On the subject of nurturing connections…
Some people have a list of websites that they routinely and regularly visit. Mine is terribly short — too short, really. One of the sites I stop by on an irregular basis belongs to a friend. Steve has for a long time maintained a chronological list of some of the sites he runs across in his net travels. He calls it dropping crumbs, and it serves two purposes. First, it lets other people take a look at what strange esoteric stuff he’s run across, but probably more importantly to Steve, it gives him an easy way back to those sites a month or two later.
Well the other day I was scanning the crumbs, looking for some tasty morsels when I ran across a site called DPRP, or the Dutch Progressive Rock Page. Prog-rock has long been a favorite genre of mine, ever since my musically-inclined cousins Matt and Mark turned me on to Genesis back in the early ’70s. Being of Dutch descent (mom was a van der Ploeg), my curiosity led to click.
DPRP is a nice little site, and I was surprised to find that the majority of the coverage was on current prog-rock bands. Yes, prog-rock is still alive. And not only alive, but there is actually an annual prog-rock festival in nearby Whittier.
Another click and I was at the website of CalProg 2004, a day-long progressive rock festival coming up on July 3. It’s not likely that I’ll get the day off from the family to attend, but I was intrigued to check out the lineup, which includes Enchant, Erik Norlander, IZZ, Mike Keneally Band and Neal Morse.
I downloaded the sample MP3s, and after a listen, decided I needed to get to know these bands a little better. A quick search at Amazon, and I was proud owner of two CDs by band called IZZ: Ampersand, Volume I and I Move. The epic track Star Evil Gnoma Su is currently my favorite, with all of the qualities that make progressive rock great.
At lunch with Steve, I explained how because of his dropping crumbs, I had learned of two new websites, invested thirty bucks in a band I had never heard of before, and my life had been enriched. So now that I’ve closed the loop with Steve, its your turn — go check it out and let me know what you think.
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