Last night I checked out Chicago’s famous Green Mill and its Sunday Poetry Open Mic and Slam. Since it was Valentine’s Day, the host Mark set the theme as love and/or lust. I wrote a little poem, based on an old song of mine. It needs work… (as do I) but being on stage with Mark and the fine jazz band was a hoot.

I’m out of time to the band in most verses. As written, it requires an extra 2 beats of silence but I came in early due to nerves. And I tried a jazz voicing. Ha! I’ll come back and do better.

Green Mill, jazz, love

Microsoft’s Zune Music service seems to be a good deal by letting you Download for Keeps ten songs per month while subscribed to its $15 monthly buffet of music. But there are 2 major drawbacks:

1.  The buffet is not as big as you would expect. It disappoints, sometimes big time! Most of Led Zeppelin’s catalog must be purchased. And many popular albums are only partially downloadable without buying. But if you like Savage Garden, you’re in luck…

2.  The Zune service is accessible via the web and on your PC, but the only mobile device on which you can download is the Zune Player.

* revision: the Zune desktop software only wants to connect with a Zune device. But, you can use other means to get the .wma files onto your non-Zune device. Windows Explorer is tricky / tedious because you have to click through the path to each album. But, if you have Real or Rhapsody software you can import all of the .wmas into your library at once.

Uh-oh, I just discovered that Rhapsody uses the same catalog. Even though the songs will play on my nifty little $45 Sansa, I can’t get the Led out! What gives?

Rhapsody, Sansa, Zune

I have been in Chicago for more than a week. This past Saturday I was able to partake in the Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival at the beautiful Congress Theater.

There was a solid local stage in the main lobby.

Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater and his band were a true force of nature. He’s copping Chuck Berry, but he’s wily and young; maybe 70, so he has a good 20 years left. And he plays with his own band, so they were on the same page, if not the same stage, throughout the set. (Their set began with a power trio shredding through an instrumental. Then a man wearing an Indian headdress came on stage and sang a tune. This it turns out, was Eddy, who grabbed a guitar and quickly revealed that he was the lead guitarist—the other virtuoso settled in on rhythm. )

The above photos are from the event’s Flicr stream.

Bela Fleck brought the goods to the stage, including a 3 piece band from Siberia.

Bela Fleck inserted some Christmas tunes into their set, mostly from the Charlie Brown record. They also gave us a version of "12 Days of Christmas" in which each day was in a different key and time signature.

Local faves Dr. Dog closed out the night for the youngsters who hula hooped into the a.m.

Above 2 photos from Kate Gardiner at Flickr.

No tags

I’m practicing ActionScript 3.0 and writing…but….

California, Music / The Arts

The summer recording project of Hat Manly and Hartwell Littlejohn has yet to bring about a finished product. A YouTube promo declares an “Oct 09″ single release. But an al capella track titled “Lonely Breakdown” has been leaked.

It’s thought to have been intended as an “appendix” to the single “She Belongs to Everyone But Me.” It is not known if it’s the final take or whether it will wind up on the upcoming record.

Sources believe that the tambourine is from Nathan Apffel.

Brooklyn, Hartwell Littlejohn, Music / The Arts