Beloved musician, activist and folk historian Utah Phillips died of congestive heart failure at his home in Nevada City, California on Friday at the age of 73.
I've been a Utah Phillips fan since as long as I've been listening to music. I was deeply saddened to learn of his passing. We have lost a truly great American.
Amy Goodman pays tribute to Utah Phillips at DemocracyNow. Labor Beat released this video tribute to Phillips.
Generally speaking, I go to concerts where you pay cash at the door and get change from a twenty--but someone special has a birthday coming up, and Stevie Wonder is coming to town.
Do you know how much Ticketmaster charges to place an order online? Well, there's a "convenience charge" of $12.45 per ticket, plus a $5.15 order processing fee, plus $2.50 for the privilege of printing my receipt. That's a total of $32.55, or 27% of the cost of the tickets. A 27% markup for a service that failed the first time I logged in, sending me back to the end of the line.
How convenient.
These days, any schmo with a website can take secure orders online for next to nothing.
Amazon.com doesn't charge me a separate "convenience fee" to pick out a physical product from an inventory of millions of items. And they throw in the receipt for free, like everyone else in the capitalist system.
More pictures of Darcy's debut at the Brooklyn Museum.
Today at the Brooklyn Museum:
Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Brooklyn Museum, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium
Traversing The Mushroom Kingdom
Program to include:
RANDALL WOOLF: Try to Believe
DARCY JAMES ARGUE: [Body Double] (World Premiere)
Here's what the New Yorker magazine had to say about Darcy James Argue's upcoming debut at the Brooklyn Museum, emphasis added:
BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC
Members of the group (joined by the toy pianist Phyllis Chen and the percussionist Svet Stoyanov) come to the Manhattan night club Drom to offer music by Randall Woolf (with video), Frederic Rzewski, and Julia Wolfe, along with a new work by the young jazz master Darcy James Argue. (85 Avenue A, between 5th and 6th Sts. April 27 at 8. For tickets, see www.dromnyc.com.)
For more information about tomorrow's performance, visit Darcy's blog, Secret Society.
Darcy's new piece, Body Double, is a composition for strings and tepan. The performance is part of the Brooklyn Museum's Music Off the Walls series.
Darcy was commissioned to write a piece inspired by the work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami in honor of the Murakami retrospective underway at the Brooklyn Museum. The visual inspiration for the composition is Murakami's 1998 painting, Milk.
Photograph: Darcy conducting the Secret Society big band during the group's stint at the Jazz Gallery earlier this month.
Manhattan, NY.
Secret Society bassist Matt Clohesy setting up at the Jazz Gallery on April 18th.
Now based in New York, Matt is originally from Melbourne, Australia.
To learn more about his other projects check out the Matt Clohesy website (sound).
Alabama's Attorney General recently recorded a "duet" with Johnny Cash:
MONTGOMERY -- Alabama's top law enforcement official would likely disapprove of shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die, but Attorney General Troy King seized the opportunity to perform with the country star who sang those dark lyrics.
The late Johnny Cash told that tale of woe in "Folsom Prison Blues," one of his signature songs. Far less well known was his version of "My Elusive Dreams," a tune he recorded in 1984 but never released -- until King was provided a copy by one of Cash's former producers. [AL.com]
At least former U.S. AG John Ashcroft actually wrote "Let the Eagle Soar."
Daily Dixie recaps some of AG Troy's Greatest Original Hits.
Veteran scriptwriter John Rogers explains what's at stake in the WGA strike--very accessible, very thorough, and very entertaining.
Darcy James Argue wonders why his union, the American Federation of Musicians, hasn't advocated as effectively for its members as the WGA has.
A Mississippi town is trying to obtain a posthumous pardon for Johnny Cash. In May 1965, the legendary country singer spent the night in the Starkville drunk tank after getting caught picking flowers in someone's yard. [BBC]
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