Sunday, September 16, 2018
Limited edition Steve Scott shirts
Limited edition t shirts celebrating the artistry of British poet/ songwriter Steve Scott are available until early October 2018 from RUCKUS wear. https://teespring.com/stores/ruckus-3
Monday, December 31, 2012
On the Babylonish Captivity of Barbershops
Washington State increasingly resembles an asylum run by the inmates. But anyone outside the walls can see the disastrous results of its misguided effort to combine barbering with cosmetology. In this the state was complicit, led with a ring in its nose by the vested interests of salons and haircut chains, hoping to quietly put the last nail in the last barber's coffin. They continued with a two-pronged attack: overburdening small barber shops with taxes while subjecting them to useless and irrelevant requirements and inspections by-- who else?-- cosmetologists. And this in a state so enlightened as to legalize marijuana and privatize liquor sales.
Outside the embattled state, barbering thrives as a free and flourishing profession-- one of the oldest-- with barber colleges, barber supply stores, and real barber shops in which barbers can make a living wage. These free citizens know that barbering has nothing to do with cosmetology, which is of, by, and for women. Barbering (from the word for 'beard') is by and for men. When, they wonder, will Washington give up its failed experiment, and end the years of misrule? When will it restore barbering as a proud and profitable profession, and raise the barber pole as a beacon for free men?
Outside the embattled state, barbering thrives as a free and flourishing profession-- one of the oldest-- with barber colleges, barber supply stores, and real barber shops in which barbers can make a living wage. These free citizens know that barbering has nothing to do with cosmetology, which is of, by, and for women. Barbering (from the word for 'beard') is by and for men. When, they wonder, will Washington give up its failed experiment, and end the years of misrule? When will it restore barbering as a proud and profitable profession, and raise the barber pole as a beacon for free men?
Friday, December 14, 2012
How to Ruin Yahoo E-Mail
I confess. I'm a rookie. My title is deceptive. I don't really know how to ruin e-mail. That would take experts like aol and hotmail who have made theirs so unworkable that the rats are daily jumping off the sinking ship. So I'll merely look at what Yahoo is doing to ruin their own e-mail, aol and hotmail apparently being their role models.
Even the most brain dead web surfer notices something odd about Yahoo headlines-- how what they call news is not news, how snarky they are, nearly incomprehensible, and most of all how they contain zero information. They will say something like, "The 3 things that help you lose weight" and never mention even one. Why? Because they're only there to make you click on the link and get to the advertising pages. They are only meant to push buttons so you'll click links.
This is, of course, deceptive, but it's nothing new. On newspapers, the headline writer is a higher editor than the reporter who writes the story, and reporters often hate what the HL writer writes. Also that they get more money. Yahoo apologetically calls itself the best free e-mail. They might like to just say "the best e-mail" but they'd much rather take out the "free". Since they can't, they must find other ways to hold their customers hostage, and they do. Since the headlines are only there to get you angry, there's no limit to how stupid they can be. Their "writers" need no fact checking, and rely on "recent polls" to give these fantasies some imagined clout. Knowing this, only an idiot would ever click on one and give them the satisfaction of showing that statistic to potential advertisers. I clicked one once, and wasn't surprised by the snarky tone and complete lack of factual information in the "story", which seems like a good word for their "news".
No one but Valley Girls and air-headed celebrities goes around saying OMG! but Yahoo has been so misled by their consultants as to actually claim the title. This enables their gossip "writers" --I choke on that title-- to pass judgement on models on the runway. As if they don't have enough problems with their divorces, the lure of tawdry baubels, unscrupulous clients, and the rumor mill known as the Internet, without everything they do being scrutinized under a microscope, probably by people themselves not known for any fashion sense. I'd like to see these models pronounce on Yahoo's "writers" instead-- "Oh my dear, where did you get that tent? At Walmart? And puce is not your color."
Who else would think it's news to beat down the losing presidential candidate when their own has already won? Never mind that the scrutiny of their so-called reporting never seems to extend to the highest office in the land, and the only way Hilary Clinton can get mentioned is by wearing the wrong dress. Anyone with an ounce of sensibility finds this simply distasteful. The "writers" seem to all be post-moderns, for whom knowledge is literally power, and nothing else. It's only something to beat people over the head with. It requires no context, and fortunately doesn't even have to be "true", a word post-moderns are loath to use. It seems incredible that they can think they are objective, that their ulterior motives remain ulterior, and their hidden agendas hidden. Which they don't.
Yahoo and its e-mail are following the worst examples on the Internet, cable, and in advertising. The reason is they don't understand how media works. And they think they do. They've been convinced they're doing well by their million dollar consultants. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Get on with the smoke and mirrors." Or go the Mac way of Steve Jobs. Make it smaller, cleaner, more aesthetic, more human, easier, better. But you can't until you understand media. To see what not to do, go to Pandora or You Tube. You need to know, Toyota, that that ad they make me watch before I can go to my song or video has made me hate you and I will never buy your cars. You need to know that this is anti-advertising, regardless of what they put on their powerpoint sales charts. Your Mad Men are making us hate you.
Yahoo has the tackiest ads imaginable, not counting hotmail and aol, the worst being ones that move choppily as examples of the worst in animation. What do you expect? Did you think free e-mail was free? Yes I did. Because if you had some integrity,Yahoo, you'd get your karma back in good ways. It would mean something to you if you were Steve Jobs that you did a good job. And if it doesn't, I don't want any part of your tawdry e-mail. I certainly want to take all the "news" off my Y page that you make me go to in order to check my groups, the pages of which are already barraged with adverts. I can only hope that the next time someone says they have the best free e-mail, it's truly free.
Even the most brain dead web surfer notices something odd about Yahoo headlines-- how what they call news is not news, how snarky they are, nearly incomprehensible, and most of all how they contain zero information. They will say something like, "The 3 things that help you lose weight" and never mention even one. Why? Because they're only there to make you click on the link and get to the advertising pages. They are only meant to push buttons so you'll click links.
This is, of course, deceptive, but it's nothing new. On newspapers, the headline writer is a higher editor than the reporter who writes the story, and reporters often hate what the HL writer writes. Also that they get more money. Yahoo apologetically calls itself the best free e-mail. They might like to just say "the best e-mail" but they'd much rather take out the "free". Since they can't, they must find other ways to hold their customers hostage, and they do. Since the headlines are only there to get you angry, there's no limit to how stupid they can be. Their "writers" need no fact checking, and rely on "recent polls" to give these fantasies some imagined clout. Knowing this, only an idiot would ever click on one and give them the satisfaction of showing that statistic to potential advertisers. I clicked one once, and wasn't surprised by the snarky tone and complete lack of factual information in the "story", which seems like a good word for their "news".
No one but Valley Girls and air-headed celebrities goes around saying OMG! but Yahoo has been so misled by their consultants as to actually claim the title. This enables their gossip "writers" --I choke on that title-- to pass judgement on models on the runway. As if they don't have enough problems with their divorces, the lure of tawdry baubels, unscrupulous clients, and the rumor mill known as the Internet, without everything they do being scrutinized under a microscope, probably by people themselves not known for any fashion sense. I'd like to see these models pronounce on Yahoo's "writers" instead-- "Oh my dear, where did you get that tent? At Walmart? And puce is not your color."
Who else would think it's news to beat down the losing presidential candidate when their own has already won? Never mind that the scrutiny of their so-called reporting never seems to extend to the highest office in the land, and the only way Hilary Clinton can get mentioned is by wearing the wrong dress. Anyone with an ounce of sensibility finds this simply distasteful. The "writers" seem to all be post-moderns, for whom knowledge is literally power, and nothing else. It's only something to beat people over the head with. It requires no context, and fortunately doesn't even have to be "true", a word post-moderns are loath to use. It seems incredible that they can think they are objective, that their ulterior motives remain ulterior, and their hidden agendas hidden. Which they don't.
Yahoo and its e-mail are following the worst examples on the Internet, cable, and in advertising. The reason is they don't understand how media works. And they think they do. They've been convinced they're doing well by their million dollar consultants. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Get on with the smoke and mirrors." Or go the Mac way of Steve Jobs. Make it smaller, cleaner, more aesthetic, more human, easier, better. But you can't until you understand media. To see what not to do, go to Pandora or You Tube. You need to know, Toyota, that that ad they make me watch before I can go to my song or video has made me hate you and I will never buy your cars. You need to know that this is anti-advertising, regardless of what they put on their powerpoint sales charts. Your Mad Men are making us hate you.
Yahoo has the tackiest ads imaginable, not counting hotmail and aol, the worst being ones that move choppily as examples of the worst in animation. What do you expect? Did you think free e-mail was free? Yes I did. Because if you had some integrity,Yahoo, you'd get your karma back in good ways. It would mean something to you if you were Steve Jobs that you did a good job. And if it doesn't, I don't want any part of your tawdry e-mail. I certainly want to take all the "news" off my Y page that you make me go to in order to check my groups, the pages of which are already barraged with adverts. I can only hope that the next time someone says they have the best free e-mail, it's truly free.
Monday, September 3, 2012
The Best Place on Base
I lean back against the afghan draped over this couch. "Thanks for all you do!" reads one of the sewn together squares. Others similarly proclaim support for the troops. The walls are lined with shelves of books. On the far wall the shelves project at right angles from the wall. Wedged between are overstuffed recliners. In the farthest one away now, a troop sits in PT gear, legs up on the extended footrest, laptop on his lap, headphones on his head, in some private Nirvana-- watching a movie perhaps, or playing a game online, or most likely, checking e-mail, that vital link to home. Sometimes someone with an iPad or laptop sits Skyping. Then you can hear them also, as they speak softly with a distant wife or loved one back home.
In the next chair, with the recliner all the way back, some tired troop, perhaps from an aircrew, alternately gazes in a book from the shelf and dozes off. There are also a few magazines scattered on a table in the center of cosy easy chairs and a welcoming couch. The Sunday, color comics section from Stars and Stripes, a newspaper for troops overseas, prominently displays "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Beetle Bailey" on the front page.
The best thing about this space is what isn't here. The overhead flourescent lights, so insistent and intrusive everywhere else on Base, remain off. Only a few torchiere-style floor lamps lend a soft glow-- enough the read by, but lapsing here and there into shadows and blessed darkness. The other thing so evidently absent is a TV. There are a half dozen flat screens always playing in the chow hall. The morale tents are built around them, despite the fact that most people there have their own earphones in and are engrossed in their own computers. Luckily, most of these TVs are tuned to ESPN or some other sports channel, rather than the violent action shows and movies meant to grab your attention as you surf by evident on other screens.
I'm not sure how many people read books in this space. We're told, after all, that people nowadays are post-literate. They don't choose to read a book given other entertainment options. If they did so choose, they'd read it on a Kindle or other e-Book reader. Oddly enough, in my brief forays to this place of peace, I've not seen anyone reading a Kindle. Of course, they could be reading a book on some Kindle app on an iPhone, or a laptop or numerous other devices. Or they may be doing so while a TV is on somewhere else, or amid a movie on someone's computer blaring out from a tinny speaker. Maybe they are so much better than I at blocking out other sounds, even from media designed to get your attention.
I'm writing this on an old G4 Apple laptop, I'm not reading a book now either. The reason is that it's a bit of a hike over here from the dorm/ trailer/ tent area where we bivouac. Unlike the nearby morale tent, however, this lounge has the strongest wifi signal on Base. Thus, it's a natural draw for anyone with a laptop, self included. Just outside the lounge door is an anteroom with more inviting couches and the shrapnel from care packages collected in a big basket of various candies and mailable snacks.
Down the hall is the sanctuary, where on Sunday one can attend Mass, or during the week, gather with a few others in a much smaller room. There are many other sorts of services, and the worship band can be heard practicing for the Sunday contemporary service a few nights a week. Chaplains have their offices down the other hall, and drift silently through the carpeted room like benign phantoms. Off duty, I instinctively gravitate to this space, leaving the hurly burly outside, the closest place to home.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Great Scott! Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective: A Review
This collection, released in early 2012, is new in at least three ways. 1. It's the first time Steve Scott's music has appeared on MP3s. 2. It's the first collection to span 3. Steve's entire career to date. The limited edition CD includes notes on each song by Steve. Those asking, at this juncture, "Who's Steve Scott?" are invited to listen to the samples, and then rejoin the discussion. Completists may be saying, "I have scoured the earth to find and collect everything by Steve Scott. Why do I need this collection?" Answer: you don't. But without it, you won't have all the Steve Scott, will you? And there's never been an easier way for fans to turn their friends on to Steve.
That said, this collection is hardly typical. Steve's mid-80s album, "Love in the Western World", was nearly perfect, with all the songs nestling together in the vinyl grooves. That album is well represented in this collection. Sort of. The best-known songs are here presented in alt-versions, perhaps as a nod to the above collectors. Songs here are not presented chronologically, but they couldn't be, as alt versions usually come sometime after the standard versions. If you get the CD, you may think about song or track order, but with MP3 singles, of course, it doesn't matter. And the MP3 album is usually just a lower priced way to get all the singles. So I'll just give my brief impressions of each track.
1. Different Kind of Light. This is a crowd pleaser, here presented garage band fashion. The 77s covered it on their first album, "Ping Pong Over the Abyss", and I heard them, Vector, and Northbound play it as their finale live (one of the high points in my concert-going experience).
2. Emotional Tourist. The perfect marriage of Steve music and lyrics. Radio-friendly exploration of one of Steve's favorite topics: traveling. Somewhat a theme of the album.
3. Ghost Train. The other well-known and oft-requested standard. Covered by other bands live, many know it from long jams at the Cornerstone festival.
4. Not a Pretty Picture. Steve's Psychedelic Furs influence.
5. Love in the Western World. Faster, alt version of the title track of Steve's '80s album.
6. Sound of Waves. Sort of a pop song. Here in an alt version from a sampler that circulated in the UK (remember disco singles?).
7. Shadowplay. Another perfect song in the vein of the title track, with Asian musical influences, and a motif drawn from Steve's time in Bali.
8. Farthest Star. Steve unplugged (or almost so), in his haunting ballad mode. Covered live by Larry Norman in Europe.
9. Come Back Soon. Originally appeared on a multi-artist compilation from Sangre Records in the early '80s. One of many versions.
10. Empty Orchestra track. The only instrumental track included. From a mid '90s instrumental album. "Empty Orchestra" is the literal meaning of Karaoke. Listeners were encouraged to read Steve's poems from the enclosed lyric sheet, so as to become "Steve Scott for a day". Some of the poems were drawn from Steve's continuing series of sometime poetry/ travelogue chapbooks collectively called The Boundaries. The title of this poem is "Passages of the Heart".
11. This Sad Music. This was the centerpiece of Love in the Western World. It's a spoken word over music poem made by juxtaposing two different channels on American TV: a TV evangelist and a newscast about dying whales.
12. No Memory of You. This long spoken word over music piece clocks in at over twelve minutes. It was originally released on Steve's early '90s album, "The Butterfly Effect" on Mike Knott's Blonde Vinyl label. The album's lyrics were partly drawn from The Boundaries, and musically included on-location recording in Asia and Eastern Europe, ambient and found sounds, emulators, tape loops, sampling and many other techniques exotic for the time, but in common use today.
13. Beneath the Skin. The poem is from the first volume of The Boundaries, but the recording dates from the mid '90s.
14. Slow Motion Reflections. This and the last track are both spoken word over music, and come from "Crossing the Boundaries", a traveling art installation mounted by Steve with painter Gaylen Stewart. Recorded bird calls on the musical track echo the visual multi-media bird paintings by Stewart.
15. The Resurrection of the Body. "Crossing the Boundaries" originally included color pictures of Stewart's art the listener could look at while playing the tracks. My suggestion for listening to Steve's spoken pieces is to lie on the rug or sofa, close your eyes, and enjoy.
http://www.emotionaltourist.com
That said, this collection is hardly typical. Steve's mid-80s album, "Love in the Western World", was nearly perfect, with all the songs nestling together in the vinyl grooves. That album is well represented in this collection. Sort of. The best-known songs are here presented in alt-versions, perhaps as a nod to the above collectors. Songs here are not presented chronologically, but they couldn't be, as alt versions usually come sometime after the standard versions. If you get the CD, you may think about song or track order, but with MP3 singles, of course, it doesn't matter. And the MP3 album is usually just a lower priced way to get all the singles. So I'll just give my brief impressions of each track.
1. Different Kind of Light. This is a crowd pleaser, here presented garage band fashion. The 77s covered it on their first album, "Ping Pong Over the Abyss", and I heard them, Vector, and Northbound play it as their finale live (one of the high points in my concert-going experience).
2. Emotional Tourist. The perfect marriage of Steve music and lyrics. Radio-friendly exploration of one of Steve's favorite topics: traveling. Somewhat a theme of the album.
3. Ghost Train. The other well-known and oft-requested standard. Covered by other bands live, many know it from long jams at the Cornerstone festival.
4. Not a Pretty Picture. Steve's Psychedelic Furs influence.
5. Love in the Western World. Faster, alt version of the title track of Steve's '80s album.
6. Sound of Waves. Sort of a pop song. Here in an alt version from a sampler that circulated in the UK (remember disco singles?).
7. Shadowplay. Another perfect song in the vein of the title track, with Asian musical influences, and a motif drawn from Steve's time in Bali.
8. Farthest Star. Steve unplugged (or almost so), in his haunting ballad mode. Covered live by Larry Norman in Europe.
9. Come Back Soon. Originally appeared on a multi-artist compilation from Sangre Records in the early '80s. One of many versions.
10. Empty Orchestra track. The only instrumental track included. From a mid '90s instrumental album. "Empty Orchestra" is the literal meaning of Karaoke. Listeners were encouraged to read Steve's poems from the enclosed lyric sheet, so as to become "Steve Scott for a day". Some of the poems were drawn from Steve's continuing series of sometime poetry/ travelogue chapbooks collectively called The Boundaries. The title of this poem is "Passages of the Heart".
11. This Sad Music. This was the centerpiece of Love in the Western World. It's a spoken word over music poem made by juxtaposing two different channels on American TV: a TV evangelist and a newscast about dying whales.
12. No Memory of You. This long spoken word over music piece clocks in at over twelve minutes. It was originally released on Steve's early '90s album, "The Butterfly Effect" on Mike Knott's Blonde Vinyl label. The album's lyrics were partly drawn from The Boundaries, and musically included on-location recording in Asia and Eastern Europe, ambient and found sounds, emulators, tape loops, sampling and many other techniques exotic for the time, but in common use today.
13. Beneath the Skin. The poem is from the first volume of The Boundaries, but the recording dates from the mid '90s.
14. Slow Motion Reflections. This and the last track are both spoken word over music, and come from "Crossing the Boundaries", a traveling art installation mounted by Steve with painter Gaylen Stewart. Recorded bird calls on the musical track echo the visual multi-media bird paintings by Stewart.
15. The Resurrection of the Body. "Crossing the Boundaries" originally included color pictures of Stewart's art the listener could look at while playing the tracks. My suggestion for listening to Steve's spoken pieces is to lie on the rug or sofa, close your eyes, and enjoy.
http://www.emotionaltourist.com
Friday, January 20, 2012
Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective
24 Jan, 2012. The first day of the rest of your life. Also the first time Steve Scott's music has been available on MP3. Also the first day the same 15 tracks made their way out into the world in a limited edition CD. A big beginning for a big year. Sample tracks free at http://www.emotionaltourist.com. Or click the Steve Scott bone at http://www.alivingdog.com. This is the first collection to sample from all of Steve's stuff from the '80s and '90s. Is it a "Best of" collection? Not really, because the best-known songs are represented by alt. versions, and his spoken word over ambient sound loops experimental tracks are also represented. About his music and art, RadRockers.com said:
"British new wave dominates. Alternative classic rock with similarities to David Bowie, Roxy Music, the Police, and the 77s. A brilliant avant garde masterpiece with vocal inflections similar to Lou Reed."
"Steve Scott's expansive, evocative lyrics are supported by music that's alternately rocking and dreamily atmospheric, venturing successfully into exotic stylistic territory. This remarkable collection, drawn from recordings made between 1983 and 1998, makes a persuasive case for Steve Scott's status as a true original." -Scott Shinder.
"Been there, done that, or doing it tomorrow, British poet/ musician Steve Scott plays havoc with the three Ps of oietry, prose, and performance, juxtaposing them in new and exciting ways." -Counter Culture.
"A uniquely gifted musical poet? One thing you cannot do with Steve Scott is categorise him. " -Peter Banks, After the Fire.
"British new wave dominates. Alternative classic rock with similarities to David Bowie, Roxy Music, the Police, and the 77s. A brilliant avant garde masterpiece with vocal inflections similar to Lou Reed."
"Steve Scott's expansive, evocative lyrics are supported by music that's alternately rocking and dreamily atmospheric, venturing successfully into exotic stylistic territory. This remarkable collection, drawn from recordings made between 1983 and 1998, makes a persuasive case for Steve Scott's status as a true original." -Scott Shinder.
"Been there, done that, or doing it tomorrow, British poet/ musician Steve Scott plays havoc with the three Ps of oietry, prose, and performance, juxtaposing them in new and exciting ways." -Counter Culture.
"A uniquely gifted musical poet? One thing you cannot do with Steve Scott is categorise him. " -Peter Banks, After the Fire.
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