. My BBerry doesn’t necessarily test me, rather it challenges me and enables me to work while on the train, or waiting for paint to dry.

Thoughts?

As promised, I’m back from hiatus, and very happy to producing a show again. The first show back had some kinks to be worked out (but you will never hear them), but all in all is good.

For those of you who remember last season, I have made some changes. The show is now completely music focused, think of it as a chance to sit in my new living room and listen to records. As time goes on, I will include some guests, but am leaving out the rants and stories… unless I really need to rant or story tell.

The show is music and I’ll express my joy, saddness or outrage via someone else’s art. It’s the American Way.

Tracks and things mentioned on #54:

• Sgt. Pepper’s Paradise – Jimmie James from MashupTown.com

• NYC Heat – Dead Heart Bloom, from their new album Chelsea Diaries

• Josephine – Brandi Carlisle from her album, The Story

• A Boy Like Me – The Hit Mrs., from their album 100 Under 60
• Fever Dog – Stillwater, from the soundtrack to Almost Famous
• IronMan Trailer – Click to watch.
• Immigrant Song – Ann Wilson, from her first ever solo album, Hope & Glory
• Burning Cross – Vanessa Peters and Ice Cream on Mondays, from Thin Tread
• Space Rocks Keep Falling on my Head – Away with Fairys
• Willie Nelson – Mightnight Rider, from Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be)

If  you want to listen from here… click over on the RED RSS.  I suggest you open in a new tab or window.  Let me know if you have any issues listening.

As an Emerson gradutate, I have no real love for the University of Massachusetts.  I have an even less love for Harvard University.  Most of the Harvard folks I met in the early 90’s lived up to the stereotypes you see in the movies.  UMass was a close second.  The MIT kids were cool and could take an Emersonian’s creative ideas and turn them into a feat of engineering genius.

Seeing how the MIT’s kids on Beacon street, near the old Emerson dorms, had a fondness for being “friend’s indeed,” I am not surprised to see that UMass is holding, Unbroken Chain: The Grateful Dead In Music, Culture & Memory.

It’s is quoted as being, ” …the largest conference on the legacy of the Grateful Dead, and the first to be held by a major university.”  The keynote is Dennis McNally, who was the publicist for the Dead for most of their career.  McNally is a great guy and a wonderful speaker.  Here’s the downside; they are limiting attendance to 500.  Perhaps they are trying recapture the Dead’s early club days.