I changed a setting on the website feed parameters yesterday during the static front page change, so everybody’s RSS feed got truncated – sorry about that. I changed it back to normal 
. (BTW I haven’t actually done the front page, it’s currently just a blank placeholder so don’t waste your time going to check it out.)
The whole point of a feed is so you don’t have to go to the website just to see what’s new, duh.
My bad, it’s fixed now.
Something that’s bothered me for long time is that when people go to my website for the first time, they typically go, “huh?”.
I don’t think I make it clear enough that I am primarily a musician, and what the main purpose of this site is for is to have a central repository of all of my music that people can download for free.
Having the “blog” on the root (or as the home page) of daveryder.com is cool in a way, because whenever people come here they see the latest blog entry (something new). But if it’s the FIRST time a person comes here, I get the feeling some people see something like Dog Pees For A LOOOOOONG Time and say “fuck this. I’m outta here.” and click away never knowing there is a ton of great free music just waiting to be downloaded.
So I changed the website: Now the Home Page is a static front page telling people what I’m all about and where to download the MUSIC, and the blog posts (including this one) are in a directory imaginatively named Blog. Everything else is the same (by which I mean lame heh) but my friends like it, so I guess I’ll keep it like this.
Why? Why not? It’s funny.
By Dave Ryder and Don Cole – angry about the oil spill disaster, we wrote this protest song as an indictment against the greed and failure of BP and ALL big oil corporations that failed to install proper safeguards on offshore drilling rigs. It is dedicated to the 11 men who lost their lives in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
>> The MP3 can be downloaded by clicking here.
>> Here are the lyrics. (The ASCII art is from this free online generator)
>> Here is the link to the video.
The really sad thing about this whole deal is that it all could have been avoided by installing an acoustic safety switch on the rig. These switches are mandatory on rigs drilling offshore of Norway and Brazil, but apparently “big oil” successfully lobbied (read: bribed) congress to not have to install them on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
They cost less than $500,000 – half a million bucks.
That kind of money is NOTHING to “big oil”. NOTHING. I bet Tony Hayward’s yacht cost more than that.
Here is a video explaining how Dick Cheney under the Bush administration fucked America over by letting the oil companies drill without these safeguards:
Here is the link to the video:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77pBcf0o444
Finally I want to post some facts I got from Wikipedia:
1. Up to 348,000,000 gallons leaked (and some people believe that is a conservative estimate) – that’s enough oil to fill the Rose Bowl stadium to the brim over 4 times.
2. The spill area covers as much as 9,100 square miles – here is satellite imagry:
3.The area closed of for fishing covers 36% of the gulf. Here is a map of the “No Fishing” zone: 
4. Researchers have identified oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots.
5. On 24 May, EPA administrator Jackson said the 700,000 US gallons of chemical dispersants already used was “approaching a world record”. Stating she was “dissatisfied with BP’s response” she ordered the EPA to conduct its own evaluation of alternatives, and ordered BP to scale back dispersant use.
6. As of 16 July, 2,624 dead animals had been collected, including 2,095 birds, 467 sea turtles, 61 dolphins and other mammals, and 1 reptile. Also, dolphins have been seen which are lacking food, and “acting drunk” apparently due to the spill. A reporter kayaking in the area of Grand Isle reported seeing about 60 dolphins blowing oil through their blow holes as they swam through oil-slick waters.
7. As BP was reported to be offloading billions of dollars in assets in preparation, some estimates suggested the total liability could amount to as much as US $100 billion (UK £67.5 bn) by the conclusion of the disaster.
$500,000 is starting to look pretty cheap, dumbasses.
Wow, I hope I look this good at 70:
Emily Singer writes a terrific review of his birthday bash all-star concert, you can read it here.
Apparently it was pretty special, his all star lineup was:
Wally Palmar – guitar, bass, harmonica, vocals
Rick Derringer – guitar, vocals
Edgar Winter – keyboards, saxophone, vocals
Gary Wright – keyboards, vocals
Richard Page – Bass, vocals
Gregg Bissonette – drums, vocals
Then his son Zak Starkey took over on drums for the classic With A Little Help From My Friends, and some long time friends joined him on stage: Yoko Ono, Joe Walsh, Angus Young, Nils Lofgren, Jon Bon Jovi, Mick Jones, Steve Van Zandt, Brian Johnson, Max Weinberg, and Jeff Lynne to name a few.
It all culminated when none other than Paul McCartney surprised everyone when he came out onstage, gave Ringo a hug, and the band (with Ringo playing drums, of course) launched into Birthday!
One of our local TV channels KPLR 11 did a feature on this guys ultimate man cave:
Check out a photo gallery of it, it’s an amazing 3 stories and 17,000 square foot dwelling in a limestone cave:
Time and time again I hear this complaint from people trying to download my music: “i can listen to it but i cant seem to download it just opens as quick player i cant download …” (*this is an actual comment left yesterday on my blog – read it if you like).
Of all the problems plaguing me, this is one of the worst.
I would imagine it affects every artist who wants to let people download their music, only to be stymied by Apple’s Quicktime hijacking their browser and computer.
Quicktime’s fix? Buy Quicktime Pro for $29.99!
That is bullshit as far as I’m concerned. My first advice is UNINSTALL QUICKTIME FROM YOUR COMPUTER. But inevitably people re-install it because there is some page that will only display some video or music with Quicktime that they want to see, and then the fucking-of-the-consumer begins again.
Here is a great winamp forum article for fixing the problem of APPLE QUICKTIME HIJACKS MY BROWSER AND ONLY ALLOWS ME TO STREAM MP3S – I CAN’T DOWNLOAD THE MP3:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=235714
Some members of the forum suggest using QuickTime Alternative:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm
So there you have it, a fix to a problem that should never have arisen in the first place but for the corporate greed of Apple, and I’ll bet thousands of people have shelled out for QT Pro. So next time you see this “I’m a Mac” guy (and yeah, maybe identify with him a little bit):
What you are really seeing is this:
Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some numbers: As of September 26, 2009, Apple had 34,300 full time employees and 2,500 temporary full time employees worldwide and had worldwide annual sales of $42.91 billion in its fiscal year ending September 26, 2009. Yeah, I know a lot of blue jean, hoodie wearin’ guys with a few billion in their piggy banks, yeah sure.
I actually like Ditka’s view:
This pic from Soichi Noguchi, an astronaut who tweets live from the space station. Full story at Discovery.com:
Images: Earthly auroras in Skitland, Alaska (top) and viewed from 220 miles above the planet aboard the space station. Credit: Lance Parrish, Spaceweather.com; JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi via Twitter.
“Stare With Your Ears“.
When I was a callow youth a buddy of mine turned me on to an NPR program called Wordjazz. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before (or since) and the genius behind it is “the man with the golden baritone voice”: Ken Nordine.
Using a unique technique of overdubbing a tinny sounding voice I always thought of as his subconscious, it was like he was having conversations with himself while pursuing stream-of-consciousness ramblings that usually culminated with a clever twist.
He recorded his Beat-like spoken word and poetry over diverse backdrops of jazz, rock and electronic music performed by some heavy rollers: He has collaborated with an incredible cast of musicians during his career including The Grateful Dead, David Sanborn, Smokey Robinson, and Fred Astaire to name just a few.
Coolest of the cool, hippest of the hip, Nordine is the undisputed King of the Beatniks. His rich, golden baritone entrances you as he takes you on audio journeys charged with heavy psychedelic visual imagery, sometimes raising the tension to nearly unbearable levels before dissolving into quirky silliness.
His instantly recognizable voice has been featured in many commercial advertisements and movie trailers. One critic wrote that “you may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you’ll almost certainly recognize his voice”. The recordings of Colors are brief Beat-inspired explorations of the meanings of different colors (some of which were used in ads for The Fuller Paint Co.). Unique and innovative, these audio head-trips are difficult to describe, but you’ll never forget them once you experience the genius of Ken Nordine.
I was inspired by Ken’s Wordjazz to write a song in his honor a few years back called Kilroy Was Here. While it isn’t as cool as his stuff, it’s still kind of interesting, so if you want to hear it click here.
I’ve always had a fascination with the little Kilroy graffiti, which is why I wrote the song, and use it on my contact page:
Here are the lyrics and some ascii art
Ken Nordine at Allmusic
Ken Nordine’s “My Baby” (MP3)
Ken Nordine at Last.fm
The thought struck me the other night while recording vocals: how many times have I looked at this view, or one similar to it? A mic, popper stopper and some wires and gear? thousands of times.
.