Dave Arnott R.I.P

[UPDATE: Added Paul Rose’s memorial song.]

Lost another friend and great keyboardist, Dave Arnott (Band Universal and & Triumphant, FOG ) died at 49yo.

One early 1980s night, I was leaving KGLT about 3am, and this wild, ethereal piano was echoing up the stone stairwell. Odd, since the building had been closed for hours. Tracked it down to the grand in the 1st floor lounge, being played by one very serious and very accomplished young man. I introduced myself, so did he: Dave Arnott.

He was (as I recall) on a break from helping sound-wire the Student Union Theatre. I sat and listened. He played another half-hour.

I’ve seen some of this land’s best musicians of many genres in excellent venues across USA. But that pre-dawn Dave solo performance, to an audience that had just increased from 0 to 1, was among the most memorable concerts I’ve ever attended.

Music (“Yellow Jacket” by FOG from Rain) and Footage by David Arnott. Edited by Tol. Additional Footage by Tol, Blue, and Mike. More…

The Triplets

At the new series Snap Judgement, Glynn Washington (a PRTQ winner) posted the story of Kevin and Brian Fisher-Paulson. They become foster parents to medically fragile triplets, nurse them thought extended, expensive hospital stays to health, then are told the mentally unstable birth mother wants them back.

Glynn Washington “The Triplets” (6:18):

Talent Quest vid

The Public Radio Talent Quest has posted vid of the winners, presented at the PRPD. The tape proves once again proves how much Glynn (Snap Judgement) rox:

Talent Quest Top 3

PRX Announces Winners of Public Radio Talent Quest. Rebecca, Al, and (my fave) Glynn got selected as the hosts with the mosts (20K+ voters, 1.4K+ entrants). I attended the announcement this Wed. nite, and all three proved pretty damn Hosty in front of tough crowd of top pubradio execs.

Now, they each make a series pilot. We’ll see.

CPB conceived & funded this talent search. I was skeptical of this top-down institutional instigation of aesthetics engineering, but you can’t argue w/ the results: 3 (actually 6) people w/ plenty of pubradio potential.

Sidenote: CPB head Pat Harrison was there. This is second time I’ve heard her talk about the role of public broadcasting as a community builder, and the second time I’ve been impressed with her visions and comm skills.

Public Radio Talent Quest

The Public Radio Talent Quest, an open competition to find the next big public radio host-w/the-most, has narrowed the field from 1452 entries to 10 finalists. They shoulda picked The Guy from Boston: he’s what pubradio really needs. And w/ the FCC’s fuqn rules now in flux, he’s ready for prime-time. But since he didn’t enter, lemme pick from the 10 semi-winners. I listened to ’em all, and my vote goes to Glynn Washington.