An online-music treat, Y Que Bongo, April 10, 2008
Category: Music
I am delighted to find more of Alex Cuba’s music streaming online. He now plays songs at CBC Radio 3, including the Latin percussion gem, Y Que Bongo. This song is a highlight of Alex Cuba’s latest CD, Agua Del Pozo, which was awarded the 2008 Juno, World Music Album of the Year.
Y Que Bongo is a percussion treasure. This song has the guest Cuban percussion player, Luis Simon Varela Hernandez "Quimiñon". I had to ask about the drums, and was told that they were bongos tuned low, almost sounding like congas. A masterful number of notes. Alex Cuba puts together in this and other songs from Aqua Del Pozo a sensual magic reminiscent of Eric Burdon and War’s, Spill The Wine. (For more on this association buy Agua Del Pozo and read the English or Spanish lyrics to Y Que Bongo, Tu Boca Lo Quita and Penita En La Cara.)
New music from Canada: Loose Change Trio, Jan. 25, 2008
Category: Music
Here is new music I was excited to find this week. Loose Change Trio from Vancouver, Canada.
Listen for yourself, but I'll offer some descriptors. Enthralling and satisfying vocals by David Ward. Soul, Blues, Pop, Jazz, Funk and a bit of Bluegrass and Latin, rolled up sensitively and with solid musical abilities in an accessible form. Early Chicago, Dave Matthews Band, reminiscent of. Guitar, horns, drums (Greg Bevis), bass, violin, and well-written songs, professionally-produced by Adam Fulton.
Did I mention the vocals?
I'm returning to edit this blog entry, after about a week of listening (a lot) to David Ward's singing in this professionally-produced package of music. I suggest to you, look for some reach to the grace, soul and funk of Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald and Mahalia Jackson in the singing of David Ward. Masculine-enough he is, and he sings something more. (Talking like Yoda, I am.)
And then there's his songwriting. I can imagine returning to this one day.
This is good music. Mainstream appeal, it has, but with an intriguing and satisfying musical quality. Looking forward to seeing this band's future unfold, I am. Even to hear the rest of the coming CD.
Loose Change Trio has several solid ways for you to check them out:
In addition, you can hear Loose Change Trio prominently played in the Soulwindows.com playist at CBC Radio 3 along with other fine Canadian musicians. Here is a YouTube response to this from Loose Change Trio. I'm guessing that Adam Fulton did not produce this video. Thanks guys!
Loose Change Trio will release their debut CD in Vancouver on Feb. 29, 2008 at the Backstage Lounge. See www.loosechangetrio.com for details.
I did not reduce your MySpace comment image size Dec. 5, 2007
I have stated recently that MySpace has introduced several excellent improvements to this network. Among my favourites are the new music player which plays all tracks continuously, and on the single player like the one I have, the ability to view user's song history (if you have logged in). I like the new home page items like, Friend Status (I update mine up to a few times daily, visible to friends.) View New Friends, Online Friends, and Friend Updates showing which friends have updated their pages. I like that one - I wish I could subscribe to all friends or at least more than 40, with control at both ends of course. So far, I like the Facebook-type features that MySpace has added.
But after these several good forward steps at MySpace, it seems that it's the occasional big backward step that prompts my blog entries. What am I ranting about this time? Well, let me begin by apologizing to those of you who graced my MySpace with your creative images. You may see that tonight, Dec. 5, 2007, your image has been reduced in size. I did not modify any settings today, which could have caused such a manipulation of your image. It appears that MySpace has done this.
The next day, after some Google searching and digging in the MySpace settings, I find that there is a solution to this, at least on my page. Why wasn't it something I could opt-in to? How long will it take all other users to figure this out?
MySpace has added a new setting in Edit Profile, Account Settings, Miscellaneous:
Comments Stretching: Allow Images and Videos to stretch the width of my comments box
The default setting for this new feature is OFF, or, deselected. Why??
I have seen this image-size modification appearing around MySpace pages recently. While seeing this as a large-scale diminishing of MySpace' value, I consoled myself in the fallback of at least keeping the comment image size on my page intact. At least my friends' images wouldn't be manipulated on my page. But now I see that we are losing that privilege, until we figure out how to get it back. The only thing I could be thankful for when the images were shrunk, was that they have at least kept the image aspect ratio intact — for example, a picture of an elephant doesn't end up looking like that of a giraffe.
Those of us who enjoy visual art, and who collect information from promotional images posted by musicians or other artists, have suffered a significant setback here at MySpace. This backward step is enlarged also by the recent choice of many MySpace users to disallow the use of images and other HTML in their comment section. I believe the cause of this is the rampant barrage of images used to trap users in phishing or other malicious or spamming endeavours. It feels like we are under attack. I do understand the impulse to just shut off the flow of that type of HTML influence. But the community is losing an important element. It's quiet around here! My daily page views have dropped about a half of what they were recently, likely because I'm not posting images in comments. They are either not allowed or I have nothing small enough to fit.
I am fortunate to have a fast internet connection. Even so, I have had experience with waiting a LONG time to open graphic-intensive MySpace pages. These pages are frustrating, but are often inspiring once the wait ends. I understand that bandwidth is an issue. But am I the only one who preferred the previous no-image-change status? I am here for musical and visual art, and to connect with others. Please MySpace, don't manipulate our images or our code. (See my rant about msplinks.)
This kind of stuff makes me feel like wandering over to that other network, where a user's page looks like a form to fill out for a blood test. Give us our music, from musician almost direct to listener, with visual art to occupy and engage all aspects of the mind. This is what MySpace has been good for. I hope the people at MySpace can keep their eyes on the mind of the user, continuing to improve the network features, and somehow overcoming the interference of the spammer, the phisher and any other kind of malicious intruder. Somehow, let's keep building this thing, including the musical and the visual, in excellent proportions.
So my question is, (Tom, are you there?) where is the introduction to and education for this major new feature, the control for which is buried in the depths of one's profile settings? I watch carefully for Tom's communications about new or problematic features. Did I miss one? For a while there you were communicating quite freely with us, even replying to comments at your blog. I liked that. But now we have a major negative move with no preparation or instruction, at least that I heard.
My suggestion on this one, beyond way more communication, is to offer users the ability to state their own guidelines to their visitors and potential commenters. On my profile I would state a maximum image width of 500 pixels, and my lack of tolerance for spam. Sure, you can offer this comment-stretching option, but please, set the default to ON. And when I comment with an image at one of my friends' pages, and the image is too large, I would prefer to know about it and even have it rejected, rather than have the image manipulated.
I still care about MySpace. That's why I get worked up sometimes.
The Roman numeral for 10,000 is... at Wikipedia, 10,000 (How can it be so hard to find the code to show that here?)
Celebrating 10,000 MySpace page views tonight.
Why?
Because it's a shapely, debatably-ample, very-round number. I like it.
It's a lighthouse, or a foothold.
It was a quantity of unknowns. Who was out there? Largely a number. (And occasionally a city shows up on a map.) And sometimes... a face shows up. And a song. And then another. And the images! From so far away, or from this city.
I confess: I am a slow or poor communicator, in my responses. I plead in my heart, for the forgiveness and patience of several people, to whom I have been negligent.
Tonight I'm celebrating, listening to and rearranging Soulwindows.com playlist at CBC Radio 3. http://radio3.cbc.ca/play/soulwindowscom
There be good music and energy.
Rather-secretive soul here, sending out a pulse, online.
I celebrate my life and I celebrate yours, wherever you are.
MySpace link conversion - msplinks, NO! June 15, 2007
Current mood: annoyed
Category: MySpace
I am disappointed in last night's MySpace bulletin. I'll quote:
Jun 13, 4:07 pm PDT Tonight we started using msplinks on profiles, just like we've been using them in comments. Whenever you save a url in your myspace page, we convert it to an msplinks url. This allows us to easily and instantly disable links sitewide. If a phishing link gets out into common use, we can turn it off instantly. This is just another weapon in our arsenal to stop phishing and spam while providing you the freedom to customize your profile any way you want. Short version: Don't be worried when you see msplinks in your profile! If you dont know what phishing is, read my blog.
I recognize the need to address phishers and spammers, I do. But I feel that this action takes away the site visitor's ability to see the correct url that the link will deliver him to.
Links are valuable entities, and I believe people are sometimes reluctant (I am) to follow a link if they cannot match a resemblance in the link properties to the link's appearance. For example, if I link here to www.myspace.com/tom what I would like to see in my browser's url display pane is: "http://www.myspace.com/tom." But tonight, what I'm seeing is something like: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRw0i8vd3d3Lm15c3BhY2UuY29tL3RvbQ==
Hyperlinks at MySpace no longer have the value they once had. MySpace has suffered a huge setback tonight, in my opinion. Spammers and phishers are to blame, but I feel that this one of MySpace's approaches to the problem has greatly diminished MySpace's value to me.
Now I'm also finding that the link destination that I set is even modified in my MySpace code once I've saved it. So, code I created in Dreamweaver and saved in MySpace, then shows up modified when I open it again in MySpace. It no longer shows the original URL. I Don't like this! MySpace, please don't manipulate the code!
URLs are important. Please don't hide them, or convert them! I feel like I'm in a country which attempts to centrally control the internet access of its population.
Feeling: positive. (I don't see an option to select that here.)
(I'll save looking down for later.)
Music playing tonight: Rhythms, by Alien Chatter. These guys seem to be two positive spirits, with the lights on. See also, http://alienchatter.com/
Day one, of the local artists' studio tour. Sixteen artists are linked in an open studio today and tomorrow. I am proud to be included with these people.
I've temporarily converted this place to a two-room studio-gallery and I'm enjoying the view of some of the ideas I had for this show. (Several more ideas remain unassembled in bags on the floor, in the computer, and in my head.)
It was so good to meet several beautiful people here.
This feels like one of those once-in-a-lifetime things. Years of clutter and life pushed away here—although I didn't get to my desk—to display an attempt at something beautiful. I'm enjoying the space in here, the lights, the images, the music, and now the people. I enjoyed them all, and I think some of them enjoyed their time here. I am thankful for this.
I am thankful also to my family, who supports me, encourages me and helps me. I would be nowhere without you. I have people who love me, and I am ever thankful for this. Thank you Elizabeth, for loving and helping me. Lenore, at Island Blue: thank you for your excellent matting and framing ideas and service. And thanks also to Fujiya Japanese Foods! They were one of the kind sponsors of the Scattered Artists Studio Tour, and distributed many brochures for the group.
Note to Victoria - Derek Trucks Band coming
Current mood: excited
Category: Music
Here's a guitar player to take note of, coming to Victoria, B.C., Canada, June 23, 2007, Royal Theatre. I'd say that if the Allman Brothers had him playing Duane Allman's slide guitar parts, he's good enough for all to see and hear.
Your concert tonight was completely excellent! What a treat. There's no feeling, like the one following an exceptional musical experience. Susan Tedeschi and Duane Trucks were more than a pleasant surprise. Your whole band is excellent. Thank you for a night of musical energy and pleasure. Stoked, man I'm stoked.
Congrats: Six Degrees Records, ten years
Category: Music
Tonight it's a celebration of the ten-year anniversary of a record company I've enjoyed and admired for some years. Here's a copy of the comment I placed tonight at Six Degrees Records, April 19, 2007.
To Bob Duskis and all at Six Degrees Records,
Congratulations to you on your tenth anniversary!
Here's a toast to you — thanks for keeping listeners like me afloat in much good music over many years. You have introduced me and many others to excellent musicians such as Azam Ali, Niyaz, Issa Bagayogo, Banco de Gaia, Makyo, Bombay Dub Orchestra, Suba, MIDIval PunditZ, Euphoria and dZihan & Kamien, just to name a few.
Your weekly playlist (Live 365) also introduces me to additional musicians from around the globe. You released another really good one today. Some of this stuff is great! (I struggle sometimes to determine the name of the artist currently playing.) Like right now — who is that playing? I want to find and hear more!
Anyway, way to go! Congratulations! I hope you can continue to find your way through this changing landscape of music business dynamics. Just keep in mind, the great magic that people long and search for, that is found in music. The people may not be paying for it in the places where they used to. But I believe that the current hunger for music is as great as anything I've ever seen. The wallets will open to those with whom people enjoy doing business.
Okay, back to the assignment I was supposed to be working on. That's all for my escape into creative procrastination.
Current Music Rumblings... AlexCuba
Category: Music
New-Music buzz around here? My take on it, is AlexCuba's new release, Agua Del Pozo.
In Vancouver at The Media Club, Thursday, Feb. 8, in Victoria at Central Bar & Grill, Friday, February 9, 2007.
Every song he's recently put up at MySpace, I think is a keeper.
I consider him a friend, but I can say independently-enough, that AlexCuba has started a buzz and lit a fire. He's Latin, Cuban, Jazz, Pop. Tremendously-talented, a solid songwriter and excellent performer - AlexCuba is one to watch for.
annoyed
nostalgic
excited