This one is from Göteborg and Björkö, Sweden…

This one is from Antwerp, Belguim…

And this one is a few odds and sods from other places in Europe and the UK.

I also have appeared on a couple of Newsgang Live podcasts while I’ve been over here…

Newsgang Live 7/03/08

Newsgang Live 7/01/08

Newsgang Live 6/30/08

Newsgang Live 6/20/08

Well, a post is in the works believe it or not… hope to have it posted in the next day or so.

Hamburg, Germany

The lack of visible writing
Does not mean a poet’s heart has stopped beating
When the phases begin to bleed out in emails and web updates
A time to wonder why I haven’t put pen to paper
For my most honest art
Where my love and fear cannot be hidden

Why do we turn on the things that bring us comfort
The things that feed our deeper self, that sweep away the selfish
Denying our voice to be heard, for others to have a chance to know
Part of what we really think, how we feel what we see and see what we feel?

Even to step out of the room for a while
That feeling of not fitting in, language, class, culture
The signs of your kind behind closed doors
Drifting smoke and wadded black gaff in the hall
Jettisoned from a shoe, gathered, carried, dropped, forgotten

Your clothes and face have people change their language mid-sentence
Until you begin the dance of minimal words and gestures
Caught when your limits show, no shame other than the person selling you water
Being better educated than you
The ancient trusses of the looming station reverberate with rubbing metal and bored announcements
And you can’t capture the feeling with your phone camera

Have you been there? Have you seen beauty alone?
Did you wish you could share it or fear you were the only one
Who wanders lost, still alive in some ways, the others gone
So comfortable in foreign scale, walking at my own pace
My path would confuse or anger some but alone it is just where I’m going

Does the sound of the train pulling away make you feel anything
Anything that you would want to admit?
I wonder where my heart is, what it is doing
And then a shadow crosses a wall
And the light does something new
And what is old is new again
And then you know that your heart never really left
You just stopped trying to walk through each day
The disconnect between your life and love a weight
You didn’t want to carry

To allow the song back into your heart
And the artist’s eyes to see
Not a pack mule or a bridge support
Living, feeling, the need to express
These angles that give me pause, elements crossed so I can understand
My path as I wander

No, I’m not from around here
I’m not from around anywhere anymore
A well paid vagabond
A word used for drunks, hobos and Walt Whitman
I guess I can live with that
I just want to be able to write my momentary truth again
And share the sounds of a train station or the reflection of running water
And be who I’m meant to be.

Back from a great trip to Colorado and the first batch of photos is up at my flickr site…

This post is being instigated again by my attention to Steve Gillmor and the various gangs he convenes. Due to the passion and intelligence of his collected groups, I find myself again stimulated to write when other things like work, travel and the day-to-day mundane moments have left me feeling flat and without anything to add to the conversation (or the noise…). As usual, in my creative writing I find myself with things that interest me crashing around in my head like hooky songs or shopping carts filled with soaking wet clothing mixed with plaster and broken glass. It often takes 2 or 3 items to appear to cause me to see a connection either in the network or the collective unconscious sense (is there a difference?)

I was listening to the Gillmor Gang from 5/31 with the guys from FriendFeed and began to realize that the participants had very clear (and different) priorities in what they were looking for in a Twitter or Twitter-like experience. Track, RealTime, Aggregation, OpenID, Conversation… all these issues/features had their reps and seemed to me that this combination of people was perfect for this conversation. The FriendFeed guys were great, clear as to what they were doing and open to the ideas presented to them. There was a moment or two when an idea was shared when you could sense that they really didn’t get it at first; not because it wasn’t made clear or they couldn’t understand, but I propose because of the fact that their focus becomes so tight on what they are trying to accomplish that it’s somewhat outside of where their heads have been at.

I know these are smart people; often the smartest people I’ve met are capable of focusing in on a problem or a goal and everything else falls away. So much brain power is used up in trying to accomplish it that everyday or common sense things just don’t find a place in their RAM. It doesn’t matter if it is a developer trying to solve a coding issue, a writer trying to get a point across to someone else or a musician trying to get what he hears in his head to become what he wants his audience gets to hear; you often have to remind them to eat or put their pants on before they leave the house.

The passion and focus of people can be remarkable in tech, the arts or business. Many partnerships happen when an idea person works with someone who has the ability to put the nuts and bolts of a project together, often having to explain to the idea person that the limitations of current technology (or money) haven’t reached the level of their idea yet. When adding business to the equation, scaling becomes an issue. If you have more clients, more chapters, more trucks, more guitars, you have to have a plan that considers the practical execution of the idea. I’ve often said that my job in touring is more of being a reality liaison than technician. You never want to limit what your client wants to accomplish but sometimes you have to find a workaround in order to pull it off until you can find the best way to give them what they want…or allow them to realize what they asked for is not currently available in this reality.

I respond better to poets than to orators; I respond better to comedians than to newscasters. Other smart, cultured, successful people are just baffled when things are presented to them in ways other than what they are used to. As much as I’ve been told that my poetry is conversational, I’ve even had parts of my own family tell me they don’t “get it”. This being told to me by the person who introduced me to abstract art, jazz, classical Indian music and the Firesign Theatre, you realize it’s a matter of focus and vocabulary. Often the response can be angry and blunt, defying all of the subtlety they may have in a boardroom or a concert hall.

I mention this because of the response to Steve Gillmor’s post at TechCrunch, “Plan B”. Hell, to any of his posts since he moved over there… here is someone who is using the same language and the same words that most of us do to transmit his ideas to others. Is it the syntax, the construction, the rhythm of how he writes that creates so much ire from the commenter’s? Is it because it isn’t just sound bites, flow charts and a beat you can dance to? According to the Feedburner badge on the site there are over 3/4’s of a million subscriptions to Techcrunch (and considering how many people STILL don’t use RSS and aggregators , the number must be higher), people who choose to go there because of an interest in what they share. The head Crunch has his style, his minions theirs and Steve has one that causes some to storm out of the room while I smile and continue to expand my thoughts on a given issue.

(A slight disclaimer for me as I am a fan of his work, before the Gang and after Techcrunch and I am one of THOSE people who call into Newgang Live, love Twitter, miss the IM/gTalk bridge and think that what he says is extremely valuable, whether he’s right or not….)

I love to hear people who are both idea people and have a concept of practical solutions discuss things with one another. I called in today for Newsgang Live and it started off as a political conversation and then shifted over to tech. I started bringing up the points I’m making here and got a little pushback from Steve for possibly painting him into an abstract distressionist corner. I think I was a little misunderstood in how I worded my statements, not that things are abstracted or pixellated to confuse the issue (though getting into the syntax conversation with Steve, a new interesting way to use words to filter the stream becomes apparent, see the podcast, Newsgang Live 6/2/08) but often you have to pull back to get the resolution to see what it going on. You can be too close to something to see the big picture clearly.

It angers me to see commenter’s swipe at him for his style (or worse, his person) but they have put their eggs in another basket of vocabulary, currency, material or gadget. Want to see want Mike says mean about a startup? Read his post. Want to know when that shiny new phone is coming out? Click on that one. Don’t get it? Skip it, unfollow. At the end of the day, some people like to watch Charlie Rose and others like to watch Friends. They don’t want to be challenged or asked to think after a hard says work. I totally understand.

These two things have a lot to do with one another in that people want what they want and discard the rest. If Twitter can figure out how to get the IM/Track/Syntax gate reopened and stable, they are in a remarkable position to shape how business and individuals can receive and transmit focused information. The experience of having this service for a time on multiple platforms in real time was both fascinating and useful. I sense that the ability for a person’s content to be shared in different formats on different platforms in both real time and an aggregated history will give artists, writers, businessmen and just plain folks a way to be connected in a way that will hopefully be more nourishing and productive, the community that has been lost perhaps reconnecting again and bringing our voice to the conversation within our own areas and across the world. We need to let the vendors know what is important to us, allow our creativity to shape how these tools can help us accomplish what need and give them the input they require to figure it out.

Or, I’ll see you in the dog pile, where nothing changes.

Today is one of those in-between days, one where you feel like you’re gaining on things while experiencing a loss, traveling to nowhere and yet sitting still.

The first part is quite sad in that Danny Federici, the Organist with the E Street Band, passed away after a 3 year fight with Melanoma.

We got word last night as we were getting ready for bed, expecting to be at work this morning in Ft. Lauderdale. That show and tomorrow’s in Orlando have been postponed; we are now rolling to Tampa for Monday’s show.

As I work the stage left side of things and that, believe it or not, the two sides of the stage are like different worlds that exist side by side at the same time. I really didn’t know him all that well. I listened to the delicate touches he put into the songs and saw the energy his playing gave the guy up front. I have had the good grace to tour with some pretty serious organ players; it is not a simple thing to do well. He could and did, all the way up to a few weeks ago when he sat in with the band in Indy.

Loss is cumulative; I found that out in 2005 when we lost my brother and Sterling within 2 weeks of each other. Then each loss just keeps knocking you down, until you find a way to process it, seeing it as the last act in every life, nothing personal, just part of the whole. It seems to always come in waves, but it might just be our perception.

At the same time, my participation in Twitter and other communities seems to be bringing new life to me. The stimulation of talking with new people about common ideas and being exposed to different points of view seems healthy after the repetitive back biting of the work place. Bitching may be the killer app for Twitter, but I find that the humor and perspective of these smart and engaged people making me want to stop coasting. Sure, the shit stirring and puppetry is entertaining, very much like the “Wind Up” on the road, thinning the herd, educating, ruthless in its non-stop badgering, tempers flaring, the joke nearly homicidal or suicidal at points, but part of the process of not getting caught in the malaise of the job, of life, of the current times.

(I love run-on sentences… a Pynchon fan.)

The thing that makes the nonsense worth it is that fact that smart people are communicating, ideas are being shared, jumps being made and rather than the glazed complacency of American Idol or Judge Whomever, people are engaged. I know that I go through periods of fallow behavior (uh, last podcast, Feb. 2007?) and joining a new community sometimes helps move you into action. Sometimes.

The feeling of casting aside hopelessness and doing something new is like becoming alive again, a chance to turn my brain on and be creative rather than silently simmering with resentments,fear and anger. I spent a long time in my early life trying to smother my intelligence either because of the mean actions of children (”I hate you; you use big words!”) or just trying to fit in with the gang (”Dude! Duuuuuuuuude!”), but I always feel better when I’m connected with the spiritual lifeforce and the thinkers of the world.

So, the puppet has its place and so does Blockhergate; as long as we continue to think and question and communicate, there’s room for all in the conversation.

Well, a few days off clear across the country on the sandy edge of the Atlantic. I went out and took a few shots today to prove it which you can find in a set at my flickr site…

I also had the time to participate in a recording of Newsgang Live with a great group of people, discussing tech and politics; you can access the audio file here…

Newsgang Live 04.16.08

I suspect with tomorrow not being a show day that more content might find its way here…when I start talking to really smart and engaged people, I start thinking about content again… funny that.

oh, by the way, a few of today’s participants (Queen of Spain, Karoli) besides being Twitterers, are part of the Blogher network. They are raising money for some very important causes that don’t get enough attention, so go take a look over this a way…

The group of people he chooses to surround himself with are all rather brilliant or driven or both. The strange amalgam of mufflers (nuts, bolts and enterprise) and Ferraris (web 2.0, mobile tech, gestures) creates a verbal and brain stretching stew that entertains and challenges me. It’s not for everyone; it also takes chances with its loose format that allows it to either find the high ground of extrapolation or fracture into dead horse flogging.

This is where I first heard Doc Searls, Hugh Macleod and others take these seemingly unrelated pieces of tech news and fit them together into something I’d never even thought of before. In a community and workspace where thinking is frowned upon, here were guys who took an hour a week to brainstorm and let us listen in.

I’ve always found that playing music, creating art and working with people who are at a higher level than you often brings your game up to a new level. We are so often scared to look like an idiot or be told we’re wrong, that our ideas are not valid and someone challenging your comments was not a learning experience but shaming in some way. Yeah, just be a big fish in a little pond and be Mr. Know-it-all.

When Steve’s last incarnation, the Gillmor Gang just stopped, I wasn’t surprised but I was disappointed. I sensed these people would keep talking to one another, keep the conversation going. It was only a matter of whether we would get to hear it again out in the general population.

And back they came. Through one of their conversations a variation occurred. Steve opened up the conference call to the listeners and a second daily show was born. His Newsgang application became the paper I browse (and strangely, contribute to). I was a little apprehensive about calling into Newsgang Live the first time and wondered if I would be drummed out as a faker or no-nothing. It turns out that my voice and thoughts were enough. I shared my opinion and joined the conversation, for better or worse.

Today I decided to call in again and it was a combo of the Gang regulars and the listeners. The conversation started in one place and followed the path it was meant to take. I at one point began to feel a little bullied when Arrington proclaimed that anyone who didn’t own an iPhone shouldn’t be on the call. I don’t and have my reasons for now. A strange thing happened. I felt as if I belonged in the moment if nothing else, a voice, an opinion, not needing to agree with anyone. Being a chronic people pleaser, it was a refreshing experience. I may not know as much as some of the callers about software development and business enterprise, but I certainly am a user, have my own unique experiences and can add something to the conversation.

A link to today’s podcast is here…

And the feeds for Steve’s current projects can be found here…

Look through the Newsgang site and get a sense of what a different experience it is. I honestly don’t know how much of a mook I come off as when I do this, but as of right now as I’m writing this, I don’t care. You can only lurk so long.

Bob Sweet is someone who has made quality guitar effects for some time now, under his Sweet Sound label. His Mojo Vibe and Ultra Vibe pedals are what he is best known for. He is in the midst of a big challenge right now as he is battling cancer and sadly like many Americans, doing so without insurance. The guitar community is doing what it can to help him out including some auctions of quality effects on ebay; some of them are signed as well.

Mike Piera (Analog Mike) from Analog Man Effects contacted me about Bob’s challenge and asked me to pass on the word about one particular auction. When he visited me in Hartford to help me with a tone issue, he brought one of his mighty Sun Lion pedals to be signed for auction. It is the LAST original version of this effect, a collectors item already. As it was the first day of the leg and a little bit crazy, I was only able to get Nils to sign it for him, but, ever the charitable man, he signed a few of his own CD’s and a DVD to include in the auction.

The auction is going on now and ending soon. Here’s a way to get great tone, some collectible recordings and to help a brother out. Here’s Mike’s link to his website and the Bob Sweet auction…

Analog Man Bob Sweet Auction 

…and a direct link to the ebay auction…

It’s also not the only auction going on for him right now as other pedal makers are doing the same…

All Bob Sweet Ebay Auctions 

I am just a newcomer when it comes to so much of what the guitar world has to offer. The ax and pedal collectors and tone quest types always seemed like a small obsessed clique to me, their own language and fetishes… well, all collectors do. I, not being a guitar player, didn’t understand the subtleties. Professionally I have had to begin to listen a little bit harder in order to be of better help to my clients. If it means sitting in a room and listening to the different qualities of old 6L6 vacuum tubes with  amp expert Bob Dixon or annoying my co-workers by switching back and forth between Leslie pedals until I decide which one sounds better, I guess I’m now willing to do it.

As for a plug for Analog Mike, I really dig his pedals, his modifications and most of all, the fact that as part of this community of engineers/music lovers/(guitar)gear heads, he’s putting his time and effort into helping out someone in this small community that others would think of as a competitor. It speaks volumes and sounds good to me. Be sure to visit his page and try out his stuff when you’re at a quality music store.

Analog Man Effects 

(by the way, I have learned more about vintage effects from reading the book “Analog Man’s Guide To Vintage Effects” which you can buy here…)

For those of you who don’t follow my other info streams, here’s a note to let you know I’ve posted some new photos taken today in Omaha over at my flickr site…

When you see a band onstage you take for granted that you will hear what comes out of their instruments, as long as it’s working properly or they are actually playing it. The band often runs around, from one end of the stage to the other, interacting with the crowd, playing to the left, to the right, to the back. Compared to the early rock days when performers were lashed to their amps and standing still in the front of microphones, the freedom of wireless mics and transmitters gives both the musician and the audience a closer and more animated experience. In the past 15 years as well, the performers have been able to improve their experience by using wireless ear monitors, which usually have custom fitted ear molds that provide them with a mix of what they need to hear in order to play, be in pitch and interact with the others onstage. In my case, I use wireless ear monitors to be able to hear what is going on for my clients as far as function, quality and tuning while being able to continue to work in the shadows to be ready for the next tune.

Tours become more high tech and elaborate every year. We often end up being the R&D department for certain tech as we use it in real time, real world conditions, indoor and out, hot, cold, dry, rainy, 110 volts, 220 volts, 60 cycles, 50 cycles… we pack it, move it, drop it, pick it up and see if it works. As reliability is a must, things that fail have a very short life with the road crew with very few exceptions.

At the start, a lead singer might have had a wireless mic so he or she could croon to the audience. Then the guitar player really wanted to pose out in front of the PA speakers (or not trip over his cable after a few adult beverages). The wireless manufacturers began to use different frequency ranges to improve sound quality and reliability as different parts of the spectrum are regulated for certain use. You might remember the scene from “Spinal Tap” when Nigel’s guitar begins to pick up the control tower when they play at the military base. TV, radio, police communications, taxis, CB’s, walkie talkies, cell phones, wifi, cordless telephones and radio controlled toys all have specific frequencies that they are supposed to operate in, which are regulated by the government. It is different in each country; in the US it is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission.

With the audio wireless equipment that has been available for 10 or 15 years, manufacturers would use a range of about 20 mHz for a series, giving the user a very wide selection of frequencies to choose from, especially as they travelled they could be “frequency agile” and adapt to different wireless traffic in each city. That way Nigel would never pick up the control tower as long as his roadie wasn’t asleep at the wheel. It also allowed sound companies and bands to use more wireless, placing channels in groups so they wouldn’t interfere with each other.

It was not unusual on a large tour to use 50 or 60 channels of wireless onstage for mics, back ups, all manner of instruments, ear monitors for players, dancers (and even management!!!) and the band and sound techs as well. In certain places this required a lot of thought and channel changing when the radio traffic was high. Some tours actually employed a specific person as a “wireless cop” to scan each building, determine clean frequencies, interface with the local government and building people and assign specific channels to make it all work.

With the advent of digital television, the FCC began licencing broadcasters to send TV signals in the UHF range in this new format. Being that the resolution of both the video and audio is much higher, it uses more bandwidth as it is “broadband”. In fact it uses 6 mHz of space, which is over 5 times more than a typical channel. I began to see segments of the musical wireless space become very crowded over 5 years ago, especially in larger markets like Chicago and LA.

OK, plenty of technical stuff here but bare with me.

In 2003, I had a situation where we played multiple shows at Giants Stadium. Between the 3rd and 4th show the channels where I had the bass guitar assigned became unusable. I was put in touch with the person who handles wireless for the stadium and be tried to get to the bottom of the transmission that was interfering with the bass. I found out then the level of traffic was much higher than I ever imagined. Giants Stadium uses nearly 500 different channels of radio during an music or sports event. For security, vendors, maintenance, all levels of their infrastructure had communications. They had assignments for TV, the NFL officials, even the radio stations broadcasting from the tail gate parties in the parking lot were on their list. When they are doing a national TV broadcast for a football game, they don’t want errors. Factoring in our onstage and offstage communications, the total was closer to 560 total channels of wireless.

The stadium rep found out through the FCC that a person had been assigned a temporary license to broadcast digital television in the neighboring town for 30 days in the exact same range, beginning on our day off. What a difference a day makes. The clout of the stadium and of the performer meant nothing to the FCC as the other guy had paid for a broadcast licence. We don’t actually pay for a licence in the US; audio wireless is considered licenced but secondary to DTV.

I had more units on order in a different frequency range that luckily arrived that day and I used them instead. I had ordered them because each city was getting harder and harder to find open airspace. The manufacturers were already building 2 new frequency ranges because they knew the problem was coming and the $30,000 worth of gear we had bought was going to be unusable someday soon.

That day might be this year… anytime between now and 2/19/09.

(If you want to see how the airspace is divvied up currently, look at this chart which is in a previous post with a link to a larger res PDF…)

A majority of the wireless gear we use operates in the 700 mHz frequency range, either totally or partially. We use different ranges from different vendors. As of Feb. 19, 2009, when analog television broadcast stops in the US, all bets are off.

The frequency auction you may or may not have heard about is referred to as “Auction 73″. Part of the spectrum reallocation will go to public safety. The US government is selling the rights to part of this area of the airwaves to the highest bidder and expect to generate 10 billion dollars in license fees. That will cover about 5 weeks of costs in Iraq, by the way. The telecoms and Internet companies want this spectrum to expand the abilities of mobile communication as the need/want for broadband mobile begins to grow.

The audio wireless mic business does not have quite the clout as the telecoms and internet companies but have banded together to try to save a little bit of space for entertainment and other audio uses (conferences, trade shows, churches, sporting events, anywhere you would use a wireless mic) in what the government refers to as the “White Spaces.” Here is a paragraph from the Shure page I have linked about the government’s intent:

…the FCC is also studying the possibility of allowing unlicensed devices to use future “unoccupied” TV channels, which policymakers now refer to as the “white spaces“. These unlicensed devices fall into two categories – fixed and portable – and include such items as wireless broadband services, wireless multimedia systems, PDAs, and cordless telephones. Currently, these products operate in other radio frequency bands, such as 2.4 GHz. The FCC’s proposed date for allowing unlicensed devices to operate in the new core TV band is February 17, 2009, in conjunction with completion of the DTV transition.

Yikes. That stuff is coming over too? Getting really crowded…

From another Shure page comes this info from the government of how the DTV situation effect us…

Here is a brief summary of how the FCC plans to implement Digital Television service:

• The FCC has established a “transition period” which will last through February 19, 2009. During this time, existing TV stations will be assigned a second TV channel on which they will begin broadcasting in the new digital format. This means that some television channels that are now vacant may be filled. Wireless microphones operating on these TV channels may or may not encounter interference from the DTV station’s signal.
• During the transition period, public safety agencies will begin to use TV channels 63 - 64 (764 - 776 MHz) and 68 - 69 (794 - 806 MHz) for two-way radio communications. As these frequencies gradually become busier, wireless microphones operating on these TV channels may encounter occasional interference.
• After February 19, 2009, TV channels 60 - 62 (746 - 764 MHz) and 65 - 67 (776 - 794 MHz) will be opened up for use by new commercial wireless services. Licenses for these new services will be awarded by competitive bidding. Some of these auctions have already occurred, but the winners will not be able to use this spectrum until it has been vacated by the television broadcasts.

So our gear has a lifespan due to commerce and government regulation… not very rock and roll.
We already have seen how things not in the frequency range effect us, either through harmonic or sheer numbers of transmitters. Ask around the music communities and see if you don’t hear the stories of how 55,000 raise their cellphones at once to let everyone at home hear the start of the show and the wireless mics take a “drop” or a “hit”. GSM phones and the ever-checking-the-cloud Blackberry sound great when musicians leave them in their pockets and come through a guitar amp on 11. Recently I’ve been hearing that the iPhone will cause total “drops” on wireless and some tours won’t let them be turned on around the stage during the show. There are so many wifi repeaters, cell phones, PDA’s and smartphones, EVDO cards that when something happens we don’t have a clear answer as to what caused the problem. In speaking to some of the most experienced people in the field, they don’t always have an answer to the whys… “it’s all voodoo,” one said. The companies have stopped supporting the older, soon to be obsolete audio wireless gear not only to get us to buy the new stuff but so that they are not spending resources on anything that will be worthless or problematic soon.

Hey, we’ll always find a workaround for those who need to “be free”. Audiophiles have found their way back to guitar cords and though the idea of bluetooth guitar wireless is something that just gives me the night sweats, some guy is pondering how to solve the problem. As someone who is connected to my Blackberry all the time and wishing that the browsing speeds were better, I’m not totally against them getting the space to use. I just hope they keep a little area for us to keep on rockin’ in.