Land O'Lakes is donating $1 for every person who clicks on their web site. Go to the website listed below and on the upper right side of the screen there is the green area where it says:"You Click, We Donate!"
Click it, and that'as all you have to do!
http://www.landolakesinc.com/company/corporateresponsibility/foundation/default.aspx
My friend Roger, the school librarian, gave me a cool little article about vinyl records. You know, the long playing platters most cool cats used to listen to. How cool are records, now? Imagine my search for equilibrium when Roger told me the article came from that bastion of hip-ness, AARP Magazine. Yeah, I've finally caught up with the folks who rally to advance the cause of retired persons.Even the nonlistening rituals of record ownership are burned into the memories of everyone who ever had a collection. Need proof? Head down to a music store and buy a record—most larger shops now have at least a small vinyl section. The rest will come naturally: bring the record home (on the way, I guarantee, you'll admire the cover artwork). Now slip your thumbnail into the cellophane sheath, right at the album's business end, and slide it along. Feel that flutter in your stomach as the album opens? You're remembering what it's like to access your music with a single, graceful stroke—instead of peeling, stabbing, cutting, and finally biting your way into a CD jewel case. Now slide out the inner sleeve. There she is: the proud, black thing of beauty, her label winking at you through the sleeve's center hole. As you extract the disk from the sleeve, you'll find you haven't forgotten how to hold it safely: your thumb at the ridge, the label resting on your fingers.
When I first met her, Aggie would greet my knock on the door with loud barking. She used to scare people she didn't know like that, but truthfully, as soon as you entered her domain, she'd more likely lick you all over, and jump up and down, standing on her hind legs. Indeed, it wasn't long before Aggie would meet me at the door like Fred Flintstone's Dino.
That "genius" Glenn Beck said the video "The Story of Stuff" is socialist propaganda, so for that reason alone, you should watch it. Take 20 minutes of your time, stay with it, and learn. As you watch, take a look around the room you're sitting in, and wonder how you ever got so much stuff.
OK, so I've never actually misplaced any phone, ever, but I know some youngsters who lose everything they've ever touched. Here's a handy website that does nothing but dial any phone number you provide to make that phone ring. If you can hear it, you'll be able to find it. I tested it, and it really works!
While wading through the Beatles remastered CDs, I stumbled onto something quite entertaining for us nerdy types, on the world wide web.
Two weeks ago I was invited to dinner at a cool little restaurant in town call Baba Yega. Sure, the cuisine was tasty -- but what was special about it was those who invited me. Ryan and Elizabeth graduated from my high school, where they were subjected to my brand of tutelage and torture, in 2004. (Ever notice how close the word tutor is to the word torture? I have, and have made a career of it!) They both graduated from universities not long ago, and while they had a chance, they wanted to hang out for a couple hours with, of all people, me.
Mexican lunch by Stephen, the videographer I mentioned in a previous post. He gathered several more former students of mine, namely, Heather, Monica, Drew, Danny, Chris, Henry, and Josh. I know they're going to go on to be leaders of our planet, too.
Good songwriters can command an audience with just a guitar and a voice. Three such artists known as Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, and Willie Nelson made a stop in Houston on Sunday (Aug. 2). Hoping to cross some names off my must-finally-see list, I grabbed some excellent tickets for the 11th row in the Woodlands, and an excellent view of some of the greatest American songwriters.
you've already stopped reading. Actually, more people know his music, than know him. Many of his hundreds of songs have been covered by so many varied artists. His early successful songs were actually made hits by others, including Peter, Paul and Mary's #2 single of "Blowin' in the Wind" in 1963, The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" (#1 in 1965), and the Turtles' rendition of"It Ain't Me Babe" (#8, 1965). Most classic rock fans know the Jimi Hendrix cover of "All Along The Watchtower" as the definitive version."There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,"
There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,"
There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
By the way, the mention of women that came and went is a Bob's way of telling us he's read T.S. Eliot.
The concert? Yeah, you shoulda been there...
Interesting links:
Houston Chronicle Concert Review
50 Best Bob Dylan Songs Covered By Others
Dylan's Album Covers
It's hard to believe it was 30 years ago that I first heard Judas Priest's "Living After Midnight" on AM radio. What? Heavy metal on the radio? Their album, "British Steel," was actually radio friendly, and it wasn't so long before that such music was simply called "hard rock." But wow, Heavy Metal on my radio!
Sometimes, a lot goes into taking a photograph, and the process still goes wrong. Photographers can painstakingly gather all the subjects, get them to stand still for 5 or 10 seconds (maybe), force them to smile, set the focus, aim, and set the automatic timer, run and jump in the shot, have a happy accident like the family dog cruising through the camera frame just in the nick of time -- all to have some pretty girl close her eyes when the camera flashes!
Lisa got tickets for us to see Broadway Across America's lavish production of "The Phantom of the Opera," on Thursday night. We got each other new duds just for the occasion, and off we went downtown to The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Sarofim Hall is exquisite, with it's 3-tiered lobby, and 60 ft walls, framing the stage.
A few days ago, as I am wont to do, I foisted some music on Lisa. (Not that she's all that unwilling, mind you.) We watched the classic album series dvd for Elton John's, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The amazing documentary series gives the inside stories on the making of great albums, with interviews, archival footage from the recording sessions, and my favorite, extra features where the musicians explain the hows and whys in intimate, new demonstrative performances.Throughout recorded history, people have attempted to explain music’s sway over the human spirit. Music has been labeled everything from a gift of the heavens to a tool of the Devil, from an extension of mathematics to a side effect of language processing. Charles Darwin was famously stumped by music’s ubiquitous presence around the world: man’s predilection for music, he wrote in 1871 in The Descent of Man, 'must be ranked among the most mysterious with which he is endowed.'
More video for you, today.
Sometimes one comes across something so brilliant and of the moment, he feels he must post it. A video of that brilliance is below.
The last of New York's mega-music stores has closed. The Virgin Megastore in Union Square sold off the last of its stock this past Sunday, marking the end of an era that's frankly been a long time coming. The NY Times quoted a former employee thusly: “It does matter because it was also a social gathering space, and that’s one thing that buying music online lacks.”
Way back when W (must stand for witty) declared himself the "Education Governor," (see this PBS Frontline story) and later, the "Education President," his plan was to strenghten education in the state of Texas, and later, the USA, as a whole. Yeah, well, we know how that worked out. Check out how the new Texas gov, Rick "if at first you don't secede, try, try again" Perry is doing.Dismayed that students are slipping further behind their international peers, 46 states have agreed in principle to develop a set of rigorous criteria — the Common Core State Standards Initiative — designed to prepare high school graduates for college and the workforce. Kids who are taking algebra I, for example, would be expected to learn the same material whether they're in Massachusetts or Mississippi.This announcement came June 1, from the National Governors Association, so it's clear our governor isn't on board to set any such rigorous standards in math and English for Texas children. Note also that Texas and South Carolina also said earlier they would reject President Obama's stimulus money, objecting to conditions put on it. (See this other USA Today story.) Are ya starting to notice a pattern, here?
The four yet to sign up: Alaska, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas.
The caveat here is that once the coalition develops the standards, each state will be able to choose whether or not it will actually adhere to them. Unless the federal government provides some sticks and carrots, there will be little incentive for politicians from low-performing states, like Mississippi, to enact the standards. After all, doing so would reveal just how little those states' school children are actually learning, and to what a pitifully low standard they've been held.
With CD sales ever-declining, veteran rock bands have taken to the road, playing concerts to draw revenue. Unlike the old days when artists complained that big, elaborate concert tours actually lost them money, today, those same bands are able to make a profit. The more popular artists of the hard rock and heavy metal genre (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell) still have elaborate stage shows, but they also charge a very premium ticket price to make up the difference. Smaller bands charge a small fee, and play small venues, with no stage show whatsoever, just hoping we'll come see them, and maybe buy a t-shirt. So, on Saturday, May 23, these circumstances brought Saxon into town.
Just a few days after Christmas in 1973, I was listening to our new copy of the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," on an also new record player. When the trippy "Blue Jay Way" came through the speakers, my mother ordered sternly, "Turn that off. Turn that off, right now!"
By Marisa Taylor
Anyone who has ever sought to justify their own musical or literary taste may find some solace in the side project of Virgil Griffith, a 25-year-old Caltech graduate student known for embarrassing numerous corporations with his WikiScanner, the database that tracks the sources of anonymous edits to Wikipedia entries.
With his two Web sites (which have crashed from too much traffic), Booksthatmakeyoudumb.virgil.gr and Musicthatmakesyoudumb.virgil.gr, Griffith used aggregated Facebook data about the favorite bands and books among students of various colleges and plotted them against the average SAT scores at those schools, creating a tongue-in-cheek statistical look at taste and intelligence.
wasn't a radio programmer, but I knew a little about the Beatles, and I was just determined enough to try to contribute whatever I could.
Saturday (2/28), Lisa and I joined my brother C, and our buddies Carl and Sharla at the House of Blues in Houston to see Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famers, Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders. Lucky for us that our pals ate at the HOB, because that entitled us to be one of the first in line, and we got front row and almost dead center. (Thanks Carl and Sharla!)
