http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epsasNrHDYs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV3YVl_NFyA

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I’m sitting here so freakin pissed off I can’t see straight. And the more I think about it the madder I get. It’s all about business and competition. Or shall I say, the lack of both. And to take this equation and ire even further, I will toss our government into the mix. The whole reason I am pissed explains why our government gets worse day by day. I can’t say this is the worst government we have ever dis-enjoyed, because I’ve only been here for 55 years.

 ....

Competition is the lifeblood of commerce. Without it we get garbage service, junk products, and businesses that couldn’t care less about their customers or employees. There is a reason for this madness and I will point it out in glaring black and white. CAL-WISP. That is the company.

 ....

You’ve probably never heard of them, they aren’t a big bad corporation, They are a company that provides Internet service for apartment complexes and mobile home parks all over N Sacramento County and Placer County. Because I am trailer trash, (A sleight I pointed out on a record Paul Fitzjarrald and I did a few years ago called Violatin Geneva), I have had to endure these despicable assholes for the better part of four years. They, (CAL WISP) were the only Internet providers I could get besides a phone modem.

 ....

Fuck Cal Wisp!

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They are the ruddest assholes ever to live on this planet, their service is junk, their products are junk, and they are personally scum on their best day.

 ....

I’m not going to go into how fucked up they are. I couldn’t even get it out without throwing this fuckin computer through my front window. Anyone that knows me, knows I rarely, if ever, have negative things in my life, and when I do, I don’t vent them often in public forum. But this is definitely negative. I hate those fuckers.

 ....

If there was any competition for these retards they wouldn’t be like they are, or if they were I would call them up and cancel my service and would not have put up with their demeaning pissant attitudes for the four fuckin wasted years I have put up with their junk product and piece of shit answering machine combined with their total lack of regard about whether or not my fuckin Internet was working.....

 ....

They are actually even worse than all the politicians this world has ever known, I hope they rot in hell and burn for eternity. They will be the servants of all the crooked politicians, car salesmen, insurance tycoons, and personal injury attorneys in the hell they deserve.....

 ....

Fuck CAL WISP. I am going to post this on every goddam message board, forum, or social network blog I can find in the next ten days. I hope your fucking building falls down on top of your useless piece of shit heads and you are all inside when it does.....

 ....

There....

I firmly believe in advertising, I do it, have done so all my life for various reasons, businesses, and causes, and I even wrote a song about it. You are welcome to use my comments sedction for ads but only these types;

Band Shows, (Anywhere, even if not in my area)
Art Events
Most other Entertainment Events, and I am liberal!
C/D Releases Notices
Personal Communications with me or the band

I Will Not POst
Any music or videos, though I may post links to them, I screws up my music if it is playing
Religious Commentary or Advertisement
Political Statements, unless they make sense to me, (And they rarely do from any side to me)
Any ads for Myspace help, play count promotors, friend factories


Don't expect any huge pictures or advertisements to get posted, and if it ain't a pretty poster with some art value, it ain't goin on the page.

I will not post a littany of links that spreads down my page like a slithering snake, swimming through gooey sea water,

I will, though, post any and all pics of pretty girls, as long as they're tasty, and most are.

I will post most any art, but not Huge canvassas that throw the frames off on my page!

Anything Greta sends me is automatically in, and she can break all of the rules if she wants, though she never will.

Anything that Sugar MAgnolia sends me

And last of all, Ricky Berger has full editorial rights on this blog, my comments section, my radio dial, and my nose hair, because she is buying lunch

http://community.soundcheckmusiccenter.com

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Visit SoundCheck Music Center

For about a year I have been "friended" by a plethora of myspace businesses that want to increase my plays, and friend and view counts, and assist me in becoming a music star on Myspace. Its all about marketing. I have never asked any of them to explain what they can do for me. Do they listen to my music over and over? What a stupid job that would be, and how does that help me? A lot of the sites I go to, I would have to turn the sound off to "increase their play counts." Is that what's happening? Or maybe they get everyone on their friends list to go listen to my songs.

I'm not sure how that will make me a "star." If they could guarantee me a crowd at, say a show in Bumfuck Iowa, all with $20 bills to purchase my C/D, (if I ever finish it), then I would have to go to Bumfuck. But Bumfuck is just not a place I really want to go to. So to all of you wanting to make  me a "star" on myspace, I'll accept your friend request, because you can never have too many friends, (and I know each and every one of you are my special myspace friends), but I won't post your flyers on my comments section, and I don't really care if I get 1000 or 2 plays a day. I was noticing for a while that my play count would increase dramatically for a few days, then I would get a friend request form a "Professional Myspace Marketer," then an e-mail explaining how I could be the next big Myspace Star. I delete the e-mail and I'm back to my normal play count. It's a good thing too, my player gets tired

Myspace is great to find places to play, stay, and be audiences while on the road. It is, for me, a place to let my real friends know what I'm up to. Its a decent calendar for me to use that's easy to find, and fairly easy to use. And I have made a few really good friends here, that I would have never known before, as well as touch base with friends from my past that I would never have been in touch with again if not for myspace.

And myspace is a marketing tool. But, if I were a club owner, I can't say that a band's "play count" would influence whether or not I hire a band. I mean how good do you have to be to get silent plays on your myspace?

Another thing that bugs me is people who go out and solicit "friends" as a way of marketing. If you want to be my friend, that's great, I love having new friends as well as the ones I already have. Let's be friends. And I will listen to your music, but don't ask me to review it for you. I'm not a reviewer, and I'm going to bullshit you anyway. If you are a friend and you have a new song and you want me to listen to it, That's great, I love it, and I will listen, as I'm sure you would mine.

And, for me, originality is the key. I don't need to hear the Beatles again, didn't really like them all that much the first time, and a love song has to come from the heart, about real love or I dont't like it. It has to feel like a real story, true to someone, and I don't care about listening to covers that are copies of the original. That might work at a dance club, but I don't dance, and I don't ever attend a club except to play, or listen to a friend play. If you have a new way to do an old song, then I'm interested. In other words, Leslie West was the only player in the world that could ever be Leslie West, but if you have a new version of Mississippi Queen maybe as a waltz, or with a banjo, or tuba, I'll listen for sure, because the song is great.

And I have a few really good friends who i think are wonderfully talented, and it pisses me off when someone else decides they like my friend so much that they will try and become them, sing like them, play the same instruments as them, and dress like them. It doesn't work for me. Be your own self's person, and I will like you immensely more.

And that's not all. I'm not done. I can bitch all day. People that show up for shows with multiple acts, and miss everything but themselves. I know sometimes I leave a show after my set, but not all the time, and mostly because I have another show to play somewhere, or I don't feel comfortable in the bar. And that happens to me frequently, not feeling comfortable in the bar, I am a drunk, sober though I be. I do not drink, though I am way better at it than most of you, and sometimes I have to leave the bar, or there will not be anymore booze for any of you, and I will die. But if I'm not feeling bad about the stumbling drunks around me, and I don't have another show to play, I will stay and listen to the other bands, and I always get to the show in time for the beginning set, whoever it may be. That's just good sense, and polite to the other players and artists. And I also go to others' shows. I support all artists if I can, but the bar thing sometimes gets in the way, and I also play a lot, in fact most nights I play somewhere, somehow.

I hear it said a lot; support local music. I think that is the number 2 priority for the artists in Sacramento, as well as anywhere else. If you can go see a show featuring a fellow artist, you better be there, or as far as I am concerned you are almost worlthless, and you're not really any kind of friend. I don't get to many shows, but when I do, I know it means something to the artist I go to see, even if they don't know I am there. But it means immensely more to me, it satisfies my need to explore and learn, and truly have real friends. So don't ever stop asking me to go to your show, just as I hope you will accept my invitation to my show when you can.

One more bitch then I'll be quiet. There are a few that slam open mics and jams as a music venue, and slam artists that play at open mics for not being professional because they play at open mics and jams. I don't want to change your opinion, but you are totally wrong, (I was going to say you are full of shit, but you really aren't full at all, of anything) I'm not going to explain it any further. I played 250 shows last year, 250 the year before, and I play with lots of different bands and I tour all over the country. I still go to Fox and Goose open mic. I sometimes go to Old I open mic. I have been to a few of the Blues jams sessions. And i sometimes go to jazz jams. They are fun!! Immensely. Gigs are not neccessarily fun, in fact some are no fun at all, but it is my job, open mics are fun, and I hope you'll join me in the back room at Fox and Goose on Monday nights for some of the best jam sessions in this town or maybe anywhere. Bring a guitar and sit in, we don't play because people are listening, we really don't care if anyone is there or not.

Have a nice day, go to show, or play a show,  Do something positive and good And get those play counts up!

It's pretty amazing really; you know, all those dead people that have full-blown myspace sites. There must be macs in Hell. I just got friended by some musician and when I went to his page his top friends were a bunch of dead people, like Townes Van Zandt, Clarence White, and Larry Rice, and I have seen Betty Grable, (she's a friend of mine), Marilyn Monroe, (she has a few sites), Jim Morrisson, and Jimmy Hendrix. I beleieve the record shows they are all dead and they all got the bus to Hell. Wonder who they use for Internet service. Must be Cal Wisp, (my service) because I am sure they are in hell.

Anyway, lets hear it for MyDeadSpace.com. It's a hit!!! What's the Facebook one? MaggotFace? DustBook? Twitter could be, DowntheShitter.com. Boy, be carefull when you poke!!

I have decided that using "Applications" is a total waste of my time. I love to hear from my friends, by e-mail or comments on myspace, but the application stuff bugs me, so I do not accept any "applications." 

If you read at all, and live in the Sacramento area, you couldn't help to have read a shining article about Ricky Berger in the last couple of week. You surely saw a picture on one of the various magazines around that showed Ricky in all her beauty, and if you partake of television you might have seen her on one of the various morning shows in N. California, singing, playing guitar, and piano. But for any of those to be what represents Ricky Berger to you is a very flat representation for sure. You should have seen her last night in person on the greatest stage of her life; She called it her "wedding," to me.

The whole party was exsquisite , and I am talking about Ricky Berger's First Album Release Party last night at Bricka Bracka on P Street in Midtown Sac.  Ricky was  glowing, the crowd was large and avid, and the stage was gorgeous. Ricky played her songs, dropped a few Okle My Dokle tears, and wowed the wonderful friends that came to see her. I know she is like my best friend and shit, but I was overwhelmed, and everything was particularly bright for me. It spent me, so that at the end I was drained and done.

A few kudos to the other bands at the show. Liz Ryder rocks me big time, and I am very proud that I am a part of her band. It has been a pure pleasure to make music with her. It has also been fabulous to share music with Patrick Grizzell and Steve Bird. They have also been playing in my group of late and it has been fantastic. In short, I believe we rocked it great last night.

The end of the show could not have been any better. Ice Cream and 4 of the finest musicians I have ever watched and heard play. It's not often in Sacramento to get the opportunity to see a live performance by the best in the world, but if you were at the show, you may have done just that. Chuck Botelho is a very good friend of mine and has allowed me the oppotunity on a few occasions to play music with him. I have never had the pleasure of seeing a better guitar player play, and last night he really rocked it. And the band he put together for this show was truly world class. Simon Planting played bass; he is the go to bass players for all of the big name gypsy jazz players throughout the world, and he showed us why that is last night. I didn't know a bass could be played that way. Kind of like a Jimmy Hendrix/Albert Lee mix on the low, except a lot cleaner and all acoustic. Jimmy Grant is a guitar prodigy and so young, and best part is moving to Sacramento soon so we should be able to hear much more from this fantastic musician. Nick Righos is the finest fiddler/violinist I have ever played with and last night was awesome. Thanks you guys for sharing. They put to rest the best show I have been involved with.

And Ricky i can't ever begin to say how much I love you and I am truly blessed to have you in my life.

Liz Ryder



As most of you that know me have probably surmised I love to play music with women. Richard March has even told me he is taking extra estrogen supplements and bought a brand new Easter dress so he might enjoy a gig or two with me. Richard, shave your legs too. It has been a pleasure and privilege to accompany so many wonderful girls over the past few years. And lately I have been especially proud to play music with one of the sweetest voices I have ever heard. She is Liz Ryder. She is from England, and she is a genius.



Her songs are reminiscent, to me, of the sixties folk music that spoke of beauty, love, and socials mores. And her voice brings to mind Joni Mitchell, and Joan Baez for me. Her songs take me places in her mind as well as mine. And what a guitar player! Wow, she has a beautiful finger style that includes intricate rhythms along with strong tones. And she does delicate little string bends and slides that add wonderful flavors to her songs and make it a pleasure for me to kick back and play minimal comping passages and just listen to her play and sing.



Her voice can soar high and sweet sometimes with plaintive longings, and sometimes it is sure and level to bring attention to the story she tells. So far my favorites are Butterfly and Ray of Light, but the more I play with her the more I will enjoy all of her songs, as we get acquainted.



I’ve been playing with her for a few weeks at open mics and we have practiced a few times, but last Saturday she played a set at a Mandolin Avenue show in Auburn at the Club Car and I played mandolin with her. What a special treat! The best part? When she looked at me and smiled after each song. And her accent is especially fetching. The beauty in her songs comes straight from inside her, for she is at one with what she says in her music.



You can catch some of her music and her calendar at www.lizryder.com and at www.myspace.com/lizryder



Keep Smiling Liz!