Be Less Boring

Blues guitar legend and personal hero of mine, Hubert Sumlin has passed away at 80. He played with Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and just about everyone who was anyone in the Blues. He was performing right up until the end.

Legendary Austin, TX drummer and bandmate of the late Stevie Ray Vaughn, Doyle Bramhall, Sr. has died at age 62.

I'm 0 for 5 on the year and something like 1 for 140+ in life, so you'd think I'd lower my standards. On the contrary, I keep aiming higher and higher. I figure if I'm going to get rejected anyway, it might as well be from the cream of the crop. If you're going to dream, dream big!

We interrupt this blog-silence to let you all know that New Hampshire Magazine has put together a nice sampler CD of New Hampshire music. It features some of my favorites--the Brooks Young Band, Tan Vampires, Martin England, Dave Gerard, and Mighty Sam McClain--as well as several artists I wasn't familiar with until now. There certainly is a lot of musical talent here in the Granite State. Give 'em a listen and download the ones you like, it's all free and legal.

I had intended to not renew this domain and let this battered old blog fall off the map next month, but for the second year in a row my hosting provider auto-renewed my account for free. Last year I took it as a sign that I should keep the blog going, but I don't have much to say for public consumption these days and I'm tired of posting obituary links, so I don't know if I should continue or just kill it off. Readership, so far as I can tell, has dropped off to almost nothing and hardly anyone ever leaves comments (other than spammers), so there's not much reward in blogging anymore. Is it better to pull the plug or fade away?

Another personal hero of mine has passed away. Dennis Ritchie, co-inventor of the C programming language died yesterday at age 70. In addition to C, Dennis was also a co-inventor of the Unix operating system. Working with variants of Unix (Linux, Solaris, SunOS, HP-UX, IRIX, FreeBSD) has provided me with a livelihood for the past twenty years or so. Without Dennis Ritchie's contributions to the world, I might be among the legions of unemployed people in America now.

So long, Dennis, and thanks for building the foundation upon which my career and much of the Internet was built!

Former Weezer bassist, Mike Welsh, dead at 40 from an apparent drug overdose. Mike also played on some Juliana Hatfield tracks. So long, Mike and thanks for all great music!

Apple Computer co-founder and visionary, Steve Jobs, has died. I was never a fan of the Macs, but the iPods and iPhones are nearly indispensable. RIP, Steve.

Could this be the beginning of the American Autumn, a counterpart to the "Arab Spring?" If it's going to be successful, it needs to get a whole lot bigger than this, but the Occupy Wall Street movement has some potential to bring about some much needed changed.

Power to the people!

As one of the 99%, I'm fully in support of this movement!

Legendary British guitarist, Bert Jansch has died at 67. So long, Bert, and thanks for all the great music!