Beyoncé Battles Stairs, YouTube, and Aliens

Has anybody seen the footage of Beyoncé's recent fall in Orlando?

Apparently, she took a face-firster down 12 stairs during a concert then got up, dusted herself off, and kept workin' it! Some concert-goers reported that Miss Knowles even appeared to be bleeding. The show must go on, I suppose- bravo, Queen Bee!

After the show, Beyoné requested that no one release any video footage of the fall on the internet, but it surfaced quickly on YouTube anyway. Sony music yanked it, though, by the time I got there. Doesn't matter anywho because I managed to find some stills of the video that was released to Fox News and the quality is so bad you've got no clue what you're even looking at- could be Beyoncé falling down a flight of stairs, could also be a fuzzy bootlegged scene from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Probably the second, I think.

*Edit* Maybe, it's both....

Where You Been?

To anyone who might have thought that I'd been devoured by dinosaurs or pushed off a cliff for insurance money, I apologize for my glaring absence from the Effect Return over the past couple of months. School and work have been alternating, taking bites out of my pearly-white seat cushion, and I'm just now getting my head above water. Fortunately, our man on the scene, Dr. Confusion, has stepped up and been posting overtime with a fury that would make even the 300 Spartans proud.

Thanks, Dr. C, for keeping ER alive!

Starbucks Label on the Move with Mitchell

So, there's been a little debate here at the ER over the new Starbucks record label, and new developments are abound. We mentioned before that Paul McCartney had signed to them, which he did, and his album "Memory Almost Full" has already sold 447,000 copies, 45 percent of them in Starbucks stores, according to the Sun-Sentinel.com.

Now Joni Mitchell has signed on with the Hear Music label to release "Shine," her first album of new compositions since 1998. Very interesting, indeed. The label is apparently planning to sign one more artist this year and another eight more in 2008. Considering who's already on board, it will be exciting to see who will be the next to get snared into Starbucks' silky web of ingenuity.

First Busking Experience

This Sunday (that just happened) - I took the advice of my very lovely and brilliant Wife. She said "you've been talking about playing on the street forever, so here's my idea.

• I'm going away for a couple days - so practice your favorites
• Then go to a neighborhood where no one knows you
• don't tell nobody
• Play 10 songs, and if its a terrible time - you can bail and noone's the wiser.

So, I did exactly that. I practiced a couple songs, and made a list of more than 10 songs to maybe do. and I fiddled, I faddled , I dawlded, and I procrastinated harder than ever - until sunday afternoon, after doing all the laundry, cleaning the floors and doing the dishes like 3 times. So I was at my computer listening to the Great Rev. Gary Davis, and reading about his life. And how he played on the street for more than 35 years. and I just felt "If I don't go now, i'm never going to do it"

So I jumped up and ran out the door and immediately caught the bus going downtown, I hopped off in Lower Queen Anne, and walked up the Hill - To work off some of my nerves. At the top, i stopped across from a safeway, where the food traffic would be heavy-ish, but I could be set back from the sidewalk.

I was pretty nervous so I started with Corcovado and played that a million times so I wouldn't have to actually sing. And then, i tried "lonesome whistle" - But it took me a million tries to find the right note and the right first chord...

I was playing a bunch of country songs, and San Andreas (which I could play forEVER) - but generally the stuff that seemed to put the strollers by at ease and enhance the pleasant ness of their day were the instrumental stuff. To maximize money from that crowd it's definitley less John Cale and more John Fahey.

I did make some money - the first in my life that I've ever made from music. I made eight dollars fifty cents. The first dollar was from a lady what that walked by her dog wanted to pee on my guitar case. She was successful in diverting the pungent amarillo stream away from my trusty case - to which i'm eternally grateful. After securing the incontinent beast she scurried over and dropped the first dollar in to my hat. Thanks much Lady.

I ended up playing about two hours...I included some GoA stuff, and just going until my fingers hurt, and my voice was blown out, and then I left. Feeling pretty triumphant.

More later!

Nercore Undercover

My homie, Z - from Hipster, Please! has put out his very own compilation record of Nerdcore and semi-quasi-demi-tasse nerdy musicians. That's RAD. and he gave me a shout out... so right back atcha Z!

Go Steve!

Let it be known that I agree with Steve Albini in just about every way he illustrates. He's a super smart dude and had brought a lot of good music into this world. I wish I was more like Steve. Right Now.