Performance Art

This 80s Estonian commercial for meat doubles as a piece of performance art.

Posting Your Pictures

Of all the different sites that allow you to create interesting ways to post your vacation pictures, Animoto is my favorite.

My latest music video: Paris Rocks

Zooey Is Getting Better

After looking kinda like a deer caught looking at headlights in her first live shows, ZD is looking much more confident in a performance on MTV Canada.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly, etc.) is trying to change the rules. The writers' strike motivated Whedon and his team to eliminate the middlemen and take his work directly to the audience via the internet. The result is Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a super villain musical and it's now available on itunes.

I bought and watched it last night ($6) and I gotta say it's pretty darned good. Certainly better than 95% of the stuff on TV.

Hopefully, selling directly to the consumer will be a success and will provide a path that will enable content creators to be rewarded for their work.

Great Headlines

Last year I declared the headline Royals To Get A Taste of Angels' Colon the best headline ever written. I may have been premature with that assessment.

On Radar: Schuyler Fisk

She can write, play and sing, nuff said.

I couldn't find an mp3, so here's her MySpace Page.

PS. Famous Moms for $300. Who's her mother?

Feist/Sesame Street

Cute

JibJab Does It Again

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Interesting Venue Choices

I follow the live local music scene closely enough to have a pretty good handle on the various venues and the bands they book. But, every once in a while I see a booking and have to scratch my head. A couple of examples.

The Hold Steady at The Casbah

Don't get me wrong, I love this booking. The best bar band in America playing the best bar in America's finest city is going to be epic. It's just that The Hold Steady has some serious traction and I thought they would be playing a bigger venue than The Casbah capacity 132. They have a new album coming out today that is getting great reviews, their last album was a critical and popular success, and almost everybody (including me) who sees their live show raves about it.

Anyway, the show is sold out and I'm looking forward to seeing what could be best show of the year.

Jackie Greene at Anthology

This one has me really puzzled. Anthology is a relatively new venue built primarily as a jazz supper club although they have always booked a few boomer centric acts (Poco, Dave Mason etc.). I have never been to Anthology primarily because they haven't booked an act who I have had much interest in seeing, but their tickets prices are very high and they also charge a $15 per person food and/or drink minimum. Truthfully I probably spend about $15 at a show at The Casbah or The BellyUp, but I don't like to be required to do so.

It was a great to surprise to see that one of my favorites, Jackie Greene, is playing Anthology on August 29th. I guess the folks there are trying to widen their customer base. I just question the fact that Greene has enough pull to attract a big enough crowd willing to pay $24 for a ticket and $15 for food and drink. I'll probably be there. I just hope there will be other JG fans there as well.

On Radar: Joshua Jones --- Corey Chisel

Here are a couple of singer songwriters who are worth a listen. I bundled them together because they are currently on tour together. They're playing an early show at the Casbah on Friday, August 8

Joshua James



FM Radio

The New Love Song

Corey Chisel & The Wandering Sons



Lovers and Friends

See It My Way

Urban Version

Animoto Rocks

Animoto is a terrific site. It takes your photographs and turns them into high quality music videos. The process is quick and very user friendly.

Videos of 30 seconds are free.

Here's my first attempt. (There will be more.)



Animoto

You Can Hang A Star On That One.

This is very well done.

On Radar: Locksley

Fans of the musical genre typified by Vampire Weekend (cute boys singing catchy songs) might want to give a listen to Locksley. The early Beatles (cute boys singing catchy songs era) are an obvious inspiration to this Brooklyn band.

Why Not Me

Let Me Kow

All Over Again

London/Paris Footnotes

1. Pubs in London now serve Caesar chicken wraps and Chilean sea bass with mango salsa.

2. Funky Parisian apartments come with funky Parisian neighbors. When staying in a funky apartment in Paris expect your neighbors to have heated political discussions and raucous drunken guitar-accompanied sing-alongs between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m.

3. Carly is a map reading savant. When traveling with Carly there is no need to bring a GPS.

Moving On Up

It looks the days of seeing the Avett Brothers at the BellyUp might be over as they could be making a big step up the popularity ladder in '09. The Avetts just signed with American/Columbia records and will have their next record produced by Rick Rubin (Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, U2, Tom Petty......) Good for them.

Bring It On

We're Home

A Recap

We're Headed Home

I think it's time.

Churches, Museums, and Views

On Thursday we made good use of our Museum passes. Some or all of us visited the top of Notre Dame, an archeological site, Sainte Chapelle, The Pompidou, the Rodin Garden, and Napoleon's Tomb.

Friday was a day at sea. The girls went shopping and I went exploring.

Museum Day

Wednesday was art day. With museum passes in hand we visited The Orsay, The Orangerie, and The Louvre. It was the perfect day as we had our first rainy day of the trip.

The Orsay is a beautifully converted train station known for its impressionist collection.



The Orangerie was built for Monet's huge water lily canvases.



The Louvre was a f bombin' madhouse.

Versailles

We declared Monday a day at sea and each of us followed our own agendas. Tuesday was dedicated to a visit to Versailles. The temperature warmed to the upper 80s, but we weren't uncomfortable as we roamed the palace and grounds with 1000s of our closest friends.

Sunday = Eiffel Tower

In an effort to beat the crowds we got up early on Sunday and went to the Eiffel Tower.



Annie was a little concerned about the stablity of the structure.