Shawn

Supernatural - season 6. I had stopped watching this show a few years ago, but since it seems like it's going to remain on the air forever (season 11 starts in the fall) I figured I might as well see what's been happening.

Jim said basically everything I would have said, but far more eloquently. I love Lou and I love Coltrane, what one said about the other really doesn't have any impact on my personally.

Yes, they are. Radio pays far more than streaming (albeit in the US, only to those with songwriting credit). Back in the day when you (and many, many millions of others) were listening to the radio, so many records were being sold partly as a result of that radio exposure (and MTV, for those of a certain age) that there was a viable revenue stream relative to the real cost of creating music - which relates to whole careers of musicians and other professionals and very substantial marketing, not just recording costs. Lots of people made their living from that revenue stream, and it supported many middle class jobs of one kind or another as well as labels big and small and musicians big and small... not that it was perfect by any means. Now, consumer purchase of music is the exception rather than the rule, and a laughably small fraction of the revenue for listening without purchasing a copy makes it back to the people that made and invested up front in the music compared to before. Albums (the only format really relevant to jazz) have been hit particularly hard, currently making up about 1/3 the sales compared to the high in the 90s. That's across all formats including legit digital downloads. If this was all due to decreased consumption, I would have no fairness/ethics -based complaint. But consumption is as high as ever, it's just become a pirate economy where most of the income generated from the work of a few people goes to others who are positioned to sell data access and ads on the sidelines of the huge flow of pirated information. One major flaw here. "Pirated information". It's not pirated, it is licensed by the record labels to the streaming services. The record labels take 70% of the revenue from streaming. Want artists to receive more? Convince the labels to share some of that 3/4 of the pie they are walking off with.

...and I'm sure 0.0004 percent of those kids give a shit about Neil Young and what he does with his catalog.

Hulu has a nice collection of 70s TV shows and I've been enjoying the nostalgia this week. Been watching season 1 of WKRP which was one of my favorites when I was a kid, still holds up nicely and is still quite funny. The infamous "turkey drop" episode had me in stitches, I still remembered it vividly and I haven't seen it since I was 8 years old.

Thanks for sharing the video, I'm getting ready to watch it.

I saw the animated series before I ever saw the original series, in fact I'm pretty sure I saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture prior to watching it. It was actually the film that inspired me to seek out reruns of the original series and I had become a major fan by the time Star Trek II came out a couple years later. Haven't seen the animated series since the 70s.

6th St. Bridge over the Los Angeles riverbed. Decided to snap a few pictures because the bridge will be closed to traffic later this month and then it will be demolished and replaced by a new bridge.

Echo Park Lake, Los Angeles

Finished up season 6 of The Good Wife on Amazon Prime, I had stopped watching it at midseason on broadcast because it was annoying me. After finishing the entire season I still feel basically the same way. There are still some moments here and there but overall the show has forgotten what it initially was; a stellar hybrid of the serialized dramatic series and a case-of-the-week courtroom drama. That was what it was good at, that is what it needs to return to.

Each album kind of has its own flavor. The album prior to Shrine was Anno Domini High Definition and it had a little more of a Porcupine Tree vibe, a little more modern sounding than Shrine which is primarily vintage instrumentation. My favorite of their earlier records is Rapid Eye Movement, it's a little heavier overall but has a great balance of sounds. You can hear the influences on these guys, but I believe they achieved their own unique identity.

In the 90s I saw the Hank Crawford/Jimmy McGriff band on a couple occasions and Hank would also go from being completely on and engaged...to a second later he'd be totally confused and couldn't even tell what song they were playing. It was like watching a light switch get flicked on and off. The first time I saw them he started the set in this fugue state (he had to walk over to McGriff 3 times during the first number to double-check what song they were playing...all 3 times McGriff yelled "SUMMERTIME" really loudly) and then suddenly a few songs into the rather shaky set he returned and played beautifully for the rest of the night. The second time I saw them he started the set on fire, but then about halfway through he was gone again. Luckily Frank Wess came up to sit in with the group for the last half of the set and saved the performance.

Yes, I've been pimping them for a couple years now. Great band with an above average vocalist. They have a new album coming out later this year called Love, Fear and the Time Machine.

You have to admire Bruford's artistic choice to leave the very lucrative Yes at the height of their popularity...and join the experimental King Crimson in time to unleash Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Starless & Bible Black and Red. That's quite an impressive trajectory he was on during that era.

Piccadilly Apartments, Wilshire Center, Los Angeles. Built in the 1890s.

Review of Steven Wilson's performance from the 27th. http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/jazz-fest-review-steven-wilson-goes-for-art-and-his-audience-follows "The first proper song in Saturday’s nearly 2 ½-hour set contained more ideas than some acts can manage in a full show."

Don't forget that there are two very good albums that came out prior to The Yes Album. The 1969 debut is definitely worth investigating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq9ySD4xOk4

Broadway Arcade Building (1924), Downtown Los Angeles.

For the budget conscious I cannot recommend the Audio Technica ATH-M30X highly enough. A lot of bang for your buck.

Hannibal. Definitely the best series on broadcast TV, nothing else even comes remotely close to be honest.

June gloom is in full swing in Los Angeles (the time of year where the marine layer from the ocean comes over land each morning so it's cloudy until the sun burns it off). After the very mild weather of the past month we are returning to more normal temps for the summer months, will be in the mid-80s all week, cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon.

Is he British? The Brits use "brilliant" a lot. He's from Boston.