News

Al Stevens was a programmer/columnist/author for many years -- and his C column was my favorite part of DDJ most months.

Now that he's retired, Al's back to playing music full time. And now that we've moved to Melbourne, I'm just gonna have to go catch him playing in Cocoa Beach.

Anyway, Al's guidelines for jazz sit-ins apply equally well to all sorts of open mikes and jams, just substitute "rock" for "jazz", "Oops, I Did It Again" for "Love Potion Number Nine", etc. To the point, and funny.

#10: If you are not trained in music theory, don't scat. If you are trained in music theory, don't scat very often.

Remember in Orwell's 1984, the idea of "Room 101"?

'You asked me once,' said O'Brien, 'what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.'

I think I've found my Room 101. Rock 'N' Roll Holiday Escape with Journey, R.E.O. Speedwagon and Styx.

And how cool is to be able to say this is via Bob? Mould, that is.

I had posted this as a news blurb on openmikes.org, but I don't really think anyone reads those. Everyone heads straight for the calendar or search.

Since this blog has a couple of readers, anyway, it seemed worth making the point again. This is about as pedantic and Jakob-ish as I get.

OK, this one really has nothing to do with Open Mikes, or openmikes.org, or me, or the musicians who make up most of the site's readership. It's for that other percentage, the club/bar/coffeehouse owner/manager/employee.

I have a very simple request. This is me speaking as a visitor to your site, and potentially to your club:

Include your full street address on your home page. Preferably everywhere, and at least somewhere.

I know, how obvious could this be, right? You'd think. But time and again, as I search for correct street address and contact information for a new listing, I get all excited that the venue in question actually has a site. And not quite half the time, it takes a pretty thorough search to find an address. And about one quarter of the time, I find none.

Now, I applaud the listing of menus, drink specials, entertainment calendars. But if any of those interest me, I might actually want to come down there. "In the heart of Old Town" or "across the street from Gilby's BBQ" won't help if I didn't grow up there.

That's it. That's my request. I thank you, and your new customers - who can now find you - thank you too.

The photo album is now running the Gallery package. Added “photo album software” to the list of “stuff that exists in such nice canned form I see no reason to go on maintaining my homebrewed version.”

Better to put the time/effort into things like IE View, work, life… Maybe actually uploading some photos, for instance.

Anyway, login username is “guest”, password is the same as it ever was.

Added another song from the 4/23 show with Brian Franklin. "Room To Breathe" is now up on the audio page.

p.s. If "Disappear" sounds better, it's because Mark Borrow tweaked the audio a bit since I first uploaded it; if "Room To Breathe" is audible at all, it's because I followed his recommendations and did the same.

p.p.s. Added "Mind of Its Own" from the same show.