Quality Of Live

The 1980s were the years of buying dangerously. With twin recessions dispatched early on, this was the shopped-till-we-dropped decade. T-shirts proclaimed: "I can't be overdrawn. I still have checks left!" It was the decade of the Post-it note and the personal computer. It was an electronic decade of high-tech doodads that made our lives more programmed in the name of convenience. The '80s brought us glitz and flash, MTV and USA Today.

Los Angeles ranked below most other major cities in a new study that examined the quality of children's lives in U.S. cities, a national environmental group said Tuesday. A relatively high rate of teenage pregnancy, poor air quality and below-average library use were among the factors cited as reasons that Los Angeles received a C on the Kid-Friendly Report Card issued by Washington-based Zero Population Growth, a nonprofit organization that lobbies against rapid population growth.

Los Angeles ranked below most other major cities in a new study that examined the quality of children's lives in U.S. cities, a national environmental group said Tuesday. A relatively high rate of teenage pregnancy, poor air quality and below-average library use were among the factors cited as reasons that Los Angeles received a C on the Kid-Friendly Report Card issued by Washington-based Zero Population Growth, a nonprofit organization that lobbies against rapid population growth.

The 1980s were the years of buying dangerously. With twin recessions dispatched early on, this was the shopped-till-we-dropped decade. T-shirts proclaimed: "I can't be overdrawn. I still have checks left!" It was the decade of the Post-it note and the personal computer. It was an electronic decade of high-tech doodads that made our lives more programmed in the name of convenience. The '80s brought us glitz and flash, MTV and USA Today.

I would like to thank Calendar for coupling Richard Cromelin's interview of Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst ("The Spotlight Finds a Searching Soul", Nov. 10) with positive reviews of other recent Omaha releases. As a label manager and fellow musician, I have firsthand experience that quite often the level of talent on a roster (or a release) matters less than the "luck of exposure." Dean Kuipers and Kevin Bronson's objective critiques shine a light on material otherwise "underexposed" and show that there is depth to the Omaha indie scene.

Les Barcus, inventor and co-founder of Barcus-Berry Inc., major manufacturer of musical instruments and sound equipment, has died at age 89. Barcus, who devised ways to amplify violins and pianos, died March 4 in his sleep at his home in Huntington Harbor. With his partner, violinist John Berry, Barcus created matchbook-size electrical pickups or sensors that helped amplify the sounds of stringed instruments (guitars, harps), percussion (cymbals, drums) and wind instruments (flutes).

Michael Novak's column "People Moving Up, the American Way" (Commentary, Oct. 18) is typical of our misguided use of statistics. Novak seems to think that because it now takes two or more people in a family working to make a living--thus creating the "bracket creep" to which he points as evidence of our new wealth--that we are making "progress." And his numbers are old--what crept up is now creeping, or rather careening, downward. What Novak fails to understand is that inflation creates, and necessitates, the so-called bracket creep that he mistakes for progress.

Responding to complaints by residents, state and local law enforcement officials Wednesday posted license-revocation notices at two East Los Angeles bars, one of which was the site of two slayings during the past five years. "When I walked by on my way to McDonald's at night I saw people [urinating] in front and drunk old men fighting in the parking lot," said resident Raquel Rodriquez, while walking by one of the bars, the Beehive.

Until now, one of the few complaints Albita had to hear about her music was that her albums couldn't match the quality of her live performances. But the Cuban singer's sold-out concert on Saturday at the House of Blues was exactly the other way around: It lacked the power of her second record's backing vocals. Which means that the show was only superb.

Usually a jazz fusion band worries about getting its polished, recording-studio sound across in a concert setting. For guitarist Russ Freeman, who leads the Rippingtons, the concern has been the opposite: transferring the quality of his live shows onto an album. Freeman thinks "Weekend in Monaco," the Rippingtons' latest GRP release, really comes close. "The show has a lot of energy, and the new record reflects that more than ever."

Electronic Arts knows how to deliver good games. They did it for 16-bit machines with the helicopter-themed Strike series and now they are living up to their reputation with some gut-wrenching action in the 32-bit Shock Wave 2: Beyond the Gate for 3DO. As first-person fliers go, the original Shock Wave and its add-on Operation Jumpgate were among my faves on 3DO. Now, the sequel pumps out the same kind of great sound and richly textured environments that made the first one such a hit.

*** 1/2, VARIOUS ARTISTS, "The Best of Excello Records", Excello/AVI When you listen to this treasure chest of R&B and rockabilly from the '50s and early '60s, it's easy to assume that the records were originally released by a Memphis label, not a Nashville one.