Recessions, News, and One Interview

The news these days is not only depressing, but annoying. I refer to the constant barrage of news regarding the economy. No doubt the economy is bad but the news and media, and I guess I am referring largely to the cable news outlets, are just non stop and annoying.

I work from home and pass by the TV now and again and unfortunately I will flip through the dial including CNN, Fox and the rest of them. Twenty four hours of crap really. From call ins from viewers to reports on increased Spam production-do we need this? Do we need 24 hours of news? We don't. Believe it or not but things really do not happen that fast.

The best solution to my frustration would be to turn the crap off. Foolishly, I still have the TV on, but now and again I have found something to watch. One of those that continues to impress me is Charlie Rose, who has been having conversations with people of interest for years. He has political people, business people, academics, musicians, actors, directors, researchers, entrepreneurs, writers-you find all kinds of folks sitting at his table.

Simple conversation with interesting people-such a simple idea and works so good! This Thursday was a case in point. Charlie had Marc Andreessen on. Marc is the guy largely responsible for the web browser-both Internet Explorer and what is now the old Netscape Navigator. Since then he has been involved with both new technology projects and also with the venture capital for such projects.

So an interesting guy with some good stories. He offered a couple insights regarding today's world. For once I heard that there is still a lot of innovation going on and from a man who is in the trenches. He pointed out that today's new ventures can latch on to things like Apple's iPhone or Google's cloud technology. At one point he commented that for start ups, they will just keep working on their product, their vision, building what they were aiming to do, recession or no recession.

Charlie Rose also has one of the largest libraries of videos on the web, including this interview with Marc Andreessen.

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Stuff Going On. . .

We may not be doing much over here but some of the acts we are in touch with are hard at work. Some are in the studio, others are just trying out something new and different in rehearsals. Here is a quick and dirty update on some of that.

Last week I wandered down and caught Karen Curious (The New Professionals) and Lani Ford (Stark) doing some acoustic stuff at a little place on Avenue C. It was a cool show-mellow but still neat. Karen tried out a new song or two, both sounding promising. the neat thing though is that she is moving from bass guitar to lead guitar. We got a sampling I think in the course of the acoustic set, as she was just not into the bar stool acoustic show. She was up and about more like doing the electric guitar on a stage with a band. From the little I caught, she should be fine. Soon enough the New Pros are heading to SXSW.

Lani Ford has likewise busy. She was playing out in Pennsylvania last weekend and at Arlene's this weekend. the more interesting news is that her and the band (Stark) are in the recording studio working on what will be their third album. We got a sampling of one tune they had just recorded along with a mix of other numbers from her most recent CD.

Jumping ahead to next week, we got have the release party for a CD that has been done for awhile. Queen V will be having a CD Release/ Birthday party at her Take Back New York show at Don Hills. Quite the CD, Death or Glory features various guest artists, including Vernon Reid of Living Colour. Forget the artists, she just has some cool tunes on this album, (not that her earlier stuff was not good!). i have heard some of these on off for the last year or more and it will be nice holding the Death or Glory CD in my hand. I am, I guess, one of those folks who still likes a CD. I won't go the next step and say that vinyl is even better-it ain't. Regardless of all that, it is just very cool that Death or Glory is finally coming out!

Well who else was I wanting to talk about. . . There are two acts who are in the studio now or will be soon enough. Both KILLCODE and Do You See The Dark are aiming to have CDs out shortly and they are or will be in the studio shortly. Do You See The Dark has been working on new material for awhile and their sound and even their older material has evolved, so I am looking forward to their CD!

Lastly it seems that Words On Parchment appear to be back! Rob and Anthony are back and perhaps even have a drummer so they moving from the acoustic indie sound to a pop punk band sound. Last i heard, they were still needing a Bass player. And they are back at Mr D's in Yonkers sometime soon with the Halfway Crooks. And with the new sound has come a new name=Burning Times.

So that is an update on what is going on with some of the local talent I am in touch with.

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I digress. . . or the sharing of one rather odd dream

Sometimes you have to wonder how your unconscious arrives at certain dreams. This is quick note regarding such a dream. The wife can only take so much of my early morning updates over coffee on the strange dream I had the night before, and this one I thought a stray LA Guns fan might appreciate. Maybe.

Somehow in the this dream I was at some LA event or party. I have never been to LA. Anyway at this event Phil Lewis, the vocalist for LA Guns, was working the room saying hello to various folks and just being social. He runs into one of the stars of the old TV sitcom Will and Grace, a show I never watched! I am guessing it was Will as it was a dude. Anyway Phil greets the actor, saying hello and the actor responds in kind, but is uncertain who Phil is. PHil Lewis proceeds to introduce himself, referencing LA Guns and all and the actor, "Will", responds with recognition, saying,"Oh yeah,I even have your FBI record". End of dream.

I woke up thinking wow what a great line. No idea what it means but a cool response. Not sure how or why those associations came about in February 2009. It is just amusing. I can guess that the FBI record comes from the gangster images such as Phil holding the tommy gun on Torme's Back to Babylon record.

Anyway, I guess this posting is only a few steps further into utter foolishness.

Rock on.

Bob Schaffer

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Holy Shit. . .it is February 2009!

Wow, it is February 2009. I was hoping for some gigs for late winter into spring, but nothing as of yet. We will have to dig in and look a little harder. Part of it is due to personal stuff, part of it was I thought we were good. Anyway, back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, we have cleaned up the site a bit and it is looking pretty good. At least I think so! Any suggestions on it are welcome.

Aside from thinking bout gigs and redoing the site, we have a few other things happening. Stay tuned for two or three new ventures we will be exploring. One of those will will take a lot of work, but two other projects should be here shortly! We are talking weeks on these. So we are here and doing some stuff.

Anyway, do check out the page now and again, and if you want your band listed on the feast of noise page, or on the gig calendar, drop us a note!

rock on!

Bob Schaffer

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