Preserving, Reaffirming Passion, i.e. Rock On!

50 MB of heaven! It works, the iRecord works! It turned The Beatles "Revolver" into 50 MB. The default settings worked too, which made me happy, no tweaking required. It records at 192 kbps and it split the tracks automatically. I know the picture's not that clear, I might need a new camera now, but that lovely white box is magic! It was seriously easy. I just hooked it to one of the outputs from my receiver, played the album like normal and it blinked orange for audio recording. So, for $200 for the iRecord and whatever for a regular USB 2.0 storage device (mine's a PNY Attache 1G, cheap cheap at Staples) you can transfer all your recordings, audio and video, to MP3. The sampling rate can be increased for higher quality and you can even schedule the recording to use it like a DVR. Holy mackerel, how cool!

I started with "Revolver" because it was the album my dad played for me that initially turned me on to The Beatles, vinyl, and music in general, leading to my collection of the 1000s of records that I now want to archive. This copy is MFSL 1-107, an Original Master Recording released by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab that I bought for $40 in December '93 at Record Rover in West L.A. So clean! Now it's daunting to think about all the work it'll be to record everything, but I'll take it slow and really enjoy listening to them too.

My wife's going to be so excited that I can now archive her Black Crowes concert recordings too!

Peace.

The Kings

I'm starting to get some really good feedback from the exposure started by Josh Spear! It's exciting to have some genuine interest coming from online! Primitive Kool in San Diego, CA received the blues portraits and should have them up soon. Janis is off to SoCal as a commission. How do you think it turned out?

The Kings of Leon were excellent at the Marquee last night. Their "show" is getting more exciting and they rocked it! Such good music, so talented. Great venue too. I would highly recommend it for Phoenix area concert-goers. The only thing about the place is the perhaps overly high-strung security. It's about like the airport, just without the actual metal detector! I don't understand the need, just not the level to which they take it. Once inside though, it's sweet.

I haven't been to an overwhelming number of concerts. I only started going with my wife when she showed me bootlegs of Black Crowes shows she'd been to as a teenager. We've seen some pretty nice ones. We're making it a priority and like planning trips around shows. The best so far for me was seeing the Crowes reunite in Atlanta. We could see the tour bus from the window of our hotel room! Beautiful city and fun venue, The Tabernacle. We also just saw Marc Ford at the Rhythm Room here in Phoenix. A little dive club, we got to sit stage left right in front of him! Sweet merciful crap, that was incredible seeing him jam for like over 3 hours.

What's your most recent concert and how did it rank with others you've seen? I wish I had been around during the 60's to see some of the people I've painted:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

Now where's that Otis Redding record...

The Clothes Make The Man

I needed to inspire myself this morning, so I started thinking about what has influenced me. My culture has been formed by music, art, books, movies, television, clothes, and other creative media. In one of my favorite movies, Joe Vs. The Volcano, Ossie Davis tells Tom Hanks that to ask someone what kind of clothes they should wear is like asking them to tell you who you are. I'll get to other movies in later posts, but today I want to address my dress.

It is fitting that my style has been primarily influenced by 3 musicians in bands that my wife and I are crazy about. They are the most passionate and seemingly pure creative people I've seen perform in a long time. In no particular order, they are Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, and Jack White of the White Stripes. Their attitudes toward life and music are so inspirational and contemporary. It's great to see individuals contributing positively to popular culture by just being who they are and doing what they do. And of course, they look so cool doing it!

I don't want to over-analyze these influences, so I'll list'em and keep the rambling to a minimum. I just want to share with you who and what has made me what I am today. I hope you'll be interested enough to see what it all has led to and:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

Wearing a black cowboy shirt with white piping, a black necklace, and narrow black-striped slacks, I wish you a good day!