Cafe Bucky

The generation before me had John Lennon. I remember exactly where I was on the night of December 8th, 1980.

A month ago I walked by Joey Ramone place, near CBGB’s, and flashed back on a Ramones show I’d seen at The Warfield in San Francisco in the very early 80′s.

I never got to see Nirvana. Kurt was a candle that burned so brightly amongst the forest of 20 watt bland commercial pop bulbs.

They were all pivotal, John & The Beatles leading the British Invasion, the Ramones kicking off Punk (read the excellent book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk), and Nirvana shaking up complacency.

It’s been 23 years since John passed on, 10 years for Kurt, and nearly 3 for Joey.

And I miss them all.

I’ve been Jonesing for a music keyboard for my Mac.

The m-audio Keystation 49e is wildly popular these days. So much so that I can’t find one anywhere. And I really want at least 49 keys.

Time to go one or two levels up, I suppose.

The deal is, in California I always have access to my guitars and our Alesis digital piano. Here in New York I have … a harmonica. It’s just not the same man! Ever play music almost every day, and then suddenly stop for at least a month? Yeah, you know then.

So in my quest to get a music fix, I want to figure out a good keyboard to use with GarageBand.

Any suggestions?

A Followup!

Later that day…

Went to Manny’s Music on 48th Street, and got an Edirol PCR-50. Sweet.

Just a quickie to say that NYC resident David Bowie has put out a great CD entitled “Reality”. Catch his London Concert on DirecTV this month if you can.

It’s all too easy to rant about some LCD no-talent making the news. I’d rather crank up a new Bowie, rock along, and get on with it.

Thanks David Bowie, for getting older without going into boredom rehash-land!

Recently? Besides words and films?

Dave Brubeck. Dizzy Gillespie (“Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac”
drives my daughter crazy). Lots of Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method,
and Fat Boy Slim. Oh, and always some Beatles here and there (and
everywhere).

I just used the Apple Music Store to get Massive Attack’s “100th
Window” and href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000006045/qid=1056955376/sr=8-
2/ref=sr_8_2/104-5950210-3209560?v=glance&s=music&n=507846">“Mezzanine”.
Both get me in the programming groove. Volume up. Coffee strong.
Floating vocals over samples, ambient, sometimes hard-driving beat.
So much of what I’ve heard from MA would be right at home in a Bond
soundtrack. “Man Next Door” is yet another song using the classic John
Bonham drum riff from Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks” (I hear
this beat all over the place – it’s almost become a game of “find
Bonham’s influence, again”). I can’t hear “Exchange” without thinking
of the movie “Dogtown & Z-Boys”, which always brings a tinge of
Santa Monica mid-70s flashback (very good).

There’s the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival this weekend, and I hope to catch a good part of the show on Sunday (when I get into town). Looks like I will be too late to see Taj Mahal. Taj used to give my dad harmonica lessons in the 60s. Blues Harp, dontcha know?! Hohner. Dad had at least a dozen of ‘em. One night when I was a wee lad, my dad and I were at a Hootnanny (a form of music making party), where Taj complemented my sense of drum rhythm (years of school band with lots of rudiments followed; beats with names such as “double paradiddle”). Great to see that Taj is still out there performing!

I have a media wish list, which is only here
as a “stuff that interests me” link. (so don’t go buying me anything,
unless it’ll make you incredibly happy – I’m just showing a less
tech-centric side here, a different onion layer :-)