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Do you read many (other) blogs? I don’t. I still prefer to read off paper to be honest. I read the two free weeklies here in Portland, it’s a habit I picked up as a kid. My family had the paper delivered every day, and I ‘read’ it usually just skipping to the comics, but often checking a headline or a story I thought interesting, and so it goes with the weeklies, I mostly just read the fluff, comics, gossip, a couple of columns.

Some people do the same with blogs - they’re the new columns I guess, and there sure are tons to choose from. I only get two in the email - though there are a couple of sites I always end up on from Facebook, but that’s another story.

So there’s Bob Lefsetz, who G. Love recommended to me. I guess he was, or still is, a music attorney or something but he’s super opinionated and has some good insights, but yea, I’ve only read a couple of his missives all the way through. A lot of the time he rambles on and laments that rock isn’t as cool as it was in the late sixties or whatever, duh. That’s actually what I enjoy, as well as when he pisses me off and over-emphasizes the commerce versus the art in music.

His last letter was about the death of the album. That’s ridiculous. The album side is a primary form in (post)modern music. There’s a reason that the vinyl 33 rpm 12” disk prevailed in the format wars of the late ’40s. The with 20 to 25 minutes to a side is the length of a movement, an effective proxy for human focus, for a pleasant amount of attention span. When the side is over, you get up and flip the record, consider what your heard, get some coffee or whatever. Maybe that’s it, you can listen to the other side later, or you’re in for the whole trip.

See, I didn’t have a lot of records when I was a kid - my moms copy of Sargent Peppers, and a few more Beatles and Led Zeppelin II. I played them over and over, going on a journey each time laying on my back on the floor with the Radio Shack headphones on. Ending each time as the needle picks up at the end of the side.

Anyhow, that’s why I like Lefsetz he riles me up enough to think a bit more deeply about stuff. And he inspires me to ramble more, and not worry so much about the form of my essays, but to just rant a bit - because it’s a blog, whatever.

But we can’t forget why were here, which is the first blog I followed, Seth Godin. My little brother - who is a marketing genius (who knew?) hipped me to him. He’s like the opposite of Bob, super concise. I literally read every one of his posts. They are rarely over five paragraphs but loaded with wisdom. At once inspiring and daunting in the call to action; you mean really do it?

Anyhow, that’s why I have this blog, that’s what I’m doing. I ‘shipped’ (as Seth refers to it) my jazz CD earlier this year, and well, eventually it’s all coming out. All of the fears and trepidation Seth discusses are there, and I’m making tons of mistakes according to Bob, the main one being not relentlessly selling it. That’s not me. But I can’t let the errors or fear stop me. Another guru convinced me that you all need these sounds. So here they are.

The CD or download can be had on an adjacent page, and you can get some other cuts at my Bandcamp. There’s more coming, but your support now means a lot. To be honest, the warm reception to my return to the Special Sauce is a real inspiration here, and I hope you all enjoy these deeper cuts.

Portland OR, rain is coming.

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