Star of the day: Juan Sebatian Veron

Congratulation to Juan Sebatian Veron, who just won South American footballer of the year!

Even though he didn't play that great at Man U, he's still one of the players I follow.

Issue of the day: invasion of privacy

I came across 2 news articles today and both have to do with invasion of privacy:
1) Georgia requires sex offenders to hand over passwords of online accounts.
2) Oregon governor proposes "mileage tax," which requires the use of GPS for tracking drivers.

Whoever says the big brother era hasn't arrived is in denial.

Musician of the day: Victor Wooten

My buddy forwarded a video of Victor Wooten (on bass) "dueling" with his brother (on guitar) live. Their tapping and slapping techniques are really amazing. And you don't see slapping with thumb on guitar very often.

While it's fun to watch, that's not the type of music Wooten puts on his records though. I listened to his CD "Soul Circus" (the only one with him as leader that I could find on Rhapsody) and most of the tracks are more "song" like (I guess melodic is the right word here) In fact, most features vocals. Among tracks that he appeared on, I really enjoy the instrumental "Liz & Opie" on the compilation CD "Sounds Of Wood & Steel 2"

For more instrumentals, you might want to check out his collaborator, another great bassist, Steve Bailey.

Issue of the day: Gaza violence

I don't always see eye to eye with the Pope but this time I do: Pope condemns Gaza violence

Would somebody listen to the man?

Musician of the day: Andrew York

While I was browsing videos of people playing Ibanez AEG 10 NE on YouTube (after uploading my own :D), I came across some solo guitar works composed by Andrew York.

I went look for his stuff on Rhapsody and found him on two CDs: "An Evening With International Guitar night", and as guest artist on Joe LoPiccolo's "Passages." Interestingly, Rhapsody listed him under New Age Acoustic but he has written a lot of classical works too. I would probably have classified him as Contemporary Classical. In fact, he is better known as a member of the classical group LA Guitar Quartet.

Game of the day: Detroit vs Green Bay

Even though there are so many NFL games that had playoff implications today, my vote went to the one that featured 2 non-playoff teams but made history. Yes, I'm talking about Detroit vs Green Bay. The Detroit Lions finished the season 0-16! No one had a worse record than them ever. What interested me the most is this question: was that a result of not playing hard enough or they have tried their best but their talent level is just not up to par? The irony is: no player on that team want to admit either, I guess.

Album of the day: Circle in the Round

"Circle in the Round" is probably not the most famous album by Miles Davis. In fact, as a Miles fan, today I heard this double album for the first time. The reviewer at Rhapsody think these tracks are "damaged goods" but I don't think they are that bad. The title track sounds exactly like a precursor to his electric/fusion era. And "Love for Sale" is from the lineup with Coltrane. Basically they are a bunch of tracks from 55-70 that are left out of other albums for some reasons.

Musician of the day: Incendio

This is the first post in the series "post of the day." It would be about music I listened to, websites I visited, articles I read, things I condemned, issues I paid attention to, ... etc.

Through the excellent free music web site Pandora, I discovered a world music/fusion guitar trio, Incendio. In their bio they mentioned distinguishing themselves from new flamenco artists like Ottmar Liebert and Jesse Cook. Well, Incendio sounds very much new flamenco to me, which is definitely not a bad thing.