The Rock Hall's Power of Rock Experience - A Review

The Rock Hall replaced the "hall of fame video" with a new projection and audio system and a new film. The old film was a recap of each years' inductees. If you sat through the whole thing is was pretty long (an hour+, I think), but the video was pretty cool and the audio outstanding.

The new system includes new screens that move, fake lights to shine on the audience' faces, fake speakers that light up, rumble seats (seats that vibrate), and a very short video (not even 15 minutes, I don't think). It's rubbish.

The new setup has little I would salvage if I were fixing it. The seating is just OK, but it could stay. The screens are stupid - their movement does nothing to enhance the experience - they need to go. The video is crap - show anything else. The sound is OK - I wonder if they maybe just used the same old stuff - they were fine - and added some new rumble to the mess. Keep the sound but get rid of the horrible fake speakers with light.

I am embarrassed by the whole thing. Fortunately the rest of the museum has not completely lost its way, but this exhibit is crap.

Concert Venue Ratings

As a seasoned and opinionated concert goer, listing venues strengths and weaknesses seems like it would be interesting and fun. When it is all said and done, we will see if it is useful for the global good. These will be mostly venues in and around Cleveland, Ohio, my home town. The posting will expand as time permits and experience grows. These will be generous at the top - there is room for plenty of grade A venues.

Grade  Venue  Narrative C Agora, Cleveland, Ohio No matter what they've done to try to improve this once great opera hall, it is a dump. Surprisingly good bathrooms. Scary hall and neighborhood. Excellent sound on the bottom. The top is more like an arena for some reason. Bad bar. The old Cleveland Agora on E21st was a dump too, but with low ceilings. They used to have shows in a smaller room here, and that was OK. A- Akron Civic Auditorium, Akron, Ohio Older auditorium with decent acoustics. Older seating. Weak concessions. A Allen Theater, Cleveland, Ohio Wonderfully renovated. Great sound, comfortable seats and good sight lines. The old version of the theater was big and beat up but not a bad venue either. A Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio The Beachland has the best vibe of any concert venue. The ballroom sounds better than it has a right to, thanks to Mike Miller. The room is too square and isn't right acoustically, but Mike gets it to sound just fine. A Beachland Tavern, Cleveland, Ohio The tavern shares the vibe of the ballroom, just smaller. Both have good bars. B Blossom Music Center Peninsula, Ohio Outdoor venue that feels more like a stadium or festival. Huge. Close in can be intense, though. OK sound that is like a festival in back. Horrible for orchestra. Concessions passible. B Cain Park, Cleveland Heights, Ohio Nice outdoor setting. OK sound (rattles around a lot). Stupid moat in front of stage. There is a bar and food, but not much selection. B Connor Palace, Cleveland Great for plays if you don't have a seat that really sucks. The nose bleeds can get really cramped. A- E J Thomas, Akron, Ohio Great sound and decent seating. Multiple high balconies. Weak concession. Needs upkeep. A Foster Theater (Rock Hall), Cleveland, Ohio Intimate theater with great sound for smallish events. Comfortable seating. First class. A Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee Great sound, seating and consessions. 1970’s modern facility that works and has character. A Grog Shop, Cleveland Heights, Ohio This is the ideal stand-up bar venue. Small, quirky. Great bar. Things always sound OK. B- Hard Rock Rocksino, Northfield, Ohio Good sound everywhere. Flat floor seating with a few risers in the back. No class. Very weak bar. Interesting location. A- House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio Great sound everywhere. OK bar (it used to be much worse). Somewhat over priced. It's a great place for a concert. B- Kent Stage, Kent, Ohio OK sound and not too big. Poor seats. Bad bathrooms. Dumpy old movie theater. A- Lakewood Civic Auditorium, Lakewood, Ohio Large older auditorium. Decent sound and sight lines. Cramped. Feels like a high school (because it is). B+ Mahall’s, Lakewood, Ohio Good sound. Garage quality seating but clean and unique. Good bar. A- Mentor Performing Arts, Mentor, Ohio Large modern auditorium. Good sound. Comfortable seats. Doesn’t feel too much like a High School (though it is). A Music Box Good sound, seating, food, even the ticket prices aren't that bad. Spiffy clean place. Great venue. B- Nautica Stage, Cleveland, Ohio Mediocre sound. Poor seats. Concessions vary. Large venue feel. Nice setting. A Nighttown, Cleveland Heights, Ohio Next to jazz club in the dictionary should be a picture of this place. Surprisingly good sound, good food, good bar, good vibe. D+ Public Hall, Cleveland, Ohio Sound is never good pretty much anywhere. Seating usually uncomfortable (sometime very much so). Usually very weak concessions. Old school arena. The Music Hall side of the venue is seldom used anymore. It was much better. B- Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio Usually decent sound. Huge venue with high altitude seating. Modern. B Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Lobby, Cleveland, Ohio Very tricky sound – usually not the best. Temporary or no seating. Fun for often memorable events. A- Severence Hall, Cleveland, Ohio Acoustic music sounds great here - anywhere in the hall (even way up high in the back). Amplified music rattles around and doesn't work very well. I preferred the 1960's configuration with panels on the ceiling. The seats are great. The bar is usually limited. B State Theater, Cleveland, Ohio Mediocre sound and sight lines. Unfortunately this venue is used for a good number of musical events. B+ Wilberts, Cleveland, Ohio OK sound. Quirky seating. Good food. Bar is good but have had stale beer on taps. Clean.

 
 

Greatest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Performances

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is currently polling this topic: http://rockhall.com/voting/the-greatest-moments-in-rock-hall-history/. Voting ends May 1, 2015.

I consider myself uniquely qualified and exceedingly opinionated, having visited the museum hundreds of times, attended many events related to the museum (though only one induction, in 2012, but soon to be two), I bought the 10 DVD boxed set of induction videos when it came out a few years ago, and most importantly, I carefully listened to all the entries yesterday evening on my big hi-fi at as high a volume as I could take it.

So I mercilessly rated all the nominated performances from 1 to 10. The obvious favorite is posted in the #1 position on their page - the sublime While My Guitar Gently Weeps performance from 2004.

 

• While my Guitar Gently Weeps 2004 - I get chills every time. One wrong note sticks out. Still a ... 10
• Let it Be 1999- horrible rubbish. 2
• Roll Over Beethoven 1986- the real deal - Jerry Lee! Keith! A real JAM. 8
• Sweet Emotion 2001 -Nice Take on the song! Totally rockin. 8
• Light my Fire 1993 - Nice, nice Doors + Don Was and Eddie Vedder. Acid. 7
• I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For 2005 - UBoss 7
• When the Levee Breaks - Neil  Young and Crazy Zeppelin. He dominates ANY band! 8
• I Saw Her Standing There 1988 - Fun jam. Jeff Beck guitar solo! So many great moments. Dylan! 7
• In the Midnight Hour 1999 - The most soulful! 6
• The Weight 1994 - Best song of this bunch. Well performed. 7
• Honky Tonk Woman 1989 - Best party (just cuz it's the Stones for cryin out loud). 6
• Green Onions 1992 - Really bad. Keith, the Edge, Johnny freakin Cash, Neil Young, Joh... aw nevermind. 1
• Blue Suede Shoes 1987 - Carl totally carries an otherwise poor performance. 5
• Sunshine of Your Love 1993 - CREAM, A bit slower but better than ever. Real rock and roll. 6
• Enter Sandman 2009 - Welcome to Cleveland. 6
• I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) 2003 - lost jam but lots of joy! 5
• Come Together 1994 - Good tribute to John Lennon. 6
• You've Lost That Loving Feeling 2003 - The vocals are hard to take. 1
• Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend 1996 - They should do this again in 2015. 4
• Hey Bo Diddley 1987 - Paul Butterfield rocks! 5
• Teach Your Children 1997 - CSN & JT. A bit rough. 3
• Teenage Lobotomy, Rockaway Beach, Blitzkrieg Bop 2002 - Green Day showing why they are being inducted. Great covers. 7
• Respect Yourself/I'll Take You There 1999 - nice. 6
• Higher Ground 2012 - I was there! It's about how I remember it. A cacophony at 1:30 in the morning. 6
• Wish You Were Here 1996 - Nice unplugger. 6
• Barracuda 2013 - Still works. The Gibson SG sounds great. What a riff. 6
• Crossroads 2013 - Geddy Freeking Lee! Great synthesis of performers. Dave Grohl. One of the best thanks to Geddy. 9
• Paradise City 2012 - Clevelander Gilby Clarke has the smallest ego on stage and should also be inducted. 6
• It's So Easy 2014 - I saw Linda in 1973. This did not capture that spirit. 4
• Smells Like Teen Spirit 2014 - Joan Jett channeling Kurt. Outstanding. 7

It was a lot of fun to watch them all. It took hours to do! After all the careful listening, While My Guitar Gently Weeps is still solidly number one. Crossroads is a surprise #2!

Other observations

Early on I was impressed with Billy Joel taking the lead in I Saw Her Standing There and elsewhere, but I also quickly hated Paul Schaefer's contributions. He did not belong on stage with the others, and he kept showing up, ruining many of the songs. Sorry, Paul. It didn't work.

 

I hope there will be great moments at this year's induction. Ringo and Paul can't help but be cool, Stevie Wonder inducting Bill Withers sounds exciting, and I look forward to Joan Jett. Green Day opened the 2012 inductions with a nice little set and a dozen f-bombs about the audience that arrived in a comatose state (and by the end at 1:30, we were mostly zombies). Hopefully we will be a better audience this year, but the line up looks huge again and I don't see how they can make it through the proceedings without going late into the night. Bring a blankie and pillow. 

FlashForward

When ABC's FlashForward started last fall I was immediately thrilled with the premise - a mysterious temporal event takes place causing all human consciousness to see a glimpse of the future. The show's first 10 episodes were great, leaving me wanting more! My wife Gayle (who reads constantly) passed the Robert J. Sawyer book on to me when she finished it, thinking I would like it. She was right. It is a great complement to the TV series. The premise is similar, and the characters and feel of the story has some similarity, but they are different stories.

The book definitely is more satisfying. An easy, quick read, I recommend zipping through it before the second half of the first season is over. My only disappointment was the ending. After blazing to a blistering climax, things go a little too far, and it lost me (I guess I wouldn't be getting a second Flash Forward).

What are you going to see in your FlashForward?

Vambo Rools in Hot City

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band is alive and well and living in Parma and Brooklyn and Cleveland Ohio. Playing under the pseudonym of Vambo Rools, SAHB can still rock the house!

Last night the Winchester Music Hall in Cleveland played host to a special tribute to the Sensation Alex Harvey Band, one the greatest things to come out of Scotland since Glenlivet. "Alex Harvey" doesn't seem to have aged much (unlike the hundreds of avid fans that turned out and overwhelmed the tavern's bartenders), but like his audience, Alex seems to have put on a few pounds.

Two fantastic 80 minute sets were unleashed on a big crowd that pretty much all knew where every chord, fill and cymbal crash were supposed to be. The band had the chops to pull it off. Playing much better than their MySpace videos, all aspects of the band were on. The latter part of the second set got a bit sloppier, but I am not complaining. It was a real rock show and a comprehensive tribute. The band consisted of two guitars, keyboard, bass and drums, with "Alex" playing nothing except an (awful) harmonica on one number. Alex and Zal Clemenson were in character ("Zal" with face paint and miming). "Zal" taunted Alex and chided the band in mime throughout the show.

Schoolboy's 96 kHz 24 bit Zoom H2 recording filled 5.85 GB! It sounds very good, and shows how nice the sonic balance was (there were only a few times where leads were a bit buried). I didn't remember the Winchester having the main PA speakers that were hanging from the ceiling. They looked like the same ones the Beachland used to have in the tavern, doubled, and they sound better in the Winchester's bigger room. Those same speakers used to be very harsh at the Beachland.

From what was said on mic, it seems like this is the second time they have played this tribute but that the shows may be at one year intervals. For Sensational Alex Harvey Band fans who missed it, it's a SAHB story - you missed the "Last of the Teenage Idols" but hopefully you will get another chance.

Vambo lives!

Demo Day at Holiday Valley

The Saturday before Christmas (December 19th) was a great day to go to Holiday Valley. Although winter had been a little slow in our region, you can usually count on reasonable skiing in Ellicottville, New York this time of year. My son had a final exam (AND it was his 22nd birthday too) so he couldn't come. My friend Bryce, an excellent skier who has made the Holiday Valley trek with me (and Matt) a number of times, came along and brought HIS son and several of his friends.

Little Mountain Limited, a ski/sports shop and travel agency located about a mile from my house, had a very reasonably priced bus trip, so we tagged along. I intend to go on at least a couple more of their day trips this year.

It was "demo day" at HV. This is when ski manufacturer's reps set up tents and allow you to try the latest gear, all set up for maximum ski lust. I normally use some pretty old, long skis, and Bryce' are even older and longer. We signed up for demos, and each got to try two - one Blizzard and one Line. Both were great experiences. The Blizzards were the best skis I ever had on. It was amazingly easy to carve up even steep, ice crunchy sections of hills. Nice. The Lines were not so good for control but man were they fast.

From The End of the 00's

From The End of the 00's

We had lunch at the brand new John Harvard's Brew House in the new Tamarack Club at HV. The place had been open less than a week, and you could tell. Everything was clean and the staff was green. Our server had no idea what kinds of beer were served (we were part of her first ever shift there). It turns out the beer is quite good. I had a pleasant stout and a good biting IPA. Bryce had an Amber ale he said was tasty. The food was much less memorable - the menu is pricey all-American fare ($15 meatloaf, $8 sandwiches with fries).

The Hearth restaurant at HV has been part of my New York skiing tradition for decades. It was always classy and there is a fantastic view. I still liked it even when they chopped off the better half of the dining room. The menu was old and tired, but not as boring as John Harvard. I guess I will go to the new place for the next few trips (my next trip is to Holimont anyway, and that is always a fancy bring-your-own-picnic and drinks affair, no restaurants).

After lunch we went to get more demos. The reps were all packing up because a storm was coming. We were at a ski resort where they get 300 inches of snow a year, for crying out loud. I called them a few very politically incorrect names and we went on our way, laboring with our old skis. The storm never came. Wimps.

Asus O!Play HDP-R1

Sometimes I feel like I am a little slow adopting some technologies. Of course this isn't really true. There are just some I don't like. MP3's, for instance. They don't sound very hi-fi, like most digital TV (and it's all digital now, isn't it). I didn't get a DVR right away, but we've had one since we got Uverse (maybe a year ago) and we love it. I am almost always bleeding edge on Microsoft products. I convinced myself, I'm not a Luddite.

I like my video hi-fi too. The Uverse DVR is reasonably good (like the Uverse service), and I have a Blu-ray player, and that stuff looks and sounds great. I have a lot of video content (most of it high definition) on the 3TB of internal disc in my Windows 7 machine. I had been sneaker- netting it to my Blu-ray sometimes (or watching on the 25" LCD monitor) but I got the idea that a media player would be way better. This is also better than trying to attach a PC to my living room HDTV (I tried this in 2005 when I got it and it didn't work well - I needed better stuff).

Shopping for media players, I found there are a bunch. A few are expensive. A couple don't have a network connection (that won't do). I stumbled on the Asus O!Play HDP-R1 and gave it a long look due to the great price and the Asus name. When you are building a computer, Asus is always a brand you should consider - their stuff is first rate. This product is VERY new.

I don't know much about what is in the box. It's small, and consumes very little power. The Oplay is running some flavor of Linux.

The Asus forums had lots of posts from dissatisfied customers, but reading between the lines, I thought I would be able to make it work just fine and that it would do exactly what I needed - play just about any video or audio file, connect to my network, host ESATA, etc. It does all it was supposed to do, and well. This post on the Asus forum has the secret to getting it working with Windows 7.

If you buy one, it will probably come with firmware version 1.07N on it and the network will not work right for Windows 7 machines (other computers will be OK). Set up a Windows 7 user "OPlayer" with password "OPlayer" and give it permissions on shares that hold your media. Reset the Oplay to factory defaults, load firmware version 1.13N, and the network connection will work perfectly (UPnP will work too).

So I have another cool gadget! It is a highly recommended toy!

I don't know Jack, but now I know Jorma

Founding member of the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen, appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yesterday for the American Music Masters Series tribute to Janis Joplin. Jorma and Janis were part of the San Fransisco area pre-hippie scene and they shared some interesting early times before they were rock stars.

Per the usual Rock Hall format for such events, he gave an extended interview interspersed with a number of songs, followed by a meet-and-greet. As always, the fourth floor theater was filled to capacity and the sound and overall experience were first rate. Jorma was playing his new signature model Martin guitar (serial number 1).

Schoolboy was in attendance and I heard some of his 24 bit 96 kHz Zoom H2 recording and it is very good.

Afterwards, at the meet and greet, I asked Jorma to bring Hot Tuna to the Beachland. Hopefully I planted a seed in his mind. It would have been very cool if Jack Casady could have been there, but since he wasn't, I still don't know jack.

Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop in Cleveland

If you are a Travis fan you have probably heard about Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop's current tour of North America. It brought them to my favorite concert club yesterday, the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. Everything you have heard about this show is true.

From Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop of Travis

The show is a very humorous look back on the history of Travis. There is as much dialog as music, and the audience is quickly won over by Fran's wit. This is a program that is best for hard core Travis fans, and that is pretty much all you had in Cleveland.

Schoolboy was there and made a 24 bit 96 khz hand-held Zoom H2 recording. I heard some of it and it is very nice. Nearly every person in attendance seemed to be buying the "official bootleg" (which is considerably shorter than the full Schoolboy version that is over three hours, including the meet-and-greet).

After the show, most of the crowd (that I would guess at around 150-200) waited around to greet Fran and Andy, and they took the time to chat with everybody. I think I was there for a good hour and a half after the show. In April, the Travis Cleveland House of Blues show proved to be my musical highlight for 2009. Last night was an extension of that great vibe.

Check out my photos and youtube. The video gives a good feel of what it was like.

Rounder Records 40th Anniversary Concert

We made a little diversionary trip to Tennessee this last week. My son is an electrical engineering student in his senior year at Purdue and since they had a two day break, it was a nice time for a quick trip. We originally were going to go to Memphis and Nashville, but we didn't get going early enough to include Memphis. None of us had been to Nashville.

Along the way we stopped and took landmark photos at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Churchill Downs in Louisville. We started exploring at Churchill Downs and found that there were no locked doors. That was fun. We ended up in a deserted top level Millionaires Club. Nice view.

Nashville is a nice town. It has a unique cosmopolitan flair. More sophisticated than I expected. I liked it. Much of the city is very beautiful and nicely kept. We walked and drove around quite a bit, seeing lots of nifty stuff, including:

• The Broadway area (bars, shops, etc. downtown)
• The Country Music Hall of Fame
• Ryman Auditorium
• The Parthenon
• Bicentennial Park
• The Grand Ole Opry House
• Belle Meade Plantation

The weather was variable (cloudy some of the time, a little drizzle here and there, nice the rest of the time). It was definitely warmer than we are accustomed to in October. Nice.

I hoped we could catch a good show while we were there, but I never anticipated we would see such a great one. While we were at the Grand Ole Opry in the afternoon (October 12, 2009) we inquired about tickets to that night's performance. They had some floor seats at around $50 each, but they were selling good balcony seats for $12. What a deal. As it turns out, this hall is a good one. The balcony view and sound are first rate. They even have pews just like the Ryman Auditorium (but they are nicely padded).

Here is the lineup we saw. It was the Rounder Records 40th Anniversary Celebration.

• Minnie Driver did a set and acted as MC for the show. She sang beautifully and was very witty. The Show was being recorded for broadcast on PBS in March.
• Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas gave Matt and Gayle a nice introduction to live, jumpy zydeco music.
• Bela Fleck did an interesting little set. Mesmerizing banjo, as always.
• Irma Thomas had a special guest of Henry Butler. Very soulful.
• Mary Chapin Carpenter was uplifting and inspiring.
• Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas finished the evening with the most beautiful singing and string band playing you can imagine.

Over all, the show had the feel of many of the Rock Hall tribute shows (American Music Masters). They pulled it off better, but it was a smaller scale. It was a bit drawn out as it took time to switch the bands out. With the exception of Bela Fleck, these were good sized bands! The Grand Ole Opry House gets a 10. They even had a house beer (something like a dark lager - I think they called it Opryhouse Brew).

9-9-9 Beatles Remastered - Criticism - They Got it Wrong

Today the long awaited remastered Beatles CD's were released. The new versions are not an improvement on the versions released in the 80's, unless you were looking for compressed dynamics and some tweaks in the bass equalization. Like many CD's being released today these days, the new Beatles releases were made to sound louder - they are less dynamic so they don't sound quieter than other recordings.

This of course is not a good thing. The one thing CD's can do well is dynamic range, but lately many CD's are all about being loud. Ultimately this will help kill the CD market and further deaden peoples senses, so they can be happy with horrible compressed audio (MP3, etc.). As far as the bass, I think I could have tweaked in a little bottom if I thought it was missing. I do not understand the whole mono thing (the new releases are available in both stereo and mono). These recordings for the most part were originally stereo, so what's with mono? I want more channels, not less.

My listening tests compared the new CD's with the old ones as well as with vinyl and some oddball Beatles releases like a 20 bit HDCD of Let it Be (Naked) and the Love DVD-Audio (remixed by Sir George Martin and son). As you may know, I am quite the audio snob, with some serious listening gear (electrostatic speakers, tube amps, etc.). I am also a long time Beatles fan - I have purchased pretty much the whole cycle at least two or three times.

So I would be lying if I said I didn't want these new CD's to sound great and jump out of my speakers like the Stones and Kinks and many other old rock groups' high resolution remixes. The regular 16 bit CD's can sound very good too. I wanted these to be good. But they don't offer any improvement for me. In fact, although I may change my mind after more listening, for now I prefer the old CD releases over these new ones.

I did not do any empirical analysis of the new versions of any of the tracks (maybe I could suck them into Sound Forge and measure the dynamic range - for now I used my ears). I also have a strong prejudice in favor of vinyl. Nine times out of ten the listening experience from vinyl (even somewhat worn) beats CD's, HDCD's, SACD's and DVD-Audio. It doesn't matter which digital media is used, vinyl is almost always significantly better. Remember, the resolution of analog signals is continuous, so it has infinitely higher resolution than anything digital. The best digital sound comes from DSD (SACD), but it's still not analog.

I imagine a lot of people will disagree with me, but time will tell as other audiophiles weigh in on the subject. I am sorry if I sounded harsh, I am just trying to steer you readers towards the best sound.

If you have the vinyl, play that, and enjoy the best there is. If you have the old CD's, you don't need the new ones. If you have neither, you can get the new (and hardly improved) ones or seek out old versions. Have they inadvertently created a new market for the vintage Beatles CD releases? Wouldn't that be something.

In Place Upgrade from Windows 7 RC to RTM

When I loaded the Windows 7 RC on my studio PC (AKA the litterbox PC) I didn't think I would be able to upgrade to RTM. I thought that I would have to do a clean install. As it turns out, there is a simple procedure to allow an upgrade.

If you try to just upgrade form the RC or a beta, you get a message that you cannot do that, but there also is a little link that will take you to some instructions. Basically, you copy the install media somewhere and edit ..\sources\civersion.ini so that it reads:

[HostBuild]

MinClient=7100.0

MinServer=7100.0

Yesterday morning I dowloaded the RTM DVD from MSDN (it took around an hour - not bad), and in the late afternoon I ran the installation. I received warnings that iTunes should be deactivated (shocker there, that this peria would have a problem) and that there were two driver issues. For the drivers, I disabled the one device (one of the multiple disc controllers on this fancy-schmancy Gigabyte motherboard, and one I am not using) and I just plowed ahead on the other (the Edirol FA-101, about which I was confident things would be OK since I read it in such a fine blog).

Once again, Windows installer had maybe one more click, and then said I should just sit back and watch. It took a bit longer to run than the original amazing install of 20 minutes, and I could only watch the first 15 or 20 minutes because I was doing the whole thing via remote desktop! After the first reboot, it was another 20 minutes or so before I was able to RDP back in, activate Windows, and resume my BitTorrent seeding and whatnot.

Kudos to the many smart people at Microsoft who put together such a solid installation system for an incredibly complex piece of software. My cat thinks it is the most advanced desktop operating system in the world, but what does she know. In a couple weeks they should be releasing R2 for Windows Server 2008 for us MSDN subscribers. This is what I use for my desktop OS at work, and I think IT will be the most advanced desktop operating system in the world.

Bing vs. Google

A lot of people who saw me using Bing (ever since it came out) would chuckle and make remarks to the effect of having thought higher of me - that I wasn't a true Microsoft bigot. But I am, I give them a chance and the benefit of the doubt every time. They truly are a much more benevolent bunch than ANY of the large influences in the corporate world. But I try to be an open minded bigot. Hey, I got an iPhone (and learned how to make it work MY way), OK. That's my proof.

BING vs. GOOGLE

So Bing vs. Google. Google is an extremely useful tool. For casual users, it gives them what they need very efficiently. For power users, likewise, even better. It's indispensable. Bing comes at things from a completely different perspective. It seems to have a strong commercial slant. I am searching for something so I must want to buy it, or buy a book about it. This is great if I do, but more often I don't.

Bing also seems to have a strong bias to sites closely related to Microsoft and away from sites related to Google. If I search for topics on this blog in Google, they come up very high. Much less so in Bing. On SharePoint things they may not come up at all. That's not right. It could be said that Google has the bias toward their sites (which this is). Probably BOTH are true, but Google seem much better balanced.

Google is still much more useful for my day to day needs, and will be put back into the browsers where it was temporarily replaced by Bing. This will mean that I will Bing very seldom - probably about as often as I used Live - not very (but still more than I ever used Yahoo for anything - how could that mess be useful to anyone).

Bob Dylan Show Comes to Eastlake

On Saturday, July 11, 2009 Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson brought their tour to the Captains minor league ballpark, Classic Park, in Eastlake, Ohio as a part of their tour of minor league baseball stadiums. For your $75 (including fees), they bring along a barely adequate (not good) sound system. The stage was decent. There are lights, but not what I would call a light show, and there is no TV. They are counting on the music to entertain you.

But the vibe was still nice, as were the performances. They had a redeeming gimmick - children 14 and under were free.

The whole show people were talking to me. They were saying, "C'mon Bob" and stuff. Wrong Bob? This stadium is about 2 miles from my house (in a straight line) so I felt very at home. It was nice to have Bob over so he could jam on his organ (unfortunately, he only played guitar for two songs).

Set list:

Cat's In The Well

Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)

Rollin' And Tumblin'

Blind Willie McTell

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum

If You Ever Go To Houston

Things Have Changed

Workingman's Blues #2

Highway 61 Revisited

Ain't Talkin'

Thunder On The Mountain

Like A Rolling Stone

Jolene

All Along The Watchtower

Windows 7 Amazing Installation

I lost one of the two 400 GB Western Digital drives in my RAID 0 array on my home "studio" PC on Sunday. The performance of two mediocre drives raided together has always been impressive, so I was determined to go back to it. This desktop machine was running 64 bit Vista, and was not particularly stable. I was hoping to put either Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 on it, and I was going to wait until fall.

Monday I bought two Seagate ST31000333AS 1TB drives from Antares Computing which arrived yesterday. I recommend both Antares and these drives (both are fast!). I only recommend RAID 0 if you can deal with losing the array (as I could). Reliability will be low - performance high.

So I take out the two old drives and stick in the two new ones. It takes longer than it should - thirty minutes - a little bit of cable manipulation and contortion (I never remove the full tower case from the rat's nest where it lives). Next I stick in the Windows 7 RC disk and boot. I think I had two clicks before it took off, and 20 minutes later it was done.

This bears repeating. Twenty minutes later, Windows was installed into previously unallocated space on freshly installed hard drives. I am sure I will have a lot of playing around to do (but I enjoy that - hit me). Twenty minutes. No formatting. Nothing.

Eric Brown - Kethani

English author Eric Brown's 2008 sci-fi novel Kéthani shows an earthly world that is at once scary and intriguing. An alien race has left its' imprint on our society by giving it a boost to the future. The characters' lives are described by their central point of reference - the pub. We readers get to meet them at "the Fleece" for a few pints every Tuesday (and many other days that end in "ay").

Unfortunately, as a reader, I cannot be "implanted" and so the association must end. But I thoroughly enjoyed the company of so many of Brown's lifelike characters. So much so that next I will read his Helix (unrelated story).

Highly recommended: Eric Brown's Kéthani.

Nancy Kress - Steal Across the Sky

A recent good and fast read of mine, Nancy Kress' Steal Across the Sky is a great romp through a near future world where we have made alien contact. These aliens had been here before, and they messed things up for us. But they came to make things right and thus they called themselves "the atoners." They send witnesses to see what they messed up and ... well I don't want to spoil it.

I do want to say that Nancy Kress is a great find for me. My taste lately has been to seek out new books and try new-to-me authors (hey, Robert Silverberg and some of my other old favorites aren't churning them out the way they used to). She reads very smoothly - crawls right into your head. There were some global warming related story points that are based on bad science, but like other bad sci-fi inventions, you can just look past that.

Nancy Kress is a celebrated author and with this, her latest, it is easy to see why.

... and sorry about the recent "test" post, everybody. We were trying the Word 2007 integration on our (new, not yet completed) standard desktop, only to find that it can publish to Blogger rather nicely if you know what you are doing (or almost do).

Jeff Beck Cleveland Set List

In response to a request for a Cleveland (April 15, 2009) Jeff Beck at the House of Blues set list:

1 Beck's Bolero 
2 The Pump 
3 You Never Know 
4 Cause We've Ended as Lovers 
5 Behind the Veil 
6 Blast from the East 
7 Stratus 
8 Angel 
9 Drums 
10 Led Boots 
11 Nadia 
12 Space Boogie 
13 Goodbye Porkpie Hat 
14 Blue Wind 
15 Bass 
16 Day in the Life 
17 Big Block 
Encore Break 
18 Where Were you 
19 Scottish One 
20 Theme from Peter Gunn 

Tal Wilkenfeld-Bass 
Vinnie Colaiuta-Drums 
Jason Rebello-Keys 
Jeff Beck-Guitar 

You can probably find an active torrent of this show. I have heard two very similar sounding recordings (OK, but A- grade). 

The show was a nice display of Jeff's guitar prowess and thoroughly enjoyable. A sonic treat. I was very disappointed that the "Jeff" album was not represented (I hoped it would be featured). Jeff's last three albums have been explorations in this direction, with Jeff being the pinnacle of the bunch. 

Here's the set list for the show I am seeing tonight:

;<)

Cleveland Orchestra - Sir Colin Davis, guest conductor

Hector Berlioz - Overture to Beatrice and Benedict

W.A. Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K503

1. Allegro maestoso

2. Andante

3. Allegretto

Mitsuko Uchida, piano

INTERMISSION

Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 2 in D major, Opus 43

1. Allegretto

2. Andante, ma rubato

3. Vivacissimo

4. Finale: Allegro moderato

Travis Review

This is the text from my gushing review I posted yesterday on TravisOnline.com:

What a lovely, lovely show. All day yesterday I had the Monday blahs. I was wondering how I could get myself up for seeing Travis. I listened to a lot of Travis during the day, and that helped, but it wasn't until Travis started playing that my day turned around. And it really turned around.

As the show progressed, you got the feeling that everyone was having the same beautiful experience. We were all feeling the power of the music. I had seen Travis once before in Detroit, several years ago, and it was the same experience, but on a slightly larger scale. The House of Blues crowd was less than capacity (it was a rainy, crappy Monday night) but that added to the intimacy of the show.

Having checked all the set lists posted on this site, I noticed that "As You Are" was missing. I was sad about that. You could feel that this was a really good show the band was playing - one with lots of positive feelings. When they played "As You Are," it went over the top for me. 

It was a very special Monday. Thank you Travis.

Aloha

Greetings from Hawaii. What a crazy long way from home this is, but how simple it is to get here (put it into your favorite mapping program, it will tell you to just go straight across the Pacific - not a problem, but a jet helps). It's just another state. So everything works, U.S. money, bank cards, cell phones. The Outrigger Waikiki Beach hotel where we are staying is extremely hospitable. This should be a fun visit.