Heather sent me this bad boy.

Freaking brilliant.

Tonight was the first concert of the season for Sundown in the City and what a concert it was!  The opening act was the native Knoxville band Dishwater Blonde. They’re a very interesting mix of hip-hop, funk, rock and even a bit of raggae for good measure. What I didn’t know about them was that the band members are unapologetic Christians, weaving hymns into their original compositions. I didn’t have high hopes for them as they ran through their sound track but I was more than pleasantly surprised; enough that I’m going to pick up at least one of their albums if not the trio.

But that was just the opening act. The headliner (ha!) was my all time favorite band Arrested Development!  I arrived early and got a great spot right up against the rail, just left of center stage, only fifteen feet from the band.They played old favorites like Tennessee, Mr. Wendell, People Everyday and Africa’s Inside Me plus one of my top two favorites of all time, Fishin’ for Religion.

Some seventeen years after the release of “3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of…” they have three original members left, Speech of course is still there, otherwise it wouldn’t be AD. The other two remaining members are Eshe and Baba Oje. Joining them are turntableist 1 Love, bass player Zaz, guitarist JJ and vocalist Tasha.

Arrested Development doesn’t have concerts; they have what they call Celebrations of Life, Liberty and the Struggles of Our Ancestors. You can only describe them as that. The show started with Baba walking out and getting the crowd screaming just by being there. The man is seventy-four next month and I expected him to spend most of his time in the rocking chair that had been brought on stage. He in fact spent very little time in it. Once he was joined by Eshe, dancing what could only be described as a “tribal” dance he began to perk up and really get the crowd going. Speech, from off stage, announced the beginning of the celebration.

They played for an hour and forty-five minutes covering both new material and old. 1 Love did a few raps in the middle of a few songs and of course Eshe and Tasha each had parts. When they performed Tennessee they started with a long introduction, getting the crowd to chant “Tennessee” before finally launching into those oh so familiar lyrics.

I went by myself but was found by a co-worker (the owner of the post-it noted office, actually) and her friend. The was also a woman whose name I didn’t ask right behind me. She was a lot of fun and I was glad to share the experience with her. There was another woman who stood on the other side of my friend from work who I walked with a bit on the way back to the parking garage after the show; I was glad to be able to speak to her as well.

Man…I really love that band.

Arrested Development
Dishwater Blonde
Speech
Sundown in the City

I really, really want to like Microsoft but they just make it so hard sometimes. Back when I was flush with cash in Texas I decided the time was right to buy an MP3 player. It really isn’t right that someone who is as in to music as I am that I don’t own one. So I did some shopping, rejected the iPod as an option, and headed towards the Microsoft Zune. After many hours attempting to install the software on my laptop I gave up and returned my 30G player to Target just 12 hours after purchase.

I’ve since sometimes regretting returning the little piece of hardware. My laptop isn’t the best piece of equipment, in fact it hasn’t even been turned on in months, and my desktop is fairly modern and very current on updates – the Zune would have likely worked without issue.  But now I’ve come to realize that I’ve made the right decision.

At around 2 AM on December 31th 100% of the 30G Zunes locked up. It seems that the software writers over at Microsoft ‘forgot’ about  leap year which caused the small computers inside the players to get confused and just shut down. Engineers out in Redmond say that it should be okay later today if owners allow the battery to drain completely then recharge it, though a complete new Sync will likely have to be done for DRM reasons. They also say they should have a fix out by next  leap year, 2012.

So does anyone have a player out there to recommend?  Zune is out for good and I really don’t like the idea of an iPod. What else is there?  I need something big, really big…30G really wasn’t enough.

Lately the discussion about pirated media and software has fallen out of the headlines. This is a subject that I’ve been following rather closely, not just because I’m a big music fan but also because I firmly believe that, if unchecked, the MPAA and RIAA will eventually succeed in eroding away some pretty basic rights. Here are some recent bits of news.

Earlier this month the RIAA announced that they were ending their practice of suing those they suspected decided had shared music.  Although they are not dropping cases they’ve already started, their new approach involves forcing ISPs to threaten disconnecting the service of those who use Bit Torrent sites. I for one think this approach will fail. Since ISPs can’t be held responsible for how their customers use the Internet they really don’t have any vested interest in cutting off service and therefore, revenue.

I found this post today on Max Barry’s blog.

The most famous cases of the RIAA suing end users and the only one to go to trial is that of Jamiee Thomas who was found guilt and ordered to pay the RIAA $222,000 for allegedly having shared 24 songs.  Almost a year after the trail the judge, without being petioned by the defense, declaired a mistrail after deciding that simply having music in an open access folder was not a violation of the copyright act. The RIAA recently requested permission to appeal the mistrail decision but the judge denied their request. (Wired.com)

I’ve launched a second blog that will focus only on music. I’ll duplicate posts here from time to time but not often so if you’re interested you should check it out. Eventually a link will appear in the pages section of the page, unti then you can find it with the links to other blogs.

If you went to church in the nineties then you’ve no doubt sung at least one Rich Mullins song. If you were really lucky you went to one of his concerts. I got to see him twice. Once with Greg and Rebeca Sparks along with an entire church youth group, Beaker and assorted musician friend’s of his and the second time with just Beaker. Both times were one of the best concert experiences of my life.

Tonight I found an entire show on YouTube. It comes close to capturing what it was like to be there, to see him live.  To make it even better the set list is really good.  Almost all my favorite songs are included.  If you decide to watch them all be warned, part nine is missing and a lot of the cuts take place in the middle of songs.  You can buy the DVD here.

Here’s part one.

While poking around the web this evening I came across a posting on beliefnet.com. I don’t normally visit this site as the experts culled from their staff for comments on NPR are normally morons. This post made me smile and even comment.

For those keeping score at home I had my 32 birthday last week.  So here are some highlights of my day of days:

T called and we got to talk for about thirty minutes before demands on both of us required us to cut the conversation short.  Earlier in the week I receieved a package from her containing Grace Cathedral Park!  If you haven’t listened to this album yet they still stream the entire thing on their webpage.  Check it out.  (T also asked that I update my Wish List so she can start Christmas shopping.  I updated it with a few items this morning.)

After lunch with my parents and grandmother (a Saturday standard practice) I went to the zoo with J, P and their kids.  While watching the keepers feed the gorillas, one of the kids said it looked like they were eating poop.  A keeper came out and showed the kids what the animals were being fed.  She explained that she “heard one of the kids say that they were eating poop and she wanted to come out and show that they weren’t.”  She smiled at the adults and said, “that’s not to say they won’t.  They’re just not right now.”

While coming upon the big cat exibit my nephew wanted to look at the tigers.  My niece saw a sign for the lions and begged us to hurry.  “The king of the jungle is right down there and you guys want to stop to talk to his secretary.”

Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant followed by cake at my parents’ house.  There were presents and cards and singing and more than a few tears though only from the younger set this year.

Thanks to everyone who sent wishes and cards and gifts.

[You] should say that you’re back in Texas for a bit longer… you’ve got a great opportunity to write something about the similarities and differences. I’ve been in some sort of bizzaro-world for a little while where everyone I meet who wants to comment on my accent wants to talk about Texas. Not New York or Florida, as usual, but Texas. Yee-hah. I just tell them, yep, well Tennessee and Texas are ideologically and alphabetically next to each other.

The building I work in while in Texas is six stories and my office is on the top floor.  I found myself alone with the security guard in the lobby waiting for the elevator.  The guard, looking straight ahead said; “Yup.”  All I could say was “Mmm-hmm.”  I felt like Boomhauer from King of the Hill.  (Okay, okay, I’m really more of a Dale.)

And from what I’ve seen King of the Hill is not that bad of a starting point when it comes to understanding Texas. The older neighborhoods have alleys so driveways and garages are on the back of the houses, just like on KOTH, there are big white water towers and propane tanks, pick-ups are nearly even with cars in number and…get this, the local exterminating company owns the minor league arena football team.

San Angelo has about a hundred thousand people, maybe a bit more.  It’s home to San Angelo State, Goodfellow Air Force Base, and is currently the center of the FLDS madness. The surrounding country side is mostly farm land.  I read in the paper today that cotton planting season is about to begin.  In the city there is of course Sitel, my purpose for being here, as well as Verizon and Blue Cross call centers, and a few collection agencies.

I found a baby cage like they had in the nursery at the Iroquois Avenue church in Oak Ridge in a thrift store. It was $45.  I bet the church paid a lot more for theirs.

The NPR Station comes out of Austin and is about a billion times better than Knoxville’s.  They have the normal shows (Morning Edition, All Things Considered, etc) and when they’re not playing those they play music.  Not classical or jazz but music people actually want to listen to.  I’ve heard Steve Earle, Dwight Yokum, Allison Krauss, and a new discovery for me, She and Him.  It’s NPR that I would actually consider donating to.  It’s that good.

Back in the very early days of the blog I posted a bit about a local radio station, WDVX, that plays alt-country, bluegrass and americana.  While I was tickled pink to have an awesome indy radio station right here in Knoxville, I missed rock music.

I recently discovered WFIV, an independent rock station broadcasting out of Farragut.  They play great alternative rock from the eighties, nineties and the current stuff.  They stream so you can check them out no matter where you live.  I recommend listening late on Fridays where Todd plays really mellow “ambient” music.

It’s not listener supported like WDVX and NPR, but quite honestly I’d rather listen to commercials than have programming interrupted for a week while the hosts beg for cash.