NYS Do Not Call Program

Posted on April 8, 2004 by ken

I registered my phone numbers with the New York State Do Not Call registry (which has since been merged into the federal list) when it was first set up, and a while later received a spurt of telemarketing calls. I filed a complaint, and I was pleasantly surprised this week to find that the complaints are being followed up on.

I got a call from a staff person at the Consumer Protection Board who said the company I complained about had claimed the call was in response to a contact I’d made. Given that this was a cable company, and I haven’t owned a television in 15 years, it was fairly easy to convince the CPB that the call was indeed unsolicited.

So that was quite gratifying.

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More Adventures With Con Ed

Posted on April 4, 2004 by ken

Sunday morning, about 2am, in a friend’s car coming home from a jam. We’re waiting at a red light on Broadway and Grand, and we start hearing what sounded like fireworks, only not quite. It didn’t sound loud enough or close enough to be worrisome, but then my friend pointed at a column of smoke pouring out of a manhole cover just north of Canal Street. The noises were explosions happening inside the manhole; the cover itself was jumping at each “bang.” We got out of there before the manhole cover decided to take off.

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Prince: Musicology Tour Kickoff

Posted on March 30, 2004 by ken

I dropped into Prince’s web site yesterday
(thanks Bill) to see how to get his new album. It seemed to be only
available for (paid) download, only available in Windows Media format,
and not actually available at all since the link was dead. But I kept
poking around his abominable flash interface, and saw that he was
kicking off the tour in LA Monday night, with the show simulcast in
movie theaters across the country. Unfortunately the NYC shows (at the
Union Square theater) were all sold out, but I was working in NJ and
there were tickets available for the show at the Regal on Route 1 in
North Brunswick. So for $20 I got to see a preview of the tour and a
free (albeit cheesily packaged in a thin cardboard sleeve) copy of the
CD.

Continued…

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Saturday Night at Sunny’s

Posted on March 28, 2004 by ken

I’m doing a gig with Kate and Lou in Brooklyn on Friday, April 23, and Lou called an impromptu rehearsal tonight, at Sunny’s, the oldest bar in Brooklyn (no kidding: it was founded in 1890 by the current owner’s grandfather, or maybe great-grandfather, I don’t remember).

Playing there is always fun, and I’m always glad to get rehearsal time with Lou since we usually do several new songs, and the speed we play them at tends to increase by a factor of two when we’re finally on stage. So it’s good to be solidly comfortable with the material. We’re actually only doing one new song (a fiddle tune called Buck’s Run) at this show, but it’s a three-parter with a strange C part. Plus, we’ll be doing several of Lou’s original jazz tunes, which are quite beautiful, but take some practice to learn.

We played for about an hour, going over things for the show. This early on a Saturday, Sunny’s is pretty quiet, so it was a relaxed evening, although the people there did enjoy the music. Sunny’s wife Tone showed up with their three-year-old daughter in tow, who solemnly observed the festivities before being taken up to bed.

Sunny himself wasn’t there, but Scott was behind the bar, a good man with a pour. And Maya took some nice photos despite the lighting (or lack thereof).


“What’s that chord again, Lou?”

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