Couldn't be more excited about this weekend. Headed out to Wisconsin for a return to the Steel Bridge Music Festival in Sturgeon Bay, WI with Pat MacDonald, Jackson Browne, et al.
Then, then then...
Straight down to Manchester, TN to play a set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.
So those of you that may be attending this year, I'll be on the Sonic Stage at 4:30.
Hope to see you there!
Fest out,
DD
Bonnaroo Music Festival
Steel Bridge Music Festival
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Top 5 Welding Films of ALL Time
Top 5 Welding Movies of ALL-TIME
1. THIEF (1981) - James Caan is an unstoppable rebel force to behold. Highlights include a full-on 20 minute welding scene as well an extended outdoor panning scene. In fact, great extended panning throughout the whole damn movie.
2. FLASHDANCE (1983) - You know it. I know it...sort of. But as perhaps the most infamous of all welding features, this one deserves the high nod. I won’t let it budge James Caan out though. No way. Still, name a better Pittsburg welding-dancing flick.
3. WELDING THE BIG RING (1904) - The movie that started it all! Who needs talkies.
4. THE MUNSTERS "HAPPY 100TH ANNIVERSARY (1965) - Herman and Lily’s 100th wedding anniversary is fast approaching. Wanting to surprise the other with an amazing gift, Herman and Lily individually acquire part time jobs at the Cleaver Employment Agency. Working as welders at the Crosby Shipyards, but not recognizing each other on account of the heavy welder’s masks, Herman and Lily start flirting with each other. Tensions rise as the couple simultaneously discover each others ’secret’ identity. I mean, really? Can YOU imagine a better plot scenario?
5. VINTAGE WELDING HISTORY w/ Spot, Stick, Arc Welding Footage (2006) - A Saturday night classic. Bar none.
* Honorable Mention - "A KNIGHT’S TALE" - I heard there’s a welding princess in this one. We’ll honor our man Heath with an honorable mention nod.
And there you have it. The oft-demanded but never compiled all time great welding movie list. I will NEVER let you down.
Here for you,
Don
1. THIEF (1981) - James Caan is an unstoppable rebel force to behold. Highlights include a full-on 20 minute welding scene as well an extended outdoor panning scene. In fact, great extended panning throughout the whole damn movie.
2. FLASHDANCE (1983) - You know it. I know it...sort of. But as perhaps the most infamous of all welding features, this one deserves the high nod. I won’t let it budge James Caan out though. No way. Still, name a better Pittsburg welding-dancing flick.
3. WELDING THE BIG RING (1904) - The movie that started it all! Who needs talkies.
4. THE MUNSTERS "HAPPY 100TH ANNIVERSARY (1965) - Herman and Lily’s 100th wedding anniversary is fast approaching. Wanting to surprise the other with an amazing gift, Herman and Lily individually acquire part time jobs at the Cleaver Employment Agency. Working as welders at the Crosby Shipyards, but not recognizing each other on account of the heavy welder’s masks, Herman and Lily start flirting with each other. Tensions rise as the couple simultaneously discover each others ’secret’ identity. I mean, really? Can YOU imagine a better plot scenario?
5. VINTAGE WELDING HISTORY w/ Spot, Stick, Arc Welding Footage (2006) - A Saturday night classic. Bar none.
* Honorable Mention - "A KNIGHT’S TALE" - I heard there’s a welding princess in this one. We’ll honor our man Heath with an honorable mention nod.
And there you have it. The oft-demanded but never compiled all time great welding movie list. I will NEVER let you down.
Here for you,
Don
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Hangin' Tough in '08
As I contemplate my annual move to the west coast (15 years and counting), and eat my homemade DiLego Formula Soup, I’m staring at a photograph from sometime ago that is not near now, that looks like a comic book version of me. Thing is, it IS me. Wait, did I really wear a Duran Duran shirt for my yearbook photo. Really?! I’m sure it made absolute sense at the time. I hope it did anyway, because I’m certain I almost got beat up for it. (And by "beat up", I mean someone said "Duran Duran are gay!")
Moving on. Why am I looking at this evidence? Someone yesterday mentioned the New Kids on The Block and some kind of reunion or rebirth of the band. I lived in Boston during their heydey, and yes, they were bigger than Jesus there. They were everywhere. E V E R Y W H E R E. I think I may have actually wiped myself with NKOTB toilet tissue at one point, though that remains unconfirmed, since I don’t actually remember having gone to the bathroom in the 90’s... (another story)
It occurred to me, that my college roomy and I thought it funny at one point, to record this video where we, he and I, were The New Kids. And so we did. Record. That. Song. With. Us. Singing. Hanging. Tough. In. Front. Of. A. Video. Camera. I just remembered this yesterday, and went on a quest to find said tape, aka "the evidence", to see just how funny we were in "making fun" of NKOTB. Folks, here’s how funny we were. None.
We were none funny at all. In fact, the jokes on us. BIG TIME. Though I’m sure at the time we may have thought..."Maann, if the New Kids see this, they’ll be SO embarassed! Who’s hangin’ tough now?"
Really?! Let’s just put it this way. This tape is getting filed under "never to be seen ever. For all neverness." Fact is, it’s not so much how embarrassing it is to us, as much as my fear that this tape would do more for my career than my music ever has. God bless us all, the YouTubians!
So what does this have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing.
I’m playing a show this March 28th back at Helsinki in Great Barrington, MA. Details:
3/28 – GREAT BARRINGTON, MA @ CLUB HELSINKI – 9PM
284 Main St. | Great Barrington, MA 01230 | Tel: 413-528-3394
w/ Spottiswoode & His Enemies
Next time: we discuss Don’s Western Mass punk rock street cred.
Hangin’ tough,
DD
Moving on. Why am I looking at this evidence? Someone yesterday mentioned the New Kids on The Block and some kind of reunion or rebirth of the band. I lived in Boston during their heydey, and yes, they were bigger than Jesus there. They were everywhere. E V E R Y W H E R E. I think I may have actually wiped myself with NKOTB toilet tissue at one point, though that remains unconfirmed, since I don’t actually remember having gone to the bathroom in the 90’s... (another story)
It occurred to me, that my college roomy and I thought it funny at one point, to record this video where we, he and I, were The New Kids. And so we did. Record. That. Song. With. Us. Singing. Hanging. Tough. In. Front. Of. A. Video. Camera. I just remembered this yesterday, and went on a quest to find said tape, aka "the evidence", to see just how funny we were in "making fun" of NKOTB. Folks, here’s how funny we were. None.
We were none funny at all. In fact, the jokes on us. BIG TIME. Though I’m sure at the time we may have thought..."Maann, if the New Kids see this, they’ll be SO embarassed! Who’s hangin’ tough now?"
Really?! Let’s just put it this way. This tape is getting filed under "never to be seen ever. For all neverness." Fact is, it’s not so much how embarrassing it is to us, as much as my fear that this tape would do more for my career than my music ever has. God bless us all, the YouTubians!
So what does this have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing.
I’m playing a show this March 28th back at Helsinki in Great Barrington, MA. Details:
3/28 – GREAT BARRINGTON, MA @ CLUB HELSINKI – 9PM
284 Main St. | Great Barrington, MA 01230 | Tel: 413-528-3394
w/ Spottiswoode & His Enemies
Next time: we discuss Don’s Western Mass punk rock street cred.
Hangin’ tough,
DD
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Yes. I’m announcing a China Tour!
Well, not exactly the country, but the woman.
The lovely and talented China Forbes (of Pink Martini) is heading out on the road to promote her new solo album, "’78." By sheer coincidence, Ms. China and I shared the same manager in NYC way back when. So here we are some many odd years later playing a tour together.
And it’s a great band, not in the very least for the inclusion of Gregg Williams on drums and Lael Alderman on multi-instruments. I will be fool-hardedly handling guitar and some piano and singing along. Look for me and my new guitar pedals in these fancy locations:
Apr 7 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Apr 8 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
Apr 10 - Portland, OR - The Aladdin
Apr 11 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door
Apr 13 - Boston, MA (hi mom!) - The Paradise
Apr 14 - New York City - Bowery Ballroom
Apr 16 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
Apr 18 - Washington, DC - The Birchmere
China’s record is really quite wonderful, and you can listen to it here:
China on MySpace.
While I spend my time writing the songs for the new record, come out to a show and say hi. See me pretend to know what I’m doing...LIVE!
Spring time all the time,
Don
Other abettors:
Gregg Williams
Lael Alderman
The lovely and talented China Forbes (of Pink Martini) is heading out on the road to promote her new solo album, "’78." By sheer coincidence, Ms. China and I shared the same manager in NYC way back when. So here we are some many odd years later playing a tour together.
And it’s a great band, not in the very least for the inclusion of Gregg Williams on drums and Lael Alderman on multi-instruments. I will be fool-hardedly handling guitar and some piano and singing along. Look for me and my new guitar pedals in these fancy locations:
Apr 7 - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Apr 8 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
Apr 10 - Portland, OR - The Aladdin
Apr 11 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door
Apr 13 - Boston, MA (hi mom!) - The Paradise
Apr 14 - New York City - Bowery Ballroom
Apr 16 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
Apr 18 - Washington, DC - The Birchmere
China’s record is really quite wonderful, and you can listen to it here:
China on MySpace.
While I spend my time writing the songs for the new record, come out to a show and say hi. See me pretend to know what I’m doing...LIVE!
Spring time all the time,
Don
Other abettors:
Gregg Williams
Lael Alderman
Sunday, December 30, 2007
And then there’s this movie business
I have spent a great deal of time, albeit a great deal of it in a scattered manner, working on scoring a film called Ranchero. Though I have contributed music to films before, this is my first feature-length-real-deal-official-like theatrical-ready-you-better-do-a-good-job kinda...job.
If I knew was I was getting myself into, well, I still would've done it. It's been a incredible challenge to say the least, to put music behind scenes to emphasize the emotion on screen. It always makes sense when I see movies, but less so when it's up to me. In a lot of ways, it's felt like that magnetic poetry game, where you put a jumble of things together and let the magic fall into place.
Over the course of the several months I have worked on this, I've grown quite attached to the film, and once it starts to make the rounds, I hope you'll get the chance to see it yourself. This film is called "Ranchero".
Something that I am very grateful to this movie for, is the birth of a couple new original songs that will find a home somewhere soon. In the meantime, I've just uploaded a rough version of one of them, called "The Bitterness."
Hope you enjoy it.
And thanks, once again, to all of you who come here and listen to my musical nonsense. Helps me feel it makes even just a little sense.
Happy New Year.
Still in awe,
DD
If I knew was I was getting myself into, well, I still would've done it. It's been a incredible challenge to say the least, to put music behind scenes to emphasize the emotion on screen. It always makes sense when I see movies, but less so when it's up to me. In a lot of ways, it's felt like that magnetic poetry game, where you put a jumble of things together and let the magic fall into place.
Over the course of the several months I have worked on this, I've grown quite attached to the film, and once it starts to make the rounds, I hope you'll get the chance to see it yourself. This film is called "Ranchero".
Something that I am very grateful to this movie for, is the birth of a couple new original songs that will find a home somewhere soon. In the meantime, I've just uploaded a rough version of one of them, called "The Bitterness."
Hope you enjoy it.
And thanks, once again, to all of you who come here and listen to my musical nonsense. Helps me feel it makes even just a little sense.
Happy New Year.
Still in awe,
DD
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