Monday, October 28, 2013

Goodbye Lou Reed, illustration by Davide Bonazzi + links to live shows in NYC and Florence Italy

    
                              Illustration by Davide Bonazzi 10.28.13
                                 bonazzi@salzint.com


From Dave Thompson of Roio on 


LOU REED
New York 1973 [no label, 1CD]Live at Alice Tully Hall, New York, January 27, 1973. Ex SBD stereo, very clean sound.
It was official. Hell had frozen over, pigs were flying, and Lou Reed was on the edge of superstardom, beating out of every radio in the land with those colored girls going “doo doo doo.” Less than three weeks after this concert, Walk On The Wild Side would become Reed’s first (and so far, only) Billboard chart entry - which, in turn, means this is one of the last recordings you’re going to hear where he’s playing to the converted alone, before the chart-hopping masses stopped grooving to Grand Funk and got into Heroin instead.
A partisan New York audience makes him feel at home, though, and if the band is a little fussier than subsequent Reed combos, the nifty little guitar licks and drum fills that flicker and flash through every song give the performance a cheerful buoyancy that Lou rarely permitted in later years.
Walk And Talk It is pure pop, of course. But so is the opening White Light, and if Waiting For The Man has a subdued sobriety, an unknown onstage voice makes up for it when it demands “cut down on the feedback!” Cut down on the feedback at a Lou Reed gig? Yeah, right.
Oh, and while Heroin is probably the perkiest you’ve ever heard, the encore Sister Ray is positive Partridge Family territory, so cheerful and chipper that you’d never believe that it still rates among the most forebodingly sinister songs Reed has ever written. Shame it truncates at eight minutes, though; there are a longer versions available on other period recordings, and they’re even bouncier!
Excellent (if a teensy bit treble-y) sound, great stereo separation and a solid set that marches through Velvets and solo highlights alike, this might not be the best 1972-1973 era Reed show available, but it’s certainly one of the best quality. - Dave Thompson

                        
Download all 14 tracks on bigozine website

Also, a great write up and 15 more downloadable tracks from what some have called "the ultimate Lou Reed live show"

LOU REED - FIRENZE, ITALY 1980 (R.I.P. 1942-2013)

October 30, 2013 – 2:07 pm

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Invitation to Pamplin Grove 2013 is honored on SnapFame.com

I was honored on snapfame.com, a blog by Jan Carpenter Tucker a friend and client of 30 years, for the diversity displayed in the invitation to my "10th Annual Community Gathering at Pamplin Grove".  Artist Oli Winward deserves the bulk of the credit for how he chose to depict diversity in the people represented in his wonderful cover illustration.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

2012 ACLU Patriot of the Year Award

It was my great honor to receive the 2012 Patriot of the Year  Award from the Redwood Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union 


ACLU Board Member Peter Martin  awarding the certificate and a beautiful glass award



I accepted the award in memory of my father Paul, a life long card-carrying-member of the ACLU




This photo was entered into evidence as Plaintiff's Exhibit One over the objections of the City's legal counsel.  I think he feared it would too simply state our case and the absurdity of the City's broadly over reaching, and as we proved, cleary unconstitutional law.
Since winning our case, the city can no longer outlaw the holding of a sign based solely on the content of the message.