Parallel Johnny

My iTunes player is prejudice.  I went to play my mp3 of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s Good Vibrations and it refused to play.  I thought maybe nothing was playing so I tried another song (one not from 1991) and it played.  I then checked to see if the file was corrupted, but all the other music players had no problem with it.

iTunes, you Funky Bunch hater, its about that time to love all my mp3’s …..rap, rock, blues, jazz - feel the vibration.

For those who couldn’t make it to the concert, someone recorded most of it and placed it on YouTube. Here’s Fiona’s Bluegrass Criminal. (more…)

This weekend was the Nickel Creek: Farewell {For Now} Concert at Meadowbrook.  We had front row seats (4th row if you count the pit).  It was a good concert but I was a bit irked.  Fiona Apple was their special guest.  Apparently her a Sean are friends who play small gigs together at some venue in LA.  So when Fiona came on stage, she joined the other four and sang some songs from Extraordinary Machine.

Let me first say that I am a fan of Fiona.  Despite her quirkiness beyond measure, I love her music.  If in fact this had been any other concert where the five of them teamed up to play each other’s music, i would have thought it to be awesome.  However, this was the farewell tour.  Nickel Creek is no more.  They split up about a year ago after the last album.  This was their time, my time to hear all my favorite Nickel Creek songs live, with them 20 feet away.  Fiona was on stage for at least an hour of the 2 and a half hours that the show lasted.

It was a good concert nonetheless.  They played just about every instrumental song they had.  Most songs were from Why Should the Fire Die.  Fiona came on twice during the night, the first time was completely her time with the band playing her music.  The second time she came out towards the end of the night was dedicated more to bluegrass with Fiona trying to sing in a bluegrass style.  It was amusing.  They did a great Patsy Cline cover of Walkin’.  And the funniest thing was when they tried turning Criminal into a bluegrass song.

All in all, if they would have billed the concert as Nickel Creek and Fiona Apple rather than Nickel Creek wsg Fiona Apple, I may have been more welcoming to the fact that she took half the concert.

Oh, had my reunion yesterday.  I’ll rant about that later.

Installed iPodLinux on my Nano, today. Played with it for 10 minutes, got bored, realized it was useless. I’m restoring it now.

Tigers won and I couldn’t be happier. They play in Detroit tomorrow with Rogers.

Looks like its movie night at Shaun’s. His mom bought him X-Men 3 So I’m going there soon.

For those who don’t understand the subject line, be amazed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVqEBLVBeP0

Yesterday I made it out to the Jazz Fest.  Lauren was at work, so I decided to go it alone.  I actually enjoy going to the festival by myself. The past few years I have gone alone and met up with some people later on.  I had about 2 hours to myself before I met up with Adam and Miranda for Dr. John.

As much as I like the blues and swing and all the formats they have at the festival, nothing tops the classic quartet or quintet.  I managed to find just what I was looking for in the Donald Harrison Quintet.  They were this great band from New Orleans that, unlike most NO performers, were not tinged with a zydeco background.  I sat through most of their set and after grabbing a bite to eat, I sat in on a jazz clinic.  They were going over improvisation skills using some Sonny Rollins tunes.  After a while Adam had called to say he was making his way to Campus Maritus.

I took very few photos this weekend despite how much went on.  I guess I was too much in the now to record any of it.  Luckily others did and I hope they will share with me what they took.  What I do have will be on flickr soon.

Approximately 10 work hours left before I am once again unemployed… but possibly not for long.  I found an open position doing computer work for the school of medicine.  I sent them an email and resume and I got a reply saying I made the short list.

It’d be really nice to get the job.  Theyre only looking for 10 hrs a week.  Thats perfect for my schedule.  Besides at their pay rate, I’ll make as much as a 15 hr week at hollywood.

Tonight is HotSauce’s last Thursday night at Fifth avenue.  Theyre moving on and up.  I’ll be there tonight and so should everyone else. 

Whoa.  I almost went a whole day at work without a post.  I couldn’t let that happen.

Due to a bit of outside motivation, I’m about to revive my podcast.  I know I’m too busy to make it weekly and I already learned that a weekly show dries up my resources way too fast.  I can manage a monthly show and already have my next one in the planning.

I have an interview oppritunity for a Detroit-based duo whose debut album is about to be released (no names yet).  They already approached me about it (I approached them about it first a long while back and had since forgotten about it).  I just need to find a date/place and get an equipment upgrade.

That said.  I got my 10 hours in.  Time to get out of here.

Its a packed weekend, even with 2 extra days.  I had the day off yesterday, so I used the day time to get a haircut and do some homework.  Eric called me, asking if Lauren and I would like a pair of tickets to the game.  Of course I said yes.  It was a great game, with great seats; second row between third base and left field.  Every foul ball went are way.  We won 8-3 with Granderson hitting a bases-loaded triple.  After the game, there was a 20 minute fireworks show.

Afterwards, we went to McGee’s to celebrate Lauren’s birthday.  It was a big turnout.  I’d say nearly 30 people showed, despite about 5 of the regulars being in VA.  Tonight, we’re going up to Roger’s Roost.  Its kind of for Lauren, but mostly for Kevin M., who leaves for Iraq in a few days.  If you want to say hello, the Roost is at 14 1/2 and Schoenherr.

Tomorrow, Adam is having a pot-luck dinner, then I’m debating on going to the DEMF.  I really only want to go to see The Orb.  Theres a few other acts as well, but none as important to be as Orb.

Monday is Lauren’s actual birthday.  I may come down in time for the parade.  If not, I’ll be over her house in time for some BBQ.

Now I need to find time to finish my homework before Tuesday.

First:  Our thread about WDET on Metroblogging Detroit was mentioned on the news.

OKay, now on to camping.  If you are interested in attending this summer’s camping trip on July 28-30, you need to go to http://paralleljohnny.com/camping for all the information.  I was told by Brian that I sound mean in what I wrote.  I didn’t mean to, I just want everyone to be clear on what needs to be done in the next couple of weeks.

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while now. See, I have this theory of how Coleman planned to make the format changes without losing approval. This is pretty much copied word for word from my comment on Metroblogging Detroit. Go there for the whole discussion.

When Coleman came to WDET he tried something different with the pledge drive. Rather than the normal drive (ask until you reach your goal), he limited it to about 2 weeks. The “nag time” was also limited to only a few hours a day and — if I remember correctly — weekends were left alone. Soon after, they held an emergency drive to try and reach their goal. You would think a plan that resulted in failure wouldn’t be tried again.

Fast forward to the last drive before the big changes. Does anyone else remember this drive lasting only a week? I recall turning on the radio hearing a thank you and thought to myself, “Wow, they’re done already. They must have reached their goal pretty fast.”

The fact was they didn’t reach their goal by a long shot. That motivates people to try a something new and here comes Coleman to save the day. He tells everyone, in short, cut the music, add more news and profits will rise. And to help prove they will, he held the pledge drive for longer than its been in a few years.

But the plan backfired a bit. He wasn’t expecting the outrage. Sure, there were only a laughable few in the streets protesting, but that didn’t mean the non-approvers were still planning on pledging their support. Sadly, if the last drive raised more than last fall, that’s enough proof to the Board that Coleman’s format change was the right choice — regardless of the fact that the spring drive lasted much longer.

From one of the recent people laid off this past week:

Well that’s history now and we can’t go back. It’s a shame it had to work out this way. I hope Irv Reid, Steve Brown, Michael Coleman, Harvey Ovshinsky, and Marla Stone enjoy the shell of a radio station they will have left when it is all said and done.

Know this for sure, the six of us let go in last Thursday’s bloodbath will not be the only employees to leave WDET. Whether voluntarily or by further lay-offs the bleeding will continue. As one of my former co-workers (one who got to stay) told me privately Thursday: “I used to like working here, now it is just a paycheck until something better comes along.”