Jewel dresses up as a regular person and sings her own songs! It’s a little long, but pretty funny, especially if you’re a fan…

Click for a larger version.

Here’s a free download to the soundtrack of Disney’s and Pixar’s Up be sure to use the code latimesdisney when it asks for it.

The soundtrack was nominated for “Best Original Score” but I’m not sure which award (Oscar, Grammy, Academy?). It was done by Michael Giacchino who did Ratatouille, Lost, The Incredibles, Star Trek, Alias, Fringe and more.

This offer is only supposed to be good until the end of Thursday.

Please let me know in the comments if this works for you (or more importantly, when it stops working)…

Amazon is offering one free Christmas song download each day for twenty-five days.

Of course for offering the free music to you, they’d like you to check out their other Christmas album sales, considering buying an Amazon Gift card or some of the best music of 2009.

These are all affiliate links, so if you do buy anything from Amazon, please consider following these links before any kind of purchase at Amazon.com and I’ll get credit. Thank you!

One of the best parts of How I Met Your Mother is when they mention a web site in the show, such as
“It was the best night ever dot com“, they’ve actually gone and got the site ItWasTheBestNightEver.com

And the site actually has some photos and a video of Marshall singing the song with Nuno Bettencourt.

It’s just one of those silly things that I enjoy when TV shows go the extra mile.

(Although, I thought the episode was a little slow otherwise)

Speaking of A Fine Frenzy, here’s an 18 minute video/concert with four songs. Also, it’s available in 480p!

A Fine Frenzy performs songs from their new album in the renowned John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York.

The few times I’ve seen her has been in a really small venue, so it really evokes memories of the few times of when I’ve seen her in concert. I think the one place I saw her might have been only a little bigger than the stage.

The video has a few (very) small bits of her talking too…

Here’s the Hulu direct link to A Fine Frenzy – Live from the Artists Den.

UPDATE: Speaking of video. There is a video podcast calledBomb in a Birdcage – Track by Track that’s got a little behind the scenes video for all 11 tracks (30-90 seconds each) and it’s free.

The new A Fine Frenzy album Bomb In A Birdcage has been released today. I’ve mentioned A Fine Frenzy many times and seen Alison in concert several times.

Here’s the great thing the MP3 album from Amazon is only $3.99, that might only be a today only offer (but sometimes these deals last for days). That’s 12 tracks if you get it from Amazon (I think one is a bonus track but it’s a different bonus track than the $9.99 iTunes version). I actually don’t know how long this offer will last, but I picked it up a copy. FYI, the Amazon songs are 256 kbps and will play on your iPod/iPhone and the Amazon downloader will put them right into your iTunes for you!

UPDATE: You can can purchase just the iTunes bonus track of Coming Around for 99 cents. That gets you a deluxe (nonexistent) version of the album!

Personally, I like buying the actual CD verses the digital media, but I figure there’s a good chance I’ll see here in concert and get the CD autographed so I’ll pick it up from her then. Here’s a link to the actual 11-track Bomb in a Birdcage CD at Amazon.

FYI – These are affiliate links above. I get a small kickback if you follow these links and buy anything.

Tori always has interesting lighting at her concerts. Lots of changes during the show with more to do with the set and lighting (no actual physical changes). I always enjoy it.

The concert was awesome (as Tori always is), had a great seat, row G (on the right side) so it was perfect. As people cleared out I was able to move up front for the last few songs).

Below I’ve got a few low quality photos (my iPhone is great, but in the dark it’s not so great) and a video to illustrate the lighting.

The video is just a few quick clips so you can see the lighting (I think it’s four clips about seven seconds each).

I’ve never seen this before but if you follow the direct link to YouTube and click on the HQ button at the bottom it makes the movie bigger (like the HD button does). Give it a try.

But I haven’t figured out a way to directly link it to make it the bigger HQ automatically (you can append &fmt22 to force into large HD or &fmt=18 to force into normal HQ but I’m looking for the large HQ answer, anyone?).

Abnormally Attracted To Sin is only $2.99 (it’s now up to $949 [7/22]) right now at Amazon for the 17 track album. I can’t say how long this offer is going to last but I just picked up my copy!

iTunes wants $11.99 for Abnormally Attracted To Sin with one (1) bonus track (Oscar’s Theme), probably not worth $9.00 for that much more.

What iTunes does offer is an Abnormally Attracted To Sin deluxe edition with with fifteen (15) videos for $13.99 (which also includes the 18 songs!), that might be worth it for the big fan. Personally, I don’t watch the videos enough to make it worth it.

Obviously these prices will change eventually, but I’m sure the the $2.99 price probably wont last long.

Forty-four minutes of video of Tori Amos playing at KCRW this morning.

Below is just the audio of the show.

Here’s a direct link for video and audio.

She plays new and old music (lots of old!). I found it really enjoyable! There is some interviews in the middle of there too (starts about 15 minutes in and last for 12-14 minutes).

PS – You can get CitiBank $5 lawn tickets for Tori Amos in Indianapolis, IN on 8/7/09 and Miami Beach, FL on 7/29/09 (sort by event and look on pages 3 and 4). There might be some other fees, but it’s still got to be a deal. I’m sure this offer won’t last long, if you check and they’re gone, please leave a comment and I’ll cross it off. If you get the deal leave a comment too!

It’s a shame to become so popular after someone dies. I guess in Michael’s case so extra popular (since he was so much more famous in the past and not so much lately).

And it’s always shame for someone to die so young.

Rest in Peace Michael!

Last Saturday night I went downtown to see the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Project Bandaloop. Here’s the description (from the web site):

A late-night outdoor concert held on the lawn adjacent to The Ellington parking structure, across from Orchestra Hall. San Francisco’s extraordinary aerial dance troupe, Project Bandaloop, will add their beautiful, gravity-defying vertical choreography, performing to the dulcet sounds of the celebrated hometown orchestra.

Here’s a photo of them with the garage (the lighting wasn’t the best for photos).

So here’s several clips I shot with my pocket digital camera, my Canon 1100, it worked way better than I thought it would have.

A really short clip of showing the grace of Project Bandaloop as they “dance” on the side of a building accompanied by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Forgive the quality of the middle of this clip, I zoom in on one of the Project Bandaloop performers as she dances on the side of a building accompanied by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

It’s noisy as the baby plays with it’s rattle (not my baby, but he was adorable).

A 23 second clip of showing six of the Project Bandaloop crew “dance” on the side of a building accompanied by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. There were probably 12 people going at the same time.

This is a long clip, almost 2 minutes, but I wanted you to see a chunk of the act instead of the little snippits I posted separately. You can really hear the baby play along with the music, I’d pretty much tuned it out by then.

After a while you sort of turn everything 90-degrees in your head and can see what they’re doing as if on a dance floor (in low gravity).

Here’s a blurry zoomed in shot of a group of four Project Bandaloop members.

This was great, I wish I could have been on top of the parking garage to have shot straight down at them so it would have looked like they were on a flat surface.

At WordCamp Chicago last weekend Darryl Markette kicked off the day playing a song called BlogStar, it was based on a song called RockStar. He finally recorded it as a video, so here I am sharing it with you!

Here’s the direct link to the HD video of BlogStar.

Why doesn’t anyone have a bike rack any more? It’s a pain in the ass when I need to park it somewhere. I’m being healthy and ecological and have to climb in the bushes to find a place to lock it up. The only thing around with one is the library. Although I guess since I’m at McDonald’s, healthy isn’t the first thought in my head.

I’ve got these stupid songs from Glee (that link goes to a free HD download of the pilot), running through my head. The two songs in particular are You’re the one that I want from Grease and Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. Kind of a cute show, most of the adult characters are pretty lame though (the women especially). I just noticed they’ve got the cast doing Don’t Stop Believin’ at iTunes.

I think I need to go see Night at the Museum II and/or Terminator Salvation some time this weekend.

It’s another awesomely sunny day out too!

Here’s a free Christmas Album sponsored by Oprah. This is the same album from a few weeks ago.

Don’t miss the cover art links too!

Once again – It says it’s only available for 48 hours, but I don’t know when the clock started ticking…

• Faith Hill, “Joy to the World” from the album Joy to the World
• Tony Bennett, “I’ll be Home for Christmas” from the album A Swingin’ Christmas
• Il Divo, “O Holy Night” from the album The Christmas Collection
• Josh Groban, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” from the album Noel
• Brian McKnight, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” from the album I’ll Be Home for Christmas
• Amy Grant, “O Come All Ye Faithful” from the album The Christms Collection
• Harry Connick Jr., “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” from the album What a Night! A Christmas Album
• Aretha Franklin, “Silent Night” from the album This Christmas

Here’s a free Christmas Album sponsored by Oprah.

I’ve really been liking Ingrid Michaelson (although I don’t think I’ve mentioned her here before) but this home video is so cute I felt the need to share! If you don’t know the song it might not be as cute but I think so…

Actuallym Ingrid thinks it’s pretty cute too, she sent it out to her fans (that’s how I found it). Here’s a direct link to YouTube if the in-line video doesn’t work.

Every day RCA has a free song download. Today it’s Blame is a Killer by Amy Ray (one-half of Indigo Girls fame). Just thought you should know…

Okay, so I’m not a big fan of “I Kissed a Boy” but I’ve seen it so often at the thetop of the iTunes store charts I thought I would mention this sale: Katy Perry’s MP3 album One Of The Boys is only $2 for today only at Amazon in 256kbps MP3 format and it has the “I Kissed a Boy” song on it. So it’s a deal if you like her or this song…

I’m not even sure what else she plays but this seemed like a great deal so I thought I’d mention it. Usually their $2 or $3 deals are much older albums.

THIS DEAL IS NOW OVER AND IS BACK TO IT’S REGULAR PRICE.As of Sunday at noon (EST) it’s still listed as on-sale.

So the first show we saw in London was a musical called Marguerite, it took place in German occupied France. Marguerite was married to a German general for convenience and falls in love with a jazz piano player. It was a beautiful old theatre with at least two balconies (there might have been a higher one but I couldn’t see it from the main floor).

We had tenth row great seats (halfway between center and the edge); we picked them up from the TKTS booth at Leicester Square which has different discount (almost all are half-off) tickets every day (I usually look there first when looking for tickets). I think they just have tickets for “west end” theatre but I’m not sure where the “east end” is (or north or south for that matter).

The writer/producer of Marguerite also did

As music goes, I’ve talked about A Fine Frenzy as much as any musician, probably more and that’s a lot since I hadn’t heard of them 6 months ago. I started liking as soon as I heard of them (they were opening for a Brandi Carlile concert I had tickets for) and I wanted everyone to know know about them!

So Alison Sudol is a super sweet person and seems very sincere. She’s got these great songs and wonderful voice. Alison talks between the songs but I think she’d rather just play, because when she plays it’s like she forgets were there (this is a compliment, not a complaint). When I saw Liz Story, a pianist, play a few years back she talked between the songs because “her agent/manager made her” since if not, she’d just play for an hour non-stop; so she’d stop and tell us stories about the song and the song titles. I think of that sometimes when she’s talking, either that or she’s shy when not singing/playing.

So I keep thinking of two things she talked about. One was her mother and how much they got along and she really liked her (her Mom was there too, right up front). And the other is that she likes the word “shucks” and she’s thinks people should use it more. “Shucks” And she said something like, ‘I know I’m a nerd’ (but I can’t remember if ‘nerd’ was the actual word).

She’s uses Twitter occasionally and the few MySpace e-mails that I’ve gotten from her seem like they were really written by her, that’s got to take a lot of time.

And she’s super nice when I’ve talked to her. And gotten her autograph both times. The promo poster from when I saw her at The Shelter (above) is signed by her you can see a bigger version…

So they’re releasing Comic Book Tattoo – Tales Inspired by Tori Amos which is, according to Tori’s blog:

a 480-page, full color anthology adapting the themes and ideas behind her songs into a lush volume of sequential art

it’s a 12 inch x 12 inch book ($20-ish on-line). While this seems slightly odd, I will need one for myself!

All sorts of people are doing the fifty stories for the book with an intro by (who else) Neil Gaiman…

They also have a Comic Book Tattoo Limited Edition Hard Cover for $149 $95! I’m not sure if that’s anything extra, like a larger format, nicer paper or autographed, if anyone hears anything, please let me know.

Both editions have “coffee table format book” in their descriptions, but is 12×12 large enough for that format? Or is the hardcover edition larger? larger would be better….

Alison Sudol was excellent last night. A very small venue at The Shelter, the cancert was sold out but I’d guess there were only about 300 people there, lots of room. No one was back farther than about the equivalent of about 10 rows (no seats, general admission standing only with just a few tables). I’ve seen A Fine Frenzy before and it was a smaller venue so it was great having the small crowd and as a bonus it was a non-smoking show.

She’s has such a lovely voice and writes her own songs. She’s got this voice that’s kind of a Sarah McLachlan / Tori Amos voice and she’s just incredible. She so beautiful and has this sunning red head, and while it might not be naturally that red, she’s got that anemic porcelain look that so many red heads do, I’m assuming she’s actually a redhead. My camera in my phone takes pretty crappy pictures, but I tried to take a few.

She’s so into when she plays, and every so often she looks at the audience, I feel likes she’s forgotten us and that her manager told her she has to make eye contact every so often and that’s why she looks up. I always think of ‘gracious’ when thinking about her personality, that’s just how I feel when she’s talking to us and that’s how I feel when she talks to you personally. I did get to get to say ‘hi” and get her autograph on a promo poster after the concert. She’s just so nice, even with just a 30-second conversation…

It was a busy night as we had a fund raiser at work at six and the concert doors opened at 6 too (they’re about 25 minutes apart). So we planned to skip the opening act and just see her and depending on the time possibly go back to the auction. When I finally called the concert hall. They said she was going on in 15 minutes!!!!! So I had to find Kelly and Mark get out of there. We made good time, even with having to go a longer route, found free parking right around the corner and when we walked in the music was playing but she hadn’t uttered a word yet!! So it was a great night.

We never got back to the auction, even though it was only 9:30 when we left, it was just a little too late to head back. So I have no idea what or if I won anything. I probably had my name on about $400 worth of things, but I’m assuming I got over bid on more than a few of them (there was still 30 minutes left of bidding when we took off). I had some train tickets to Chicago, baskets of games, chocolate, theatre tickets, plus I bid on one of my donated items and a few more things. One of the items I donated was for my Cat in the Hat basket which had books/stuff and included a visit from me as the Cat in the Hat (for birthday parties, classroom visits and bachelorette parties), I drove the bidding up to $75 before I left, but if no one bought it I’ve purchased myself. While I love doing it, it’s not worth it to spend a hot summer day outside in the outfit if it’s only giving the school that much money so we’ll see how that went. I also donated a basket of coffee and chocolate covered coffee beans that I picked up the stuff the last time I was in Costa Rica; I’m wondering what that sold for, it’s was only at $17 the last time I looked…

A Fine Frenzy is playing in Detroit at the Shelter this weekend. It’s a really small venue so it should be a great show! I saw A Fine Frenzy in the fall (upstairs at St. Andrews)and it was an incredible show (they/she opened for Brandi Carlile). Ferras is opening for them, but I have no idea who that is, maybe someone American Idol-ish?

If anyone is going please leave me a comment or send an e-mail and we can say “hi” while were there…. My mission for the evening is Happy Hour for dinner in Dearborn, a fund raiser auction for school in Redford (this is while we’re missing Ferras) and then get over to the theatre to see Alison sing and sign autgraphs…

Speaking of the auction, once again as an auction prize you can buy bags of coffee, straight from costa rica with some chocolate covered coffee beans. Brought to you from central Amaerica by Moi! Also you can by a basket of Cat in the Hat stickers and books which includes a visit to your house from the Cat in the Hat himself!

So I just downloaded the AppleTV update called Take 2 (or is it Take2?). I wasn’t thrilled with the changes that I saw in the preview because I thought the interface was pretty great. But I’ll agree that some changes for the new interface was necessary.

Since you now can shop the whole iTunes store via the AppleTV something to surf around a larger library was necessary. They new sections fill up the cover art at a more than acceptable speed (my cable modem is 6000 down and 384 up) and it flowed pretty nicely. But a lot of the old interface is still around for the sub menus and it they really clash with each other. But I like the shopping on-line option, I’ll try it later just so I can see how well it works. I would have purchased last night’s Kyle XY episode but it wasn’t ready for download yet for some reason…

The amount of movies and music and TV is just a little overwhelming. There’s just so many options and you can scroll in so many directions! And all the album art just looks fantastic in large high quality images!!! They need a all you can watch or listen to with the music videos, pay a flat rate and go cRaZy for a few hours.

The podcasts are interesting, You can browse very nicely and you can view/stream but if the site is slow, you’re gonna wait a while for that hi-def video. You can select download and it’ll be there later for you. It’s strange that you can favorite a podcast, not to be confused with subscribing, but you can’t actually subscribe; this would be inconvenient if you don’t actually have a computer.

The new Flickr photo viewing works great, but I wish there was a way to view the descriptions or titles of the photos. And I wish there was a way to look at thumbnails; for example a person has 500 photos in a folder and there isn’t a way to jump around it just goes to slideshow mode. This never bothered me with my photos, but when looking at someone else’s it jumped right out at me….

Overall, it’s a great update in that it adds some great functionality. The new interface will grow on me (it’s not like I wouldn’t recommend it to someone). I just feel it’s missing some normal Apple consistency in the Human Interface Guidelines area…

I’m still missing a way to build a video playlist (or a video shuffle). I’ve got hours of video podcasts and I don’t have a way to string them together as my own private TV channel. I hadn’t heard about it or this release but it just seems like a natural outgrowth of the music playlist and/or shuffle.

The update took a while and had to reboot more than a few times installing all the features but seems like it worked just fine. I expect they’ll be a update soon to fix a few minor things, like the TV Genre of “Cops and Robberts”.

RCA gives away one song a day. Sometimes it’s new, old, from a soundtrack, rock, alternative, or instrumental. It’s different every day.

Here’s the thing: At some point in the future when some (hypothetical) legal authority searches my hard drive or MP3 player, how do I prove these songs are mine? In the past, with sampler CDs you had the CD to show ownership. With iTunes, they send you a receipt that shows you own the song even when it’s a free download. But with legitimately free MP3s on-line, how can you show that ownership someday if you need to…?

My Apple TV has been one of my favorite technology purchases and I never expected that I’d like it that much. Actually, I’d been interested in it but it took a visit to Best Buy, after happy hour, for me to finally commit to the 40 GB version. I took it back a few days later but only because I knew I needed the 160 GB version, bigger is better after all…

Apple TV is pretty much an ‘iPod for your television’ and iPods are pretty much the standard to beat for portable media players (at least the standard for handheld audio players) so these should be selling much better. I’ve always been impressed with my Apple TV and had been surprised they hadn’t really caught on more than they have. The Apple TV interface is excellent, it’s as good as the TiVo (except it doesn’t record), you can buy videos (and music) on your computer to load it up, but that is a little inconvenient for some people. You can convert videos for it, but that’s not for the average user. I knew it was close to what people want but it wasn’t exactly there yet.

A few weeks ago at MacWorld they announced movie rentals for the Apple TV. $2.99 for old movies, $3.99 for new ones and $1 more for HD quality. Plus, you can buy music (and music videos) on-line and view/subscribe to podcasts (for free). They changed the interface, I personally think it’s a little more complicated, but since you need to be able to browse an infinite number of music and movies I can understand it (and maybe I’ll like it too). This new interface is free to original Apple TV owners and should show up in a few weeks (I keep checking).

I heard all this when they announced it and I’ve been mulling it around in my head, but I finally just watched that part of the keynote from MacWorld (on my Apple TV, of course) and now I really think this is getting even closer to being the media box for your TV.

I found this little project over at Hilly’s (SnackiePoo).

Let’s make a band:
1. The first article title HERE is the name of your band.
2. The last four words of the very last quote HERE Is the title of your album.
3. The third picture HERE, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Now take the pic, add the band name and title to it, then post it.
5. Be sure to leave a comment so that I can check out your album…

The title, “Asbestos Strike”, was not the first article I got, the first one was an actual music label but I decided not to use it in case that might upset them. The title of my album, “they had courage enough”, was from a quote by Thomas Fuller. And my photo came from here, I did square it up a little to make it fit.

“I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” is one of my favorite songs. And that’s what I got! As I present I got a certificate that I’ve adopted a Hippo at the Detroit Zoo. I’ve got a Hippo, a certificate and background (see the photo).

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a Christmas novelty song written by John Coctoasten and performed by Gayla Peevey (10 or 11 years old at the time) in 1953. You can listen here or at the iTunes music store.

This is a favorite Christmas song of mine and I remember it being on a holiday Mix tape that Jim (a co-worker) made one year. It was a few years before it got re-popularized about 10 years ago (maybe from an Ally McBeal episode).

Plus, it includes a trip to the zoo, which (once I go) crosses another item off my 101 in 1001 list…

So on Thursday the 4 track A Fine Frenzy – Live Session EP came out exclusively at the iTunes store. Of course I purchased it, can’t pass something like that up from A Fine Frenzy. It’s a great EP with 4 tracks – Almost Lover, Borrowed Time, Last of Days, and The Minnow & the Trout. They don’t sound very “live” to me but that’s okay with me, they’re more like different versions of the songs. And for $3.49 you can hardly go wrong…

So I found a fun Internet radio station, it’s called “Girls Rock Radio. It’s all girl bands, stuff I haven’t heard in a while and some I’ve never ever heard of, but as fussy as I am, I do listen through it.

No advertisements, but they do request donations (which I think are few and far in-between). I’m surprised they don’t run some 30 second ads, I would think would generate some revenue (maybe if it’s ad supported they pay different rates to play the songs, I know that’s goofy these days).

My awesome musically talented niece, Courtney Robb, is on the charts at Fox Space Live. Just go to the Fox Space Live page and use your browser to search for “Courtney Robb” and click to listen, that’s it! The more you listen, the higher she gets and the more exposure she gets, I’m assuming at some point they pick the music to play on the station…

If you want to listen first check out the Courtney Robb MySpace page for some other songs and Detroit-area dates. She’s plays her own songs that are along the lines of Michelle Branch, Anna Nalick, Jewel, Tegan and Sara, Colbie Caillat, Avril Lavigne, KT Tunstall, etc.

Tori Amos was awesome! I really haven’t listened to her newer stuff very much but I really enjoyed the latest album when she played those songs. She played a lot of older songs, which is what I like.

I’ve seen Tori a few times, I’m guessing about a dozen times now, spaced out over the last 15 years. So by this time, not only do I know where to sit, my mother knows, she specifically asked me on the phone, “did you get a seat on the right-hand side?”, I’m surprised she remembered something like that. I did sit slightly to the right and before I went and I thought I needed to be a bit more to the right, but my seat was perfect! Plus, all the people sitting in my line of sight were short!

She’s always a little quirky, but she didn’t talk much so it was hard to tell. But after her first outfit change, she was halfway through the third song and she stopped, and asked the guys to continue to play, “I’ve gotta go take this corset off, it’s killing me”. They finished up the song as she came back out and she just went on to the next song

Yoav opened for her and her was great! Not sure how to describe him, but he was a good act, could have listened to him more. He had a short EP for $5, they really needed to have a seperate line for his CD at intermission (maybe a ca$h only line). Everyone ran out to get it and it was a disaster.

You can see more of my Tori Photos at flickr (they didn’t come out very well, but you can see the different stage setups). If you saw my photo of the ceiling of the theater, go back and look at it because I added some more info (and sort of link to some older photos).

The ceiling of the beutiful Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.

If you’d like some other images go to take a look at page 79 at Amazon (you must log in, sorry). And you can see a view of the chandelier from a different angle in 1928. And you can go back and forth around the surrounding pages to see more of the Fox.

I gotta say, my Treo 755p takes some great photos when there is enough light….

‘Fox Theater‘ uploaded by garylapointe

Tori Amos is at the Fox Theater in Detroit, Michigan tonight! Row H, a little to the right, just perfect since she generally faces the right more!

There are still decent tickets left…

This past Sunday Brandi, as usual, was excellent. She just belts out some of those tunes and other times she’s just kind of mellow, she did a great concert. She covered a Queen song on the piano and it was awesome; it might not have been “a” queen song, it might have been a multiple medley song since I know part of Bohemian Rhapsody (‘momma, just killed a man’) was in it but I think there were parts of that song not sung (‘Gallileo Figaro – magnifico’); does anyone know for sure? She did the Queen song so perfect, I’ve got to think some of the younger crowd assumed it was a song of hers…

She talked about people traveling from Ann Arbor to see her (and vice-versa) and was excited by the response. I’ve driven to Chicago to see her and it was worth it! This was my third time seeing Brandi and I’ll go again next chance!

Back to her music. Some of her more passionate songs just totally get inside me. It wasn’t just me, you could see some were affecting other people too, I don’t know exactly what it is. But a couple really got to me, especially Hallelujah at the end.

Little did I know that while I had an excellent time at the concert that it’s emotional high was just that start of a roller coster ride of emotions this week…

So A Fine Frenzy opened for Brandi Carlile on Sunday and they were so awesome they should be on their own tour. It was a small venue at St. Andrews and I’ve never seen it that packed, they were sold out and they were was a great crowd for AFF. Alison Sudol is the singer and she’s wonderful the songs she did were just beautiful, I wish she had played more. She was so polite and so gracious when everyone kept clapping after a few of her perfectly done songs. I so wish they would have played longer, I thought I saw an extra song on the set list but they didn’t do an encore; I couldn’t read the title so it might have been a song earlier played…

Alison did show up at the sales table to sign autographs. So of course, I purchased another copy of the CD. I got her to autograph it, a booklet and I got my picture taken with her (I sure wish I had a better camera than my phone with me, the lighting was pretty poor were we stood). Once again, she was so polite and pleasant with everyone, almost shy like. I hadn’t realized how very beautiful she was until I got that close to her, it made me feel kind of shy at that point.

The booklet was interesting about ten 5 inch by 7 inch pages with great photos and an interview. I think they were giving them away (at least I didn’t pay for the ones I grabbed for my friends and I) but they were really nice. They looked like they were from an earlier tour (maybe from some kind of press or info packet).I’ve been so happy with all the ‘opening acts’ that I’ve seen lately I’ve been very happy with most of them and become a fan of many recently. Heck, Brandi opened for Indigo Girls when I saw them a few months ago. I would travel a ways to see AFF again! I was really surprised that Alison didn’t sing a sone with Brandi (or vice-versa).

A few odd things – The manager(?) wouldn’t let me take a picture when she was signing photographs, “please wait until she poses” (or something like that). I would have put it with the spot where I was talking about her signing, so that it totally was in context; but it didn’t seem worth it to try an explain it.

Someone posts Twitter updates for A Fine Frenzy but they didn’t do any in Detroit, which I was keeping my eyes open for (and since they didn’t have a concert the next day they might have still been around).

This is just a test of a flickr format….

‘Brandi Carlile‘ uploaded by garylapointe

I did get a chance to pose with Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy. I wish I had brought a real camera instead of just the phone

She was so nice to everyone and signed everything that was put in front of here. I was towards the end of the crowd and she was just wonderful to all of us!

I got a CD signed and some kind of booklet they were giving out. I got to shake her hand and of course I got the photo too!

Brandi Carlile in Detroit

Originally uploaded by garylapointe

What an excellent show! You’re missing out if you’re a fan and didn’t make it!!

A Fine Frenzy in Detroit

Originally uploaded by garylapointe

This is Alison Sudol from AFF at St. Andrews Hall.

So I saw this article on ticket scalping (I mean “brokers”) and was thinking that I never see brokers in Michigan like I do in other cities around the country. And it always makes me feel like the brokers are shifty, like you might get bad tickets or something, but then I saw this part of the article

Only five states — Michigan, North Carolina, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Rhode Island — limit brokering, according to the National Association of Ticket Brokers. Regulations vary. For example, in Rhode Island, the cap on the amount of the increase is $3, or 10 percent above face value, whichever is greater.

So that makes some sense to me now, you can’t do it in Michigan so if someone is doing it, it is shifty; and it’s legit in other states so it’s not shifty. We’ll, that make more sense to me now, it’s just something outside my normal experience of ticket buying. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m traveling and looking for tickets.

I feel bad for the kids who wanted to see the concert. But I thought $63 was a lot for the tickets before the brokers got them. It’s rare I pay that more than $60 for a concert; it’s only $20 (plus ticketmaster fees) for my concert tomorrow….

I know I’ve mentioned it a few times already but Brandi Carlile and A Fine Frenzy are going to be at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit this Sunday. Tickets are only $20 so you should check it out, I’m thinking there won’t be any at the door, this concert has been selling out all over. It’s a nice small venue so if you’re thinking of going then you better get your tickets.

When I saw her in Ann Arbor they made it a non-smoking show at the artist’s request (I’d assume that was Brandi and not the opening act) so I’m hoping it might be again (don’t worry smokers, I think the downstairs will be open for that). If you’re planning on going be sure to drop me a note to let me know you’ll be there…

So there is a new iTunes Originals album out featuring Jewel and aptly titled Jewel – iTunes Originals . I always like the iTunes Original album since it’s got some interview tracks and usually has some odd music tracks on it too. The Jewel edition has 23 tracks about 1/2 that are songs. It’s $11.99 which is a little pricey if you have a few of the tracks, you can’t buy the interview tracks without the whole album. But it doesn’t seem to be smart enough to realize that I’ve purchased one of the tracks previously although that might have been before the 6 month deadline for complete that album. But it’s not my fault the album came out after the six month limit.

I do look forward to listening to this, I’ve got a bit of driving tomorrow to do so that’ll work. After the first few times, I can’t listen to the interviews any more so I can remove them from that playlist.

So MacWorld reports that ‘a U.S. jury found her guilty of copyright infringement and fined her a total of $222,000′.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota could have fined Jammie Thomas as much as $3.6 million, but opted not to. The mother of two was found guilty of stealing and giving away via Internet peer-to-peer Internet file-sharing service Kazaa a total of 24 songs from companies including Capitol Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Bros. Records.- Macworld Oct. 5, 2007

Did you see the important part? It was only 24 songs!!! Ouch! I assumed it was thousands of songs when I saw the fine…

I’d really like to comment that all of that is pretty harsh. But she was breaking the law so I guess there isn’t much to say. Actually, I will make a comment, file-sharing is bad, but she’d have to share an awful lot for the record companies to lose that much money. Although, 24 songs is probably what they specifically proved, she may have done thousands of others that they just didn’t have the details on (but that would probably be inadmissible too). How would you even pay a fine like that?

Update: Turns out there were 1,700-ish songs, they just focused on a smaller amount for the case. Scott (over at Dean’s World) has some more info and a few more links.

So I’ve mentioned A Fine Frenzy more than a few times lately; they tour with Brandi Carlile and hit Detroit next Sunday (not this Sunday). And I can’t get enough of their album. Plus, I’ve specifically mentioned that their 14 track album of One Cell in the Sea was only $7.99 at iTunes (even higher quality DRM-free) or at AmazonMP3. But they sent me an e-mail advertisement stating that it’s temporarily only $5.99 (in the US), for fourteen tracks, that’s a deal so if you considered it before it’s even a better deal now. The ad made it sound like it was a deal for me since I’ve purchased their music before but it looks like it’s that cheap even when I don’t log in. I have no idea when this will last, please let me know if you see that it goes back up.

On her debut album, Cell In the Sea, Alison Sudol evokes adjectives like enchanting and wistful. A self-taught pianist, she took the name A Fine Frenzy from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Inspired by fantasy writers such as C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll, and musical artists Keane and Sigur Rós, the chanteuse’s sublime melodies are guided by her delicate piano work and feminine vocals, which sometimes sound reminiscent of the Sundays. The beautifully sad “Almost Lover” is a surprisingly confident song, and “Hope for the Hopeless” is a perfect remedy when you’re feeling down.

- From the iTunes Description

Plus you can go the the A Fine Frenzy site, and download 5 songs and 5 videos for free (some look like the same odd singles and EPs you can buy at iTunes); these 10 items are free if you purchased a CD or got it from iTunes. You do need to have a CD in the drive so you need to burn it if you don’t have a real CD; the download bonus process even works well on a Mac (for similar promotions for other artists I had to go to a Windows machine and sometimes the files only played on Windows). This really is a deal for $5.99 so I had to share it…

Is anyone going to the Sunday, Oct 14th concert in Detroit? Leave me a message if you are. And if you’ve never been to St. Andrews Hall it’s always way too hot in there so dress accordingly.

So Apple and iTunes added these myTunes “widgets” you can add to your web site or MySpace page or whatever. This isn’t new news (2 months old?), it’s just that I never got around to trying them. Here’s the thing, the options are limited, they don’t show the album artwork unless you click on something and it’s not very configurable. You have to activate it on-line through the iTunes store, so someone can’t just track your music history by adding a widget with your ID in on to a web site and then create the widget. That’s nice from a privacy stand point, although I’m generally not too picky about my privacy.

On the whole lack of configuration: it’s got a few options 3 sizes and a few color options, but still limited. One thing that bugs me is that the “My iTunes Favorites” widget it lists people that I’ve bought just one song, that’s not a “favorite”, heck it could be only one song because I hated them! Actually most cases seem to be from a compilation album, (possibly) a free song, or I bought a song for my Mom or something, either way I should be able to set a minimum limit before they list it (or something like that). Maybe it would be more reflective if I’ve spent more money on albums (and less on songs).

It seems a little slow for just moving text around too. I don’t think I’ll be using it (other than in this post for a sample).

And it someone clicks on my widget and buys a song from iTunes, I think I should get a few pennies credit at the iTunes store from them

So Amazon opened the Amazon MP3 store which has been getting some good reviews and (most importantly) it semi-integrates by pushing your purchases into your iTunes which is great for automatic syncing with your iPod. They’ve had tracks for download for ages, but this is their big jump into the market (you do need their downloader for this).

I actually spotting it yesterday when searching for some music but I didn’t realize the format change of my search results indicated a whole new service. I did notice that the tracks were only 89 cents though!

Keep in might for 89 cents they are a dime less than the iTunes music store for regular tracks but since there is no encryption (DRM) and it’s encoded at a higher quality (even than Apple I believe) these are 40 cents less than Apple’s $1.29 a song. That’s about 1/3 less if you’ve been getting the DRM-free higher quality songs (and that’s what I’ve been getting lately). And they are MP3s, so they play on just about anything (but higher quality does mean larger songs). Buying whole albums will generally discount the price.There are exceptions to the 89 cent price for the individual songs, but I can’t figure out the rules to tell you. And like the iTunes store I believe there are tracks that can’t be purchased separately from the album, I thought I saw that yesterday but I can’t find an example of that today.

And to be fair to Apple, their DRM free $1.29 songs are generally much cheaper if you buy the whole album (the 14 track One Cell in the Sea – by A Fine Frenzy is only $7.99 (which I think is the same as the iTunes DRM version) which is the same price as the Amazon mp3 store, except Amazon doesn’t appear to give you the booklet.

So the end result, IMHO, it’ll never beat the seamlessness of the iTunes Music Store but but with it’s downloader (which does give you a free song), Amazon mp3 might be a good alternative or at least a second place to check when shopping for songs. If you’re not an iPod user it’s probably a great place to consider for your mp3 shopping (I think the downloader will push the tracks to other players but since I don’t have any I”m not certain). The downloader does work pretty good, I did try it. It would be nice if it were smart enough to add it to an “Amazon Playlist”.

I fully expect to see them selling movies, television, music videos, audio books or distributing podcasts via the same mechanism in the future….

So I just kept thinking while watching this episode that the tough girl looked an awful lot like Mandy Moore. Then I saw in the credits that Mandy Moore did one of the songs and thought that was a coincidence. Duh! It really was Mandy Moore on the show.

But the best part was at the end, when they showed you the http://www.SlapCountDown.com/ web site!!! (If you didn’t watch the show last season, I can’t explain it).On a semi-related note, Mandy Moore and Rachael Yamagata are playing in Detroit tomorrow. I’m not really sure what Mandy sings, but I’m sure I’d recognize something, but I really like Rachel. I sure wish that I felt better already…

Brandi Carlile’s new video for Turpentine is out.

If you can’t see it embedded above click here to play Turpentine or to see the lyrics. This song always makes me a little sad, I’m not sure if it’s the music, the words or both…

Less than a month to see her at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit, MI (Oct. 14, 2007). Opening is A Fine Frenzy and I’ve been playing One Cell In the Sea over & over so I’m more than ready. If you’re going to be at the concert (and tickets are available) let me know…

Is it proper to say “their CD” when I just purchased the tracks from the iTunes store and listen on my iPod or Treo?

So Apple redid the iPod line-up yesterday: