tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19104050480498940932024-02-19T10:56:43.060-05:00Johnny B: Renaissance Man!Dedicated to the independent spirit. Looking for culture in contemporary society. An exploration of all things John: Food, drink, music, books, films, culture, travel, art, and people.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-81288603004812079982010-02-13T13:14:00.002-05:002010-02-13T13:18:35.844-05:00It's been fun, but it's time to move onAs promised/threatened several weeks ago, this site has moved. Please point your browser at <a href="http://www.johnbeatty.org">http://www.johnbeatty.org</a>. I have moved all posts from here over to the new site, and I will slowly be adding other content along with the usual posting. While using Blogger is convenient and fairly easy, it's difficult to extend the site past just being a collection of posts. I also wanted to move the site to a different host, which after this month will not be possible with Blogger. I am also using this as an opportunity to learn how to build a site with <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a>.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-25348703296399740252010-02-11T12:26:00.004-05:002010-02-11T12:32:18.248-05:00RPM Challenge Days 5 & 6Tuesday night I spent some time arranging the scratch tracks I put down on Monday. I cut and pasted the most accurate performances of each part, then looped them and arranged them with the click track. I cut the seven songs I had started down to six when I started recording. I worked on five of the six, as one of them needs more writing. The arrangements are all tentative. I'll keep working them out as I go. <br /><br />Wednesday, I set up the drums and played through all of the five tracks and worked out drum parts I like for most of them. There are two that still need work. One more than the other. As I expected, I noticed some issues with some of my arrangements when I was working through the drum parts. I haven't decided what I'm working on the Thursday night. It may be re-working the arrangements, or I might go buy drum heads and change them and work on the arrangements Friday before I start recording the drums. <br /><br />Friday I will change the drum heads if I haven't yet, mic everything up and then start laying down drums on the tracks I have ready. I will also work on arrangements and maybe some new songs in between drum takes. <br /><br />Saturday will likely be more of the same.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-91979235281103503212010-02-08T23:00:00.002-05:002010-02-08T23:08:14.775-05:00RPM Challenge Day 4: Scratch TracksI finally got back to work today. The parts for my guitar showed up in the mail today, so I started off with some bass tracks. I played around and found some tempos, then put the bass parts I have for two songs down with a click. I didn't do the third because I decided I don't like it. <br /><br />Then I grabbed my guitar, and pulled the bridge out and tore it apart and cleaned it up some while watching the third period of the Sharks-Leafs game. I installed the new string hooks, springs and screws then put it back together. I put the strings back on, tuned it up, adjusted the tension, tuned it again and it's playing better than ever. The springs have been worn for a while. Several years ago I cranked the tension all the way up to compensate, but it would lose pitch if I bent a string. Also, I've known those string hooks were wearing and I think I was having some trouble keeping in tune because they were shifting. No more. <br /><br />After fixing the guitar, I went back and put down the guitar parts I have for four songs. One of them definitely needs something else, but I have a start.<br /><br />Tomorrow night I'll start arranging them via some cut and paste. I'll look to add parts to a couple of them and maybe come up with some more new stuff. If not and I lose inspiration early, I'll finish rewiring the recording setup. I found the rest of the cables and such that were missing. I was planning on doing drum tracks all week, but it looks like Wednesday I'll set the drums up and play for a bit. I probably will put some tracks down on Friday.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-75494190788184525342010-02-06T23:18:00.003-05:002010-02-06T23:24:04.399-05:00RPM Challenge Day 3: More SongwritingThursday night I went back over all the stuff I had done the previous two nights and came up with one more thing. The parts for my guitar shipped so I should have that up and running again soon.<br /><br />Today I had originally planned to get some demos started. I had a bunch of other stuff to do as well and it all took longer than expected. I did get the computer moved and the mixer wired up and I fetched the mic stands from storage. Tomorrow I have two morning errands to run, a small amount of kitchen cleaning and a Super Bowl party. Around that will be solid work on demos.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-21368285668051404512010-02-03T21:34:00.002-05:002010-02-03T21:41:00.535-05:00RPM Challenge Day 2: SongwritingTonight was the Panthers' Season Ticket Holder team signing, so I went to that right after work, followed up by dinner at Stevie B's in Weston. After we got home, I unpacked my new, dirt cheap SX bass, which arrived this afternoon. I sat down with it in the living room and checked it out. It plays reasonably well. There's some buzz, but some of it is probably easily fixable. It's a "vintage" jazz bass, with the old neck style that's really narrow at the nut. It's a little weird as I'm more used to playing metal basses or 90s Jazz basses, but I think it will do the trick. I came up with the basis of three songs, so even though it was only an hour's work tonight, I think it was a good hour. I'm too tired for much else this evening, so it's off to bed to read for a while. Tomorrow I'll work on a couple more new things and maybe revisit the first couple nights worth of stuff. Then Friday's a night off for the Calgary game. On Saturday I'll start getting some rough tracks down.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-13790026266022787772010-02-02T23:21:00.003-05:002010-02-02T23:48:33.649-05:00RPM Challenge Day 1: SongwritingThis year I have entered the <a href="http://www.rpmchallenge.com/">RPM Challenge</a>. I have entered under the name "The Irony Set," which Liz doesn't like. No matter. I will make my ambient dub metal album nonetheless. At least that's what I'm anticipating now. No telling how these things turn out, especially if they aren't well-planned, which this one is certainly not.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />I missed the first day owing to the very dull Panthers-Ducks game last night. I might as well have stayed home, but I wasn't feeling great and wouldn't have gotten much done anyway.<br /><br />I started work this evening after dinner. I was thinking I would start to put together some guitar riffs, record them and arrange rough demos on the computer. I realized fairly quickly that I had a couple of problems there. One being that I'm missing a fairly important cable for my recording rig, the one that hooks the tape recorders to the sound card. The other cables for the sound card are too short to reach from the mixer to the computer. I was planning to buy longer cables in August when I was setting up this room, but never made it. So, I need to find the missing cable and I also need to move the computer closer to the mixer. I also left all my microphone stands in storage, so I will have to go fetch those later this week. <br /><br />I gave up on recording for the evening and instead picked my guitar back up and kept working. I put together pieces for two songs and notated them in my usual shorthand so I won't forget them (in theory). I tried dropping to D for a third song but quickly found I didn't much like it, so I started tuning the string back to E. I heard a popping noise and looked down to see the hook that holds the string in place on the bridge had broken. My guitar is a heavily modified Japanese Telecaster. I replaced the original bridge with a Kahler 2230 back in 1995 because the original System I bridge had worn out. This bridge was given to me by Marty, our lead guitarist and was about 7 years old at the time. I think mine is the second or third guitar to have this bridge mounted on it. I'm fairly lucky it happened now and not several years ago, as Kahler is making them again and repair parts are readily available. <br /><br />I grabbed my backup guitar (the less said about this one the better) and went back to work. After a quick tune-up, I played around some more and worked up the beginnings of a third song. I had to leave to check the chile verde again, and that ended up being the end of my work. <br /><br />I hopped on the internet and $61 later, I have a whole new set of string hooks (might as well fix them all), a pair of springs and set screws for the saddles. If I'm ordering, I thought I may as well fix some other parts that are showing their age. <br /><br />Tomorrow, I will have to work in some cleanup and studio setup into the evening. That is provided the Panthers Season Ticket Holder autograph thing doesn't take forever. I have that right after work, then we'll head home and eat the chile verde. And then it's back to work. <br /><br />I'm hoping to have rough arrangements of seven or eight songs by the weekend. If I can do two to three per night, I should be in good shape. I want to have rough demos recorded by the end of the weekend. Then I'll spend the week (Monday to Sunday) laying down drum and bass. Then the plan, such as it is, calls for guitar overdubs, then I'll work on lyrics, record vocals and then add whatever else seems necessary. Since I'm working on a DAW, I will be working up mixes as I record, meaning that I can hopefully mix very quickly at the end. I'll nail the plan down a little better as I go along. For now, I have three songs started and hope to get two or three more tomorrow.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-25558885358123463022010-01-19T21:40:00.000-05:002010-01-19T21:40:58.469-05:00Phish - American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL December 30, 2009<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/4254981293/" title="Phish 2009-12-30 20.50.57 by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2691/4254981293_c135c73428.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Phish 2009-12-30 20.50.57" /></a><br />Set 1: Soul Shakedown Party, Runaway Jim, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Dixie Cannonball, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, Corrina, What's the Use?, Tela, Gone, Rocky Top, Chalk Dust Torture, David Bowie<br /><br />Set 2: Sand, The Curtain With > Lifeboy, Back on the Train > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Hold Your Head Up > Love You > Hold Your Head Up, Free, Boogie On Reggae Woman > Run Like an Antelope<br /><br />Encore: Frankenstein<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />After a sleepless night following discovery of the robbery while we were at the second show of the run, we tried to pick up the pieces a bit. I spent most of the day trying unsuccessfully to fix the broken window. I got it mostly working, but the control arms were too bent for the bottom pane to close properly. Liz dealt with the police report and finding the serial numbers and getting better descriptions for stuff. Neither of us ate all day. We finally took off for the show around 6:30, arriving well after door time. <br /><br />We went up to the 400 level to check out our behind-stage seats. They told us that we could trade our 400 level tickets in for 100 level seats, also behind the stage. I didn't want to trade my mail-order tickets in, so we went to check out the assigned seats. They were up pretty high, but offered an interesting view of the stage and the rest of the arena. Plus the section was empty. Before the show, groups of people would come in, look at the seats and, more often than not, leave. But a few other groups remained by the start of the show. The arena staff seemed pretty put out that they couldn't close the section on account of about 20 people who wouldn't leave. But too bad for them. After a really rough day, we were happy to sit way up in a sparsely populated section.<br /><br />We went back down to 300 to pick up some food. I got a sandwich and some fries. It was passable arena food, better than what the BankAtlantic Center is serving, for the most part. It felt good to finally eat.<br /><br />But what does this have to do with the music? Not much, except to explain my mood at the show. The band opened with some reggae, namely the first Soul Shakedown Party since the fateful 2004 Vegas run that led to Phish's breakup. But tonight it got the party started. Most of our section were up and dancing. They kept it uptempo with a nice Runaway Jim with, again, a concise and tasteful jam out into Jesus Just Left Chicago, the first of the year and my first as well. This was to be the theme of the evening, as it often is for December 30 shows. <br /><br />After the bluesy Jesus Just Left Chicago, they kicked the tempo back up with a quick country tune I'd never heard, which turned out to be a Hank Williams song called Dixie Cannonball. Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan and a rare Corrina, which they had played for the first time in ten years ten years to the day on December 30, 1999 at Big Cypress. <br /><br />After a quick break, Trey let out some feedback and they lurched into a familiar-sounding groove. Amazingly, someone down below us was apparently hollering for What's The Use and the band obliged. I couldn't believe it. This rarely played centerpiece to The Siket Disc is one of my favorite pieces of Phish music. By the time they segued into the first Tela since 1998, I had an enormous smile on my face and my mood had lightened considerably. At the first chords of Tela, the entire audience lit up and the band responded with a gorgeous rendering of the rarely played fan-favorite. <br /><br />After the Phish debut of Gone, from the Party Time CD (aka the Joy box set bonus disc), the rest of the set was high octane: Rocky Top, Chalkdust and a blistering Bowie. I was left wondering what they were going to pull out for the second set.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/4255745068/" title="Phish 2009-12-30 19.42.45 by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4255745068_5480d86b0c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Phish 2009-12-30 19.42.45" /></a><br />The second set kicked off with only the second Sand since the last time Phish played New Year's in Miami back in 2003. That, naturally, got everyone dancing again. The Curtain With followed, in a much better performance than the last encore at Coventry. That gave way to the underrated Lifeboy. And in a continuation of the tempo shifting approach the band had been taking the entire run, they followed the mellow song with the uptempo Back on the Train and the quiet Wading in the Velvet Sea. <br /><br />After wading, Page started playing the chords to Hold Your Head Up and Fishman emerged from behind the drum kit. Trey hopped up to the drums and they launched into Love You, the song that had held the last vacuum solo of the 1990s during the all-night set at Big Cypress. After the second verse, Fish stated that as they had announced his last vacuum solo of the decade two nights earlier, he couldn't play another one as "that would make us liars." <br /><br />"Can anyone hear play the vacuum? It can't be just anyone, it has to be someone dressed like me, and that sir, is you." He motioned to security to let a guy from the front row up, a man dressed in a t-shirt patterned after the dress Fish wears on stage." The guy from the front row said his name was Rich and proceeded to play a fairly impressive solo. So impressive that Fish gave him the vacuum cleaner before returning to his drums. <br /><br />With the audience raging, Phish finished up the set with some more high energy tunes, Free, Stevie Wonder's Boogie on Reggae Woman and Run Like an Antelope. Edgar Winter's Frankenstein (a fixture at special shows) was the encore and we were sent back off into the night. We drove home a lot happier than we arrived, and as there were no extra lights on when we got home, we relaxed a little more and actually managed to get some sleep.<br /><br /><br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-15595006793974090872010-01-06T21:30:00.000-05:002010-01-06T21:30:00.137-05:00Phish - American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL December 29, 2009<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/4252057477/" title="Phish 2009-12-29 20.10.39 by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2719/4252057477_e83ca16a5b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Phish 2009-12-29 20.10.39" /></a><br />Set 1: Golgi Apparatus, Maze, Driver, The Connection, Wolfman's Brother, Ocelot, Reba, Access Me, The Divided Sky, Cavern<br /><br />Set 2: Kill Devil Falls > Tweezer -> Prince Caspian > Gotta Jibboo > Wilson -> Gotta Jibboo -> Heavy Things > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Slave to the Traffic Light<br /><br />Encore: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise<br /><br />After the first night, I was pretty excited about the second show of the New Year's run. They<br />hit it full on with an uptempo Golgi Apparatus to open and then got into the jamming quickly with Maze. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />A couple of slower, shorter ones followed including only the second performance of the lone single from 2004's <span style="font-style:italic;">Undermind</span> album, The Connection. The rest of the set was mostly either long jam or long composed songs broken up by another second-ever performance of an <span style="font-style:italic;">Undermind</span> track, Mike Gordon's Access Me, one of my favorites from that album. The Wolfman's Brother and Ocelot on the front-half felt like 1997 again as they pulled out the funk (yes, Ocelot is new, but the jam out of it could easily have been from summer 1997). The Reba and Divided Sky after were fairly tight, with a quite good solo in Reba. I particularly enjoyed this bit of the set, as it was Reba that first really got my attention. At the time I heard it, I was listening to a lot of Frank Zappa and Trey's composition at that time was heavily influenced by Zappa's work. Divided Sky is similarly constructed and as a bonus is a song I hadn't heard since my first Phish show. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/4252057717/" title="Phish 2009-12-29 22.18.07 by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2793/4252057717_7a5c5b47d1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Phish 2009-12-29 22.18.07" /></a><br /><br />The second set started out with a high-octane Kill Devil Falls, from the new record which slammed straight into Tweezer. Tweezer was an example of the concise jamming that Phish is engaging in. There was little long-windedness in the jams on the entire run. Tweezer faded into Prince Caspian which kind of stumbled into Gotta Jibboo. Jibboo picked up the tempo and eventually wandered its way into Wilson. Trey teased Jibboo in the Wilson outro and eventually they segued back into the ending of Jibboo which in a kind of sloppy fashion gave way to Heavy Things. <br /><br />Liz was definitely enjoying the poppier tone of the previous night, what with all the pop classics on display, as opposed to this show which featured the two overplayed Phish singles from 2000 and 2004. She spent a lot of time home in Virginia Beach, a place where Phish is actually heard on the radio, those years and had her fill of The Connection and Heavy Things. I have no such problems, but I thought Heavy Things was a little on the sloppy side. The set got back on track with the funky cover of Deodato's arrangement of Also Sprach Zarathustra. This, much like Tweezer was concise. There was nothing wasted as they laid down some funk, dropped into the theme and then built up to big crescendo, falling away into a pretty Slave to the Traffic Light to end the set. <br /><br />The encore went into silly with Sleeping Monkey before the inevitable Tweezer Reprise to end the show.<br /><br />We finished the evening at the arena with a trip to the merch booth, where some girl had just bought a shirt, walked away from the counter, dropped the shirt and had someone grab and run off with it. We all talked about how lame that was. It was eerily prescient as we arrived home to find someone broke into our house while we were a the show and stole some stuff. So, then instead of getting some sleep after another good show, we spent some quality time with the police before spending the rest of the night unable to sleep. Unfortunately, the memory of this show may always be marred by this (mostly) unrelated event, and definitely affected us for the remaining shows.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-55391409794930872612010-01-05T21:39:00.003-05:002010-01-05T21:41:33.380-05:00Fifteen things about me and booksI pushed off the post I was going to write for today because <a href="http://sarahglassmeyer.com/">Sarah Glassmeyer</a> posted a link on Twitter to <a href="http://stevelawson.name/seealso/archives/2010/01/fifteen_things_about_me_and_books.html">Steve Lawson's Fifteen things about me and books</a> and it looked like fun. <br /><br />1. I don't really collect books, but my tastes are so odd I feel compelled to keep lots of books for fear of never being able to find certain titles again.<br /><br />2. In first grade, they sent me to second grade for "reading class" because I read too fast for everyone else.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />3. In sixth grade, I had to read and give an oral report on 'The Yearling.' I hated it so much that I stopped halfway through and just winged the report.<br /><br />4. The only non-assigned book I've ever given up on was J.R.R. Tolkien's <br />'The Silmarillion.' It reads like The Bible, only more confusing.<br /><br />5. I say the above as someone who has read The Bible, cover to cover.<br /><br />6. When I worked in my junior high library, I was the first person who checked out a newly released biography on Ernie Davis, the school's namesake. I was very excited to be the first person to check out the book although I wasn't a football fan. I think I was just interested in learning about the person whom the school was named after.<br /><br />7. I can't remember the last time I read a novel. I've been reading non-fiction books almost exclusively for several years, though I do read short stories. (OK, make that a non-Harry Potter novel-I read those).<br /><br />8. I read the book '1984' in 1984. I probably didn't understand all of it, but the book had a profound influence on my thinking about a lot of things.<br /><br />9. A book with an even more profound influence on my thinking was Douglas Adams' 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.' I thought the worldview of the person behind that book had to be very interesting, indeed.<br /><br />10. The book is always better than the movie. The only one that comes close is 'Goodfellas.'<br /><br />11. While most of the fiction I've read comes from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of the book store, very little of it is actual Science Fiction. It's always seemed so dry. <br /><br />12. I'll read an autobiography written by just about anyone if they look like an interesting person.<br /><br />13. I found so many of the novels I was required to read for school boring (still can't read Steinbeck and Hemingway), but the short stories (and sometimes the poetry) very interesting. <br /><br />14. When I was in high school and my family took summer vacations, while everyone else was swimming I would be sitting on the beach with a book.<br /><br />15. I read Douglas Adams' 'The Salmon of Doubt' very slowly because I knew it was going to be the last one of his I would ever be able to read.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-42970228509390680902010-01-04T21:49:00.004-05:002010-01-04T22:59:29.885-05:00Phish-American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL December 28, 2009<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/4246912144/" title="Phish 2009-12-28 20.07.58 by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4246912144_54c0dc2b36.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Phish 2009-12-28 20.07.58" /></a><br /><br />Set 1: Sample in a Jar, NICU > My Soul, Roggae, Undermind, Bouncing Around the Room, Poor Heart, Stash, I Didn't Know, Beauty of a Broken Heart, Possum<br /><br />Set 2: Mike's Song > Light -> I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Alaska, Backwards Down the Number Line, Makisupa Policeman > Harry Hood > Contact > Character Zero<br /><br />Encore: First Tube<br /><br />This was my first Phish show since the debacle at Coventry five years ago. We, along with thousands of others, told to turn back from the disaster area that was the farm where it was being held, parked our cars and hiked in. Though the band was obviously touched at this display by fans, it was their announced last show as their problems, in particular, as we would soon find out, leader Trey Anastasio's drug problems, had spelled the end for the band. The resulting show was reminiscent of a wake: an attempt to celebrate the life of the band, but ultimately sad at the same time.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Following Trey's drug bust and resulting rehab and community service, the stage was set for the band's return. They finally reunited this spring with a series of well-received, but tentative, shows at Hampton Coliseum. They followed these with a summer tour and a new album. Reviews were good, but not great as the band re-acquainted themselves with each other and their music. The band's Halloween festival in California and fall tour received much better reviews and it was about this time the Miami New Year's Eve shows were announced. I entered the ticket lottery and somehow managed to score tickets for all four shows. <br /><br />I was never a full-on obsessive Phishhead. This was my twenty-first Phish show, which is a bit more, but still in line with other bands I've seen live as often as I've had the opportunity. And though I was less than excited by their latest album, I was still excited by the prospect of the shows as this band has almost always been better live than on record. And I am happy to report that this band can still bring it live. They may have needed the better part of a year to get back up to speed, but they've still got it.<br /><br />The first set started nice, uptempo and poppy then got quiet with the first Roggae since the breakup. The composed part at the end was a touch sloppy but otherwise the song was very well-played and well-placed, slowing the tempo down a little before the second performance of Undermind and the pop of Bouncing. A slamming fast Poor Heart got the tempo back up before a nice, dark Stash and I Didn't Know, featuring what Trey referred to as "the last vacuum solo of the decade." That was fun, especially as I'd seen the last vacuum solo of the previous decade, at Big Cypress. They upped the tempo again they rocked up the opening (and best) track from Page's snooze-fest of a solo album and then closed out the set with Possum.<br /><br />After the Roggae and Poor Heart/Stash combo, I was pretty excited about the next set. That was the best set of Phish I'd seen since 2003. Easily beat all of the 2004 shows I saw. Mike's opened up the festivities. The transition into Light was interesting and unexpected and the jamming from Light into Hydrogen was especially good and along with Stash, the highlight of the show. A couple more new ones followed and then a Makisupa where Trey sang about going to Mike's House. And it was Mike's set, as his playing stood out as being particularly good. From there they went into Hood, which was again well-played. The Contact was unexpected, but fun, and Character Zero is always a good way to end the set as far as I'm concerned.<br /><br />By the end of the set I was excited for the next three days of shows and expecting a quick encore before we went on our way, but it was not to be. No, I was finally going to see a First Tube. Somehow, of all the songs on Farmhouse, this one, my favorite, had eluded me to this point. They revved it up and then pulled it back to end the night on a high note, leaving everyone ready for the next show. <br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-32415078000346638582010-01-03T20:00:00.001-05:002010-01-04T21:48:52.634-05:00Best Albums of 2008Best of 2008? Isn't is 2010? Shouldn't I be writing a best of 2009? While I'm all for year-in-review, I often think that albums released late in the year get short shrift on year-end lists. A lot of year-end lists are published before the year's last albums have been released and many more were written earlier for publication at the end of the year. Also, as someone who is not a professional reviewer (and no longer a record-store employee), I don't hear everything as soon as it's released. I don't get to a lot of albums until well after release. I also like to give it some time. Sometimes things that don't impress me at first do so ultimately. Sometimes I'm all over an album when it's new and then set aside when the next thing comes along. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />As of right now, here are my favorites from last year, in no particular order:<br /><br />Deerhoof-Offend Maggie<br />Terakaft-Akh Issudar<br />Stereolab-Chemical Chords<br />David Byrne & Brian Eno-Everything That Happens Happenss Today<br />R.E.M.-Accelerate<br />Von Sudenfed-Tromatic Reflexxions<br />Radiohead-In Rainbows<br />Hawnay Troof-Islands of Ayle<br />Dengue Fever-Venus on Earth<br />Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds-Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Best New Old Music:</span><br />Frank Zappa-One Shot Deal<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Best Box Set:</span><br />2 Skinnee J's-Big Green Book<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Best Reissue:</span><br />Nick Lowe-Jesus of Cool<br /><br />Honorable Mention:<br />Bob Mould-District Line<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">A few notes on the above:</span><br />Bob Mould gets the honorable mention because I just bought the record last week. I missed it when it came out. I recently heard a track on the radio and at first I wasn't impressed. I didn't like the effects on the vocals and it just didn't seem great. The song ended and I was humming the chorus over the DJ. I bought the album two days later. <br /><br />It took me a long time to decide whether or not I liked <span style="font-weight:bold;">Deerhoof</span>. I eventually heard enough tracks I liked from <span style="font-style:italic;">Offend Maggie</span> that I got it, and when I heard the whole thing i was a lot more impressed. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Terakaft</span> is a couple former members of Tinariwen, who started their own group. The music is very similar, but they also have their own sound. The latest <span style="font-weight:bold;">Stereolab</span> is fabulous. I think it's the best thing they've released in years. It's very poppy, with a lot of shorter, catchy songs. Too bad it might be their last. A lot of people were disappointed in the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Byrne and Eno</span> album because it was so dissimilar to <span style="font-style:italic;">My Life In the Bush of Ghosts</span>. <span style="font-style:italic;">Everything That Happens Will Happen Today</span> is a much different project with a completely different sound. Byrne described it as a sort of "electronic gospel" and that's not too far off. I enjoyed it and the accompanying tour quite a bit. <span style="font-style:italic;">Accelerate</span> is the first <span style="font-weight:bold;">R.E.M.</span> album I've been excited about since 1989's <span style="font-style:italic;">Green</span>. There are a couple of duds late in the album, but up to that point, it's just as solid as they come, with more energy than the band has displayed since <span style="font-style:italic;">Monster</span>. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Von Sudenfed</span> is a collaboration between The Fall's Mark E. Smith and Mouse on Mars. It sounds a lot like the Mouse on Mars guys put some tracks together and then Smith came into the studio, got loaded and just went for it. With <span style="font-style:italic;">In Rainbows</span>, <span style="font-weight:bold;">Radiohead</span> turns out another good one. It feels less like a progression than leftovers from <span style="font-style:italic;">Hail to the Thief</span>, but they're good leftovers. I don't know quite what the <span style="font-weight:bold;">Hawnay Troof</span> are doing, but it's a lot of fun. It's kind of a hip-hop version of XBXRX. Definitely worth checking out if one is into crazy electronic stuff. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Dengue Fever</span> were the darlings of NPR for a while. We kept hearing pieces on them on various shows. It took a long time, but in mid-2008 I finally found their albums in a shop in Durham, NC. I bought all three. <span style="font-style:italic;">Venus on Earth</span> had just come out and might be my favorite of the three. Dengue Fever update classic 60s Cambodian pop music. Their older albums contain covers of Cambodian tracks and originals in Khmer. Their newer albums have more originals, including several in English. it's all good stuff. <span style="font-style:italic;">Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!</span> sounds more like 2007's Grinderman album than a Bad Seeds record, but with the full group. Either way, it's all <span style="font-weight:bold;">Nick Cave</span> and it's all great.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">One Shot Deal</span> is based on a build reel found in the Zappa archives. It was apparently from a lost, never completed project from the mid 70s. Frank's build reels were usually one album side. This particular reel had no corresponding other side, so it was filled out with a couple of tracks from the Royce Hall show in 1975 and, randomly, the recording of "Illinois Enema Bandit" from the 1981 Halloween show. The last track notwithstanding, the rest of the CD is some really good mid-70s FZ including an excellent performance of the Yellow Snow suite from Australia and a great guitar solo from Heidelberg. Yep Roc re-released <span style="font-weight:bold;">Nick Lowe<span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span>'s debut solo album, <span style="font-style:italic;">Jesus of Cool</span> in 2008. The CD also includes B-sides and the alternate tracks from the U.S. version, called <span style="font-style:italic;">Pure Pop for Now People</span>. It sounds great and there are liner notes explaining the circumstances behind the album and the two versions. And the music is still fantastic 20 years later.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-16266700266581865872010-01-02T21:19:00.003-05:002010-01-02T21:44:38.335-05:00Best Live Shows of 2009Continuing my year-end wrap-up, here are my ten favorite live performances I saw this year. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Jesus Lizard, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, November 6, 2009</span><br />My top choice reflects my musical biases. As much as I liked the next two performances on the list, I find it difficult to not list an amazing rock act first. Ten years after their breakup and coinciding with the reissue of their first four albums, The Jesus Lizard reformed to play a couple of summer festivals and a short fall tour. I missed this band the first time around and have regretted it ever since. Their live reputation was stellar and as much as I enjoyed the records I always wanted to see the live show. I was certainly not disappointed. One song in, I was thinking "This band is fucking awesome!" A couple more in and I was convinced it was the best show I'd seen all year. By the end of the set, I had decided they are the best rock band I've ever seen. Period. I'm convinced they reformed just to show up a bunch of guys half their age. The tour is over now and allegedly they will be returning from whence they came. If they hit the road again, there is no question I will be there. They are everything great rock and roll should be: intense, loud, slightly dangerous and unrelenting. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Leonard Cohen, BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, FL, Oct 17, 2009</span><br />I came late to the party on Leonard Cohen. My friend Bill, who is a huge Cohen fan, turned me on to the I'm Your Man album a few years back and more recently I have started to explore the rest of his catalog. When I found out he was playing locally, I couldn't pass up what is likely to be my only opportunity to see a living legend. The show was all-around amazing. The lower bowl of the arena was turned into a makeshift theatre, giving it a bit better atmosphere for the music. The sound was incredible. Cohen's band is stellar, in particular Spanish guitarist Javier Mas. And Cohen himself is engaged, self-effacing and funny on stage. He played a two-and-a-half hour show from throughout his catalog, from first album to most recent.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tinariwen, North Beach Bandshell, Miami Beach, FL (Heineken TransAtlantic Festival), April 25, 2009</span><br />I picked up on Tinariwen from Henry Rollins' radio show on Indie 103 in Los Angeles (he's now on KCRW). He has been playing tracks from them for several years. I finally found one of their albums in a store early this year. I played the disc incessantly and soon after found out they would be playing locally as part of the TransAtlantic Festival. They were opening for Cuban-American singer Cucu Diamantes and it was pretty obvious early on that it was her crowd and hardly anyone there had any idea who these guys were. Little matter as the band had the crowd all dancing within five or six songs. Group leader Ibrahim skipped the tour, opting to go into the desert to recharge. No matter, as his songs were sung ably by younger member Intidao. Tinariwen will be back in the United States early this year. We will be catching them in Brooklyn in February.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Phish, American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL, December 28-31, 2009<br /></span>I cheated on this run and put the whole run as one show rather than have three shows by the same band in the list. In almost any other year, the December 30 show would have been at the top of the list. Barring performers I know personally, Phish is the one I have seen the largest number of times (24). I was in the swamp ten years ago for their New Year's Eve set, which began at five to midnight and ended at dawn. For a number of reasons, the band lost their way following this show. They took a hiatus after 18 years as a band to recharge, came back two years later and then broke up within two years. They reformed early this year and played their first shows in March. They've spent the year becoming re-acquainted with each other and regaining what they'd lost as a unit. These shows are proof that they are back one hundred percent. Reviewers are calling the December 30 possibly the best pre-New Year's Eve show of all time and the whole run found them playing well, having fun and pulling out all the stops. The complicated songs were tight, the jams were focused and well-developed, their sense of humor and spectacle were well intact and on display. Unlike some of their late pre-breakup shows, these were an affirmation of why I continue to return to see this band. There is simply no one else who can do what they do. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Pogues, Pompano Beach Amphitheatre, Pompano Beach, FL, March 7, 2009</span><br />One of the crushing disappointments of Langerado's cancellation is that I wasn't going to be able to see The Pogues. That is, until they got a replacement booking in Pompano Beach. Liz and I spent our wedding anniversary with The Pogues and had a marvelous time. They haven't written any new music since reuniting a few years ago, but they're still getting on and still playing amazing shows. The music always felt older than the band and I feel like their age is just now catching up. That said, they're a lively bunch. The whole band is in great form, including singer Shane MacGowan, who was originally tossed from the band for being drunk and unpredictable. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tussle, Revolution Live!, Fort Lauderdale, FL April 12, 2009</span><br />I saw these guys open up for Ratatat and ended up liking them a lot more than the headliners. Tussle play a more indie rock version of electronic music, stripped down and sparse. The songs are built over bass lines, filled out with percussion and electronics. I enjoyed the show so much, I bought all three of their albums and a number of singles, which were all excellent. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Judas Priest, Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, FL August 17, 2009</span><br />Judas Priest was the headliner for the first arena rock show I ever saw (Broome County Arena in Binghamton, NY, Jan 1991). I actually went to see the openers, Megadeth, but I was interested in seeing Priest as I had liked their most recent album, Painkiller. New drummer Scott Travis, at 21 years old about half the age of the other members, was kicking their asses live and they were high energy, playing even their slower mid-80s material at a faster tempo. The band had a huge set of ramps on stage, which they would run up and down throughout the show. The stage was smaller and there was no running, on ramps or otherwise, but their set this year was every bit as good as that show eighteen years ago. The band was touring for the 20th anniversary of the classic British Steel album and as such the set consisted of the entire album and then a bunch of mostly 70s Priest classics, with one Painkiller track, a couple early 80s tracks and one from their newest album. Maybe the show was so good because the set concentrated on a lot of their best material. Or maybe they just still have a lot of energy in their 60s. A side note: I think Glenn Tipton is still wearing the same pants as the first time I saw them. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">All the Saints, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, November 6, 2009</span><br />I saw All the Saints open for The Jesus Lizard. Having never heard of the band, I didn't know what to expect, but I was impressed with the show. All the Saints are noisy indie rock in the vein of Jesus and Mary Chain or A Place to Bury Strangers. Detached vocals, loud guitars and lots of feedback rule the day here. This was the second time in the year I was impressed with an opener I've never heard of. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Dangerous, The All Heavy-Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, NorVa, Norfolk, VA, August 28, 2009</span><br />Dangerous was formed for one show by members of 2 Skinnee J's and Tragedy, the All-Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees. As 2 Skinnee J's are one of Liz and my favorite bands and Tragedy was one of the best bands I saw in 2008, when they added a couple extra shows including one at the NorVa, we made the trip. The trip was well worth it, as the metal arrangements of the King of Pop's biggest hits were as brilliant as Tragedy's metal arrangements of the Bee Gees disco hits. I'm still hoping they do an album. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Unwigged and Unplugged, The Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason Theatre, Miami Beach, FL, May 5, 2009</span><br />Not so much a concert as a bit of musical theatre, the Unwigged and Unplugged tour featured Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer playing songs from their various films and projects including This Is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman. The show featured only the three of them playing mostly acoustic, and included stories about the making of the films and the music as well as some concept pieces, including a dramatic reading of the NBC censor's report on This Is Spinal Tap. The tour was promotion for the new Spinal Tap record and was likely done in this fashion because it was easier to do than mounting a big arena rock Spinal Tap tour. However, it was actually a quite brilliant show. It was a lot of fun, funny as hell and well played and sung. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Honorable Mentions:</span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The Gray Girls<br />Mr. Entertainment and the Pookiesmackers</span><br />Both of these are local groups I saw this year. I'm pretty sure the Gray Girls haven't been around too long. The bands really aren't too similar although they share a member. Gray Girls owe a debt to the shoegaze of the 90s. Mr. Entertainment are more cabaret, I think. In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing more of both this year.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Dishonorable Mention:</span><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Metallica</span><br />I always thought Lars Ulrich was overrated and now, having seen Metallica live, I know he's the worst drummer in metal. I've seen grade-school children with a better sense of dynamics. He hits full-force all the time, even during what are supposed to be the quiter songs (Nothing Else Matters, etc.) They kept away from most of their recent albums, barring the latest one, which made me happy, but the execution just wasn't there. Lars was crap, plain and simple, and the whole band seems like they're going through the motions a bit. A huge disappointment.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-57771679310327822752010-01-01T20:00:00.003-05:002010-01-01T20:55:54.339-05:00Don't Call them New Year's Resolutions: Personal and Professional Goals for 2010In December, I was already mulling over some goals for the coming year. Inspired by my colleague <a href="http://tomboone.com/">Tom Boone</a> and by <a href="http://chrisguillebeau.com/">Chris Guillebeau</a>, I decided to put them together in a concrete way. Not all of these goals have a plan as of yet, but some have dates by which I will have a plan in place.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><ul><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Writing:</span> I will put together one piece of law library related writing, most likely an article or presentation. I will not necessarily present or publish, but I will have ready to submit by the end of the year or the submission deadlines for 2011 conferences, whichever comes first.<br />Photography: I will stop slacking off and take more photos in 2010. I will produce at least five things I would be willing to submit to an exhibit or use on an album cover. I also will finish organizing all the photos I took in 2007 and 2008 and do some printing. In theory I should have 10 to 12 things I’ve already shot that are worth printing.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Music:</span> I will make two records this year. I am entering the RPM Challenge in February. That’s one record. I will also make another later in the year, even if it’s an “Album a Day” crap art project.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Music:</span> I will endeavor to start or join a group this year.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Language:</span> I will learn Spanish in 2010. I started in 2009, but have not gotten as far as I would like. I will be more organized and disciplined this year. I would also like to brush up my German and will likely attempt a little French as well (see Travel).</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Exercise/Lifestyle:</span> I will exercise more and drop 30 pounds this year. I did a lot in 2008, but, except for the weekly skate sessions, slacked off in 2009. I need to find another gym to join and start a regular routine. I have started walking on my breaks at work again, but that’s only good for so much. I have also started to more carefully assess what I eat and will continue to do so. I’m not so much for not fitting in my clothes and feeling tired all the time. I will also need the increased stamina to make it through school.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Skating:</span> As much as I think it would be fun to learn to play hockey, it’s just not happening this year because the time commitment conflicts with too many of my goals. I do, however, in conjunction with the exercise noted above, want to improve my skating. Between off-ice and on-ice work, I should be able to skate backwards comfortably, stop at a decent speed and do crossovers by the end of the year.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Career/School:</span> This year I will apply to law school. In light of the choices I have already made (not least of which is buying a house in South Florida), this is, for better or worse, what I need to do to advance my career. My other choice is getting out of the law library business. Well, there is a third option, but I’m not sure I want to go that route. Right now this is the best option.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Career/Professionalism:</span> This year I will strive to convey a more professional image, without being a stuffed shirt. I will be on better behavior at conferences and other events and also every day at work.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Style:</span> This year I will assess, pare down and update my wardrobe. I will find better-fitting and better looking clothes. Liz thinks I should find a new barber. I’ll consider it, but I have made no decisions.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Home:</span> I (we) will finish all of the major home projects on our plate before the end of July. In August, I will likely be starting school and will not have the time or patience to enter into major house projects. This includes, but is not limited to finishing the painting, redoing my closet (including unpacking the rest of the boxes in it), organizing the garage and setting up workspace there, clearing out our remote storage and updating the ceiling fans and lighting.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Career/Tech:</span> I will learn at least one new (to me) technology-related skill that I can use at work, whether or not I will use it in the short-term.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Writing/Online:</span> I will fix my website. I will move it to a new platform and set up a regular writing schedule. I set it up with the idea that writing about my interests would encourage me to engage in them more often, but I never set any real goals so it hasn’t worked as well as I’d hoped. I will set goals by February.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Podcast:</span> I have an idea for a podcast which I will develop this year.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Non-Conformity:</span> I will continue to be myself and set my own goals and rules for success and not be tied to anyone else’s ideas of what is important or what constitutes success. I will do things because I am passionate about them, not because someone else thinks it is what I should do.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Travel:</span> I will travel to at least one new country this year (this looks like it will be France in the spring) and one new state (west coast or midwest probably). Also, we will make it to the Keys this year.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Debt:</span> I will pay off my credit card and my car this year. The long-term goal is to pay off my personal debts so we can pay off our mortgage early. I’m not sure how I will pull off the travel and the debt payments, but I have time to work that out. Having no student loan bill while in school should help. Cutting waste out of the budget should help as well.</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Reading/Media:</span> I will cut down the number of blogs I read, podcasts I download and other time-consuming and sometimes overwhelming media choices I face. I will stop feeling like I am missing something. I will use the time gained to read more literature and more in-depth material and to accomplish other goals.</li><br /></ul><br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-88085651648646497202010-01-01T15:44:00.001-05:002010-01-01T15:45:55.384-05:00Oh, so it's another new year, is it?I had been fully intending to post a number of year-end wrap-up type posts this week, in between getting things done around the house and taking in Phish's New Year's run in Miami. Unfortunately, someone broke into our house and stole a bunch of stuff while we were at the second show. So, that wrecked our week. We went to the rest of the shows, but everything else that had been on the schedule got bumped in favor of window repair, serial number searching and other such tasks. <br /><br />We strapped together a setup to watch the NHL Winter Classic today sans television and while it's on I'm getting caught up on the posts I was planning for the previous week. I'll be scheduling posts all day for the rest of the week. The first one will go out tonight. I will also be moving the site to a new domain and platform in the next week or two. Coming up first: my goals for the year, followed up by show reviews from this week and a year-end music wrap-up.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-4940908160710048342009-12-08T23:08:00.003-05:002010-01-02T21:18:59.359-05:00Just Like Starting Over: Rest in Peace, John LennonI have been using the occasion of the much-awaited re-release of the Beatles catalog to not only re-acquaint myself with their music, which I have long neglected, but also to acquaint myself with more of the music they all made after the Beatles. I have never been a huge fan of the Beatles' various solo outings. The first record I ever bought was <span style="font-style:italic;">Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band</span>, and despite having been fairly obsessed with their music in the mid-80's and theirs being the first complete discography I purchased on CD, I have never owned more than a handful of their solo records. Back when I was buying most of my vinyl at secondhand shops, I picked up a smattering including <span style="font-style:italic;">Ringo</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Ram</span> and several mid-70s Wings albums. At some point, I got rid of the R albums and added <span style="font-style:italic;">Band on the Run</span> and a couple greatest hits collections (McCartney and Lennon) but never went further until two years ago when I picked up McCartney's <span style="font-style:italic;">Memory Almost Full</span>.<br /><br />So, this year I have started to explore these records. My first purchase was George Harrison's 3-LP <span style="font-style:italic;">All Things Must Pass</span>. A bit later I replaced that old LP of <span style="font-style:italic;">Ringo</span>. Several weeks ago, I scored a copy of <span style="font-style:italic;">John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band</span>. I'd never heard the record before outside of "God." And is it ever a painful listen. Never one to shy away from autobiographical lyrics, Lennon pulls no punches here. These songs are written and sung by a man with some serious problems. What I know of the remainder of his solo albums often follows the themes on this record. <br /><br />This weekend on my latest record buying outing, I picked up two more: <span style="font-style:italic;">McCartney</span> and John and Yoko's <span style="font-style:italic;">Double Fantasy</span>. I've always liked the four singles from this record, but had never heard any of the rest of it. I listened to it this weekend while building shelves for the bedroom closet and was astounded by it. The album takes the form of a dialog between the two, with Lennon mostly talking about how he walked away from fame to be with his family and couldn't be happier and Ono mostly talking about what a pain in the ass he has been, but that's all past. It's beautiful, touching and tragic given what happened shortly after the album's release. <br /><br />As tough a listen as <span style="font-style:italic;">John Lennon/Plastic Ono band</span> is at times, it's not nearly as heartbreaking as listening to <span style="font-style:italic;">Double Fantasy</span> knowing what comes next. Here was someone who spent a long time with some ugly demons and had finally seemed to have worked through them and was then cruelly taken from his family. And though the album may always live in the shadow of John Lennon's shortly following its release, it's a moving piece of work and deserves a listen. <br /><br />I bought the record on Friday, listened to it on Saturday and decided I should write about it sometime on Sunday. I didn't realize that the anniversary of his death was coming up today. I didn't make the connection at all. I randomly mentioned my thoughts on the album to Liz, who was not home when I listened to it, today and she mentioned that today was the anniversary. Strangely enough, I've passed up two copies this year and decided Friday it was time to grab one. Life's just funny that way sometimes.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-16729747864743417722009-09-24T10:17:00.005-04:002010-01-02T21:19:43.846-05:00Where Do We Go from Here?<p>A few weeks ago, I posted <a href="http://johnnybrenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-time-we-reconsidered-our.html">It's Time We Reconsidered Our Relationship (With Vendors)</a> in response to a number of issues relating to law resource vendors. My original draft was quite lengthy and I cut it down considerably. However, there is more to be said on the issue. In particular, I liked the responses of two law librarians in particular. Tom Boone and Meg Kribble both responded in ways that went beyond mere anger at West' recent antics and instead looked at where our profession is headed and what we can do about it.</p><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Tom Boone jumped into the fray looking at the situation <a href="http://tomboone.com/node/1009">from a different angle than most</a>. <br /><blockquote>You want to be angry at West for that ad? Be indignant at the suggestion that their online systems are comprehensive enough or designed intuitively enough to eliminate the need for librarian (or West's own customer support) assistance. Be outraged that they charge so much for their services that, no matter how well designed, our library budgets are the only thing that makes it possible for researchers to use them.<br /><br />But never forget that if West, Lexis or some other legal database vendor ever fixed these problems, the need for our expertise, at least in its current form, would be reduced dramatically.</blockquote><br /><br />He further states that although this is unlikely, he doesn't relish the idea of "relying on someone else's incompetence to stay relevant," and goes on to suggest that we, as law librarians, should put our efforts into designing, implementing, redesigning the systems to make them better, to focus on the systems and not expecting that the old reference model will last forever. This will probably upset the hardcore public services crowd that hates anything to do with technical services, but the truth has always been that the better the systems the technical services people use and the better they do their job, the easier it is for the public services people to do our jobs. He is, I think, suggesting that maybe some of that public services work is going to disappear, merged into the work the researcher/patron is doing on his own, but that maybe librarians, not vendors, are the best candidates to build these systems. Not that public services will go away, but the models are changing and we can embrace that and our part to influence the changes or we can stand helplessly and watch as it is done for us.<br /><br />It is this change that Meg Kribble takes up:<br /><blockquote>Yes, I agree. It's insulting and offensive. But beyond the outrage, I'd love to see it lead to more discussion of the positive things we as law librarians are going to do to change things so that next time a major legal publisher makes such a blunder, we all just laugh it off. And more important than discussion, action. What do we, the legal information experts, do to take more control of legal information back from vendors?</blockquote><br /><br />She suggests a number of places we could focus our efforts, and asks do we start here? My answer is yes, we start here and in all other worthwhile projects we can find.<br /><br />We need to explore options and contribute to open-source ILS projects like <a href="http://www.open-ils.org/">Evergreen</a>, <a href="http://koha.org/">Koha</a> and <a href="http://www.opals-na.org/">OPALS</a>. Or open-source OPACs like <a href="http://www.vufind.org/">VuFind</a>, <a href="http://projectblacklight.org/">Blacklight</a>, <a href="http://www.oss4lib.org/">oss4lib</a>, <a href="http://linc.comp.nus.edu.sg/code/">Rapi</a> and more.<br /><br />We need to develop more free services like Cornell's <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/">Legal Information Institute</a> and find better ways to organize and use online government and court information. <br /><br />We need to encourage our organizations to realize the importance of technical services, to realize that our online presence and our technology needs are too important to be left to the IT department. Law Libraries need web developers, network administrators and programmers. Our future is in online services and we can't expect the average overworked university IT department to have the time or the expertise to design and implement these systems. Neither can we continue to rely on vendors to administer these for us. <br /><br />Some (more forward thinking?) academic law libraries have an in-house IT department. However, I would hazard a guess that the model at my own school is more common. That being one or two people who can do just enough UNIX administration to keep an ILS running and who have some web development skill. There is a resistance in such places to implementing anything that can't be purchased with support because only one person will know how to administer it. If that person leaves, no one else will be able to do it. My argument is that the next person should be able to do it. Organizations evolve, job responsibilities evolve and we should not be using job descriptions from ten or twenty years ago when he bring in new people.<br /><br />We should continue on from there by looking into the future and not predicting where we will end up, but deciding where we want to end up and how we want to get there. We can sit back and do what we've always done or we can shape the dialog and the future.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-41190106930363695322009-09-10T23:19:00.001-04:002009-09-10T23:20:10.454-04:00Tinariwen, Cucu Diamantes - Heineken TransAtlantic Festival, North Beach Bandshell, Miami Beach, FL April 25, 2009<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwd7uQlpqYsWvcrQSIDmTeohDxOlmy71ZnZOYQv3SNJXhXXjBTJSKQoq8yoGiTc4UQAW9CwJEVDUqHvcAlnpHLXOB9Pln5jrQPAfDLoFUZuSmWeNBWeP3FkhXY3UM0_71yv2Ea4hBrEE5/s1600-h/Tinariwen+2009-04-25.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwd7uQlpqYsWvcrQSIDmTeohDxOlmy71ZnZOYQv3SNJXhXXjBTJSKQoq8yoGiTc4UQAW9CwJEVDUqHvcAlnpHLXOB9Pln5jrQPAfDLoFUZuSmWeNBWeP3FkhXY3UM0_71yv2Ea4hBrEE5/s400/Tinariwen+2009-04-25.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331334985058998434" /></a><br /><br />Due the the concurrent scheduling of the 2009 SEAALL Annual Meeting, I had to miss most of the <a href="http://www.transatlanticfestival.com/">Heineken TransAtlantic Festival</a>. I would have liked to see Curumin the first night, but I was in Athens that whole weekend. So, instead of picking up a festival pass and going to all four nights, I only went to the fourth and final show, Tinariwen and CuCu Diamantes. The TransAtlantic Festival is organized as part of the <a href="http://www.rhythmfoundation.com/">Rhythm Foundation</a>'s concert series. While I think I heard something about the festival last year, I have to admit that I did not know about the Rhythm Foundation or the concert series they run every year. I will pay more attention in the future.<br /><br />I arrived at the venue about a half-hour before the doors were scheduled to open. I heard music when I parked my car and realized that Tinariwen were soundchecking. I walked across the street to the venue, bought my ticket and stood in the queue listening to Tinariwen. They finished about 20 minutes later. I could tell the show was going to be great from the soundcheck. <br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><br />They only kept us outside for a few minutes after the soundcheck finished. I went inside and grabbed a seat at the end of the middle aisle about five rows back. As I was alone and didn't want to give up my seat, I decided to forgo the usual pre-show beer and instead devoted my time to people watching. I heard at least six languages being spoken inside, as well as out in the queue (English, Spanish, French, German and a couple I didn't recognize). There were a lot of families and large groups of people who I believe were there to see Cuban singer Cucu Diamantes.<br /><br />After a reasonable wait, someone came out to talk about the festival a little bit and introduce Tinariwen. Six people in desert garb walked on stage and began singing. The stage setup had three instrumentalists on the right side of the stage (guitar, bass, djembe) and three singers/guitarists on the left side of the stage. After searching a while, I had finally found a copy of Tinariwen's latest disc, <span style="font-style:italic;">Aman Iman: Water is Life</span>, while I was in Athens, and only had the chance to listen a couple of times before the show. Prior to this, most of the Tinariwen music I had heard was played on <a href="http://www.henryrollins.com">Henry Rollins'</a> show on <a href="http://www.kcrw.com/henryrollins">KCRW</a> (and before that, on his Indie 103 show, Harmony In My Head).<br /><br />Led by Abdallah, they opened the set with the second song from <span style="font-style:italic;">Aman Iman</span>, "Mano Dayak." At it's conclusion, he asked "Is ok?" and was greeted with applause. He said a few words of introduction in French and they continued on, with singer/guitarists Abdallah, Hassan and Intidao taking turns playing guitar and singing lead while the others backed him up. I found out later that the group's leader Ibrahim had gone into the desert before the Australia tour and missed both it and the US tour. The band has a long history and has many members passing through and even without its leader they were still stunning.<br /><br />People filtered in during the first couple of songs. At the start of the show, most were sitting in the seats or standing in the back. A large portion of the crowd didn't seem to have any idea who Tinariwen were. As they played, the area in front of the stage slowly started to fill up as people left their seats to move up front to dance. By the end of the set, Tinariwen was playing to an enthusiastic crowd. I don't think I have ever seen such any band win over an audience like that before. It was truly amazing.<br /><br />I only know of Cucu Diamantes what I read on the festival website. I stayed to check out her set. She's a New York-based Cuban singer from a group called Yerba Buena. She was playing in support of her first solo album, which was not quite out at the time of the show. When she came on stage, it was obvious that this was her crowd. She asked if the audience wanted her to speak in English or Spanish. This is Miami, like one really need ask. She went back and forth between the two for much of the show. The band played a more rock version of Latin jazz and while very good, it was all very professional and show biz, completely the opposite of Tinariwen. While enjoyable, my hunger won out and I went in search of food.<br /><br />I started in the restaurant across the street. I was seated quickly, but after sitting with a menu for ten minutes, I left and found a small pizza place down the street. I ordered two slices and ate one since they were enormous. The second one went in the car and I went back to the bandshell to catch the end of Cucu Diamantes' set. <br /><br />I will definitely be paying more attention to this festival next year. There were earlier shows I wanted to see, including one featuring Curumin. I am hoping that SEALL's later date this year means there will be no conflict. Tinariwen will also be returning to the US early next year to support their upcoming album (already out in Europe) <span style="font-style:italic;">Imidiwan: Companions</span>. By all accounts, it's going to be even more amazing than the last one. Right now, the tour starts in mid-February in North Carolina and heads west. I plan to be at the opening night, even though it's a 14 hour drive. They're that good. Tinariwen's albums are excellent and I highly recommend giving all of them a listen. But live, it's a whole other thing. They are, without question, one of the most amazing groups I have ever seen and anyone who passes up a chance to see them is seriously missing out.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-1255813337683801762009-09-03T22:22:00.003-04:002009-09-10T20:54:10.025-04:0050 Bands You've SeenBob Boilen over at <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2009/09/50_bands_youve_seen.html">All Songs Considered</a> made a post of random bands he's seen, commenting "I don't know where this started, but a friend of mine asked me to make a list of 50 bands or artists I've seen live. The instructions are simple. You have to do it from memory, ordering them as they pop into your head. Some of the fun of this is seeing the random list."<br /><br />His list was interesting and it sounded like fun, so here's the first 100-ish that popped into my head:<br /><br />1.Naked City<br />2.Cake (2x)<br />3.Phish (20x)<br />4.Hank Roberts (10+x)<br />5.Napalm Death (5x)<br />6.Type O Negative<br />7.Slayer<br />8.Tragedy, the All-Heavy Metal Tribute to the Bee-Gees (2x) <br />9.2 Skinnee J's (14x) <br />10.X<br />11.The New Pornographers<br />12.Thievery Corporation<br />13.Beastie Boys<br />14.R.E.M.<br />15.GWAR (3x)<br />16.Sick of It All (5x)<br />17.Murphy's Law (12x)<br />18.The Scofflaws (9x)<br />19.The Toasters (5x)<br />20.The Reverend Horton Heat (2x)<br />21.The Dwarves<br />22.Abalienation (50x?) <br />23.DROPDEAD <br />24.The Varukers <br />25.The Wernt <br />26.Doom <br />27.J. Willis Pratt & We're Bionic<br />28.Medeski, Martin & Wood (2x)<br />29.Joshua Redman<br />30.The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (12x)<br />31.Descendants<br />32.Snapcase<br />33.Social Distortion<br />34.Judas Priest (2x)<br />35.Megadeth (2x)<br />36.Anthrax (4x)<br />37.The Flaming Lips (3x)<br />38.Iron Maiden<br />39.moe. (5-6x)<br />40.The Dead/The Other Ones (2x)<br />41.The Police<br />42.Phil Lesh & Friends<br />43.Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers<br />44.Radiohead<br />45.Beck<br />46.Sonic Youth<br />47.Of Montreal<br />48.The New Mastersounds (2x) <br />49.The National <br />50.!!! <br />51.Simon & Garfunkel<br />52.They Might Be Giants (14x)<br />53.Primus (3x)<br />54.The Boredoms<br />55.Brutal Truth (3x)<br />56.Carcass (2x)<br />57.Godflesh (2x)<br />58.Tinariwen<br />59.Tussle<br />60.Ratatat<br />61.The Rentals<br />62.Circle Jerks<br />63.Mike Gordon<br />64.Seu Jorge<br />65.The Who<br />66.Sex Pistols<br />67.The Cramps<br />68.Body Count<br />69.D.R.I.<br />70.Pro-Pain (2x)<br />71.Exodus<br />72.Prong<br />73.Cannibal Corpse (2x)<br />74.Obituary (2x)<br />75.Agnostic Front<br />76.Kreator<br />77.Biohazard (3x)<br />78.Morgoth<br />79.Malevolent Creation<br />80.Fear Factory<br />81.Overkill (3x)<br />82.Bad Manners<br />83.Madness<br />84.Zappa Plays Zappa<br />85.Stereolab (3x)<br />86.Atlas Sound (2x)<br />87.Insane Clown Posse<br />88.Twiztid (2x)<br />89.2 Live Crew<br />90.Public Enemy<br />91.Blaze Ya Dead Homie (2x)<br />92.Willie Nelson<br />93.Queensryche<br />94.Suicidal Tendencies<br />95.Barenaked Ladies<br />96.Trey Anastasio (3x)<br />97.Elvis Costello and the Imposters<br />98.Dangerous, The All-Heavy Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson<br />99.Flogging Molly<br />100.Superchunk<br />101.Elastica<br />102.Pavement<br />103.Cypress Hill<br />104.Butthole Surfers<br />105.Alice in Chains<br />106.Stone Temple Pilots<br />107.Sepultura<br />108.Sacred Reich<br />109.Harry Shearer, Michael McKean & Christopher Guest<br />110.Modest Mouse<br />111.David Byrne (2x)<br />112.The Ramones<br /><br />Some were on purpose, some because they were opening for someone I wanted to see (*cough* Stone Temple Pilots). It's an interesting list, but not nearly complete.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-40924324429973155862009-08-26T09:23:00.011-04:002009-09-01T23:03:18.592-04:00It's Time We Reconsidered Our Relationship (With Vendors)Hot on the the heels of AALL's refusal of Annual Meeting sponsorship money from West, a Thomson Reuters business due to their practice of refusing to submit pricing information to the AALL Price Index, there was another mini-scandal involving the <a href="http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2009/08/thomson-reuters-discriminates-against.html">removal of free printers from the Puerto Rican law schools</a>. The students in Puerto Rico were using the printers "too much," so rather than institute some sort of quota system to control costs, they just pulled the printers out completely. Amid the hubbub, it was revealed that they also rather quietly pulled printers from some of the non-ABA accredited schools. Following a number of complaints, including some accusing the company of racism, West, a Thomson Reuters business, <a href="http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2009/08/printing-reinstated-in-puerto-rico.html">reinstated the printers</a> at the Puerto Rican schools and made a statement to the effect that in the future, any limits to the printing program will be instituted across the board.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Almost immediately following the printer saga, an <a href="http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/law-lib/law-lib.log0908/0173.html">email</a> was posted to the law-lib mailing list referencing a marketing email sent by West, a Thomson Reuters business proclaiming that those "on a first name basis with the librarian" are "spending too much time at the library." Later, a screenshot was posted publicly. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrcCat9DDX-4rJ5pjFlsYml2rJ4kxu8Zi4fDqVHc_Wv8-9Og4Qf9MGmWSUXVyT3CJ388YX3sqDwmkL6Aw6mDpnBLYAWQiuRFulBuke6Le8nFp5F9YvbKUVV4xuGGmlLqbY2YMLVFJhuNvg/s1600-h/WEST.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 323px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrcCat9DDX-4rJ5pjFlsYml2rJ4kxu8Zi4fDqVHc_Wv8-9Og4Qf9MGmWSUXVyT3CJ388YX3sqDwmkL6Aw6mDpnBLYAWQiuRFulBuke6Le8nFp5F9YvbKUVV4xuGGmlLqbY2YMLVFJhuNvg/s400/WEST.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374267822245017522" /></a><br /><br />Anne Ellis, the Senior Director of Library Relations at West, a Thomson Reuters business <a href="http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/law-lib/law-lib.log0908/0199.html">apologized</a> for the email on law-lib, but not before <a href="http://www.informationoverlord.co.uk/?p=297">many</a> <a href="http://jennielaw.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-insult-your-users.html">posts</a> <a href="http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2009/08/thomson-west-epic-pr-fail.html">were made</a> by <a href="http://theliskid.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/apparently-the-library-wastes-time/">offended</a> <a href="http://www.librarystuff.net/2009/08/24/what%E2%80%99s-wrong-with-lexis-thomson-reuterswest-desperation/">law librarians</a>. <br /><br />My use of the name "West, a Thomson Reuters business," rather than the usual "West" is deliberate. Apparently West Publishing wasn't enough of a mouthful, so Thomson Reuters changed the name and has gone to great pains to use this name in their correspondence and on the phone. <br /><br />Jim Milles <a href="http://twitter.com/jimmilles/statuses/3541811549">stated yesterday on Twitter</a> "Law librarians need to get over the idea that Westlaw or Lexis are on their side, or the customer's. They're all about profit--of course." <br /><br />I think long-time law librarians who remember West Publishing, before they were bought by Thomson, as a less profit-oriented more benevolent dictatorship. They're the people who throw the big party at AALL every year, and dole out money to support events. I think even younger librarians are swayed by large swag giveaways and helpful support reps into thinking that the companies are wonderful people. Not to take anything away from the people who work at these companies, and some of them individually are wonderful people, but the fact is that whatever they were in the past and helpful staff notwithstanding, these two companies are divisions of much larger public companies and as such, they are expected to maximize profits. Period. That's how large-scale corporate capitalism works. There is no morality, there is only stock price and maximizing profit for the shareholders.<br /><br />I was part of several discussions at AALL's Annual Meeting this year and afterward on Twitter regarding our relationship with vendors as a profession, as an organization and as individuals. My own bias is that I believe the culture of accepting tchotchkes undercuts our standing as professionals and in the relationship with vendors. I was turned off to this culture early on in my library career. As a student, I attended the ribbon cutting at an ALA exhibit hall and was horrified by the behavior of the attendees. I watched as alleged professionals tore through a large exhibit hall looking for free junk and running people over with their carts. I think I lasted fifteen minutes before I convinced the fellow student I was with to leave in search of dinner. (Full disclosure: I did spend a minute talking to an OUP rep and grabbing a free copy of one of their guides to Austin and San Antonio before I left). <br /><br />I was unhappy to find similar, though less obnoxious, behavior at AALL. Every year, I watch people load up on branded junk to take back home and fill their offices. Every year, we go to vendor-sponsored parties and eat their food and drink their alcohol (and have our pictures taken). We come home and fill our offices with the pictures and the branded toys and coffee cups. We, the information professionals who should always be advocating the best available tool for the job no matter who sells it, in effect become shills for the legal information publishers. This undermines our position both with our patrons and with the companies, who have bought us with parties, cheap trinkets and sponsorships. <br /><br />AALL finally took a stand this year with West, a Thomson Reuters business, over the long-standing issue of the Price Index by excluding them from sponsorship of the meeting. While I commend the organization for actually taking a stand on something that might cost them money, I am with those who don't think we went far enough. I think our point will only be made by enacting a blanket ban on West or any other publisher who does not conform to <a href="http://www.aallnet.org/about/policy_sponsorship.asp">AALL's Sponsorship Policy</a>. West should not only not be banned from sponsorship of the meeting, but also from the exhibit hall and their annual "Customer Appreciation Event" should be excluded from the official program. I realize that AALL may be including it for convenience of the attendees, but its inclusion gives the appearance that it is an official AALL event. <br /><br />Yes, I realize that this would cost the association a large amount of money, but last I checked we could afford it. The meeting made several hundred-thousand dollars the last few years, and there are likely some places where budget could be trimmed (say, overpriced keynote speakers) to offset the loss. AALL is a <span style="font-style:italic;">non-profit</span> organization founded to "promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities, to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide leadership in the field of legal information." It's time for AALL to provide some leadership by example and put some distance between the nation's largest organization of law librarians and companies that sell legal information products to the organization's members.<br /><br />As an individual, I picked up no trinkets at this year's meeting and upon my return I cleaned my office of branded gear. I gave away or threw out my branded mugs and brought an unmarked one from home (Full disclosure: I sometimes bring marked mugs from home that contain the logo of a sports team or a brand of coffee). I believe that Meg Kribble and possibly some others did the same. I still have one branded bag from a past conference which will be removed when I find a suitable replacement. I urge others to do the same, not as a symbolic gesture but as the start of a new relationship with vendors where librarians do not shill product, but treat each source as a tool to be used for its best purposes. Use WestLaw when it's the best option, LexisNexis when it's the best option, use FastCase, LoisLaw, Cornell University's Legal Information Institute or FDSys when they're the best options. I make sure to inform my students of the cost of Wexis when I teach the online portions of our Legal Research Bootcamp and let them know there are lower and no-cost options for a lot of the content. Most of our students start solo practices or work in small firms. A lot of these firms can't afford much past a Shepard's subscription and I'm not doing my job if I don't point out affordable alternatives. My position as an independent consultant and educator is undercut if I'm drinking water out of a Wexis mug while I'm teaching.<br /><br />It's time for us to go forward and forge a new relationship with vendors. Think about it.<br /><br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-9849159098547399002009-08-17T23:13:00.005-04:002009-09-01T23:03:34.813-04:00Judas Priest - Seminole Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, FL August 17, 2009<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYUT0-wJ_eMLtfi7DvA9miT2eZ8fq2wDxv-8xyYi7VouKT4H3QnKRvBoGCRu4auKGm_UPA28BdQ8Vf6YWDzyVYfYgOhxmx3J114trH7N0cRv92SB1fCAotEPt7kJxKeIWJhKEy18097dS/s1600-h/JudasPriest.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYUT0-wJ_eMLtfi7DvA9miT2eZ8fq2wDxv-8xyYi7VouKT4H3QnKRvBoGCRu4auKGm_UPA28BdQ8Vf6YWDzyVYfYgOhxmx3J114trH7N0cRv92SB1fCAotEPt7kJxKeIWJhKEy18097dS/s400/JudasPriest.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371144968995598338" /></a><br /><br />A few days ago I received an email from Evan about the upcoming Judas Priest/Whitesnake show at the Hard Rock. Ticketmaster was offering tickets for free plus service charges (of course). He was looking to see if anyone else was interested. I checked it out and found out that the tour is the 30th Anniversary tour for the British Steel album, and they're playing the whole album every night. I couldn't miss that for virtually free.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Setlist:</span><br />Rapid Fire<br />Metal Gods<br />Breaking The Law<br />Grinder<br />United<br />You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise<br />Living After Midnight<br />The Rage<br />Steeler<br />The Ripper<br />Prophecy<br />Hell Patrol<br />Victim Of Changes<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Encore:</span><br />Freewheel Burning<br />Diamonds And Rust<br />You've Got Another Thing Comin'<br /><br />This show broke a concert-going record for me, that for longest-time between two shows by the same band. Generally, if I see a particular performer multiple times, it tends to be on successive tours, or alternating tours. Some I see on as many tours as possible. Then, there are the oddballs. My previous record was 13 years, for The Flaming Lips. My first Lips show was when they were touring for Transmissions from the Satellite Heart in 1993, opening for the Butthole Surfers. I was really there to see the Surfers, but really enjoyed the Lips' set. For some reason, though, I never bought any of their records, and didn't seek them out again. Many years later, I heard some of their newer albums and started listening more actively to them. My second show was in 2006, just before I left New York. They played the New York State Fair with Sonic Youth and Ween. My third show was much sooner than my second. I saw them again on the same tour (for At War with the Mystics) in 2007 in Pompano Beach. <br /><br />I first saw Judas Priest in January 1991, at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton, NY. They were touring for the Painkiller album, with Megadeth opening. This was my first arena show. I had previously only seen shows in local clubs or theaters. We made the trek to Bingo primarily to see Megadeth, but I had the latest Priest album and was looking forward to seeing them as well. They had recently hired drummer Scott Travis. The young drummer had energized the group and their tour was getting excellent reviews. I'd never been much of a fan. Although I liked a few of their songs, the records they'd released after I had begun buying metal albums (Turbo and Ram It Down) were underwhelming. Painkiller was different and I quite liked it.<br /><br />The show opened with Rob Halford riding a motorcycle from underneath an enormous set of ramps behind and over Scott Travis. He shut the motorcycle off, leaving the headlight on and the band ripped into "Hell Bent for Leather." By the end of the song, the headlight had dimmed considerably and stagehands removed the bike. The remainder of the set was a mix of songs from Painkiller and their considerable back catalog. The band was tight, energetic (they spent much of the set running up and down the ramps) and, importantly, a lot of fun. I never ram out and bought up their back catalog, but I did gain an appreciation for some of those older albums and I have fond memories of that show.<br /><br />Eighteen years later, I found myself in the upper deck of the Hard Rock waiting for Judas Priest to come on. The place was fairly empty when we arrived. Camera operators were stationed throughout the venue to record the show for a live DVD. I suspect that the free tickets (all to the upper deck, as far as I know) were to help fill the place up for better sound and better crowd sounds. Whitesnake canceled as singer David Coverdale has apparently wrecked his voice. No one we heard talking about it seemed too disappointed. I can't imagine the crossover between those two bands' fans is that great, so I was not surprised.<br /><br />The group had a large banner with pictures of factories on in front of the stage. The show started with the sounds of hammers and machinery and a laser show(!) consisting of guys hammering metal. The pounding stopped and the band ripped into "Rapid Fire," with the banner dropping at Halford's first line of lyrics. The group on stage looked almost exactly the same as eighteen years earlier, albeit grayer (and balder in the cases of Halford and bassist Ian Hill). "Metal Gods" and "Breaking the Law" followed, and I guessed the band had decided to change the order of the album live. I found out later that they were playing the original UK track list of British Steel. Columbia Records changed the order for the American edition (as they did with all of Elvis Costello's early albums, so this is not much of a surprise). <br /><br />They followed up with a curious collection of older songs, plus one from their recent concept album about Nostradamus. Most of the later part of the set was from the albums preceding British Steel rather than the 1980s albums with which I am more familiar, so I didn't really know that many of the songs. This did not deter from my enjoyment of the show, as they had already played what is largely considered their best album, and one of the two that I know reasonably well.<br /><br />As for the performance, they were much as I remembered them, with a little less of the running around that they did on the Painkiller tour. Judging from some other live footage I saw on the internets, this may have been an anomaly of that particular tour, anyway. The band were still tight, energetic and a lot of fun. Yes, it's metal and some of the posing is a little silly, as are some of the lyrics (though Judas Priest's are better than most). But the mark of a great heavy metal band is that they help you forget your problems for 90 minutes and enjoy the show. For all of its pretension, the best metal bands know that they are entertainment (something many performers, particularly in other genres, have issues with) and give you an entertaining show for your money. Even if you pay full price. Judas Priest certainly lived up to my memories of seeing them all those years ago. These guys are my mother's age and still rock. That's an unqualified "rock," not "rock for old guys." The show was thoroughly enjoyable and may inspire me to buy up some of those other older albums, or possibly their recent box set.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-24876896306837511292009-08-15T22:30:00.002-04:002009-08-15T22:45:48.107-04:00Look what we bought<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3824382725/" title="Outside by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2451/3824382725_23e2969830.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Outside" /></a><br />As has been mentioned several times here, Liz and I bought a house, in Southeast Hollywood. We're hard at work unpacking, painting and changing things around. This set of photos was taken after our offer was accepted, but before closing. The owners' furniture was still inside. Our move was crazy and I was unable to get photos of the empty house. These are dark and lousy for the most part, but is all I have for "before" photos. As we work through the house, we will have (better) "after" photos.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3824380883/" title="Entrance by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/3824380883_c79249671f.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Entrance" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3824381063/" title="Living Room by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3481/3824381063_6a3f92c36c.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Living Room" /></a><br />The living room, from two different angles.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3824381889/" title="Dining Room by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2673/3824381889_8052d8d36c.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Dining Room" /></a><br />Dining room.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3824381341/" title="Kitchen by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/3824381341_0ec76a6390.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Kitchen" /></a><br />Kitchen, with original cabinets.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825184100/" title="Laundry Room by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2661/3825184100_52b39e2877.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Laundry Room" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825183986/" title="Laundry Room by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/3825183986_ea5fc70f4b.jpg" width="335" height="500" alt="Laundry Room" /></a><br />Laundry room.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825184240/" title="Garage by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3499/3825184240_258979cb71.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Garage" /></a><br />Garage.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825184858/" title="Master Bedroom by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3445/3825184858_74a990b29b.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Master Bedroom" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825184980/" title="Master Bath by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2584/3825184980_572f0f4cdb.jpg" width="335" height="500" alt="Master Bath" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825185076/" title="Master Bath by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2607/3825185076_14a86f2893.jpg" width="335" height="500" alt="Master Bath" /></a><br />Master bedroom and bath.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825184740/" title="Bathroom by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2616/3825184740_363e300b6d.jpg" width="335" height="500" alt="Bathroom" /></a><br />Hallway bathroom.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3825184520/" title="Liz's Room by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/3825184520_27d0f2fee1.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Liz's Room" /></a><br />Liz's room.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8913021@N06/3824382097/" title="Johns Room by John Q VD, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2568/3824382097_6de34e4708.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Johns Room" /></a><br />My room.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-52605032456262330432009-08-15T17:32:00.003-04:002009-08-15T17:37:16.774-04:00New DigsI've installed a new template here. The previous one was an emergency substitution for the original template, which wasn't working with my imported <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">flickr</a> photos. I like this one a lot better. I'm still tweaking it. For the moment, the above "recent posts" photo menu does not work, and anything in Spanish is a dead link. I'm also going through all of my posts and adding tags. I'm also going to import all of the posts from my previous page (John's Weblog of Doom). I'll be slowly working through it all and everything should be working by Monday. <br /><br />I've also moved house, of course, and soon there will be posts about that. My plan is to go room by room and post pictures of everything we do to the place. None of the rooms are finished yet, but as we finish bits, I'll post the before and afters.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-38414453477886143192009-04-23T22:39:00.002-04:002009-04-23T22:41:50.167-04:00A tip to prospective realtors and homeownersIf you want to sell a house, it's best not only to remove the carpeting that your dog urinated on, but also to deal with the flea infestation. If the urine smell doesn't turn off prospective buyers, it's likely that being attacked by hordes of fleas and suffering multiple bites will.Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-39386014406648584992009-04-23T10:49:00.006-04:002009-08-15T16:12:10.101-04:00SEALL Institute 2009: The Impact of Electronic Resources on Today’s Law LibraryWhile I twittered a lot of the SEAALL meeting this year, the first day I took notes on paper. With a pen. Here's a quick and dirty summary. I didn't take very good notes as to who was saying what on some of the panels. <br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><h2>HeinOnline surveys (Roxanne Marmion, HeinOnline)</h2><br /><ul><li>HeinOnline bound volume survey:</li><br /><ul><li>24% of libraries surveyed have moved journals in HeinOnline to remote storage</li><br /><li>43% have discarded journals in HeinOnline</li><br /><li>67% have cancelled journals not in HeinOnline due to budgetary restrictions</li><br /></ul><li>HeinOnline journal survey</li><br /><ul><li>50% of journals on HeinOnline are current (latest issue available)</li><br /><li>23% are all published (discontinued, retitled)</li><br /><li>17% are added to HeinOnline by volume</li><br /><li>10% have a one-volume delay or more</li><br /></ul></ul><br /><br /><h2>Future of tech services (Kevin Butterfield, College of William & Mary)</h2><br /><ul><li>At William & Mary, from 2000 to 2009, 1274 subscriptions were cancelled. As a result, there was less work in labeling, shelving, filing, etc. 2FT positions were retooled. 30,000 e-resource records were added to the catalog.</li><br /><li>Trying to follow the Google model (from Harvard Business Review article). 80/20 rule. 80% of an employee’s time spent working on core duties. 20% spent on personal projects that enhance core services. Wants staff members to find projects that they are passionate about and that will enhance core services. Employees are evaluated on the 20% projects.</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><h2>Communication (First segment vendors, second was Billie Blaine, Supreme Court of Florida, Marian Parker, Wake Forest University and Kay Todd, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker)</h2><br /><ul><li>(I didn’t take a lot of notes on the vendor presentations as I knew about most of the things the concerned vendors were doing. Exceptions were the HeinOnline blog and wiki and BNA’s law school professional information center. I already knew about the Lexis newsletters and West trainings and email newsletters, etc.)</li><br /><li>Libraries using Facebook to push out trainings, workshops, etc.</li><br /><li>Law review requires students to take a certain amount of workshops, on a points system.</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><h2>The (Almost) All-Electronic Library (Gordon Russell, Lincoln Memorial University)</h2><br /><ul><li>Just-in-time model; small staff (model allows for fewer staff members).</li><br /><li>Smaller print collection means less filing, shelving, cataloging and invoices.</li><br /><li>Cataloging records are purchased from YBP, Cassidy and others.</li><br /><li>E-Book licensing model: Purchase from publishers with more open model (allow printing of entire chapters, etc.) and who provide MARC records.</li><br /><li>Just-in-time print model</li><br /><ul><li>Patron-driven purchasing</li><br /><li>Only 4,000 linear ft. of shelving at Lincoln (10,000 at Charleston)</li><br /><li>No journals or reporters in print.</li><br /></ul><li>Main university uses Voyager. LS will use as well, but only print materials will be added to catalog. The others are all in Aquabrowser and Serial Solutions.</li><br /><li>Seminars are offered as 3 credit course. One credit is pass/fail research segment taught by librarians.</li><br /></ul><br /><br /><h2>Forecast and Impact Today (Billie Blaine, Marian Parker, Faye Jones, Kay Todd, Sally Irvin, Kevin Butterfield)</h2><br /><ul><li>3 lists: Sacred Cows, Endangered Species and Chopping Block. Things are moving rapidly from Sacred Cows to Chopping Block.</li><br /><li>Firms are “deconstructing” libraries. Materials are being moved into practice group offices & satellite libraries.</li><br /><li>Moving to just-in-time model might be more shocking to faculty than anyone else.</li><br /><li>“Students think they know everything because they come in searchers. We need to teach them to be researchers.”</li><br /><li>Staffing changes coming. Librarians will be more like law faculty. Staff members will be fewer but will be more like a bridge between paraprofessionals and what librarians used to do.</li><br /></ul><br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910405048049894093.post-81414350263806598202009-04-22T22:43:00.006-04:002009-08-15T13:06:27.735-04:00Pizza night<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvRjKuDtwrMubQ-nFvBalj28CHGkhAn3UI5SZMClZW7Tqot1vits2Y9c7e_z6Bj5ePFd9VvwYHa2Yl7nPn5fVEF09AxV9CzgWkiYeLk7KJxs6xDDNib5QsrrdaxEZirhemoMrtaSudpHr/s1600-h/pizza.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvRjKuDtwrMubQ-nFvBalj28CHGkhAn3UI5SZMClZW7Tqot1vits2Y9c7e_z6Bj5ePFd9VvwYHa2Yl7nPn5fVEF09AxV9CzgWkiYeLk7KJxs6xDDNib5QsrrdaxEZirhemoMrtaSudpHr/s400/pizza.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327723052792588786" /></a><br />Michael Ruhlman declared this week <a href="http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/04/homemade-pizza.html">National Make-Pizza-at-Home week</a>. I already had pizza on the brain, ever since making those pies when James and Elizabeth were down from Buffalo. Ruhlman's post was enough to get me to the store to buy more flour, as I was running low, and some cheese. I used to make pizza almost weekly when we were living in Ithaca and a bit less often in Syracuse. I stopped making my own when we moved to Hollywood. The proliferation of decent pizza joints (not an issue in Syracuse) here makes it easier to give it a pass and order out. But, for those outside the five boroughs, a homemade pie is more satisfying than most takeout. <br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Since I had to stop on the way home from work to get the flour and cheese, as well as herbs for the sauce, I opted for a quick proof dough. I used the basic recipe from Ruhlman's post, but with a whole packet of yeast and some good warm water. I also put a pizza stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheated it to 200. I had some problems getting the dough wet enough. I needed just a touch more water than called for to get the consistency I wanted. Problem was, I added twice as much as needed. I tossed in a little extra flour and kneaded it in. Catastrophe averted. After kneading, I coated the inside of a mixing bowl with olive oil, tossed the dough in, then covered it with a damp towel and put it in the oven for 30 minutes.<br /><br />While the dough was in the oven, I put a sauce together. I chopped up some of the basil and parsley I bought and added them to a can of tomato sauce and half a can of water. I added a couple of minced garlic cloves and a little bit of olive oil along with some dried oregano and thyme (no fresh at the store today; at least you can get away with those—dried parsley, not so much). <br /><br />After 30, I pulled the dough out and cranked the oven up to 450. It was a little too warm on the edges, but that's to be expected when you heat it in a metal bowl. It wasn't unworkable, though. I nicked the parchment paper idea out the comments on Ruhlman's post. I stretched the dough out, then dropped it on parchment paper, sauced it and loaded it on the stone with a peel. Yes, I have a peel and therefore don't need the paper, but I'm out of cornmeal and on parchment, you don't have to be so exact. If you miss an edge, you can grab the paper and move it over. It's ridiculous amounts easier.<br /><br />I, of course, did not think to pick up any toppings for this pie, so I had to improvise out of what I had in the refrigerator. The black olives were kind of old and scary looking, so I tossed them and pulled out the green ones. I grabbed two slices of ham out of the meat drawer and sliced them up along with a handful of the olives. I added some baby spinach from the crisper.<br /><br />After 10 minutes, I pulled the pie out, added some cheese, then the spinach, ham and olives and then more cheese to hold it together and put it back in for 10 more minutes. The split cooking is important if you're using oil in the dough. If you put everything on at once, the cheese burns well before the crust is cooked. Yes, the guys cooking on belt ovens put everything on the pizza before baking, but that's because it's faster. Anyone using a belt oven is concerned about speed, not quality. <br /><br />I sliced it up and cracked open a bottle of the 2005 <a href="http://www.firestonewine.com/">Firestone</a> Central Coast Vineyard Select Riesling. I read somewhere on the internets that it was a good buy. I forget where, or I'd link. It's a pretty decent Riesling on its own for $10 and it went perfectly with the pizza. The fruitiness was offset nicely by the salty ham and olives. This is one of my favorite recent dinners.<br /></span>Johnny Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15591606639583779824noreply@blogger.com2