Weekly Report from Boulder
It was a bad week for funding of public broadcasting.  The Ready to Learn program was totally cut which means major funding cuts for Sesame Street.  Another casualty was the advance funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB.  CPB was set up with funding guaranteed two years in advance in an effort to separate politics from money.  But now it appears that this guarantee means nothing to our current administration who are reducing financial support for the coming year. 

We've dodged this bullet in the past with pressure from the public that wants to see support for public media and the arts.  It's a great time for you and your friends to contact your representatives to let them know this is an important issue.  You can find out who to contact via Project Vote Smart, www.votesmart.org .  I've seen a resurgence of that ancient email where Nina Tottenberg decries the loss of funding and Sesame Street is getting axed.  Please DO NOT forward this!  Email petitions are not an effective tool and this is an outdated email that won't go anywhere.  If you want to sign a petition, check out MoveOn.org at http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/

It's a busy time of year for music, especially with Telluride Bluegrass Festival over the weekend.  A number of performers played there and on the front range.  I heard great reviews of Gillian Welch on Wednesday night but I was saving my energy.  Wednesday afternoon I put a focus on the final LoDo Music Festival by interviewing Brave Combo (as seen on the Simpson's!) and then a live set from Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra.  Their road manager also did the sound and I have a lot of respect for him keeping twelve musicians organized on the road then doing a great mix behind the board.  After they were done a bunch of us got enlisted to drive people back to the hotel as they'd sent the bus back so the driver could sleep. 

Antibalas played the next night at the Fox in a fun high-energy show.  Life interfered with me seeing them last fall and this was the kind of night I felt there was no where I wanted to be but right there, dancing to music with great horns and drums and passion.  Having been a fan of ska I loved that the night started with the trombone and grew from there.  By the side of the stage a painter captured the action of the group on stage. His vertical canvas really allowed the vitality of the group to shine through.

Friday it was off to Wilco at Red Rocks (Thanks Jennifer and Jeff!).  We got there just in time to catch the openers, The Roots.  What a treat to see Vernon Reid up there playing guitar with them.  Yes, truly a night of guitar gods for me.  My sister is the big Wilco fan of the family, but I've been more excited by them since Nels Cline joined the group.  He did not disappoint, pulling off a fiery loud sound that as out there as he could get, always held on to a thread of the melody.  Afterwards we went backstage to say Hi, though Jeff does a disappearing act and we didn't see him.  Nels was as nice a guy as I would have thought and made sure the entire band, but for Jeff, signed the CD for my sister for her birthday. 

Elaine C. Erb. KGNU Music Director. <º))))><
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