Musings @musicandmeaning.com

Only hope can keep me together. Love can mend your life but love can break your heart.
"He had a theory that musicians are incredibly complex, and know far less than other artists what they want and what they are; that they puzzle themselves as well as their friends; that their psychology is a modern development, and has not yet been understood." – E. M. Forster

Archive for March, 2004


Sunday, 21 March 2004

Mylar magic (or, to be more accurate, digital magic)

Weekend Becomes Eclectic is undoubtedly pre-taped this weekend. It’s the same deal today as yesterday.

[Image captured by the KCRW webcam, during "Weekend Becomes Eclectic" at about 2:22 p.m.]Witness the KCRW webcam: I saved this shot this afternoon while I was listening to Anne Litt speaking on air (about 2:22 p.m.). There’s no one at the mic, no CDs piled around, and if you look at the board, only the last fader is up…and it hasn’t changed position (as far as I can tell) since the show began.

Earlier today I finally realized where Litt might be, if not in the KCRW basement: the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival! I don’t know how or why I didn’t make the connection earlier — even after thinking of Richard Buckner playing there this year, and reading Scott Andrew‘s blog (he made it to SxSW this time), and knowing that Nic Harcourt is there himself, I somehow failed to mull over the possibility that Litt might be in Austin. (Perhaps that’s why she played Buckner yesterday — because he’s on the billing for the conference.)

It is interesting, though, that both shows are pre-taped and that no other hosts filled in live. I wonder what the policy is on substitute hosts. Of course, no offense to the other hosts, but when I tune in to WBE I do it because of Litt’s playlist, so I actually prefer pre-taped WBE shows when she’s away. I think I’ve only heard her pre-taped one other weekend, but I can’t be certain.


Saturday, 20 March 2004

Either way, it’s still WBE

I can’t be certain, but it seems as though today’s edition of Weekend Becomes Eclectic (KCRW) was pre-recorded. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell, except I checked the main studio cam, and Anne Litt isn’t spinning the discs — in fact, no one was sitting in the chair for the beginning of the show, anyway. I did notice very minimal talking from her between song sets, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s pre-taped her show.

Either way, it’s good to hear her music selections again, since for the first time this calendar year, I missed listening to any part of her show one day (last Sunday).

Update, 15:47: I should have said, Either way, it’s great to hear WBE again. She’s playing Richard Buckner‘s "Lil Wallet Picture" from Devotion + Doubt! It might be the first time she’s played Buckner in 2004. It’s certainly the first time I’ve heard her play this particular track. I was just listening, and I heard the unmistakable sounds of that pedal steel guitar (I think by Lloyd Maines?) over Buckner’s steel-string guitar.

It’s always good to hear Buckner getting airplay.