My Thermos

Buddy Guy - Born July 30, 1936

A true legend and master, and an inspiration to many a guitarist. I had a blast watching the videos trying to pick something appropriate before settling on this classic from 1981 at the famous Checkerboard Lounge in Chicago. He's got a couple of famous friends up there with him.



Best wishes Mr. Guy.

SB

On Being Self Employed - I wrote an article on WWD the other day about using downtime effectively so that when the uptime comes you are prepared for it. Over the next few months we'll see how well I did during my recent downtime as I just took on another large project today. Wish me luck, it's going to be a very busy time.

WWD - I am really enjoying my writing for Web Worker Daily. It's a whole new world writing professionally but the readers are great and I'm learning so much from my colleagues. I'm trying to be creative for my articles rather than just re-reporting the same stuff others write about. Is there anything you want to know about Web Working?

Fantasy Baseball - I'm now 11-6-0 which leaves me tied for 3rd in my division. I've won 3 weeks in a row now and doing well, just need to have the teams ahead of me lose. John Lackey pitched 8 1/3 of no hit baseball just now. How cool would that have been to pick up the no hitter. Alas - it was a no go. I blame Adam for jinxing him.

Gov't Mule - What a great show we saw at Navy Pier Skyline Stage. I was planning a full review with clips and song commentary but that will have to wait a bit Suffice it to say for now that we had a great time and the show was stellar as always. What an outstanding setlist. Have to love a Thorazine opener...

Set 1
Thorazine Shuffle
Temporary Saint
A Million Miles From Yesterday
Don't Step On The Grass Sam
Thelonius Beck
Maybe I'm Amazed
Patchwork Quilt
Catfish Blues
Mr. High & Mighty

Set 2
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Lively Up Yourself
I'll Be The One
Streamline Woman
Drums
Raining Pain Down In New Orleans
Fallen Down-> Gimme Shelter Tease
The Other One Jam
Mule Thankyou4lettinmebemiceelf Jam

Encore:
Bad Little Doggie
Little Wing

Entrecard - I've pretty much given up on dropping cards and the crap in the forums has kept me out of there as well. Their recent partnership with Sez-Who really annoyed me - along with the condescending attitude they displayed to anyone not using Wordpress (don't get me started again...) I've dropped the widget to the bottom of the page for now.

Cats - We are catsitting for my mom who is moving back here from Florida. There were some delays that kept her from taking occupancy so her kitties were here without a place to live. We set up an apartment for them in our lower bedroom and they seem to be adjusting well. We decided to keep them apart from ours and that seems to be working out for everyone. Maybe Gina will post pictures?

So that is what is happening with me - what's up with all of you?

Ever since I first saw Lost In America, I've been a big fan of the work of comedian and filmmaker Albert Brooks. With an amazing portfolio of work that includes the brilliant Defending Your Life, voice work in Finding Nemo, as well as appearances in Broadcast News, Taxi Driver, many SNL and Simpsons appearances, Brooks has always been one of my favorites.

So best wishes to him as he celebrates his 61st today. Since I can't really give him a gift, I'll give you all one from him - a classic clip from a Tonight Show appearance with Johnny Carson.

Enjoy!!

In honor of my recent Lyle Lovett concert experience, I thought I would go ahead and compile my BYOBO for Mr. Lovett.

As I have mentioned, I'm not a big fan of the genretization of music and musicians and Lyle is a perfect example of why. Typically called a Country artist, that tag fails to acknowledge the Jazz, Pop, Bluegrass, Gospel, Swing, and Folk aspects that are also a big part of his music.

Lyle happens to be one of my favorite songwriters. I don't love everything he has done but there are certain things that just really connect with me, and quite a few songs of his rank among my favorites. He's also a very talented guitar player.

So once again inspired by Nat at Mini-Obs, the idea is the same as always:

Pick one of your favorite bands / artists and list 10-15 songs by that band / artist to compile your own best of compilation.

So here goes - The Best of Lyle Lovett as compiled by me: Continue reading "Build Your Own Best Of - ... »

This year for my birthday, my brother and sister-in-law gave me tix to see Lyle Lovett at beautiful Ravinia Festival. The last couple of years they have gone with us but this year it was just the two tix. I, of course, took my wonderful wife Gina and on Saturday evening we enjoyed a wonderful performance from Lyle and his Large Band.

We've seen Lyle Lovett a bunch of times (I think last night was the seventh) going back to 1992 at Red Rocks in Colorado. Lyle always backs himself with outstanding musicians and the shows are top notch.

His Large Band is aptly named and features horns, strings, backup singers, and other multi-instrumentalists. He is such an unselfish band leader, constantly giving his supporting musicians the chance to step up and solo, and always introducing them by name many times throughout the show.

Lyle gets lumped into being a country artist but that is denying the unmistakable rock, pop, jazz, gospel and big band influence as well. He is all of those things really. If you insist on genretization, we'll just say he is in the Lyle Lovett genre and leave it at that.

It's funny how different a Lyle Lovett show is from other bands that we enjoy, like Gov't Mule who we are going to see this evening. Where performances by Gov't Mule or The Allman Brothers Band are largely improvisational, Lyle Lovett shows seem to be impeccably rehearsed. I imagine trying to synchronize 18 folks on stage would make improvisation difficult. The only hint of unrehearsed content seems to be Lyle's between song banter, which is often hilarious. Continue reading "Lyle Lovett Was Great - ... »

and the start of my week...







I hope yours was safe and happy!

I hadn't considered the dual meaning of the title of this post when I chose the topic earlier today. At first you might think that Slacker is descriptive of me, having gone a full 11 days since my last post here, and, well - you would be right.

But it's also the name of a very cool web radio service that I just (re)discovered. Apparently I had signed up for it ages ago and dismissed it but an email from them alerting me to updates prompted me to give it another look, and I haven't stopped listening in days. Continue reading "What A Slacker" »