Loren's Musical News & Ramblings

Just got back from a mostly-fun weekend at the Bay Area's biggest annual science fiction convention, Baycon. With the exception of a couple of individuals being ruder than they needed to, I had a great time. My show Sunday night was good with an appreciative audience.

Filk.com now has Tropical Troubadour in stock, and they've restocked Songs From My Heart. Check 'em out; they've got lots of fun and eclectic music.

I normally leave the con around dinnertime Sunday, because I'm usually tired and things have quieted down. So I had some extra time to kill. I used some of it to generate harmless mischief. I was at one of the room parties, at which several people were dressed in "Planet of the Apes" costumes. They were pretty good costumes. One guy put on his over-the-head ape mask, and commented that he'd need a straw to be able to get something to drink. A flash of free-association in my brain, and I suggested he go down to the hotel bar and order a banana daquiri, while in full costume. So he and another of their party did, while a third person went to take pictures. The bartender did one double-take when they walked in, and a second when the banana daquiri was ordered. :) I saw the pictures; the look on her face was...quite interesting.

Science fiction conventions. If you've never done one and have any interest in the genre at all, try it sometime.

Okay, I'll admit I'm one of those occasional geeks who made a point of seeing the new Star Wars movie on opening night. I've attended them all in the theaters, and was at the first showing in Westwood when the first movie (now rechristened Episode 4) premiered in 1977. I was in grad school at the time, and the only thing that kept me from sitting through it a second time was a meeting on my final paper. They handed out the original version of the "May the Force be With You" buttons. I still have mine.

I found a lot to like in the new movie, "Revenge of the Sith." Yeah, the characterizations and dialog are a bit stilted at times. You expect that going in. This isn't high art. Otherwise I found it very satisfying. I might even go see it again in the theaters, if I can find the time.

The latest Star Wars parody is going around at www.storewars.org. It's very silly; I like it. Check it out.

Meanwhile, I'll be off hanging with friends I only get to see once or twice a year at Baycon this weekend. If you're there, come here me play on Sunday night.

Well! Friday night's show in Alameda was excellent! Thanks to those of you who attended; if you didn't, you missed some good stuff. We had a good Parrothead section singing along to the Buffett songs, and even a few people singing along to *my* songs! I even managed to get in a few good-natured references to the dry nature of a coffeehouse, which even the staff applauded. :)

I like Alameda a lot. I can't quite afford to *live* there, mind you, but I visit when I can. I've been playing at shows and open mikes often enough that I know most of the local musicians, and I've got good relationships with several of the venue owners there. It's a good place to do a show, and I have an increasing number of good places there to do them.

In the meantime, I've just gotten myself set up on a new computer. I'm changing operating systems and figuring out the mysteries of the Macintosh. I grew to like MacOS back in the days of the Mac Plus - yes, that dates me - but economics kept me in the Windowsverse for many years.

My old Win98 machine is in its decline, and I decided to migrate before it died. I didn't want WinXP - do *you* want Micro$oft notified everytime you tweak anything on your computer? I thought about Linux, but decided I have better things to do with my time than research where to find the software I need for stuff. So I went back to Macintosh. Among other things, it gives me some capacities to work with music that would be harder on other machines.

Anyway, that's the latest. Recovery from my knee surgery is still progressing; I managed to get all the gear in and out of Friday night's gig without hurting anything, and I did the entire show on my feet. I'm off this afternoon to a publication party - one of my friends is Diana Paxson, author of many books, and the party is for her new metaphysical tome, "Taking Up the Runes." It should be enjoyable. Maybe I even have a bottle of mead I could share...

I noticed, as many did, that "island country" artist Kenny Chesney and actress Renee Zellweiger tied the knot on St. John's over the weekend. Looks like somewhat of a whirlwind romance - I gather they only met in January. They both seem like nice people, so I wish them the absolute best and hope they've found their "happily ever after." Only time will tell.

I guess this is more of a test than anything else. I think I figured out what the problem was that kept headlines from updating on my home page, but I want to add a new post to my blog to see if it updates properly.

For the geeks among you, it looks as though we had Feedburner looking at the wrong XML file. Change one directory path in the URL, and presto! Everything seems to work again!

Just FYI - I plan to drop in at the singer/songwriter session at McGrath's Pub in Alameda tomorrow night. Come on down - the music is usually lots of fun. I only missed it last week because my knee wasn't *quite* recovered enough from surgery for me to feel good about walking around carrying my guitar.

McGrath's will also be stocking my CDs for sale too, effective tomorrow night. :)

And if you're in the neighborhood, I've got a show Friday night at Coffee for Thought, also on Alameda. Come on down!

I've been carting the new Kenny Chesney album, Be As You Are, around for a couple of weeks now, and I finally got a chance to listen to it. And I definitely like it.

Chesney is a multi-platinum country artist. He sells millions of copies of every CD he puts out. He went to his label a while back and said, "Hey, I'd like to do an album of all island songs." Be As You Are is the result.

Maybe it's just that I'm a fairly recent convert to country music, but I find nothing at all wrong and quite a bit to like with this CD. The title track and "Old Blue Chair" are probably my favorites. They sound like they came right off a mid-70's Buffett album, with a slightly updated groove and perhaps a bit more of a contemporary Nashville sound. I also really like "Guitars and Tiki Bars" - "When I've had it up to here/I head down there" is one of my favorite lines on the whole album.

I've got a feeling that a couple of these songs will make it into my own repertoire sometime soon.