I’ve always been a pretty big fan of The Decemberists, but I’ve become especially enamored with their latest effort entitled The Hazards of Love.  Shara of My Brightest Diamond fame is one the guest singers on the album, and while I’ve been aware of her for a little while, I really never listened to her music that much before.

Shara’s voice on The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid is one of my favorite parts of the album so I decided to do a little research on Shara which obviously led me to My Brightest Diamond’s website.  Once on the site I was pleasently suprised to see that Shara was coming to Detroit very soon to play a free show at The Yes Farm!

Shara with the gang

Needless to say I was pretty excited, but I had no idea where The Yes Farm was located.  After a few minutes on Google I found their website.  Oooh boy!  Looks like we’re about to take a trip back to a ’60s style hippie community!

Once there I found that my suspicions were correct.  The Yes Farm is basically an abandoned house that has enough of it’s holes patched up to protect you from the elements.  The show was actually a fundraiser so they could install permament electricity.  To power the house for this night they had run two extension cords across the lot to the house next door!  It was actually kind of scary since it was raining pretty hard and I did see water on the floor around the extension cord.  All was fine though, and no one ended up dead.

We were a little unsure as to what to expect, but everyone there was really nice, and once the show started everyone was glued to Shara on stage.  Shara put on amazing show and then stayed out to drink beers and hang out with the crowd afterwards.  She even signed her setlist for us

Brandi with her new art

After the show we went to Bert’s in Eastern Market to get something to eat.  At this point we were all pretty happy having just experienced something awesome and unique in an area of Detroit that doesn’t have much going for it.  The night was just about to get even better though as Thornetta Davis walked into Bert’s halfway through our dinner.  I don’t think Thornetta intended to sing, but they called her up on stage after she ordered her dinner.  She only sang one song, but man oh man what a song it was.  The whole place came alive.  Everyone was up clapping and dancing.

Pictures from the night here.

]]> http://www.jaylark.com/blog/2009/04/28/detroits-brightest-diamond/feed/ 0 http://www.jaylark.com/blog/2009/02/27/massive-riaa-layoffs/ http://www.jaylark.com/blog/2009/02/27/massive-riaa-layoffs/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:50:05 +0000 Jay http://www.jaylark.com/blog/?p=64 Boo hoo! Massive RIAA Layoffs: I’m feeling lazy, and the write of the article sums it up pretty nicely so I’ll just quote.

“The real issue is that the RIAA has basically managed to run one of the dumbest, most self-defeating strategies over the last decade. Rather than helping major record labels adjust to the changing market, it continually, repeatedly and publicly destroyed its own reputation and the reputation of the labels — each time shrinking their potential market by blaming the very people they should have been working to turn into customers”

“They may claim that they “had” to take this strategy because it’s what the labels wanted (and, indeed, that was Hilary Rosen’s excuse), but that’s ridiculous. It was evident to pretty much anyone who took the time to understand the issues back in the mid- to late-90s, that the internet represented an opportunity to those who embraced it. The RIAA’s decision to fight progress and its own customers at every turn has been nothing short of a complete disaster.”

I’d like to deracify (not a word) my computer but unfortunately Blackbird: The browser for the African American community only runs on Windows.™

I used to blame horrible parents and kids for the problems in our schools, but man, really stupid teachers are popping up everywhere. I had some stupid teachers, but it is getting really bad.  Can we please pay these people more money so we can get someone with half a brain teaching our kids?

Two of my favorites from the past month:

Teacher bans Linux from school.  “No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful” Really? I make a program and give it to you for free.  I hope you aren’t hurt too badly.

“I along with many others tried Linux during college” Oooooohhh!  Linux is like a drug or a same sex partner!

and what about a little invasion of privacy!

“ ‘My economics teacher is forcing us to give up all of our work for the semester. Every page of notes and paper must be turned over to her to be destroyed to prevent future students from copying it. My binder was in my backpack, and she went into my backpack to take it.”

What?!?!? These are my notes. I wrote them.  They are mine.  And going into a student’s backpack without cause?

I was sick  earlier this month, and work this past week or so has included a lot of standing and walking. (Trip to New York = walking)  Weight check this morning confirmed this as I now weigh an even 219 pounds.  For those not keeping track, that is a total loss of 0.5 pounds this month.  Weight is just falling off!

Come see me at the auto show, I’ll be at the Chrysler display every morning!

Check it out:

I’ve heard that it is dangerous to loose too much weight too quickly though so I woofed down 10 White Castle cheeseburgers and a 64oz. Coke for lunch.

Weigh in this morning was 220.5 lbs. so disaster avoided!

Today I started the One hundred pushup challenge.  I am at rank 4.  I have no idea what this means.

Total weight lost so far: +1 lb