an old friend living over in Las Vegas called me up the other night inviting me to go see a rodeo with him. not just any old rodeo, mind you. It’s the big one: The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo hosted by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Now I’ve grown up a city boy most of my life so I’ve yet to see a real life rodeo but from all the things my friend has been telling me about the events, I definitely want to go and see it all close up and in person. It’s a huge deal in the rodeo world, with a ton of events including- tie down roping, bull riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling and barrel racing. I didn’t realize this until recently but the National Finals bring in around 170,000 spectators during the 10 day event. and get this, even though the Thomas & Mack Center Arena is the home of the UNLV basketball team, the NFR (National Finals Rodeo) is reportedly the biggest client for the arena. my vegas buddy is planning on sending me a DVD of highlights from last years competition to give me a taste of what to expect. I’m already getting pretty excited about the trip. plus he promised to set aside a couple days to show me around town since the last time I visited Vegas was back when I was a little kid. for those interested in seeing the event for yourselves, Wrangler National Finals Rodeo tickets are available now so book ‘em before their gone. and there’s enough time between now and the National Finals to properly plan a nice vegas vacation around the events.
For today’s edition of the RetroBlog Mix Tape:rare demo recordings! for those that may not know – demos are initial recordings made by songwriters to help convey their ideas to other members of the band and/or producers. note: all files are hosted on savefile.com
Paul McCartney – My Brave Face (demo) : This recording captures Elvis Costello and McCartney singing enthusiastically with their acoustic guitars. I love this demo!
Trevor Rabin – Owner of a Lonely Heart (Demo) circa 1981: There are two version here. the first is Rabin putting down a take with just an acoustic guitar. the second half of the mp3 is a more fleshed out demo with god-awful lyrics. yikes. good thing Jon Anderson added his own set of lyrics before the song got officially released!!
Lindsey Buckingham – Peacekeeper (demo) : very similar to the final version done by Fleetwood Mac. but still great to hear Buckingham performing this song “solo” without Stevie Nicks’ froggy vocals all over the chorus.
Paul McCartney – This One (demo) : Here’s an early working version of “This One”. It’s Paul at his piano with a drum machine and overdubbed backing vocals. At this point, Paul wasn’t finished with the lyrics so he mumbles stuff at certain parts of the chorus. a nice glimpse of the songwriting process.
XTC – Smartest Monkeys (demo) : Here is Colin Moulding’s demo of a song that appears on XTC’s “Nonsuch” album. the final product is pretty faithful to the original demo I must say. but… isn’t the smartest Monkey Mike Nesmith? oh, he’s just the smartest MonkEE.
Todd Rundgren – Parallel Lines : There are two demo versions circulating around. One was done for his musical “Up Against It”. The other version is more like the one that appears on his “Nearly Human” album. I have both. Parallel Lines – the Up Against It demo. Parallel Lines – the Nearly Human demo.
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I have to give Ringo Starr credit for sticking to his guns and not giving in to Regis and Kelly‘s unreasonable demands for a 2 1/2 minute performance. This is a living Beatle for goodness sakes! show some respect Gellman!! The main purpose for being there obviously is to promote his new album and not to be given enough time to perform his new song properly is simply ludicrous. Now.. having said that, I have to admit quite honestly Ringo’s new song isn’t anything to write home about…
Ringo Starr Walks off Regis and Kelly NEW YORK (AP) — Ringo Starr is known for being the amiable Beatle, but the rock star showed his tough side Tuesday when he walked off the set of “Live With Regis and Kelly” rather than cut short one of his songs.
Starr, who is promoting his new album, “Liverpool 8,” planned to perform the title song with fellow rocker Dave Stewart. However, due to miscommunication between his publicist, Elizabeth Freund, and the musical director, Starr didn’t realize the performance had to be 2 1/2 minutes or less, Freund told The Associated Press.
When told Tuesday morning that the performance had to be shortened, Freund said Starr tried to cut about a minute of the song’s 4 minute, 15 second length, down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. However, according to Freund, producer Michael Gellman said it had to be less than 3 minutes.
“We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay,” Freund said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Ringo left saying, ‘God bless and goodbye. We still love Regis.’ ”
A spokeswoman for “Regis and Kelly” told the AP the show’s producers tried to work with Starr, noting his appearance had been booked since November and the time requirement for the song — the show’s standard — had been expressed numerous times.
With Starr absent, fashion designer Michael Kors and the winners of CBS’ “The Amazing Race” did extra segments to fill his time.
Starr, 67, shortened his song for CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman,” but it was still over 3 minutes, Freund said.
do we really need another youtube clone? That’s what kept coming to mind while I initially started browsing through Hulu.com, an online video sharing website. Currently still in beta, I fortunately received an invite to test out the site and I thought I’d share some thoughts about Hulu here on the blog.
Dissatisfied with the way things were done on youtube, NBC Universal along with News Corp. (FOX) set out to build their own website where they’d have more control over content. the result is HULU which offers full length episodes from NBC and Fox as well as their various sister stations which includes Bravo, Sci-Fi, FX, Style, Sundance and Oxygen channels. Visitors will have no problem navigating the website since it’s basically modeled after youtube. so what’s the big deal, you ask? well, obviously it’s the convenience of being able to view full episodes of your favorite shows on one website. Currently major hit shows like The Office, Heroes, Family Guy, The Simpsons and 30 Rock are all available here along with a bunch of others from the participating networks. You can simply browse through the “most popular” or “most recently added” titles or search by keyword. Hulu also conveniently lists all available videos categorized by network on a separate page.
So, what can you do as a member? – pretty much the usual stuff: rate videos, post comments, save videos to “your playlist” and subscribe to your favorite shows (new episodes get automatically added to your playlist).
current limitations- The major limitation at this point is the amount of videos available. But they’re adding new titles regularly and hopefully expand to other networks/companies other than NBC and Fox. Also, the videos are only viewable in the U.S. at this point. It has been reported that Hulu will have to cut through a bunch of red tape to get worldwide clearance for these videos. I’m sure it’ll be a huge undertaking but hopefully they’ll be able to work something out.
Video Quality? – For the most part, the video quality is very good. it varies between different networks and shows but the NBC stuff (i.e. The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes, etc.) look great and loads pretty quickly.
the negatives – Obviously the commercials. Ads are inserted at various times during the course of a full episode just like broadcast TV. (although the commercial breaks aren’t as long as broadcast TV thankfully!) Also, there are a couple of movies available right now but they’re “edited for broadcast viewing”. (please see the movie “Sideways” as an example further down the page). and lastly, there isn’t a “quick” way to browse through the available video titles at this point. hopefully they’ll fix this. there’s just a limited scroll bar on the page of a particular show. and if there’s a long list of available episodes, it gets a bit cumbersome to scroll through it all in a timely manner.
But overall, I have to say that I like what I’m seeing on Hulu. Hopefully they’ll take the time to work through these kinks before opening the site to the general public. There’s a lot of potential here.
oh and one more thing about Hulu. members can share links to their favorite videos (just like youtube) as well as embed them on their blogs. So, I thought I’d share a couple Hulu videos here on retroblog so that you all can get a taste of what they have to offer. enjoy!!
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A great interview with U2 from 1987 (NBC News Archives)
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The Office: Local Ad (full episode, season 4, episode 5)
my parents’ recent Caribbean cruise has got me itching to take my own family out for a cruise vacation. my parents had a marvelous time relaxing out on the deck enjoying the nice leisurely cruise. the food was superb and plentiful and they tell me that there were plenty of activities for the kids to participate in during the whole trip. browsing through TravelStore’s website, I can see that there are some great cruise specials available at this time. they’ve got packages from all the major cruise lines including Disney, Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean. there’s a lot to choose from and that’s just fine since there’s bound to be a vacation package perfect for just about anybody.
Known the world over for the quality of their acoustic guitars, Taylor has recently introduced a new line of solidbody electric guitars. Now, I haven’t “lusted” after a guitar in ages but after seeing the new Taylor Custom with it’s sapele wood body, walnut top and mahogany neck, I’m definitely placing the guitar on the top of my want list for 2008. With their long standing reputation on the line, I’m sure Taylor didn’t want to simply enter the electric guitar market without bringing along some innovations and fresh designs into the mix. And fortunately they did. The new line of guitars feature custom designed humbuckers, a 5-way pickup selector, a T-Lock single bolt neck, an original all aluminum bridge and a smooth and elegant body design. I have to say that I just love the way the Taylor Custom looks. It seems to be a mash-up between the classic Les Paul design and Taylor’s own T5 acoustic-electric guitars. One of the interesting things about the Taylor Custom is that it’s NOT completely a “solidbody”. The guitar is strategically chambered for tone as well as to reduce some of the weight from the sapele wood. Reading all the positive reviews and watching the various online videos about the guitar, it’s obvious that Taylor has managed to HIT this one out of the ballpark!! Head out to your local music shop to see this new guitar for yourself. Taylor Custom Specs: Scale length: 24-7/8″ Taylor short scale Neck joint: single bolt T-lock neck joint Neck: traditional Taylor neck Frets: 22 Bridge: Aluminum Taylor-designed Pickups: Taylor-designed humbuckers Pickup control: 5-way selector
you know, it has been fun seeing Paul McCartney keeping such a busy schedule at this stage of his long running musical career. There’s really no stopping him. Now with the divorce from Heather Mills behind him, it seems that Sir Macca is up for just about anything. Even a sloppy duet with Kylie Minogue on New Years Eve. Well, maybe someone should have informed Sir Macca beforehand that Kylie really can’t sing…
check out the performance from the Jools Annual Hootenanny New Years special up on youtube. listen to Kylie as she has some difficulty singing along in harmony. ouch, my ears, my ears!!
It’s my first full day back at work after the holiday break and I’m already in need of another vacation. I’m thinking of someplace sunny with a wonderful, calming view of the ocean. someplace far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. someplace like Puerto Penasco in Mexico where I can relax on the beach and view the lovely Sea of Cortez. I’ve even checked out the Rocky Point house rentals that are available on the Oceano Rentals website. the site is chock full of great rental property, luxury homes and condos in and around Puerto Penasco (also known as Rocky Point). with websites like this, planning a stress-free getaway is now easier than ever.
The Heartbreak Kid was a welcomed surprise. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I placed it into my DVD player last night but the Farrelly Brothers came through once again providing some hilarious scenes that had me rolling on the floor laughing and gasping for air. yes, there are some similarities to their much better film There’s Something about Mary but the movie provides some hearty laughs nonetheless and I highly recommend the flick especially to those into raunchy humor. oh and the ending was simply note perfect in my opinion.
do we really need another youtube clone? That’s what kept coming to mind while I initially started browsing through 
Known the world over for the quality of their acoustic guitars, Taylor has recently introduced a new line of 
