Aimee Mann's Forgotten Arm Tour Continues

Aimee Mann 2005


Aimee's site has announced more tour dates. If you live in Hawaii, Japan, California, Arizona, Texas, or Florida, I envy you.

Reflecting on My Radio Shift

WAWL


I played a Steppenwolf blues suite from side 2 of their second album, Love performing a live Red Telephone and August, Frank Black's Los Angeles, Sisters of Mercy's More, Aimee Mann's Live Deathly and the Scientist as well as Dear John and I Can't Get My Head Around It, Stan Ridgway's Down the Coast Highway, Wall of Voodoo's Far Side of Crazy, Lou Reed's Sword of Damocles, David Bowie's It's No Game pt1, ELO's Hello My Old Friend, the Waterboy's We Are Jonah, EBN-OZN's A,E,I,O,U Sometimes Y, and M.A.C.C.'s cover of Hendrix's Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun). It was a blast. They do need to update the equipment or fix it up a bit. Whenever I played a CD I had to push start about 3 or 4 times. The headphone jack worked on and off. I was rusty as well. I did 2 hours, from 9-11 AM and then Bryan Stone rocked and Josh Clayton was to do a shift and there were others their as well. It was cool to meet Bryan and Josh and see Steve and Jim along with Uncle Don and Bob Riley. Plus it was a treat when I ran into Dave Weinthall of the Enigma. I had a reality check when someone called that used to call me every shift, but they really wanted to request a tune that they thought I would be most likely to play. It will always be about the music more than the jock.

Randy Black on the Radio. Listen to me this Monday

WAWL Dude


Sorry to have been away lately, but I have been preparing for a radio shift this Monday Aug, 29th at 9 A.M. Eastern time. Listen to me live if you wish at WAWL 91.5

Svengali 

Are American Idol Contestants Puppets?

It has certainly appeared that way to me. And anyone who saw Bo Vice and Carrie Underwood's final competitive performance had to notice that the one song they were singing that was not recognizable since we were age 5 was a new song written for the winner that did not fit their voices or styles. That is why I believe the song was written prior to the start of the season. A greater concern for the artists centers around the legal agreements Idol contenders must sign with 19 Entertainment to be eligible for the prize booty. Some see Simon Cowell as a svengali. Don Heley will not let the show use his songs. Jimmy Webb states that music companies want complete control. They don't want artists to get too powerful. Read the entire article for a better understanding.
From my personal experience around performers, I have heard of many stories where the music companies already have songs ready to be released. They have the band that is gonna play the song and all they lack is the vocalist. The story is the same for all the formats, rap, grunge, alt, rock, country, etc.
Also, there is the stories about bands that have million sellers, but before they are paid the costs of the artwork on the album, the tour, the promotions all are deducted, and often the artist is in debt.
I thought many of the svengali stories would disapear when people like 50's rock and rollers got out their stories about how atrocious their music deals were. I guess everything goes in cycles.
So, is it worth it to compete to be an American Idol? Read it and judge for yourself.

Beware the Former Child Actors

We all know the stories of former child actors having trouble in the real world. You may remember Danny Bonaduce, Dana Plato, Adam Rich, Etc. Etc. Etc. I am having trouble remembering all the stories. But, here is the latest....

A former child actor and his wife were ordered to stand trial Tuesday for the murder of a wealthy California couple who, prosecutors say, were tied to the anchor of their yacht and thrown overboard alive, never to be seen again.
Orange County Superior Court Judge John Conley ordered 26-year-old Skylar Deleon, who once starred in the "Power Rangers" TV series, and his wife, 24-year-old Jennifer Henderson Deleon, to stand trial for the murders after a two-day preliminary hearing in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles. More at CNN.

With the Passing of Peter Jennings, all 3 Major Networks Have Lost an Anchor in the Past Year. What effect will this have on our news coverages?

Peter Jennings


The past year has been a tumultuous year for news anchors. Tom Brokaw stepped down. Dan Rather reluctantly did the same. Peter Jennings announced he had lung cancer, and I like many thought that he would return to the broadcast booth, especially given the doctors he could afford. Alas, it was announced earlier tonight that Peter Jennings had died of lung cancer. ABC must have known Peter's days were numbered as they aired a special mini-documentary on their former anchor. He looked even younger than his 67 years. I had a lot of respect for him because he was so young when he first took the anchor chair in his 20's. He will be sadly missed.
So, what does it all mean? Will the new anchors be as conservative? (I'm not talking politics here.) I mean will they show the same etiquette? Will they generalize more often? My guess is that they will be corporate puppets. The former 3 anchors must have seen the corporate censorship or sway or spin that had been building steam the past few years. However, a new anchor has more people he or she may want to please and may bend more without breaking when it comes to reporting the news accurately. Some suggest that CBS is preparing a more exciting format for the news during Bob Schaeffer's interim anchors, one that will use several co-anchors to make the news experience fresh. I hope the nightly news will still dedicate large segments of time on more important stories and not abbreviate like the USA Today or its influence on most of the newspapers in the nation. I would hate for one of the major networks to lean with a political party ala Fox News. That could be dangerous despite the party. There already seems to be too much sloppiness on the news. Why would you show where a president went to hide on 911? Why would you brainstorm a list of things terrorists could do and announce it to the world? on the other hand, why not show the coffins returning from the war or read the names of those who perished in battle like Ted Koppel took flack for? Some stations would not even show that Nightline. News should be reported responsibly (Not giving out gov't secrets ala Geraldo) and as accurately as possible (advertisers should have no effect on news reporting). For our society to settle for anything less is ludicrous.

I wish I had all of the Criterion Collection Releases

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou


I have recently began collecting DVDs releases from the Criterion Collection. They do a great job in the film transferrals. The pictures are so beautiful. Also, they include a lot of background features. For instance on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas there are a couple of Hunter S. Thompson documentaries along with footage of his attorney and cohort on the trip, Acosta, reading a chapter from one of his books. On the Life Aquatic there are 2 releases, one with one disc and one with 2. This may become a collector's item. I have one called the Third Man that adds footage of underground sewer patrolmen in Austria and a zither concert. I recommend that anyone interested in collecting DVDs get as many Crterion titles as they can. NOt only do they go up in value, but they are very selective in what movies earn the honor. Browse the titles and let me know what you think.

The Male Teacher Biases

The process of finding a job has been a bit daunting due to the fact that I am constantly being disregarded in favor of teachers with more experience than my two years. I do feel that my recent graduation from college should give me an edge due to the fact that I have put into practice the latest trends in education. Also, a quick search on the internet for the need for male teachers in the classroom will yield many websites. Unfortunately, many elementary schools disregard male teachers unless they need one to act as a disciplinarian or other stereotypical roles.

From CS Monitor:

Liberty Jones, a fourth-grade teacher at Maplewood Elementary in Portland, Ore., supports efforts to draw more men into the teaching profession. "It's important for the same reason it's important to see women in science and engineering," she says. "It helps break the societal stereotype."
Male teachers send an important message to students, says Ms. Jones. "In my experience, moms tend to be the ones staying home or helping kids out with their homework. Having a male teacher gives students a different perspective and shows that men care about education and learning too."
"There are people who still say, 'It's so nice to have a man in the classroom,' " Nelson says. "But think about it: You wouldn't say, 'It's so nice to have an African-American in the classroom,' or 'It's great to have a Jew in the classroom.' It should be no different for men. We want teachers to be teachers and for gender not to be a factor, but until we get to that point, we have to do something about it."

I teach, because I care.