I picked up an early birthday present for myself- a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen XTRA. I've been wanting a portable digital music player for some time, and I figured "Why Not?" This thing is awesome. I can take my music along with me while I work (finally, I dont have to keep switching radio stations while driving around in the work van) I've been using it at home, hooked up to the stereo using the "Play any song" function, so it will pick a song at random.

Two words that I'm using to describe it with...
FUCKING AWESOME

Many of you know that I just love free concerts in the park during the summertime. This weekend, I didn't only go to one show, but 2..... Friday night, Craig called and (last minute) suggested that I high-tail it to Hamden to see the Gregg Rollie Band play at Meadowbrook Park. Gregg is the founding keyboardist of Santana and lead vocalist on many early Santana hits, including Evil Ways and Black Magic Woman.

The band was superb! They played a couple of newer GRB tunes, but the rest of the show was devoted to Santana tunes. The band the Gregg assembled was well up to the task, with the percussionist and bass player both coming from former Santana incarnations. Of exceptional note was the guitarist, Kurt Griffey. He was just amazing! At one point, I went up to the front of the stage and joined in the many people dancing. I had closed my eyes, and I could swear that it was Carlos Santana himself playing the guitar. It was just perfect!!

Rollie was also a founding member of Journey (along with ex-Santana bandmate Neil Schon), leaving the band after 1980's Evolution album. The band didn't acknowledge any Journey material durung Friday night's performance.

Saturday night, I again trekked off to the New Haven Green to see Blues Traveller. Well, hear them would be more accurate. I had a hell of a time getting a parking spot, as I was a bit late, but I made it onto the Green for the band's second song ("Hook"). They just ROCKED. I caught up with Steve and Darlene and we had a great time. The Green was packed like I've never seen it before, even more packed than last year at the Isaac Hayes show.

I've been receiving numerous emails lately to my Yahoo! account (which I rarely use, but I do use it), claiming to be from Yahoo! The emails state that my account is in danger of being closed, or a confirmation of a password change that I didn't do.

From: webmaster@yahoo.com

To: xxxxx@yahoo.com

Subject: WARNING MESSAGE: YOUR SERVICES NEAR TO BE CLOSED.

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 16:27:12 -0400

Hey Yahoo,

Your e-mail account was hacked please take 5-10 minutes out of your online

experience and confirm the attached document so you will not run into any

future problems with the online service.If you choose to ignore our request,

you leave us no choice but to cancel your e-mail account

Virtually yours,

The Yahoo Support Team

+++ Attachment:

No Virus found +++

Files: important_details.zip (52k)

Every one of these messages that I received has had some sort of attachment to it. Now, I didn't download the attachments, or even download the Emails to my PC, I simply looked at the text using the Yahoo! Mail webpage. The funniest parts of this hoax message were the grammatical errors, and how they addressed the message to: "Hey Yahoo."

I sent a message to Yahoo! Account Services today (this is the 4th message that I got) and here's their response (well, automated response, but whatever) :

Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:20:56 -0700
To: xxxx@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Feedback Report a suspicious email claiming to be sent from Yahoo!
From: "Yahoo! Account Services" account-security@cc.yahoo-inc.com

Hello,
Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
***************************************
Please do not reply to this email.
***************************************
Thank you for bringing this incident to our attention. Yahoo! will
investigate this report immediately and contact you if any additional
information is required. We appreciate your concern and thank you for
your report.

Your Yahoo! ID and password are your own confidential information. No
Yahoo! employee will ever ask you for your password or personal
information in an unsolicited phone call or email message. If you are
ever asked for your password in an unsolicited manner, or by someone
you do not believe to be a representative of Yahoo!,
*do not* share your password with them.

If you replied to an email asking for your password or entered your
Yahoo! ID and password on a phishing site and found that you could not
log into your Yahoo! account, please contact the Account Security help
pages by clicking the link below:
(edited)

Last night, I took Delilah to see the Neville Brothers perform on the New Haven Green. The concert was part of New Haven's Concerts on the Green series. When I asked Del earlier in the week if she'd like to go to see the concert, her response was an enthusiastic "Yes!" without even knowing who was performing.

We've* been taking Delilah to see concerts since she was a little baby. Many of them were to the Monday Night Jazz Concerts in Hartford (back when they were in Bushnell Park) and to see the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz (which was also this weekend.) Last Year was the first time that I took her to see concerts in New Haven, culminating with Isaac Hayes. I think these events are giving Delilah a pretty good exposure to many eclectic artists.

The Neville's put on an awesome show. I wasn't too familiar with their music, but I did know some of their tunes, and they added their New Orleans style to a some cover tunes as well (the show closer was Bob Marley's One Love/People Get Ready**). The weather was a bit humid, but it was pretty comfortable, and the atmosphere was perfect, aside from a few rowdy drunk people.

It's starting to be a tradition with Delilah and I that we make a Father-Daughter event out of these concerts. We pack a picnic dinner and set up in the park and have a great time. I'm already looking forward to next week's Blues Traveler show and the Jazz Festival next month

* This is something we used to do with her mother as well.
** Yes, I know that "People Get Ready" is a Curtis Mayfield tune

I picked up Sly and the Family Stone's "Higher" anthology collection at work today. I was working in one of my stores, and the CD caught my eye at the register. I immediately picked it up and scanned the titles to see if their cover of "Que Sera Sera" was on there, and it was. This was a song that I had been looking for since I had seen the movie "Heathers" many years ago. The song plays as the end credits roll.

The only copy that I had until now was on a cassette tape of one of my old radio shows at CCSU's WFCS back in 1992. The station had an old vinyl copy of Sly's album "Fresh", and I had played the song on my show. So, finding a good, digital copy of this song was kind of in a way, finding the Holy Grail!

Well, back to the CD. GREAT! The mastering sounds great, the artwork is top notch, the song selection is awesome! I give it an A+

(I would have provided a link to the actual CD, but Starbuck's web site appears to have gone down while I was composing this)

I've got a bunch of music on the computer. I really havent done much with it for a while, but lately I've been bitten by the bug again. I've been creating new playlists in Winamp, and letting them play for hours on shuffle.

Here's the most recent playlist. - just in case you've been wondering what I've been listening to.

I realized that I havent updated much of ANYTHING on here in a while. So, I'm deleting old links, adding new ones. One of my favorites recently is Brewbakers on Main Street right here in Middletown. They have the best damn sandwiches.....

Also, seeing as I havent been updating much, I'm doing some posts WAAAAY after the fact. Check back a few entries so you dont miss anything.

It really hit me today- Summer is here! And to think that next weekend is July 4th. I cant believe how fast this year is flying by. I've allready passed my one-year anniversary at Starbucks.

Thinking of time passing so freaking quickly.... My 20th High School is coming up this year. Man, is time flying. What am I doing with my life? Aside from bringing up a beautiful child, what have I accomplished?? Have I fufilled my purpose in life? Or am I destined to some greater purpose.

When I started this blog, I thought I was on the verge of some sort of major spiritual turnaround in my life. What happened to that? Where'd my muse go?? I need some sort of new inspiration to get me really crancked up again.

Oh, well....they say that inspiration to do things comes at weird times. I just felt the need to get on the computer and write in my blog.....at 12:20 am. I really should be sleeping....

Mike and I went to see Robert Fripp at Toad's Place last night. Fripp is the guitarist for the Prog-Rock band King Crimson, and an amazing one at that.... He also experiments with electronic music and treatments of sound. Back in the '70's, he was a pioneer in electronic music and effects, inventing what he called "Frippertronics." He also collaborated with many other musicians, as a performer and producer. One of those collaborations with Brian Eno, "No Pussyfooting" is still one of my favorites.

Back then, all the effects and layering of sounds he did by utilizing tape loops. Of course, the tape has been replaced my digital samplers and whatnot.. He's calling is current solo tour "G3: Soundscapes- Words and Music." So, I was expecting some of his layered playing techniques and Spoken Word--cause that's what Toad's billed it as.

Fripp did play his layered-guitar technique....it mainly sounded like a keyboard. It was new-agey sounding material, and it was ok. But Fripp didn't kick it up a notch past that, and I had really wanted to see him "rip it up." That was a bit disappointing. At one point during the performance, a voice from the back of the house shouted "Play something, Fripp!"

The highlight of the evening was the "spoken word" portion of the night, which was really a question and answer session with the audience. He had a few ground rules- mainly "don't ask about what equipment i'm using" and "I get to ask you a question." He really showed his humor (I had heard he was pretty aloof) and shared some stories from his years as a musician.

Ironic note to the evening. The last time that I was at Toad's, it was to see Fripp's bandmate in King Crimson, Tony Levin!!!

NPR's Talk of the Nation this afternoon aired an interview with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth on the mix tape. Now the mix tape (now replaced by the "mix CD" or "podcast" or whatever...) is a subject close to home. I have made dozens of them over the years. The Talk of the Nation web page even had a link to "Tiny Mixtapes.com"...a site that has been a link here for, like, forever.....

Link to NPR's Talk of the Nation Interview

Link to TinyMixtapes.Com

Sorry for the sporadic posting, I've been working some crazy hours lately, and the last thing I've felt like doing is blogging, let alone checking my email.....

I was having lunch at the Taco Bell in the same plaza at the Manchester Starbucks store, and this guy pulls up in a minivan next to me. A few minutes later, he returns with a tatooed, long haired musician-type guy ("dude")* and pulls out a guitar case. As he opened it, I noticed that the body of the guitar looks like a V-Twin motorcyle engine. "Pick it up by the headers" he tells the "dude"!!!

After the "dude" left and the other guy was putting away the guitar case, I yelled over to him "sick guitar, man." He comes over to me and extends a business card "I make these over in Glastonbury" he says. The card he handed me had a picture of the guitar and a website, www.chopperguitar.net . He also went on to tell me that Jessee James of West Coast Choppers, and the Discovery Channel show Monster Garage had ordered guitar number 3 from him. Cool!!

I've been thinking about people that have been in my life in the past. And how sometimes, people are in your life for a specific time, for a specific reason. And then they're gone. I've gotten used to having to let go to them. After a while every trace of them seems to disappear.

I used to find it very difficult, but it seems to have become easier over time. Some have been harder than others (especially people I've dated) and still there are traces of them that occasionally remind me of them. It's like cleaning the attic, sometimes you have to go through all your stuff and throw out the old stuff....and move on to the new...

I'm happy with they way things are now. I don't need to keep going back to the past....

A while back, Mike emailed me alink to an all female Led Zeppelin tribute band called Lez Zeppelin. I went to the web site and found that they were playing the Hungry Tiger Cafe in Manchester. We decided to check em out. One Word: WOW. An absolute must-see!! Even if you don't like the mighty Zep, you gotta see them!! And to boot, I picked up a Lez Zeppelin T-Shirt as well...

We walked in during one of the opening acts, Mac-Talla Mo'r, a Celtic/fusion/jazz band. Another amazing band. They sound like a combination of traditional Celtic music mixed in with Jethro Tull with a danceable rythym section thrown in for good measure. It seems they play the area rather frequently, and I'll likely be checking them out again soon.

These are 2 bands that I'll be permalinking on this page for sure.....

OK, I know. I don't write here nearly as much as I used to. Who really wants to hear my incessant whining anyway? But seriously, nothing much new going on here. Work, eat sleep, Delilah..it just keeps going on and on....

Oh, my dear little Del turned 7 last month, can you believe it?? It seems that just yesterday, she was this little infant. Time flies, I guess!!!!!

Not much new to report here. The Northeast is finally seeing some weather that is actually ABOVE freezing. That's good. I'm sick of winter, let's get on with Spring already.....

One link for you today- NewsFly.Org- a great news/info launch site. Enjoy!

Yes, this is just a post to let you all know that I'm still alive over here. I've been really busy with work, the holidays, and to top it off, my computer got attacked by a virus and I had to reload EVERYTHING on it. Hopefully, I'll post more in the near future...

I picked up the Ray Charles CD "Genius Loves Company" at work today. Aside from selling coffee related stuff, Starbucks also picked up the Hear Music catalog and features selections for sale at their stores.

Ray's CD of duets was recoorded in the last year of his life, and features excellent collaborations with a variety of artists. I had heard selections in the stores and on WEHM, and so far my favorites were "Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones and "Crazy Love" with Van Morrison. After hearing the CD, I don't think there's a single song that I don't like on it. This CD comes highly recommended by me!!!

Finally...a quiet weekend to myself!!

I got some serious house work done though....the apartment needed it bad.
But more than that, I need some me time to rejuvenate. So, between errands and grocery shopping, I made a stop at Pier One (one of my favorite little spots). Picked up some candles for the apartment. The only downfall was that annoying Holiday music. I mean, damn, I'll be sick of this stuff BEFORE Thanksgiving this year....

I went over Beth's last night, and we happened to catch Austin City Limits on PBS. They had a great show, featuring The Polyphonic Spree (they're taking a while to grow on me, I still think they're WAY over the top) and Ozomatli (who we both loved.) I'd heard Ozomatli's (Who Discovered)America on WRNX before and loved their live version. They closed their portion of the progam with a Drum Circle Jam. Right up my alley!!!

I picked up a great CD when I was working in Albany yeaterday. "World Groove" on Putumayo World Music. Great tunes, and it came with a bonus CD, "Putumayo Groove Sampler" I love listening to new and different music from all over, so these 2 CD's are a great addition to my collection. If you like this kind of music, I definately suggest giving it a listen.