Earth Day Resolution: Watch the film Nobelity

My friend and neighbor, Turk Pipkin, has made a wonderful film that won awards at SXSW and is showing here and there around the country. In the film, he interviews nine Nobel prize winners around the world, and asks them hard questions about what the future holds, and what we might do about fixing the very screwed up things that are going on. It's a moving film, created as a personal statement about Pipkin's fears for his children. It's also a call to action. Watch the trailer, and visit the web site he's set up for the Nobelity Project the film has spawned. You can rent the film cheap to show to your friends and community.

• Bob Schneider - The World Exploded Into Love
  

Little Steven's Radio Show

I was scouring the internet for info on my latest find (The High Dials), and I ran across a mention that Little Steven (van Zandt, of Springsteen and Sopranos fame) loves The High Dials as well, and that he has featured them on his weekly radio show, Little Steven's Underground Garage. I've been a fan of LS from wayback - I loved his work with Southside Johnny (not to re-mention Bruce). And, he's an outspoken critic of the right-wing death machine that has seized control of our fine land.

Check out the radio show - you can listen to it online, and it's really, really good - full of music from all over the spectrum, put together with humor and a flourish.

In Memorium: Henry Lewy

Henry Lewy, with Andy Markley

Henry Lewy died April 8. Never heard of him? He was a music producer who was instrumental in the careers of many, many musicians. Best known as "Joni Mitchell's producer", he also helped create albums by Leonard Cohen, the Mamas and the Papas, Crosby Stills and Nash, David Crosby, Joan Baez, Neil Young, Joan Armatrading, Van Morrison, the Chipmunks, Jackie Deshannon, Leon Russell, Jimmy Spheeris, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jude Johnstone, and tons of other musicians I'm not familiar with.

I have a friend who knew him well, and he visited him occasionally as he began his long decline. He said he was a remarkable fellow, who remembered well the folks he had worked with over the years. If you want to know more, there's a story about him on Joni Mitchell's site, here.

• Joni Mitchell - Edith and the Kingpin (from The Hissing of Summer Lawns, with Henry Lewy as engineer)
  

Intelligent Dance Music

I don't know if Intelligent Dance Music is a moniker that makes any real sense, but it's a category that someone penned to describe bands like Sound Tribe Sector 9. This is not the kind of music I typically listen to, but a guy working with my wife handed her a CD and said "you just gotta hear these guys." They're currently living in Santa Cruz, CA, and have a considerable following from the jam-band aficionados of the world, a club I once considered myself a card-carrying member of. I have since turned in my membership to spend more time with music that has words as well as music (STS9 is all instrumental), but I definitely have a soft spot in my heart and head for music that directs the mental flow to very interesting places. Check 'em out and see what you think.

• Sound Tribe Sector 9 - Turtle
  

The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall

I know, every political blog and news site has the news today, but I just have to mark this occasion with a post. It is so encouraging to discover, if even for one slimy politician, that there is some kind of justice remaining in the U.S., and that the mighty corporate machine is not able to accomplish every thing it has on its agenda. A mighty sleazeball has fallen. Let us all rejoice.

• Bruce Cockburn - If I Had a Rocket Launcher (live)