Blogcritics Author: Mark Saleski

The Friday Morning Listen: Human Bell

Mark Saleski — Fri, 2 Jan 2009 11:52:19 EST

Happy New Year! (Most of you, anyway)
Happy New Year! Wanna know what I got for Christmas? A big, fat computer virus! Woo!!So instead of spending time writing yesterday, I had to tangle with the damaging remnants of what some stupid geek thought was cool. You know, you read articles about how software like this ends up costing millions (if not billions) in lost data and productivity....

Saleski's Choice: Favorite Albums of 2008

Mark Saleski — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:28:36 EST

Rock, pop, jazz, country, and things that can't be stuffed in a category.
As the year ends and the economy continues to shrivel (or whatever it's doing, I'm not here to debate), it seems like I can't go a day or two without seeing yet another printed report of how CD sales have continued to fall. For whatever reason (laziness?), the articles never bother factoring in online sales. For all I know, maybe that's not making...

The Friday Morning Listen: Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas

Mark Saleski — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:33:39 EST

Good will toward men? Uh oh...
A week or so ago, I was relishing the quiet. In some ways, I still am. Power was restored on the Monday morning before Christmas. I was outside just starting to clear the fresh foot or so of snow when the power company truck pulled up at the end of the driveway. Up goes the man in the white bucket and on goes our power. The guys were lookin'...

The Friday Morning Listen: John Scofield -Quiet

Mark Saleski — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:43:13 EST

Ice Storm Edition.
There has been no power in this house for almost a week now. It's very quiet, I've noticed. And by 'quiet' I don't mean "lack of noise." Oh sure, the refrigerator doesn't kick on, both the water pump and the furnace are silent, and the television and stereo just collect dust. But there is some noise: the generator...

Music Review: Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze - Sira

Mark Saleski — Fri, 5 Dec 2008 07:59:41 EST

Welcome back to "the mystery."
Welcome back to "the mystery." You know what that is. It's the amazing and oftentimes unexplainable phenomenon of musical resonance. You hear a piece of music and the attraction is instant. There are times when this kind of thing is obvious. Earlier this year, I heard a song called "Sequestered In Memphis" by The Hold Steady...

The Friday Morning Listen: Tony Malaby Cello Trio - Warblepeck

Mark Saleski — Fri, 5 Dec 2008 03:04:15 EST

Heading toward the best of 2008.
Well, the holiday season is well underway, with much hand-wringing about Black Friday, news of all manner of economic foul mist, and goodwill toward...uh...not sure about that. One thing is certain in my mind and that is this: it has been a freakishly busy year for yours truly. First there was snow up to my eyeballs. Spring brought not its usual...

The Friday Morning Listen: Yo-Yo Ma - Bach: The Cello Suites Inspired by Bach

Mark Saleski — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:03:35 EST

Thanksgiving traditions transformed. Sort of.
Oh... my... gawd. I just looked up at the clock and realized that it was 11:26AM. Even more important, 11:26AM on a Friday. Yikes. The whirlwind of Thanksgiving preparations and celebrations has made me completely forget the day. So... Thanksgiving. Every year the Hallmark-style twist on the emotions begins -- that no matter how bad things might...

The Friday Morning Listen: Beth Rowley - Little Dreamer

Mark Saleski — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:06:27 EST

Did I learn my lesson? Well... sort of.
I would say buying an album for the cute girl on the cover would probably be just about the saddest thing a grown male could admit to that wouldn’t get him thrown in jail. - Tom JohnsonC'mon Venus, let's go look at Carly Simon album covers. - Johnny Fever, WKRP in CincinnatiSo over at Confessions Of A Fanboy, Josh Hathaway kicked off...

The Friday Morning Listen: Stump - A Fierce Pancake

Mark Saleski — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:53:54 EST

What's the next killer music app?
Fill your coffee cup, I need to ramble.OK, so the satellite radio thing made me mad. And let me tell you, plenty of other listeners are not so happy either. I received a bunch of email about it, most of the "We have to do something!" variety. The crowds are assembling. The torches will be lit.Or not?Maybe somebody at Sirius will see that...

Music News: Sirius and XM Merger Hits The Fan

Mark Saleski — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:58:24 EST

Channels updating...Uh Oh.
In magazines with an active letters from readers section, you can almost count on having one "Cancel my subscription!" entry each issue. The problem usually involves: 1. one of the writers displaying too much political bias (this seems to make some readers especially crazy, particularly in non-political publications), 2. too much profanity in an...