Voter Payback
I’ve always thought it would be great if voters could get something as a reward for displaying their voting receipt on election day. I’m not talking about vote buying, but just some modest rewards for...
View ArticleCredit Where Credit is Due
While surfing the net today, I came across a collection of jazz resources at Columbia University. It has a couple of interesting things like close analysis of Lonely Woman and Haitian Fight Song, with...
View ArticleHey, Music Lover…
Don’t miss this video clip of Sly and the Family Stone on the Ed Sullivan Show from 1968. Also an MP3 from the Family’s debut album, “A Whole New Thing”
View ArticlePleasures
A scattering of things which have made me happy lately: Incremental searching: I recently switched to using Firefox instead of Safari, largely for this feature. Now it drives me crazy to search using...
View ArticleAn MP3 Blog is Born
Announcing the first posting of the Akwaaba Sound System, a new group MP3 blog. A few years ago, my friends Chris and Pieter and I (with a few other folks) were DJing some parties at the Elastic...
View ArticleLogrolling In Our Times
So I happened to hear on All Things Considered an interview with Dick Cavett on the occasion of the release of a box of DVDs featuring performances and interviews with “rock icons” on his show in the...
View ArticleMusic Sharing (the old fashioned kind)
Tim Bray has observed youth in the act of Music Sharing: The mornings when I take the kid to school I see them standing in the schoolyard, sharing two between four or three between five. It’s a...
View ArticleGuarding the Groove
This weekend I booked my travel to New Orleans for the JazzFest. I made the pilgrimage annually for six years running back in the day, but haven’t been to New Orleans except en route to Baton Rouge...
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Jazz Fess-tival
I’m returning to New Orleans this weekend for the Jazz Festival for the first time in six or seven years. For a while in the 90’s it was an annual affair with a lot of friends; I think we went...
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Re-Festivated
Well, I really didn’t realize how much I had been missing, but now that I’m back from the JazzFest, I am sure as shooting going to be back as frequently as providence permits. It’s just a glorious...
View ArticleNo Wonder People Are Confused about DRM
A couple of weeks ago, I was disappointed by the media coverage about Amazon’s entry into digital music sales. The New York Times wrote: “Apple plans to start selling EMI’s songs as MP3 format later...
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Let it Shine: the SNCC Freedom Singers
Last fall I had the pleasure of seeing a concert by the SNCC Freedom Singers at Woodson Library. CAN TV was there shooting, and they aired the entire event in December. I’ve finally gotten around to...
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Treat a Stranger Right: a Muxtape
The internet toy-of-the-week is Muxtape.com. It’s pretty slick, although I’m not sure I’ll use it much. When they add the ability to stream from your friends mixes and randomly identified simpatico...
View ArticleChicago Summerdance iCalendar
Since I wanted it for myself, I offer up to you an iCal file holding the Chicago Summerdance ’09 schedule. I used Max M’s icalendar library for Python, which works pretty well, although the file...
View ArticleMusic Monday Throwdown: The Choking Kind
I recently grabbed an old Mavis Staples “twofer” from eMusic and have really been enjoying her take on the song “The Choking Kind.” After a little looking, it seems hers is actually one of the better...
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