Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in The Avenue On LJ (Alan Parsons Community)'s LiveJournal:

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Monday, February 19th, 2007
7:59 pm [dig0ry]	Grammy Awards/Jay Leno I was watching The Tonight Show on Monday the day after the Grammys and Chris Isaak was doing a funny report for Jay Leno from the red carpet before the show.  He interviewed a few celebrities and poked fun at others. In one of the shots I'm sure I saw Alan walking down the red carpet in the background.  Very tall imposing man with beard and long hair in a ponytail.  He looked great but Chris couldn't help noticing what he was wearing.  He thought he was dressed like a Romulan from Star Trek lol! I was just happy to see my favourite artist at the Grammys.  He didn't win this time but there's always next time!! Current Music: Kate Bush (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, February 12th, 2007
9:22 am [steve_tales]	Damn it! Not again!! Last night I watched the Grammy Awards – I don’t really enjoy it, but I watched because Alan Parsons was up for Best Surround Sound Album. That category was awarded earlier in the day, and those winners were shown along the bottom of the screen. Looked sort of like election night. The sad news came about 8:40 that Alan’s “A Valid Path” album lost to “Morph The Cat” by Donald Fagen (engineer Elliot Scheiner). I actually shouted out load “Damn It! Not Again!!” because Alan has lost a number of time to Fagen and his Steely Dan albums. Alan is becoming the Susan Lucci of the Grammies. Glad to see the Dixie Chicks win. They took a lot of heat for their comments, and now that opinion polls for Bush and the Iraq war are bottoming out, they have now been joined by a majority of people. They exercised their right to free speech, it nearly cost them everything, and you’ve got to hand it to them for sticking up for themselves. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, December 8th, 2006
12:09 pm [steve_tales]	Grammy Nomination!!!! FINALLY!!! Alan got another Grammy nomination.... Category 93 Best Surround Sound Album (For vocal or instrumental albums. Albums only.) Immortal Nystedt Morten Lindberg & Hans Peter L'Orange, surround mix engineers; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Ensemble 96 Conducted By Øystein Fevang) [2L] Long Walk To Freedom Martin Walters, surround mix engineer; Martin Walters, surround mastering engineer; Martin Walters, surround producer (Ladysmith Black Mambazo) [Heads Up International] Morph The Cat Elliot Scheiner, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Donald Fagen, surround producer (Donald Fagen) [Reprise Records] Straight Outta Lynwood Tony Papa, surround mix engineer; Bernie Grundman, surround mastering engineer; Al Yankovic, surround producer ("Weird Al" Yankovic) [Volcano/Zomba Label Group] A Valid Path P.J. Olsson & Alan Parsons, surround mix engineers; Bob Michaels, surround mastering engineer; Alan Parsons, surround producer (Alan Parsons) [Immergent] (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
11:10 am [steve_tales]	October 2nd it all begins... On the news page of The Avenue Online I have posted up the latest about The Alan Parsons Project back catalogue. Things begin with the release of a 3CD compilation in Holland on October 2nd. Smaller versions of that set will appear in other countries later. The track list for the compilation was based on the votes fans sent into me a while back. I had feared that the record company would pick and choose and pretty much do their own thing. In a week or so I will release the voting results but the amazing thing is that the entire Top 29 selections made it onto the set. There was so much picked from Eye In The Sky and The Turn of a Friendly Card that I thought for sure they’d drop some. I am just so impressed that the fans had their say AND it was listened to. The remasters will come out in three waves, starting on January 22nd with I Robot (30th anniversary), Eye In The Sky, Vulture Culture. I am looking forward to seeing the new booklets. I submitted a ton of stuff for those so I am looking forward to seeing what parts they chose and what else they got from other sources. The record company could easily have done a half-assed job and just slapped a compilation together and put out quick “remasters”, but I have been impressed by the care that has been taken and the artist involvement. By the time the last wave of remasters comes out, it will have taken over a year from beginning to end and I think the efforts are really going to pay off in something we’re all going to APPreciate. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006
4:00 pm [steve_tales]	The cat is finally out of the bag By now you should all have read on the news page on TheAvenueOnline.info about the upcoming remasters of the back catalogue titles by The Alan Parsons Project. Over the past couple months some people were disappointed by the lack of updates on The Avenue, but the truth is that there just wasn’t any news that I could publicly announce. While there was some exciting things bubbling behind the scenes, I had to keep that to myself until I was allowed to say it. Now that it’s out there I can reflect on it all. It really started back in February when I first received an email from Sony/BMG. I was actually floored by this, because when I started The Avenue I went to Arista/BMG and tried to get them interested/involved in promoting Alan. The problem was that they were really only concerned with promoting their current roster, which is evidenced by their own website over the years. So after years of getting nowhere, it was a real shock to see interest from that side. At first, I actually thought the email was a prank! By the time I’d agreed to run the compilation contest (don’t worry folks, the results are still forthcoming!) I already knew that the scope of this project was huge and having received literally years of emails requesting remasters, it was killing me to hold back the news. Why couldn’t we say it? Well, back in February we all had some great ideas, but there were still a lot of obstacles to overcome … would we be able to get all the pieces we need? How long would it even take? We all feared announcing something and having the release dates change and change, or worse not happen at all. No need getting everyone’s hopes up only to have them dashed. So I’ll tell you a little more about that in the next few days, but there’s something to daydream about for now. Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 16th, 2006
12:37 am [isopanisad]	Gods ringtone For my new Treo 650 phone, I made an In the Lap of the Gods ringtone. It's a 30-second snippet with some of the chorus and orchestration, in a sort-of scratchy, lo-fi amr format. It works. You're welcome to it. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
12:05 am [dig0ry]	Old Pictures I dug up some pictures from my meetings with Alan and the band: (Comment on this)
Monday, July 10th, 2006
10:41 pm [dig0ry]	Remasters Hooray for the news that I Robot through Gaudi will be released in remastered versions!  And with extras!! Thanks Steve for the update.  I'll start saving my pennies to buy all of those cds. Current Mood: cheerful (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 27th, 2006
9:11 pm [knight_of_fire]	Pink Freud! My first post on here! Yay! :) Figured all the Pink Floyd/Sigmund Freud fans would get a kick out of this... I sure did! :) Pink Freud Current Mood: hahaha Current Music: "Blueside" --Rooney (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 3rd, 2006
2:59 pm [steve_tales]	Contest / Blog The compilation contest closed last night. I don't have the final tally yet, but I am pleased with what I have seen so far. It looks like an interesting mix of the usual suspects like Eye In The Sky (which will make the record breathe a sigh of relief) along with things a little more exotic like La Sagrada Familia. The LJ Blog is a little quiet. I'm wondering, would this be better at MySpace instead? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 27th, 2006
4:24 pm [steve_tales]	Compilation contest - Last week Just a reminder to everyone... time is running out to pick your favourite songs for the new APP compilation. There have been some great entries so far, but we don't want anyone to miss out. Hurry!! (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 11th, 2006
10:35 pm [steve_tales]	CMW Flashback I had the great opportunity to sit in when Alan made his appearance at Canadian Music Week. He was booked as the celebrity interview. Denny Somach (he did interviews with Alan in the past) did a short interview of Alan covering the major career highlights. The second half they opened the floor to questions and Denny moderated the action. All you hard core AP fans have heard most of it before. Beatles, Floyd, etc. The room was pretty full and the crowd was pretty happy to have a real legend there. It's was quite a good event and it's about time the industry really recognised him. Here's a couple pictures of Alan at CMW: ( Read more... ) Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 9th, 2006
9:46 am [steve_tales]	New APP Compilation Last night I sent out an email blast announcing the new APP compilation and contest. I’ve actually known about this for a few days, but had to keep it secret while the fine details of the contest were worked out. It started with an email on Friday from Sony/BMG looking for my participation with some upcoming projects. This is a pretty significant event. Alan's early albums were on Arista Records and while he was one of the early key artists for the label, they've pretty much ignored him for years. Likewise I’ve had difficulty getting the record company to recognize The Avenue. RCA was helpful when the live album came out (that was short-lived) and Miramar was a dream to work with (until they went bankrupt). That said, Arista never really seemed to care about the back catalogue, never mentioned Alan on *their* site, so why would they care about my site or newsletter? So when I got the email I nearly fell off my chair – I also had to check it wasn’t April Fool’s Day. I’d tried many times to get them on board and here they come on their own volition. About a year back BMG got behind Barry Manilow’s back catalogue and re-launched it. Manilow was one of the founding artists of Arista along with Alan and they were among the hit artists that got that record label rolling. Whatever you feel about Manilow’s work, I felt it was nice he got his due, but at that time it also left me thinking, “yoo hoo, what about Alan & Eric?” It's just great that they are finally getting behind Alan and giving him his due. It's also nice that they have recognised my site at the definitive AP site. Personally I’d been through a lot of hell the last couple of years and had a feeling that 2006 was going to be a breakthrough year. I think that was part wishful thinking, part weariness of the road traveled and part believe that Karma would balance things up. We’re only nine weeks into the year, we have a dual disc, compilation, XM broadcast, tour dates and more on the way – it’s all happening! It’s going to be an interesting year... Current Mood: excited Current Music: Ryan Adams "Gold" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 3rd, 2006
4:38 pm [steve_tales]	Alan at Canadian Music Week This afternoon is Alan’s speech/interview at CMW. At work, I’ve got to do a small move this afternoon. I have everything set up and ready to go and hope I can bang it out fast. I’ve made arrangements to get in, but I have to show up early. Luckily it’s just next door. Hoping to get some pictures to post up! Last night I met up with Alan Parsons and his wife Lisa and we had dinner. I also got the chance to get a sneak peek at the new DVD Dual Disc that comes out on April 4. One side is a CD audio version of the album; the other is a DVD side where you can listen to the album in surround sound, watch interviews, videos and more. It’s looking good and is coming along nicely. I know people have been waiting for it for a while and the parts I saw are well worth the wait. It’s even got an interview with David Gilmour on there! Current Mood: bouncy (Comment on this)
Monday, February 20th, 2006
9:25 am [steve_tales]	eBay auctions Heh all, My second round of auctions goes up on Thursday night. No AP in this round, but def. something in the next round. However there will be some related items that may interest AP fans: Three CDs by Al Stewart: Live At The Roxy L.A. 1981 - Al Stewart (CD 1997) [I... Last Days Of The Century - Al Stewart (CD 2004) On The Border - Al Stewart (CD 2004) Chris DeBurgh compilation Best Moves - Chris De Burgh (CD 1985) [IMPORT, UK] And for Howard Jones fans I have a tour program. Howard Jones Tour Program They go live Thursday night. (Comment on this)
Monday, February 13th, 2006
1:08 pm [steve_tales]	Change is Good On the weekend I changed the front page for TheAvenueOnline. "A Valid Path" has been out for more than a year so we needed to move on to newer things. The idea is that I wanted to have a front page that was a little more "organic" and keep current hot items up front. It was inspired a little by the outside of a movie theatre where you have those row of posters of "coming attractions". I still have “A Valid Path” occupying one of the three positions, but for now it’s still the “current” album and I think we have to continue to promote it. Current Mood: chipper (Comment on this)
Monday, February 6th, 2006
1:32 pm [steve_tales]	Pilot "Magic" I have that rental house in Orlando and I'd had guests comment that they'd like more 70s music in the rack, so on the weekend I went and bought a CD set of 70s music (as well as a set of 50s/60s). Among the four disc set was Pilot's "Magic". When I got home I popped it in because I wanted it be sure that the music was by the original artists and not one of those cheap cover-band compilations. Getting to the point... Yeah, it was our Pilot, but it wasn't the version I've been listening to for over thirty years. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I was just surprised to find another version. I wonder where the heck they got it from?! Current Mood: curious (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 4th, 2006
1:00 pm [steve_tales]	eBay auctions Last night I finally got my butt around to it and started auctioning some things. I'm starting small (just eight items) as I want to get a rhythm going before biting off too much. It's an odd mix of stuff: A couple Disney DVDs, music tour program/books and an old ten-pack of video games. No rhyme of reason - just a place to start from. It’s still early yet (just a half a day in) and there are no bids, but there are a couple items being “watched”. Hopefully they all get sold so I can move onto the next batch. Some Parsons stuff will come later, and hopefully the Al Stewart discs will go up soon too. Current Mood: hopeful (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 31st, 2006
11:41 am [steve_tales]	eBay auctions coming soon… I’m just finishing up some year-end tax stuff and once I get that out of the way I will be launching some auctions on eBay. Some stuff will be totally unrelated to Parsons, some related (like some Al Stewart CDs), but I’ll probably have a few AP/APP things I can put on there. As some may have heard, last year we had serious problems with water in the basement. Luckily we didn’t lose anything important. Thanks to learning from things in the past, I had stuff shelved and stored well, so rather than losing personal stuff, the worst damage was the rugs and walls. That whole incident has led to the pending eBay auctions. Not because of the debts accrued from the renovation, but it’s more about space. You live in a house too long and you just accumulate way too much stuff. Now I see why Alan moves so often!! Current Mood: hopeful (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 28th, 2006
4:19 pm [steve_tales]	February 2nd concert On February 2nd, Alan Parsons will be playing the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, Missouri. There will be two shows that day. For those guests on the "aftershow" list, please note that the "meet and greet" will be held after the first show only. After the second show they will do an autograph session in the lobby for the general public. (Comment on this)