wickerpallet.com

Dust On The Blog

Erik — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:27:05 +0000

Sorry folks, haven’t updated the blog for over a month, so sad. Why? I’ll give you a typical response, we’ve been extremely busy. The good thing is that we’ve been busy building websites for others and taking lots of photographs, enjoying our summer with friends and family, tending to the garden and trying to keep the kids happy while they’re out of school. At the end of the day, the last thing I want to think about is, well, updating the blog. Sad indeed. Fear not, soon the weather will turn crappy, days will become shorter, and I’ll be more inspired to post random bits of amusement/music/happenings/etc. For now, I’m off to the lake. For those of you that don’t live in Washington, we take it when we can get it out here….and enjoy it while we can.

Anita O’Day – Tea for Two

Erik — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:56:08 +0000

Here’s a little follow up post from Jazz On A Summer’s Day with some choice footage from Sweden (thanks Dennis). I’m realizing that her posture during the performances is what really gets me, check out the way she moves, stands, directs the band, etc. Gotta love the slightly unresponsive crowd. Yes? Yes.

The Mellotron Demo

Erik — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:16:05 +0000

Found this video a few years ago and keep going back to watch it, so I thought I would share it with you guys. For those of you that don’t know, the Mellotron could be considered one of the world’s first samplers, aside from the Chamberlin. In a nutshell, each key triggers a strip of tape with prerecorded material, when you press the key, the strip of tape plays. When you let go, it stops playing and cues back to it’s starting position. It’s a rather chaotic instrument and quite a hassle to maintain one…but the sound is so, so sweet. We’ve all heard them, from the opening notes on Strawberry Fields to the Moody Blues, from King Crimson to Pink Floyd. Only if I had an extra $6,000+ to buy one. There are tons of modern emulators out there, but you can’t quite beat the real deal. Enjoy the demo.

Anita O’Day – 1958 Newport Jazz Festival

Erik — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:15:40 +0000

A good friend of mine just turned me on to this awesome footage of Anita O’Day at the 1958 Newport Jazz festival, filmed by the amazing photographer Bert Stern. She was the epitome of a woman: beautiful, classy and cool. I love the way Bert Stern was able to capture the audience “in the moment” so to speak, this is cinematography at it’s best. You can tell that some of them just don’t get it, others are like “Aaaaawww Yeaaaah”. Awesome footage indeed. The clip features two songs:

Sweet Georgia Brown: I have never heard a version quite like this, her rhythm and movements just floor me.

Tea For Two: Sweet bop stuff. Again…pay attention to the timing. I love the way some folks in the audience are moving their heads around, just diggin’ it, while others have nothing but a blank stare. You have to love the mix of the Beat Generation with average middle class folks…with a pastor? Good stuff, hope you enjoy it.

Psycho Dog Man

Erik — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:38:04 +0000

This had me laughing so hard I actually cried. This Australian guy was reenacting a dog attack for a Current Affair reporter. Quality material.

Long Live Encyclopedia Britannica

Erik — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:18:57 +0000

I was browsing around youtube the other day and came across this….if you were born before 1980, you KNOW these commercials. It instantly took me back to my youth, sitting in a beanbag and watching TV while snacking on Otter Pops. I couldn’t stand it and had to find out more info on the geek kid (Donavan Freberg). According to his Wikipedia Article, he actually did the voice for Charlie Brown and Linus for a few years (among others). Anyway, sit back, relax and enjoy a one minute trip down memory lane.

A Tribute to The Police

Erik — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:55:43 +0000

I grew up listening to The Police, we all did. Well, anyone born before 1980 did as The Police were pretty much everywhere. However, it took the influence of my good friend Bissy to get me to really “listen to” and appreciate the musicians. With that said, Stewart Copeland has to be one of the most original drummers in existence (gotta pay respect to the traditional grip as well), his accents are so subtle, yet so solid. Andy Summers, sweet, sweet chords, yet so dissonant during the rare solo…and Sting has a bass/vocal sound like no other. I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to The Police for some time, but I just came across some live footage and it was beyond refreshing, rejuvenating even. They were original, period. Being able to mix pop music with quality musicianship is a feat on it’s own, I can name only a few other bands that have done the same. It really makes one wonder what has happened to “pop” music these days.

Spirits in the Material World

Roxanne – 1979 (check the end, how often do you get to see Exit Stage Left?)

Message In A Bottle – First Live Performance of the song

Sweet Live Footage – Quality is lame, footage is fantastic

Driven To Tears

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

Erik — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:30:31 +0000

I’ve been a big fan of Jamie Oliver for years, there’s just something about the guy. Coincidentally, I’ve been a huge fan of cooking ever since childhood. When this show premiered last week, I knew it would be great. After just watching the second episode, I realized that it’s beyond great. His dream is to change the way our kids eat, starting with our schools (talk about an uphill battle). Anyway, this very well could be one of the single most important television shows to air this decade. The message is clear and the guy is genuine, we need to eat better food. Sure, it may take a little more time to prepare than a microwave dinner or snagging a fast food meal, but it certainly will be more enjoyable. It’s worth the time and effort.

Anyway, you can learn more about the show on ABC’s site:
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

Also, you can check out Jamie’s site here:
www.jamieoliver.com

P.S. Sweet logo too, eh? Props to the design team!

Happy Birthday .com!!!

Erik — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:09:49 +0000

Wow, today is the 25th birthday of the first .com ever registered! Can you believe it? 25 years ago people actually had to go to the library for information, read a physical newspaper, write letters, rent movies at the video store, the list goes on. Life was rough. Happy Bithday .com, you have served us well. You can read more here.

Leo Kottke – Vaseline Machine Gun

Erik — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:32:06 +0000

Just found some sweet old footage of Leo Kottke. The audio quality is a bit rough but the video is fantastic, you have to love the 4 screens. The guy has so much power and force in his hands, it’s almost surreal. For those of you that do know of him, enough said. For those that don’t, Leo Kottke developed a picking style that’s…well beyond anything really. Lightning speed, dead solid rhythm and perhaps one of the funniest musicians you would ever see live. His stage banter is up there with some of the best, the guy almost talks as much as he plays.

I have to thank my friend Will for turning me on to Kottke during the late ’90’s, I’ve been a huge fan ever since. When I bought his first album (6 and 12 String Guitar), it didn’t leave the cd player for a month.