Tiny Pineapple

ananas comosus (L.) minimus


This weekend I’m holed up in a quiet hotel at an undisclosed remote location trying to hammer out Chapter 6 of Her Majesty’s Gardener. Unfortunately, one consequence of being holed up in a quiet hotel at an undisclosed remote location is that my internet connection sucks. Posting the names of the lucky winners of the Debra Fotheringham Autographed CD contest has been hampered by the fact that my Novatel V640 EVDO ExpressCard is doing a rather convincing impersonation of a 2400 baud modem.

But now, without further ado…because I think we all have far too much ado in our lives already…

The Lucky Winners Are:

I’ve notified each of the lucky winners via email, but in the unlikely event that one of our lucky winners is unable to fulfill their obligations as a lucky winner, one of you unlucky non-winners may be asked to assume the role of lucky winner in his or her place.

Winners were chosen using RANDOM.ORG’s True Random Number Generator (TRNG), which, unlike Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNGs), uses atmostpheric noise to generate truly random numbers.

I was originally going to use LavaRand, which used a lava lamp to generate random numbers. (See Patent 5,732,138: “Method for seeding a pseudo-random number generator with a cryptographic hash of a digitization of a chaotic system.”) Unfortunately, SGI’s LavaRand web site is no longer online and, perhaps more importantly, one of the contestants claimed to be able to control illuminated liquids with his mind, so in the interest of fairness I had to find another solution.

Anyway, congratulations to the lucky winners and stay tuned for another contest in March. (Prizes and details to be announced shortly.)


A Concert and a Contest

February 14, 2008

The Intro

It has been almost six years since it went off the wire, but I still hear fairly regularly from former listeners lamenting the demise of Radio Free Tiny Pineapple. (Hey, Paul!) But, while it was an awful lot of fun while it lasted, quite honestly, the end came at a pretty good time.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been going through a real music-appreciation dry spell. Most of my favorite artists have released lackluster album after lackluster album and I’ve found blessed little new music to get excited about. In fact, I can only think of one album from the past five years that I can still listen to today with the same enthusiasm as I did when it was released.

So, when my friend Scott walked into my office a few months ago and said, “I’ve been listening to some music that I think you’d like,” I was more than a little skeptical…and not just because Scott has a bewildering fondness for obscure Scandinavian black metal bands.

He told me to go to DebraFotheringham.com and as soon as the home page loaded, music started playing. “Autoplay” web sites are a pet peeve of mine, and I was going to say something to that effect, but I got a little distracted halfway through the first sentence of my mini-rant. “Man, I hate it when they automatically…um…uh…well, I don’t think sites should…uh….who did you say this was? This is…um…wow…I really kinda like this.”

And I really kinda liked the next song, too. And by the third song I was really kinda buying the CD from the CD Baby web site and, let me tell you, it is really kinda brilliant.

What’s more…she’s a local. (She grew up just a few miles north of here in American Fork, Utah.) And, let me tell you, she is fantastic live. The girls and I were going to catch her at a Christmas House Concert back in December, but a round of the stomach flu squelched those plans. But I was finally able to hear her live at Muse Music last Friday night and I was absolutely blown away.

Note to savvy record company executives: Sign her. Now.

Note to everyone else: Buy her CD. Now. Either on CD Baby or iTunes.

Or, better yet…

The Concert

What are your plans for this Saturday night? Well, cancel them. Debra Fotheringham will be performing live (with a full band) at the Tahitian Noni Auditorium down in Riverwoods at 7:30pm.

Here are the exact details:

Debra Fotheringham Valentine’s Concert

Saturday, February 16th, 7:30pm

Tahitian Noni Auditorium
333 W. River Park Dr.
Provo, UT
(Here’s a map.)

Bring your friends. (Well, find some!) Bring your spouse. (It’s the perfect way to make up for that lousy last-minute Valentine’s Day gift you bought at the supermarket on your way home from work.) Bring your kids. (I am. My girls are big fans.)

Tickets are only $5 at the door, but if you order them in advance (and pick them up at the door) it’s “Buy 1 Get 1 Free.” (Just go to her site and click on the “Store” link.) For Pete’s sake, at $2.50 a seat, you could bring your entire dorm!

The Contest

At Friday’s show I was able to get Ms. Fotheringham to autograph four copies of her CD for me. She looked a little startled when I asked her to sign four. I think she thought I was a stalker. Either that, or she thought I was trying to impress her:

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t want you to sign a CD. Because, unlike the other guys in line who only want you to sign a CD, I need you to sign FOUR of them. That’s right, FOUR! Because one just isn’t enough for a man like me. I’m the kinda guy who needs FOUR.”

But what I was really doing…besides stalking and/or trying to impress her…was getting some prizes for a little contest.

So, here’s the deal:

  1. Leave a comment on this or any other entry on Tiny Pineapple between now and the end of the month.

  2. On Friday, February 29th, I will randomly pick four comments left during the month of February and send each of the four commenters one of the FOUR autographed CDs.

  3. Did I mention there are FOUR of them?

It’s that simple. Your comment doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. Just say “hi,” or introduce yourself, or tell us how you discovered Tiny Pineapple, or tell us your favorite nurse book title, or ask me when I’m finally going to get around to writing Chapter 6 of Her Majesty’s Gardener. (Answer: next week.)

Whatever, just go for it…

Update: Here’s an article from the Daily Herald about Ms. Fotheringham and the show.


Christmas in Eight Measures

December 20, 2006
Album Cover
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Sing, Choirs of Angels!

My mother sang alto in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for over a decade, so when Christmas rolls around, the Choir’s Christmas CDs are in heavy rotation in the car and at home.

As I was driving home tonight, their 2004 recording of Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of “Away in a Manager” came on and I had to pull over for a bit. I’ve had the pleasure of singing that arrangement with a number of excellent choirs, and every time I do I have to watch out because the third verse will knock the wind out of me if I’m not careful.

I assert (and my friend, Brent, will back me up on this) that Mack Wilberg is one of the most brilliant arrangers in the world, and I give you this recording, with the 360-member Choir and the 110-piece Orchestra at Temple Square, as Exhibit A.

The first verse is sung in unison by the women; the second verse by the men. It’s all very simple and straightforward up to that point, with the beautiful, flowing orchestration providing the only real points of interest.

And that’s where we pick things up…

As the sopranos, altos and tenors come in on the third verse, the orchestra drops away, leaving the voices suspended in mid-air…and the next eight measures are probably the closest thing to perfection that I’ll ever be a part of in this life.

For tenors, life doesn’t get much better than this. You just hang there at the top of your register singing the most interesting note in each of these intricate, unexpected chords. And when you drop into “…and love me, I pray,” it’s like coming home.

For me, those eight measures…those eight beautiful, delicate, haunting measures…full of longing, hope, and joy, are what Christmas is all about.


Christmas in August

August 15, 2006

This arrived in the mail today:

Jonatha Brooke: Live in New York

I haven’t had a chance to watch the DVD yet, but the nine-minute version of “Inconsolable” is already in heavy rotation in the car.


Top 10 Albums of 2002

March 14, 2003

OK, I think I’m ready to name my “Top 10 Albums of 2002.” Why, you may ask, am I just barely getting around to this in March 2003? Well, while I have pretty decent critical analysis skills, I’m a little slow.

When I walk out of a theater and someone asks me, “What did you think of the film?” I almost have to say, “Ask me in a week or two.” It takes me that long to reflect on the film’s bouquet, roll it around my tongue (assessing the film’s body, acidity, sweetness, fruitiness, etc), take in a little air, reflect on the finish (Was there a pleasant aftertaste? Did it still resonate after a week?), and then cleanse my palette with a mindless action flick. Only then can I come up with a, “Yeah, I sorta liked it.”

I’ve been thinking of launching a column entitled “Delayed-Reaction Film Critic” where you can read my stunning insights on films that have just left a theater near you.

Anyway, to get back to the matter at hand, here it is:

Top 10 Albums of 2002

by the Delayed-Reaction Music Critic
Beck - Sea Change

1.

Beck

Sea Change

I’ve never been a big Beck fan. It’s not that I’ve avoided his stuff in the past, I’d just never gone out of my way to listen to it. What little I’d heard seemed rather smug and self-absorbed. It seemed like my job as a listener was to stand back and admire how hip and clever he was. I’d never heard anything that drew me in and made me feel like I was supposed to be a part of what was going on. I have now.

Beck supposedly wrote the songs on “Sea Change” in a one-week marathon song-writing session after breaking up with his long-time girlfriend. It may not be true, but I want to believe it anyway because for the past few months I feel like Beck and I have been heartbroken drinking buddies (granted, I don’t drink, but still…), swapping tales of loss and regret. After each song I’ll lift my head off my desk, nod vaguely, and mumble, “I hear you, brother. I know exactly how you feel.”

One of the most gut-wrenching songs on the album is “Guess I’m Doing Fine”:

There’s a blue bird at my window
I can’t hear the songs he sings
All the jewels in heaven
They don’t look the same to me

I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind

It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine

…and a little later in the song he laments:

Press my face up to the window
To see how warm it is inside
See the things that I’ve been missing
Missing all this time

It’s only lies that I’m living
It’s only tears that I’m crying
It’s only you that I’m losing
Guess I’m doing fine

I hear you, brother. I know exactly how you feel.

Some long-time Beck fans have complained that they can’t even make it through “Sea Change,” but by moving from the self-referential to the self-revelatory he’s won me over completely. Or maybe it’s just that misery loves company.

Best Songs On The Album: “Guess I’m Doing Fine,” “Nothing I Haven’t Seen,” and “Side of the Road”

Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

2.

Bright Eyes

Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

This is the fourth album from Conor Oberst, a 22-year-old snot-nosed genius-punk from Omaha, Nebraska, and it is a big, sloppy, rambling mess. The music careens all over the place, the lyrics veer from the simplistic to the overripe in a matter of measures, and the whole production is so pretentious that you sometimes just want to reach through the speakers and slap the boy silly.

Trouble is, I can’t stop listening to the big, sloppy, rambling mess. And every time I listen to the big, sloppy, rambling mess, I find something else to love.

Best Songs On The Album: “Lover I Don’t Have To Love,” “False Advertising,” and “You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.”


Five Stories

3.

Kris Delmhorst

Five Stories

So, how can one of the best albums of 2002 be something that was released in 2001? Like I said, I’m a little slow. I’m not sure how I missed Kris Delmhorst for as long as I did. I’m pretty familiar with the folks in the Boston folk scene, but somehow, even though Patty Larkin and Jennifer Kimball sang backup on her debut album (and JK sings backup on this one, too), I wasn’t even aware of her existence until halfway through 2002. That just goes to show you how much I know…

There is some really beautiful stuff here. Take this from “Damn Love Songs”:

How can I carve your name in the trunk of a tree that’ll be here long after we’re gone?
I can’t even write it in the steam on the mirror.
And with nobody listening, not even myself, it’s as much as I can do
To whisper those words in your ear.

After all of these years, look at me here
With this love song stuck in my throat.
Got the weight of the world and there’s not too much else I can hold.

Even taken out of the context of the music, her lyrics are fantastic. She has a real gift for melody, she’s got a great voice, her guitar playing is rock-solid (all the more impressive since she only started playing the blasted instrument six years ago), and the album’s production is pitch-perfect.

I really love it when I discover new artists. I only wish I’d discovered her sooner.

Best Songs On The Album: “Damn Love Song,” Words Fail You,” and “Just What I Meant”


A Rush Of Blood To The Head

4.

Coldplay

A Rush of Blood to the Head

This is the kind of album Radiohead would be putting out if they hadn’t become Navel-Gazing Robots of Electronica. This is brilliant, well-crafted rock-and-roll. 10,000 Gwyneth Paltrows can’t be wrong.

Best Songs On The Album: “Amsterdam,” “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face,” and “The Scientist”


Live Wide Open (Disc 1)

5.

Martin Sexton

Live Wide Open

I’ll have a chance to see him again, live at the Zephyr Club, on March 18. I just hope it’s a more pleasant experience than last time.

Best Songs On The Album: “In The Journey,” “Freedom of the Road,” and the 9-minute version of “Black Sheep”


When I Was Cruel

6.

Elvis Costello

When I Was Cruel

This album proves that Elvis Costello is the exception to the rule that, with time, all great artists just become caricatures of themselves.

Best Songs On The Album: “When I Was Cruel No. 2,” “Alibi,” and “15 Petals”


This Side

7.

Nickel Creek

This Side

A word of advice: Always put out a crappy debut album. It makes any follow-up that much more impressive. Nickel Creek had the unenviable task of coming up with something to top their stunning self-titled debut…and they came close. Not quite, but close. Rather than just doing more of the same traditional bluegrass that they do so well, “This Side” is all over the genre map, from a reworking of Pavement’s “Spit on a Stranger” (easily better than the original), to the funky/poppy/bluegrassy title track.

Some of it works, some of it only kinda works, but it’s fun listening to the kids playing with new ideas and styles when they could have just sat back and repeated themselves for the next ten years without anyone noticing or complaining.

Best Songs On The Album: “Spit on a Stranger,” “Should Have Known Better,” and “This Side”


1000 Kisses

8.

Patty Griffin

1000 Kisses

Personally, I loved Flaming Red, but for some folks it was too much of an ear-popping altitude adjustment from Living with Ghosts. Those people will be happy to hear that Patty seems to have recovered from being possessed by Melissa Etheridge with little or no residual effects. “Nobody’s Crying” is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve heard in years.

Best Songs On The Album: “Nobody’s Crying,” “Stolen Cars,” and “Making Pies,”


About A Boy

9.

Badly Drawn Boy

About A Boy

A warm, witty, and charming soundtrack from a warm, witty, and charming film. It’s just a genuine pleasure to listen to.

Best Songs On The Album: “Something to Talk About,” “Above You, Below Me,” and “River, Sea, Ocean”


Home

10.

Dixie Chicks

Home

Their music becomes more rootsy even as they become more slick and glamorous. Something’s gotta give but, until it does, enjoy the music.

Best Songs On The Album: “White Trash Wedding,” “Long Time Gone,” and “Travelin’ Soldier”


Pete’s Research Project

January 15, 2003

Everyone’s probably heard by now that Pete Townsend was arrested on child pornography charges on Monday. Before the arrest, the entertainment newswires were carrying the following:

Rock legend Pete Townshend has stunned his legions of followers by confessing he is the celebrity at the centre of a police child porn investigation. The Who guitarist has admitted using his credit card to download sex videos of children from the internet, but insists he was simply doing research for a book he is writing about his childhood years, when he himself suffered sexual abuse. “The Kids Are Alright” rocker, whose name is on an FBI list of 7,000 pedophiles, says, “I haven’t been charged with anything, but I think I’m f*****. I was worried this might happen. This will be the most damaging thing for my career. I want to clear my name.”

Townshend has three children of his own and follows both former tour-mate Gary Glitter and Euro-pop mastermind Jonathan King in the list of musicians associated with child porn scandals. He says, “I toured with Gary Glitter in the past but I am not him. I have always been into pornography and I have used it all my life. But I am not a pedophile and I think pedophilia is appalling.” Townshend adds, “I have been writing my life story and the research was for a book. I have been in touch with Scotland Yard to tell them what I was doing. I have contacted them but no police officers have contacted me.”

The raw emotion and sense of desperation you can hear in those statements just breaks my heart. You just don’t hear things like that coming out of celebrities’ mouths anymore. Something like this is usually handled by the celebrity’s handlers and lawyers and any statements released on the celebrity’s behalf are devoid of anything even resembling genuine human feeling.

But I was disappointed that Pete’s first concern was the damage that this might do to his career. Come on, Pete! You’re a 57-year-old former rock star, you’re partially deaf, you haven’t had a hit album in decades, and you could probably sit on your butt and live off your royalties for the rest of your “career.” These kids’ lives have been destroyed as a result of the materials that you bought for your little research project and they’ll spend the rest of their lives trying to overcome the damage of the emotional and physical abuse that they’ve suffered…and you’re worried about your career?

Granted, I shouldn’t assume that he doesn’t care about these children just because he didn’t mention them. He’s obviously a little preoccupied with self-preservation right now. But I was further put off when he invoked the time-honored/time-worn defense most recently used by Winona “I-Was-Doing-Research-For-A-Movie” Ryder. It could very well be true but I’ve gotta tell you, my first thought was, “Sorry, Pete…we won’t get fooled again.”


This may sound odd, but the best comedy writing today may be going on over at Amazon.com.

There has been some bizarre confluence around Looking For-Best of David Hasselhoff [IMPORT] that has resulted in 420 (as of today) of some of the most wonderful reader reviews you’ll ever have a chance to read. Go. Read. Now.

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they are discovered, disapproved of, and deleted, so I’ve preserved the last ten entries here for your enjoyment:


I have seen the light!, December 4, 2002

In fact, I quite literally saw the light; within ten seconds of forwarding to track six (Hot Shot City, which is particularly good), I had an aneurysm and woke up twelve hours later in hospital. Sadly, the ambulance crew who went to my aid also suffered an array of mysterious head or ear-related maladies upon reaching my house - in the end they had to force a power cut before anybody could safely enter.

I would dearly love to rhapsodise further the merits of David Hassleheamorrhoid’s album, but the doctors have warned against me having any further contact with said product. I shall have to content myself with buying a pair of very tight jeans, black leather jacket, and installing an effetely-voiced Speak and Spell in my car.


A white-knuckle, deep-throated love fest!, December 4, 2002

If there’s one thing the Maori are known for, its their age-old wisdom and curly hair. Through generations of oral tradition and perseverance, the proud Maori people have endured as storytellers, innovators, and as Jango and Boba Fett in the latest George Lucas installment. David Hoopervamp knows this, and he openly admits taking this formula for success and making it his own. So with the release of “The Best Of David Hoopervamp (IMPORT)” he reinvents the wisdom-and-curly-hair thing. The end result is a sweeping epic of kapa haka proportions.

Brimming with freshness and musky skank and accompanied by a voice that sounds like eight llamas impaled on a jousters lance, these hymns of hunkiness stay with you like an extended case of mono. Hoopervamp takes off his leather boots, rubbing his moistened feet all over the compact disc, even rubbing it between his toes to soak up the funk. When we listen to this CD, it is as if we are inhaling the aroma of his sweaty, hairy callouses with all the power our lungs can muster. And who wouldn’t want that?

The song Hot Shot City is particularly good.


A thesis…., December 4, 2002

Don’t you feel sorry for all of those misguided fools who were manipulated by an over powering global network of media “style over substance” ethos? All of those who voted for “Imagine” by John Lennon as the greatest song of the last millenium were duped.

Duped by a global conspiricy. A conspiricy that will not market this album, scared of the political and social upheaval that it’s success may entail.

This seminal album has changed so much of my life already with the brilliance of the tracks included, so imagine my surprise when after a long session of what I call my “David” time I noticed something that had been staring me right in the face the whole time.

That’s right…..the title. It made me think, in this world full of despair and misery are we not all looking for something to make our lives a happier and generally more fulfilled?

We’re ALL looking for David Hasslehoff.
We’re ALL looking for the best of something.
On import.
We’re ALL looking for Hot Shot City, a place for revolutions at 11 o’ clock, which after all is a particularly good place to be.


BEYOND THE PARADIGM: PUSHING THE LIMITS OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT, December 4, 2002

There are the good. There are the great. There are the truly great. And there Is David Hasselhoff; a man alone on a lonely musical pinnacle. This is a record for everyone; a multilingual multigenre powerhouse compilation that brings to you, the grateful listener, the majesty of David’s euvre to date.
There is, to my knowledge, no better way to kick off such an anthology than with an uplifting rock anthem to freedom. Track one is entitled ‘Looking for Freedom’ That’ll do nicely, sir. Track 13, ‘Freedom for the World’, just piles on the joy all over again, showing that he has not forgotten what a groovy hep thing freedom is.

David proves he’s no stiff with the zany fun of ‘Do the Limbo Dance’, a masterpiece of crazy party fun that would disarm a heart of stone.
‘Flying on the Wings of Tenderness’ proves that David’s no clichᅵd macho man, with levels of lyrical tenderness unrivalled in the history of literature.
For the young sophisticate, ‘Everybody Sunshine’ is a searching existential critique that, in my humble opinion, could stand shoulder to shoulder with the finest works of Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer or Minogue.
I could go and on about this remarkable man’s achievements, his tunesmith’s ear, his lyrical genius, his truly euterpian connection to the music of the spheres, but I think one listen to ‘Hot Shot City’ will say more, far more than my stumbling mortal words can express.


The sound of a sperm whale being minced into sausages, December 4, 2002

If music were a religion, its Messiah has arrived in the form of the uber bouffant David Hissyfit. With a voice that has been justly compared to the sound of a steam train colliding with a busload of eunuchs, the Hasslemeister belts out hit after mind numbing hit, covering all genres of music from banal to trite.

His facile defence of his dishonest friend in “I Believe - Laura Branigan”, shows that not only is he a hackneyed entertainer par excellence, but he’s also a decent bloke. Somewhere in heaven, the angels are putting down their harps, picking up pointy, 80’s styled guitars, and strumming out cover versions of such venerated classics as “Flying on the Wings of Tenderness” and “Everybody Sunshine.” Only a genius could make the word ‘sunshine’ a verb.

A master of production wizardry, Hanselgreteloff, has included the sphincter gritting song “Danice Dance d’Amour” which played backwards becomes track three “Do the Limbo Dance. ” Also included on this compilation of excrutiating Euro chart toppers is the legendary “Wir Zwei Allein”, which was awarded the prestigious Institute de Dentist prize for best tooth grinder 1987. Your enamel won’t stand a chance, and neither will your loins when you get to “These Lovein’ Eyes”. The song’s enigmatic title has spawned scores of Internet sites where people espouse theories as to the extra ‘e’. My own take is that it’s a typo and that there should be a space after the ‘e’, making it “These Love in Eyes”, since Hasbro’s trill vibrato is enough to make the strongest man bust a nut with such vigour that you’ll want to have your eyes closed, lest you go blind from sheer the velocity of your well spent love juice. I’m getting half a mongrel just humming the tune to myself.

With the particularly good “Hot Shot City” in his repertoire, Knockitoff, is not merely a bigger love walrus than Barry White, he is truly a sperm whale.


Liquid love, December 4, 2002

Take my advice, buy the album new and not second hand. Why? Because the previous owner must have died to have parted with it, maybe from a terrible disease. Yes, it’s that good.

Buying this album is an investment in your ears’ future, and you will be richly rewarded by them for your effort. A mixture of puppy dogs for the soal and the stark reality of life on the streets, it will have you running the full gammut of emotions, from “a” through “k.”

Don’t just buy this album, live it.


Craseey for Daviid, December 3, 2002

The first time I saw David singing I was 13. I saw him on ITC’s “The Chart Shor”, he did his song “Crazy for You”. The way he punched the air repeatedly with his leather glofe clad fist whilst he was riding on his motorbike through the forests of Bavariea got me hooked like only Elkie Brookes or Kim Carnes had done before. I think David is a very good singer and i am sure he is a talendet guitar player an harmonicist. When the Berlin Wall came down I saw him in his light bulb jacket like on the pink Fliyd oalbum and I thought that maybe he would do a cover of “Love in the school yard” or “it’s a time of mayhem”, but he didn’t, he did the wonderful “Looking for Freedom” and I think it’s really good, better than the Bergman movie or that thing with the two angels when a rock lands on someone’s head and he’s dead and he wakes up by the wall and it’s in black and white. David’s better than all that and Baywatch and NichtRider prove it, but his singing is the best of it all and this compilation, which i have on my mp3 player and my jukebox and i play it all the time on my BMX, proves it, and I hear kids today and they’re asking about what’s the best music to listen to, and I say david hasselhopf and they say “who’s he” and I say he’s the person off nightr ider and baywatch and theyy’ve seen the shows byt they don’g know he sings and i say he dows and they listen and they hear “looking forf freedom” and all the hits and i say “now you know, this is waht music is about and your bf49 isn’t as good and they say, yes i know.

Well, that’s what david hasselhoff is about to me. He is like a fine wine that matures, and that bit at the bottom of the bottel with all the sediment is the best, and david’s like that, his voice, his powerful persona, his big hands and his curly hair like a garden full of peat. I love david and I will play his music to my child when she comes out of hospital and maybe when she hears his voice she will realise that the world has been made what it is as the result of david’s presence and she will know that when she is older all she has to do is look at baywatch and knith rider and listen to the song “looking for freedom” and she will have mmore of an opinion of the world than if she went to kindergarten or read books or learnt how to speak.

The song “Hot Shot City” is particularly good.


A Milestone in Music History!, December 3, 2002

For decades, musicologists the world over have pondered one question: Could anyone achieve a divine synthesis of the advances of Schoenberg and Stravinsky that would include the breakthroughs of musicians like Ellington, Parker, Armstrong and Mingus, yet also include the emerging tonalities and rhythms common to Carribbean cultures, West Africa and certain parts of the Yalu Valley? And now, my friends, we have the answer: David Hasteloff!

In the same way that the ruggedly handsome Hassletoff’s contributions to the dramatic arts have challenged the very boundaries of theater, compositions such as “Is Everybody Happy?” or the instant classic “Flying on the wings of Tenderness” challenge us to rethink the very definition of music. More than the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, “Everybody Sunshine” is an ode to mankind’s greatest joys; more than Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, “Do You Believe in Love” challenges us to question the very nature of our existence.

As a singer, Mr Hustlenoff is without peer. Hearing the easy bilingualism of “J’Taime Means I Love You,” the only possible comparison is with Placido Domingo’s effortless transiton between various operatic idioms.

Perhaps most praiseworthy of all is the fact that, unlike so many of the 20th century’s great artists, Mr Hesslefoff has used his considerable gifts in the service of a philosophy that flies in the face of the nihilism espoused by the likes of Schopehaur and Neitze. In compositions such as “The Best is Yet to Come,” he clearly acknowledges the darker side of the human predicament, and yet adorns it in rays of radiant hope that spray outward like rays from some sort of hope-producing ray gun.

This is talent of a sort which cannot be denied. Ignore him at your peril!


He is simply the best., December 3, 2002

David Hankelbonk is someone who does not call a ‘spade a spade’, he calls it a ‘shovel’. This is evident throughout this latest masterpiece that has me diving through the surface of the lyrical content to discover what is and what could well be.

The world is David’s lobster, as he has proved time and time again through his career firstly as a man who traveled the frontiers in his talking car and then as Mitch Buchanan, a modern day ‘Charles Ingels’ on Malibu Beach.

His music is as forceful as his TV shows. One walks away from each gem of a song wondering about life and what we can do to make things a little better for ourselves - and boy there are many things! When I listen to his crooning I am taken away to a magical place where only people with clean underpants are admitted. This place is ‘Hot Shot City’ which is a particularly good song.


Not Yet Heard It, December 3, 2002

As I have not yet heard this album, could someone recommend any tracks as being particularly good


Viva La France

July 30, 2002

A few weeks back, the California correspondent for Libération in Paris (France, not Idaho) contacted me about the death of Radio Free Tiny Pineapple. She was doing a piece on the impact of the recent CARP ruling and wanted my perspective on things.

They published the piece this past weekend, but since I don’t speak French I’ve had to rely on the web-based translaters in order to see how it turned out. As sometime happens, it appears that most of my stuff ended up on the cutting room floor, but near the end of the article entitled “American webradios with the barks” I’m quoted as saying:

[Note: This sounds especially good if you say it with an indignant French accent.]

“Honestly, I do not see any means of survival for the majority of radios Internet. The industry of the disc does not want any, and will return the impossible life to them.”

I don’t know about you, but I will henceforth always refer to the media conglomerates as “the industry of the disc.” And I if anyone ever crosses me, I swear I’ll “return the impossible life to them!”


RFTP RIP

June 21, 2002

Well, folks, the Librarian of Congress came back with his/her final ruling on the CARP’s Webcasting royalty recommendations…and it ain’t much better than the original.

In other words, we’re toast.

As of 2:00pm MST, Radio Free Tiny Pineapple will be closing its doors to the general public and will simply revert to what it was in the beginning: a way for me to listen to my CDs at work.

Tears will be shed, garments rent, sack-cloth and ashes worn.

But, if you’re unhappy about the ruling, don’t blame the Librarian of Congress. According to U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee and Rick Boucher:

“We are moderately encouraged that the Librarian of Congress reduced the rates for Internet-only webcasters to the same level AM/FM radio Internet broadcasters. We remain very concerned, however, that this rate will lead to the elimination of hundreds of small businesses and does not provide a viable model to serve both the Internet radio industry and recording artists.

“Unfortunately, these rates are a direct result of the flawed ‘willing-buyer/willing-seller’ standard that Congress mandated the Librarian of Congress use in determining these rates. Instead of assessing a fair rate, the flawed standard instead requires the arbitrators to try to replicate willing buyers and willing sellers in an already flawed marketplace.

“While the Librarian of Congress clearly went to great lengths to change the burdensome Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) ruling, we believe that such a contorted process and poor outcome can be avoided by changing the standard guiding the Librarian’s decision-making and removing other obstacles in current copyright law that were identified by the Librarian.”

Additional Links:

RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter

Wired News


A Reprieve For RFTP

May 21, 2002

Huzzah! The CARP recommendations have been rejected by the Librarian of Congress. (Am I the only one who, when hearing the title “Librarian of Congress,” pictures some elderly, matronly woman shushing rowdy Senators for speaking too loudly in the non-fiction section?)

It’s probably only a temporary stay of execution, but it looks like we’ll be able to broadcast for at least a few more months. <knock on silicon>


CARP Crap

May 7, 2002

As many of you know, the Librarian of Congress has until May 21 to either accept or reject the recommendations of the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (“CARP”) concerning Internet radio royalty rates and record-keeping requirements.

Barring an unseasonable drop in temperature in hell and the subsequent transformation of H2O from liquid to solid form, Radio Free Tiny Pineapple will be going dark on or around May 21st. RFTP will simply revert to what it was in the beginning: a way for me to listen to my CDs at work. You just won’t be able to listen in anymore.

That’s a shame because, based on the traffic and fan mail that we get, it is obvious that RFTP is meeting the needs of a niche that is poorly-served by conventional broadcasters.

It is also obvious, based on the number of CD purchases at Amazon.com that are made by RFTP listeners linking directly from our site, that RFTP is generating quite a bit of revenue for the record labels. (And who knows how much revenue we’re generating indirectly? I think Jonatha Brooke owes me a car.)

Still, I do believe that artists should be compensated for their works, and if artists (by way of their labels and the RIAA) feel that the CARP recommendations are the best way to facilitate that, who am I to say otherwise?

As Goethe once said, “There ain’t no fighting The Man…”

Additional Links:


I stopped by Border’s on my way home from work yesterday and picked up Martin Sexton’s new 2-disc set, “Live Wide Open,” and blasted it while we were cleaning/painting our new old house last night.

There are some artists who release studio albums and then proceed to tour the country putting on concerts that are sorry approximations of what some producer was able to conjure up in the studio. Then there are artists who tour the country doing stunning live shows and occasionally go into the studio to record albums that can’t begin to do justice to their live performance.

Mr. Sexton falls into the latter camp.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Martin Sexton’s albums, but to see him live is to love him even more, and I had the chance to see him live last year at the Zephyr Club in Salt Lake City. Too bad it was one of the worst concert-going experiences of my life…

The crowd was loaded, noisy and rude. There were large groups of people in the back of the room who spent the entire concert shouting at each other across the bar, glancing only occasionally at the stage. Mr. Sexton actually had to stop playing a few times to “shush” the audience. I was mortified. I felt like going up to him afterwards and saying, “Mr. Sexton, on behalf of everyone in the state of Utah, I would like to offer my apologies for the appalling behavior of some of the audience members here tonight. Please accept this wheel of brie as an expression of contrition…and could you sign my pants, please?.”

My close personal friend, Kathryn Bartholomew (an unabashed turophile, though that has nothing to do with this particular story), spent the evening being lashed by a gentleman standing next to her whose vigorous head-bobbing turned his dreadlocks into a scourge.

On top of all that, I was coming down with the flu. By the time they took a break halfway through the set, I was already feeling pretty woozy. By the end of the concert, I felt (and probably looked) like hell.

That’s why I was so excited to see that Martin Sexton was releasing a live album. Now you, too, can experience the joys of Martin Sexton live without being embarrassed by your loud-mouthed, drunken compatriots, being pummeled by anyone’s coiffure, or feeling like death warmed over.


We’re in the Papers, Eh!

January 16, 2002

Radio Free Tiny Pineapple just got a mention in the Calgary Herald. In an article entitled “The Net Captures The World’s Music” they discuss the current state of Internet radio and list “three online stations to try”:

They were even kind enough to refer to RFTP as “ideal office fare.”

Calgary Herald Article

Special thanks to Kevin Franco for sending us the clipping. In related news, the BBC has filed a defamation lawsuit for being mentioned in the same article as us.


RFTP and iTunes

November 18, 2001

On Tuesday, our measly little Internet radio station started experiencing a 500% increase in traffic. I was baffled until I noticed that most of the new listeners were using Apple’s iTunes.

Sure enough, I don’t know who replaced Kerbango in providing iTunes’ Internet Radio listings, but they now feature Radio Free Tiny Pineapple in their Eclectic category. In fact, RFTP represents 3 out of the 12 Eclectic streams in the listing. I think if they knew what a small-time operation this really is, they’d be appalled…


Since some folks’ connections were having trouble keeping up with the 128 kbps version of Radio Free Tiny Pineapple we’re experimenting with broadcasting at three different bitrates:


The Ministry of Bleakness hereby declares this to be Dysphoric, Melancholy, Ennui Week on Radio Free Tiny Pineapple.

Until certain circumstances in the life of the Minister of Depressive Affairs change for the better, all cheerful, uplifting, and/or jaunty music is herewith banned from the server.

So, tune in for the pitty party:


We’re now streaming Radio Free Tiny Pineapple at two different bit rates:

I was feeling guilty for leaving dial-up users out of the mix….