My good friend, David Keller, a.k.a. The Deacon of Freakin’, took part in a debate at University of Utah on April 13th. The topic for the evening: “Is God Necessary for Ethics?” Three hundred people filled the room to hear the philosophical discourse, affriming the topic’s top-of-mind place in our most religious of states.
The Google video above is a clip. YouTube has the full proceedings.
Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette wrote an editorial for The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) that probes the newspaper industry’s standard practice of giving away their product for free online.
It is time for newspapers to reconsider the ultimate costs and consequences of free news.
News has become ubiquitous, free, and as a result, a commodity. Anytime you are trying to sell something that becomes a commodity, you have lost much of the value in providing that product or service.
Not many years ago if someone wanted to find out what was in the newspaper they had to buy one. But not anymore. Now you can just go to the newspaper’s Web site and get that same information for free.
All of this would be fine if newspapers generated lots of additional revenues from offering free news. But the fact is newspapers generate most of their online revenues from classified advertising, not from news.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock does not offer news for free on their website. They offer free headlines and in some cases a few free paragraphs, designed to get people to read the paper. They also offer free classifieds.
I’m not sure that the genie can be put back in the bottle, but there are certain papers like The Wall Street Journal that are worth paying for (I am one of their 900,000 plus online subscribers). Local news may also be worth paying for, but the audience willing to do so will most likely be a fraction of paid circulation.
According to KEXP’s John in the Morning, Seattle indie band Band of Horses has relocated to Mt. Pleasant, SC, a suburb of Charleston.
Last Sept., Charleston City Paper previewed the band’s appearance at Village Tavern. In that peice, readers learn that guitarist/vocalist Ben Bridwell grew up in Irmo, S.C., just outside of Columbia.
He lived in Charleston for a short time, suffering a string of bad luck.
“There was a fire… I burnt down a house — accidentally of course — then I got hit by a car,” he remembers. “This all happened within the same couple of weeks. And then I got thrown into jail. I was like, ‘Shit. Maybe I’ve got to move.'”
Bridwell ended up in Seattle, homeless, and sleeping in the back of a Ryder truck. A popular local music venue, the Crocodile Cafe, hired him with a sleeping bag on his back. He started as a dishwasher and saved his tips, stuffing them into a hollowed out speaker. With that seed money Bridwell started his own label, Brown Records, and released the first Carissa’s Wierd album.
Bridwell also says, “I’ve been up here in Seattle for 10 years, so I’m anxious to get back home. I just love all the people, and the humid weather. It is just a break from the rest of the country and I love it.”
We visited downtown Asheville on Saturday. After securing a healthy start (comprised of fresh squeezed apple juice, organic coffee, tempeh scramble, grits, toast, fruit, etc.) at Over Easy Breakfast Cafe, we sauntered over to The Courtyard Gallery for the 13th annual Twin Rivers Media Festival where we watched four shorts–Siren, The Little Gorilla, Buoy and Press Play. Afterwards, Andrea Lee Higgins, a singer-songwriter from Columbia, SC performed some of her originals.
We then walked up the hill to Malaprop’s Bookstore where author Elizabeth Gilbert was speaking to a packed house. Add to this a little shopping at Hunk’s and Rags Reborn Eco Chic Boutique, dinner at Savoy and live entertainment at Westville Pub later in the night and you’re talking about a heavy hit of culture courtesy of this funky southern mountain town.
We were in Asheville, NC over the weekend, where we happened to stumble upon Westville Pub and MarsupiaL. The Asheville-based band calls their version of prog rock, “electrogroovin-psychofusion.” I call it jazz meets jam. Either way, it makes for a nice night out. Especially in Asheville, where the kind beers flow and hippies, dreads, punks and all variety of freaks are free to roam the streets.
Here’s a bit about the band from their MySpace page:
Formed in 2001 when guitarist Ian Reardon joined forces with members of the Boone, North Carolina outfit Hidden Progression, the band has crafted a guitar-heavy brand of exploratory music. Made up of guitarists Reardon and Naren Schoenacher, bassist Brad Mehder and drummer Chris Nelson, MarsupiaL is slowly stretching its touring range and drawing in new fans with each ambitious musical flight. Earlier this year, MarsupiaL released its sophomore studio release, Moby Fleck. A follow-up to Dancing About Architecture, which was released in 2004, Moby Fleck is a concept album that embodies the band’s group approach to creation, one that is as effective within finite strong structures as it is careening into orbit.
Just a note on the beer…I tasted Seeing Double IPA from Foothills Brewing in Winston-Salem for the first time. It’s a 9.5% brew hand-crafted specifically for the hop lover interested in quality over quantity.
Ware County, GA fire blanketing Jacksonville, FL on 4/29/07
We experienced darkened skies in Bluffton today, but I doubt it was anything like what JAX went through on Sunday (and continues to go through).
[via WTOC TV in Savannah]
New Orleans trombonist Jeff Albert writing on his blog, Scratch My Brain, offers a fascinating look at Jazz Fest through the eyes of a musician. Here’s what a 24-hour stretch looks like to the man on horn:
Later Thursday night, I played with George Porter Jr. and Runnin Pardners at Southport Hall. We did a bunch of stuff from the new CD, and it was lots of fun. George said he feels like this is his best CD yet, and I am proud to have been a small part of it.
I was at the Fairgrounds most of the day Friday. First thing I heard was a little bit of the Xavier University Jazz Band. I teach trombone at Xavier, and it was nice to hear the band sounding so good. Next stop was the Jazz Tent for the Rob Wagner Trio. The sound was very good, due in part to Rob (or maybe Ben) being smart enough to bring their own sound guy (Mark Bingham in this case). The poor fest engineers have a lot asked of them and most of them do a good job, but nothing beats having an engineer that is good AND really knows you and your music. Rob’s set was very good. I dig his melodic sense in that setting.
From there I headed over to the Acura Stage to perform with George Porter. It is quite a view from the stage to look up and not be able to see the end of the people. I had a blast playing with George (I always do). We had the every member of the pool horn section on the gig with Tracy Griffin, Alonzo Bowens, Brian Graber, Mark Mullins and me. I spent many a night in college listening to this band with those guys playing in the horn section, so it is a real honor, and a little bit of a trip, to now be a part of that band.
The rest of Friday included hearing parts of sets from Dr. John (which was fabulous), Astral Project, the James Carter Organ Trio, and Bonerama. It was all good. Friday night I played with Luther Kent and Trickbag and got some hard blowing blues added to the weekend’s musical mix.
Albert goes on to say he also joined Bonnie Raitt and Vivaz on stage at Jazz Fest last weekend.
Albert leads the Jeff Albert Quintet and co-leads the Lucky 7s. Lucky 7s have made several tracks off their new release, Farragut, available for download. In addition, Albert offers live mp3s from his site and shares them via a Creative Commons license. I’m impressed with this man’s talent and generosity.
Here’s a live track, “Flyswatter,” from 9/6/06 at Elastic in Chicago.
[via Glide Magazine’s blog, Hidden Track]
photo of Björk by Rodrigo Peña / The Press-Enterprise
Amy Phillips and Daphne Carr supplied Pitchfork with a massive review of Coachella, which took place last weekend at Empire Polo Field in Indio, Calif. near Palm Springs.
There was no overwhelming sponsorship presence, no corporate banners on stage or Army recruitment stations. Rather, there were tables for left-leaning social and political causes, displays devoted to alternative energy, and a free bottle of water for every 10 empty bottles delivered to certain recycling stations. The programming was as diverse musically and culturally as one could possibly desire. And despite the fact that two of the three headliners were the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine, the annoying frat presence was pretty easy to avoid.
As for Björk’s mothership-inspired outfits and performance, Amy Phillips reports that the “middle-aged man in golf shorts standing next to me” didn’t get it. Ah, the poetry of an Icelandic chanteuse…I love it.
I generally don’t keep up with the portal wars, but a co-worker pointed me to MSN’s Music in Concert section where one can enjoy live concert footage, including The Bravery’s Friday afternoon set at La Zona Rosa during South By–a show I attended and wrote about.
MSN is also offering live concert footage from Stephen Marley, Pink, Gomez, Elton John, O.A.R. and several other acts. I had to switch over to Firefox (from Safari) to get the popup viewer to work, but it was worth the extra clicks.
