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M C Hamster

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Aug 15, 2007, 12:53:04 PM8/15/07
to
Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen in
ages.

http://www.musicovery.com/

You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to, along
two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs. Calm. It then
queues up a presumably near-infinite set of pieces. You can restrict
the genres of music as well. And eras, too, I think.

This is EXACTLY the way I think about and use music in my daily life.
So why doesn't iTunes do the same thing, and let me scan my entire 35
GBs of music to create random playlists according to desired mood? (Or
does it?)

It looks also to be a fabulous way to discover new music, to suit my
tastes. And to boot, I love the screen display.

Just a splendid, splendid bit of work. It almost justifies the
existence of the internet.

BTW, I heard about this from another of my very favorite web sites,
www.veryshortlist.com . It recommends one web site each day, and
about half of their recommendations are quite good, I'd say -- which
for me is an excellent track record.

--
M C Hamster "Big Wheel Keep on Turning" -- Creedence Clearwater Revival

Greg Goss

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Aug 15, 2007, 9:23:11 PM8/15/07
to
M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:

>Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen in
>ages.
>
>http://www.musicovery.com/
>
>You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to, along
>two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs. Calm. It then
>queues up a presumably near-infinite set of pieces. You can restrict
>the genres of music as well. And eras, too, I think.
>
>This is EXACTLY the way I think about and use music in my daily life.
>So why doesn't iTunes do the same thing, and let me scan my entire 35
>GBs of music to create random playlists according to desired mood? (Or
>does it?)
>
>It looks also to be a fabulous way to discover new music, to suit my
>tastes. And to boot, I love the screen display.
>
>Just a splendid, splendid bit of work. It almost justifies the
>existence of the internet.

Have you played with Pandora.com?
--
Tomorrow is today already.
Greg Goss, 1989-01-27

M C Hamster

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Aug 15, 2007, 11:02:02 PM8/15/07
to

No, but I did figure there may be a lot more sites like this one.

OK, that's kind of interesting. I put in Phish as my favorite artist,
and it's playing a Phish song. But Phish has a very broad range of
songs, so I'm wondering where it will go from here. Since I can't
seem to stop this first song until it's done, I guess it will take
awhile. Thanks for the link, Greg... I'll play around with it.

John Hatpin

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Aug 15, 2007, 11:47:13 PM8/15/07
to
M C Hamster wrote:

You can skip the current track - the button's on the right of the bar
above the album cover. I think you're limited to the number of times
you can skip in one session.

Typically, I find it'll play something from your fave popstar, then
start spidering through a "people who like X also like Y" database;
your second track will probably not be Phish, and nor will most
further matches. Then again, it's a while since I played with
Pandora; things might have changed.

Oh, and remember that they're probably going out of business sometime
soon because of a change in the way royalties are calculated for
streaming music. Their business model simply won't work any more, as
the click-throughs won't come close to paying those royalties.

Way to go, RIAA, you bunch of greedy fuckers. First up against the
wall come the revolution, and I'll be pulling the trigger.
--
John Hatpin

John Hatpin

unread,
Aug 15, 2007, 11:53:06 PM8/15/07
to
M C Hamster wrote:

>Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen in
>ages.
>
>http://www.musicovery.com/
>
>You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to, along
>two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs. Calm. It then
>queues up a presumably near-infinite set of pieces. You can restrict
>the genres of music as well. And eras, too, I think.

Thanks, MC. Time to start playing with that. Nice.
--
John Hatpin

Lesmond

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Aug 16, 2007, 12:47:18 AM8/16/07
to
On 15 Aug 2007 22:02:02 -0500, M C Hamster wrote:

>
>
>On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:23:11 -0600, Greg Goss <go...@gossg.org> wrote:
>
>>M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:

>>>It looks also to be a fabulous way to discover new music, to suit my
>>>tastes. And to boot, I love the screen display.
>>>
>>>Just a splendid, splendid bit of work. It almost justifies the
>>>existence of the internet.
>>
>>Have you played with Pandora.com?
>
>No, but I did figure there may be a lot more sites like this one.

I have a couple of Pandora "stations", but I seem to like this one more.
Thank you, Hamster Guy.

>
>OK, that's kind of interesting. I put in Phish as my favorite artist,
>and it's playing a Phish song. But Phish has a very broad range of
>songs, so I'm wondering where it will go from here. Since I can't
>seem to stop this first song until it's done, I guess it will take
>awhile. Thanks for the link, Greg... I'll play around with it.

It is fun, but there is a limit to songs you can skip. I like clicking all
around to see what's there. Wow. I love this.

--
If there's a nuclear winter, at least it'll snow.

Jeannie

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Aug 16, 2007, 1:00:13 AM8/16/07
to
If I ever win the lottery, remember to remind me that it was you who
told us about this site....

Jeannie
love it, love it

M C Hamster

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Aug 16, 2007, 1:11:03 AM8/16/07
to
On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:47:18 GMT, "Lesmond" <les...@verizon.net>
wrote:

I'm going to enjoy this immersed in a lovely vicodin haze, I can tell.
I did figure out how to skip songs, and rate songs, and the like in
Pandora. I'm sorry to hear it is going to go out of business. I
wonder if musicovery.com is fated similarly.

M C Hamster

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Aug 16, 2007, 1:12:04 AM8/16/07
to

Not play... WORK. This is serious stuff here.

How is their selection of jazz, I wonder? I'm a bit suspicious that
they have a rather limited repertoire, based on my early experiences
with this site (of all music, not just jazz).

Lesmond

unread,
Aug 16, 2007, 1:27:23 AM8/16/07
to
On 16 Aug 2007 00:11:03 -0500, M C Hamster wrote:

>
>
>On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:47:18 GMT, "Lesmond" <les...@verizon.net>
>wrote:
>>

>>It is fun, but there is a limit to songs you can skip. I like clicking all
>>around to see what's there. Wow. I love this.
>
>I'm going to enjoy this immersed in a lovely vicodin haze, I can tell.
>I did figure out how to skip songs, and rate songs, and the like in
>Pandora. I'm sorry to hear it is going to go out of business. I
>wonder if musicovery.com is fated similarly.

Pandora is going away? Why?

Musicovery is really amazing. I've been picking genres and years and heading
toward positive/energetic most of the time, but checking the whole scale. I
really like that you can click on the song title to bring up something new in
the same spot. I love the trees, although some of the connections seem odd,
to say the least.

Shit, I'll be playing with this all night.

Greg Goss

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Aug 16, 2007, 6:11:28 AM8/16/07
to
"Lesmond" <les...@verizon.net> wrote:

>On 16 Aug 2007 00:11:03 -0500, M C Hamster wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:47:18 GMT, "Lesmond" <les...@verizon.net>
>>wrote:
>>>
>>>It is fun, but there is a limit to songs you can skip. I like clicking all
>>>around to see what's there. Wow. I love this.
>>
>>I'm going to enjoy this immersed in a lovely vicodin haze, I can tell.
>>I did figure out how to skip songs, and rate songs, and the like in
>>Pandora. I'm sorry to hear it is going to go out of business. I
>>wonder if musicovery.com is fated similarly.
>
>Pandora is going away? Why?

Fees for internet "broadcast" are apparently much higher than fees for
radio broadcast. The rules changed after Pandora was established.
I've received a few emails asking me to lobby to have the rule change
blocked, or Pandora will go under.

M C Hamster

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Aug 16, 2007, 11:35:03 AM8/16/07
to
On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:00:13 -0700, Jeannie <hpje...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

Oooh thanks! I'm much drawn to the lower left hand corner, not
because I'm in a funk or anything but I like having slow and quiet
music on in the background while I'm working.

I do wonder how this site can possibly pay for itself. In order to
get "HiFi" sound, you pay a fee which looked to be quite modest. The
screen is devoid of ads, except for Google ads. (The beautiful screen
with all that white space and no ads is another of the attractions.)
I have a vain hope that the recording industry might be supporting
this, because it helps expose us to new artists and music and might
get some of us to purchase albums we otherwise wouldn't have, but I'm
sure that's false.

Glad you liked it, Jeannie.

John Hatpin

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Aug 16, 2007, 1:30:58 PM8/16/07
to
M C Hamster wrote:

>On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:53:06 +0100, John Hatpin
><RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote:
>
>>M C Hamster wrote:
>>
>>>Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen in
>>>ages.
>>>
>>>http://www.musicovery.com/
>>>
>>>You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to, along
>>>two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs. Calm. It then
>>>queues up a presumably near-infinite set of pieces. You can restrict
>>>the genres of music as well. And eras, too, I think.
>>
>>Thanks, MC. Time to start playing with that. Nice.
>
>Not play... WORK. This is serious stuff here.

When do I get paid?

>How is their selection of jazz, I wonder? I'm a bit suspicious that
>they have a rather limited repertoire, based on my early experiences
>with this site (of all music, not just jazz).

Good question. The jazz coverage isn't as good, and tends to be of
the "greatest hits" variety. This is common with jazz, as it is with
classical, when it comes to compilations - there's not much rare or
unusual stuff. It's a "don't scare the horses" approach.

Jazz is one area where Pandora does surprisingly well, although still
not as well as more popular forms of music.
--
John Hatpin

Opus the Penguin

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Aug 16, 2007, 2:03:44 PM8/16/07
to
John Hatpin (RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com) wrote:

> M C Hamster wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:53:06 +0100, John Hatpin
>><RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote:
>>
>>>M C Hamster wrote:
>>>
>>>>Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen
>>>>in ages.
>>>>
>>>>http://www.musicovery.com/
>>>>
>>>>You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to,
>>>>along two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs.
>>>>Calm. It then queues up a presumably near-infinite set of
>>>>pieces. You can restrict the genres of music as well. And
>>>>eras, too, I think.
>>>
>>>Thanks, MC. Time to start playing with that. Nice.
>>
>>Not play... WORK. This is serious stuff here.
>
> When do I get paid?
>

You have to go on strike, like I did. My pay has quadrupled since my
return.

--
Opus the Penguin
"I've just learned to smile and nod my head, usually with my mouth
full." - Lisa Ann

Hactar

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Aug 16, 2007, 2:07:49 PM8/16/07
to
In article <r6r8c3lj6e4321cq0...@4ax.com>,

M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
>
> I have a vain hope that the recording industry might be supporting
> this, because it helps expose us to new artists and music and might
> get some of us to purchase albums we otherwise wouldn't have, but I'm
> sure that's false.

Yeah, that doesn't sound enough like foot-shooting to be the RIAA.

--
-eben QebWe...@vTerYizUonI.nOetP
1101000 1110100 1110100 1110000 0111010 0101111 0101111 1110010 1101111
1111001 1100001 1101100 1110100 1111001 0101110 1101101 1101001 1101110
1100101 0101110 1101110 1110101 0111010 0111000 0110001 0101111

Jeannie

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Aug 16, 2007, 2:12:57 PM8/16/07
to
On Aug 16, 8:35 am, M C Hamster <davol...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:00:13 -0700, Jeannie <hpjean...@yahoo.com>

> wrote:
>
> >If I ever win the lottery, remember to remind me that it was you who
> >told us about this site....
>
> >Jeannie
> >love it, love it
>
> Oooh thanks! I'm much drawn to the lower left hand corner, not
> because I'm in a funk or anything but I like having slow and quiet
> music on in the background while I'm working.

I'm very happy with 4:00 on the second bubble from the top, but have
been roaming around trying different moods. Has anyone found any Mark
O'Connor yet? I seem to be in a Brubek/Marley/Dire Straits
roundabout.

Kinda wish you could plug in a few band names, like on Pandora, but
maybe that's coming with the next version....

Jeannie

Richard R. Hershberger

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Aug 16, 2007, 2:43:54 PM8/16/07
to
On Aug 16, 1:30 pm, John Hatpin

I just tried it with classical. It isn't quite as "greatest hits" as
I had expected, but I'm not seeing the "mood" format as particularly
useful. I tend to like a format where I can choose to listen to
something along the lines of "Italian baroque, that isn't "The Four
Seasons". I have no idea what that means in terms of dark/positive
and energetic/calm. The energetic/calm bit particularly mystifies
me. An awful lot of classical has an energetic first movement and a
calm second movement. My guess is that a system like this treats them
as seperate pieces, which rather misses the point. I suppose that a
system like this would work if you want white background noise. But
in my experience nothing has yet surpassed a good radio station with a
good program director who isn't afraid of playing stuff like Italian
baroque that isn't The Four Seasons.

Richard R. Hershberger

huey.c...@gmail.com

unread,
Aug 16, 2007, 3:35:29 PM8/16/07
to
John Hatpin <RemoveThi...@gmailandthistoo.com> wrote:
> M C Hamster wrote:
> > How is their selection of jazz, I wonder? I'm a bit suspicious that
> > they have a rather limited repertoire, based on my early experiences
> > with this site (of all music, not just jazz).
> Good question. The jazz coverage isn't as good, and tends to be of
> the "greatest hits" variety. This is common with jazz, as it is with
> classical, when it comes to compilations - there's not much rare or
> unusual stuff. It's a "don't scare the horses" approach.

doo doodoo doodoo doo doodoo doo - so what?

--
Huey


John Hatpin

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Aug 16, 2007, 4:21:09 PM8/16/07
to
huey.c...@gmail.com wrote:

Ah, the advertising industry's favourite classic jazz track, used to
sell everything from male deodorant to budget sports cars.

Bill Evans would have been so proud that his years of toil and
suffering finally paid dividends.
--
John Hatpin

Opus the Penguin

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Aug 16, 2007, 4:44:26 PM8/16/07
to
Hactar (ebenZ...@verizon.net) wrote:
> M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
>>
>> I have a vain hope that the recording industry might be
>> supporting this, because it helps expose us to new artists and
>> music and might get some of us to purchase albums we otherwise
>> wouldn't have, but I'm sure that's false.
>
> Yeah, that doesn't sound enough like foot-shooting to be the RIAA.
>

Indeed. If the RIAA had set up that site, it would be for the purpose
of prosecuting everyone who used it. If you actually purchased any
music based on finds there, the RIAA would confiscate your purchases as
fruit of the poisoned tree.

--
Opus the Penguin
"Think what you will of the man, but you have to give him credit where
it's due - he got really sick." - One of the Bob Gearys

Bill Turlock

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Aug 16, 2007, 7:01:31 PM8/16/07
to

Playlist is rigid and short.

Hactar

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Aug 16, 2007, 8:07:48 PM8/16/07
to
In article <46C4D74B...@sonnnic.invalid>,

Bill Turlock <"Bill Turlock "@sonnnic.invalid> wrote:
> Jeannie wrote:
> >
> > On Aug 16, 8:35 am, M C Hamster <davol...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
> > > On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:00:13 -0700, Jeannie <hpjean...@yahoo.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > >If I ever win the lottery, remember to remind me that it was you who
> > > >told us about this site....
> > >
> > > Oooh thanks! I'm much drawn to the lower left hand corner, not
> > > because I'm in a funk or anything but I like having slow and quiet
> > > music on in the background while I'm working.
> >
> > I'm very happy with 4:00 on the second bubble from the top, but have
> > been roaming around trying different moods. Has anyone found any Mark
> > O'Connor yet? I seem to be in a Brubek/Marley/Dire Straits
> > roundabout.
> >
> > Kinda wish you could plug in a few band names, like on Pandora, but
> > maybe that's coming with the next version....
>
> Playlist is rigid and short.

Is that what you call it... honestly, I'd think twice about that
description.

--
-eben QebWe...@vTerYizUonI.nOetP royalty.mine.nu:81
When we've nuked the world to a cinder, the cockroaches picking
over the remains will be crawling over the remaining artifacts
and wondering what "PC LOAD LETTER" means. -- PC / ASR

groo

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Aug 16, 2007, 9:44:23 PM8/16/07
to
M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:

> Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen in
> ages.
>
> http://www.musicovery.com/
>
> You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to, along
> two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs. Calm. It then
> queues up a presumably near-infinite set of pieces. You can restrict
> the genres of music as well. And eras, too, I think.
>

It's a nifty site, but in just playing with it for half an hour I've
stumbled across two different songs with errors in the labels. It listed
the Garbage song as "Supervixens", but the real name is "Supervixen"
(singular). And it listed the artist for "Se a cabo" as Carlos Santana.
The artist was actually the group Santana. (Both are great songs, BTW.)

--
"It never occured to me that Canada would even need a government of its
own." - Anthony Myers

Mike Williams

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Aug 17, 2007, 1:07:26 AM8/17/07
to
Wasn't it M C Hamster who wrote:
>Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen in
>ages.
>
>http://www.musicovery.com/
>
>You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to, along
>two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs. Calm. It then
>queues up a presumably near-infinite set of pieces. You can restrict
>the genres of music as well. And eras, too, I think.

Whatever settings I use on that site, it always seems to end up with
"easy listening" music. At least music that's a long way towards "easy
listening" from what I like.

I'm going to stick with my old Launchcast Radio.
http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast
It's taken me ages to train it to know what I like (but it still
occasionally goes off into a long series of tracks from groups I've
never heard of at the edges of genres that I've given one star) and the
ads can be a bit annoying.

--
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 11:35:05 AM8/17/07
to

Hmmm, I thought that was "Take Five".

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 11:36:06 AM8/17/07
to
On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:30:58 +0100, John Hatpin
<RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote:

Did you try clicking the "Discovery" checkbox up near the top? I
think that might pull up more interesting stuff.

darkon

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Aug 17, 2007, 11:37:53 AM8/17/07
to
groo <afca...@gmail.com> wrote:

> M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
>
>> Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen
>> in ages.
>>
>> http://www.musicovery.com/
>>
>> You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to,
>> along two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs.
>> Calm. It then queues up a presumably near-infinite set of
>> pieces. You can restrict the genres of music as well. And
>> eras, too, I think.
>>
>
> It's a nifty site, but in just playing with it for half an hour
> I've stumbled across two different songs with errors in the
> labels. It listed the Garbage song as "Supervixens", but the
> real name is "Supervixen" (singular). And it listed the artist
> for "Se a cabo" as Carlos Santana. The artist was actually the
> group Santana. (Both are great songs, BTW.)

It also says "Ode to Billy Joe" was by "Bobie Gentry".

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 11:40:02 AM8/17/07
to
On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:43:54 -0700, "Richard R. Hershberger"
<rrh...@acme.com> wrote:


>I just tried it with classical. It isn't quite as "greatest hits" as
>I had expected, but I'm not seeing the "mood" format as particularly
>useful. I tend to like a format where I can choose to listen to
>something along the lines of "Italian baroque, that isn't "The Four
>Seasons". I have no idea what that means in terms of dark/positive
>and energetic/calm. The energetic/calm bit particularly mystifies
>me. An awful lot of classical has an energetic first movement and a
>calm second movement. My guess is that a system like this treats them
>as seperate pieces, which rather misses the point. I suppose that a
>system like this would work if you want white background noise. But
>in my experience nothing has yet surpassed a good radio station with a
>good program director who isn't afraid of playing stuff like Italian
>baroque that isn't The Four Seasons.
>

I'd totally agree that for larger classical works, the mood feature is
pretty useless. The thing I don't like about the "shuffle" feature
on my iPod is having it pull up classical music randomly with my
popular music choices. They occupy very different worlds, I have
discovered.

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 11:50:02 AM8/17/07
to
On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:12:57 -0700, Jeannie <hpje...@yahoo.com>
wrote:

I've only just done a little on Pandora, but it seems restrictive
too... but maybe I need to spend more time on it? Having, for
instance, started a Phish channel, it seems like it just pulls up
Phish and a couple of jam bands. But I want something that is much
more eclectic, though of course still including stuff I like and
excluding stuff I don't.

I tried a "Sarah McLachlan" channel, and all it pulled up were female
vocalists of her genre. How can I get it to play Sarah McLachlan and
follow it up with, say, a bit of Phish? If Pandora let me create
combo channels, with ten or twenty or more artists, that sounds maybe
like what I need.

I'll take a look at Mike Williams' Launchcast to see if it provides
what I want. Thanks for that suggestion, Mike.

Bob Ward

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 12:29:37 PM8/17/07
to
On 17 Aug 2007 10:50:02 -0500, M C Hamster
<davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:

>I tried a "Sarah McLachlan" channel, and all it pulled up were female
>vocalists of her genre. How can I get it to play Sarah McLachlan and
>follow it up with, say, a bit of Phish? If Pandora let me create
>combo channels, with ten or twenty or more artists, that sounds maybe
>like what I need.

That's exactly what I did - the first time I used it. Just kept
adding artists until it sounded like the local FM station.

Richard R. Hershberger

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 1:22:22 PM8/17/07
to
On Aug 17, 11:40 am, M C Hamster <davol...@speakeasy.nospam.net>
wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:43:54 -0700, "Richard R. Hershberger"
>
> <rrhe...@acme.com> wrote:
> >I just tried it with classical. It isn't quite as "greatest hits" as
> >I had expected, but I'm not seeing the "mood" format as particularly
> >useful. I tend to like a format where I can choose to listen to
> >something along the lines of "Italian baroque, that isn't "The Four
> >Seasons". I have no idea what that means in terms of dark/positive
> >and energetic/calm. The energetic/calm bit particularly mystifies
> >me. An awful lot of classical has an energetic first movement and a
> >calm second movement. My guess is that a system like this treats them
> >as seperate pieces, which rather misses the point. I suppose that a
> >system like this would work if you want white background noise. But
> >in my experience nothing has yet surpassed a good radio station with a
> >good program director who isn't afraid of playing stuff like Italian
> >baroque that isn't The Four Seasons.
>
> I'd totally agree that for larger classical works, the mood feature is
> pretty useless. The thing I don't like about the "shuffle" feature
> on my iPod is having it pull up classical music randomly with my
> popular music choices. They occupy very different worlds, I have
> discovered.

I have generally found that shuffle features or websites like this one
aren't very satisfying with classical, though they often work quite
well with popular genres. The tendency to treat each movement as a
seperate track is part of the problem, but I think also there is the
tendency to treat "classical" as a genre in the same way one might
treat "classic rock" as a genre. "Classical" is a centuries-long
range of genres. If it were split up into coherent pieces to choose
from it might work better.

When I was playing around with this site, one track I got was from an
album of four Finnish cellists playing Metallica. It was kind of
interesting for a couple of minutes, but a bit disappointing in that I
was looking for Italian baroque.

For what it is worth, classical musicians playing rock rarely works
beyond the "kind of interesting for a couple of minutes" level. The
exception is the Kronos Quartet version of Purple Haze.

Richard R. Hershberger

Hactar

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 2:07:49 PM8/17/07
to
In article <ppfbc3p7odjg9rspg...@4ax.com>,

M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:

As the theme to "Secret Life of Machines" they committed the abomination
of arranging "Take Five" in 4, stretching each measure of 5 beats into
two measures of 4. *shudder*

--
"Never go off on tangents, which are lines that intersect a curve at
only one point and were discovered by Euclid, who lived in the 6th
century, which was an era dominated by the Goths, who lived in what we
now know as Poland." - from Nov. 1998 issue of Infosystems Executive.

John Hatpin

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 2:17:04 PM8/17/07
to
Hactar wrote:

>In article <ppfbc3p7odjg9rspg...@4ax.com>,
>M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:21:09 +0100, John Hatpin
>> <RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote:
>>
>> >huey.c...@gmail.com wrote:
>> >
>> >>John Hatpin <RemoveThi...@gmailandthistoo.com> wrote:
>> >>> M C Hamster wrote:
>> >>> > How is their selection of jazz, I wonder? I'm a bit suspicious that
>> >>> > they have a rather limited repertoire, based on my early experiences
>> >>> > with this site (of all music, not just jazz).
>> >>> Good question. The jazz coverage isn't as good, and tends to be of
>> >>> the "greatest hits" variety. This is common with jazz, as it is with
>> >>> classical, when it comes to compilations - there's not much rare or
>> >>> unusual stuff. It's a "don't scare the horses" approach.
>> >>
>> >>doo doodoo doodoo doo doodoo doo - so what?
>> >
>> >Ah, the advertising industry's favourite classic jazz track, used to
>> >sell everything from male deodorant to budget sports cars.
>> >
>> >Bill Evans would have been so proud that his years of toil and
>> >suffering finally paid dividends.
>>
>> Hmmm, I thought that was "Take Five".

I'm assuming Huey was trying to convey "So What", which seemed to take
over from "Take Five" as the Familiar Cool Jazz Track used in ads, at
least hear. "Take Five" is so 1980s, dahling.

>As the theme to "Secret Life of Machines" they committed the abomination
>of arranging "Take Five" in 4, stretching each measure of 5 beats into
>two measures of 4. *shudder*

UGH! Next they'll be doing "Blue Rondo A La Turk" as 4/4. Actually,
they wouldn't be the first.

Also, a nod to the Brits (and others?) familiar with the theme from
the TV series "The Bill", and how they totally fucked that one up too.
--
John Hatpin

John Hatpin

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 2:22:36 PM8/17/07
to
Bob Ward wrote:

Are you two using the "thumbs-up"/"thumbs-down" feature of Pandora to
fine-tune your stations?

If not, try it - it makes a big difference. Float your mouse over the
wee album art and vote. It greatly affects subsequent suggestions.
--
John Hatpin

huey.c...@gmail.com

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 7:56:21 PM8/17/07
to
M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
> I'll take a look at Mike Williams' Launchcast to see if it provides
> what I want. Thanks for that suggestion, Mike.

Radio Free Huey
http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/station.asp?u=1210572518

And, as they used to say on Radio Free Hawaii: "It don't mean that we're
givin' away radios for free, it mean that, if'n you gots a radio, you
can listen to it, and it don't cost nothin'."

--
Huey

groo

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 8:05:53 PM8/17/07
to
"Richard R. Hershberger" <rrh...@acme.com> wrote:

> For what it is worth, classical musicians playing rock rarely works
> beyond the "kind of interesting for a couple of minutes" level. The
> exception is the Kronos Quartet version of Purple Haze.
>

I'm fond of parts of the London Symphony Orchestra's rendition of "Tommy".
I'd probably like more of it, but some of the star vocalists sucked. The
Overture and Underture are quite nice.

groo

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 8:33:36 PM8/17/07
to
huey.c...@gmail.com wrote:

"Sorry, we do not support the Firefox browser at this time."


Assholes.

Lisa Ann

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 9:49:08 PM8/17/07
to
"M C Hamster" <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote in message
news:ddgbc3hbmk8jmrire...@4ax.com...

> On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:12:57 -0700, Jeannie <hpje...@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>>On Aug 16, 8:35 am, M C Hamster <davol...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
>>> On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:00:13 -0700, Jeannie <hpjean...@yahoo.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> >If I ever win the lottery, remember to remind me that it was you who
>>> >told us about this site....
>>>
>>> >Jeannie
>>> >love it, love it
>>>
>>> Oooh thanks! I'm much drawn to the lower left hand corner, not
>>> because I'm in a funk or anything but I like having slow and quiet
>>> music on in the background while I'm working.
>>
>>I'm very happy with 4:00 on the second bubble from the top, but have
>>been roaming around trying different moods. Has anyone found any Mark
>>O'Connor yet? I seem to be in a Brubek/Marley/Dire Straits
>>roundabout.
>>
>>Kinda wish you could plug in a few band names, like on Pandora, but
>>maybe that's coming with the next version....
>>
>
> I've only just done a little on Pandora, but it seems restrictive
> too... but maybe I need to spend more time on it? Having, for
> instance, started a Phish channel, it seems like it just pulls up
> Phish and a couple of jam bands. But I want something that is much
> more eclectic, though of course still including stuff I like and
> excluding stuff I don't.

I spent the afternoon fiddling with Pandora...I've "seeded" my channel with
Lucinda Williams, Shawn Colvin, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Steve Goodman
and Mary Chapin Carpenter. I told it firmly that I didn't want the Judds,
Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Shania (gag), Faith Hill, Hank Sr., Hank
Jr....it seems to be settling down, and then reminded me of k.d. lang and
Tracy Chapman. Cool!

Whoever first suggested Pandora, thanks!

Lisa Ann


Jerry Bauer

unread,
Aug 17, 2007, 11:38:05 PM8/17/07
to
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:33:36 -0700, groo wrote
(in article <Xns998FB2A1DD4B194...@207.115.17.102>):

> huey.c...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
>>> I'll take a look at Mike Williams' Launchcast to see if it provides
>>> what I want. Thanks for that suggestion, Mike.
>>
>> Radio Free Huey
>> http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/station.asp?u=1210572518
>>
>> And, as they used to say on Radio Free Hawaii: "It don't mean that
>> we're givin' away radios for free, it mean that, if'n you gots a
>> radio, you can listen to it, and it don't cost nothin'."
>>
>
> "Sorry, we do not support the Firefox browser at this time."
>

Odd, it opened fine for me in Firefox on my Mac.

But the player says:

Error 5
Sorry, OS 8.5 or higher (not OS X), Netscape 4.5 (not 6.0+), and
Windows Media Player 7.0+ required

Idiots.

Hactar

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 1:07:48 AM8/18/07
to
In article <aapbc35rhfkddslpb...@4ax.com>,
John Hatpin <RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote:

> Hactar wrote:
>
> >As the theme to "Secret Life of Machines" they committed the abomination
> >of arranging "Take Five" in 4, stretching each measure of 5 beats into
> >two measures of 4. *shudder*
>
> UGH! Next they'll be doing "Blue Rondo A La Turk" as 4/4. Actually,
> they wouldn't be the first.

I guess it became "Take Eight".

--
-eben QebWe...@vTerYizUonI.nOetP http://royalty.mine.nu:81
AQUARIUS: There's travel in your future when your tongue freezes to the
back of a speeding bus. Fill the void in your pathetic life by playing
Whack-a-Mole 17 hours a day. -- Weird Al, _Your Horoscope for Today_

Bill Kinkaid

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 9:03:27 AM8/18/07
to
On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:05:53 GMT, groo <afca...@gmail.com> wrote:

>"Richard R. Hershberger" <rrh...@acme.com> wrote:
>
>> For what it is worth, classical musicians playing rock rarely works
>> beyond the "kind of interesting for a couple of minutes" level. The
>> exception is the Kronos Quartet version of Purple Haze.
>>
>I'm fond of parts of the London Symphony Orchestra's rendition of "Tommy".
>I'd probably like more of it, but some of the star vocalists sucked. The
>Overture and Underture are quite nice.
>

The one where Ringo Starr is Uncle Ernie, Richie Havens sings Eyesight
to the Blind and Rod Stewart sings Pinball Wizard (just before he
started to sell out)? That one completely blew away the movie version
that followed. Jack Nicholson - what WERE they thinking?

--
Bill in Vancouver

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 1:27:02 PM8/18/07
to
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:17:04 +0100, John Hatpin
<RemoveThi...@gmailAndThisToo.com> wrote:

Hmmm, I'm playing "So What" (on "Kind of Blue") as I type this, and I
can't find the doo doodoo doodoo doo doodoo doo part.

On a different jazz note, yesterday's VSL recommendation was for this
YouTube clip of Dinah Washington singing "All of Me". VSL says this:

"It features an ebullient and zaftig Dinah Washington and her band,
which includes the legendary Max Roach (who passed away yesterday), at
the 1958 Newport jazz Festival performing a spectacular rendition of
the standard 'All of Me'. It's more than simply a straight-up
concert: Washington flirts with vibraphonist Terry Gibbs and plays
along with him, and there's something moving about seeing audience
members of all ages and from all different walks of life sharing a
special moment of bliss and levity in the summer heat."

I'm not that much of a jazz fan, but it sounds like these guys really
liked this little 4-minute clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkKo4s8TxTM

It's sobering knowing that all of these young people dancing are even
older than I am. If they're even still here.

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 1:31:02 PM8/18/07
to

Yep, I've been rating the songs. But when my Sarah McLachlan channel
just keeps pulling up more and more female singers, giving them
positive ratings doesn't seem to be increasing the likelihood I'll
suddenly get Phish as a recommendation. Or will it start introducing
discordant artists?

Since it doesn't let me skip more than about six artists without
giving me an error message, this means I have to devote hours and
hours of listening to this enterprise of just trying to train the
system?

I remember the original Pandora, years ago, let me spend a lot of time
just rating various artists and albums, and that would give me the
broad-based kind of channel I want. It's this restriction of only
allowing me to rate five artists / songs before shutting me down that
is screwing this up.

I must be missing something.

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 1:33:02 PM8/18/07
to

Hmmm, if I find out I like this, that might worry me.

But Zappa is first up, so this looks promising....

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 1:39:01 PM8/18/07
to

Ummmmmmmm.... how do you "seed" the channel with more than just the
starting artist? By ratings of subsequent recommendations? It won't
let me rate more than five or six albums, before it shuts me down. A
message pops up saying: "Unfortunately, our music licenses force us
to limit the number of songs you may skip each hour. If you want to
hear something else, try creating another station starting with a
different artist or song."

So I have to listen through every song start to finish, before I can
rate it? I'm too attention-deficient to do that, I think.

Or is there some other way to "seed" the channel with a range of
preferred artists that I'm not seeing?

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 1:41:02 PM8/18/07
to
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:37:53 -0000, darkon <darko...@gmail.com>
wrote:

She DID have big jugs.

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 1:42:03 PM8/18/07
to
On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:37:53 -0000, darkon <darko...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>groo <afca...@gmail.com> wrote:

When I looked at the subscription page for this site, the price is
quoted in Euros. So is this site actually some front for a Russian or
Nigerian spamhouse, maybe?

Lisa Ann

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 2:00:07 PM8/18/07
to

"M C Hamster" <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote in message
news:n7bec3pao4i3htl75...@4ax.com...

Well, on the left side it shows my "station" name (in my case it's called
Lucinda Williams). There's a down-arrow to the right of the station name. I
click that, and one of the options is "Add More music to this station" So I
started plugging in the other artists I wanted to add...seems to be working,
even if it did react to the addition of John Prine and Steve Earle by trying
to give me Hank Sr. and Johnny Cash. But it also gave me some songs/artists
I'd never heard of before and really liked.

It's definitely a work in progress type thing.

Lisa Ann


huey.c...@gmail.com

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 2:03:55 PM8/18/07
to

It's the chorus. "So What" is one of the most lyrical of instrumentals,
because it's so easy to hear. If you were going to sing it, the lyrics
would be:

doo doodoo doodoo doo doodoo doo - so what?
doo doodoo doodoo doo doodoo doo - so what?
doo doodoo doodoo doo doodoo doo - so what?

...etc.

--
Huey

huey.c...@gmail.com

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 2:15:58 PM8/18/07
to
M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
> huey.c...@gmail.com wrote:
> > M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
> >> I'll take a look at Mike Williams' Launchcast to see if it provides
> >> what I want. Thanks for that suggestion, Mike.
> > Radio Free Huey
> > http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/station.asp?u=1210572518
> > And, as they used to say on Radio Free Hawaii: "It don't mean that
> > we're givin' away radios for free, it mean that, if'n you gots a
> > radio, you can listen to it, and it don't cost nothin'."
> Hmmm, if I find out I like this, that might worry me.
> But Zappa is first up, so this looks promising....

It is a pretty antisocial radio station, considering. If you were a fan
of WXRT circa twenty years ago, or Radio Free Hawaii around twelve years
ago, you might not mind it, but both of those examples were, by any
sensible definition, utter commercial failures.

One of the things that I've noticed about LaunchCast is that music comes
and goes, and since it's been a couple years since I was actively rating
songs, the overwhelming majority of music that I've rated is no longer
in their rotation, so my format is narrowing. Also, since they've also
added quite a bunch of stuff, it'll 'suggest' things that I find
completely annoying, so if I'm not logged in and actively rating those
things "fuck off and never play this again", it'll put stuff on my
station that has no earthly business being there.

Lastly, although they may have fixed this since I've stopped goofing
with it too much, one of the really annoying quirks of the UI is that
you get three ratings for every song: the artist, the album, and the
song. And you can rate each of those three on a scale from X ("fuck off
and never play this again") to 100, but those ratings are entirely
separate and applied at the least constrictive - meaning that if you
rate an artist at 30 but an album at "fuck off and never play this
again", it'll ignore the fuck off and play songs from that album anyway,
since you rated the artist at 30. This means that it's effectively
impossible to only listen to SOME of a particular artist's music.

--
Huey

John Hatpin

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 2:34:21 PM8/18/07
to
Lisa Ann wrote:

>
>"M C Hamster" <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote in message

>news:n7bec3pao4i3htl75...@4ax.com...


>>
>> Ummmmmmmm.... how do you "seed" the channel with more than just the
>> starting artist? By ratings of subsequent recommendations? It won't
>> let me rate more than five or six albums, before it shuts me down. A
>> message pops up saying: "Unfortunately, our music licenses force us
>> to limit the number of songs you may skip each hour. If you want to
>> hear something else, try creating another station starting with a
>> different artist or song."
>
>Well, on the left side it shows my "station" name (in my case it's called
>Lucinda Williams). There's a down-arrow to the right of the station name. I
>click that, and one of the options is "Add More music to this station" So I
>started plugging in the other artists I wanted to add...seems to be working,
>even if it did react to the addition of John Prine and Steve Earle by trying
>to give me Hank Sr. and Johnny Cash. But it also gave me some songs/artists
>I'd never heard of before and really liked.

It's amazing how quickly it learns from ratings. I'm currently trying
get a channel set up for the kind of jazz/soul flavour of reggae that
Third World popularised so much, and my goodness, it's working. My
other reggae channel, which is more for the Bob Marley kind of stuff,
sounds very different after only a few votes.
--
John Hatpin

Mike Williams

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 2:32:16 PM8/18/07
to
Wasn't it M C Hamster who wrote:
>
>Since it doesn't let me skip more than about six artists without
>giving me an error message, this means I have to devote hours and
>hours of listening to this enterprise of just trying to train the
>system?

One of the advantages of Yahoo Launchcast is that you can also search
for your favourite artists set your artist preference, and then click on
the "Albums" link at the side to set your preferences for each album,
and click on an album to set your preferences for individual tracks.

When you've set your preferences for one artist, you can click on the
"Similar Artists" link at the side.

That way you can set up lots of preferences in a short while, without
waiting for the tracks to be played.

--
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 3:29:03 PM8/18/07
to
On Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:00:07 -0400, "Lisa Ann"
<lisa...@stalnaker.com> wrote:

Ahh, perfect, that's what I was missing. Thanks! I'll work on this
and see what develops.

M C Hamster

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 3:46:02 PM8/18/07
to

Well, I hear the "so what"s fine part of course, but it's the
"doo-doos" that are still eluding me, as anything I'm hearing that is
lyrical. My brain is missing the part that understands jazz, alas.

I'm hearing "doodoo doo doodoo doo doo - so what?", like quietly on
the bass line at the start playing the doodoos, if that's it. Seems
like you maybe have an extra doodoo in there somewhere, maybe.

John Hatpin

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 8:25:08 PM8/18/07
to
M C Hamster wrote:

>Well, I hear the "so what"s fine part of course, but it's the
>"doo-doos" that are still eluding me, as anything I'm hearing that is
>lyrical. My brain is missing the part that understands jazz, alas.
>
>I'm hearing "doodoo doo doodoo doo doo - so what?", like quietly on
>the bass line at the start playing the doodoos, if that's it. Seems
>like you maybe have an extra doodoo in there somewhere, maybe.

Well, to be fair, Huey's version doesn't work for me either, and also
the "doodoo"s should be more like "de-doo"s. They're not even pairs
of quarter notes.
--
John Hatpin

huey.c...@gmail.com

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 9:04:16 PM8/18/07
to
John Hatpin <RemoveThi...@gmailandthistoo.com> wrote:
> M C Hamster wrote:
> > Well, I hear the "so what"s fine part of course, but it's the
> > "doo-doos" that are still eluding me, as anything I'm hearing that
> > is lyrical. My brain is missing the part that understands jazz,
> > alas.
> > I'm hearing "doodoo doo doodoo doo doo - so what?", like quietly on
> > the bass line at the start playing the doodoos, if that's it. Seems
> > like you maybe have an extra doodoo in there somewhere, maybe.

I have no extra doodoo!

> Well, to be fair, Huey's version doesn't work for me either, and also
> the "doodoo"s should be more like "de-doo"s. They're not even pairs
> of quarter notes.

My doodoo does not stink!

--
Huey

groo

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 10:47:21 PM8/18/07
to
Bill Kinkaid <davel...@shaw.ca> wrote:

Yeah, that one. Some of the singers were great, some sucked. I finally
chased down a copy on CD a few months ago.

And I (and pretty much every other sentient being on the planet) agree
that the movie blew great big chunks.

Bill Turlock

unread,
Aug 18, 2007, 11:41:38 PM8/18/07
to


1958!
Shirts & ties, and pearls, oh my!

Bob Ward

unread,
Aug 19, 2007, 1:09:08 AM8/19/07
to


I did a bit of that as well, but I actually added a number of artists
by name to expand the playlist.

John Hatpin

unread,
Aug 19, 2007, 2:37:08 AM8/19/07
to
Bob Ward wrote:

Yeah, that too, of course, but it's a more brutal approach, with
broader strokes.

The best way is to think of as many artists as you can that define
your station, set it up, then winnow the suggestions by fine-tuning
with your thumbs.
--
John Hatpin

Greg Goss

unread,
Oct 8, 2007, 1:15:42 AM10/8/07
to
Greg Goss <go...@gossg.org> wrote:

>M C Hamster <davo...@speakeasy.nospam.net> wrote:
>

>>Okay, this is one of the absolute coolest web sites I have seen in
>>ages.
>>
>>http://www.musicovery.com/
>>
>>You select the general mood of the music you want to listen to, along
>>two dimensions: Dark vs. Positive, and Energetic vs. Calm. It then
>>queues up a presumably near-infinite set of pieces. You can restrict
>>the genres of music as well. And eras, too, I think.
>>

>>This is EXACTLY the way I think about and use music in my daily life.
>>So why doesn't iTunes do the same thing, and let me scan my entire 35
>>GBs of music to create random playlists according to desired mood? (Or
>>does it?)
>>
>>It looks also to be a fabulous way to discover new music, to suit my
>>tastes. And to boot, I love the screen display.
>>
>>Just a splendid, splendid bit of work. It almost justifies the
>>existence of the internet.
>
>Have you played with Pandora.com?

The cans are arranged by the seller (us) on 24-can flats. In such an
array, the skinny mouth is obvious to them. The lack of french is how
they convince us that the can is bad. So it's instant to see the bad
mouth.

Dunno about bottles. BC has an aluminum industry. I don't know if
that's the reason, but canned beer and pop is cheaper than bottles in
BC and more expensive than bottles in Alberta and Toronto. So I don't
know how they tell foreign bottles.

--
Tomorrow is today already.
Greg Goss, 1989-01-27

Beaver Fever

unread,
Feb 4, 2024, 10:56:35 PMFeb 4
to
I just finished Lucinda Williams book and when she wasn't on the road she was living a lot of the 2000's at the Safari Inn when I lived 2 blocks from her. Never saw her though I remember at a show she kinda bumped into me and gently touched my shoulder as it was too loud to say "excuse me." I could feel the warmth even in that brief encounter.

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