Testimonials

Tom Johnson, May 26, 2010

Hey Alan, it’s Tom Johnson calling at 11:20 on
Wednesday morning.
Hey, your CDs got here this morning.
Man your, your sound is awesome, awesome.
My socks are knocked off.
Of course the band is playing awesome, too. They’ve
really stepped up to the plate lately.
Perfect mic location, everything.
I couldn’t be happier. Thank you so much.
Glad you had a fun time doing that.
So, I will get a check off to you in the mail right away.
Know what, I have it right here, I’ll send it to your PO
Box, I’ll put that on my file unless you want me to send
it to another address.
There you go.
Thank you so much again.
I’m sure I’ll be talking to you very soon.

Rory Snyder

Reviews of Cowboy Junkies Live at Cascade Theater
Average Rating: 5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars

Reviewer: Hit and Run5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars – January 1, 2009
Subject: Awesome!
Thank you so much for the recording. Me friend and I hit six of the Northern Cal shows including this one in 2008. Didn’t know at the time it would be the highlight of the year.

Thank you again – Great recording!

Reviewer: keith from ny5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars – December 28, 2008
Subject: wow!!
Outstanding show, and one of the best recordings of Cowboy Junkies I’ve ever heard! (and I’ve heard a few) Many thanks for sharing this!

Reviewer: katmikemcbird5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars – December 28, 2008
Subject: No Junk Here
wow…!! so i get to re-live this show over and over!! how excited am i? very! because my husband and i traveled from michigan for this show due to it falling near our 1st anniversary. listening to this concert i can see the painted ceiling of the theater, i can see the whole band syncing! They played some of my all time favorites(driving wheel, anniversary song) and faves off end of paths taken(basquiat was a delightful take, cutting board was a toned down acoustic, kicked the show off with mountain)! We’ve been waiting for a recording of the show to surface and are so glad it finally did. Thank you

Reviews of John Butler Trio Live at The Fillmore
Average Rating: 5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars

Reviewer: JBTrioFan5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars – July 12, 2007
Subject: Great Taping Great Show
This was my 5th JBT show this year and was my favorite this year. A good setlist, good crowd, and great energy from the band. One of the most beautiful versions of Peaches w/Kaki King I have heard. A very good taping. Thanks so much!

Enjoy!
Aaron

Reviewer: msdree5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars5.00 out of 5 stars – July 5, 2007
Subject: Great Show
I had such a great time at this show Thanks for capturing it so well.

Lots of Ideas Perculating About Digital Arts

Note recent articles about the demise of the CD. Means getting up to speed on digital downloads.

Note article on new google file format for images that will be about 40% smaller than jpeg with no apparent loss in quality. (see bhphotovideo student catalog).

Derek has some great quotes, worthy of a book review and quotations.

 

Balancing Life

My only real worries in life are balancing life as a musician and digital artist with a myriad of other interests, which include biking, hiking, cooking, spending time with Tap (the dog), etc.

Thanks, Facebook.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..
The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

2012-01-15

WHAT A RELIEF!!!!!

I finally got the bills for my CPA practice printed and ready to mail.

FINALLY!!!!!  What a relief. Not sure why I have been dreading that so much. Maybe because it is just more computer time.

Although I sure enjoyed getting Ted’s personal site up and running. Just a few more wrinkles to iron out, but I’m pretty pleased.

Guess I’ll go walk the dog and mail the invoices. Tap can never get enough people time – he is such a good dog.

 

 

 

 

2012-01-11

The two priorities for the day:

  • PRACTICE
  • CPA BILLS

2012-01-10

Up again 8:XX.

Some ideas for today:

  • Walk the dog
  • Jazz (and classical) practice
  • Make the CPA bills and write a letter
  • Decide on Senza Ritmo
  • Package up and return frisbees (partial)
  • Decide on red wine night
  • Cleaning out the office (some)
  • Get answer about data card for air machine
  • Write onlinelabels about an applicator
  • Pay two recent bills online
  • Test out Where’s My Droid (10:30)
  • Trying uploading Ted’s website via Total Commander
  • Fix Ted’s website – spaces, links to photos
  • Return air machine via UPS
  • Fiddle with ebay Turbo Lister for upcoming sales
  • Clean out small section of pantry closet
  • Check out Olympus batteries and parts online
  • Plenty of other petty chores
Are these things part of the big picture? Are they part of moving the long-term priorities forward? Or just filling up time? Where is the little book about — found it — “Anything You Want -40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur” by Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby. Can he help me define my big picture?

2012-01-09

Slept late (8:30?) as usual. Saw Richard out and about. A little computer fiddling, helped Susan with you tube channel and logo. Post office, storage (grab wines), Papa Murphy’s pizza, grab beer (for National Championship game), shop Ace for something to help apply CD labels, unpack warrantied CPAP machine, call them about SD card, post office, pick up and mail off health insurance claim form, bit of lunch, play with dog, Cheryl via FB chat and phone about flute convention and stuff, walk and frisbee the dog. Now it’s 4:15.

Installed lightbox onto Ted’s website, both a pop-up for the star student screenshot and a sample on the photo page.

Still trying to get the mind map done (or at least flushed out some more) so I can get focused on all the deferred stuff. And there is a lot of it.

Did a little searching for a keyboard after a call from Aunt Peggy about liking her old one better.

Watched College National Championship game. Walked the dog again. Late night in front of the TV needs to change.

2012-01-08

Seems easier to think about what went down yesterday rather than keep track all throughout a particular day. Spent some time shopping and making appetizers for Mark’s party. Dog went with me to Encina, we tossed the Frisbee around Foothill Middle School again and I had a little Taco Bell. In the morning I fiddled with researching and bidding on digital cameras for my upcoming class. Also prepared an insurance claim form and started to “mind map” my current state of affairs.

Today I got up late after the scotch night, showered and went off to quintet practice. Amy poked around for a flute/oboe/guitar piece that we may try with her husband next week. I checked with Paul on horn and he would be interested in playing some quintets with Peter on clarinet. Now to recruit an oboist and bassoonist.

Stopped off on the way home and bought a sandwich at the Italian deli, Genoa. Loaded Tap up into the truck, drove up to Castle Rock Park, ate lunch and took a nice long walk/hike with the dog. Came back, unloaded, fiddled a bit with the computer, and here it is, almost 5:00 pm.

2012-01-07

Birthday party tonight at Mark’s for Mark. This version will be a single malt scotch edition, trying his Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

Seems like I don’t get anything done during the day. So I thought I would jot some thoughts. What did I do yesterday?

Bring up all the trash cans. Get a haircut. Finish deploying new wireless telephones. Put away extra cables. Organize and put away Susan’s suitcases. Unload the dishwasher. Take the F150 down – Dante kindly fixed the tailgate. Power clean the dog hair and other accumulations out of the F150. Take the dog in the truck while the gardener was working (the gardener and dog don’t get along splendidly). Use the trek to recycle light fluorescent light bulbs. Pick up a book at the library. Research and work on the presentation problems for Ted’s website caused by internet explorer (finally fixed most of the troubles with the max-width command). Walk the dog twice, once as a frisbee toss – ran into Dan Drew. Second time let dog run around Foothill fields. Unload the dishwasher. Cook dinner. Load up dishwasher. Organize all old phones for recycling. Research digital cameras on the web. Do a little facebooking.