Sunday, November 21, 2010

NEARfest Band Announcement- Karmakanic To Arrive in Bethlehem

This is good news:

    NEARfest welcomes the musical insanity of Karmakanic to the 2011 edition.  Born out of a desire to stretch the boundaries of classic symphonic prog, 2002 saw Jonas Reingold assemble a top-notch band to realize his vision.  Channeling the talents of Goran Edman, (perhaps best known for his work with Yngwie Malmsteen,) and his fellow Flower Kings Roine Stolt, Tomas Bodin and Zoltan Csorsz, Karmakanic's debut album "Entering the Spectra" became very popular among the fans of progressive rock and the established rock press around the world. Their were honored with the prize for best newcomer 2002 in the big progressive poll DPRP and charted several other lists as the best newcomer on the scene.
    It was in 2004 that Karmakanic became a band rather than just a side-project.
Reingold, Csorsz and Edman are joined by Krister Jonzon to manifest the core of the band.  Along with guest musicians, Karmakanic releases their second album, Wheel of Life.  A slightly less metallic offering, Wheel of Life finds the band delving into the fusion side of prog while maintaining a song based mantra.   It is with the addition of keyboardist extraordinaire Lalle Larsson that Karmakanic becomes an exquisite live attraction.  Larsson adds the technical prowess that is required to realize Karmakanic's music, so with the puzzle pieces in place, the band is ripe for live performance.
     Two Thousand eight sees the band release their most mature and cohesive release, "Who's the Boss in the Factory."  Reingold's production and songwriting draws from influences such as The Flower Kings, Weather Report, Yes and Return to Forever but his music is clearly Karmakanic's vision.  With beautiful passages along side technical mastery, "Who's the Boss" becomes a complete album for the modern progressive audience. With the promise of a new album to be released in 2011, Karmakanic is ready to return to the U.S. with a full-blown set of their music history,  there might even be an instrumental solo or two.  The guys in charge are happy to present for NEARfest 2011, the power, intensity and insanity of Karmakanic.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Another episode of S.I.D.


So I'm in a Waldbaums ordering Edy's. I've got my handheld computer, so it's obvious that I'm not just some customer. A woman comes along, opens one of the freezer doors, moves the front container of French Silk to another location. She then grabs one further back and in the process knocks another over into the spot next to it. She then reaches back and grabs that magical holy grail container that was buried behind all the others that apparently contains one of Wonka's golden tickets, and in pulling it out, tips over yet another container. Finally, she puts the other one back that she had pulled out prior and places it on top of the now laying sideways container that she had tipped over.
As she started to shop in the next door for Turkey Hill, I immediately put my handheld down, and went and starightened up the mess she had just made. Right in front of her. She made no acknowledgment whatsoever.
I don't know what's worse, the fact that there are so many arrogant, entitled, self-important douchebags walking this planet (or I should say this country, because I suspect we are the worst), or the fact that they are so completely unashamed of being that.
When did we throw common courtesy out the fucking window in this country?

Oh, and in case anyone is thinking that the ice cream in the back is more frozen and/or more fresh, you'd be wrong on both counts. It's in a closed freezer. It's all frozen the same. And I've seen how our people pack out the stock; they rarely, if ever, rotate. So the product in the front is most likely the "freshest." Besides...it's ice cream! The shelf life is like a year. Does it really matter if the expire date is next May or June? Really?

This has been another episode of Self-Important Douchebags.