shawn avery

STIFFED BY CITY STAGES Here are the top 20 unsecured creditors of the Birmingham Heritage & Cultural Foundation, as listed in the bankruptcy filing of the organizer of City Stages. It is quite sad that Birmingham will be regarded by some in the industry as the City that Duped the Doobies . 1. Doobro Entertainment Corp. (Doobie Brothers) Glen Ellen, Calif. $51,000 2. AGGREKO Jacksonville, Fla. $47,550 3. Event Operations Group Helena $41,000 4. Neville Productions Inc. (Neville Brothers) New Orleans $40,500 5. Alabama Stage Productions Birmingham $38,932 6. Spectrum Production Services Minneapolis $28,000 7. Premier Tent & Event Oneonta $26,827 8. Cayenne Creative Group Birmingham $23,215 9. Sandra Johnston Birmingham $22,800 10. Indigo Girls Decatur, Ga. $22,500 10. Corey Smith Atlanta $22,500 12. Vicki Schenck-Atha Homewood $20,393 13. All Events LLC Birmingham $18,947 14. Fence 4 Rent Oneonta $18,799 15. Guster Touring Cambridge, Mass. $18,000 ...

xtc's dear god may possibly be the most well written, controversial and effective pop song ever released on the subject of - god being addressed directly by humans, who happen not to believe in god . god shuffled his feet , the title track from the 2nd album by canada's crash test dummies comes in at a close 2nd place. the satire continues into the video treatments for these songs. in dear god , xtc's primary singer-songwriter addresses the camera as if he is speaking to god, while ordinary townfolk gather in a tree in a nod to either the garden, primate/evolution theory - or both. the video for god shuffled his feet is quite overt, being set in a small theatre where god turns out to be a wooden puppet controlled by a frail old man. in an odd happenstance of mutual intellectual affinity, crash test dummies covered another satirical song by xtc called the ballad of peter pumpkinhead , ironically, for the dumb and dumber motion picture soundtrack. ...peter pumpkinhead...

i joined a band late last year, that i have yet to play with. now, eight months later, we are having our first full rehearsal. the band is to be comprised of john strohm, pete nice, clair cormany, bo butler and myself. apparently we have a show next tuesday, and one in mid september. neato.

Posted by Trent_Reznor : I posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media "got it right" regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here's a link to their store: [ illcommunication.beastieboys.com ] Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual "yeah, if you're an established artist - what if you're just trying to get heard?" argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I'll reiterate what I said here. If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established : * Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) - your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing mus...

the summer of '69 was a big one. the first moon landing, woodstock, the last beatles sessions, the manson family's tate/la bianca murders... bryan adams getting his first real six string at the five-and-dime... fourty years later, it is the summer of michael jackson memorial collector issues, congressional overdrive, economic recession, and another trip to the international space station. an interesting note: michael jackson is at the top of the charts this month, and fourty years ago today, the jackson 5 re-recorded the song you've changed for ther debut album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 , issued in December 1969. interesting song title. today, the shuttle crew are doing a spacewalk, and are repairing a toilet that has gone on the fritz. below are some images from this week, and from the apollo 11 mission from 1969:

Today on Politico.com's Arena discussion, the following political comments were made regarding healthcare, and the Congressional Budget Office's announcement that the financing for the bill in its current state, is a sham: The Chairman of the CBO, who made the statement, was appointed by the Democratic leadership. That means one of their own are telling them the Healthcare Reform Bill is being built on expensive, muddy ground. Here are a few political luminaries who chimed in against the passage of the nationalization of medicine: Cesar Conda , Republican strategist, former Romney and Cheney advisor: During yesterday's Arena debate over the House Democrats health reform bill, Maggie Mahar suggested that I had not "taken the time to read the bill carefully." I did read the bill and here are the facts about the bill's proposed tax increases: Today, the top marginal tax rate is currently 35 percent. In 2011, the Democrats would allow th...

i posted some pics and info a few weeks ago about dismals canyon. eight of us camped there on 4th of july weekend, from friday afternoon until sunday morning. we had hoped to leave sunday afternoon, but it rained early in the morning, so we packed up and went home. we had a great time. we actually ate some incredible meals, and had some great conversation. we had to hang our food to keep it away from raccoons. and we had to climb up the side of a hill to get in and out of our camp. very hot, but very fun. the creek at the bottom of the canyon was beautiful, and breezy. nice temp under those trees and huge rocks. here's some pics:

michael jackson was one part, the first part, of a trio of 80's musical influences that would stay with me into adulthood. like everyone else, i listened and watched the coverage all week. i can remember where i was when i heard the news on the radio. i'm not interested in writing a laundry list of his accomplishments - the media is spackling the earth with coverage right now. much has been written and said about his eccentricities, financial troubles, private life, and legal battles, so instead, i'm going to write down some random thoughts and memories of my "mj" experience : first and foremost, i am lucky to have been born when i was, in terms of being exposed to michael jackson. i turned 10 years old in the late summer of 1984, when my trio of influences were all at the height of their powers. michael jackson, van halen & the police. i had plenty of bands and artists at this point that i could easily identify as being favorites. in 1983 / 84, i listened to...