fannie & millie .: handcrafted goodness

It’s time again for the Waterfront Blues Festival. We get extra days this year to celebrate the festival’s 20th anniversary. The Blues Festival is a major fundraiser for the Oregon Food Bank. It’s also become a cherished Portland traditon. Where else can one sit in a park, created where there used to be a road, next to a river and pay only $8.00 + two cans of food for eight hours of music? Last night we saw James Cotton with Pinetop Perkins, the Blind Boys of Alabama and Joan Armatrading. Tonight we have to go because we can’t miss Eric Burden and the Animals! We’ll be skipping the festivities on Saturday for a gathering with some very dear friends who are back in town for a short visit, but we will be back on Sunday for Portland’s own March Fourth Marching Band and the Neville Brothers. I love this time of year and this event; so if you need me, that’s where I’ll be.

My son’s band, Aristeia, got a great mention in our local weekly. The show was a pick of the week + I like what the reviewer said - so that’s really cool!

• you can hear them at cdbaby

• or enter Aristeia in your iTunes search box

• or visit them at myspace

Do you Pandora?  I do. 

In their own words,

Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask:

Can you help me discover more music that I’ll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you.

I can’t quite explain how it works, but when you sign up for Pandora (it’s free or you can create an ad-free paid account) you just type in the names of artists or songs you like and Pandora matches those choices to music with the same musical DNA.  As I said, It’s hard to explain but very cool!  Every account can have up to 100 “stations” and those “stations” can even be shuffled for a “quick mix” and played as a random combo of different types of music.  You can give a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” on songs as they are playing, tell Pandora to stop playing and never play again a song you dislike, or just ask Pandora why a certain song is on. 

I listen to it all the time!  Let me know if you give it a try.

We just bought this:   on Friday and I have been very happily playing it over and over and over again. Also, much to the dismay of the family, I have been merrily singing along over and over and over again. 

Maybe I don’t officially become a old fogey until I say,”they just don’t make ‘em like they used to.”

“Power to the people, right on.”