The Big Whatever

So it's not just me...

Big article in Sunday's NYT about radio, or the lack of terrestrial radio opportunities for developing artists.  Nothing mentioned specifically about the "legacy" artists that aren't served by trad radio, though.  Haggard and Jones, Jackson Browne and Michael Brecker are left to fend for themselves.

Pandora  is certainly part of the solution, but not everybody is hip to internet "radio" (need a new term - it's either radio or it's not, y'know?) and the tech of all this is beyond most casual computer users.  I'm betting that a lot of corporate/government networks filter these kind of sites out anyway, based on P2P paranoia.  I have five or six Pandora channels, from Haggard to Hall to Mae to Ian and Sylvia, and beyond.  There are some gaps but this is really a great way to get (low-fi) from your internet connection.  Trouble is, it's not portable, and it takes quite a bit of tweaking to really get it set up to feed you what you really want.  I've got the Jim Hall channel on while I'm posting, but when I shut down for the day, it's goe - it doesn't come on the bus  with me and there's no way to save the stream for future reference.  You can click and buy from iTunes and Amazon, of course.  It's good to keep a notepad or hotkey handy to mark the unfamiliar gems that come along with the old faves.

What's on the radio?

I think there's a a lot of people who don't quite know what music to listen to these days. 

They don't like hip hop-it scares them and they don't understand the odd mix of acetylene energy and molasses languidity.  They don't really like "rock" or more specifically, current KROQ-style rock.  It's too aggressive and vague, and they miss songs that convey a message in the old-school way that Bob Dylan and Neal Young and Curtis Mayfield did (the messages in hip hop go unnoticed; they get lost in the unfamiliar patois).  If they found Weezer and Green Day and They Might Be Giants, they'd like it.  They'd probably like a lot of emo, but they don't find it. 

There is the "let's rock, man" crowd, but thy're pretty much in it for the beer, though they do go to concerts and buy  CDs.  Mostly Lynnard Skinnard, but still...

There's an audience for music that is mystical and swings and can carry both a message and a make you want to dance.  Dylan and Young and CSNY and Mark Knopfler and James Taylor and Paul Simon can still fill large halls, if not stadiums.  Prince and Steely Dan and a few more have their followings, but they're not mainstream.  The thing is, none of this stuff is on the radio, unless you have sattelite radio, and statistically, you probably don't, although you will.  James Blunt and Beck and Jewel and other younguns are around and trying to help where they can, and I haven't even mentioned the "Americana"/"No Depression" gang.  They get about as much airplay as JP Sousa.  You're as likely to hear Wilco or Golden Smog as you are to hear Steve Allen or Vic Damone.  Actually, less...there are more stations playing light jazz and tuxedo-pop vocals than Americana.

I've heard that song before...

Like I was saying, you can't tell where the gov stands partywise.  He says he's a Republican, so he is one.  He certainly behaves like one.  And yet, and yet...Anyway, I'm not the only one who thinks this.  Here's today's LA Times on the same subject.

I dunno. I'm thinking of...

I dunno.  I'm thinking of a new blog here; something that would just be music, art, photography.  No stuff about the kid (sorry, Sarah); no politics.  Not like this.

Some possible threads: Chicago blues. Americana; twang; Knopfler; guitars and gear; Scorcese; John Ford; Woody Allen.  Maybe tech stuff.

Do we need this blog?

You don't know me...

So, Schwarzenegger is all of a sudden for prison reform, against global warming, against cell phone use in cars, for a higher minimum wage, etc. etc.  Could it be that he's really a Democrat?  Nah.  Could it be that he's neutralizing these issues so Angelides can't get traction?  Boy howdy! 

And, of course, the Assembly is only too glad to be seen "getting along" with the gov, so everyone wins.  Everyone except Angelides, who has to go out and prove that there's a difference between him and the other guy.  There is, of course, but it's gonna be a hard sell to the know-nothing voters, who tend to only see what's right in front of them.  Once again, you've got to hand it to the Republican strategists.  And, by the way, I'm glad to have the higher minimum wage, and the pro-environment laws, no matter who is governor, I just kinda wish it was a Democratic governor, not a rich guy out to save the other rich guys' bacon and who finds it expedient to sometimes look like a nice guy.

I like the java jive and it likes me...

I dunno...maybe I do drink too much coffee...

She's gone, but I don't worry...

"She" is Sarah, now safely ensconced at UC Berkeley, or "Cal" as they call it up there.  I've been lying low for most of August, trying to have as much time at home as possible. I was originally scheduled to work on the day she was to move (it was a good gig), but the gig canceled, so I was able to be part of the plan.  In fact, I loaded the car.  Every last inch of the Lexus was full.  The pink cloud on top is a seven-foot-long package of pillows made by Albina for the dorm room floor and under-the-loft area.  We left at five in the morning and she was almost fullly settled by six in the evening.  She lucked out with a great roomate, a sweet girl from El Monte.  They've had a full week with no classes to get acclimated to life at Cal.  Best of all, Sarah's cousin Chris lives in Dannville, a short trip by BART.  He's 16 but doesn't yet drive, so he's an expert at negotiating the great Bay Area transit system.

We spent Sunday through Tuesday in Berkeley, and then returned on Friday and stayed until Sunday morning.  Albina and I had a gig in SF, so that worked out well. The break gave Sarah some time to get used  to her life without us, (and ours too) but we also had a chance to say a proper goodbye.

So now we're empty-nesters.  Of course I miss the closeness with my daughter, but we talk several times a day and IM and email.  It's not like twenty years ago when everyone waited for low Sunday rates to call home.  And-she'll be back for Thanksgiving and the December break soon enough, probably too soon for her.  I like the fact that I can reinvent some things about my life now (I'm taking the bus to the office tomorrow), and that Albina and I can be two people together again.

Now - it's time to get back to work, and to my life.

Think I'll see if Sarah's online first.

Don't know what to do...

I'm not really sure about this whole blog thing, and at the same time, I really like the new VOX site that TypePad has launched, and I have a great idea (later, later) for a new-additional-blog to put up in that space.  One thing that bugs me, though - you have to be a VOX member to comment on a VOX site and membership right now is confined to a tightly-controlled beta group of geeks' geeks like Leo and Amber.  Yet, these guys have a big following, and we might want to give, and they may want to read, our feedback.  Isn't that part of the deal with blogging?

But the simultaneous wanting to blog less and more leads to thoughts of indecision and ambivalence.   Ambivalence is to some the most galling of human traits.  I know people - people really close to me - who just can't hang with it.  Ambivavlence is not indecision.  Sometimes things don't just cleave nicely to one side or the other, and that's not always the easiest thing, though it may just be the thing of the moment.  Indecision, to me, is being poised on the cusp of two equally attractive, equally developed, alts, that invite (or demand) a choice.  Sometimes when you're ambivalent, you just haven't made up your mind yet.  It's not that you can't or won't, you just aren't there yet.

Maybe there'll be more here soon, maybe not.  Meanwhile there's this to look at.

Bush on la migra...

Well, at least he comes from Texas, so he did get some of it right, but putting the National Guard on the border?  First off - what National Guard?  Aren't they all in Iraq?  Do they have even the minimal specialized training given to Border Patrol agents, who are the most hapless and most maligned law enforcement group in the country?

And how does W fight off the Minutemen and others on his right flank?  And the guest workers - will they be allowed to join unions?  Will they be covered by minimum wage laws?  Who will represent them in disputes with employers and the various government bureaus that will have to formed to enforce the new structure?

Has anyone thought this through at all?

Geeks and politics

Really like what iPAC is up to, and I agree with most of what they're promoting-limiting DRM; sane copyright laws; rethinking patents, etc.

But...

RE: FireHatch 

As much as Hatch is wrong and Ashdown right on geek issues, I think we need to be wary in the area of single-issue politics. A careful reading of Ashdown's site leads to his wacky position on abortion rights: states should decide for themselves in "female only" elections. This is not only absurd, it's patently unconstitutional-you can't have elections restricted by gender. Ashdown has a similar position on guns, and a very vague position on health care. He's basically a "states rights" kinda guy with a good heart, and a soft spot for business, what used to be called a "country club Republican." I'd like to see a real Democrat running, butthat's just me, and I don't live in Utah. Ashdown calls himself a Democrat, but only because he thinks Dems are "kinder to the poor." Yes, Hatch has to go, but remember that a member of Congress will vote on many issues, not just tech.