Saturday, October 28, 2000

12:07 AM
Dale Chihuly's Boathouse Studio Tour
The site is up. It has pictures of our tour of Dale Chihuly's glass blowing studio on Lake Union in Seattle. I did this site to remember and to share. Words could *never* describe what we experienced. The pictures barely do.

Thursday, October 26, 2000

1:17 AM
Another relief - the Worldly Designs shopping cart site is done. Fortunately, there will be no rest. Zoe already does Christine Lavin's web site but Christine's e-commerce site for christinlavin.com records has not worked out and I will be creating a new one for her. Look for it Jan 1, 2001. The beginning of the *real* new millenium.

Christine Lavin is amazing. We had the good fortune to do a show with Christine Lavin as a TestingTesting concert. Her show page has the RealAudio for the entire show along with stills. It gives a flavor of what she does but see her live! She will be in Kirkland at the end of November or check out her Calendar of Events, she's always touring.

Monday night we had Beverly Graham on TestingTesting. It was a good show and I can always get her to do House of the Rising Sun.

Tuesday was totally amazing. Zoe and I got to take a tour of Dale Chihuly's Boat House Studio on Lake Union. There are two centers in the world for glass blowing: Venice and Seattle and Chihuly's Boat House is the center in Seattle. Not only does it have a large hot shop going 7 days a week, but it is also his personal living quarters. The tour gave us access to part of his personal space such as his lap pool and Indian room. Words cannot describe what what we saw but we took lots of pictures and I will be getting a little web site of those pictures up soon.

Zoe was using her new Olympus C3030 Digital Zoom Camera at Chihuly's. The quality of the images is amazing. I have been using an Olympus D-600-L for over 2 1/2 years. 1.4 megapixels used to be something. It actually prints excellent 5 x 7 prints. I haven't really tried anything large. The C3030 is 3.34 megapixels. 8 X 10s should be no problem. It has much better camera controls although it does seem complicated to use but it is much more than a point and shoot or the D-600-L. My next camera.

Thursday, October 19, 2000

1:23 AM
It's over. The Seattle Mariners lost to the Evil Empire last night. It was sad to see them lose but it's even sadder to not be able to watch the lads that I watched all summer. This is the first time I've watched them all season. I will miss it. Pitchers and catchers report for spring training in February. You gotta have hope!

Tuesday, October 17, 2000

2:28 AM
Game start at 5pm pacific. The Mariners in the 6th game at Yankee Stadium. Halama (good Brooklyn boy) pitching. Everyone in New York is talking subway series. Hah! The last time the Yankees met the Mariners in the playoffs was 1995. The Mariners were 0-2 in a 5 game series and won it. The Mariner bats showed up in the 5th game in this series. Hope the bats make to the 6th. If they do there will be a 7th. And the chance to take two series from New York teams. You gotta have *hope*. It's baseball.

1:13 AM
Oh what a relief it is! The Ace Leather Goods site is done. It's a secure shopping cart for a local leatherist. Great leather wallets, handbags, luggage, etc. All sewn by Andrew right here in Langley. Check it out. I did a bit of modification to the Perl script from Extropia, all the product photography, all the pages. I'm happy with the site and Andrew and Kathy are stoked. It's been too many mornings recently seeing 3:00am but it's been worth it.

So, a little happy music to celebrate. I discovered Greatest Hits! Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band in the late 60s. It helped start the jug band movement in the early 60s. Twisted jug band. But with so much energy. Maria D'Amoto on "That's When I'll Come Back To You", "Richland Woman", "Chevrolet" and "I'm a Woman". Unforgettable on those late nights that I don't remember so well. A voice that sticks in your head. Later, around 1973, I was working nights in a photo lab printing color. Robot work in a dark room with the radio going. And that voice came out of the ether. "Don't feel my thigh." I was dissapointed when the DJ announced it was Maria Muldaur. It was later that I realized Maria D'Amoto was singing Chevrolet with fellow jug bander Geoff Muldaur. Duh! Go to the link and listen to the clips at Amazon. Use up their bandwith. Buy it and make me rich. Buy it and you'll be rich.

That led me to search Amazon for one of the most twisted records (yes, records - you know, those big black CDs) that I own. One of those that I would run back into a burning building for. Oh, euphoria!! It's available, finally, on CD. The Holy Modal Rounders - 1 & 2 The review at Amazon says it.

This is a reissue of the first two Holy Modal Rounders records, resequenced according to the artists' original intent and including two unreleased songs from the time of the recording (1963-64). Perhaps the most earsplittingly original duo of the entire folk revival, the Holy Modal Rounders (fiddler-banjoist Peter Stampfel with guitarist Steve Weber) merged the raw energies of rock, traditional American folk, and blues in a weird, whimsical manner (later dunderheadedly termed "acid folk"). The Holy Modal Rounders performed screeching yet subtle versions of old numbers by the likes of Clarence Ashley, Vernon Dalhart, and Uncle Dave Macon, updating tunes like "Hesitation Blues" with a countercultural reference or two (their version of that song contains the first recorded usage of "psychedelic"). This is one of the coolest things about the Rounders--as Stampfel writes in the liner notes, their basic approach to an old tune was to "hear song, forget song, try to remember song while adding your personal wrinkles, bingo!" An irreverent wit pervades the disc, from pop-tune parodies such as "Mr. Spaceman" to their original folk-based songs (which were neither preachy nor ham-fisted--a true rarity in '63) such as "Blues in the Bottle" and "Hey, Hey Baby." The result not only sounds way less corny than anything else from the era, but hews much closer to the raggedly strange, sublime Americana sounds of Charlie Poole, Dock Boggs, and Charley Patton. --Mike McGonigal

This now available to anyone. What's more, it has their first two albums and I have only heard their first. Oh, joy! Again, go to the link and listen to the clips. You have never heard anything like it. Unless...

Anthology Of American Folk Music (Edited by Harry Smith) This is where Kweskin and the Rounders (and Dylan, and all those city boys in the 50s) learned about Charlie Poole, Dock Boggs, and Charley Patton. They are all here including Johnny Cash's mother-in-law who is incredible. Again, Amazon-

This impressive--and frankly, fun--musical document is still sending out shock waves almost 50 years after its original 1952 vinyl release. The Smithsonian's 6 CD reissue is painstakingly researched, annotated and packaged (even boasting an enhanced disc for the techno-capable). Unlike field recorders, eccentric filmmaker/collector/musicologist Harry Smith assembled the Anthology from commercially released (though obscure) 78 rpm discs issued between 1927 and 1935. Its broad scope--from country blues to Cajun social music to Appalachian murder ballads--was monumentally influential; setting musicians like Bob Dylan down the path to folk fandom. The White House started its own national music library with the Anthology; anyone with more than a passing interest in American roots music should do the same. --Michael Ruby

Music without time. Again, go to the link and use up Amazon's bandwidth.

Friday, October 13, 2000

3:46 AM
A busy week falling behind with TestingTesting on Monday and a cold on Tuesday/Wednesday. Finishing off a couple of shopping cart sites that are taking longer than they should but need to be done by this weekend. Nothing like a deadline to focus the mind. The headphones went on about 10pm.

Started of with Super Session with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, and Steve Stills (before Crosby, Stills and Nash). It has the definitive "Season of the Witch". The Cream's Disraeli Gears. This is the album that made Cream. This was before Eric Clapton became God. Still in the sixties vein: Blonde On Blonde. The last album Dylan did before his motorcycle accident and one of the best rock 'n roll albums ever. The Ramones' Acid Eaters. Covers of 60's songs. One of the most beautiful of the 60s albums (actually 1970): Van Morrison's Moondance with "Into the Mystic". On a Van Morrison theme: the definititive version of "Gloria" in Patti Smith's Horses. And finally, for a night cap, Miles Davis' Sketches Of Spain. Miles and Gil Evans went somewhere amazing and it has remained unique.

Tuesday, October 10, 2000

11:32 AM
TestingTesting - 10-09-00 - Gina Bina
The audio for last nights show is up. Zoe's friend, Gina Bina (aka Jeanna Gollihur), made it up from Seattle. It's interesting how different musicians react with the TT House Band. I think a good measure of this is the laughter quotient. As one of our intrepid listeners, Chris Smith (from Queensland, Australia), put it in the show's guest book Sounding Good you Guys sound so HAPPY. Everyone was having way to much fun. That is what TT is all about.

And, although he claims to *not* be a sports fan, our faithfull correspondent's piece on baseball was great (see News Form South Whidbey). Baseball is in the air even for non-sports fans. The Mariners open against the Evil Empire... er, the Yankees tonight.

Monday, October 9, 2000

2:48 PM
RageBoy has this thing for dictionaries. I thought it was just another of his aberrations. I find that he is on to something. I have been using Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary - the Office Edition. I guess that "Office Edition" means cheap paperback. It came home from a large aerospace company when I quit. For years I have wanted a real dictionary but haven't had the money. Recently my landlady gave me a 3 volume copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary.

It's a joy to use. All the words are there. Well, all the words in 1961 which is when it first came out. Mine is dated 1966. The new versions have an addendum with new words and the Fourth is promised for 2002. No matter, it's great to use!

As the Amazon review says: If big is better, the unabridged Webster's Third New International Dictionary is among the best. Weighing 12.5 pounds and measuring 4 inches thick, its 2,662 pages define more than 450,000 words spanning "a" to "zyzzogeton," including words ("disselboom" for instance) not found in other dictionaries, plus clear definitions, comprehensive etymologies, interesting asides, literary usage quotes, and a comfortable typeface. The list price is $119 but Amazon will sell it to you for only $95.20 for the one volume edition. Check out the used book sites. I saw 3 volume copies in the $30 - $35 dollar range (and much higher).

Accept no substitutes.

Friday, October 6, 2000

11:15 PM
Well, the Seattle Mariners did it. Swept Chicago 3 games to advance to the American Leage Championship. Great pitching and defense. They play the winner of the Oakland / Yankees game Tuesday with at least two games at Safeco Field Friday and Saturday. Tickets go on sale Sunday moning. I will be there.

I watched the game at Zoe's. We had our Sasaki headbands but they weren't needed. One of the advantages of being self-employed. I don't have to get permission from my boss to take the time off. Of course, I was up until 3:30 in the morning working on a Perl script.

Thursday, October 5, 2000

12:20 AM
Kepa Junkera - Bilbao 00:00h
There are those that think the accordian is the work of the devil. If all you know of the accordian is from Lawrence Welk and polka music then you would be right. But the accordian is much more than that. Much more. Cajun, Zydeco, Tex-Mex conjunto, Argentina with the tango, and various Irish folk and rock bands. It's used all over the world in an amazing variety of music.

I was just loaned this 2 CD sent of Basque accordianist Kepa Junkera. It includes a number of musicians from other musical traditions including Béla Fleck. "Nondik jo Maurizia?" with Kepa and Béla is playing as I write this. Bela takes the banjo somewhere, as Kepa takes the accordian (diatonic), where I don't think they have ever been before. It's music that is full of life. It's music that takes over the body. You have no control. Or, as my 18 year old son said after listening to "Fasio & Lurra-terra": "He's fuckin' crazy!".

My granddaughter, Robyn, has been here 5 days. She has taken over the house. Robby and I are here to pick her up, put her down, feed her, dress her, change her, bathe her, play with her, read to her, make her laugh, hug her, kiss her, be there when she wakes up in the morning, put her down for naps, and tuck her in at the end of the day. She should be for about another month. Sometimes it's hard to get work done when a 20 month old is sitting in your lap as you are uploading files. "Down" means "pick me up" or it could mean "put me down". It's context sensitive. When she sees a small child or a picture of a small child, it's "baby, baby!". She knows "all done", "juice", "milk", "water", and, of course, "Eeeeeeedgaaaaaar!" We all sing for Edgar. How else would they win?

Wednesday, October 4, 2000

1:39 PM
The Seattle Mariners just beat Chicago 5-2 for a two game sweep! They hurt the Big Hurt. The bullpen shut them out for two games. Friday to finish off Chicago!

Monday, October 2, 2000

12:05 AM
The Seattle Mariners make the playoffs! Their best team record and Sasaki sets a new rookie closer record. Oakland won the division but the Mariners get the wildcard. Onto Chicago for Tues and Wed games. Back to Seattle on Friday. Let the games begin.

Sunday, October 1, 2000

1:59 PM
The Partial Puyallup
I finally got my pictures of the Puyallup Fair up.

Life is getting more complicated. My granddaughter just moved in. My son Robby will be moving in to help out. Keeping up with a 20 month old is definitely for the young.