So Rogue's Gallery - Hal Wilner's star-studded sea shanties thing - at the Sydney festival is getting bagged from all quarters (lots of unhappy commenters there) which I can't say surprises me. The whole event had "underwhelming" written all over it from the start.

I did mildly enjoy the Leonard Cohen tribute a few years back, a Wilner and friends love-in along the same lines, but the concept does lend itself to self-indulgence and complacency. I thought this event offered all the pitfalls of Came So Far for Beauty (acts not learning the songs, lack of rehearsal etc) but with the added variables of uncertainty about outside acoustics, the weather and ambient noise of one of the country's busiest commuter and tourist hubs. The Opera House forecourt should be left to Australian Idol finales and triathlon finishing lines.

Despite Marianne Faithfull being singled out for a shellacking I'm still very excited about her solo show, it's hard to judge whether I would've felt so hostile to her performance. i don't really mind divas getting drunk and slurring out of tune, really, in fact I quite like it. I'll be sure to let you know Wednesday night.

As grand as the canyon is, for pure wow value, you know, I really have to say i thought Sedona was tops. My photos certainly, and no photos I've even found on the net, really do it justice. The red rocks loom up to and over the town and are coloured in a most astounding way.

It is also a world's best practice centre of woo being a locus of various vortices, UFO-fanciers, Kokopelli channelers and allied commercial enterprises. A hoot.

Arizona Yodeller, The DeZurik Sisters

I was looking, once again, at Leonard Cohen vids for ever on YouTube and rather randomly one of the "Related Videos" was Australia v West Indies 1984/85 SO THEN I got sucked into watching vintage cricket for ever on YouTube instead.

A million people have tagged me in this 25 Things meme over on Facebook and I regret to inform I have no intention of doing it at all but let this be the One Fact you get out of me: A. R Border is my favourite player ever. Hands down. Gilly 2nd.

(5.30 mins or so is when the century happens.)

Maybe it's the beard.

And the Poms all out for 51 the other day was ROFLMAOTASTIC not just cause they're the Auld Enemy, but because the Windies rock and we need them back. One swallow does not a Summer etc etc but still. Go Windies.

According to Expecting Rain, William Zantzinger died. There was a great couple of episodes of Homicide:Life On The Streets guest starring James Earl Jones that riffed on the story and the song, must try and watch it again.

I beg forgiveness dear reader for having to mention Coldplay on this fine blog, but I would like to do so in correcting some misonceptions of an alleged music journalist.

It was on ABC's PM radio show on Wednesday night. SMH journo Bruce Elder had this to say about the Joe Satriani/Coldplay plagiarism case:

"It is almost that it is almost impossible to define what constitutes plagiarism in music, particularly in popular music because there are so many songs that are very similar. I mean all you have to do is listen to a very old classic which is the Archies' Sugar, Sugar and I believe that the chord progression in Sugar, Sugar has been used in something like 20 or 30 other pop songs."

The 12 bar blues is one of the most widely used chord progressions in music history. Yet no-one bothers fighting a plagiarism case over using it (and not just because establishing the origins of the progression would be almost impossible) because it is not the chord progression that gets people into trouble for music plagiarism cases. It is the melody. Elder would known that if he would have done some simple research. UK guitarist Garry Moore recently was busted because a guitar solo of his was very similar to a German pop song. And then there is the case of George Harrison and My Sweet Lord.

Of course, bands do copy their influences. But that is a different kettle of fish. The copying of influence tends to relate to more intagible elements such as style and sound.

So Elder has it wrong but that does not mean Satriani has a case. But to my ears, there is a definite similarity in the melody and it will be an interesting case to follow if it gets to the courts.

Amanda's note: There is a audio-visual comparison of the two songs here.

Leonard Cohen ticket buying expedition FAIL.

I mentioned before I'm liking "El Esquimal" the cover of Quinn the Eskimo by Los Chijuas. I knew they were Mexican but didn't know when it was recorded til I just went looking. 1968, turns out. It's on my muxtape and also an MP3 is here.

I got the rerelease off eMusic where it has this random fugly cover which gives you no idea of the era, the contents or anything else of consequence.

So after googling I find the original 1968 cover which was deemed too ... appropriate I guess for teh cutting edge of now. (Is that Peter Sellars????)

Bah. Shut up, Musart-Balboa. You might be a cheapie rerelease factory without even a website but surely you could find some other royalty free clip art? I hereby banish you from my Cover Flow!

PS, on eMu it's also on this "Mexi-delico" compilation which is very cool.

There's this new show, see, on Ch.7 tomorrow night at 7.30pm The One: Search for Australia's Top Cold Reader Psychic. I've attended a few of the studio tapings on account of a good friend of mine, Richard Saunders, is one of the judges. I met Richard through the Australian Skeptics and he has taken on the daunting task of being commercial TV token skeptical whipping boy for low rent reality show. Go, Richard! Join our Richard Saunders Fans Facebook page! So I am in the audience for episodes 2 and 4 and watched episode 5 filming from the green room and back of the studio yesterday.

Richard has done an excellent job with a very tough gig, and has managed to institute a few extra controls on the "tests" although even with that they barely rise above parlour game level (except for one which is just deeply full of FAIL on the crass test.) And yes there's a legitimate discussion to be had about doing more harm than good in legitimising the mystery-monging but these shows are going to happen anyway and in Richard they actually had someone capable of, under pressure, quickly breaking down what was happening and really revealing the workings of cold reading on the spot. Of course he only gets a few lines and the vast bulk of logical fallacies, utter non-sequiturs, post-hoc rationalisations and face-palm moments have to go unchallenged. But the lines he gets are good, although its all in the editing, I guess. I took lots of notes in the last two sessions I was at so I might make further comment once I see the edited version. Podblack blog has made a loose comment about live blooging the first show. I hope she does, that should be fun.

I didn't take any of Skeptico's Cold Reading Bingo cards but perhaps you can print out some to play along at home. I guarantee you odds vastly better than the local Lions club version. You can't lose, in fact.

In my time there I saw lots of readings and "challenges" but not a single inexplicable or even particularly impressive thing, I did see a lot of the standard psychological techniques done to varying degrees of inexpertness and the glorious laws of probability at work. Which doesn't mean it won't "make good TV." It was interesting although LONG to sit through an entire day of faffing about for a few minutes of film. That's the glamour of showbiz I guess.

On the other end of the scale of seriousness I've been reading Ray Hyman's The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research and it comes highly recommended.

Hey so this is how people make money from those Amazon affiliate things, huh? Too late, as usual! I'm pleased to say first Shaun and now FXH succumbed to my amateur mesmerism attempts and bought and read/are reading Celine Dion: Let's Talk about Love by Carl Wilson.

I did have a whole muxtape playlist lined up to go with the State of Origin ("You Don't Know How Much I Hate You" by Rodney Crowell etc etc) but then I accidentally deleted it so ... bad luck. The replacement is just one song from the last 12 albums I listened to:

"Live Your Life" - Recapturing the Banjo. Everything Otis Taylor does is interesting. Here is with a bunch of bluesy guys reclaiming the banjo.

"African Dialects" - Peter King Nigeria 70, Lagos Jump I got this digitally but I really want the liner notes.

"A Grand Night for Swinging" - Mary Lou Williams A Grand Night for Swinging "probably the most influential woman in the history of jazz"

"Busted" - Maceo Parker Roots and Grooves Only the first disc thus far, which is Maceo doing Ray Charles. The second is his own stuff, which I look forward to.

"Some Kind of Kindness" - Firewater The Golden Hour Phineas has a real thing for them so I thought I'd humour him. Do not know what I think yet. PS, buy his new print. Then you can be as cool as me.

"Reaching" - Famous L. Renfroe Children Long lost and strange gospel soul that showed up on eMusic.

"Our Time" - John Hiatt Same Old Man Well you know I've been waiting for this one. I won't say much because I'd like to write something longer. But this song grabbed me first up.

"Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" - Hayes Carll Trouble in Mind Ditto, won't say much now but it's great.

"Oh How to Do Now" - The Monks The Monks The Monks are one of those cult 60s bands. Formed from GIs in Germany. Nice fun fuzzy gonzo rock and roll.

"Need Someone to Hold" - Creedence Clearwater Revival Creedence Country

Brahms: Sonate Für Klarinette Und Klavier Es-Dur, Op. 120 Nr. 2: II. - Peter Daum, Dieter Klöcker, Josef Suk & Werner Genuit I read somewhere online that the second movement of Opus 40 here was some of the "saddest music ever." I like sad music. it's pretty sad but it's also over 10MB so this is another thingo from the same record.

"I Saw My Youth Today" - Richard Shindell Reunion Hill

I was (thesis? What thesis?) searching Youtube for "cold chisel", "khe sahn", "jimmy barnes" AS YOU DO (don't lie I KNOW YOU DO) and I came across this. It's like years old but I do my best to avoid stand-up comedy (*shudder*).

It amused me but what Adam Hills should do it recreate it on the Spicks and Specks Christmas Special and then -- right, he starts? But then? After the into? JIMMY hisself comes out and the crowd goes wild and Jimmy does it properly -- I mean the national anthem set to WCM properly. Because no offence Adam, but I know Jimmy Barnes. You're no Jimmy Barnes. Just sayin'. That would be cool.

Bruce-phemy indeed.

Well, I was going to go to Parramatta Stadium on Friday to see the Knights win again but then I saw Corb Lund is on at the Sando in Newtown at the same time. I'm kind of wavering but I think I'll see Corb. After all, we get to beat the Eels twice a year (at least) and I haven't seen Corb for a while.

From the new album I particularly like the song Lament for Lester Cousins. (YouTube. Ignore the, um, Sims)