Back around the time Off The Wall was in heavy rotation on radio, I remember a friend’s sister calling in to the local radio station’s request line: “Stop playing all of that #*(@$& Michael Jackson music!”  Back then, there was no escaping “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You” on the radio, in the stores, or anywhere else.  But what we didn’t know was that a follow-up album named Thriller would so capture the world’s attention that it would go on to become the biggest selling album of all time.  In the aftermath of that success, Michael Jackson went beyond being a pop star: he became an icon of the 80s.

Today would have marked the 48th birthday of Mitar Subotic, the talented Yugoslavian producer and musician better known as Suba.  Upon receiving a UNESCO scholarship for his musical accomplishments in Yugoslavia and arriving in Brazil in 1990, Suba began absorbing the local music scene and produced albums by such artists as Marina Lima, Edgard Scandurra, Mestre Ambrósio, perhaps best known for his production on Bebel Gilbert’s debut album Tanto Tempo.   Tragically, Suba died in an apartment fire in 1999, only days after his own first recording, São Paulo Confessions, was released.  With this article, we’re giving this visionary album a listen, and celebrating his work on his birthday.

I’ve just discovered a new Firefox add-on: Prism for Firefox.  This add-on allows you to turn any web page into an application on your computer.  While it may not seem like much at first glance, it allows you to save your current web page view as an application on your computer.  If you use something like Gmail or Google Maps, for example, you can make their main pages into applications.  What this means is that rather than have it run in a full browser window, the page runs in a “shell” window with nothing indicative of the contents being a browser.  (Or in Mozilla-speak, it’s a web page view without the “Chrome”: no menu, no toolbars, no URL or search bars, etc.)  It also saves cookies separately: you can set up multiple Gmail applications using Prism, and stay logged in to all of them as they run concurrently.  Applications can be installed on your start menu, desktop, and/or quick launch bar.  And FYI:  Google Chrome has this as a standard feature, and it works about the same.  I’ve found Prism to come in handy for many of the Google applications.  And I can see its usefulness for many non-computer-savvy users, giving one-click access to web-based e-mail, for example.  Very handy!

One of our members at A&M Corner is Jeff Gehringer, who hosts the radio program “Jazz At The Spa” in Southern California.  The stations broadcast on AM 1450 (KFSD) in San Diego’s North County and AM 1510 (KSPA) in Orange County, as well as a live internet stream.  Currently, Jazz At The Spa airs on Saturday afternoons, Pacific time, from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, with encore broadcasts from 6:00pm to 8:00pm Sunday evening, and 12:00pm to 2:00pm on Monday afternoon.  Even better news: many of the two-hour shows are now archived online for download!  Among the featured artists are such notables as Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, Henry Mancini, Ramsey Lewis, the Manhattan Transfer, Doc Severinsen, Burt Bacharach, Jack Jones, Tony Tennille and many others.  Enjoy!

I took a spill off of my mountain bike a couple of years ago, and still have the scars from the operation on my shoulder. My trusty Schwinn from the early 90s took it in stride, and other than a small rip on the seat, it was unaffected. Still…we have a Giant Sedona in the family, only a couple of years old, and it feels like a totally different bike. The Sedona has an aluminum frame, and while the bike feels like it’s half the weight of the Schwinn, it seems to feel a lot stiffer on the road, and more responsive. I don’t care for the “twist” shifters, but it still shifts smoothly. My Schwinn, this year, has been acting up–the thumb shifters were smooth, but I’m having a lot of trouble with the derailleur hunting for the correct sprocket, and I’m jumping between gears constantly. After 15+ years, I’m ready for something new.