Ska Ska Ska Do The Ska

I've been listening to almost nothing but ska the last few months. The music just makes me happy. It is timeless. From an interview with trumpet player Adam Birch at reggae-steady-ska.com where he was at a festival playing with The Pietasters.

You’ve been involved with ska the bulk of your life. What is it that keeps bringing you back?

You know what, it’s this music. I’ll be honest with you. It never, ever dies. I tried to run away from it. I really believe this—this music is spiritual and I know you might not believe it, but you cannot stop listening to it. You try, you go away from it, you listen to other stuff, you always come back to it. The music just keeps reforming and it multitudes and it multiplies and it comes back third-wave ska, fourth-wave ska, fifth wave. It’s just this root of the music, but it changes and it progresses. That’s the beautiful thing about ska.

x - A's Giants Barry Zito on Billboard Charts see the video

What a cool story! Cy Young award winner and former A's and Giants pitcher Barry Zito is on the Billboard charts. Yes he is also a musician. He retired from baseball in 2015 and now is in Nashville. Check his website BarryZitoMusic.com

from Billboard

"The pitcher-turned-singer-songwriter's first EP, the self-released No Secrets, marks his Billboard chart debut, new on the Americana/Folk Album Sales (No. 15), Heatseekers Albums (No. 18) and Country Album Sales (No. 39) charts dated Feb. 18, with 1,000 first-week copies sold, according to Nielsen Music."

Following a career that spanned 15 years and featured a Cy Young Award (as the American League's best pitcher in 2002), three All-Star Game appearances and a World Series ring with the San Francisco Giants in 2012, some might be surprised to see Zito swap a glove for a guitar and move from the mound to behind the mic. But he​ says that music has long been a passion.

Zito tells Billboard that he first picked up a guitar after signing with the Oakland Athletics in 1999 when he was 21 years old: "I knew that I'd have to do something while being on the road for all these hours. I never really jumped into any musical endeavor until then."

Even before that, music was a big part of Zito's household growing up in San Diego. His father was a conductor for Nat King Cole, his mother was one of Cole's backup singers and his sister, Sally Zito, is a country artist. "We always heard great music in the house, whether it was jazz or some of the great '70s and '80s pop," he says.

Nice Day to Detail The Ford C-Max

Nice day to detail the car. It wasn't a toothbrush and Q Tip kind of detail but more a wash and clay bar to get rid of winter rainy day road grime session. I finished with some Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze. I'm not really brand loyal on car care stuff like this but I do like the sealants over wax.

It took a few hours so I finished right at dusk with some tire dressing and Never Dull to clean the rims.

Next wash will be no clay bar and maybe I'll break out the Porter Cable 7424XP Dual Action Polisher to really make things look good.

It was pretty cool to listen to music on my Android watch while doing it. The Very Best of Meat Loaf if you must know. He rules!

#ToolTIme

99.3 The Vine Napa Vine Time Podcast Billy Bob Thorton Episode

Here it is! I think this is a fun podcast episode.





DJ's from 99.3 The Vine Napa get together on a podcast
Good Morning Bob interviews "Bad Santa" Billy Bob Thorton
Big Rick Stuart has wine reviews and a wine movie tip
Sharpie talks to the owner of the Napa hot spot Napkins
Napa Homegrown music from BottleRock band Secure The Sun

It is all brought to you by our sponsors Hope and Grace Wines in Yountville.

Enjoy!

Disco Don "I just do it for the love" Britain's OLDEST DJ still spinning records at the age of 80

"For the love" a good reason to do it!

He has always regularly attracted a devoted following of around 70 fans known as 'Donettes' who turn up each week to boogie with him.

more at the Express

GnR review: "it's the last record I will ever buy just to read the liner notes"

Rob Harvilla @ SF Weekly on the new Guns and Roses cd. I haven't heard it yet. Maybe I should -read- it first! A few favorite parts of his review, the whole thing at the link.

I feel comfortable stating that it's the last record I will ever buy just to read the liner notes. Holy shit. Do pop into Best Buy and have a gander.

(Deep breath.)


Fourteen studios in four cities. Twenty-two assistant engineers. Eight folks under the heading "Additional Pro Tools." Six more under "Logic." The recurring phrase "initial production." Eleven musicians get their own personal thank-you lists; deranged mastermind Axl Rose's requires nearly three columns of tiny-ass type. (Notable names: Mickey Rourke, Donatella Versace, Izzy Stradlin.) And these are just full-album credits; all 14 songs get their own personal bibliography. "There Was a Time" has six guitarists (five is more common) and five orchestral arrangers; "Madagascar" boasts not just French horns but synth French horns, plus clips from two Martin Luther King speeches and dialogue from Mississippi Burning, Cool Hand Luke, Braveheart, Casualties of War, and Seven.

I saw this part on a longer version of the review on the web yesterday, looks like it got edited overnight:

Full lyric sheet too: Within the first minute of the histrionic piano ballad "This I Love," Axl rhymes why, goodbye, I, eyes, wise, try, inside, die, mine, light, bright, night, and deny.

This is the mythical burrito microwaved by God that's so hot, God himself cannot eat it.

Rob writes some entertaining stuff eh?! More at the link.

Sirius crushes XM after merger

Some time back I wrote about what I thought might happen at Sirius/XM. I'm just another moron with a blog, but I have worked in radio a long time. I am also a Sirius subscriber since they started.

I was right on some things, wrong on others and don't know yet on a few.

I was pretty sure about a couple of things. Having worked for and watched Mel Karmazin in old skool radio I knew his company loyalty. Since he would be the new man in charge after the merger I thought he would keep the Sirius guys and boot the XM guys. He's pretty loyal like that.

I also thought (knew) he would cut costs and expenses in a big brutal way like a southern California fire.

He's doing both.

Probably the XM subscribers are pissed. Maybe some Sirius subscribers are too. They were looking forward to multiple choices of our weird little formats. But it seems not to be.

Mel is slashing staff, keeping Sirius people behind the scenes and on the air, and will keep the BIG names from both. Oprah, Stern, Martha, all the sports stay. Rumors are that it will be one set of stations broadcast on both XM and Sirius. Hey thats 1/2 the cost with all the superstars.

from Radio and Records

"Among the names we're hearing are caught up in this first round of cuts: Eight-and-a-half-year vet Kurt Gilchrist, senior PD of XM's Decades channels; George Taylor Morris, a jock on XM Deep Tracks and senior director of original programming; Kandy Klutch, afternoon talent on XM '80s on 8; John Clay, PD of XM's '70s on 7; PD Billy Zero and "Dean of Music" Tobi from XMU; alternative channel Ethel MD Erik Range; Rick Lambert, PD of new wave channel Fred and an eight-year company vet; Kevin Kash, PD/midday talent/host of the "Breaking Bone! Hour" on the Boneyard; and Bill Hutton, PD of classic alternative channel Lucy. R&R also hears that while some of these employees are leaving immediately, some are staying for another couple of weeks, when a second wave of terminations may wash over the satellite nation."

"The hemorrhaging continues at Sirius XM as more names of the departing keep rolling in: In addition to everyone we named yesterday, other exits include Marlin Taylor, PD of gospel channel Enlighten and '40s on 4; '50s on 5 PD Ken Smith and MD Matt the Cat; '60s on 6 PD Pat Clarke; Jessie Scott, PD of X-Country; country channel America PD Ray Knight, MD John Welch and show coordinator "Country Dan" Dixon; Lisa Lisa, PD of urban channel the City; and PD Bill Evans, MD Brian Chamberlain and jock Cathy Carter from triple A channel XM Café."

"Another date being tossed around is Nov. 5, when it's rumored that a new combined Sirius XM lineup will be rolled out -- rather than doing an a la carte/pick from both sides dealie like had been previously announced, it's looking like both will consolidate into a single channel lineup that will be beamed out over both Sirius' and XM's networks. R&R hears that both lineups are currently under scrutiny and, where there's duplication, one side's offering will be nixed -- and it's looking like Sirius is winning."

Wow there's some really talented names in that mix. Best of luck to them all.

Fall MTB ride and Fire Control in the Oakland Hills (it's Goats!)

These four legged creatures were doing their thing today on the trails where I do lots of mountain biking. It is at the southern end of Skyline in Chabot park.



That is at the far south end of the Oakland hills, the opposite end of where the big fire was.



They spend a few days there munching away, and leave behind their calling card(s) but really do a good job cutting down on the dry fuel in the hills. Once somebody shot some :( , since they spend the night in the hills they are kind of at risk, but there are people and dogs that watch over them all the time.

Crazy ass Oakland.

But still BIG THANKS to Goats R Us from this Oakland resident!

(yes really Goats R Us, check the link!)

Today the dog and I rode about 5 miles in the hills, the iPod was rockin another pretty weird mix, The Samurai Champloo soundtrack, and "I'm Your Biggest Fan" by Dallas Wayne.

Works for me!

For The Love Of Vinyl | blog.JR.com

A nice article at the J and R blog about vinyl. It is true that the old lp's were pressed on some pretty crappy thin discs. RCA (really crappy albums!) had some really bad stuff called dynaflex or something. Classical lp's were always pretty beefy. Their listeners wouldn't put up with that crappy stuff.

The new 180 and 200 grain lp's are really heavy and do sound good. I have the ION usb turntable (not 800 lbs or 150,000 dollars!!!) and get a few lp's of new stuff now and then.

here's part of the post, click and read it all

For The Love Of Vinyl | blog.JR.com: "For The Love Of Vinyl


Lately, it seems that vinyl has seen some sort of revival. Many media outlets are proclaiming that vinyl is back. That is true to some degree. Vinyl is having a semi revival amongst some circles, but to the audiophile community, vinyl never left. It has been the default choice of the high end for many years and will continue to be. Browse through Audiogon, the definitive high end online audio community and you will see that it is alive and kicking. Within that crowd, dropping $80,000 on a turntable is not unheard of. I heard The Clearaudio Statement turntable at a hifi event not long ago, and apart from weighing almost 800lbs, it’s also $150,000."

Music Player for Da Players

Happy 2007! There's lots of music and playlists out there. But I ask who else but Ricardo Grande gives you a Skankin' Pickle Double Play to welcome the year of 007!

007 New Year Party set!