Dave Matthews Fans Recycle, Receive Free Album
Maybe you’ve been approached by them while enjoying a beverage in the parking lot before a show. They peruse the lots in off-white T-shirts and whisk away every empty can in sight, depriving concertgoers of numerous nickel deposits. For this these mysterious environmentalists receive the occasional “thank you,” but that’s enough to keep the Dave…
Saving The Planet, One Download At A Time
“The Energy and Climate Change Impacts of Different Music Delivery Methods,” a study funded by Microsoft and Intel, has determined that downloading an album represents a 40%-80% savings in carbon emissions over purchasing the same music as a packaged CD. The savings are obvious: It takes a lot less energy to transmit bits than to…
Phish Fan Marries, With A Twist
While the weddings section of The New York Times often resembles a scary eugenics experiment involving inbreeding among the ruling class, it occasionally delivers a sweet and pleasant surprise. This week’s featured Vows, for example, opens thusly: “Before asking Anne Miller out on an official first date, Michael Davoli knew he had to make two…
Southeastern Conference Cries ‘Foul’ On Social Networking
The Southeastern college-athletics conference (SEC) released its new media guidelines yesterday (read them here). And they’re rather astonishing in their ignorance of exactly how reporters, or practically anyone else, interact with, well, just about everything. Here’s the SEC’s new policy on blogging, for example: No Bearer may produce or disseminate in any form a “real-time”…
Jim Dickinson 1941-2009
Legendary musician-producer James Luther “Jim” Dickinson died Saturday morning while recuperating from heart surgery. Among numerous other accomplishments, Dickinson was the father of Luther and Cody Dickinson, two-thirds of HeadCount partners the North Mississippi Allstars. Dickinson’s band the Dixie Flyers supported Aretha Franklin and numerous other Atlantic Records artists four decades ago, and that’s his…
Keeping The Public Option Open – Or Not
The “public option” linchpin of President Obama’s healthcare-reform plan appears to be slipping away by the hour. Obama – who while running for office said, “I happen to be a supporter of single player universal health care” – seems on the verge of abandoning a Medicare-like alternative to private insurance companies. During his Saturday town-hall-like…
Afghan Singer Urges Youth to Vote
For the past week or so, National Public Radio has been covering the upcoming election in Afghanistan. The station sent Morning Edition co-host Renee Montagne to the country to do in depth coverage of the election, from interviewing candidates to discusssing the security situation with top U.S. Military officicals. Yesterday morning, the station aired a great story about an Afghani singer. Farhad Darya…
Exxon Gets Flipped the Bird
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has plead guilty to accusations of killing over 85 protected birds including waterfowl, hawks, and owls in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act according to the Department of Justice. Under the plea agreement reached yesterday with DOJ, the company will pay $600,000, as well as make changes to prevent related deaths…
Musicians Speak Out About Festival Raid
Michael “Clip” Paine of Parliament Funkadelic and friends give their perspectives of the drug task force raid that took place at the Universal Church of Love and Music’s Funk Fest in Acme, PA. What do you think about the raid? Let us know by leaving some comments!
What Would You Say? – Boyd Tinsley meets Obama
With about six weeks left on its extensive 2009 summer tour in support of Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, (it officially began May 27 and wraps up at Austin City Limits music festival on October 3) the Dave Matthews Band’s violinist Boyd Tinsley found time to meet President Obama at a rally in Virginia last week. Fan-friendly owner…