ARTS: Chris Robinson Live, No Better Musical Experience

"They call this place historic Turner Hall, but I prefer to call it old-creepy building." - Chris Robinson

And that is exactly the way it was.  The floor was so warped that depending on where you stand, you might be up or down a foot from what would be level.  The walls were badly in need of paint, chipping and crumbling so badly you might think the vibration from the music could cause them to cave in.  The ceiling had nets beneath it to prevent the falling cement or plaster from hitting people.  The balcony was filled with junk, and the entrance looked like dirty-dusty closet.  Yeah, the building is a complete piece of crap, and that is precisely why it was so cool.  You want rock 'n' roll, this is the way to see it. 

It was a small gathering of a few hundred fans, maybe 200 tops 300, and in typically Chris Robinson/Black Crowes fashion, most of us were of the fan category, "highly devoted."  We walked into the dump and straight towards the free samples of beer.  When that ran out, tall boys were $4 a pop.  "Yup, that'll work," I said to Peter.  The place wreaked of pot the second we stepped into it and they were handing out samples of free beer.  When you got closer to the stage you could begin to smell the hundreds of sticks of burning incense as they always do to add to the unique Chris Robinson concert smell. 

We got a round of beers and the proceeded to our spot.  A concert tradition of standing 10 feet from the stage dead center.  Sometimes a little pushing is needed, however last night that was not the case as there was plenty of room to navigate.   They came out a bit late, but when they did wished the world peace and said something else which as usual I couldn't understand and then promtly began to jam.  For those of you who do no know, Chris Robinson is in the beard stage of his rock ''n roll legacy - 10 years running if I am correct.  The beard phase also applies to every single member of the band.  And the new guitar player, Neal, is serisouly a clone of Chris Robinson.  Google it.  Wierd.

Musically, Chris Robinson is as dependable as the rising of the sun.  There are very few bands I would go out of my way to see.  So said Peter.  Exactly how I feel.  I have seen this guy live more times than I can count, more than some people in my extended family.  In stadiums, ballrooms, halls, and even small bars, it doesn't matter where it is.  This guy sings his ass off every time he plays.  He always surrounds himself with tight musicians - both instrumentally and vocally.  The transitions and timing are always tight and well-crafted.  The leads, the instrument blends, the vocals and harmonies, the rhythm section, and the tones - it's just freaking good.

Now, you never really know what songs you are going to get.  Some of you might say, well, you go to a concert and you want to hear certain songs.  I get that.  And frankly, every show you are guaranteed to hear a few songs you know.  But you also get to hear some cool covers and other tracks from albums you might not normally hear.  The musical cabinet runs deep, into many artisits, genres, and deep into musical history.  So the tunes are always fresh and keeping you guessing, and remarkably, he always seems to roll them out as if he played them live every night. 

They roll in and out of jams and transitions.  They start up new tunes with some jam or twist and for minutes you might litereally have no idea what song it is or where this is going.  Country, rock, blues, funk, soul...anything you could imagine and at an energy that is pure, genuine, and just sounds damn good.  For almost four hours, with one break, they played about a dozen songs.  Yes, lots of jam.  One Black Crowes song, a cover of Poor Elijah, a bunch of his solo stuff from prior albums, and the rest were mysteries, but all very good.

So is this 12 times I have seen him?  Who knows, it's been a lot.

"Thanks for choosing Milwaukee!" shouted some fan.

"No, no, no, Milwaukee chose us," responded Chris Robinson. 

Either way, had a great time at the show as always.  And as long as he comes to town, I will keep going.

New Blog Format

...What I at first intended to be a blog writing about issues that I felt were important and pertained to the international world specifically, leaves me feeling a bit too tied to serious writing.  As it is, this blog will expand to include everything I feel like writing about - serious and not.  Though I do wish to write on such matters, I really thrive on writing about life as it comes to me in every way.  Therefore, to encompass the range of what this blog will include, I am reverting back to my previous pen name, Barrett Leeds, to be the title of this blog.

www.barrettleeds.blogspot.com

Cheers

LIFE: American Life 101 (a repeat course)

Oh hello America.  You are not Singapore.  And so begins the next chapter in the life of a one, Christopher P. Kent.  And apparently it is time for a refresher course in American Life 101.

Its 9 AM.  I've been up since 4AM.  The flight home began at 7AM Monday.  I flew 8 hours to Japan, then flew from Japan to Chicago, a flight which began in the late afternoon, went through a dark night and back into day, and I arrived at...2PM on Monday?  Yes, this feeling is bizarre.  But not simply for the fact I feel I like a very tired international time traveler. 

Back in the good ole' US of A.  Just another time where I have gone abroad, gotten acclimated to the culture and life of day-to-day, only to come back and realize that I am going to have to re-Americanize me.  Let us begin with the bus.  Is it a good thing that I will no longer be a patron of public transport every day?  Back to driving a car.  On the what side...the right side of the road?  And can somebody tell me now where am I going to get my dosage of spicy Indian food served on a banana leaf with lime juice?  Wait, don't tell me sting ray is illegal to eat here?  Do you sell durian?  But seriously, rice has become a staple in my diet, as regular as only eating 3 standard meals each day, with no snacks before, after, or in between. 

Hey, what the hell is that black-square thing hanging on the wall...oh yeah, a flat screen TV.  No, I am not saying they do not have those in Singapore.  Everything we have they have (if not more modern).  But it happens that I did not have one in Singapore and did not watch TV one single time while away.  Somebody please tell me the Smithsonian Channel is still in full bloom.  Perhaps they are once again showing History on the History Channel?  Nah, it probably still shows trucking, guns, pawn shops and other non-historical stuff.

OK, you get the picture, there will be an adjustment. 

For those who read my Singapore blog (http://www.ck-singapore.blogspot.com/) you know my feelings on living in the moment and the positives of embracing life and the place in which you are.  Hence I did so in Singapore.  Well now that I am back, the opposite applies.  So I will need to catch up on my baseball for one.  I missed Summerfest in Milwaukee. Thank goodness other festivals are coming up - German fest is on the horizon!  I will need to hear some good old rock 'n' roll and blues. 

Of course the best part of returning to somewhere you know are seeing your people.  For me, Singapore was a few months.  But it doesn't matter.  I spent a few years in France.  Same effect.  It could be 2 months, 2 years, 2 decades.  Goods friends don't miss a beat.  Whenever I come back we jump right into the conversation as if I had been there the previous evening.  And that isn't an American thing, you can find that wherever you make good friends. 

What is American is drinking beer in parking lots before baseball games.  So is going to water parks, boating, and water skiing, hot dogs, cheese curds, PBR or Miller.  The good news is half the summer is still left.  Plenty of time to re-Americanize myself before another semester of grad school.

That's the INTL lead on returning home to America as I see it. Cheers!

BIZ: God Save the BSkyb!

Nobody on the top seat ever knows anything that's going on below.  At least that is what they all preach.  Diamond Jim Dolye never knew about the illegial contracts involving Georgia Thompson, Coach Jim Tressel never knew college football players were getting paid...you get the idea. 

Call me pessimistic, but there are just some instances when common sense just wants to crawl out of its cave and scream, OH, PLEASE!

And now, unraveling like a yarn ball in the paws of a cat, please welcome to the forum, the British (now former) British tabloid newspaper, the News of the World.  For those who do not know, the run down is this: the News of the World has been hacking into people's cell phone for years, admittedly hacking royal aides' phones, while other accusations have included hacking into the phones of soldiers, celebraties, polticians and sports stars, and perhaps none more is getting press than the allegations of the tabloid having hacked into the phone of Milly Dowler and deleting voice mails, after she was abducted. 

Of course neither former editor Andy Coulson, nor Rupert Murdoch, nor his son James, nor former editor Rebekah Brooks, had any idea any of the allegations being hurled.  Of course they didn't.  Coulson was the editor during the admitted royal hacking scandal.  He resigned after, but of course he knew about the hacking in the royal affair.  Brooks editor during the alleged Milly Dowler hacking scandal, same story, "she had no idea."  She did admit years later she knew of her report buying information from police. Intersting. 

Most of us are only average citizens and what we know is only what is reported by the press.  We do not have access to the facts, insights or reports that government, press, and police do.  But fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  And the trail on this entire situation stinks, and where there is smoke there is usually fire.  So do we know if Ms. Brooks, Mr. Coulson, Mudoch Sr. or Jr. had any involvement in this?  No, we cannot say definitively.  However, these people were responsible for overseeing the organization running this mucky business.  And perhaps for that reason alone, poor oversight and leadership should be enough for David Cameron and his government to intervene and prevent the News Corporation from taking over Bskyb.  Would you want these people running your favorite news source?  Not me.

that's the INTL lead on the News of the World as I see it. Cheers!

POLI: the prospects for Vertical Farming

When you look around the world what do you see?  Do you see solutions for today, or solutions for what is yet to come?  When we talk about tomorrow, they key is questions must involve innovation - innovation of technology and market knowledge on human wants and needs.

One trend we cannot ignore is the trend of urbanization.  Currently the percentage of those living in urban areas is approximately 50%2.  By the year 2050 that figure is projected to hit 70%2.  In gross numbers the world's population which is nearing 7 billion1 will continue to grow to just under 10 billion by 20501.  Furthermore, by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban areas while rural population and rural land space will continue to shrink.  Add other trends such as increasing life expectancies and the number of countries joining the developed and modern world in terms of spending power and desired standard of living and one can recognize the need for food in general and specifically in urban settings.

Many countries such as Singapore and the Japan have learned upward mobility in terms of answers to housing problems and congested urban space.  This made possible thanks to the likes of steel and other technology. But even if people can be fit into urban areas so to speak, finding ample food source may not be so easy.  One possible solution to these future problems may be found in vertical farming.

Vertical farming in a nutshell is a proposal for agriculture to occur in urban settings via the use of technology to produce large-scale agriculture in urban high-rises, even skyscrapers.  The father of the modern-innovative idea is Dr. Dickson Despommier.  In basic, proponents argue the following benefits that could be produced by implementing vertical farming3:

1. Crops could be grown year round.  Additionally, the internal nature of buildings would alleviate natural inhibitors - weather related such as floods, unseasonal warmth or cold, fire, abnormal rainfall or drought.
2. As the world population grows, more and more farm land is needed.  Natural land composition and resources are thus being rapidly depleted.
3. Vertical farming could allow cities to become self-sufficient in terms of food production, and in doing so create jobs for a growing urban population.
4. Non-fertile areas such as many cities in the Middle East or Southwest United States to name a few, could generate more food (of course this is also water dependent, but technology in desalination and waste water treatment could make this possible).

Of course there are downsides.  No city has actually tested such a system and thus we have only forecasts to go on.  Nor do current price projections currently make vertical farming appealing.  Nonetheless, this is an innovation that should be followed closely, well funded, researched, developed and explored.  As citizens of the world, we should be current and savvy to new innovations that might take some of the plight out of a scarcely-resourced future.  Like water, energy, and medicine, we ought to be considering population, urbanization, and food as potential future pitfalls and looking far enough ahead to make sure we won't fall through.


1 US Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/worldpopgraph.php
2 UN Demographic Statistics http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dyb2.htm
3 the Vertical Farm Project http://www.verticalfarm.com/

SPORT: Air Ball - the future of the NBA

Sporting in America is in a gloomy place.  On June 30, the National Basketball Association (NBA) joined the National Football League (NFL) by allowing its collective bargaining agreement to expire. The first outlook is that a new agreement will not be coming any time soon leading many analysts to speculate the 2011-12 season could be in serious peril.  I am largely inclined to agree.

When the last NBA lock out occurred in 1998 it led to a shortened season which harmed the reputation of the league.  Although the NBA has risen in popularity somewhat thanks to rising stars in the past decade such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, the NBA is shaky lacking parody and enough talent to spread across all (especially the small market) teams. 

If the NBA misses games or a season all together, the league may find it difficult to overcome and win the market back.  Other North American sport leagues have made the mistake of missing games/seasons recently.  Baseball crippled itself for years after canceling the World Series of 1994 and exactly one decade later, the National Hockey League (NHL) did the same.  In short, all the big sports besides the NFL have done so.  But have they learned their lesson?

The only league that could afford some sort of missed games would be the NFL.  Yet even the mighty football league seems to understand the risk of cancellations as the sides seem poised now to strike a deal.  The NBA however, doesn't come anywhere near the revenue, ratings, and popularity of the NFL, nor does it have the parody and mass appeal.  Another potential problem for the NBA which the NFL doesn't have to face are the options that players have in playing in overseas leagues. 

One part of the world that wouldn't mind a vacation by the NBA would be the international leagues in Europe.  Many former NBA players have made the jump to Europe at points in their careers.  Josh Childress and Alan Iverson are two notable examples of players who have done it.  Many other collegiate stars have played overseas directly and simply skipped the NBA all together.  Still other notables players have thrown the idea out in the media at points in the past including some of the leagues biggest names like Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce. 

Now with the lock out begun, another NBA star, Deron Williams of the New Jersey Nets is seriously flirting with the idea of singing a contract overseas, and he claims he isn't the only one.  With enough big name players and sponsors to help fund the deals, is an exodus of sorts from the NBA really such a far fetched dream?  We will just have to wait and see.  But if the NBA can't get its act together soon, Deron Williams thinks you will see many players heading overseas.  Permanently.  For my buck, I wouldn't disagree.