• Natural Fact: My First Time in the Audience in a While

  Friends, Music, Other Musicians You Should Check Out, Saint Louis 15.04.2007 1 Comment

  We made it down to Natural Fact (www.naturalfact.com), this evening, to catch our first show there. This is a nice place. We arrived after 10PM, so the kitchen was closed, and the room had a nice, dark ambiance to it already. It was still family-friendly, and a great place for Webster University students to hang out.

  We only caught Brian Muench -such is life with little ones, sometimes- but he had a great sound. At times, he reminded me of Badly Drawn Boy, so I highly recommend his live show. He also has tasty acoustic tracks at http://www.brianmuench.com.

  If you haven’t had sweet potato chips, you must try them. You must try Natural Fact’s Sweet Potato Chips. They are awesome!

  Check out the performers from tonight’s show at Natural Fact in Webster Groves, MO:

  http://www.brianmuench.com
  http://www.myspace.com/rachelbrandt
  http://www.myspace.com/bradandian The Nancy Boys

  Tags: webster+groves missouri natural+fact night+life webster+university st+louis saint+louis bands rachel+brandt nancy+boys brian+muench acoustic+music live+music

  

• O’Malley’s Irish Pub – This Weekend

  Diabetes, Friends, Irish Music, Kansas City, Music, Shows 02.04.2007 No Comments

  Thanks to everyone who came out to O’Malley’s, this weekend. I had a great time in two cellars!

  Friday night, we hid in the subterranean safety from the tornado watches -that never turned to warnings, in fact, the warnings never crossed into Missouri. I was surprised, and pleased, at the number of people who braved the rain and storm warnings to come to my Friday night show.

  Saturday was a complete blow out. Thanks to the many dancers, Melissa and her family and friends, and Aunt Missy and her family. Thanks also to the wedding reception from the other cellar. Many people came in to check out the festivities of the top cellar, and ask for songs after the night was over.

  The recording has yielded some useful results. Watch here for more, and a download or two!

  

  On the “Diabetes vs Irish Music” front, I misplaced my glucose meter, Saturday night. This is always a bit of a pickle, guessing, trying to under-estimate insulin needs, favoring slightly high glucose levels to slightly low. Thanks to my aunt, I was able to check it in the morning. Thanks also to Target for having a replacement, and an upgrade, actually.
  Cheers!

  Tags: o’malley’s+irish+pub performance wedding diabetes irish+music live underground weather tornado+watch

  

• Mr Holland’s Opus Provides Instruments -and Hope- to Schools

  Friends, Music 01.04.2007 No Comments

  One of my pet causes involves the distribution of new and refurbished instruments to schools. Practicing music in childhood and adolescence provides a great foundation for self esteem, greater performance in school, and an important attachment to culture and art. Unfortunately, most schools I’ve been involved with always had more money for sports than any of the arts. This is sad, because I’ve seen many children find something worthwhile and develop skills and confidence through music in their schools. I’m proud to say that, after my family, I owe a lot to a handful of extremely dedicated, caring, if woefully underfunded music educators.

  Michael Kamen, the composer for the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus”, began the Foundation in 1996 to provide instruments to schools across the U.S. that need them. Mr. Kamen believes that underprivileged children deserve the opportunities provided by a solid music education.
  Please, check out their website at http://www.mhopus.org/. There, worthy educators can apply for grants. Those willing to donate will find information on how to help.
  Tags: school+music band choir instruments mr+hollands+opus

  

• Kansas City Irish Musician Eddie Delahunt

  Friends, Irish Music, Kansas City, Music, Other Musicians You Should Check Out 26.03.2007 No Comments

  I saw my dear friend Eddie Delahunt, a couple weeks ago at The Dubliner, here in St Louis. Some friends came to my early show at The Hartford, and told me they were going there afterwards, so I dropped in to say, “Hello.” I usually get to see Eddie once per year, so seeing him this early in 2007 was an unusual treat.

  

  If you’re in Kansas City, you can see Eddie yourself. Kansas City’s favorite singing Dubliner plays several shows per week in the area, so you have no good excuse. Check out his website for more info at http://www.eddiedelahunt.com. You can also go to his new coffeehouse, at the Kansas City antique district of 45th and State Line Rd.

  Tell him Jonathan Ramsey sent you.

  Tags: Eddie+Delahunt irish+music Kansas+City Dubliner coffeehouse antique+district

  

• Phocas.net: A Photographic Look at Kansas City Night Life

  Friends, Kansas City, Shows 23.03.2007 No Comments

  I saw my friend Todd at Harling’s, last Saturday. He was there with his close-knit group from online KC nightlife magazine Phocas.net. Todd and Phocas.net have photographed many nightlife venues. I’m honored that they have come to my shows and felt at all that they should include photos from them.

  Thanks, Todd and everyone at Phocas.net! You rock!
    

  See more fun at Phocas.net.

  Tags: st+patrick’s+day harling’s kansas+city

  

• T-Shirts: New Designs by Clover Grrrl

  Friends, schwag 14.03.2007 No Comments

  My friend Clover Grrrl has some new designs up in her fancy store http://www.cafepress.com/clovergrrlxx/2640988. You can help out a fun-loving musician, and a talented artist at the same time.
  

  Tags: t-shirt tee tee+shirt shamrock clover+grrrl

  

• A Long Time Ago, We Used To Be Friends!

  Friends, Music, Other Musicians You Should Check Out 12.03.2007 1 Comment

  Yesterday, I tried to do something that I don’t do a lot. I went to The Dandy Warhols MySpace page, and tried to add them as a friend. I try not to add bands as friends anymore. I like having other local and regional bands as friends. This way, we keep up on each other’s events, and stay in the loop. I have added a few national and international bands as friends, because I like them, and I want to support them, though they don’t need my support so much. It also gives my friends and fans a look at “What Jonathan Likes.”

  Now, there is a dark side to bands adding bands. In the early days of MySpace, before it became “the next Xanga” for middle schoolers to trawl around and to give out too much personal information, bands would call clubs and make claims like, “Dude! We have like, ya know, over 30,000 MySpace friends! Ya gotta, like, book us as your Friday night headliner!” The use of such stats irked many club bookers who fell for it once or twice. Of course, after a dead audience or two –cricket! cricket!- such claims became evidence to these bookers of how lame you may be. Outside of the booker audience, it can, however, still look impressive to have a large number of friends.

  So, there is that ugly word “gaming”. It happened on MP3.com, it happens all over the internet. People find ways of adding friends to pad the list. One such way, unfortunately, is adding other bands. Now, your neighbor, Cindy, won’t just allow anyone to add her as a friend. A band, though, doesn’t generally care who you are. A request to be the band’s friend means that you are interested in their music. And it’s essentially another name on the band’s list to send information, and maybe have more people at their shows, and to buy their CDs and schwag. And having other local and regional bands as friends helps fans of one band find other bands in the area that they’ve never heard of. If a band, however, adds all the signed, international bands that they can think of, they may only be doing this to have 500 friends, instead of just their 4 girlfriends, the drummer’s dog, and Tom.

  Now, about those Dandy Warhols. My wife and I are big Dandy fans. My wife’s personal page has the band, plus each of the members as friends on MySpace. She tried to add Dandy friend, and sometimes guest artist Sean Gothman, as a MySpace friend. That request is still pending. Now, her friend, whose MySpace page has few similar artists on it, mostly Irish bands, requested the Dandy Warhols and Gothman to be her friend. The Dandys accepted, of course. Gothman, contrary to my wife’s still unanswered request, was accepted within about 60 seconds. We think Sean looks at the photos, because our friend has a much more sensual MySpace photo of herself than my wife does.

  When our friend showed me Sean Gothman’s attempt to sell his car on his MySpace page, I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t already added these guys as friends. So, yesterday, I logged into MySpace. I went to The Dandy Warhols page. I clicked Add As Friend. I received the terse message, “The Dandy Warhols does not accept add requests from bands.” Wow! Cool feature. Sucks in this instance, but cool feature. So, I went to Gothman’s page, knowing full well that my lack of T&A on my page would handicap me in a quest for his MySpace “friendship”. I valiantly clicked “Add”. The heavily hit MySpace server responded, “sean gothman does not accept add requests from bands.”

  I withdraw my offer for Gothman’s car. (wink!)

  Courtney, Zia, call me.

  Links:

  • http://www.myspace.com/thedandywarhols
  • http://www.myspace.com/gothman

  Tags: dandy+warhols sean+gothman gothman myspace friends courtney+taylor-taylor zia social+networking+sites xanga

  

• Artists’ Hands Across the Coffee Maker

  Friends, Mania that Pervades Jonathan's Soul 18.10.2006 1 Comment

  It’s no secret that substance abuse affects a disproportionate number of artists. The web is full of details, testimony, and unseemly photographs chronicling my own downward spiral into a disturbing obsession with coffee.

  In her latest blog entry, my friend Lynn confesses not only about her addiction, but also of her unwitting development into a supplier.

  Please read Why Won’t People Make Coffee?, and support Lynn’s escape from this dark and tempestuous chaos.

  coffee addiction

  

• Memorabilia Maniac Powers Unite!

  Friends 03.10.2006 No Comments

  [PSA]If you’ve been jonesing for a Star Wars fix, which, of course, is not coming ever on the silver screen from George Lucas –and, you know who you are– check out this site. 

  http://www.movie-replicas.com/blog/

  My friend Gerard has the inside scoop on replicas of all kinds. So, if Burger King won’t repeat your favorite kid toys, check this out.

  

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