Thursday, November 17, 2005

Triangle Blogger Bash

I know I was supposed to write this up yesterday but work has been quite the bear the last couple of weeks. The Bash was a blast - thanks to Anton for arranging and for going ahead and showing up despite arriving home prior to the the event to find that he'd been broken into. And thanks to WUNC for hosting, Lulu.com for providing the munchies and for WRAL.com for buying the beers at Tyler's Speakeasy. The new WUNC studios in the American Tobacco complex are damn nice!

It was great to see a number of people that I've met and to meet more that I haven't but honestly the highlight for me was meeting and chatting with two people that I feel as if I should have known for many years. Karen Mann, ex-music writer for the
Indy and writer of Mann's World was great to talk to - I'm sure I was babbling talking about old bands we'd seen/met/booked/written about but with the transient nature of the population around here it's really nice (and rare) to have the opportunity to talk about that kind of shared experience. Karen's blog is a great read - she's much more up on the local music scene that I have been in years.

The second was Keith Weston, who I've been listening to for many years on WUNC as the host of Back Porch Music (along with Freddie Jenkins, who I DID know back in the day). It was great to talk to Keith and even better was the introduction to his
webcast, which I am listening to now and frankly, you should be too. As Keith puts it, DeeperIntoMusic is "a thoughtful mix of alternative, pop, oldies, select electronica - sprinkled with a dash of surprises." And it is now my favorite webstation.

How Embarisking!

France Modern (trois fleurs-de-lis)
You are 'French'. In the nineteenth century, it
was the international language of diplomacy.
It is a 'beautiful' language, meaning that it
is really just a low-fidelity copy of Latin.

You know the importance of communicating
'diplomatically', which for you means both
being polite and friendly when necessary and
using sophisticated, vicious sarcasm when
appropriate. Your life is guided by either
existentialism or nihilism, depending on the
weather. You have a certain appreciation for
the finer things in life, which is a diplomatic
way of saying that you are a disgusting
hedonist. Your problem is that French has been
obsolete for a long time.


What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Ted Bleecker, 1944-2005

Ted Bleecker died last night from the lung cancer that he was diagnosed with a year after he finished Bleecker Street Studios in Carrboro. What a remarkable piece of work that was! He built it literally by hand over the course of seven years, creating a building that is as much a work of art as the artwork that has been created and shown within. I only had the opportunity to meet him once (I should say took the opportunity as he was very approachable) during the opening of a show of our friend Warren Hicks' work and he enthusiastically showed us the massive hand-carved doors to his part of the studio and talked about what a labor of love the whole experience had been. An awesome achievement and, by all accounts, a wonderful person. I'm sorry I didn't get to know him better.

Happy Anniversary, Baby...

...got you on my mind...

Twenty-one years ago today,
JennySlash confirmed my suspicion that I'm the luckiest sonovagun in the world.