Belltown Bent

BoF

This acronym, meaning "birds of a feather" - the idiomatic shortening of the proverb completed by "flock together" - is often used by  the Internet  Engineering Task Force (IETF), to tag meetings of interest to particular groups. As is the case with migrating Snow Geese, engineering specialist do tend to flock together.

Recently, a like-minded bunch of high-flying coders in Palo Alto released a new browser built specifically to support communities of web-users who share common, and often collaborative, interests. Flock, available free to the public with version 0.7, is built more for connecting than for browsing. It makes sharing photos, managing news feeds, updating blogs, and searching for stuff easier than ever.

It's fast and, so far on the Bent's G5, stable. Perhaps the coolest feature is the real-time search box. Just begin typing and a pull-down opens and BoF results, from search engines, recent searches, and your own favorites, all flock together.

 

"It's part genes and part means."

"Are you hip to the means?" Blue Note recording artist Mose Allison has been for more than 50 years.

Piano man, jazz man, blues man, soul man. Great American songwriter, and masterful interpreter of the Great American songbook. He loves the ironic couplet, and flirts with exaggeration and understatement in the same line.

    I can't believe the things I've seen
    I wonder bout some things I've heard
    Everybody's crying mercy
    When they don't know the meaning of the word

Bonnie, Van, and the Who all knew. From Young Man Blues to Everybody's Cryin' Mercy, he's 79 years old, and touring 40 weeks a year. From Tippo, Mississippi to Jazz Alley, Seattle. Thanks for making the half-century trip.

    People running round in circles
    Don't know what they're headed for
    Everybody's crying peace on Earth
    Just as soon as we win this war

Find the means to make it to Jazz Alley to watch Mose, with special guest guitarist Larry Coryell, continue to master the genes.

More: moseallison.com | Jazz Alley 6/29 - 7/2 | NPR Jazz Profiles

Goodbye Billy

For folks who share the Bent's vintage, Billy Preston was an omnipresent figure in the worlds of R&R and R&B. He hit our musical awareness in the early '60s when he was touring with Little Richard. The Beatles opened for them in a Hamburg club.

The next time Billy toured Britain, with Ray Charles, he and George Harrison met, leading to the Beatles signing him to their new Apple label.

The rest is history. Considered by many as the real "Fifth Beatle" he played on Let it Be, and the famous rooftop set, the Beatles last live performance. He played with John and George post-Beatles, recorded and toured with the Stones, toured with Eric Clapton, performed with Sly Stone, starred in The Concert for Bangla Desh, and was the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

Billy's own hits include Will It Go 'Round in Circles, Nothing From Nothing, and You Are So Beautiful, which he wrote for Joe Cocker. He died yesterday, in Scottsdale, where he had been in a coma since last November, just over two months after this picture was taken at Bumbershoot, September 4th, 2005.

Keep goin' around in circles.

Just busking in the rain

A rainy Memorial Day weekend didn't stop thousands of folk music, folk culture, and just-plain-folk loving people from taking in Northwest Folklife at the Seattle Center, Belltown's backyard.

The Bent loves to wander aimlessly about, happy to happen upon unexpected magic moments. Buskers are always an attraction. Something about their blend of boldness and vulnerability draws us in. Just standing there making music, confident (hoping) we'll stop, listen, approve, and toss some dough in the can.

This enterprising young man brought along his own stage crew. Buskers, you see, don't play under the protective cover of the stages reserved for scheduled performers. The duo had an arrangement, even though only one was making music. "For every three dollars I get, he gets one."

What a glorious feeling, I'm happy again.