Staying Warm

"All at once, the weight has lifted
Forgotten the weeping all last night
She's wearing a frown borrowed from her father
Her head is tilted a little to the right.."
~ Peter Mulvey
Tender Blindspot,
The Trouble with Poets, 2000

Years ago when I first moved to Bellingham WA, I went to a concert that was held in an ungodly hot office up four flights or so in a commercial building in town. I had heard Peter Mulvey on Whole Wheat Radio and found his music great and that is what set me to attend. He was playing with David Goodrich that evening along with a local upstart, Korby Lenker. I recall this concert not only because it was insanely hot in there but because the force of the talent in the room was unrelenting. Peter Mulvey is a musician's musician and, I think, an awe inspiring songwriter and poet. I hear his influences in others music all the time and when I do, I'm always returning in my mind to that steamy little House Concert in back in 2004. When Mulvey plays time stops, period. The relationship that he has forged with his craft is that strong and apparent when he plays. Any chance to see or hear him perform should be sought out and savored.

Fortunately for all of us we can get a taste of this talent without even leaving our comfort zone tonight a 9 pm (PST) because he is playing at Whole Wheat Radio tonight and it is being simulcast for everyone's enjoyment. Just click on this link and you are there and ready to listen in. Information about Peter, his opening act Anais Mitchell, and a chat room to discuss the concert or leave messages for Peter and Anais will appear. I hope you allow yourself the experience of Peter Mulvey. As for me, I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine, listen in and maybe turn up the heat...you know, just for old times sake.

Rod Picott Concert

One of the nice things about live music events is the sense of being with the musician in the same room. Doubly nice is the intimacy of a house concert where you get the feeling you have just gathered with friends to settle into hearing some good music. You cannot reproduce that sensation on a recording...even on a live recording. What you may not know is that you CAN share in a virtual real time house concert experience by attending a concert on line. It may surprise you how intimate it feels as you listen in real time. Check it out.


There is a good one coming up this Saturday on Whole Wheat Radio at 8pm (Bellingham time). Rod Picott.


Do this:


Listen by clicking here.


Open this page to find out about the artist.


Open this page to join the fun during the concert.


Settle in with a favorite beverage and try this experience. You may be surprised. There will be a little chat room to discuss what you are hearing as you will be with other listeners sharing the experience, should you desire or have any questions. It is fairly easy and straight forward. Seriously, the hardest part about the whole thing will be getting the cork out of your wine bottle.


I have picked this video to share because one of the things I love about a live performance is the stories that sometimes shake out. Enjoy and join me this Saturday evening.

I can't go, but YOU can

I'm detecting a pattern in the schism of my social life here....

I MOURN that I cannot attend the Antje Douvecot concert on-line at Whole Wheat Radio because Antje is such an incredibly talented singer/songwriter besides being just, plain lovely.

What's more, listening to live concerts on-line with Jim and sharing the experience with others in chat is such a fun time - Jim makes it fun, filling listeners in on the action in his own enthusiastic way. I highly recommend that you tune in and at least get a taste of this virtual time sharing, if for no other reason than to add it to your 2.0 experience.

Here's Antje:



It's Antje's birthday on Thursday. Jim's brewed a special beer in honor of her concert. The enchantment will be infectious. Don't deny yourself. I will be working - trying to keep an eye out for hooligans who are seeking all night refuge in the library. Somehow it has happened that I've become a cop in some horrid twist of irony.... but I will attend this concert in spirit, you can be sure.


Thursday, November 15, 2007, 6pm, Bellingham time. www.wholewheatradio.org . Enjoy.

Wanna Wiki Radio, Part I

I came to know a bit about the wiki format because it was forced on me. A streaming radio station that I have been affiliated with since 2002, Whole Wheat Radio out of Talkeetna, Alaska became too unwieldy for it's creator, Jim Kloss, and it was transformed into a wiki format.

Over the years CD's flooded in and needed to be added to the library. As word got out that Jim played only RIAA safe (unsponsored and independent artists) the job grew considerably and that wasn't all. The listenership was growing and house concert production and streaming was also building to a crescendo. Jim gave a courageous stab at keeping it all up. Still, he yearned to plant flowers and do stuff he loved - things he did before he decided to design a radio station from the computer at the foot of his bed in 2002. It was either shut the streaming WWR down or devoted listeners where going to have to learn to love wiki. Of course, after years of listening, it was threatening to consider life without WWR so the website was transformed and we all began to learn how to help maintain the station so Jim could do other stuff.

In many ways I've already gone through the "AWWWW I've gotta to do THAT, too??" stage of wiki awareness...the little html bits! and I can no longer just load a picture into the chat room with a copy paste, I have to format things!...boo hoo...that whining has long since faded into history as the website has been wiki now since January 2006....The picture of my cat, Saturday, looking at the monitor on the header of this blog is a shot of the pre-wiki Whole Wheat Radio chat room page - WWR received honorable mention from the 2007 Web 2.0 Awards and because we are wiki we can all take some of the credit for that success (though, of course, it is our benevolent dictator, Jim, who is truly the heart of Whole Wheat Radio).

If you have a love of music, especially live music, I hope you will enjoy the clip that I have added from a house concert held at WWR in Talkeetna last winter. This is a clip from a concert that was broadcast (streamed) live over the Internet, remember...so besides the people in the audience, there are maybe 50 people listening on-line and a handful of the on-line listeners are communicating in the chat about their experience to each other while they are listening. They also leave messages that are read to the performers later and can call in to leave an adio message for the performers, the listeners or the audience.. Also, on line, during the concert there is the ability to instantly purchase all the recorded material the artist has to offer that will be delivered by mail and signed by the artist (even with your name, if you ask!) There is a tip jar for the on-line listeners to add to, if they wish, during concerts with all of the proceeds going directly to the performers. I can't tell you how much fun these concerts are...it's one of those, "you had to have been there..." sort of situations. The videos don't do the live experience justice but you can get the idea. If you like this video, there are a few more video clips of WWR house concerts here.

How does Jim pay for all of this "labor of love", you might wonder? It is supported by donation. There is tally observable by all in the upper right corner of the chat room of all of the money needed to make the monthly bills. At other parts of the site all the disbursements are openly recorded for anyone to see. Jim insists it is to be like this and I think it is honorable of him to do it this way.

I want to make a statement about what I have discovered about my personal experience with wikis and experiencing them but I'm going to save that for another post....this one seems too long already. For now enjoy the music by Ann Pence, Robin Hopper and Radoslov Lorkovic among others......