3/1/09
We've had 705 visits for the month of February. That's an average of 25 a day. I guess the blog was a good idea.
2/19/09
We've had 452 visits so far this month and I'm adding all kinds of posts on Bob's Blog.
2/10/09
So far this month we've had 238 visits. Bob's_Blog is up and running. I'd like everyone to visit it and leave a comment. I've been trying to figure out how to put one of those links on the left side of this page for Bob's Blog and I'm almost there. Christina Hope who is the one who designed this website told me how to do it. So, I'll have to put something timeless and apropos to BoScoDen on this page and not treat it like a blog. I really want comments.
1/11/09
We've had 69 visits to this site since the beginning of the new year and that's without me doing anything to encourage it; not even posting anything in this pseudo-blog since October. I don't know who you are who is reading this but I guess if you keep coming back I should keep writing stuff. I fought the urge to write something for the new year because I was afraid I might turn it into a New Year's resolution. I'm still tempted. I tend to run on atrophy. That's due to a severe lack of purpose. That's also the issue with this website. The primary purpose of this website being to promote a non-existent band. However, the possibilities of a web site are so alluring and the cost of this thing is so negligible I can't see giving it up. It would help my sense of purpose in life if whoever you are who is reading this would sign the guest book and make a comment; or just sign the book.
10/25/08
Today I solved the most perplexing problem of revamping the studio to putting on the Bob Stone TV show on the internet; I got the drums miced. That may seem like a no brainer but, I couldn't do it in OS 9 because I could only get 8 channels playing at one time and the drums take up 7. That leaves 1 channel for guitar, bass and 3 vocalists. Now we have 16 channels. That's enough for adding a horn section and a keyboard. I can see on the visitor statistics that there are a lot of people visiting this website. Please, please, please, let me know who you are. Email me or sign the guestbook.
6/8/08
A few weeks ago there was a minor tragedy. A bookshelf fell and broke the LCD screen on the camera which was used to record The Sweatshirt Song. Since it has a much better picture than the icecam I've been using to video the BobStone Show I'd like to connect it directly into the computer and use the computer screen as a monitor. I don't think that's going to happen. As soon as I put the camera into the dock where all the connections are the lense closes.
6/3/08
So, I've been working on how to send a live stream to this website and I found out that there are free services out there that do it. The one I happened upon is called ustream. Now I have to decide what I'm going to do on it. I put my son's birthday on it because he had a band there and they were all excited because they had to cancel a show on LI and there fans could watch them live. Though it's pretty simple to use it still adds another amplification stage into the mix. I'm probably up to 7 stages from each mic to the internet. When I finally figure out what I'm doing I'll send everyone an email for the show so, click the link at the bottom of this page to give me your email. I don't know what this link looks like because I'm typing on a page that has a lot of code that Christina has written but, here's the link.
3/30/08
This is kind of a watershed moment in my writing on this website; somebody read this stuff and told me about reading this stuff. After a year one person finally clicked on the contact BoScoDen button and sent me an e-mail. It made me realize that I'm writing for actual people and not just keeping a diary.
On a different note, I have some thoughts on 'art'. The CBS program Sunday Morning today seems to be using 'art' as a theme for the program today. It got me thinking about artsy projects, specifically, the Patch of Grass CD which so far has never been released but, which resulted in the BoScoDen CD. If you read down at the bottom of this page you'll find a fanciful blurb by Scott explaining how BoScoDen formed. What was left out was that I gave Scott a copy of the CD Patch of Grass. Patch of Grass is an extremely ambitious project that includes not only a rock band but, a full symphonic orchestra and a seven piece jazz band. Scott's trepidation about naming the band using our three names was well founded. Scott and denis were helping me with a much bigger project. I still have hopes of finishing the Patch of Grass CD but, probably not this year.
2/24/08
I got the webcam and I have Quicktime broadcaster installed on this computer. I read that there's a way to upload a stream to a streaming server. The thing is, I don't think this website is on a streaming server. I don't really know what a streaming server is other than it has the program Darwin or another program running on it. If anyone reading this knows what I need to do please email me at the link below.
2/10/08
Way back in the fall of 1990 I was a stay at home dad with cable access to Cspan. The senate committee on foreign affairs was having hearings on the effect the Persian Gulf crisis would have on oil prices. One senator expressed concern that Saddam Hussein might flood the market with cheap oil and drive down the price. He prefaced this statement with a reference to his constituency who might be hurt by such an action. I remember Ted Kennedy and Daniel Inouye were on this panel but, I don't know who the senator was with the white hair and deep, resonant, baritone voice who made that outlandish statement about how lower oil would hurt us. Could it have been John McCain? Arizona doesn't have any oil production but, he could have said, "energy". Arizona does have natural gas and that's even before Scott moved there. Then again, anyone who is stupid enough to say what he said on national television is probably too stupid to know what natural resources his state has or hasn't.
2/3/08
A strange thing occurred to me when I went onto my deck to have my morning smoke. A piece of bark fell from the black birch tree over me and I looked for the mischievous squirrel who had forgotten the vendetta they brought on their species. The only squirrel in the vicinity was on a dogwood that could not have been the source of the aerial projectile. No, it was a bird that was the culprit. There was a small bird in the tree over my head. Within seconds of the bark landing on the deck I heard a crow or raven call out two series of 5 caws followed by a series of 4 caws. My mind jumped to the story of Siegfried who was warned of danger by birds and I thought of how these ravens, known as the messenger of Odin was giving out their danger call. Could those caws be a kind of Morse code of the runic alphabet?
1/27/08
It looks like Tina didn't die in a car accident; she was just suffering from pneumonia. I wish her a speedy recovery and the drums are still sitting here in Bob's Basement unused. The Bo______ Band has recently added another power amp, a stereo 31 band graphic EQ and an 8 space rack to house them. I'm hoping I can fit this stuff in my little Suburu Forrester.
1/20/08
It turns out there won't be a Bo__Tin. Tina never showed up on Monday. This leaves me looking for a name. There is nothing wrong with the name Bob Stone except that some dude in England already took it and is using it to have his checks made out. I wouldn't mind getting his checks but, it is more likely that should anyone be so inclined to do the same for me the Harry Fox agency would probably send them to him. It would be nice if Tina would contact me and share whatever lame excuse she has so, I at least know she didn't die in a car accident. On a happier note; tonight the Westchester/Putnam Guitar Society is having their monthly meeting at Teddy's. This is by far the best open mic jam session ever. It's run entirely by musicians for musicians. The audience is entirely incidental. The bar manager has yet to make his presence known to me and the bartender is pretty much there to service the guys making music. Nobody tells me to turn my volume down or how many songs I can do. If I'm not being paid and I'm paying for my own drinks I should be treated like a customer and that's what this jam session is about. We also play a lot of fun music that's heavy on 60's rock with a spattering of folk and jazz thrown in.
1/13/08
I'm being good; I went on this site to write something new and it hasn't been over a week like a resolved to do. I even have something to write about. On Friday the 11th denis came over to Bob's Basement to jam. We went through the songs and even though we were a little rusty we were a lot less rusty than I thought we would be. Tina G came over and played drums with us. We had a little impromtu jam with me on guitar, Tina on drums and denis picked up the bass. denis started playing a Nirvana song and I went into my computer folder of Nirvana midi files and found Lithium. denis knew the guitar part and I could read the bass so, we had a lot fun with that song. denis made a point of passing the drummer torch to Tina and weather permitting on Monday we'll be starting a Bo__Tin.
1/6/08
It's a new year and time to have our new year resolutions being carried out. My resolution should be to stop procrastinating but, after almost a week I still have yet to make them. So, I'll be realistic and not make procrastination one of them. I'm pretty good with resolutions and tend to follow them, which is why I'm so reticent about making one I'll be stuck with for a whole year. I don't know if it's just because I'm sitting on this site now or it's really important to me but, I'm going to resolve to do something new on this site at least once a week.
9/14/07
For a couple of days I've been recording guitar/vocal tracks of a some jazz standards; specifically, Bluesette and God Bless the Child. Unusually for me I'm more satisfied with the vocals than I am with the guitar. I could record them separately but, I don't want to use a click track, which would interfere with rubato expression and I want the dynamics consistent between the vocals and guitar. I'll try again today.
9/12/07
Now that I've declared the new identity of BoScoDen I'd like to write more about who Bob Boscoden is. I'm either a guitarist/singer or a composer; depending on my mood and the necessity of my circumstances. So far, I haven't changed the image of this website or the myspace site because I still think the group BoScoDen is my most crowning achievement. That being said, I do believe I can do better or as Scott would say,"I just want to suck less." I've always admired his modesty. Back to the 'necessity of circumstances', I pretty much have to work with what I'm given. Thursdays I've been doing an Open Mic at Susan's Restaurant. I get to do 2 songs. Sometimes I suck less. Last week I definitely sucked less. I did The Doldrums with a drummer who likes going there with his wife. His name is Charley Scott. He graduated from my old alma mater, SUNY at Stonybrook. He's agreed to record the drum tracks for the up and coming Jazz Standards CD. I introduced The Doldrums rather awkwardly. When I went outside to tune my guitar I came upon a couple who's male counterpart happened to be a DeadHead. Since we had just been talking about my songwriting I thought that The Doldrums was probably the closest thing I've written to a Dead song. So, when I got up to play I started to tell the aforementioned story about the deadhead and just the mention of the Dead brought about cheers. I was starting to regret not playing A Friend of the Devil but, I had already promised that song. The crowd was very attentive and greeted me with serious applause at the end.
9/11/07
I suppose I have been neglecting this site since it's been 2 months since I've put anything on it. I guess I can use the excuse that I have been busy or I really haven't had anything of interest to add. Neither one is the case. I've just been hoping that Scott and denis would add some stuff and since they haven't I'm thinking about changing my name from Bob Stone to Bob Boscoden. This way I can do the first person singular and not have to speak as if I were three different people while making sure I don't write anything that does not reflect the views and opinions of the other two. It's been just about a year since Scott and denis told me they were moving to Arizona and about six months since the actually left. It's also been about three months since they've communicated with me. From this moment on I'm going to do more with this site. Bob Boscoden is going to be a living entity with new ideas or at least ones that are expressed currently. The latest project which I spoke about last July is still in the works and I've started playing with a guy from Rockland who's into southern rock.
7/8/07
One of BoScoDen's friends has asked us to play music from the 1940's at the nursing home she works at. Since Scott and denis are in Az that leaves Bob to do it. Strangely enough that's something Bob has been wanting to do anyway. There's this book Bob got called the Pocket Book of Jazz Standards. Eat your heart out Scott and denis, Bob is going to rock, or should I say swing, the nursing home without you.
The BoScoDen CD is now available at different outlets.
7/7/07
You can purchase the CD at CD Baby, You can download it from iTunes and there is another outlet it's available at but, Bob is going to have to check his email from CD Baby before he can tell you about it.
Now that Scott and denis have left for Arizona, Bob finds himself left with hours and hours of recorded tracks that need editing. He�s spending more time with them now than he ever did while they were here in NY. He�s burned a couple of CDs to hear how they sound in his car and every other stereo system he can get his ears on. Phil Ramone he is not. Phil would have finished this part of the project before his morning coffee but, denis keeps stroking his ego by telling Bob he has a good ear and so, Bob keeps plugging away at listening and tweaking. Now the ultimate decision of which is the strongest song and put that one first on the CD.

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