I discovered an audio-to-text service, VoiceBase, so I thought I would start adding transcripts. It’s pretty rough, so a lot of proofing and editing necessary …  but worth a go. I think I sound like an idiot when I read the text!

That is right … Knox by the bay, and this is a big weekend for the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge western span the new one that they  have been working on for years, is opening up in a day or two … very exciting.

I’m old enough to remember the Key system, which was a train system which ran on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, as a little boy and I remember riding on it. One time I don’t remember much—it was  long time ago, but I know I rode on on it at least once.

So. I’ve seen them in the pictures of the new span and looks lovely. So I can’t wait to drive over it. I will report back as soon as I can.

In other good news, I discovered Imogen Heap on Audioboo and I’m a huge fan of hers. She is just one of those amazingly talented musical artists who really forges her own way into the world of of sound, in electronics and technology and I have so much respect for that. And she’s so musical, writes just lovely songs and then adds in these incredible tapestries, of mostly electronic sound to go with them.

So, to discover that she’s doing audioboos is so cool because, you know, I’ve been doing them for two years myself and it’s fun when you find that somebody you really like a doing something you’re doing to0. So I’m all energized and I’m really going to get back into doing audioboos again.

Hers are very much about her music. I think that’s what I need to do.

I’m really .. I mean … We have the magazine launched now, and  the new P1xels is going to be up soon.

I really am getting back to music and I have to for my own sanity. P1xels pulled me away from it for a long time and I mean, it was necessary and there was a lot of work to be done, but it’s done now. Which I will address another time out. I don’t know … I really want to focus on music, but okay, so you know, muttering to myself.

Oh I know what I wanted to talk about: Twenty Feet From Stardom. The movie about, the documentary about backup singers and I saw that last week, and it’s a wonderful movies with Darlene Love, Claudia Linnear, Merry Clayton —just all these fantastic backup singers from the past four decades.

Just a lot of fantastic music, interviews, songs, and you can see what they all brought to the music and just turned  these songs into something else turned them into masterpieces, really timeless emotional touchstones.

And what I found so interesting watching the documentary was that, with the exception of Darlene love, who started out as a lead singer and got relegated to being a backup singer because of Phil Spector being a prick that he is, all of them, when they tried to launch solo careers: the minute they stepped out front, they closed their eyes.

You can’t close your eyes when you’re out front. You have got to keep your eyes open to keep the connection with the audience.

If you are singing with your eyes closed, you’re watching a movie they can’t see, but all of them, the minute they stepped out front, their eyes closed. It was very interesting.

They have amazing instruments, I mean their voices are amazing, but there’s something about stepping out front. That changed everything for them.

So, just an observation.

Knox over and out until the next time.