Jonathan Ramsey

The nice folks at Irish KC put up an article about my upcoming Holiday recording.
Go check it out, and the many other good Irish music, and Irish-American lore from my erstwhile hometown at http://irishkc.com/index.php/jonathan-ramsey-for-christmas.htm. They feature tidbits about great Irish cultural events in Kansas City and the region.

Cheers!

Thanks to Steve Patterson’s Urban Review Blog. This is good stuff on how to carry anything you need on any conveyance available. http://aistigave.hit.bg/Logistics/

Excuse me. I need to bike down to Lowe’s for a few sheets of drywall and a new side-by-side fridge.

It’s no secret that substance abuse affects a disproportionate number of artists. The web is full of details, testimony, and unseemly photographs chronicling my own downward spiral into a disturbing obsession with coffee.

In her latest blog entry, my friend Lynn confesses not only about her addiction, but also of her unwitting development into a supplier.

Please read Why Won’t People Make Coffee?, and support Lynn’s escape from this dark and tempestuous chaos.

coffee addiction

In case you haven’t heard, Bono, Oprah, and Apple present a gorgeous, red, 4GB iPod Nano.

5% of the proceeds will help fight AIDS in Africa. As always, snappy sunglasses not included.

The Bono Nano?

bono Oprah ipod nano u2

I plan to have my Christmas Holiday “CD” available in the next few weeks. I have artwork issues, and the usual mayhem to deal with, but I’m having fun with it. So, I hope you will too.

It’s largely Irish, with originals and some not so Irish (originally) pieces adapted with strings, duct tape, and Gorilla Glue™ to fit onto an Irish guy’s recording. Think of it as the converse of “Irish Rock”. There are those, many of them dear friends of mine, fond of shoehorning fine Irish songs into a Strat and a ten-piece drum kit, mind you with obligatory pipes, tenor banjo, and/or accordion. I, however, am dragging modern faves, kicking and screaming into the hollow-bodied goodness —disease-ridden as it may be– of nineteenth century musical technology.

Now, if you’re truly offended by the non-Irish origins of any tunes I feature (sounds like I’m doing them a favor, eh?), remember that the Celts, as a larger group, once perplexed the vastness that is Europe with their long-time allies the Teutons (not the Grand ones –those are Tetons really- but the ruddier, dirtier, broadly Germanic ones.)

So, how better to celebrate the coldest freaking time of the northern year, than to warm up with a frothy chocolate, barley, or egg drink, and sing along with Jonathan? At least, until the tow truck shows up and you pop the CD out and ride along with your new buddy to the garage for a fuel line thaw.

irish music cd christmas irish music

“How, then, do Rocket Scientists and Brain Surgeons metaphorically trivialize something?”

Jonathan

Check out www.BGBlast.podshow.com, and help build this new “for teens, by teens” site. The site features music, podcasts, messaging, and networking.

In my neverending quest to fill your soul with useful tidbits of life on planet Earth, I’m behooved to share this gem from Slashdot.org:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1888844,00.html

The Ig-Nobel is becoming as prized as its less quirky cousin.

Among this years winners:

• The Mosquito: Teenager Repellent Device. Mall managers rejoice.
• A Study: Psychoacoustics of Chilling Sound, which looks at why fingernails on a chalkboard are so annoying.
• Ivan Schwab of UC-Davis for his study of why woodpeckers don’t get headaches.

Enjoy!

Jonathan

As promised, here it is.

I won’t tarnish this with my own interpretations. I seek to report without prejudice.