hotel cafe last night

It feels like every time I post, there's a mention of Hotel Cafe. Really, this only makes six times, but it still feels that way. I like the place, though, so I can't complain. They book good music, and last night's fare proved to be no exception.

First up was a girl the HC website lists as Anna Nalick. I say it like that because google turns up 0 results for that name, and that strikes me as odd. She didn't seem to have played many shows, though, so it's possible she has somehow escaped mention. That's not at all to be derogatory, though; her lack of experience only evidenced itself a couple times when she would laugh at wrongly played chords. I couldn't get over how much her voice sounded like early Jewel. I think she could have played a drop-dead cover of any of the songs off Pieces of You. A few songs showed she possessed a much bigger voice than she often used. What possibly impressed me most, though, was her song-writing. Her lyrics were very natural and smart, always getting the rhyme without sacrificing anything of what she wanted to say.

Next up was Shawn Amos. His music was often bluegrass-twinged, with the banjo making an appearance on multiple songs. He started his set off singing the theme to The Jeffersons a capella. I enjoyed that.

Third was Penny. My interest in Penny was sort of a hunch. Earlier this spring I was headed to HC to see Steve Reynolds, and Penny was on as we walked in the door. I heard maybe two minutes, and I don't even think I heard any vocals. If I recall correctly it was just guitars jamming their way out of a song. But in those two minutes I got a hunch that I would really like them. I checked out the website, listened to the songs there, listened to the songs on their demo cd, thought they were good, if not great, but still came away with a hunch that there was something there I wasn't getting. Those two minutes of guitar seemed richer than any of the recorded songs I heard. So last night I finally got to see them live, and the experience vindicated my unfounded beliefs. I don't know what exactly what the difference is, but if Penny's recorded stuff is good, Penny live is great.

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live music tonight

I know, I'm a little on the short side with the ahead of time notification, but oh well. Tonight Kathy and I are headed out to see live music, which I'm excited for. This is definitely my favorite thing about LA. Tonight, as usual, the destination is Hotel Cafe, and the band I'm going to see is Penny. I'm planning to check out all the bands, and I'll be sure to post a full report after.

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Daunish Day: Dorm Linebacker

I just got pointed to the Dorm Linebacker site and watched their video. It's funny. Two of the actors are friends of mine, so that makes it all the more enjoyable.

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and this is what libraries would like...

How burdensome this law actually is will obviously depend entirely on the implementation the library uses. The day of the ruling I was listening to NPR and they were interviewing a librarian. To paraphrase her, "I don't know of a way using our system to turn the filtering off for an individual station." In fact, your libraries practice may not even comply with a strict reading of the legislation. CIPA provides that filtering may be disabled for adults only "to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purposes." What burden of proof is attached to this is unclear.

Lets step back a second and look at the broader issues at work here. The American Library Association uniformly opposes the act. They, along with the ACLU, brought the challenge to its Constitutionality. The Act portends to act in the interest of libraries, freeing them from having to decide on a solution appropriate to their own community standards and interests. The libraries did not want this. They are perfectly capable of making their own decisions without the federal government requiring them to implement a far from perfect solution. I think the fact that libraries are even considering turning down their federal funding in order to not have to comply with this act is eye-opening. When has a library ever had enough resources to be able to turn away funds? And yet many libraries are considering taking a significant financial hit to escape a law that is fatally flawed.

I trust librarians to run their libraries as they are intended to be run. As a group, the librarians are some of the best proponents our country has for free speech and the liberties that America was founded upon. To see Congress taking control out of their hands is disturbing.

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Saucy Monky - Disco Ball

I've been debating between a couple songs from Saucy Monky's cd Celebrity Trash, trying to figure out what one I wanted to headline here. I ended up choosing this one just because I love how the chorus sounds. The interplay between the two vocals really appeals to me. For some reason I always find my music collection lacking in happy music, and this is a nice cd to fill that void.

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