02010-05-20 | Music, Radio
SPECIAL SHOW – The Best of Flamenco + Arabic Pop
For the last show of Flamenco + Arabic Pop on WYBC, I culled through the sixty shows which came before it for the best songs we’ve ever played, and the ones most representative of the Flamenco + Arabic Pop spirit. It wasn’t easy, turning over sixty hours into almost two and a half, but I’m happy with what resulted, and I think it leaves Flamenco + Arabic Pop on a good note. It also featured a world premiere of Backwards Firefly, a song from Ottmar Liebert’s upcoming album, Petals on the Path; thanks so much to Ottmar for allowing us that opportunity.
02010-01-07 | Uncategorized
When I rode the elevator down to the lobby on Wednesday Morning, to meet Jon for coffee, I heard a cool song – something that happens only a few times a year for me. It was a pop-song, but I didn’t recognize the voice or band. The bass line was cool and I enjoyed the string arrangement. I asked the person behind the counter during the checkout, but the music was apparently delivered by some service and they could not help me.
When I mentioned this during dinner in a small Italian restaurant near the gig, Ross (((FOH engineer))) pulled out his iPhone and started up an app called Shazam. All of the music in the restaurant was Italian and Jon and I recognized Jovanotti and then Pino Danielle, but there was also a CD by a female singer in rotation and the Shazam app correctly named that singer. We were mightily impressed by this. Using only the crappy built-in microphone, in a fairly noisy restaurant, the app was able to recognize an Italian pop song… I had to download the app immediately. Next time I hear something cool in an elevator I’ll pull out my phone and find the source!! The restaurant was right around the corner from the theater and was quite nice. I can’t remember the name.
We had some first show gremlins (((we were sent a different mixing console than we had requested, that mixing console didn’t come with two matching power supplies, at first our monitor system didn’t interface with the console and so on… typical first-day-problems!!))) last night in Miami, and it didn’t help that the theater was rather cold. Like many places in Florida the Gusman Theater has no heating system and backstage started out at 60ºF. I took a cough suppressant and was able to play the show without coughing once.
In the second half we played three new songs, which we played rather well. All together I have written five new pieces for the next album, which I hope to record in Jon’s studio this Spring. The reason I want to record in his place is that he has more separate rooms and I want to record the trio live in the studio. We’ll record with a resolution of 24 bits at 88.2kHz.
Last night’s audience in Miami was great. (((hello Kaz!))) We had some nice moments, but I wasn’t altogether happy with our performance. Like I said, first-show-gremlins…
Orlando is warmer than Miami was yesterday!! This Morning my day started with an hour-long phone interview with a local AM Christian radio station.
02009-10-13 | Touring
TOUR REPORT
Tour Report #1
report: october 13th, 1996
Jacksonville, Florida: the Florida Theater is our first headlining show since Greece…luckily we get a long soundcheck and can rehearse all the pieces we haven’t played in all the weeks with Santana…tonight i get to use the Midi guitar again…Jon and i go for lunch to the nearby Riverside Mall and end up searching for a relatively quiet corner where we don’t have to hear the loud music that fills the mall, courtesy of a country music radio station and a P.A. system set up on a stage…
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02009-07-01 | Photos
On Saturday afternoon I walked to KPIG to do an interview in their studio, the pigsty. Unfortunately the request for me to bring my guitar and play in the studio had been lost and so we just talked and listened to a couple of tracks from NF and The Hours…
Here is another shot of the orange chairs on Mint Plaza:
Now I am back home in Santa Fe, catching up… DK sent me a link to The Lazy Little Guide to Enlightenment by Stephen Batchelor… Stephen Batchelor is, of course, anything but lazy as he was a Tibetan monk and a Korean Zen monk for years.
John Diliberto writes about Matt Schoening:
Echo Location: Matthew Schoening’s Looped Cellos « The Echoes Blog
Echoes finds a lapsed classical cellist who is looped.
You can hear the Echoes program here.
You can find Matthew’s music in our ListeningLounge
BBC NEWS | Americas | US musicians demand radio royalties
I bet you cannot guess the answer to this one.
In which countries – apart from the United States – do terrestrial radio stations NOT pay performers for their songs?
Iran, China, North Korea and Rwanda.
Artists and their record labels are calling on members of Congress to bring the US into line with the rest of the world – and with satellite, internet and cable radio stations – by passing the Performance Rights Act.
This affects performers – composers have been getting paid all along. I do think that over-the-air radio should have to pay the same as cable, satellite and web radio.
Vegetarians less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters, says study | Science | The Guardian
For years, they have boasted of the health benefits of their leafy diets, but now vegetarians have the proof that has so far eluded them: when it comes to cancer risks, they have the edge on carnivores.
Fresh evidence from the largest study to date to investigate dietary habits and cancer has concluded that vegetarians are 45% less likely to develop cancer of the blood than meat eaters and are 12% less likely to develop cancer overall.
In a couple of decades meat will be a once every half year luxury anyway since cattle needs too much water! (((Maybe more people will keep chickens in their backyard?)))
Best architecture critique ever? At least the funniest one. Me, I don’t like any of Mr. Graves’ designs. Like the worst of the Eighties fashion…
Masonry "Masterpiece" or Mistake?
Over at David Byrne’s blog I came across this monstrosity by none other than Michael Graves, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in Houston, Texas. The former Talking Head memorably says, “This very out of place structure somehow lingers, like a fart left by someone no longer in an elevator.”
(Via Clippings)
(((I added the color for emphasis)))
02009-07-01 | Music, Radio
Make it happen!!
BBC NEWS | Americas | US musicians demand radio royalties
I bet you cannot guess the answer to this one.
In which countries – apart from the United States – do terrestrial radio stations NOT pay performers for their songs?
Iran, China, North Korea and Rwanda.
Artists and their record labels are calling on members of Congress to bring the US into line with the rest of the world – and with satellite, internet and cable radio stations – by passing the Performance Rights Act.
This doesn’t affect me much, since this regards payment for performers – composers have been getting paid all along. But it seems wrong to me that cable and web radio have been paying performers and old radio has not.
