Month: April 2023

New album release: Big Talk – Jarrod Dickenson

Big Talk is Jarrod Dickenson’s new album. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Jarrod Dickenson is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, originally from Waco, Texas, and now based in Nashville. His two albums, The Lonesome Traveler and Ready the Horses, along with his EP, Under A Texas Sky, have earned him critical acclaim and a devoted audience on both sides of the Atlantic. Not one to fear an exhausting tour schedule, Dickenson has entranced crowds all over Europe and the US and shared stages with such legendary artists as Bonnie Raitt, Don McLean, The Waterboys, Jools Holland, and Jimmie Vaughan. He has performed at prestigious festivals such as Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival. After a baptism of fire in the world of the major labels, Jarrod Dickenson now exists as a fiercely independent artist, a look that suits him well and allows his creativity to follow whatever path it damn well pleases. Nowhere is this attitude better encapsulated than in the bluesy rock and roll growl of his uncompromising new album Big Talk, released worldwide on February 3, 2023 via Hooked Records. (IVPR, 2023)

The hardships and infuriation of recent years have only added steel to the resolve of an artist already willing to do it the hard way, prepared to stand in the face of a music business that shows dwindling regard for the brand of artistry that first inspired him to pick up a guitar and sing for his life—and Dickenson laid it all out for the world to hear on Big Talk.

Fans can stream or purchase Big Talk and check out Dickenson’s collection of music videos: “With Any Luck,” “Prefer To Lose,” “Buckle Under Pressure,” and “Long Hard Look.” Limited edition Big Talk vinyl is available at Dickenson’s official web store.

This album represents Dickenson’s most direct and uncompromising body of songwriting to date and his decision to occupy the producer’s chair has injected Big Talk with a drive and coherence that compliments the muscle of its material. Furthermore, Dickenson has assembled a band of ferocious players to bring these songs to life with striking authenticity in a series of live sessions recorded to tape. Together they create that unmistakable sound that only comes from the assembly of talented players, in a room, having a blast and what better way to flip the bird at those dark entities that inspired the album’s creation than to rage with such joy?

If Dickenson’s previous works have ventured a foot into the territory of rock and roll, Big Talk plants a large flag. It is classic like Petty, gritty like Waits. There are McCartney-esque melodies and the blues get thrown down with a certain Rolling Stones swagger, and yet Jarrod Dickenson has crafted a sound that is all his own. Big Talk sounds for all the world like a man who has found his groove. Get the record, see a show, but just do not piss him off.

Big Talk track list:
1. Buckle Under Pressure
2. Born To Wander
3. Home Again (feat. Oliver Wood & Jano Rix)
4. Prefer To Lose
5. Bamboozled
6. With Any Luck
7. If You’re Looking
8. Long Hard Look
9. Don’t Deprive Me
10. Goodnight

Second annual Community Band Festival

The second annual Community Band Festival will take place Saturday April 15, 2023. Photo: Greater San Antonio Community Bands Association.

The Greater San Antonio Community Bands Association will hold its Second annual Community Band Music Festival on April 15, 2023 from 11:30a.m. to 9p.m. The GSACBA is composed of ten community bands in the San Antonio area who have teamed up to present some amazing wind band music for the public. We have partnered with the Beethoven Maennerchor to present this festival in their outdoor Biergarten in the King William district. (Greater San Antonio Community Bands Association, 2023)

The Greater San Antonio Community Bands Association is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit as recognized by the IRS. It is the overall purpose of the GSACBA to serve community bands with the following specific purposes:

  1. Synergize the efforts of community bands in the greater San Antonio area.
  2. Establish and manage the community bands music festival.
  3. Harmonize efforts for musician recruitment among bands.
  4. Offer performance planning coordination among bands.
  5. Organize collaborative ventures with composers and arrangers.
  6. Spearhead innovative fundraising initiatives.
  7. Coordinate joint musical performance opportunities.

Book of the week: ‘Identicality’ by Jay L. Koppelman

‘Identicality’ is a suspenseful technothriller by Jay L. Koppelman. Photo: Jay L. Koppelman

Jay L. Koppelman, a San Francisco Bay Area resident, is retired from a career in real estate investment and finance. He currently serves as CFO of an educational therapy clinic and has been an active participant on various philanthropic boards. In his spare time, he chases his grandkids, enjoys golf, recreational flying, and reading about science and technology. “Identicality,” his debut novel, is a riveting and thought-provoking science fiction thriller that will keep you thinking and guessing until the very end – and beyond. (Jay L. Koppelman, 2023)

“Identicality” – As founding partner of a prestigious San Francisco law firm, Charlie Wood owes much of his success to business dealings with his life-long friend, the brilliant inventor-entrepreneur Adam Braudy. While Charlie is grateful to Adam, he cannot help envying Adam’s staggering wealth and fame and feels resentful every time Adam calls and expects him to drop everything to do his bidding. As Adam lies dying following an assassination attempt, he asks Charlie to aid him in fulfilling one last request: use his latest invention—a device capable of duplicating human life—to create an Adam replicant. Unable to deny his friend’s dying wish, Charlie sets aside his deep ethical reservations and, at the risk of spawning a Frankenstein monster, creates Adam’s replicant.

Everything seems to be going as planned as the new Adam takes on the first Adam’s role as husband, father, inventor and industrialist—firmly convinced he is the real Adam. But then the first Adam miraculously survives. How far will Adam go to get his life back?

Excerpt available – First chapter

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New book release: ‘The Vanished’ by Simon Rosser

‘The Vanished’ is the new sci-fi thriller by Simon Rosser. Photo: Amazon

When he is not busy with his day job as a lawyer, Simon Rosser is the author of action/adventure-thriller novels, predominantly the Robert Spire action thrillers, which all have an ecological, historical, science-fiction mystery cataclysmic theme. Think James Bond mixed with Indiana Jones and some environmental/historical facts thrown in for good measure. Previous books include “The A-Z Of Global Warming” – updated 2012 edition, and the Robert Spire eco-terrorism action-thrillers “Tipping Point,” “Impact Point,” “Melt Zone,” “Cataclysm of the Ancients,” “Crypto,” and the Galileo Project sci-fi UFO conspiracy thrillers 1-3. The author has also written sci-fi thrillers, “Vaporized” I and II and “Salient,” together with stand alone espionage adventure thriller, “Red Mist.” In his new book “The Vanished,” Robert Spire and Agent Belinda Caruso are sent by the U.K’s GLENCOM Agency to the United States to investigate the strange phenomena surrounding hundreds of individuals, including hikers, hunters, and sightseers who are mysteriously vanishing from U.S. National Parks where animal predation has been ruled out as being the cause. It is a gripping sci-fi mystery and book number 9 in the Robert Spire thriller series. (Simon Rosser, 2023)

“The Vanished” – When Vanessa and Stefan go hiking in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, little did Vanessa know that after finding an idyllic spot to camp, it would be the last time she would ever see her partner alive. Stefan seemingly vanishes into thin air. Since the 1960s, probably earlier, cattle and other livestock have been discovered by ranchers on their land, mutilated as if by scalpel or laser technology and drained of their blood. No tracks or other evidence as to who might be responsible for the unexplained deaths has ever been found. The strange, unexplained mutilations continue to this day.

Robert Spire, and Agent Belinda Caruso team up with Spire’s old friend, ex-U.S. Marine Travis Dexter. Initially suspecting some kind of environmental cause, it soon becomes apparent that the U.S Military might be involved. Are the many hundreds of missing people, the unusual lights in the night sky and animal mutilations linked? As Spire digs deeper into the phenomenon, it quickly becomes evident that something inexplicable is happening and that there may well be an other-worldly explanation for what is going on.

This edge-of-your-seat fictional sci-fi mystery thriller will take you into the worrying and inexplicable but factual world of missing people, cattle mutilations and strange lights in the night sky. Buckle up and keep the lights on.

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New book release: ‘The Dot: Book 4’ by Mark Bertrand

‘The Dot: Book 4’ is the new science fiction adventure by Mark Bertrand. Photo: Mark Bertrand, used with permission.

Mark Bertrand is the author of “Starzel,” “Love Reincarnate,” “A Conscious Thing,” and “The Dot.” He is a writer by day and a stock market trader by night. His career path includes working in aerospace and neuroscience. He received a bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering and his master of mathematics from Boston University. To balance his left brain with his right, his MBA is from the University of California at San Diego. Finally, to quench his desire for knowledge, he completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Southern California. Mark has been a Buddhist for more than forty years, is considered Mahayana, and has also studied Alan Watts’ and Tich Naht Hahn’s writings on Zen. He managed a small abbey in San Diego, California for ten years. Currently, he is a member of the Sangha at the Enlightenment Stupa of Benalmádena, Spain. In his new book “The Dot: Book 4,” two men on different planets discover themselves and their fathers while confronting planetary existential crises of famine, radiation poisoning, and the collapse of society. (Mark Bertrand, 2023)

“The Dot: Book 4” – The Cyborgs, hoping to create a civilization of kindness and love without the destructive effects of anger, harvest a group of scientists, inject them with a serum to alter their DNA, implant a neurolink brain chip, and send them to Ziran, a planet with minimal technology. Eight generations later, Ziran faces extinction. The planet’s binary star system is producing x-ray radiation, which is destroying crops, poisoning the people, and killing their settlement’s chances at a future. In the hopes of saving their planet, the people of Ziran use an ancient ritual, evoking the gods to possess the bodies of the King and Queen to create a child. This child, Zosimos, is the planet’s only hope.

Zosimos matures at an inhuman rate. As he ages, he displays exceptional mental abilities, helping his people solve a range of technological and medical issues. By the time he reaches the age of six, he is ready to take the crown. When Zosimos is exposed to a plant strain with the side-effect of reversing the DNA-altering serum, he feels anger for the first time. With that anger comes the realization that he is superior to those around him. In a fit of rage, he kills his parents and claims the throne, forcing his people to submit to his tyrannical rule.

The promise of a cure for radiation poisoning leads Zosimos to Kelv, the sage. Still filled with rage, Zosimos forces Vallena, who is friends with the sage, to trap Kelv and obtain a DNA sample, hoping to learn why the sage has survived in the wasteland with no protection from radiation. However, Vallena discovers a way to reinstate the DNA-altering serum and cure Zosimos’s rage, and tricks him into taking the cure. The cure works, and Zosimos grows depressed and filled with remorse. He seeks advice from the sage, and through their lessons on love, truth, and alignment between mind and body, Zosimos becomes enlightened. Zosimos, contemplating the solution to his planet’s crisis, and questioning everything he thought he knew, turns to the conscious supercomputer his father hid in Vallena’s home but it is indifferent to human suffering and unwilling to interfere with frail humanity. Using the teachings learned from Kelv, Zosimos convinces the machine to help them. The machine begins to study the human body’s ability to heal itself and in doing so, finds a solution that can save everyone: transcendence but in order for this plan to succeed, the people must trust the former tyrant Zosimos.

Centuries later, the Cyborgs return to monitor their experiment, only to discover a planet vacant of life. There are no humans, no evidence of civilization, no skeletons. The only indications of the now failed experiment are the abandoned neurolinks, and a dead supercomputer.

Sign up to receive the first chapter of “The Dot: Book 4” for free. 

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