My first record player was a cheap red and white plastic affair with which I could play my stack of bright yellow 78s. It was the kind that had a steel needle that was held in place with a thumbscrew on the tonearm, the kind you were supposed to replace the needle after every play. However, we only had the one needle, so I just used it over and ( Read more... )

After the cleaning-the-yard project, it was time to do something more fun.

So we showered and put on clean clothes and headed to Annapolis to see
Don Dixon
and
Marti Jones
at
Rams Head On Stage.
Granted, we'd
seen them last month
in Philly at the Tin Angel
along with their friend and co-conspirator
Kelley Ryan
but we love seeing them live.

We ( Read more... )

Happy belated birthday to keighsie and ayasdollz!
When we spent a day with them out in Arizona, we got to take a ride in their car. As it happens, they had the Transformers score on the stereo. I had seen the movie, but it was raucous enough that I didn't really get a feel for the soundtrack. But this was the kind of lush, majestic program music I really enjoy ( Read more... )

First, we got to see Don Dixon and Jamie Hoover at Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA in April. Don was very friendly, chatty, and huggy. Later, we heard he wouldn't be touring any more, which made us sad.
But then he showed up at the fabulous and bizarre O Mansion, where we saw him on Sunday! He brought along Marti Jones as a surprise guest! With him ( Read more... )

I had never heard of Tuba Christmas before I met muzikmaker21, but it sounds like a fine idea to me. Unfortunately, we never got to one while he was still local. And I missed most of the local ones this year for various reasons. However, there's tomorrow (Sunday) in Leesburg, VA at the outlet mall at 2PM!Granted the mall will be full of madding throngs of ( Read more... )

The first thing was when my TiVo cheerfully informed me I could now watch youtube videos on my TV. Fine and dandy, blurry time waste just works better for me on the big plasma screen. Then, while searching for You Laugh, You Lose material, I found a YLYL song package for StepMania a (the?) free Dance Dance Revolution engine that runs on Mac. ( Read more... )

The other day, I was musing on a song I'd heard once on Doctor Demento's show years ago. Advertised as a recording from 70,000BC by The Shaggs, the tune was My Pal Foot Foot. So I figured I'd see if this random bit of doggerel was available on the iTunes Music Store, which has quite a random collection, with many obvious things missing, but many ( Read more... )