With the release of the drama series “Arrested Development” Netflix is poised to take more people away from cable and only costs $8 per month

3 seasons of the Fox Series Arrested Development now available on Netflix

Two weeks ago, when I called a reporter buddy about a story, he was engrossed in watching several episodes of the drama series Mad Men.

We only talked briefly about the story but did compare notes on which Netflix series we were watching.

Our favorite then was the legal drama Damages with Glenn Close. It was our second week into watching the 5 seasons of episodes, one after the other. Bodies were falling like leaves in the fall, lawyers were chopping each other up with glee.

He was deep into Mad Men and enthusiastic over the fun of watching 5 seasons at once for only $8 a month.

All 5 seasons of Man Med at once on Netflix

We discovered the Netflix series phenomena House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey two months ago, along with 29 million other Netflix subscribers. It had all the fun of an adult soap opera with complex plot lines and characters in 45 minute episodes.

When these complex dramas are watched only once a week, you get lost in the plotlines and characters. Watched consecutively the same series becomes addictive. There are commercial interruptions.

Like many of Netflix subscribers, we have stopped watching cable altogether except for the supper time local news. Even that seems lame when the stories are on your smartphone hours before with video.

Netflix, once a DVD rental service, delivers movies on demand and cable TV popular series

Netflix is now larger than HBO and growing steadily.

Most people were drawn to Netflix to watch all the movies you wanted for the one monthly fee of $8. We watched movies on Netflix from our son’s account two years ago, migrating to our own account last summer. They let you share accounts but its tiresome to see suggestions for a 25 year old.

Damages on Netflix – 4 seasons of resident evil lawyers in an adult soap opera

The video quality isn’t that good – about the same as 720p on a good night but who cares.

Once the action starts, you forget that the show isn’t 1080p HD.

I wonder how long it will be before we send back the PVR and cancel cable altogether.

Despite offering 30 HD channels for $30 to $60 per month and using a PVR for time shifting, there is very little of interest on cable.

The best shows are on AMC and HBO which can only be purchased in bundles for about $15 to $20 per month.

Nothing on cable competes at the Netflix cost of $8 per month. With the ability to watch 5 years of a series one show after another, cable can’t compete.

Media pundits say Netflix is losing money when the cost of purchasing content is weighed against their revenues at $8 a pop. Could be but I doubt it.

They could raise their monthly rate to $10 and still keep growing. The value is unbeatable.

Reuters reported ”Netflix Inc reported on Monday a first-quarter profit that beat Wall Street expectations as the dominant video rental service added 2 million new U.S. streaming subscribers, and its shares soared 24 percent. Netflix shares rose to $216.62 in after-hours trading, after closing at $174.37 on Nasdaq. For January through March, Netflix recorded $19 million in net income”

We are boomers and old fogeys. My kids stopped watching cable years ago. They watch TV on the internet.

That came full circle last week when my daughter wanted to know how to hook up the DVD player. She and her friends had seen all the movies on Netflix and wanted to watch some of the old discs.

With everyone using a smartphone for phone calls, messages and email and cable dying, all you need is a fast internet connection.

Taylor Swift cleaned up at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards. The biggest winner was the internet as music lovers grew digital sales 10% and CD’s declined

Taylor Swift performing “Reds” wins 8 Billboard Awards

Taylor Swift swept the 2013 Billboard Awards in Los Vegas with 8 awards, including top artist and top album. Other winners include Justin Bieber, Gotye and Rihanna.

Swift has totally crossed over winning Top Country and Top Artist in the same year.

“You are the longest and best relationship I ever had,” said Swift whose songs chronicle the ups and downs of her personal relationships. 

Her performance of “Reds” started backstage with circus accoutrements including Swift being carried on a bicycle onto the stage.

“Reds” by Taylor Swift from the 2013 Billboard Awards

The Billboard Awards are based on sales and chart placement, the final test of who fans love when they put down money or watch songs on YouTube.

This year digital sales, views and downloads had a big impact showing the adoption of the digital music wave and its recognition by the industry. Carly Rae Jepsen, a Canadian artist, made more money from digital than CD sales in 2012.

“Consumer are clearly migrating to the web,” said Billboard” “as digital album sales jumped 10.4% to 32.5 million units from 29.4 million copies; and online CD sales increased 2.3% to 8.4 million units from 8.1 million units.”

Canadian artist Justin Bieber won 3 awards and performed “Take You” with will.i.am.

Addressing the nasty booing he received earlier this year, Bieber told the audience, “I’m 19 years old; I think I’m doing a pretty good job. And basically from my heart I really just want to say it should really be about the music, it should be about the craft that I’m making. This is not a gimmick. “I’m an artist and I should be taken seriously and all this other bull should not be spoken.” Tell it like it is Bieber!

“Take You” Justin Bieber and will.i.am from the 2013 Billboard Awards

Many awesome artists like Bruno Mars were shut out of winning any awards. Bruno Mars did lead off the show with a big production of “Treasure”.

And the Winners are

• Taylor Swift – Top Artist, Female Artist, Billboard 200 Artist, Digital Songs Artist (tie with Carly Rae Jepsen), 200 Billboard Album “Reds”, Country Artist, Country Album, Country Song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
• Justin Bieber – Male Artist, Social Artist
• Carly Rae Jepsen – Digital Songs Artist (tie with Taylor Swift), Digital Song and Pop Song “Call Me Maybe”
• Goyte – Hot 100 Song, Radio Song featuring Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used to Know”, Streaming Song (Audio), Rock Song
• One Direction – New Artist, Duo/Group, Pop Artist
• Maroon 5 – Hot 100 Artist
• Rihanna – Radio Songs Artist, R&B Artist, R&B Album ”Unapologetic”, R&B Song “Diamonds”
• Madonna – Touring Artist, Dance Artist, Dance Album ”MDNA”
• Nicki Minaj – Streaming Artist, Rap Artist, Rap Album ”Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded”
• Adele – “21″ Pop Album
• Mumford & Sons – Babel “Rock Album”
• fun. - Rock Artist
• Jenni Rivera – Latin Artist, Latin Album “La Misma Gran Senora”
• David Guetta - EDM Artist
• tobyMac – Christian Artist, Christian Album ”Eye On It”
• Skrillex - EDM Album “Bangarang”
• PSY - Streaming Song (Video)”Gangnam Style”
• Macklemore Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz - Top Rap Song “Thrift Shop”
• Michel Telo - Latin Song “Ai Se Eu Te Pego”
• Baauer – Dance Song “Harlem Shake”, EDM Song
• Matt Redman – Christian Song “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)”

For more about the 2013 Billboard Awards including interviews, backstage videos and performances, check out their site or YouTube.

Looking for trouble on a Sunday, I updated my trouble-prone Lumia 920 with the much-anticipated, latest Nokia firmware 1232.5962.1314.0000

Nokia Lumia 920 home screen (S. Pate photo)

The sun was streaming in the south-facing Windows two hours ago when I announced to my wife “Oh look, my Nokia phone has an automatic update.

“You are a bear for punishment,” she said from her easy-boy chair taking in the morning sun after the frost last night.

“Isn’t that phone jinxed?”

“Babe, I like being on the bleeding edge.” I replied with a smile.

“Just because the phone has been replaced 3 times since Christmas and bricked last weekend does not mean anything. Hope springs eternal that Nokia will finally get it right.”

With a devil-may-care grin I pressed the OK on the automatic update and 10 minutes and one cold boot later, the Lumia 920 was back in action.

Everything worked – amazing eh? LTE, Wi-Fi, the internet, Facebook, Outlook 365 mail – it was all there.

Oops check the music. See if it lost my anything. Nope, it’s all there even “B.B King Live at The Regal.”

That album is a classic I found on Friday at the Xbox Music store. It downloaded to my Phone but it won’t download to my computer, but that’s another story.

The new Nokia firmware build is 1232.5962.1314.000. That was announced by Engadget in April 2013.  ”It’ll bring improved auto screen brightness / touch screen functionality, camera fixes, enhanced Bluetooth headset functionality and numerous performance and stability enhancements, according to Nokia.”

The firmware update applies to the Lumia 620, 820 and 920 phones. Nokia pushes it out to users on their agenda. If you have Setup…phone update set for automatically download updates, it will happen with minimal interference.

The semi-official word on the update is

“Version 1232.5962.1314.0001 will bring:
- improved automatic display brightness adjustment
- fix for intermittent screen blanking during a call
- further performance and stability improvements.”

As I said, everything seems to be working.

I think I’ll head uptown and watch the marathon ending. What could go wrong from this point on?

The Gibson J-45 is an iconic guitar – the classic sound of singer songwriters, rock, country and folk singers for about $2,200

Gibson J-45 Standard Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Vintage Sunburst – the classic American guitar (Gibson photo)

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Dubbed the “working man’s guitar” when it was released in 1942 to sell at $45, no other guitar except the Martin D-28 defines what a guitar should be.

The J-45 and D-18 are the most copied styles and sounds in guitars.

You can find reasonable imitations as low as $400 and expensive versions for $10,000. The street price for a new J-45 is about $2,200. Good used J-45′s go for about $1,400 to $1,800.

The round-shouldered dreadnought Gibson J-45 has a spruce top and mahogany sides and back, giving it a distinctive warm and full sound with plenty of distinctive high notes. 

The deep sunburst finish looks great and hid the variability in war-time wood supply for guitars.

Since 1942 the sunburst finish has become a classic. Even my 1979 Martin D-35 tries to copy the J-45 look, one of the few times Martin made sunburst top.

The Gibson J-45 sounds great strummed or picked. If you haven’t played one, you must and if you own two acoustic guitars either the first or the second should be a Gibson J-45.

My first J-45 was an 1969 model purchased on time payments from Steve’s Music Story in Montreal for about $200.

Thanks to Tony Polecastro of Music Villa who does a quick review of the Gibson J-45 Custom on YouTube.

The standard J-45 comes with an Adirondack spruce top. With the feared disappearance of Sitka spruce though over harvesting, Adirondack spruce is both a great sounding and environmentally friendly choice of tone woods.

There was a knock against the Gibson J-45 that the factory at Bozeman Montana was making sub-standard guitars. American Songwriter said recently ”Gibson’s Bozeman plant currently produces guitars that would have shined at any time during the company’s long, illustrious history.”

Gibson J-45 Standard Acoustic-Electric Guitar, Vintage Sunburst (Gibson photo)

I agree, I have not played a bad or even fair new Gibson recently.

The search for older Gibson guitars always baffles me, when the brand new ones are better built and sound awesome.

I would like to still have that old 1969 guitar but would be happier with a brand new J-45. Gibson makes them better today than ever.

B- Stock Gibsons

What are B-stock guitars. “B-stock and refurbished guitars are items which upon inspection by the manufacturer fail to meet their quality control guidelines. Issues such as a scratch or minor finish flaw prevent them from being sold as “New”. The flaws with B-Stock guitars are typically so minor that there is no need repair them.” e-Bay

Dealers are supposed to tell customers when the guitar is b-stock. US dealers like Guitar Center and Musicians Friend name b-stock guitars and sell them at a discount.

Sometimes dealers don’t. A music store in Toronto Scarborough sold b-stock guitars without telling its customers, raking in extra profit by buying cheap and selling at regular price.

Several Long and McQuade employees told me, when I was searching for a new J-45 in the past, that you had to find the right one to get a good one. I was puzzled by this for years. Secondly I wondered how L&M could match the prices south of the border and why the Gibson warranty in Canada was one year not a lifetime as they are in the US.

Is the difference in sound just normal variability in tone woods or are Canadians being sold b-stock. I don’t know but a post on the gearpage may have the answer.

“Gibson stopped selling B stock in 1985. Every Gibson sent to Canada is bought by Yorkville Music “as is” and with no warranty. Yorkville determines what is B stock and what is not. That’s also why all Gibson guitars purchased in Canada only have a one year warranty through Yorkville.” wrote Tim Plains 04-08-2012, 09:03 PM. thegearpage.net

Most of the Gibson’s sold in this country come through Long and McQuade’s Yorkville wholesale division. L&M do list b-stock guitars on their website.

Gibson lifetime warranty

Gibson guitars sold in the US by Amazon.com and their other dealers carry a full life time warranty. Amazon.com add their own customer satisfaction guarantee which matches exceeds any in the music business.  “You may return most new, unopened items sold and fulfilled by Amazon.com within
30 days of delivery for a full refund.” Amazon.com would rather have a long-term satisfied customer and will bend that rule if you have a good reason.

Fancy high-end phones will not hide the reality that Nokia’s customer service is substandard

Nokia Lumia 925 set to launch on May 16th will be dead in the water unless Nokia can fix service issues

Nokia is set to launch the Lumia 925 on May 16th with a lighter phone and better camera than the Lumia 920 but it’s a futile effort when the existing Lumia phones are trouble prone and service from Nokia slow to non-existent.

If Nokia had no competition, one could understand arrogance and bad service. Up against Apple and Android, it looks like Nokia has a death wish, or at least watched “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” once too often.

When your business-use phone is dead and gone back to Nokia for service, its hard to remember the screen is cool and it takes good pictures. 

Nokia leads the Windows Phone 8 market with 80% of the handsets sold. However, that only means they dominate  5% of the US smartphone market.

Unfortunately for Nokia and their shareholders, the company has not matched their phone service with customer expectations.  There is no buzz about the Lumia.

Despite having one of the hottest feature phones and a virtual home-run tie-in with Microsoft Office 365, Nokia is stuck at 5% market share compared with 39% for Apple and 52% for Android.

Enthusiasts gush over the Lumia but the real hope for success is the business market where customers want Office Outlook sync’d from their computers to their phones. This is the #1 reason businesses lapped up Blackberries in the past – email all the time, everywhere and anywhere.

Neither Apple or Android phones support Microsoft Office which dominates the business market with the Outlook email client. The success of the Lumia / Windows brand and the top-end 920 model should be a slam dunk. But it isn’t.

Nokia Lumia 920 bricked – locked with no where to go (dailymobile.net photo)

Nokia cannot get any positive buzz going with the Lumia brand when the phones fail customers regularly with reset problems, bricked phones, spontaneous shut down and many other problems.

With any given issue, there are dozens of other users who have posted the problem in Google as Lumia users search for solutions.

Resets can take as long as 1-2 days. Is the phone dying or dead? Who knows because you can’t get through to Nokia and the support site is not helpful. Tip: don’t use the software reset since it is likely to brick the phone. A two button or three button reset works the best.

When business users try to get Lumia phones back in service, the customer support level is abysmal for a business device.

ATT&T and Rogers retail support is limited to sending the non-functional phone back to Nokia, a 2-3 week wait. The replacement phones under warranty and extended service plans are usually Android devices which cannot replicate the Outlook email service. A business user is left without Outlook for that time. Gone are your email, contacts, calendar and tasks list. Obviously the dealer service is not matched to the business need.

I have spoken to Rogers about this and they are looking into Windows replacement phones. Apparently no one in marketing or the product team sees the Nokia Lumia as part of the business eco-system. They launched a business product with consumer level support infrastructure.

Searching for Nokia help takes the IMEI number

Forced to call Nokia when the dealer is stumped with a problem, the Nokia phone menu for customer service does not begin to help until you successfully enter the 15 numeric IMEI serial number. I don’t know how many customers keep that number in their wallets but they should since a malfunctioning phone is unlikely to give up the number.

I have entered the same IMEI number to have it work sometimes and other times it fails. Failure sends you back to the support web site and no telephone support.

Success entering the IMEI number gets you to a menu that suggests calling back during limited business hours from 10 AM EST to 5 PM EST.

This level of service is obstructionist. I don’t know about you, but I need the phone to work 24/7 and don’t have the time to pussy foot with a help desk on limited shifts.

Picture yourself in Chicago and the phone fails at 8PM. You call Nokia and get a message saying call back tomorrow between 10 am and 5 pm. What are the chances you are in a meeting, on a flight, or travelling in a taxi without a land line? You will need a land line to spend 30 minutes to 4 hours on the phone with Nokia support during those limited hours.

Buggy bios – reset reset reset

Frankly, I think the Nokia bios, operating system or whatever they call the hardware layer below Windows Phone 8 is buggy - three phones – three crashes. It’s a general FAIL in any product launch to get your customers to finish the product engineering in the field.

The joke about Windows used to be: got a problem, reboot. With Nokia it’s no joke that the standard solution is a hardware reset.

Since December 2012, my phone has failed 3 times and Nokia’s only solution is a 1-3 week replacement. I found similar stories on the internet here and here. That’s a FAIL.

If this was happening to Apple, the press would be all over it. Since Nokia is below the radar screen, they are getting away with service horror stories. The big problem is that they cannot advertise their way out of a service hole.

Today I re-start my Apple iPhone 4. The Lumia 920 as an expensive research project.

John Lennon’s trip into his consciousness works better as studio recording than live performance due to the songs vocal harmonic complexity and layered instrumentals.

The Beatles “Nowhere Man”

“Nowhere Man” from The Beatles “Rubber Soul” album is clearly a studio song that did not translate well in live performance.

By the time the album was recorded in 1965, The Beatles were using multi-track recording to create music that was impossible to re-create on stage.

It’s no wonder The Beatles began to dislike touring. They couldn’t get their music across the way it was recorded.

Nowhere Man

Rolling Stone, the magazine of lists, says “Nowhere Man is #66 of the top 100 Beatles songs. “One of the pivotal songs of Lennon’s early Beatle years arrived when he least expected it. “The whole thing came out in one gulp,” he told Rolling Stone in 1970. “I remember I was just going through this paranoia trying to write something and nothing would come out, so I just lay down and tried not to write and then this came out.” What emerged was an expression of the boredom and frustration Lennon was feeling in his cocoonlike existence as a Beatle. The references to a man who’s “making all his nowhere plans for nobody” and “knows not where he’s going to” were, Lennon admitted, “probably about myself.”

The Beatles “Nowhere Man” remastered studio version with video montage

The Beatles were pushing George Martin, their producer, to experiment with new recording techniques in the studio. In his book, “All You Need Is Ears: The inside personal story of the genius who created The Beatles”, Martin said the studio at EMI Abbey Road was still pretty crude so they improvised by  recording on the four-track tape recorder, mixing down to two tracks, adding more tracks, and mixing down again until the final mix.

Mistakes had to be fixed before the mix-down since they became embedded and their was little time in the 4 week “Rubber Soul” recording session to re-do whole mixes. The song was mixed in stereo but the best mix was always considered the mono. Few people buying rock records in the 1960s cared about left and right channel stereo.

Today, performers can create loops and background tracks that add studio-level complexity to their live performances.

Listen to the BBC TV recording which never quite gets the harmony right.

The intro John gives to the studio audience is priceless though.

“Nowhere Man” remastered studio version with video montage

The television performance is typical of The Beatles. The rhythm guitar descends into that VOX clangy sound with John’s raw strumming. Did you miss the sweet guitar harmonic note found 1:04 on the recording?

George Harrison’s lead guitar is lost in the mix and you barely hear the signature lead lick introduced at 19 and 29 seconds in the studio version. The recording fills out John’s singing with double tracking his voice. If you listen carefully you can detect different takes of the lead vocal merged together.

The problem with the song live is that the melody is pretty weak but the vocal arrangements in the studio were perfected with overdubs. We remember John’s strong vocal, the backup do-wop and unique harmony. Most of that is gone in the live performances. On the BBC video, the vocals are flat. Argh!

If The Beatles were performing today, they would have vocal effects like pitch correction, voice doubling, phase shifting, personal reverb and Fx in the live performances as well, with gear from TC Electronics and one or more vocal sound engineers off stage. Nothing is left to chance these days when audiences expect the live performance to duplicate the record.

The Munich 1966 performance is slightly better than the BBC taping but the same problems occur. The vocals are better but you have to wonder if Lennon was really that bad a rhythm guitarist. Lennon sounds brittle and clangy strumming. Where’s the signature high harmonic note?

The Beatles – “Nowhere Man” – Live in Munich 1966

Of course, who cared back then? If you were lucky enough to see The Beatles live that was all you needed.

Scammers can add Calendar invitations to your Outlook file without permission – what’s the risk and how to fix it

Scammers can inject Calendar invitations without permission – getting rid of them is a 2 step process

Scammers can spam email invitations to an appointment which automatically get placed in your Outlook Calendar as tentative or not accepted.

Microsoft has left a hole big enough to drive a truck with a virus or Trojan horse in Outlook Office 365.

Invitations could potentially contain harmful viruses. Microsoft not only does not protect you from them. They don’t seem to care. I found references in the Microsoft knowledge base back to Office 2007.

Since May 1st, I received 16 of these scam invitations, more than I got from January to April in 2013. I would assume the exploit is ramping up for a major attack on Office users.

Why Microsoft has left users unprotected from the exploit on their premium Office 365 product is a mystery?

The Calendar exploit starts with an email invitation on Office 365 with the Office 2010 Professional client.

Spam email invitation – deletion leaves the calendar object in place

Spam Calendar invitation waiting to infect your computer before deletion

If you delete the spam invitation from your email, it stays in the Calendar.

It will then pop up in Outlook Calendar asking you to accept the invitation. Don’t accept obviously.

The second step to delete them manually. Search through your Calendar for tentative invitations and delete them.

If you use multiple calendars, it can be an annoying amount of manual work.

Even if people know about the potential risk, how many people are going to check the Calendar regularly for spam?

The third risk is that the invitation seems to create a tentative contact sometimes, leaving the Outlook file open to later attacks.

Microsoft knows about the exploit but has not announced a fix.  Over on the Microsoft Support site, the comments ranged from the ludicrous suggestion of scrubbing Outlook Exchange Server through a Gmail account to turning off automatic acceptance. The exploit works even with the automatic box ticked no.

Outlook 365 Options – turn off automatic acceptance of meeting invitations

An obvious fix would be to make the Options feature work or to have another exclusion of refusing all appointments from people not in your Contacts folder.

While I have not received any invitations with attachments, it’s an easy jump for scammers to add an attachment with an embedded virus which apparently goes undetected by Microsoft.

One user expressed his frustration with the lax controls in Office 365.

“Dang. The answer was helpful, but not what I wanted to hear! All a virus writer has to do is zip the virus EXE and it will fly right by FOPE (Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange). And here I thought Office 365 email was supposed to be secure!”

“The zip was not even password-protected. Not scanning a password-protected zip file’s contents makes sense, but it does not make sense not to scan at least one level deep in unprotected zip files looking for infected EXE files.”

If any one has found a reasonable fix, please post a comment.

A Canadian Chinese restaurant dishes out great food and friendly atmosphere in downtown Charlottetown

Helen Tran, the Canton Cafe, a wide smile and she remembers your voice (S. Pate photo)

You won’t find posh seats or fancy wallpaper but inside the Canton Cafe is some of the best Chinese food on PEI served up by fantastic people who remember your voice.

Since 1967 the Canton Cafe has been the goto place for a mid-day, supper or late night dish of great Chinese food. They stay open until 2 AM and the late night traffic is busy.

The staff is always a treat to know, especially Helen Tran who has worked there for 25 years. Helen is the friendly face you meet and the friendly voice on the phone for take out orders.  It’s real hospitality PEI style.

If you’re a regular, Helen can recognize your voice and know what you want before you can say the words. “Some people just call me and say I need a pick up,” Helen told me smiling shyly. “I know their voice and what they order.”

When I call it’s always “Hello Stephen” with a smile. With thousands of regular customers, Helen makes every one of them feel special and wanted.

Canton Cafe – great Chinese food and friendly people (S. Pate photo)

When I took her picture for this story, she told the couple waiting “I remember Stephen 25 years ago. Stephen came in every Sunday with his boys all dressed in his white shirt, tie and your hair slicked back.”

“I only worked Sunday and you were here every Sunday after church,” she said with a big smile.

As the people came and went for their supper time take-out orders, there were jokes and gibes all around. People offered to help others carry out food. Helen ruled over it all from behind the counter.

Back in the 1980s’, George the previous owner remembered names and children. He often sent me home with chocolate bars for my two boys who were pure badness if I took them to the restaurant. “Your boys good boys,” George would admonish me. “Not bad.”

Best bets - best egg rolls on PEI, house special fried rice, shrimp with Chinese vegetables, everyone’s favorite sweet and sour chicken balls and Chinese tea.

It may not be China Town in Montreal or Spadina in Toronto, but Charlottetown’s Canton Cafe is one of the things I love about PEI. If you go, tell Helen I said hello.

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Paul Williams “Mind Out Of Time” the 3rd in his series of Bob Dylan rock appreciate tomes is a goldmine for Dylan fans

Paul Williams – Mind out of Time Bob Dylan Performing Artist

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Rock critics are a dime a dozen and none so sublime as Paul Williams who wrote three volumes of his series “Bob Dylan Performing Artist.”

In “Bob Dylan: Performing Artist Volume 3: Mind Out Of Time 1986 And Beyond”, Williams, the founder of Crawdaddy magazine, takes the reader on a musical journey through most of Bob Dylan’s concerts from his low in 1986 with The Grateful Dead to the Never Ending Tour rebound.

You can read this book quickly although I think the commentary runs together after a while. This is not a book to be read in a sitting. It’s best to follow his expert and entertaining critique by listening to the concerts. 

Casual Dylan fans will roll their eyes at the thorough read but for diehard Dylanologists and fans, Williams hits the right note.

I have to admit I bought the book and lost it. My wife dug it out of her closet and put it on my desk. Oh yeah, another Dylan book to read I thought. But something encouraged me to start and now I can’t put the book down. It quickly dawned on me ”Mind out of Time” could be as interesting as Christopher Ricks’ Dylan’s Visions of Sin.

Paul Williams just died on March 27, 2013 from brain injuries and from Alzheimer’s disease. He and his family were devastated by the medical bills. So if you feel generous buy the book, read and enjoy it. You will be helping them cope with 15 years of punishing medical expenses. In Canada, the medical bill crisis would not have happened. Yeah for universal Medicare.

If you just want to find out how Dylan got out the dumps in 1986, you can speed read it. Fans read on.

Dylan fans only read and listen

To follow the book, you need the complete set of Bob Dylan studio, concert and bootleg releases from 1986 on. That’s the easy part.

Bob Dylan and Tom Petty Temples in Flames Tour 1986 (Rolling Stone photo)

Most of the concerts were never released and the book is about Dylan as a performing artist. A bit of detective work and a Bit torrent client on your computer is needed here. Most of the concerts are only available as bootlegs.

That Bob Dylan fans have collected his bootlegs for 5 decades is a fact. The honest collector follows the Dylan bootleggers pledge to never copy or share commercially available discs.

Where to find the concerts takes a little ingenuity since Bob Dylan’s record company tries to shut down bootlegs. Expecting Rain, which does not post bootlegs, is a good place to start. Tip: only registered members get the insider angle. You can also Google the concert / year and see what you find.

If you follow the book with real listening you will be able to appreciate what Williams writes and add your own opinion on whether Dylan is a brilliant performer, William’s claim, or not on a song by song basis. Williams is no fawning admiring. He knows a good Dylan performance from the bad one’s and says so, but always with respect for the artist.

I find it annoying when a no-talent writer decides he knows more about Dylan and his work than Dylan. Williams is critical but gives homage to one of the greatest songwriters and performers of our time.

Does that sound like a lot of work? No, it’s fun and will while away many a dark hour before the dawn.

Each chapter is rich in audio, video and print resources. The first chapter lists the following audio and video resources.

“Performing Artist” Video sources

1. Hearts of Fire – movie
2. “Getting to Dylan” (BBC documentary)

“Performing Artist” Audio sources

1. “Knocked Out Loaded” (Sony)
2. “Down in the Groove” (Sony)
3. “Genuine Bootleg Series Take 2″ (Sony)

“Performing Artist” Audio sources

1. Esquire Magazine – True Dylan by Sam Shepherd

You’re lucky in Chapter 1 since there are no concerts. By the time Chapter 3 is underway, you will be searching  for “Dylan and the Dead” and the rehearsal tapes. In Chapter 4, the search will be on for those great “Temple in Flames” appearances backed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

It will be a fun journey made easier by all the fans who have gone the road before and made these concerts available. Avoid at all costs those who package the concerts into CDs sold online. They are not in the true spirit of Dylan fan bootlegs.

Hint – skip the Kindle versions of this book and get a bookmark or two.

Paul Williams was the founder of “Crawdaddy” magazine, the first of its kind dedicated to rock music. Crawdaddy was eclipsed by “Rolling Stone Magazine” and Williams wrote for it as well.

Williams was a big fan of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick wrote about him and managed the Philip K. Dick society. Dick of course was one of the greatest science fiction writers. Most people haven’t read his books but have seen Dick’s movies like “Blade Runner”, “Total Recall, “Minority Report” and “Screamers.”

Paul Williams’s other books on Bob Dylan include:

• Bob Dylan Watching the River Flow,
• Bob Dylan, Performing Artist: The Early Years, 1960-1973, and
• Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986.

The Office of the CBC Ombudsman represents the public to ensure CBC upholds its information standards and practices.

I filed a complaint with the CBC Ombudsman this week.

The human rights abuse of the CBC Charlottetown office is so egregious, it just called out for a formal complaint.

A lawyer friend said yesterday “I just don’t get it. What’s in this for the CBC to harass you and then hide the story?”

Ester Enkins, the current CBC Ombudsman, replied that she got the complaint but made no other comment.

I don’t know how much a complaint is worth. Does the Ombudsman just excuse bad journalism and defend the CBC or do they represent the public?  I will ask them how many complaints are resolved in favour of the complainant.

CBC Ombudsman

The CBC Ombudsman exists to listen to complaints from the public about CBC reporting and broadcasting. The former Ombudsman was Vince Carlin, a CBC journalist. Mr. Carlin worked with my father at CBC Radio Canada Montreal in the 1970s. I remember him from dinner parties. Call me a CBC brat.

Esther Enkins Ombudsman for CBC English Services. Represents public’s interests re CBC news and information content. Intrigued by challenges for modern journalism.@CBCOmbudsman (Twitter photo)

The current CBC Onbudsman is Esther Enkin. She ”was appointed Executive Editor, CBC News in 2008. Ms. Enkin has worked in radio and television at CBC since 1975. She was a founding member of  The Journal, and went on to be a documentary field producer.

In her position of executive editor CBC News, Ms. Enkin was responsible for the quality and standards of CBC journalism.   She  oversaw policy and standards, developing policy and ensuring CBC’s journalistic standards were met nationally and regionally. (Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma)

CBC Ombudsman Complaint

You can only complain about news reporting with the Ombudsman. They will not fix human rights problems, just how the story is told.

Here is the Complaint -

“I am an internet journalist. In October 2009, the press gallery of PEI expelled me for trumped-up charges that amounted to human rights discrimination on the basis of disability and association with a disability advocacy group.”

“For 2.5 years, CBC fought the complaint. Then in April 2013, the Chairperson of the PEI Human Rights Commission granted me the right to a Panel Review.”

“What did CBC do? They filed for a judicial review to quash the panel.”

“So far so bad for Canada’s public broadcaster with a policy of inclusion and human rights for all.”
“When a CBC reporter, of his own volition, tried to interview me and cover the story, Andrew Cochrane told him to stop.”

“CBC is effectively covering up the story about my allegations of human rights abuse, and trying to derail the legal process of a fair hearing.”

“Tell me how that fits into the policy of the CBC both in Human Rights and in freedom of the press?  Here’s what happened in the newsroom in Charlottetown when the story broke.

http://njnnetwork.com/2013/05/cbc-fights-to-bury-story-about-human-rights-complaint-by-wheelchair-bound-journalist/

“This is the short version of the story and all stories have at least two sides. CBC is censoring all sides of the story. Shame on them.”

Sidebar – PEI Human Rights Commission – Pate v Thibodeau, Wright, Allen and Press Gallery of the PEI Legislature

Complaint – On October 19, 2010 Stephen Pate (complainant) filed a complaint against The Press Gallery of the PEI Legislature and Wayne Thibodeau (Guardian), Teresa Wright (Guardian) and Donna Allen (CBC) (respondents) alleging discrimination in employment and membership in a professional organization on the basis of association, physical or intellectual disability, and source of income.

Pate is self represented and the complaint runs over 330 pages with more than 200 exhibits, including an audio recording of the meeting which forms the basis of the complaint. During the meeting, the respondents stated 10 times they objected to an advocate, or lobbyist as they called it, for a disability organization in their membership.

Important dates - On November 2, 2012 the Executive Director of the PEI Human Rights Commission (PEI HRC) dismissed the complaint because he found it had no merit.

On December 2, 2012, Pate filed a request for a review by the Chairperson of the PEI Human Rights Commission.

On April 4th, the Chair of the PEI HRC issued her ruling that the executive director was in error and that their was enough evidence to call for a Human Rights Panel under the PEI Human Rights Act.

Before that panel could be organized, the respondents, represented by a CBC and Guardian appointed lawyer, filed a motion on to cancel the human rights panel. This is a legal tactic to delay, stall or end the human rights process.

The court can refuse to hear the judicial review until after the public panel hearing, send the decision back to the Chair of the PEI HRC, stay all proceedings, among other decisions.

This sidebar is summary of the Complaint and is not a complete legal statement of the complaint. Specific details of the complaint and response are confidential until they are revealed in court or at a human rights panel.