the pod bay door

:: An interesting column by Jon Iverson has appeared that (again) details the myth of downloading: that file trading of music via the ‘net has affected CD sales negatively. Iverson, writing in Stereophile, notes that annual sales remain ahead of 1998’s figures, and that when a number of other factors are taken into account, the sales figures should be much worse. Iverson points to a detailed account by Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, who argues that file trading actually leads to
more purchases, rather than the other way around.

:: Shareware Music Machine is a site that gathers links to >4,400 music software titles.

:: In today’s Edmonton Journal comes a column by Scott McKeen, titled: Civilization’s safe after all. Libraries are cool again. Um, er, well…duh. Those of us in the profession have a news flash for Mr McKeen – our hallowed halls of employment were never uncool. Dude. McKeen observes that when All Things Pop Culture exploded (in the 90s, I presume), such as computers (read: Internet), home theatre, big box bookstores, instant gratification, and so on, the prediction was people would stop frequenting libraries, and by extension, their services. I’ve been a librarian for 25 years, and don’t recall any particular point in time when my colleagues and I thought the sky was falling on our vocation and the buildings in which we work(ed). Read McKeen’s column, and one might conclude that it’s a modern miracle libraries didn’t collapse from within when the Internet and Napster and stadium seat theatres and Digimon and all these fast food thrills took hold of Planet Earth. Well, public libraries at least. In academic and college libraries, we’ve spent the last 10 years doing our best to help students understand why the Internet isn’t the Answer to Everything, and why their research and studies will take them to the library and its resources. *Cough*. (BTW, am I the only person who thinks the Edmonton Journal’s web site really, really sucks? Like, badly? Unfortunately, the EJ website is the mirror image of all newspapers in Canada owned by the National Post.)

In fairness to McKeen, he does sing the praises of (public) libraries, and notes that Alberta municipalities are lobbying our provincial government for higher library grants. Um, I won’t lose sleep waiting for that to happen very soon – increased library funding in Alberta could lead to a better educated populace. God forbid that might happen here.

:: Speaking of public libraries, this is such a cool idea, I wish someone in Canada would do it, too: The Third Annual New York Times Librarian Awards for public librarians across the United States. This year the awards have gone national in the USA.
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:: Last evening, I had the good fortune of playing guitar at the Faculté Saint-Jean Auditorium in Edmonton, as part of “the band” (which includes the brilliant bass player, John Towill), in support of “Amelia Kaminski in Concert.” Amelia is a Fiddler Extraordinaire, with whom I have played and performed since 1986. In 1999 I contributed to her recording efforts as well, a project that was musically satisfying for me, and well received by others. The show last night features a mix of music from the Scottish and Irish traditions, with the support of the a cappella group, Almost Blue, from Los Altos CA.

I’ve performed in most of Amelia’s major concerts in the past few years, but I must say that last night was one of the best times I’ve had on stage with her and John. Two consumate musicians, they bring out the best in me when I make music with them. Amelia takes amazing, gentle care of her backup musicians, and graces the stage with a relaxed and natural presence. She is a collaborator in the true sense of the word, and I find no greater satisfaction in knowing that when I play in support of her, she need only concentrate on her fiddle, and not worry about those of us behind her. John is the kind of musician who is so good that playing with him causes me to raise my own musical abilities – in other words, I become a better musician because I share the stage with him.

Last night was much fun. We were relaxed and had a great time on stage. Contributing to my own enjoyment was the intangible: my brother and parents made a special trip to see the show, and in the audience were another 35 of my friends and colleagues, on hand in support of my efforts. I cannot thank each of them enough! Let me try to explain. It is so much more rewarding to perform for a crowd that includes people who are special to you. This particular show was outstanding – usually I try to sell 10-15 tickets for one of Amelia’s musical extravaganzas, but this time I sold 40! (With little effort, I must say!) So to my friends, colleagues and family who attended the show last night, thank you SO MUCH! You made me a better player last night, and increased my enjoyment of the entire evening!
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¦¦ I just finished a workout, 30 minutes on the cross-trainer, and it felt excrutiating. But upon returning home, the sun has just appeared, and that feels so nice.

¦¦ Here’s a fascinating proposal: A barn-raising for civilization.

¦¦ I’ve never played a round of golf, but like millions of Canadians last weekend, I was thrilled when Mike Weir won the Masters. It was a nice diversion from the rest of the world’s woes, and a morale boost for the country. Nice to also hear that he’s made the cover of Sports Illustrated.

¦¦ This is interesting: QuickTopic, a service which allows users to create their own one-topic bulleting boards/group discussion space. Also offered is a service called Quick Doc Review, to allow collaborative review of HTML or Word documents.

¦¦ What Liberal Media?, sez Eric Alterman.

¦¦ Another Canadian band worth supporting: The Boomers, led by Ian Thomas, brother of Dave (SCTV) Thomas, and a Canadian music icon in his own right. Here is a good, concise “omni” of their musical output to date. Their newest album is called Midway. Thomas’s lyrics focus on love, life, and getting older, and the music is laid-back but intricate and multi-layered.

¦¦ From Blogcritics.org: I will preface this (first) review by noting that it will be quite biased. Jessica Owen is also known as The Artist Formerly Known As Jessica Schoenberg. The review is biased because when Jess lived in Edmonton, I performed alongside her for a couple years (93-94), and played guitar on and arranged most of her first album, Sounds Like A Plan, released on cassette only.
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¦¦ The world will get more complicated and frightening this week. One of my colleagues mentioned “war anxiety” today. I’m thinking I’d like to lighten things up a bit, so I’ll mention the upcoming film A Mighty Wind, which features the legendary 60s acoustic group, The Folksmen. The first I heard of The Folksmen was in the mid-80s on SNL, when they reunited to sing their Top 70 hit from 1962, “Old Joe’s Place.” Be in line on April 16th! (BTW, any and all feelings of deja vu re: Spinal Tap, is intended.)

¦¦ The new Steely Dan album, Everything Must Go, the follow-up to their Grammy-winning Two Against Nature, will be in the stores on June 10th.

¦¦ The Beatles Anthology will be released on DVD in a couple weeks. The Beatles’ web site is dedicated to this release, but it’s a bit frustrating to have to move the cursor around the screen to locate the “hidden” video and info nodes.

¦¦ In other news, McDonald’s outlets in three US cities will offer one hour of Wi-Fi to customers that buy a combination meal. Geoff, we’ll have to check this out in NYC in June.

¦¦ I guess it can’t be all fun all the time. Read this scathing indictment of the US education system, Learning To Be Stupid In The Culture Of Cash. The author laments the absence of awareness and knowledge geography, history, philosophy, and political science among her students. This may sound familiar to Albertans. In the early days of Ralph Klein, our current premier and de facto King, some members of his political party, at a convention in Banff, seriously considered having the philosophy and psychology departments at universities in Alberta closed down, because they didn’t generate money or wealth. Dumbing down, anyone?