Issue # 143 Zzajrant

5/29/2014, 21:00 – You owe it to your soul to check out the latest venue downtown Olympia has to offer… Rhythm & Rye took over from the Royal Room only a few short months ago, & already owner Andy Geertsen has made it a VERY HAPPENING place!  I visited the weekly JAM session for the second time tonight, and the energy is superb… it’s not just a “roomful of players”, either (although there are plenty of those there, too); what counts more than anything for a hangout is that it be full of LIFE & ENERGY, & this place has a full quotient of that!  The house band (whose names I didn’t learn yet) is fully qualified, & a perfect compliment to the folks who step up to the plate and jam with them.  There is no “too slow”, “no rhythm”, or “just jazz” stuff, either… they’re running full amp from the moment they start.  Over the next issue or so, I’ll be getting some pix of the acts I visit, so I can turn this ZzajRant section back into the LIVE SHOW review forum it was in years past.  In the meantime, though, make sure you check out this way-cool venue & support it with all the energy you’ve got – they deserve it, & so do you!

5/29/2014, 17:27 – It’s been an eventful couple of days… I managed to wade through EVERY last one of my CD’s, & got them digitized, as well as all the vinyl left over from the “good old days”.  So, I’m up to (well) over 30,000 songs in the library (more than 3000 albums – without dupes).  That means I’ll now be getting back to the reviewing side – so over the next two weeks or so, you can expect to see a rash of reviews, as I catch up with the huge review stack I have.  Retirement is suiting me quite well – just LOVE being able to get up when I choose to, & not having to go by someone else’s clock.  I do have a few appointments I have to keep with my Doctor & some other household chores to take care of, but I think the month of June will see a lot more review activity.  My thanks go out to the promoters for refreshing the review stacks!

5/23/2014, 07:59 – Well, I’ve almost managed to keep up with my self-imposed schedule of one (or more) albums per day getting reviewed.  OTOH, I didn’t quite meet that target over the last week or so – because I’ve been busy digging through cables, patch cords & other various/assorted/sundry “devices” (as Zappa would have said)… these efforts finally resulted in achieving my goal last night… I’m now able to digitize about 100 vinyl albums I have had for over 40 years.  So, though I’ll keep up with my schedule (pretty much), you can expect that I’ll be pretty well occupied for the next couple of weeks (lots of work… record the master, then get the playlists from the cover, or if need be, from the web… separate each track out and ensure that it maintains the quality after the conversion to reduced-size format… etc., etc.).  Hope your day/week/month is going well – & stay in TOUCH, volkz!

5/10/2014, 20:09 – W-O-W, I’ve been sitting in front of the computer too long… I managed to wade through (over) 500 CD’s yesterday; some were already in my MEDIA MONKEY database, others had to be ripped into it… when I finish, I will have ALL the CD’s in the house (these are submissions from artists over the years) digitized to my external drive… the next step after that will be to synch it all to my backup drive… listening to some great musical mem’ries as I trek through all the CD’s.  Absolute fun!

5/9/2014, 16:02 – A very, VERY significant day today… got the insurance paperwork for my 1966 GTO… out on the RO-AD today (despite the misty rain – which, as you might imagine, makes it SPIN)… I’m told there’s a car show on the 18th, so I’ll probably show up at that.  Also located over 500 CD’s that needed to be burned into my music drive, so that’s taking immense amounts of my time.  Sunday coming is projected to be a nice sunny day, so I expect I’ll be cruising with my 3 2-barrel carbs wide open on certain stretches of road.  Got a few more reviews done this week (one or two daily, at least) & am truly enJOYing my retirement!!!!  BTW – check out the GTO below (after I got it all shined up):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5/4/2014, 11:45 – Went out & got the license plates put on the GTO yesterday… even though there’s a ton of rain here, it was still “slick” driving that BIG mo-chine… got a new set of windshield wipers for it & had several fuses replaced (the turn signals, brake lights, etc., weren’t workng – they are now!).   Getting insurance for it tomorrow, so (even though it’s limited miles), I’ll be hitting a CAR SHOW soon!  Also got a new set of BLUETOOTH speakers in yesterday (with a SUPER BASS on ’em), so I’m rockin’ th’ house today!  Can’t wait til the sun comes out Tuesday!

5/2/2014, 08:55 – Did breakfast with the boys yesterday, then sent them off on their road trip.  Got several updates done on the ‘zine pages & started lining up INTERVIEWS for future issues.  A new review this morning in issue # 143.  Hope you’ll help us spread the word about all our activity… post links from the ‘zine into FB, email your friends about reviews you like & all the other things that help us so much.  Thanks to you, this magazine is still “alive” after 25 years!!!!

4/30/2014, 06:49 – My son, who has been living here in our house for a year or so now, is off to the southerly regions (California) for new adventures… he brought a buddy out from Michigan to escort him on their three-day trek down, so we’ll be helping them pack out this morning, then seeing them off.  As you know, I got started on issue # 143 with a couple of reviews over the last couple of days, & will very soon be posting up an INTERVIEW with the Keith Taylor trio (from down Huntspatch way).  I just got a brand-new DVD in from Spain by a group called Patax… you’ll be hearing much, MUCH more about them over the coming month… they are killer players & performers.