From the Basement

For those of you that remember and miss watching music videos, you have to check this "From the Basement" site out (link below). It is even better, kind of like a cross between videos and "Unplugged". It's more intimate, like you're getting the opportunity to sit in on a recording session.

No overproduced videos, agendas to sell music, costumes to sell image. Just the artists...making music...in a room.

Fabulous.

Apparently a small crew has taken on shooting HD video and doing their own sound. "My own personal goal is that in the future some of these performances might be seen as the truest representation of the state of their artists work, captured in a way that lets their talents speak without the interference of presenters, or audiences." -Nigel Godrich

See for yourself here.

Roanoke, Definitely more than a one-star place.

I had the pleasure of spending some time in the Roanoke, VA area this past weekend. I was officially there to help out with their ADDYs but got to see much more.

The largest man made star, as a website I found so eloquently put it, "Was Built in 1949 and is visible from just about every part of the Valley. This splendidly illuminated, 100 foot-tall Star situated on the top of Mill Mountain was named by Indians wandering between the parallel ridges of the Allegheny Mountains (their great valley Shenandoah), 'daughter of the stars.' Roanoke is known as the 'Star City of the South'."

I have to admit, aesthetically it kinda beats our giant Amoco sign in the Lou.

Also, there was a fabulous little open-air market feel to the downtown area that is home to both a new art museum and a train museum (Roanoke is historically also a railroad town).

Then there was the fantastic late night music of Mr. Tony James. Seriously you had to be there to believe it. I've never heard a version of Hotel California quite like this one. Ha.

Most notable, though, is the politeness of everybody you talk to there. Even being from the mid-west, these people can please and thank you like the nobody's business. As one of the people in our crew pointed out, even the revolving door at the Roanoke airport has a polite southern accent.

All in all, a great visit. One giant star maybe, but I'd give it more like four or five.