week of May and going to visit my Mom.

Anyone know any good places to visit in Memphis? (Feel free to recommend some, Vinny.) The last few times I've been up there to see her we've hit Beale Street, Graceland, Sun Studios, the Zoo and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few places. I like to take her someplace when I go up there. I'm thinking of Elvis' birthplace in Tupelo, it's a little over an hour from her house. She actually doesn't live in Memphis, but about an hour or so outside in Saulsbury.

A Moment of Darkness

The weather down here isn't so good at the moment. We've got some severe thunderstorms tonight and into tomorrow. There's a tornado watch for all the areas around me. But all that said, right where I am today the weather hasn't been all that bad. It rained some this morning and than later tonight, but during the day it stayed rain free. The skies looked like they were going to drop down any minute all day, but they held off.

I was on the phone talking to my Mom when I lost power all of a sudden. It was off just long enough for me to tell me Mom I lost power and than it was back on. You know I have a bunch of flashlights, but why do they never seem to be near me when I lose power. At this time of night when the power goes off it gets real dark. The nearest flashlight was two rooms away.

Missed LOST This Week

So what happened?

I did read somewhere that Ben was killed, but was it the young Ben or the older Ben? Was it Sayid like I said last week? Someone tell me what happened this week.

Treme by David Simon

Image via Wikipedia

David Simon is one of my favorite creators of television shows. He was a journalist that wrote the book Homicide that the television was created from. Later he went on the create the HBO series The Wire. He's down here in New Orleans right now creating another new series called Treme. You can read more about it here. I'm excited because its David Simon and because it's going to feature a lot of New Orleans' musicians.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Borders Going Under?

Image via Wikipedia

At one time Borders was probably one of my favorite bookstores. The music selection was better than just about every other big box retailer around. I have a taste that sometimes runs to lesser known acts and at Borders I could find most of them. And the prices were reasonable, a lot less than at other places like Barnes & Noble. The Borders here is across the lake in Metairie so it's not someplace I go to every week. I would usually hit them up at least once a month and I'd never walk out with some new books or music. At the magazine rack at Borders I would get my new copy of Backstreets whenever it came out. Their section on books on music and musicians is better than B & N, I've got quite a few books about different musicians there.

But sometime in the last year things started to change. They moved their music selection around, making it smaller. And the prices went up. I started having trouble finding a lot of what I wanted there. I started making that trip across the lake less often, at least to go to Borders.

Are they getting ready to go out of business? Go here and read about it. Even though they're not my favorite book store anymore I'd hate to see them go under.

Spiderman Saves The Day!

It's nice to have good news to report, especially with the recent posts about deaths. In Thailand Spiderman saved the day. Go read about it here.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Eddie Bo Dies

Dang, it seems like everytime I write a post about someone dying I end up having to write a couple more. On March 18 Eddie Bo, a New Orleans musician died. Eddie is another of the great New Orleans originals. I just saw him perform at last year's Jazz Fest and he was in great spirit. Snooks left us not long ago, now Eddie. We're losing the greats.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Tinted Windows

Later this month a new album comes out from a new group called Tinted Windows. While the group is new, the members are not, having been around in other groups for years. It's members are Taylor Hanson from Hanson, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick. This is just great fun pop music.

Ron Silver Dies

I missed this when it happened but on March 15 the actor Ron Silver died of esophageal cancer. To me he is best known as Bruno Gianelli on The West Wing. For his role he was nominated for an Emmy. He was 62 years old. A lifelong liberal and Democrat he became a staunch supporter of President Bush after 9/11. In February of 2008 he started his own talk radio show on Sirius Radio.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Test: Looking For A Music Player

I'm looking for a new music player to use to upload music to this site and my other site Voices to hear. I may still use the Muzibo, which is what I was using, but to continue it's going to cost me twenty five dollars. So I thought I'd look around and see what else is out there. I've found this one: aimini and am testing it out. I downloaded a song below, Lone Justice's "After the Flood."

One problem I see is that for some reason nothing on my Itunes that I downloaded from E Music is showing up. I can't figure that one out.

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