Happy Birthday Willie!

Today is Willie Nelson's 75th Birthday and I hereby request that everyone spend a minute or two or more to reflect on the man and his work.

Austin 360 has put together a great tribute, hats off to Michael Corcoran.

KGSR has a great event tonight featuring many artists singing Willie songs, anyone in Austin should stop by. I will wish I was in Austin tonight that's for sure.

Please stop by the Sony Legacy podcast page to hear some great interviews with Willie and Family members Bobbie Nelson, Paul English, Poodie Locke, Jody Payne and Mickey Raphael.

Check out the great Willie page www.StillisStillMoving.com for some great pics from Amsterdam where Snoop Dogg and Willie performed the other night (the lens cap is on for a minute or two!):

Manhattan Omnivore: Rakim to bless Nokia Theater!

This post is my take on the Brooklyn Vegan thing of announcing shows that have gone on sale.

The other day I received the news that the great Rakim is performing at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square. The show is June 4 and Rakim will be supported by GZA and Blackilicious among others. Click here for tickets.

Rakim is the best and most influential mc in the history of hip hop. At the top of this page is a picture I took at BB King's in November '06 (an incredible night). His recent hits/live compilation The Archive probably fell on deaf ears. When it takes eight years to make four songs, it's hard to "keep them eager to listen" to use his words from a previous release. At least the fans will have something to buy at the shows.

But The R is one of the best artists ever! I can heartily recommend seeing him live too, which is a recent development. In their prime, Eric B. and Rakim often performed with Rakim rapping along with vocal versions of the records. Terribly disappointing. Now he struts around the stage spitting lyrics with appropriate backing from Kid Capri, who renders Eric B. a non-entity.

In a recent appearance on Howard Stern, Tracy Morgan concluded an amazing interview ("I'm the son of Ron O'Neal") by telling Howard, "I got soul, that's why I came, to teach those who can't say my name," a direct quote from Eric B. and Rakim's seminal 1987 hit "I Know You Got Soul."

Take a look/listen!

Earbender Earth Day Post: Green Baseball and Bands

If you read this story about the recent Cubs-Reds game where Lou Piniella reacted to Cincinnati broadcaster Marty Brenneman, perhaps you also saw the irony in it: Piniella's friend and longtime coach Lee Elia is famous for a long, blistering attack on the Wrigley faithful.

Here's the clip of Lee Elia going off, for old time's sake. It was 25 years ago next week:




Since it's Earth Day, and I am recycling old bits above, please read on to see about how Lou and Lee's old teams the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds are both going green today for Earth Day by playing carbon-neutral games. They are buying carbon-offsets Seattle and a biomass project in Spain, respectively, and reducing lighting and other forms of consumption to be carbon neutral for the day.

It's only a few parks on one day, but it's not a bad publicity stunt. It's more than the White House is doing!

Plenty of artists on the road are going green by using recycled vegetable oil and BioDiesel to help curtail consumption. Reuters made a top ten list, with Willie Nelson only #2 to Jack Johnson! No worries about that, it's not a competition, and I'm very into Jack's support and involvement with of Stonyfield Farms, Patagonia and One Percent.

New York Comic Con 08 Wrap Up

As Frank Thomas donned the powder blue Toronto Blue Jays throwback jersey last Saturday for the last time, I attended the NY Comic Con with my good friend Hugh Surratt.

My last comic conventions were the inaugural Marvel Comics Convention and Superman's 40th birthday party in 1975 and 77, held in the Commodore hotel. Many of the same folks and companies were there, but the biggest differences are:

Comic-based movies are now big business

Toys and other merchandise based on comics is massive

Video and computer games are way beyond "Pong."

And I'm about 30 years older!





Websites and a culture of commentary and podcasts has arisen, many with hilarious names like Nerdcast.

Topps Trading Cards, recently bought and "re-purposed" by Michael Eisner, had a big table promoting the Topps Vault, a collectibles auction site that's fun to play look at. They were giving away very rare Comic Con only items, which I will feature in a contest here as well.

I had an awesome encounter w/a Gomorrean Guard, reprising Gary Garver's wonderful interviews on Howard 100. There were many fans dressed up for the event, including Hellboy and a gaggle of Princess Leia in the hostage costume.

My friend Whitney Matheson of USA Today had a typically tight wrap-up in her blog.

James Bond "News", New Steve Winwood

The BBC has been covering the production of the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace in great detail. Almost daily, we are being treated to news about Daniel Craig, the car, the co-stars, etc. I DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE PLOT, so I am resisting the temptation to read them. But if you are interested, here are a few links.

Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson are working on a song for Quantum of Solace.

BBC recently reported that a stunt man crashed a car during filming and was hurt badly.

A museum exhibit on Bond creator Ian Fleming's hundredth birthday revealed some letters to "the real Miss Moneypenny." I recommend the Ian Fleming Centre for swag and info.

I would recommend very highly a visit to Goldeneye, the hotel created in and around Fleming's house in Oracabessa, Jamaica. The view of Bond Beach will remind you of Dr. No, and many places in Jamaica would be familiar to a fan from the movies.

Speaking of Jamaica, Goldeneye and James Bond reminds me of the picture above, which I saw there. Winwood has been on a five-year mission to take back his career from my estimation, having re-debuted around the time of the 2003 Louisville Non-Commvention. He was working his own record and I was on my way out of Island Records. At the time I thought to myself, if he isn't on Island, why should I be?

So I told him about the picture and he was weirded out. But it seemed like a more interesting picture from Goldeneye than Fleming's desk. I have added the others to my "visual flow," powered by Flickr.

Anyhow, I listened Winwood's new album "Nine Lives" the other day and it seems like an improvement on the last one. I wouldn't want him to go all "Roll with It," but I would like him to have a hit. There are some good songs on this album, Winwood's voice sounds excellent and he can still play great guitar and keyboard. His guitar playing has a ton of character and I have seen him fill an arena with it.

Nine Lives is a decent album without too much of the 80s corn. And finally, on the Leftsetz tip, I recently "lent" a young lady some Traffic albums w/o much traction gained. I like how he says he is "first in music analysis" on his site. But that's another story for another day!