Mark Westin: Mark's Ramblings

An old video from the rocknroll days of yore. MW playing at Tompkins Square Park on the LES with the Storm Dogs in the 80s.

The bible's last stand is now #87 out of 3,251 after just a week on the page. Thanks all for clicking on it - keep it up and we'll hit numero uno.

Go here to listen.

My song "The Bible's last stand", about the history of conflicts in the Middle East, has been selected for Neil Young's Living with War song page. It features songs from both well-known and less well-known artists that address the issue of, well, living with war. Go here and search for Mark Westin, then click on the title to listen:

The song appears on my "dirty folk" disc.

A little Halloween romance. Or a Dr. Ruth success story, depending.

Thoughts on celebrity romance and real life

A revised version of the track from "dirty folk" with a little help from Cat Guthrie and David Ray.

Live version from the Listening Room. Originally from my "dirty folk" disc.

The centerpiece of "High School Musical: 20 Year Reunion"

So there.

Unfortunately I got massively spammed so I've had to temporarily close my guest book while I delete all the extraneous crap. If you wanted to sign it, apologies, but if you join the mailing list instead I'll send you all kinds of wonderful non-spammy stuff.

I performed as part of Peace Songs night at the Listening Room in Cold Spring, NY on March 5. With my handy Flipcam (incredible little HD camera) I captured the flavor of the event on video, and fortunately even managed to appear in it myself (thanks Joel for shooting). Check it out.

I've been shooting videos of my fellow Hudson Valley artists at the Listening Room on Thursday nights in Cold Spring NY. No vids of me yet, cause I'm usually playing instead of shooting myself, but I'll get 'em there soon enough. Meanwhile, enjoy the other folks here.

A song by Ken Veltz, who I've had the pleasure of performing with this past year. I'm one of the voices singing (faintly) on the out choruses. Please copy the URL and send it to friends - it's a great sentiment.

Now that I've succumbed to the pressure and put up Myspace and Facebook pages (as well as Twittering for awhile), I've observed a curious phenomenon of the web.

I used to tell people they could find me on the web at spinachworld.net. I figured they would get everything they needed - contact info, music clips, links to merch, videos, and even the guestbook (which seemed to me equivalent to the comments on Myspace). I can track usage of this site, so I could tell that response was kinda flat.

Then I put up a Myspace and Facebook page, with essentially the same information and links available here, and all of a sudden it's off the hook - I'm connecting with people every day.

Now, I'm not the one going out and searching for these people - they're coming to me based on me telling them I have a web page. The only difference is that instead of directing them to spinachworld, I direct them to Myspace.

Some of these people aren't even Myspacers, they just want to check out the songs. So why are they going there when the same amount of mouse-click and keyboarding would bring them here?

Anyone? Bueller?

You can now find me on MySpace and Facebook. Friend me, babes.

I just read this article entitled (ahem), Beets: The New Spinach
I like beets fine. Didn't used to - when I was a kid I broke out in hives the first time I tried them and then didn't eat them again for several decades. But I like 'em now. And there are some valid health points and decent preparation ideas in the article.

However...and let me make this crystal clear...beets will NEVER be the new spinach. Only my beloved spinach will be SPINACH FOREVER.

So, New York Times: Let's call a moratorium on the whole "X, the new Y" thing, K? It's not especially clever and it might hurt some feelings. I mean, how do you think the color black feels after all the slights it's received? Every other week something's the "NEW black".

Personally I never saw anything wrong with the old black. For that matter I never saw it as old or new.

Okay article, lousy title.

Every so often ya gotta paint the walls and mix it up a bit, just to keep things fresh.

So that's what I did. Hope you like the revamped site - it's a work in progress.

I've been fortunate in recent weeks to take part several times in a fantastic songwriters' round in Cold Spring, NY.

It's called The Listening Room and it happens on Thursdays at the Cold Spring Depot, a joint right at the end of Main Street by the train tracks.

As a songwriter, it's everything you could want, starting with (as the name suggests) an audience that actually listens to what you're singing. They laugh at the funny lines, cry at the sad ones, and sometimes even sing along. Yes, they'll sing along with original songs that they've often never heard before, usually encouraged by the ringleader of this shindig, Ken Veltz.

Ken is also one to sit by the stage area and drum along with your tunes on some handy percussive surface. He can actually play drums, so he keeps good time and throws in a few tasty fills here and there. I know I enjoy it when he gets into one of my grooves.

There's a community of really strong songwriters of all stripes, and everyone is very supportive of everyone else's work. At most other venues where you might gig, you want to go with your A material and put on a polished performance. At the Listening Room, people jump off cliffs all the time, trying new songs, works in progress, and just plain goofiness.

I'm almost hesitant to make this too public because it's such a great gig, but I'm writing this because for those of you who like the kind of stuff I do, it's worth the trip. And if you're city folk it's an easy train ride from Grand Central, so there's no excuse. Like I said, it's right by the train tracks.

I'll be back there as often as Ken lets me, and I hope you'll come check it out. You can always check my Live Dates page to see if I'm on the bill any given week, and get linked to directions and times from there.

I've posted several videos on the See Hear! page.

These are spoken word essays about various aspects of life and pop culture that are part of my ThrobbingCow videoblog.

Musicians will definitely want to check out "The Virgin Britney Dream" (Paris Hilton fans too), while journalists and culture vultures will enjoy the two part "From Bands to Bandwidth" and "Two Turntables and a Cameraphone".

The others are pretty cool too. Enjoy!

I'm now available from the following digital distributors. Search "Mark Westin" to find it.

iTunes
Ruckus
BuyMusic
GroupieTunes
Muze
Tradebit
Napster
AudioLunchbox
GreatIndieMusic
Inprodicon
MusicIsHere
PayPlay
Verizon
Amie Street

Check it out!!!