Wednesday, August 26, 2009



No more waiting, Lavay Smith and her boyfriend, Chris Siebert have finally released their new album, Miss Smith to you! They have been talking about this for the last several years, and it's finally done. The album is a bit of a divergence from their past albums, and is a bit more bluesy. I'm still listening to it so I don't have a review yet, but check it out! They don't do bad music, and you won't be disappointed.


Update 9/12/09 - I now have the album, and I must say it's wonderful. Lavay's voice is distinctive and strong, but she purrs like a kitten when she wants and it's hard not to be entranced. My wife and I saw Lavay and the band play a few weeks ago at Enrico's in San Francisco (they play there almost every Monday night), and it happened to be the birthday of one of their trumpet players, Allen Smith. Allen has played with Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and many of the heavy hitters, and is a true icon. In addition to the normal trio and Lavay (drums, upright bass, piano), they added a saxophone, a trombone, and bongos player as the night went on, and we spent the night watching several swing dancers in their 20's beautifully and skillfully tear up the floor with some 8-count dancing. Buy the album, it deserves a place on your hi-fi.

Lavay Smith Link
Amazon.com album link

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Shorts



I'm a big fan of film director Robert Rodriguez, who did the El Mariachi movie series, Planet Terror, and the Spy Kids Trilogy. His movies are straightforward and fun (if a bit gory at times), and I like that he handles his career mostly on his own terms. I especially like that he does both adult thriller and kid-focused movies, and I watch both with equal enthusiasm. He has a new movie coming out soon called SHORTS, which I hope to see, I encourage you to also.

SHORT link

For some real fun, rent his DVDs and watch some of the special features. Different movies have different features, but he includes things like a 10-minute film school and 10-minute cooking school.

In terms of music, I recently downloaded the soundtrack to the movie Oceans 11. My favorite song, 160$ million Chinese Man.

Cheers everyone,

Dan

Monday, August 3, 2009

Forgive me - confession


I know, I know, I'm a bad, bad blogger and haven't kept up with my posts. Well, it's time to get back on track, and I hope to do better next time.

That being said, I have LOTS of ideas for new posts. My goal is to do at least 2 a month, maybe even on a week on average. I'll post when I can, and will do my best to keep up with everything. Now on to the good stuff.

Remember Todd Murray? Who I showcased in a previous post? Well, I just had the opportunity to see him sing. It's a long story, but Todd is from a small town and I'm from a small town close to his, so when he made a pilgrimage home to sing I heard about it and attended. I think most of the town was there. He's a wonderful singer and a charming person, after signing a CD for my daughters they spent the rest of the evening enamored with him and we've been listening to him ever since. Please do check out his website and buy a CD, you won't be disappointed. I own both, but am particularly fond of Stardust and Swing.

Todd Murray

By the way, I DID actually complete the tiki bar. Check it out here and all the rest of the forum while you're at it.

tiki bar
tiki bar build it yourself link

Cheers everyone, more music coming in the future.

Dan