I’m a big fan of Tom Jones!  In 1997 I saw him in concert two night in a row in Fort Collins, and later got to meet him at a bar after one of those shows.  I shook his hand, looked into his eyes, and proclaimed, “TJ, I love you.”  True story.

At the time, I dubbed him “the most impressive masculine force in the universe,” and still think he is.  Who else could possibly take that title?  So you might imagine my thrill when I read TJ and Jack White were collaborating on one of my favorite Howlin’ Wolf tracks, “Evil.”  I have my Tom Jones 7″ single pre-order on my calendar for February 13th.  In the meantime, Third Man Record released the song via soundcloud for us all to enjoy:

I’m a big fan of the french duo Air.  Air has consistently released great material since their 1998 debut Moon Safari.  And now they go back to the moon for their latest release.

Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Voyage to the Moon) is a 1902 movie that has been recently restored and re-released.  During the restoration process, Air was asked to score the film — which of course was originally released without sound.   Scoring a silent film 109 years after the release, may be a first in cinematography history.  Air talks more about the process here: Le Voyage Dans La Lune

Clocking in at just under 32 minutes Air’s new album is short, but bursting with electronic twists, blips, and spacey psychedelia. Good stuff.  Le Voyage Dans La Lune has instantly become one of my favorites from Air.  I’m looking forward to seeing the restored film with the fresh score.

Thanks to NPR, we can at least stream the soundtrack immediately:

A few weeks back was one of the more memorable concert experiences I’ve had — three nights of Ween!  I didn’t get an official song count, but they played at least 90 songs over three nights without repeating a single song.  Impressive.

You can find recordings of the show at the BrownTracker or at the Live Music Archive.

Here’s a taste of the New Year’s Eve show:

It’s getting a bit ridiculous. I have this wonderful website to post interesting things, yet I almost never post to it. This could be a nice diary for me, something to show my great grandchildren — but no, I fail to utilize this amazing tool.

So here is a promise to my great grandchildren, I promise to post at least 100 times a year for the rest of my existence. Yup, that’s right 100 times a year!! That means I need to average two posts a week from here on out. Really, that should not be difficult. I just need to create a habit of doing so.

It is Sunday, January 22, 2012.  Joe Paterno died this morning and and the Giants just beat the 49ers to go to the Super Bowl to face the Patriots.  Post #1.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing (the) Melvins play live.  They are the heaviest band I’ve ever seen.  And not “heavy” as in loud, but heavy as in what’s-that-stuff-dripping-from-the-ceiling “heavy.”  It absolutely kills me that their mini-residency tour is not stopping in Denver.

I’ll just have to make due with their latest offering, Sugar Daddy Live.  This is a live album recorded at a comedy club in Southern California (this is true).  You can listen to a full stream of the album here: Melvins Sugar Daddy Live.  It looks like this link is as fickle as the wind, so hit it up now.  The Star Spangled Banner into Boris is absolutely magical.

If the link stops working, well, you should buy the album.  Artists like (the) Melvins deserve support so they can keep making music.  It’s the American way.  If you can’t make it to your local record store, then get it on iTunes here:  Melvins Sugar Daddy Live.

Yup, just about a year.  For some reason, and I can’t explain why really, I decided to stop posting here at scott stafford dot com.  It’s easy to get caught up in daily activities and stop writing, but it’s also nice to take the time to think and tap away.  It can be therapeutic.

I have a brand new, spankin’ theme –  again.  I like this one.  It’s simple, clean, and eloquent.   I’ve been using themes from WooThemes for the past couple years.  They do a great job pumping out new themes, yet they keep the old ones fresh with frequent updates.

Also, my career has changed a bit.  I launched my first Internet based marketing tool a few weeks ago and have been more focused on using the Internet to communicate with clients — and attract new ones.  I have been working hard to get my new site, Medicare Colorado, to rank on search engines.  And the hard work has paid off.  I even have a Medicare Colorado Twitter page!

So here’s the part where I promise to post more often.  I think this time I will.  Stay tuned…

I am a part-time resident in Canon City, Colorado.   Most of the people I interact with are retirees and rafters.  I was anxious to see Prison Valley, as I rarely have interaction with prison employees and was hoping for an in-depth viewpoint on how the prison system works in it’s day-to-day operation.  Instead, I am shaking my head in disbelief at the atrocious inaccuracies of the film.

To document every non-truth in the film would take too much time away from my week, so let’s dig into the first three minutes.

Let’s start with the title of the film, Prison Valley.  It is stated emphatically in the film that the area is known as Prison Valley.  I have hundreds of clients in the Canon City area and spend most days talking with them and local residents.   Never — and I mean NEVER — have I heard Canon City referred to as “Prison Valley.” A quick Google search of “Prison Valley” results in links to the film, not the city.  Billions of web pages, yet not one page refers to Canon City as “Prison Valley.”

The woman who coins the term “Prison Valley” in the film is a prisoner’s wife from out of state.  She also declares in the first three minutes of the film, “if the prison was not here there would be nothing, and nobody, because they have nothing else to offer.” Scathing?  Yes.  Accurate?  No.

Canon City is a historic town along the Arkansas River that happens to be one of the most popular white water rafting destination in the world!  This is a tourist town that is also home to the Royal Gorge.  Rock climbers from around the world travel to Canon City to climb the legendary walls along Shelf Road.  Tremendous hiking abounds in Red Canyon Park, Garden Park Fossil Area, Phantom Canyon, Tunnel Drive, Temple Canyon, and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.  You can go horse back riding, soak in hot springs, golf at one of the best courses in Colorado, camp in the breathtaking Rocky Mountains…  Nothing to offer?

OK, still in the first three minutes… The narrator says “we are in some god forsaken place in the middle of Colorado… Canon City.”  And yes, he really does say this.  It implies that God truly forsakes Canon City, or Canon City is in the middle-of-nowhere.   I’ll assume the filmmakers meant the latter.  Canon City is 46 miles from Colorado Springs, 41 miles from Pueblo, 59 miles from Salida, and right smack dab in the middle of the Royal Gorge Region, one of the top tourist destinations in Colorado.

Still in the first three minutes… This next statement from the film is absolute misleading, erroneous journalism.  Narrator: “Canon City is the clean version of hell.”  And once again, yes, he really does say this.

The narrator is misquoting from a CBS report in which the former warden of Supermax, Robert Hood, refers to the prison as
“a clean version of hell.”  Supermax, located in Florence, Colorado, is a federal prison holding the most notorious prisoners in the country.  The filmmakers, however, erroneously mislead viewers by misquoting the CBS story by stating “Canon City is the clean version of hell,” not the prison in Florence.

Still in the first 3 minutes… The filmmakers introduce us to the Riviera Motel in Florence, Colorado.  The narrator states the motel “is two blocks from Canon City.”  As you can see from the Google Map embedded below, the Riviera Motel is 8.6 miles from Canon City, not two blocks.  But again, we’re just in the first three minutes of the film.

View Larger Map

And the inaccuracies continue throughout the film…

The French filmmakers had an agenda to paint small town America as despicable, white trash.  They succeeded.   Their footage of alleyways, liquor stores, thunder clouds, prairies, trashcans, trailers, and a prisoner’s wife at a run down motel in Florence, Colorado in a hoodie and flip-flops was well executed. If I had no reference to Canon City or the people, I could blindly believe this “god forsaken” American small town is a “clean version of hell” that “offers nothing.”   Fortunately, I know the truth.

Unfortunately, this is the only aspect they succeed at — throwing an entire community under a bus.  Nothing of relevance was brought to light about the prison system.   They  briefly touch on Private Prisons, which Canon City does NOT have, and the problems associated with them.  They give some statistics about minorities and their likelihood of going to jail.  They also show pictures from a prison riot in Crowley County, Colorado.   Ultimately, though, the filmmakers drop the ball on what could have been an informative film about the prison industry, and instead find it easier to attack a tourist town and it’s residence.  Bravo.

Here’s my question to the filmmakers:  If you are not truthful in every aspect of your journalism, how does one believe anything you report?

Play Audio

Some of you may remember an old Internet radio site I ran for a few years called Auxiliary Radio.  It was a showcase for innovative radio programming.  Not algorithm based programming like Pandora or Last.fm, but an actual DJ based radio station.  It was great!

The radio site has been gone for nearly a decade and has since been taken over by Korean spammers, but that’s another story.

I recently moved into new office/studio space and began opening boxes that have been sealed for many years.  In the process I unearthed hundreds of radio shows that were recorded and produced during that time. It’s like finding gold.

One of my favorite programs was Hicks, Hillbillies, and Honky Tonks. This particular radio show was done remotely from Appleton, Wisconsin, by our good buddies Todd St. Marie and Troy Nichols.   I remember when I received their first show…

I was in a time-crunch and listened to the first 10 minutes or so and posted it on the site.  I would later learn Todd and Troy left their mics on for about 6 minutes during the music.  At 20:28 it all goes bad.  Ah, the memories.

Here it is, the first Hicks, Hillbillies and Honky Tonks in all it’s glory. Enjoy!

Hicks, Hillbillies, and Honky Tonks

My good friend, John Reidy, and I finally got around to recording the LOST podcast we’ve been meaning to do — posting it less than 24 hours before the series finale.  But alas, it is in the bag and chock full of LOST music, reflections, and predictions.

So who’s going to die in the series finale?  Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Locke… all of them?  We get into it with our LOST finale predictions.

Scott Stafford

John Reidy

As you can see, our LOST debate was heated and vibrant.  We played lots of fun LOST music, as well.  Nirvana, The Pixies, Perry Como, Mama Cass, Patsy Cline, Iggy and the Stooges, and The Kinks all make musical appearances.  We discuss the scenes and how the music was used in LOST.

Good Stuff.  Enjoy the LOSTcast and the series finale tonight!

I’m so confused

I’m still not sure what to make of last night’s episode.

Irony:  (i·ro·ny) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.

Last night Sawyer led a mission off the island, much like Jack did at the end of season four.  Jack jumps into the ocean to stay on the island, much like Sawyer did at the end of season four.   This time around Sun and Jin reunite, instead of being torn apart.  Claire is on board, instead of Aaron.  Their escape is impeded by Charles Widmore, instead of facilitated by Penny Widmore.  Why was Lepidus not steering the boat?

Sayid and Desmond, who both were conspicuously absent from the planned escape, now seem to be working together against Locke (Smokey, Mib, Flocke, etc.).   After Jack determines he needs to stop Locke, he is saved by him.  Where are Richard, Ben, and Miles?

In the flash sideways

Desmond continues to be the constant, pulling the strings to reunite the timelines.  Jack learns of his sister, Claire.   Kate and Sayid have now both been arrested by Sawyer.  Sun knows Locke is evil.  Jack is about to make Locke walk again.  And we have yet to see Juliet in the flash sideways, which makes me believe she will reappear as Jack’s ex-wife.

I’m more confused now then when I started writing.