Category Archives: Dimestore Philosphy
I Don’t Work Cats In Restaurants
As I was leaving the gym this morning, walking to my car right around dawn, I overheard a snatch of conversation. A guy about forty, looked like a firefighter perhaps, was talking with a young woman who was probably his daughter. I didn’t catch what she said that preceded his remarks, but I heard him …
Why Musicians Deserve Decent Royalties
The recent kerfuffle between recording artist Taylor Swift and Spotify has gotten a lot of folks questioning why recording artists need royalties in the first place. I mean, why can’t they just earn money when they’re working, like everyone else? What makes them so special that they deserve to draw payment while they are off …
Performing Without a Net
The Internet is killing live music. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger! And don’t think I’m bitter or angry. I’ve worked plenty and I’m well-compensated, and I’ve been doing it thirty years. No complaints here. But between the dwindling ‘pay’ presented in clubs, the all-but-complete disappearance of royalty income due to online file-sharing, and the general …
Snowpiercer and your Smart Phone
I finally got around to seeing Snowpiercer, a near-future dystopian tale of claustrophobic chaos. I had high hopes, because I really enjoyed the director’s previous feature called The Host. The director is South Korean Bong Joon-Ho, and Snowpiercer is his first English-language film. The Host was essentially a creature feature, but with some nice twists. I …
Thank You, Robert Fripp
Musical paths are meandering. The point is never the arrival, always the journey. And every musician can point to at least one event, and frequently several events, that spurred that journey onward. My first big push came from Robert Fripp. Or more accurately, his band King Crimson–whose first album I bought just because the cover looked interesting. …
2014–A Bad Year for Jazz
And it’s not even September yet. I don’t know why, but this is shaping up to be the year that popular culture decided to take a dump on jazz. Everyone from the normally sympathetic New Yorker to the Washington Post decided it was a slow news month, so time to let ‘er rip. But even …
The Death of the Austin Federation of Musicians
Not this year, perhaps. But whether there is still a Local in Austin TX in 2020–seven short years from now–is completely dependent on new members joining. And particularly new members in their 20’s and 30’s, if the local is to have a future and not merely a reprieve. It’s ironic that the self-proclaimed ‘Live Music …
Duke Ellington didn’t write great melodies. So what?
A recent post from the great Ken Peplowski’s Facebook page: “I just finished the Duke Ellington biography by T.T. – all those pages written and read, only to reach the conclusions that (a) Duke Ellington remains an enigma, and (b) he really had no flair for writing melodies…sigh…if he would have ditched the cod musicology …
The Diaspora Dilemna
The problem with raising kids in a cool and groovy place like Austin: when it comes time for them to go forth into the world, they soon figure out the coolest place in Texas is the one they are leaving. That means their parents were cool long before they were. And that realization leads to …
School is boring, and that’s a Good Thing
Like the entire population of Planet Earth, I waste too much time on Facebook. And if you are like me, you have noticed the prevalence of memes: pithy little quotations on all manner of subjects. Trouble is, anybody can generate a meme, and now there are websites devoted to helping folks churn them …
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