My View of Life on the Dock
As we reported last night (in this post), Allen Estes joined Jon Butcher and Charlie Farren on Jon’s song Coleman Mine that he wrote for the HBO series Deadwood. Jon and Charlie performed with James Montgomery and David Hull to a sold out house at Shalin Liu. If you missed it, here’s the song from Allen’s show Local Music Seen.
You can catch the full show tomorrow (Sunday) at 6pm on Cape Ann TV Channel 12.
Great music tonight and tomorrow starting at 11am. See the full live music schedule here.
A couple of weeks ago we warned you (in this post) about waiting until the last minute to get tickets to Chelsea Berry’s triumphant return to Shalin Liu with her new band, performing songs from her new CD.
Well, Chelsea decided to give all you procrastinators a second chance by offering a second show on Friday, February 8 at 8pm (the Saturday, Feb 9 show is sold out) and remember, you heard it here on GMG first! The Dejas will open this show with their 4 piece band just like the Saturday show.
Now, don’t screw this up and think you can just sit there and procrastinate some more. This show was just announced so there are still good seats left (clicks on this link to get some). But they won’t last long.
Just in case you missed Chelsea opening for Chris Isaak at North Shore Music Theatre with her band last June, here’s a taste of what you can expect next month in a much more intimate setting:
Don’t let today’s snow (which is now melting) dampen your entertainment for the evening. There are excellent live music choices tonight. See the complete lineup here.
Ever notice how kids are always thinking and talking about the future? That’s because their heads are pointed that way (toward the future, that is). Makes sense, since most of their life is ahead of them. Having their heads all pointed toward the future shapes their view of life — and the way they put 2 and 2 together.
Here’s just one example:
It’s 1985 and my oldest is 3. Being exceedingly proud of herself for having just learned our phone number, she wants show off by calling Mom from a play-date. Great idea. She asks to use the neighbor’s phone and calls home, excited to dial the number herself and thrilled when Mom answers. A few days later, we’re at home and she has a question for Mom. “Well she’s out doing errands now, so we’ll have to wait until she gets home,” I explain. “Why don’t I just call her?” she replies as she picks up the phone and dials our number, which gives her a busy signal. “What’s wrong with the phone? Why doesn’t Mom answer?”
At three years old, she’s predicting the future we’ve grown accustomed to today, where kids can call their moms any time they want regardless of where Mom is. Whether or not this is a good thing is highly debatable, but that’s for another post.
While kids are unwittingly predicting the future, many of their grandparents’ heads seem to be pointed toward the past. “When I was your age …”
It happens to all of us as we age. Once we get to the point where the bulk of our life feels like it’s in the past, we’re tempted to look back more often than we look forward — and that shapes our view of life.
Here are three examples of Gloucester people with heads pointed toward the future. The Wilkins Noise takes over hosting Open Jamm at the Rhumb Line tonight and J.B. Amero takes Dan King’s seat tomorrow, joining Dave Brown, Dave Mattacks & Wolf Ginandes at Jalapenos. Live music in Gloucester continues (see schedule here) even though we will all miss our friend Dan King, who flies out to make his mark on L.A. tomorrow, head squarely pointed toward his future. Bon Voyage, Dan. Come back soon!
Here’s a video of one of Dan’s songs we’ve all come to know and love
Now just because we have a peek at the past, doesn’t mean we have to keep our heads pointed in that direction . . .
Our boy Joey needs a break.
Between non PC humor and MFers dying, it should be clear that we’re heaping way too much stress on him during his vacation.
Really, folks, we all need to find someone else to complain about — and we need someone else’s sarcasm to soar right over our heads while we’re complaining.
Inge Berge to the rescue. According to The Noise magazine, Inge’s music is “Odd, adventurous and compelling.”
Plus you get the added value that Inge’s sarcastic wit is wrapped in catchy pop tunes you’ll be singing all weekend. Just don’t sing the lyrics to your mother-in-law.
You’ve got two chances to see Inge this weekend (tomorrow @ Dog Bar and Sunday @ Rhumb Line) See this weekend’s complete live music schedule here.
The best way to get your fill of sarcasm+bitching-about-sarcasm is to request some of Inge’s most witty and sarcastic songs and then complain about how you’re offended by them. Here are a few choice examples:
More Inge Berge videos here, including an inside look at the making of Shit Under Your Shoes.
Weather forecasters call it a heatwave around here when it’s over 90 °F (32.2 °C) for three days in a row.
For the past 3 days, we’ve had good music starting early enough to take the kids out, so I’m declaring it a kid-friendly-music wave.
Tonight you can take the kids to see the Honky Tonk Women of Gloucester at Seaport Grille as early as 6pm. And there’s plenty more later (see schedule here) if you want to keep them up late, or you’ve got a sitter, or you don’t have kids. One of our favorites, Pete Lindberg, is at the Dog Bar at 9. Here’s a video of Pete at Celebrate Gloucester 2010:
And here’s an early 60’s heatwave classic to remind us where the inspiration for much of the music we love today comes from:
I missed Joan Osborne with Paula Cole @ Shalin Liu back in October. Did she sing this? She does an excellent version. Check this out:
A mighty fine week of live music is shaping up beginning with Allen Estes in Dan King’s seat with Brown, Mattacks & Ginandes at Jalapenos 7pm, followed by Steve Caraway’s open mic at Dog Bar at 9 and Henley Douglas at Rhumb Line at the same time. You can get to all three excellent shows if you play your cards right.
Tomorrow, live music begins at 7 as well. It’s nice to have live music that isn’t too late for kids. And it’s good to get kids out to appreciate live music at a young age.
As the week progresses it becomes harder to get to every show, so you’re gonna have to choose. See the live music lineup here and start thinking about the weekend.
In the meantime check out this video of Steve Caraway — oohh, don’t you love the sound of that twelve-string!
I was introduced to this Law of Life by Tom Conley when he was CFO of Yankee Fleet back when Carol & Jerry Hill owned it. Vickie and I have worked with hundreds of people and I think it’s safe to say that Tom Conley was among the most fun. Look at the photo and imagine him saying, Accounting is the art of telling the story you want to tell with the figures you have at hand with that little impish grin. No laugh. Not even a chuckle. Here’s the best part: he doesn’t remember saying it. Really, Tom?
Come to think of it, this photo from his website is the first time I’ve seen TC (as we called him) in a suit. When he worked at Yankee Fleet, he performed every imaginable task from stocking boats with bait (imagine doing that in a suit) to marketing, advertising and (of course) accounting.
As far as I can remember, TC formulated this LOL in response to my assertion that Yankee Fleet should pay us a lot more money for the work were doing based on how much we contributed to their bottom line (we cut their ad budget by 2/3 and more than doubled their on-line sales in only a year). My point was, Just look at the accounting. Even if you add up all the money you’ve paid us to build and promote your websites, you’re still way ahead. Of course, his quip completely disarmed me and we quickly agreed on a discounted price for our next project, making TC perhaps the best negotiator I’ve ever encountered. We’re smarter now.
On his never-ending cost-cutting quest, TC once asked, “What if I just send you the code? Then what would it cost?” He said it over the phone, so I couldn’t see that grin. At the time we were building a high-end, database driven engine for him to mange 4 websites, build newsletters, sell gift certificates, track comment cards, etc. Even though he was kidding, TC liked to dabble in HTML and I’ll bet he actually thought he could save us time by sending us some code, which he never did — thank goodness for that!
As for the wisdom of his LOL, well it’s self evident, isn’t it? This time of year, all you accounting folks, struggling with year-end, are trying to tell one story to the tax man and an altogether different story to your investors. Isn’t that fun?
It couldn’t possibly be as much fun as working with TC. Now that he’s got his own consulting business, we don’t get to fight over pricing and dream up ever more clever ways to market, promote and analyze the whale watching/deep sea fishing business. Those were the good ol’ days.
Speaking of good ol’ days, check out this video of George Harrison and Eric Clapton performing Taxman live! (In this video, TC’s the guy who dims stage lights–before Harrison has a chance to say Thank You–just to save a couple of bucks on electricity;)
As of yesterday, there were only 50 tickets left to Chelsea Berry’s triumphant return to Shalin Liu with her new band, performing songs from her new CD. And the concert is on Feb 9 (five weeks from Saturday).
Do you really want to be one of those people who clicks on this link in two weeks and screams at the computer, Oh Sh*t, it’s sold out?
Just in case you missed her opening for Chris Isaak at North Shore Music Theatre last June, here’s a taste of what you can expect next month in a much more intimate setting:
Now just because it’s cold, doesn’t mean the weekend doesn’t start on Thursday. Good live music choices tonight. See the complete lineup here.
Of course, this LOL is only true for those of us who use the temperature scale developed by the inventor of the mercury thermometer, Mr. Fahrenheit.
This Law of Life, was inspired by Kevin Ricci of The Village Restaurant in Essex, whose answer to my question about why he always vacations in warm climates was, “I just don’t like when it’s colder than my age.”
It didn’t take me long to realize that Kevin was on to something. You can easily test this law by asking yourself at what temperature do you feel like you’re freezing. As predicted, that temperature (for me) is right about my age, which is considerably warmer than either the air or water will be tomorrow, hence the reason I will NOT be taking the plunge. (There’s part 1 of your answer to this post, Joey.)
Last year Vickie took the plunge, but she’s a year older now. More importantly, she’s a lot wiser, so she will not be taking the plunge either (part 2 of the answer). Now the Zip Line Kid, is certainly young enough not to feel freezing in 45 degree water, but his commentary in yesterday’s video was so good that he’ll be filming instead of plunging (part 3 of the answer). So we’ll bring donations to the Open Door, a camera, a commentator and plenty of enthusiasm for those young enough and/or crazy enough to plunge tomorrow.
But before we even think about tomorrow, we just have to point out just how much music is available tonight MORE THAN 70 SHOWS TO CHOOSE FROM! See the full NYE schedule here.
Here’s a wintry video from 25 years ago to get you into the NYE and plunge spirit:
These girls ROCK, but their version omits the 2nd half of the bridge from Simon & Garfunkel’s original. Does anybody know what those lyrics are? Here’s some help:
Those of you who like Christmas music are in luck tonight. Fly Amero is signing Christmas songs with his brother J.B. and Allen Estes at the Rhumbline tonight starting at 8pm.
Then catch the Local Music Seen with Allen Estes 2011 Christmas Special at 11pm on Cape Ann TV Channel 12 (originally aired last year) featuring Dan King, Daisy Nell & Capt. Stan, Ann Marie, Bradley Royds, Inge Berge, Chelsea Berry, Dave Sag, Courtney Reid and Allen’s son Dylan Estes. Here’s a video of many of the performers singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town. (see more air times here)
Of course, there’s lots of other excellent music in town (not necessarily Christmas — see full schedule here), including Dennis Monagle with Marina Evans, Joe Cardoza and Dave Brown at Minglewood Tavern starting at 9pm.
Ever wonder why Pope Julius II Commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel?
Well, the Catholic Church had been losing influence — and parishioners — partly due to tensions created by events leading up to the Protestant Reformation, which was sparked a few years after Julius II died. So, thought Julius, what better way to bring people back to the fold than to make his churches the most beautiful buildings you’re ever likely to see.
And then, of course, there’s the music, which matured over the next 200 years to produce such great works that we still play them today. Think our popular music will be played 300 years from now? Here’s a piece you proabably know, written about 300 years ago:
Imagine life in the early 1700s (when Bach was a church organist — 200 years after Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel). The only sounds you heard were those of nature–birds chirping, rustling leaves, whistling wind, the roar of the sea, the gentle wash of a babbling brook or running stream. Think of this as the background music of the day upon which you hear the human voice: the sigh of a maiden in love; the jealous rage of a prince betrayed; the joyful song of family gathered around a crackling fire; a newborn’s cradle gently rocking on wide pine boards to his mother’s soft candlelight serenade.
People of the day spent their lives listening to the sounds of nature augmented only by music they made themselves, the notable exception being on Sunday. Church music was an utterly exotic and extraordinary sound — and most likely the loudest sound anyone ever heard.
So, you fill the most impressive building in the city with the best art and music available anywhere on Earth and you’ve got a draw. That’s what got people to church. And it still does. Just ask Greg Bover who buys most of the organs he builds at CB Fisk.
Regardless of their religious affiliations, more people go to church during big celebrations than at any other time — and a big reason is that’s when the music and pageantry (entertainment wrapped in ceremony) are at their best. Check out this video of an Easter 2012 church service to see what I’m talking about:
This will be a great night, local favorite “Satch” Kerans opening for Ronnie Earl & The Boardcasters. Ronnie’s music truly transcends genres and touches the soul. Some tickets are still available.
If Satch & Ronnie don’t do it for you check out the other great live shows happening around cape ann here. Get out and enjoy the holiday with some great music, good friends and always good food.
You’re overwhelmed. So are we. That’s why we’ve got an itinerary that you can follow to make sure you get everything you really want to do into tonight. It’s good practice for tomorrow (Men’s night in case you haven’t been paying attention).
For those of you who like to start early, it’s dinner at Jalapenos GCA fundraiser at 5pm. While you’re there, enter to win some great prizes pictured to the right. You don’t have to be present when the prizes are drawn in order to win. Just be sure your name is on the raffle ticket.
At 6:30 catch the PART 1 premiere of Dan King on his Local Music Seen with Allen Estes farewell tribute with special guest J.B. Amero that we previewed in this post. You can run home to catch the show, or, better yet, ask the bar manager where ever you are to turn the TV to Channel 12.
Then at 7, head over to Alchemy to see Chelsea Berry and drop off a toy for the Pathways Toy Drive.
Finish up the night at with Fly Amero and his 80s rock star guest Jon Butcher at the Rhumb Line. Whew!
Then be sure to get plenty of rest so you can start all over tomorrow at Men’s Night.
Gloucester legend Fly Amero has been hosting Wednesday’s at the Rhumb Line for some time now — and his guests range from more Gloucester legends to people you can’t see every day. But tomorrow, he’s outdone himself by bringing Grammy-nominated 80s rock star, Jon Butcher as his guest. Remember this MTV video from 1984?
Here’s what Fly has to say about tomorrow:
It is a thrill for me to present my good friend, Jon Butcher to
the local art community and to the music lovers of Cape Ann
at large. This is a man who built a legacy for himself that
extends from its early roots in Boston to the far reaches of the
planet. At last, after years away on the West Coast, he returns
to his adoring fans here in New England – all of whom clearly
remember his music and his legend. This is Jon Butcher Axis.
And this is a one-in-a-million show you won’t want to miss!
~ Fly
From http://www.jonbutcher.com/
Grammy-nominated Jon Butcher is one of a select handful of
influential recording artists comprising the legendary Boston
music scene. MTV vids and hit songs, “Life Takes A Life”,
“Wishes”, “Holy War”, “Goodbye Saving Grace”, “Miracles”,
“Send Me Somebody” comprise the underpinnings of a
recording/ touring career that continues today. Two critically
acclaimed CD’s, “Positively The Blues” and “Electric Factory”
mark Jon’s enduring love affair with all things Americana –
blues, jazz, Dixieland, folk, swing, Cajun and more.
Given that we’re now in our 4th week, those of you who follow GMG probably know about our Monday series Peter & Vickie’s Laws of Life (LOL, for short). Click here, if you missed any of the first 3. In our LOL #2, we introduced the concept of inverse proportions. Today’s concept of direct proportions is much simpler and today’s law could be stated thus, The vigor with which you fight against change is directly proportional to your need for change.
It won’t take you long to think of plenty of examples of this LOL, the most obvious being addiction, but I thought I’d start with a personal one. Back in 1998, when Vickie and I founded Van Ness Group, we built complex, data-driven websites and Web applications for public companies and big financial institutions. We were experts in a niche and that was that. People told us to diversify. We resisted. Local businesses asked us to build websites for them. We refused. Clients wanted us to help with marketing. Forget about it! We had spent 10 years becoming experts in employee stock benefit plans and 15 years in database technology. We were determined to stick with it — and we did! That is, until the niche vanished suddenly in 2001 right before our very eyes like a cheap magic trick. YIKES.
Mayor Kirk alluded to this LOL in her Mayor’s Desk column with this gem, “Expansion of the commercial tax base is the antidote to rising taxes for homeowners which most people claim to want relief on but at the same time is fought every step of the way.”
Back to addiction. You’ve probably seen or heard of addicts resisting, with all their vigor, the one thing that is their only hope — to quit. But this applies to lots of things, not just drugs. Before the Civil War, the South was addicted to slavery — they believed their economy depended on it. But in the long run, the best thing for their economy was the abolition of slavery.
Now the one addiction I’ll just accept is music. I’ll never try and quit. Especially while I live in the middle of the hottest independent music scene north of NYC. Just look at all the music this week — and it’s off season!
Here’s one of my favorite videos from MTV’s heyday about another addiction:
33 live music shows to choose from tonight through Sunday (see weekend live music lineup here). Oops, make that 32 (unless you already have tickets to Overboard’s sold out show at Old Sloop tomorrow night). Here’s a taste of what you’re missing if you don’t:
But wait! They’re coming back to Rockport as part of New Year’s Rockport Eve’s huge lineup of excellent entertainment. See the NYRE live music lineup here.
Tonight’s music lineup is killer and includes KBMG @ Dog Bar featuring Dave Brown on guitar. Just in case you forgot who Gloucester’s greatest guitarist is, here they are at Celebrate Gloucester 2010 (with Nelson Bragg on percussion):
All you guitar players out there, answer me this: What’s missing from this video of Savoy Brown @ the Bull Run last Saturday night (12/1)?
Answer: Pedals. Kim Simmonds and his excellent band rocked the place for over 2 hours and he never once stepped on a pedal. In these days of more and more gadgets (all of which have to be carted around to each gig, unpacked, hooked up, tested … well you get the idea) I found it refreshing to hear a tremendous variety of sound coming from a virtuoso who lets himself go and just plays like he’s loving every single note.
BTW: His rhythm section, Pat DeSalvo on bass and Garnet Grimm on drums were every bit as good as he was, so perfectly musically tuned to each other you’d think it was a single guy playing both instruments at the same time.
Yes, folk. Once in a while it’s worth crossing the bridge for excellent music — and it broadens your horizons too. Plus, as soon as you return to Gloucester, you realize what an unusually rich music scene we’ve got, right here in our own back yard.
Do you really think there was anything else happening anywhere near Shirley MA last Saturday? Nope. Bull Run was it.
Want proof? Google “Live music in Shirley MA” and see what you get.
Then google “Live music in Gloucester MA”.
As Joey would say, #Boom!
If you don’t feel like googling, just go here and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
There are simply too many excellent live music choices tonight. That’s the bad news. The good news is that shows start at 5pm, 7pm, 8pm and 9pm. That means, if you work it out just right you can get to 4 or 5 excellent shows. They’re all free and all within walking distance.
And then there’s TV — cable, that is. Local Music Seen with Allen Estes is airing a special show that premiered in the summer featuring 3 generations of the Estes Family all on stage at the same time. It’s kind of like a peek into the family living room. Catch it at 6:30pm tonight on Cape Ann TV Channel 12 — or if you’re out, you can tape it and watch it when you get back. Here’s a sneak peek:
Last Monday we began our new series, Peter & Vickie’s Laws of Life (LOL for short), with a law about losing and gaining weight (see here). That LOL was a corollary of a well known law of chemistry & physics and hinted at the mathematical concept of inverse proportions.
Today’s law (inspired by Greg Bover’s Quote of the Week) is an example of inverse proportions and could be stated thus: Your likelihood of being right is in inverse proportion to how sure you are about it.
Susceptibility to this law begins in childhood and blossoms in teenagers. For example, when they say things like “Mom it’s gone; I’m positive it’s not there. It’s nowhere in this house. I’ll bet you a million bucks. Somebody must have stolen it,” at which point Mom takes a quick look and finds it in 45 seconds.
Once people reach adulthood, they tend to be sure of more profound things like when the world is gonna end (the next date is next month on 12/21/12).
People who are the most sure they’re right often spew hyperbole (hype for short) to make their points — which proves this LOL, since the graph of two variables that are inversely proportional is a hyperbola.
Of course, I’m absolutely positively sure about the veracity of this law. In fact I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life — except, perhaps, that Gloucester & Cape Ann have the best music scene in the entire universe as evidenced by this week’s live music lineup — see here.
I doubt the world will end on 12/21/12, but I guess, given this LOL, that I’d better not be absolutely sure. Here’s a video of Sugarland, Matt Nathanson & Little Big Town covering the classic R.E.M. song on the last day people were sure the world would end:
For our first 2012/13 Berklee in Gloucester show, we didn’t have real tickets — you know the paper kind you buy at box offices and stores. And people asked why?
Some of you just prefer to buy a real ticket. You don’t want to go on-line or call and have your credit card charged. And you don’t want to have your name on a list at the show. Nope. You want to walk in, show your ticket and take your seat. Plain and simple.
Most importantly, you want to save your ticket as a memento. I’ve got my share of concert and show tickets stashed somewhere. I figure that when I get old, I’ll sit in my chair by the fire with my glasses on thumbing through these old tickets, reminiscing about this concert and that play — remembering whom I went with; what my life was like back then; how the music sounded. Ahhh … the good-ol-days — today’s music is crap — that sort of thing.
OK, we got it. So we printed up some snazzy tickets for this next show: Indie Rock Night featuring Boston’s The Shills with local favorites Renee & Joe at Latitude 43 on November 29 and you can get these tickets in Gloucester at The Liquor Locker @ 287 Main St. and Gloucester Music @ 210 Main Street.
These are nice, big, full color tickets with a photo of The Shills and that wicked-cool drawing of Renee & Joe. You’ll be proud to add this one to your collection. So hurry out and get yours soon before they’re all gone. Or if you just want to order on-line click here. Which ever way you buy them, a portion of proceeds benefits the Berklee2Gloucester Scholarship fund — and remember: this is an ALL AGES show and it will ROCK! Here’s a taste of what you can expect.
Good Morning Gloucester 