The Rowboat Syndicate: Cover Art Down Under

Courtesy Apple Corps, Ltd./Universal Music Group

The Rowboat Syndicate: Cover Art Down Under: Australia generally replicated The Beatles' UK album releases during the 60s, although there were a couple of oddities along the way. T...

Bluetooth at home and on the go: Now in its 30th year

Leto Bluetooth speaker (no relation to Jared)

MC SeonWoo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 While Bluetooth has been around for some time now, it's not like me or other people to catch on late, often times because of the cost. Some even got telly decades after most of western civilisation to put it that way. When I switched phones, I couldn't use the classic cord that I grew up with anymore. A few years ago, I managed to find a pair of JBL headphones at the charity shop for $7. They work with my Android and I don't think I had them yet for my ageing iPhone. Only today at the chaz, did I finally find a standalone Bluetooth speaker that I could afford. I do have it in my record machine in another part of the house, but it's more inconvenient than playing good old vinyl since I just don't have that much room. On the same token, I have dozens of CDs stored in the attic, and it can be too cold in winter and hot in the summer to rummage through a large moving box in cramped quarters, especially if I need to play something at a moments notice or on a certain day. While I still want to go to shops and get real LPs and CDs when I can afford it, subscribing to Amazon and sometimes even going to YouTube or even a pirate site saves time and money, which is why streaming is mega these days. Netflix is more suited for the sister TV blog, and I don't watch much TV either way anymore. However, I wonder if it's actual stereo or just a glorified mono folddown. One brand sold at Dollar Tree with $5-10 items says to buy two speakers for true stereo, but I'm lucky to get this used one, since it takes time for newer tech to cost less and reach the second hand and even the thrift store, which doesn't happen everyday, but that can be explored at the retail blog. There's no need to spend hundreds more on hi-fi for your wi-fi. It was a right fortune as it is just to get the phone fixed after it broke more than once, mind. As for getting a good deal on Bluetooth at a place that is usually just full of junk, sometimes on a good day, you win the pools.

Arena

Arena, 2020. L-R: Kylan Amos, John Mitchell, Mick Pointer, Paul Manzi and Clive Nolan.

Kajamera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Courtesy Verglas Music.

 Arena are a band I have been dabbling with for some time, but unlike some of the related bands, I may not be getting all of the CDs since it gets expensive to go after all these every time I bring someone new into my collection. Mick Pointer, late of Marillion, and Clive Nolan, also of Pendragon, started the band in 1994, and there have been several different lineups ever since, which have included John Jowitt of IQ and Jadis; John Mitchell of Frost*, It Bites, Fish, and now Asia; and former Landmarq and Threshold frontman as well Headspace and Rick Wakeman band member Damian Wilson (his joining is what got me to buy the most recent studio album, The Theory of Molecular Inheritance). Unfortunately, other commitments will have him moving on by years end. Paul Manzi left in 2020 to join the Sweet of all people, which some may consider selling out, by going from a complex prog band to a latter day lineup of a glam band from the '70s. However, he will be back next year. Now I know why I used an old photo. Pointer still plays his old bands music on occasion in a side project with original bass player Cliff Orsi, proving that he's no Pete Best. Mitchell and Nolan have also worked the late John Wetton of Asia on his 2003 solo album Rock of Faith, and the former on Wetton (Geoff) Downes Icon series.
 Arenas sometimes dark lyrics and layered sound design resonate with me and many listeners. The band have been independent from the start, managing themselves and running their own label. They have built up a cult following spanning over three decades. Like other artists with simplistic names, they get confused with obscure artists of the same name on Amazon, where I stream them, Spotify and maybe even indie specialists emusic. Look for the Verglas label, or at least what you know is the real Arena on these services, given the generic nature of the name. No word yet on the next studio album now that Manzi is poised to return in one years time. At least I can easily stream the band at home as I can on the go, but that will be the next post, this being the first in 2026. I guess it comes from getting bored of the other bands and despising current mainstream rubbish. I may have even designed the next albums sleeve for them out of sigils, which current bass player and art director Kylan Amos could adapt, even though AI even knows his style. I drew them for something else while playing the band.

AI of original album design for next album

Universal Records: The Return

Rob Thomas live, November 2005

 Universal Music Group have revived their former US flagship label Universal Records. While a few unrelated labels have come up in the Philippines, Belgium and Brasil, this Universals roots go back to 1988 when started by country trailblazer Jimmy Bowen as part of MCA Nashville, but in 1990, he moved to Capitol Nashville and took his artists with him, ending that Universal label (yet Capitol would become part of UMG in 2013). There had also been UNI Records (Universal City Records) in the late '60s until 1972 when absorbed into MCA along with Kapp and Decca US (spun off of the UK one just  before WWII and came full circle once UMG bought PolyGram in 1999 after the latter bought UK label in 1979, but that's for another day). UNI signed Elton John in the US and Canada, and I explained several years earlier how he touched nearly every pop division of Universal Music Group in one way or another, which continues to this day.
 Universal Records' second chapter began when they absorbed Rising Tide Records and Seagram bought MCA from Matsushita (Panasonic). After getting PolyGram from Philips by the end of the millennium, Universal Records had absorbed Polydor US and took over The Moody Blues and Bee Gees' contracts here for what would be their final all-original studio releases. Universal Records would later be combined with the perennial Motown and current chartmakers Republic each. While the Detroit label would go back to their old name and is now under the Interscope Capitol arm, Universal Republic would just be Republic and have hits with Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. Now, with little to go on, Universal Records returns after nearly two decades when Rob Thomas signs a new solo deal just after leaving Atlantic Records after thirty years' time, including Matchbox Twenty proper. He's lucky for an older artist to get a new home, let alone another major label, straight away and at this point in time. All Night Days is available now and a tour is underway to support. I saw it in the shop and found he moved to a label I thought was retired. Republic had brought back Mercury US for non-country, signing our own Post Malone, and I wrote about sister label A&M earlier, which only Sting has kept alive in recent years. New talent could come to Universal Records, as changes have been made under UMG brass Sir Lucian Grange, who is the modern day Sir Edward Lewis (Decca UK) or even Sir Joseph Lockwood (EMI), if you like. His son is now at Thomas's old label however.

Ozzy Osbourne 1948 - 2025

AI of Ozzy Osbourne with Notsky and ThinkPawsome

 As we get on in years, we lose more people in our lives, both personally and in the public eye. 2025 so far is another one of those years where we go through stars like water, but it's as inevitable as my taxes. Ozzy Osbourne passed on 22 July with his wife and manager Sharon by his side. He had suffered from Parkinsons disease, and had a history of addiction. His funeral procession through his native Birmingham brought out crowds sizeable to state funerals. Just a couple weeks before, he had what would be his final performance, including the last reunion of Black Sabbath and an all-star lineup. Osbournes influence is widespread, and we're still reeling from the loss. I can take solace that I got to see him in 2018 in my area. Couldn't stay the whole time, but at least I had the chance, as there are so many others in my lifetime that I never would see. I first heard of him when I was young, but got into him a bit late, like I have most others. I have seen The Osbournes, but not the other reality shows since I don't really care for those anymore. Now it's just too soon. We'll always have the music and the memories to keep his spirit alive like everyone else that has left us before. I know Halloween and his birthday later in the year won't be the same anymore. Shops may mark up and/or run out of his albums. New copies and streams put him back in the charts, which is usual when this happens. I just know his legacy will always be there. Long live Ozzy Osbourne.

FloofAid

 

AI group drawing. Website is just as fake, so don't go to it yet.

    I have launched FloofAid, a unique charity to help those in the furry community afford fursuits and furry conventions. This may not be quite what I usually put here, but I haven't had anything in a period and I have the worst luck with these. This is described more on our sister blog, along with sister project Furacuse, which would be a con based right here in Syracuse, so people in the region wouldn't have to go as far for it, being between Albanys Eufuria, Buffalos Fluffalo, as well as far between Ottawas Canfur, Philadelphias Furrydelphia, and the Tri-States Furpocalypse. It would seem counterintuitive to have one thing that gets you to cons around North America (we'll throw in the boys' turf too, despite recent events) tied to one in my area. FloofAid would also help furs connect to each other. It was going to be called FurAid, but the name was already used by a rescue centre, which cons usually raise money for. Furacuse would be split between the local SPCA and FloofAid. If you don't care for GoFundMe, you can send me money directly through PayPal, CashApp, Venmo, or even Zelle (by request). This is not a scam. Just say that it's for FloofAid so I can put it aside. I would put that money specifically aside for either the three or four state regions event if I can't do both, since I'll be lucky to get to one ever, or even get another suit since the ones I have now may not be appropriate or accepted by the diehards, despite basing a lie around my main one, and the other was a cheapie I can't even bring to the charity shop. Once more money comes in, I can pay it forward, reach out to others, and file the paperwork.

    Having a benefit show would not be feasible. This is too much of a niche market to even get small time artists on board. Maybe my prom deal would work, since people would go for the event more than for the cause in some of these cases. Even established non-profits are struggling right now. The one mainstream current artist that came even close to knowing floof is Lil Nas X with a knockoff Rivolo suit (mine is of Kevon, even though I add to him to make him my own). The Beatles with Magical Mystery Tour in the "I Am the Walrus" segment of the film and the album sleeve may be considered a precedent, yet the fandoms roots may go back as far as Victorian and Edwardian times if not further.

Second Chance Homecoming

Notsky is dressed for the homecoming dance!

 You've seen how frustrated I've been about finding an adult prom or the like in CNY lately, and I'll be lucky to get one by autumn, when schools have homecoming. I never did that either, nor have millions of other people. One may call it Prom Lite, or even a precursor to prom if you like. Second Chance Homecoming is also held, but is even more elusive than its better known counterpart. Granted that someone does have Prom locally this fall, I would try to hold Homecoming before that not to compete, but rather to compliment, if it happens. I don't think anyone here has ever done a Second Chance Homecoming before. Maybe the S-word could do it, but if they won't do the P-word, what would make them have this instead? I would go through the same list of places on our sister blog. I've even considered having it for my birthday if I don't out to dinner for reasons I won't put here, even though it can't be on the day because it's in the middle of the week (although the latest adult prom in the region in New Hartford is on a Tuesday, which is unorthodox for this sort, yet I won't go now after plans around the Pride one in Rome fell through), and it has to be towards the weekend when people are generally up to a night out. I wasn't going to combine them in the middle of summer or make it a public event, yet I don't know too many people, and I haven't had a party in decades (she won't say how she'll be, mind). Salt City Collectives prom in October has been the one closest to homecoming season, which I put in last years post, yet when it was first held, it was when the pandemic was easing up and I gave up finding anything that year, never mind in spring. That one is still up in the air this year, as waiting is in two parts; waiting for a decision and date, and for the event itself (you know how it is, as John Lennon would say). I would look around for a registered charity, NGO, or someone in need looking for a fundraiser idea and suggest this, hoping they'll take this up, whether they use the homecoming or prom label, as this is all hands on deck, requiring a committee to organise everything as one person can't do it all. I'm not the Bob Geldof, Bill Graham or Harvey Goldsmith of homecoming or prom. Gala sounds more posh, and Met Gala downstate pulls out all the stops every year, but that's different. Bishop Ludden (+ Grimes) use that term instead of prom or ball. I want the event to use the homecoming or prom label because anyone can have a black tie event for charity or whatever. I want it to resemble what it was like in school to a degree (no pun intended) if not in films or on TV (even though I don't watch much of either anymore). We can bring in the drinks, and I'm teetotal. I've been putting floofs in tuxedos on AI as you can see with our mascot. It's been ages since I was in school. I didn't graduate in this area, and the one I did is another animal and has no such ceremony if they ever had in the old days (they did have prom before I went, and the current version does now). However, that place is too far for me, and the only reunion is mostly alums who went before I was even born, but that's for another day. I may be too old to attend either schools homecoming, but like prom, at least we can have something of our own for everyone who missed out, got it wrong then, or just wants to have another go at it to a lesser extent than its older sister, if you like. No AI whatsoever was used to write this post (she did it all on her own).