Changes

Went to the city last Friday, June 22nd. Went in to see GSX over at Don Hills. I have seen the band a few times and they always put on the show. It was just a good way to wrap up a week that turned out not too bad, It had been a while since I made it over to Don Hills over on the West Side. The last time I had wandered over might have been December 2005. It has been awhle.

The area around it is evolving. I guess all neighborhoods and places evolve, but on Friday night the changes were visible. Just seemed like I had to hunt a little more for parking. And this upscale decorating and furniture store perhaps with these amazingly bright lights outside the showroom windows. Just amazingly bright. And around this furniture outlet or whatever it is, were a series of bars and outlets, all with there velvet ropes and bouncers regulating access into the place and assisting with flagging taxis.

Don Hills, and this neighborhood, are around the corner from the Holland Tunnel and a block or two from the West Side Highway. It appeared this Friday night at least that something was going on.

Don Hills inside just seemed roomier. No more long bumpy couch running parallel to the bar. Maybe the made the wall thinner. On the other side they had eliminated a bar in the back and now just had a thing to sit on and a pole for a lone dancer who arrived later that night. The walls were all with what think was new wallpaper, with sailors and betty boop type characters and who knows what else. In general they seemed to have spruced up the place. Maybe not, Maybe it was just two years since I last past thru.

Also the night started later over. Lately it seems, the bands get started at 9:00 and go till 2:00. I was running late and worried I would miss GSX. I came just as the first band, Hooray for Goodbye, was tearing down. I caught two others acts, Mohagany, and Boyskouts, and finally GSX. The two caught were cool. Mohagany had a violin or viola player and I am always hooked when I see and hear that instrument.

Now the other thing which looking back was hinted at in the name of the event and page on the Don Hills site is that this night was for the gurls, or more to the point for the lesbians. Oh there were a few guys like myself, either friends of somebody tagging along and then another handful of GSX fans and rockers. so it was just interesting coming to a place which offers more than a few bands. Why I saw a few people at one point dancing to the dj music. I have not seen that in a long time. It was just kind of neat to see even hint of a theme and certain crowd come ot and partake of it.

Oh yeah GSX got on and they tore up the stage.They did several songs from Manifest. They started off with a new one and threw in another later on that I was not familiar with, so they are working on new material, which I do look forward to. The band was as tight as ever. It is always nice watching and listening to Chris do his thing with guitar. And Sarah on vocals just keping them all in line and enjoying bits and pieces along the way.

It was cool to get out and see a slightly different scene-the neighborhood, the bar decor, the crowd. Just nice to see how things do change and at the end of the day work out and even rock.

Bob Schaffer
June 27, 2007

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New Day-New Name and Soon a New Site

Afternoon,

Well last week I witnessed the abrupt end of the Wild West. Not the worst thing to happen. Not the best either. Three years of work largely gone. In a certain sense, I have been dealing with that for last few months. In February I flew over to London and checked out GMT doing the Clive Aid show. Show rocked and had a good time, but there was an uneasy undercurrent for myself.

Such a trip was always plan b, and going to plan b was basically to concede that I could not figure out a way to make plan a-getting Bernie Torme and his mates over to the States. The fact that I am writing this now just illustrates it is still stuck in my craw. (Is that the phrase?) In short I am still annoyed and pissed at the series of botched attempts at plan a.

Enough said on that front, was not intending to go there anyway. No, the theme of this writing was the question of where to go from here, what to do with no history and just a desire to do somethng now. A few basic items to factor in. 1) I want to do something with music promotion and 2) It will mainly be in the NY metro area. Those two items are it.

Just figuring out a name for the new entity has been the task for the last week or so. Wild West was done. The only people who appreciate Wild West are those who know Torme's Electric Gypsies album. The rest of the world and certainly most all of NY and NJ rockers have no bloomin clue and think I am talking cowboys, rodeos and six guns. And then when I say I promote rock n roll the next image is probably Bon Jovi, and the song Dead or Alive. That was never what the Wild West was about.

So a new name. My mood these days is perhaps a shade dark. Names I am came up with included dead end promotions, crash promotions, train wreck promotions, white trash promotions. I still like those, in part it is just my sense of humor. The first one I thought of was WMD Promotions, but I think that is already dated. In short, I was looking for a cute name indicating a bit of chaos and destruction that was available for a website.

Well I kicked around names for the past week and Crash Promotions looked like it. I was about to go to go-daddy and register it. It did not happen though, I just did not see myself representing Crash Promotions, just did not see myself introducing myself as Bob Schaffer of Crash Promotions. So I here I sat last night plugging in various names and variations.

At the end of the night I ended up with something, and signed on the dotted line. the new domain is feastofnoise.com. A name is a name I guess. This morning no one was impressed, including myself, but I am going to run with it. Enough time spent on it. The goal is a site that folks will come to regarding new music in the region and occasionally even outside of the region. I want to use as much automation as possible, meaning RSS feeds and XML to various sites and sources. Want to offer a blend of music, video, a dash of news and of course the Wild West Blog, which will continue unchanged. The goal tis time is a website that people come to, primarily in the NY region.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Bob Schaffer
June 9th, 2007

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www.wildwestrocks.com is gone. . .

Morning all,

Sadly this past Thursday, May 31st, someone, claiming to be myself, made the request to my internet service provider (Yahoo) to close the Wild West - www.wildwestrocks.com.

So at this time the Wild West is gone. I believe I still have the domain name, but who knows. Parts of the site are backed up. In some respects as I am shifting gears from the Bernie Torme/ GMT Project, which consumed much of 2006, to a focus on local shows and talent (The CD and the shows at Barney McNabbs), it is good that the site get a spring cleaning.

Regarding Yahoo, they are and were terrible offering no apologies or any concern regarding the identity theft issue or the demise of my site - three years of blooming work!

For anyone who visited that site, it could be seen that it was a labor of love and it is sad and frustrating that it is gone and Yahoo can offer nothing. I do concede that backups were not routine at the Wild West. I have to conclude that I stepped on somebody's toes somewhere for them to go to these lengths.

Anyway, stay tuned regarding the new Wild West site and yes the CD project I have been rumbling about will happen!

And to the idiot who did initiate the request to Yahoo, if there was such a request - f you.

Bob Schaffer

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