Pribek

“Our job is to help artists get their ‘brand’ in front of people,”
-Bill Zysbla of RZO, partner in Wines That Rock

And…what better way to get classic rock brands in front of people than to slap some album cover art on a wine bottle?

RZO’s partner in Wines That Rock is the The Mendocino Wine Co. From Billboard…

The Mendocino Wine Co. is known for following environmentally friendly production standards through sustainable farming, 100% green solar and wind power, eco friendly packaging, and carbon neutrality. Mendocino Wine Co. winemaker Mark Beaman says each wine “truly captures the essence of an album.

The Woodstock Chardonnay was produced to express the mixture of revolution and the vitality of Woodstock, the Forty Licks Merlot needed to be timeless with a bit of spunk, and the Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon was created to bottle up the soft, haunting complexity of the album.”

uh…yeah…carbon neutral, revolution…timeless spunk…soft, haunting complexity…all sounds real good but, I think I’ll hold out for the “Never Mind The Bollocks” Pinot noir.

If you are interested in the current trilogy of Wines That Rock…

…click here and get all three for $50.97.

Environmentally concerned pickers might want to check out Eric Larson’s piece called, “Green Up Your Act (Unleash your inner rock god with our four easy steps to eco-stardom)”.

Larson covers carbon neutral recording studios, record labels that use eco-paks and purchase carbon offsets, and outfits that will advise you on how to green up your tour.

The part that find I particularly interesting, concerns the choice of materials used in guitar manufacturing.

guitar-makers and serious strummers insist upon the highest quality wood to produce the highest quality sound — and the highest quality wood just happens to come from old growth trees critical to forest habitat (the clear cutting of which contributes to global warming).

Musicwood.org and the Forest Stewardship Council are affiliated with Greenpeace.

The idea behind the FSC is simple: bring together representatives from environmental, social and business communities to work together on appropriate standards for managing forests to ensure that logging is carried out according to the best available science and with the highest regard for the ecological, social and cultural well-being of the region.

Greenpeace is working in partnership with a range of musical instrument manufacturers, artists, tonewood suppliers, instrument retailers and music industry associations to address critical issues for protecting habitats and species.

Current partners include: Gibson, Martin, Taylor, Fender, Guild, Yamaha,Walden, Luthiers Mercantile International, Pacific Rim Tonewoods, North American Wood Products, Allied Lutherie and with additional companies soon to come on board.

Some manufacturers are working with alternative materials.

First Act is using bamboo.

The Bambusa guitar’s body and neck are constructed of bamboo, one of the fastest growing plants in the world, and an uncommonly renewable resource. In its processed state, bamboo is harder than maple, making it a supreme-sounding and killer-looking substitute for high quality tonewoods.

Mada Guitars has developed a hemp material.

The MADA caimes body is an organically shaped semi-acoustic electric guitar body made of hemp pulp and is not carved or milled like traditional guitars. Design has revolutionized the production technique. One form without any linings or bracings.
With its edge-less organic shape, MADA develops an unmistakable, wonderful sharp and organic sound.

Why hemp? The permanent transition from impact sound into airborne sound is essential to the sound. Thats how resonances are formed. This makes Hempstone® the perfect 3 dimensional molding material for music instruments. The material consists of 100 % hemp fibres and contains no plastics, which would close these resonance-gaps.

Both of these are good looking instruments. I would be interested in trying either one. It always comes down to playability and sound. And, that’s the challenge for forward thinking manufacturers, you have to come up with something that performs better than traditional materials or, as well as, with some other benefit.

I’m having a bad tech week. First, there was a cable outage and no internet for over a day. Deciding to live without a T.V., the net is primary entertainment for me. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss it until it was gone for a while. Then, I had a problem with my digital recorder and C.D. burner. This gear is late nineties stuff and by today’s digital recording standards, very out of date. But, it is gear that has always served me well, suits my purpose, and has a lot of life left in it (hopefully). The problem is that now I need to find somebody else that uses the same out-of-date gear that knows more about it than I do. Today I had a very simple soldering job to do on a speaker and screwed that up. Being an electric guitarist for 30 years and a former production welder, you would think I could solder but, the hands shake, the vision decreases and some things just elude me.

It seems that my old pal Rupert Murdoch is trying to soften his image. This is from the Financial Times regarding Rupe’s regret that his offer to purchase Dow Jones became a public affair.

Rupert Murdoch said on Wednesday he had hoped to negotiate a deal to acquire Dow Jones “in a private setting” but had been forced to discuss the offer publicly after it was “leaked” last week.

He said he was a “great admirer” of the Bancroft family which controls Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones’s new management. He declined to say any more about the offer “out of deference to the family and their right to deliberate in private”.

“Leaked”, huh? I bet that torqued old Rupe off. I wonder who leaked the info. I bet heads will roll.

I know this, when the story was leaked, News Corp’s stock surged. The newspaper business is the weak link in Murdoch’s empire and seems to be the part that benefitted from the leak.

Also, from The Herald Sun (Murdoch owned) there was a story about Murdoch being concerned with his empire’s carbon footprint…

Saying the global media empire produced 641,150 tonnes of greenhouse gas last year, the News chairman and CEO last night pledged to go green.
“We could make a difference just by holding our emissions steady as our businesses continue to grow, but that doesn’t seem to be enough,” Mr Murdoch said.
“We want to go all the way to zero,” he told News Corp’s worldwide employees.
“This is about changing the DNA of our business to re-imagine how we look at energy.”
Under the plan, all News Corp businesses, including News Limited, publisher of the Herald Sun, will be carbon neutral by 2010.
Mr Murdoch said this goal would be met by slashing energy use, switching to renewable power sources and, as a last resort, offsetting unavoidable emissions.

And, my very favorite part…

“We must avoid preaching — and there has to be substance behind the glitz.”

Can you picture Murdoch in his office somewhere commanding a lackey to buy carbon offsets? The only way that’s happening is if Rupe is in the carbon offset racket himself.

Maybe, I’m being too hard on the guy. Yeah, I think so. I think what we are seeing is a regretful, kinder, gentler and, best of all, carbon neutral Rupert Murdoch and we can all learn from his example.