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Just thought I’d share my new favorite website… www.wolfgangsvault.com
Dig deep into the live concert recordings. I spent some quality time with the Jimi Hendrix Experience at Winterland in October of 1968.
Seriously, with 2,251 live concert recordings (rock, jazz, blues, indie and more), this website delivers on it’s claim of being the ultimate live music archive of concert recordings.
You’re welcome.
You probably know by now that I am a MAJOR Phish Fan. I first saw them in 1994, and by the third song, I was totally hooked. So when I heard about a special 2 day Phish festival just 90 minutes from where I was living, I was dying to go. The only problem…camping and lots of Phish music. To me that sounded ideal, but I couldn’t get anyone to go with me, so I missed out on The Clifford Ball.
They called it The Clifford Ball after an aviator by that name, and over 70,000 people were there, making it the biggest Phish concert at that time and the best attended rock concert of 1996. AND I MISSED IT!
HOWEVER, they have just released a 7 DVD set of the entire event, with lots of special features in the packaging, like stamps and postcards! Oh yeah, and the music… it’s always about the music.
Enjoy this taste from the DVD.
It’s not just banks and auto companies that are getting a bailout from the auto companies. We are too! Okay, it’s not billions of dollars. It’s not even close. But I’m certainly not going to give it back to Uncle Sam, are you?
It’s called the Making Work Pay Tax Credit, and it was part of the economic stimulus bill that President Obama signed into law in February, and it’s supposed to be on its way to us soon! The average single person who gets paid weekly will get about 10-15 bucks more in their paycheck. For those who are married and file jointly, you’ll get 15 to 20 dollars more in your take-home pay.
There’s a bunch of blah blah blah stuff about who’s eligible, etc., and you can read that here.
But I bet you’re more interested in what I’ll spend my extra $12 bucks a week on. Here are some likely contenders.
Here is what I will not be spending my stimulus money on:
Here are the songs played on Monday, March 30
Ben Lee ” What’s So Bad (about feeling good) album title The Rebirth of Venus, available April 28
John Wesley Harding ” Love or Nothing” album title Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, available now
Steve Forbert ” Stolen Identity” album title The Place and the Time, available now
I’m back from a week’s vacation ( more about getting caught in a blizzard in Denver later), and have been catching up on ” my shows” on the DVR. Yesterday I got to watch American Idol for Motown Week. On Thursday’s results show, Smokey Robinson did a duet with Brit blue-eyed soul singer Joss Stone. In case you missed it, here it is:
This performance reminded me of an exchange I had with Ricky Fante several years ago.
Remember Ricky Fante? Probably not. He had a minor hit with his song ” It’s Not Easy” and I was a MAJOR FAN! In 2004 I was invited to see him open for Al Green . I was totally stoked… UNTIL I saw him perform. He must have been stoned or drunk or something, because he only sang 3 songs in his 45 minute set and spent way too much time handing the mic to the audience. I have no idea what he was doing, and neither did anyone else.
When the show was over… and this is the part I wanted to tell you about…I go up to him in the lobby and tell him what I big fan I am and that I was playing his song on the radio. As soon as he heard that, he started bad mouthing Joss Stone, saying that a young white girl can’t sing soul music because she was not a black man.
It was a very strange comment to make.
Well, his album went nowhere but Joss was singing with Smokey on American Idol…I thought it was a little ironic, don’t ‘cha think?
Here’s Ricky doing You Send Me:
So I read in the news today that there’s one actor whose movies Bill O’Reilly of Fox News will never go see. Despite my general distaste for Bill O”Reilly, I was sucked in by a teaser headline on yahoo news.
It’s Sean Penn….because he’s allegedly given money to Saddam Hussein and others like him.
I don’t know if it’s just because I want to be contrary to O”Reilly, but I’m now reconsidering my own personal actor ban, and may actually see a movie starring Rodney Dangerfield.
I’m not alleging that Mr. Dangerfield hangs out or supports terrorists. I just can’t stand him. There was just something about him that made my skin crawl. (No offense intended.)
So that means I have never even seen the movie Back to School, despite the fact that some of it was filmed in Madison. I know I’ve seen snippets of Caddyshack, but never the entire film. (I also have a little something against movies featuring Kenny Loggins’ songs).
But I think it’s time for me to buck up and embrace what I loathe the most, and rent a Rodney Dangerfield movie.
I may start with the animated 1991 feature Rover Dangerfield. It may be easier to handle him in cartoon form! And here’s another reason: according to imdb.com, that movie featured the long awaited comeback of Ronnie Schell, who played Cpl. Duke Slater on Gomer Pyle USMC. I was wondering what he’s been up to since he was hanging out with Pvt. Pyle in that Quonset hut.
Monsters vs Aliens
Rated:PG
Running Time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Jonathan’s rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
Animation! Animation! Animation! This time it’s in 3D, but sadly the story falls a bit short in this one. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fun movie you should take your kids to see. However, it’s not a classic that is perfect for anyone of any age. The characters are cute, but don’t seem to have the lasting impression that Dory the forgetful fish did in Finding Nemo.
Some animated features make such a point of throwing in pop culture references for parents that it becomes annoying. Monsters vs Aliens does not have that problem, in fact it could have used a touch more adult humor for parents.
The 3D is great and this movie should be seen at the IMAX theatre and a great way to spend an afternoon with the little ones, but it isn’t a movie that you’ll want to watch again and again.
Click here for showtimes of Monsters vs Aliens in 3D at the IMAX theatre at Star Cinema.
The Haunting in Connecticut
Rated PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes
Jonathan’s rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
A good horror movie sticks with me long after I leave the theatre. There will be a few scenes that stick in my mind and make me check behind the shower curtain at home to make sure no one is there. The Haunting in Connecticut had some freaky scenes, but the movie certaintly did not stick with me.
This is the supposed true story of a family battling not only a child’s cancer, but some rather angry spirits. Virginia Madsen plays Sara Campbell. She’s a mom who is doing everything possible to help her son, Matt played by Kyle Gallner. Matt is battling cancer and the hospital providing treatment is far from their home so they decide to rent a home closer near the hosptial.
Mom, Dad, two younger siblings and a cousin all move to a house that turns out to be a former funeral home. Yikes! There are scary things going on in the house or is it just in Matt’s mind? There are some creepy scenes but in the end I didn’t have to leave the lights on while going to sleep.
You can see The Haunting in Conneticut at Star Cinema. Click here for showtimes.
Not afraid to admit it…I still love to watch American Idol. I like the bad singers almost as much as I like the good ones. See, I can’t sing myself. Funny that my “voice” is my career, huh? I could show off on stage all day long but I can not hit a single note. So it’s not without a bit of envy that I watch the contestants give it their all week after week.
This season really does seem to have better singers at this point than seasons past. I mean, there are at least four guys currently on the show (Adam, Danny, Kris and Matt) that are better than previous winner Taylor Hicks! And the girls are no slouchs. Young Alison is a sweet sixteen year old who sounds as if she’s been singing continuously her whole little life. And I thoroughly enjoy Megan’s quirkiness and phrasing.
But the best part of Idol…Simon Cowell. He always seems to say just what I’m thinking.
And while I love to watch the show…I’ve never once voted in eight seasons. Go figure.
Okay…the line was really “I’m not talkin’ ’bout movin’ in..” from the song “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” by England Dan and John Ford Coley. I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but England Dan Seals died yesterday at the age of 61 of cancer.
This is sad, not only because of his awesome songs from the ’70s, but because I met him in the mid-80’s when he was launching his country music career. At that time I worked at a radio station in Stevens Point..and the AM station had a country music format. (WXYQ–you’re in 10Q Country). We ran a contest where the listeners had to guess the number of yellow balloons in a station wagon parked in front of the student union, because Dan Seals had a song out about yellow balloons, I imagine. When the DJ called the guy who won, he said live on the air, “NO S%#t!” Classic moment of my radio career, by the way.
Any way, he won dinner with Dan Seals. It wasn’t in some fancy restaurant, it was actually in the Picadilly Place, a restaurant in the student union. (Not sure that was really the name of the restaurant.)
Long story short…I accompanied said listener and got to hang out with Dan Seals too. The main thing I remember is that it was a convergence of 70’s pop stars, because another guy who had a hit in the 1970’s just happened to be driving through the area, heard Dan Seals on the radio and stopped in. His name was Gene Cotton, and he had a minor hit with “Before My Heart Finds Out.” (Although I always thought it was called “Don’t Let My Heart Know That You’re Leaving”)
Any way, it was great fun hanging out with Dan and Gene as they caught up on old times. And then I got to see Dan play country songs including one that caught on, called “Bop.”
Here’s a video of E.D. and and J.F.C. on Midnight Special doing that “I’m not talking ’bout the linen” song..
