Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

The thumping sound you may have heard following the posting of my CD review of Evidence by The Idea Of North (Vol. 3, Issue 3) was only me kicking myself for not mentioning the outstanding Bay Area a cappella group SoVoSo in the review?s ?If you like these groups? section. I also intended to mention [...]

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Every Sunday at 8:00 p.m. the San Francisco television station KMTP (Channel 32 for Vallejo cable subscribers) presents either a so-bad-it?s-good obscure movie (recent personal favorite: Impulse, starring William Shatner in a unintentionally laughable portrayal of a sociopathic murderer) or two hours of the Classic Arts Showcase program (a highbrow version of music videos). After [...]

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I have been spending the past week downloading music from the [tag]Live Music Archive[/tag] at www.archive.org. For anyone unfamiliar with this website, it provides [tag]free and legal downloads of concerts[/tag] by musicians and bands that allow their performances to be taped (either by audience members or directly through the soundboard) and posted for not-for-profit use [...]

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Part II of II (Our story so far: Boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Girl teaches yoga. Girl and colleague fly to India to study at the Svastha Yoga and Ayurveda center in Chennai. Boy and girl have lunch with colleague and her spouse three days before the flight leaves. The foursome talks about Charles [...]

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My wife Dariece teaches yoga. She flew to India on October 26 to study Svastha Yoga and Ayurveda for six weeks in Chennai, accompanied by her friend and fellow teacher Kate. Kate and her spouse Jay live in Mill Valley; we drove to their apartment and met them for lunch three days before the flight. [...]

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The history of recorded music contains a number of labels whose names give the potential listener a general idea of what to expect from an unheard release by an artist. Sun Records, for example, evolved from a small country, blues, and R&B specialty label in Memphis into an internationally-known icon when owner and record producer [...]

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I saw my friend Greg a.k.a. The Big Gun at a backyard barbeque during this past summer. We talked about old times, as people who have known each other since childhood tend to do, and at one point he mentioned one of those late-night, solve-the-world?s-problems conversations we had during our early twenties. Back then I [...]

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This past May I went to a production of Fiddler On The Roof performed at the amphitheater atop Mount Tamalpais in Marin County. While riding the bus en route to the mountaintop, I was flooded with memories of my middle school teachers bringing their original Broadway cast LPs of musicals and having to sing along [...]

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[tag]Modern Times[/tag] is [tag]Bob Dylan[/tag]?s [tag]latest CD[/tag]. It has been reviewed favorably by the usual suspects in the music criticism business, and rightfully so: this music puts old wine in new bottles, then drinks the wine and smashes the bottles in the street. ?I was thinkin? ?bout Alicia Keeeeeeys,? Dylan drawls during the early moments [...]

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Time can make such a difference. Consider, for example, the total time of a recording. During the Vinyl Era, single LPs were structured to fit thirty-eight and forty-five minute formats, mostly due to disc size, 33-1/3 RPM speed, and sonic quality. The CD Era, with its digital technology and ability to store more sound, increased [...]

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What comes to mind when considering the state of Maine? Stephen King. Senator Olympia Snowe. Former Senator Ed Muskie. The fictional character Hawkeye Pierce from the ?M*A*S*H? TV series. The definitely non-fictional former President George H.W. Bush?s summer home in Kennebunkport. Maine Coon cats. ?ME? used as the official state abbreviation (and people say Californians [...]

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I am writing these words on September 11, five years after the events which have gained a terrible permanence in the world?s history. There is no way I can be unaware of these events while writing this music review, as the aftershocks of everything that has happened since the first plane crashed into the tower [...]

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If Charles Dickens were alive and writing CD reviews and music columns, I would expect them to be similar to his novels: dense, witty, contemporary, well-rounded, full of surprises and information, and a reference source for a reader?s great expectations. He would be able to use the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future as [...]

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One of my favorite live recordings is [tag]?Stand In The Fire[/tag]? by [tag]Warren Zevon[/tag]. Released in 1980 on [tag]Asylum Records[/tag] ? appropriate for someone whose best-known song is ?Werewolves Of London? ? it featured Zevon and the Colorado band Boulder recorded at the Roxy in Los Angeles at the end of a tour known as [...]

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[tag]Jason Peri[/tag] made the six hours-and-change drive from the Southern California city of Diamond Bar to play at Listen & Be Heard?s Poetry Caf? on the afternoon of August 12. He performed on guitar and vocals with a trio comprised of Folsom?s John Colter on cajon and some guy named Tilton on harmonica, guitar, udu, [...]

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