"THAT DAMNED BRIDGE!"
Current mood: awake
Category: News and Politics

Suddenly, on the eve of the opening of the new bridge and the hard-won, long overdue rehab of the historic one, with weathered Steel Bridge Songfest posters still hanging around the county, and "Steel Bridge Songs Vols. 2&3" selling in cafes and shops, the word heard on the street (again!) is, "That damned old bridge has got to go!"

The longtime non-enforcement of weight limits and sudden concern with them, the subsequent "emergency" closure, timed and executed for maximum disruption, and damning coverage in the local paper accompanied by photos of rust holes in beams (that look amazingly like inspection photos taken back in 1999) amounts to a great negative PR coup against the bridge, a refueling of anti-bridge sentiment through creation and exploitation of a public nuisance.

Is someone trying to set the stage for a reassessment of our bridge's feasibility? Does someone want to divert those rehab funds? Again?

It's hard to hold local law enforcement, our city engineer, our county highway commissioner, the State DOT, or the local paper solely responsible for the closure debacle and the panic and confusion that followed. Doesn't something so perfectly disruptive take teamwork?

Whether or not these people and agencies are in cahoots, they do appear to be great friends, only praising, not blaming each other. And not collectively accepting any blame either - if there's a guilty party, they all seem to agree, it's the bridge. Nowhere in the press coverage is a single positive word for the old trooper that's weathered abuse, neglect, time, and the elements, yet somehow, miraculously, continues to serve (from 6am 'til 10pm daily)

No doubt, some people just don't like the old bridge. But has there been collusion? I'd like to agree with the argument that the key players aren't clever enough to think up such a diabolical plan. But, with our bridge possibly facing the final fight for its life, can bridge lovers afford to be smug? And, speaking of affordability, how much might we pay for the lazy luxury of giving every so-called oversight and screw-up the benefit of a doubt? Active negligence can be passive aggression, whether in collusion or not.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun in suspecting this whole thing is a setup. Maybe there won't be any calls for a reassessment of feasibility. Maybe no one will challenge the rehab or try to divert the funds to other projects. If it turns out my fears and suspicions were unfounded, then I'll have to say i'm sorry, I was wrong. But if we start hearing public officials or newspaper editors saying things like "Maybe there's better uses for that rehab money," or, "We have a new bridge now. Hasn't the old one served out its purpose?" or "Reduced traffic counts show we don't need so many bridges now," and if suddenly an "unfixable" mechanical failure occurs, then I hope enough of us will begin to recognize the game, and step up to join in the hard fight ahead.

Thanks so much for being interested enough to read this!

10:36 AM - 12 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

THE EYES VS. EARS DEBATE
Current mood: contemplative

Some snippets:


Eyes: "You know the old saying, 'The eyes have it' - right?"

Ears: "That's 'The ayes have it' but yeah okay, we know who's better looking."

Eyes: "And better SEEING."

Ears: "Oh you are so full of yourself! But who does everyone want to kiss? Hmm? And WHY?"

…


Eyes: "Sounds, especially words, can be so misleading. The eyes
are less easily deceived. You know the old saying, 'seeing is believing'…"

Ears: "You're all about the old sayings.. But like you say,
words can be misleading. I still think the eyes are more easily fooled than the ears."

Eyes: "What the bloody hell?

Ears: "You heard me: it's easier to fool the eyes than the ears."

Eyes: "That's absurd!"

Ears: "No. You've… heard… of digital sampling, right?"

Eyes: "Duh! What does that have to do with…"

Ears: "I'm talking about sample rates. Let's say, for the sake of analogy, that a visual sample is like a picture, and an audio sample is like a word. Well…"

Eyes: "A visual sample? What do you mean? I don't know if I like this analogy."

Ears: "Just… hear… me out. Wait. How can you hear me?"

Eyes: "I read lips."

Ears: "Oh."

Eyes: "I'm a good lip-reader."

Ears: "But... I HAVE no… never mind. Like I was saying…"

Eyes: "Just kidding. I use a signer - you know, an interpreter who uses sign language.. Where are you going with this sampling analogy?"

Ears: "I'm saying it only takes about twenty-four samples per second to fool the eyes, but it takes about four thousand to fool the ears."

Eyes: "Preposterous."

Ears: "No! Life-like audio requires over four thousand samples per second to fool the ears, but twenty-four still pictures, visual samples, scrolling per second in film, fools the eyes into thinking they're seeing smooth, continuous…"

Eyes: "Fools the brain."

Ears: "Whatever. Hear me out. I'm sure you love the old saying, 'a picture is worth a thousand words.' Well, if we're talking about the relative power to deceive their respective receptors, then - if my analogy holds true and my math is correct - one picture is actually worth about 1.3 thousand words. In their power to deceive."

Eyes: "Brilliant. But even in your brilliant analogy, in order to REALLY fool the eyes, each picture has to contain about a megabyte of data…"

Ears: "That is a bit… heh… extreme! No pun intended."

Eyes: "None taken. But wait. Listen. Each 'picture' has to contain A LOT of data, especially compared to your 'words', which contain only one measly BYTE!"

Ears: "Ouch. THAT bites. Ha ha but I meant…"

Eyes: "Wait, listen to me. Your 'words' - in your words ha ha - are pretty fucking empty! Ha!"

Ears: "And your pictures are pretty full of themselves! I'm just saying that the after-image effect is a major weakness that fools the eyes into thinking that…"

Eyes: "Fools the brain!"

Ears: "Speaking of the brain, did you know that the ears are more directly connected to the creative functions of the brain than the eyes?"

Eyes: "Whatever. If you wanna talk about the BRAIN… oh man you don't wanna go there!"

Ears: "Anyway, like I was saying, the ears, being much more sensitive and responsive to rapid input variations, require a much higher sample rate…"

Eyes: "Wait a millisecond my friend! For someone who's all about the hearing, you don't listen very well! Yes, there is the after-image that blurs rapid variations in brightness, but what about COLOR, Mister Sensitive and Responsive? I'm sure you've HEARD of Terahertz."

Ears: "I have heard..."

Eyes: "Well good. Then you can easily 'see' - just a figure of speech of course - that eyes can distinguish between a 610 terahertz frequency green, and a 670 terahertz blue. That's impressive. Good musical ears can distinguish a 110 hertz 'A' note from it's next octave at 220. Big fucking deal! And the best ears in the world can only hear up to 20 kilohertz. The top of the VISUAL spectrum is about 750 TERAhertz!"

Ears: "Well... frequency isn't everything."

6:03 AM - 15 Comments - 18 Kudos - Add Comment

"THE BLUES OF SIN"
Category: Religion and Philosophy

The views expressed in the article below do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this blogger, but i did find them quite fascinating:)

Monday, July 23, 2007
SPECIAL FEATURE REPRINTED FROM THE MANITOWOC HERALD-TIMES REPORTER:
Heaven and Purgatory on Earth in the Music of Dorothy Scott and pat mAcdonald

I have never liked the phrase "heaven on earth"—until I heard Dorothy Scott sing those words at Acoustic Fest in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on Sunday, July 15.

Scott, a singer/songwriter now based out of Door County, sings with a tender, almost fragile voice that's similar to Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin. In her song, "Pass It On," she says, "Heaven is right here on this earth." It is a much more highly charged and challenging song than the old Christian campfire tune of the same name. She is painting a vision of love transforming the world now—not just in the next life. By the power of song, she compelled a Jesus-led desire in me to share God's love with this world.

Then Scott's co-headliner, pat mAcdonald, took the stage. mAcdonald, writer of Timbuk 3's 1986 hit, "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades," lives in Sturgeon Bay playing dirty, rocking blues. mAcdonald plays a cigar box guitar, a literal cigar box fashioned into a guitar-hybrid instrument also called a Purgatory Hill Harp.

Despite Scott's "heaven on earth" vision, the foreboding, bass-driven sound of the Purgatory Hill Harp brought me back down to reality. I've never believed in purgatory, but there are qualities of purgatory here in this world. In the dirty, stomp blues, I saw this world as "purgatory on earth," a waiting room where we wait through struggles and suffering, waiting to be saved from the dark, brooding, foreboding tones of this world and be lifted up above the blues, lifted up to eternal life. We aren't just waiting for "heaven on earth".

Of course, as we wait for eternal life, God calls on us to do His will on earth, a similar goal to Scott's "Pass It On," and Scott's song comes like an encouragement of this call. But we can't be overconfident in our ability to make this world heavenly. This world is filled with the dark blues of sin. We can't be lifted out of those blues by our own actions.

Our "heaven on earth" goals are stunted by "purgatory on earth" reality. This came together when Scott and mAcdonald sang Blind Willie McTell's "Nobody's Fault But Mine." This old blues standard lays the blame squarely on our sin. It is our fault that this earth is a foreboding purgatory. God has given us salvation through Jesus—the promise of eternal life even as we live on this earth, but we are tempted to walk away from this gift. In Scott and mAcdonald's music, there is both heaven and purgatory on earth, and this is our spiritual reality. We are all waiting for Jesus to lift us out of our blues and into His wonderful light.


This article is reprinted with kind permission from the Manitowoc Herald-Times Reporter, Saturday, July 21, 2007. www.htrnews.com Thank you to Dorothy Scott and pat mAcdonald for the review CDs.

© 2007 Benjamin C. Squires permanent link to this post

Thanks to Terry Lundahl for forwarding me the link!

1:15 PM - 12 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

SB3 REACTIONS
Current mood: ecstatic

I want to thank everyone who participated in Steel Bridge Songfest3!!! i couldn't have imagined how SB3 could have surpassed last year (except in sheer numbers) but it DID!!! Thank you SO MUCH to all the volunteers, the music lovers, and most of all, the musicians who gave us such great songs and performances! The ecstatic public reaction has done my heart good, but the unsolicited testimonials received from songwriter/musician participants makes me want to abandon all selfish pursuits and surrender myself to a life of loving servitude to mankind! i hope you'll (they'll) forgive me for sharing a few snippets from letters i've received:

"...so i returned from SBSFIII in Wisconsin Sunday night, and am still floating about 20 feet above ground from the experience! I thought last year was amazing, but this year actually managed to surpass it!... the new batch of writers this year was truly incredible, btw!...kudos to them for doing an amazing job writing sooo many great songs!)" -Craig Greenberg

"i took so much from the experience in sturgeon bay and am still living with the ideas and things that bloomed in my head while i was there. thank you for the opportunity and for not thinking i am an amature joke hah. you humbled me and so did all the great musicians there. hopefully we'll cross paths again soon. be good. cheers" -Geri X

"Thanks for the best week of my life (so far)... To spend a week with such a talented group of artists was inspiring and motivating." -David Cox

"Thanks to you and everyone else involved with the festivities this year. SBSF is such a wonderful thing for the Door County. As I've said, we would like to be a part of this for years to come. Please keep us in the loop." -Josh Gregory (Dark Horse Project)

"For two days I have been trying to write a letter to you but I am completely unable to find the words to express how profoundly meaningful this past week was... There is simply no way to find the words to express how this past week has changed my life; no way to tell you how something that had been lying latent in me was finally reawakened..... Thanks to you and to everyone who made the week what it was. So many giving so selflessly of their time, hours and days on end, with endless patience, in good humor, with openness, in the spirit of creativity.... what a special group of people, how wonderful it was to be part of that community, what an honor." -Melaniejane

"I thought it would be hard to top last year's group, but some of the songs turned out this year blew me away. Jane Wiedlin seemed to be such a wonderful influence on the writers, and I hope she can stay involved with the event in years to come. I'm a novice songwriter, and I was so inspired by the things to come out of the construction zone. Although I haven't shared any of my songs with anyone so far, seeing the amazing products of the past week has given me motivation to keep working. Thanks for everything." -Deborah Lee

"Last week was a brutally fantastic time... i'd never written a song collaboratively from ground-up like that, and it was a very educational experience... it was like good sex. hard-earned, but fun. in a lot of ways it killed me, but i learned to simplify and serve the song rather than myself. i learned a lot about music and being a musician from everyone who was there... I'm honored to have spent the week with all of you. If you find yourself heading back through WI and swing through Madison, let me know. I have a queen-sized futon that's quite crashable." --Burr Settles

On Jun 21, 2007, at 12:47 PM, Spottiswoode wrote:

> single air mattress in the east village of nyc available for gypsy
> travelers. plus breakfast.
> i miss all of you.
> jonathan

"three couches one futon in Austin. And I'm a good cook!" -Mark Addison

And last but not least:

"I fell in love with Sturgeon Bay! I think i met more creative people there that one week than in all the time i've been in L.A.!" -Jane Wiedlin

Now if only i could get more of you to MOVE here... !!!

10:17 AM - 6 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

STEEL BRIDGE SONGFEST 3 !!! (JUNE 14-16)

Hey everybody: it's time to start getting ready for Steel Bridge Songfest3 (Well, actually a small group of us have already been busy for months preparing the best Steel Bridge yet!) Mark June 14th through the 16th on your calendar! Passes are available at www.steelbridgesongfest.org

We've been flooded with offers from bands to play this year and i'm blown away by the line-up as it stands: over a hundred acts in three nights and a day! Jackson Browne has positively confirmed his return (thank you Jackson!) My old friend Jane Wiedlin of the Go Go's (writer of all their hits) will be here for the whole thing, bless her punk rock heart! Jonathan Spottiswood (yes!) has confirmed, as have Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons (yes indeed!) Also, we'll have THREE members of P-Funk!!! (Blackbird McKnight, Kim Manning, and Eric McFadden) and on and on and ON.. (This is not a complete list of my favorites, just a few that come to mind right now.)

Our booking process has been rather free-form, so if you're a musician or band who's not sure whether you're booked or not, send an email to: pmAcd333@gmail.com to get a confirmation. Include your play date preference.

If i invited you to play this year, and you said yes, even if i was drunk at the time and we haven't spoken since, and whether or not you're listed on the website yet, please know that if i said it, i meant it (but please remind me anyway, just in case :) by sending an email to pmAcd333@gmail.com)

Sorry i've been slow in compiling the complete list of performers and passing it on to Charlie (our webmaster and resident QuackPop magnate) but i've been so busy these days trying to juggle three balls with one hand holding a shot glass.

Non-musicians, please know that we expect a much larger turnout this year due to increased promotion and growing awareness of the event. Venue capacities are limited, so get your passes early! If you want to make sure all your friends get passes, go to my profile page where there's some html code you can copy and paste into your profile to put a link to the Steel Bridge website/store.

We'll be finalizing the line-up and schedule over the next couple weeks, so check www.steelbridgesongfest.org for updates.

xo,pat

1:42 AM - 7 Comments - 15 Kudos - Add Comment

NO DEPRESSION

No Depression for me today! Here's a few of the most flattering excerpts from Andy Moore's story, "Stomping the Chords of Fame" in NO DEPRESSION Magazine #67, Jan-Feb, 2007:

7:42 PM - 18 Comments - 26 Kudos - Add Comment

GOOGLISM.COM

go to: www.googlism.com and do a search for yourself. it does a google search, then shows all the sentences that have the word "is" after your name. i tried it with both spellings of mine. the correct one wins by a nose.

10:59 AM - 15 Comments - 11 Kudos - Add Comment

I WROTE MY OWN BIO

Well actually, I re-wrote KT Tunstall's bio to fit me.

KT Tunstall is a sparkling new songwriter with Chinese blood, a Scottish heart, great legwarmers and a cool name - "well, it's got a bit more attitude than Kate which just says farmer's daughter to me," she laughs.

pat mAcdonald is a veteran songwriter in young rocker's clothing and wiry frame who loves Irish coffee and prints his surname in all lower case except for the "A" that distinguishes it from the hamburger chain logo. "It's like ee cummings with a capital U," he deadpans.

7:53 AM - 15 Comments - 19 Kudos - Add Comment

STEEL BRIDGE REACTION
Current mood: satisfied

"STEEL BRIDGE WAS FUCKIN AWESOME ... i want to thankyou again for the whole experience of steel bridge -Ive never been to any festival, seminar, or camp as cool as the steel bridge festival

-Brandon Blazer

"Thank *you*, also, for everything you did for SBSF2. That was one of the most inspirational things I've ever been a part of. The atmosphere and music were so great. It was terrific to see the sense of community among the musicians that you brought together--especially those songwriters from the Holiday Motel."

-Lloyd "Reid" Cole

"I dont know where to begin...THANK YOU. thank you for changing my life in the best way possible...The steelbridge song fest haunts me, and i will never be the same (i hope i hope). I now have an extended family. I really believe that there is divinity within you, and your choices* I loves you pat, i can never thank you enough"

-Liv Mueller (The Darkhorse Project)

"I had the best 3 days of my life at the Songfest"

-Josh (The Darkhorse Project)

"I just wanted to be among the many extending thanks to you and your sister for the great festival. It was really heart warming to see all that great talent decend upon Sturge. Please please please consider us to play again next year."

-Josh, Little Marsh Overflow 

"Hey Pat just wanted to take a sec and thank you for inviting us to steel bridge. we had an unbelievable time. hope we can do it again."

-Sleeper Car

"Hey, once again, I just want to say thanks. SBSF2 was truly magical for me and I think it was for at least 30 other people I now know personally, lol."..

-Charlie Cheney

"I really appreciate the fact that you asked us to help out with the Steel bridge songfest 2, and my drummer, Brian, and his wife Connie had a great time, as I did as well , of course. ... I had a great time playing for the crowd at Pooh's, I had a very receptive response and we have some video that my drummer captured of it. I even had multiple offers to play other gigs! Wicked!
Thanks again for the opportunity to help me get some exposure and also help out a great cause! Cheers!"

-D'Wendt (Cobalt Fur) 

"thanks again for having us for the sbsfII
we had a lot of fun and hope you'll consider us for next year as well. i'm gonna go take a nap now, just got home. thanks"

-High on Stress 

2:36 PM - 13 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

A SAD TALE
Current mood: sleepy

"You can never go back" is a cliche because its true. Despite all good intentions, we can never reconnect with the past, and this story presents a sad kind of proof.

5:17 AM - 23 Comments - 11 Kudos - Add Comment

STEEL BRIDGE SONGFEST2!!!

ANYONE WHO LOVES DOOR COUNTY MIGHT WANT TO JOIN THIS THING AND GET INVOLVED: http://groups.myspace.com/steelbridge

AND NOW THIS IS UP AND RUNNING: WWW.STEELBRIDGESONGFEST.ORG 

10:39 AM - 5 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

MYSPACE INVADED BY BAND-SPAM GENERATING PROGRAMS
Current mood: a little creeped out

NO WONDER MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE BLOCKING FRIENDSHIP REQUESTS FROM BANDS...

7:47 PM - 18 Comments - 26 Kudos - Add Comment

OKAY DEVIL'S POINT IS STILL ON !!!
Current mood: Resolute, no longer torn

i changed my mind too many times.

As of last night, i was going to do the gig, even though they said it'd be okay if i cancelled.

Then i did the math.

But this morning i didn't confirm my cancellation quick enough because i'm never UP in the morning. 

Now the ad's in the paper and Shon who booked me - a really good guy - called all sad and upset. Now his credibility is at stake along with mine if i don't play. 

He even offered to pay me more, thinking it will probably be a really good night. "For me," he said, "it's not about the money."

Ouch! 

So i'll be driving ten hours north for just the one show. Even if the pay is a little better, it still doesn't make sense financially, but sometimes you gotta do things out of love. I love Portland and Devil's Point. And i have faith that everything will work out, that in the end, i'll feel the long drive was more than worthwhile.

And i'll still get to hear Scout Niblett on Thursday.

Decisions like this may lose money, but they keep something i, for one, can't afford to lose: my friends. It can definitely be a long, lonesome, intolerable road without em.

xo,p 

9:10 PM - 3 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

SORRY I HAVE TO CANCEL A COUPLE SHOWS
Current mood: RESOLUTE YET TORN

My van is running fine. i'm not sick. i'm not depressed...

i'm just doing the math:

1) The drive from San Francisco to Olympia, WA and Portland, OR and back will take at least four tanks of gas, and there'll probably be a motel or two along the way.

2) The Iron Rabbit in Olympia is a nice place - great people, great food, great atmosphere - but it's tiny and they can't pay much.

3) Devil's Point is in my top 2 places to play in Portland, probably the ideal venue for my CD release party, but i'd be the opener this saturday, and even though they're offering a good guarantee for an opening act, it's a lot less than i'd get as a headliner.

4) the combined cash from both gigs won't pay the travel expenses for the trip.

5) Okay, i have to admit this one: Scout Niblett, who i love, is playing in San Francisco and i'd have to miss her show if i did the gigs.

6) The managers of both venues gave me permission to cancel if the trip doesn't work this time, saying "of course we want you to play, but we understand, and look forward to the next time..." so i'm not burning any bridges by canceling.

i just made a "smart" decision based on economics and my desire to see a friend play.

So why do i feel so goddamn guilty?

i've played shows when i was hardly able to crawl out of bed. i've played shows when i wondered why i was doing it, if life was even worth living. i played a show when my first wife was having a baby (though the gig ended in time for the birth) and she played shows right up until then.

i've done tours of europe, all jet-lagged and stressed, spending and losing thousands of my own dollars seemingly just for the privilege of touring.

So what has changed about me? i still love to play - more than ever. And i just learned over the past couple weeks of touring with Eric McFadden that i seem to have unlimited strength and endurance. i'm not at all tired, i'm eager to do it again. So what is it?

Could i be getting SMARTER? Am i finally starting to realize that this playing habit of mine can be quite expensive if i don't approach it intelligently?

God i hope so!

But i still feel a little creepy for canceling shows.

If anyone has thoughts on this subject, please share them with me. xoxo,p

7:20 PM - 7 Comments - 7 Kudos - Add Comment

TESTED
Current mood: sleepy

i think i'm being tested to see if i can "make the cut"

To explain: i believe in some kind of higher intelligence or "plan" in the universe, neither good nor evil, just creative and destructive. Or just transformative. Every now and then, there's a purging - things get mean for awhile, and stuff gets deleted.

One time we played pool together in Nashville before her album "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" came out. She was convinced everyone hated her and was going to hate the album too. i assured her "everyone loves you, Lucinda, and they'll love the album too..." It turned out to be her big "breakthrough" hit.

Tonight she played a bunch of great new songs. Afterwards, i wanted to go back stage and say hi and let her know i loved the new songs, etc. so i sent word backstage. but because the tour manager had never heard of me, he wouldn't even tell Lucinda i was there.

So much for great coincidences of friends happening to be in the same town at the same time.

i left the venue feeling really creepy (i hate backstage scenes - the "security" is so demeaning even to the people it's designed to protect), i saw i was out of gas and pulled into a gas station. There was one lane open, two cars ahead of me, an "out of order" sign on one of the pumps, and the attendant talking to someone in one of the cars. No gas was being dispensed, so i asked the attendant, "hey, is this place in service right now?"

2:43 AM - 12 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment