Vampire Bill?

Bill Compton, a vampire? Apparently so - at least in the fiction of Charlaine Harris, proclaimed by Amazon editors as "One of the best-known and best writers of the new American mythology." Harris has authored four novels now (in her Anthony Award-winning Southern Vampire series) that center around the story of psychic waitress Sookie Stackhouse who has fallen out with her undead lover, Bill Compton.
Hey, this blog is getting desperate for attention. Come on, you old KCAC/KDKB heads - play our Song of the Week and tell us why (or why not) our hero could be an undead lothario exiled to Peru.

New tricks from old dogs

Maybe Brian Wilson kicked it off last year by completing his long-lost "Smile" album and surpassing everyone's expectations, but lately, it seems all the old guys have been turning out great stuff. The Rolling Stones' new album really rocks, Stevie Wonder has a new single that sounds pretty cool (although I haven't heard the whole album yet), new releases by Neil Young and Eric Clapton rank with some of their best work, and now this new release from Paul McCartney has been getting rave reviews, too. Check out the free preview of his new single in the playbar at left - our current Song of the Week! And feel free to post reviews of other new albums by old artists you think are worth a listen.

Radio Tribute to Lissa Wales

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 08, 2005 06:02 PM CDT
To all Lissa's friends:
The services for Lissa were stunningly, achingly beautiful. For those out of state or out of the country who would still like to be part of this day of tribute to Lissa, on Radio Free Phoenix there is a tribute show playing now from 2pm-6pm mst.
go to www.radiofreephoenix.com (click 'listen now') it's easy to access it. If you would like a copy contact me at the station,
Mariah
mariah@radiofreephoenix.com

Bill Compton Story

Hi! I just stumbled across your weblog while testing the new Google Blog Search. I googled "God is Alive, Magic is Afoot." Interesting synchronicity. (I published it on <a href="http://roland.blogspot.com">my blog</a> last week.)
Anyway, I have a Bill Compton story that I can finally tell to somebody who might appreciate it. I only met him once, but I might actually be one of the first people in Phoenix to meet him.
I was working at KALF/KMND in the spring of 1969. KALF was an AM daytimer and KMND was automated beautiful music. (It became KDKB a couple of years later.) My job was to babysit the automation overnight and do the program logs.
KALF hired a new announcer named Ray(?) for midday. He came in one night after midnight with Bill Compton. They had both just arrived from Texas, I believe. Bill came in to record an audition tape for KRUX. He said he was going to get hired at KRUX and then later introduce an album rock program on the station. Well, of course, that's exactly what happened!
He made an impression on me because I have never met anyone before or since who had so much confidence, without being arrogant.
Shortly after that I left for a real on-the-air job in California. I moved back to Arizona permanently in 1979. So I only heard KCAC and the early KDKB a few times while back visiting relatives.

Roland Foster

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Lissa's Services

Lissa's services will be held this Friday and Saturday:
Friday: Visitation 6-8pm Rosary at 7pm
St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church
6261 N Granite Reef Road
Scottsdale, Arizona
Saturday: Funeral at 11 am at St. Maria Goretti
Procession to follow
Reception at church afterwards
Directions: St. Maria Goretti Church-take 101 North to McDonald, west (left) on McDonald to Granite Reef Rd, intersection of Granite Reef and Rose

Jimmy,
I forgot to say that the song by Buffy Sainte-Marie "God Is Alive, Magic is Afoot" feels to me like it was meant to be on the site this week for Lissa. It's funny that before I read the song on the site last week, for several weeks the song had been playing over and over in my mind. I had not thought of it in years, and it suddenly popped into my head and wouldn't go away. (o: I prefer to believe it was Lissa talking to me through the beautiful song that she no doubt would love very much.
Mariah
"Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us." Marcel Proust

Lissa Joins the Stars

Jimmy,
Thank you for allowing me to post these pieces about Lissa. I am so sorry that she was never able to know about the wonderful article about her "Drummerpalooza" that you did in the New Times. Thank you so much for all of your help and support. She knew you were probably going to write an article and was very happy about it. Words fail me now, so I am copying what I have just posted to her CaringBridge.org site.
Mariah

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2005
To Lissa's loving mother and her sister, Mary...Lissa told me many times how much she appreciated your courage, devotion and unfailing love. Lissa will always be with us. From deep in my heart,
Mariah Fleming

For you Lissa:
'We know nothing of this going-hence that
does not share with us. We have no grounds
for showing admiration and love or hate
to death, whom a costume mask
of tragic lament crazily disfigures.

Still the world is full of roles we act.
So long as we try anxiously to please,
death acts also, though never to acclaim.

But when you went, a streak of reality
broke in upon this stage through that fissure
where you left: green of real green,
real sunshine, real forest.

So we go on acting. Fearful and reciting
things difficult to learn and speak and
now and then raising gestures, raising song:
but your existence, withdrawan from us
and taken from our play,

will sometimes come over us, like the knowledge
of that reality now settling in,
so that for a while we act our lives,
transported, not thinking of applause.

Rainer Maria Rilke
1907

Drummer photographer Lissa Wales dies
Josh Kelley and Larry Rodgers
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 2, 2005 12:00 AM
Lissa Wales, a Tempe photographer renowned for her photographs of drummers, died Saturday after several months of battling a relapse of acute mylogenous leukemia. She was 48.

Wales, who grew up in the Valley and graduated from Arizona State University, photographed hundreds of percussionists over two decades, including drummers from some of the world's top rock bands.

Last month, several of the music industry's well-known performers played in a benefit concert to raise money to pay for Wales' mounting medical bills, which kept her shooting occasional concerts even as she was undergoing treatment for her disease.

Wales said at the time that she was 'flabbergasted' by the response of those who volunteered to play, including Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Steve Ferrone of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, Jimmy DeGrasso of Montrose and Ian Wallace of King Crimson.

Wales' photographs appeared in magazines in the United States, Europe and Asia, as well as in advertisements for drum manufacturers.

Some of her works are displayed at www.drumpics.com.

Her sister, Mary Wales-Long, remembered Lissa on Saturday as 'the best sister in the world (who) fought the good fight.