Playing for Change

Before reading Bob's welcome message he would highly recommend that you all visit the website, Playing For Change, whose theme and message is "Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music" or in Bob's words, "it is a site using music to unite the world and get us all to move to the rhythm." This next link will take you to the latest video or episode but please don't miss the fantastic first video. To further investigate and see more videos you may also visit Playing for Change on You Tube.

 Welcome

This site is a collection of reviews I have done throughout the years for a variety of publications; The All Music Guide, Dirty Linen, The Music Matters, and Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange among others.  When doing a review I don’t enjoy throwing cold water on someone’s dream thus I avoid it, as perhaps it just doesn’t hit my taste.  Someone else liked it enough to put the money into it, or has the money to support their ego, so here are discs I enjoy for one reason or another. There are also photographs of some of performers and incidents or people enjoying the music, and others are of things that have caught my eye.  There may even be some miscellaneous writings such as short stories, and works of other artists that have helped make this site a useful and interesting one for you.  Under that miscellaneous title there may also be some reviews of DVDs of music, interviews, concert reviews etc.  This is a true hodge-podge of whatever, miscellaneous collection in the best sense of the word. Since some of the reviews go back to the very early 90’s and different versions of the disc may have been released since; the album covers included may not fit with what is to be found now but it is what we could find.  I can only speak for the version I reviewed. I urge you to patronize your local record shops first as they are local and often will go out of their way to help you find what you are looking for and for the most part people who know and love music staff them.  Special thanks to the waterloo πratz of waterloodog for their fantastic web design and various friends and their art. Go to the links provided as they are all good and worthy people who you might really enjoy getting to know.

Your comments are welcome and who knows might even elicit some changes in this site.  If you disagree with a review so be it, we all have opinions.  These are the thoughts of someone who has been around for a good stretch of time with his eyes and ears open.  We all have our own likes and dislikes, you might like appaloosa horses and I might like Arabians, so what.

Enjoy and relax and tell us what you think.

bob gottlieb

 Paintings and Photos

Most of the paintings located on the top level pages of Rascal's Fair have been created by Boulder artist Sheryl Wertz. All paintings also reside in the pics section displayed in their original web size along with their titles and links. Here is a link to Sheryl's website. We also thank Wood Doggy for the blue jazzman in the banner and Ben Crow for the desert painting located on this page. To view visit the gallery entrance.

All of the photographs on this website were shot by Bob. There are now three photo galleries. Starting with gallery #3 photos are displayed much larger in a slideshow with smaller thumbnails of each photo below the slideshow. Galleries #1 and #2 are displayed much smaller on scrolling pages and have since also been merged into a new slideshow. To view visit the gallery entrance. Much larger version of these photos are now also available. 2011 update - a percentage of the photos sold from this web site will go to Heart of Tucson.

Please also visit an old friend, Steve Morris, not only is this man an outstanding designer of furniture and architectural metal work but his functional sculpture is a pleasure to have in/around the home, but he is also green about it and gives back to the community.

Bob's close-up of "Night Blooming Cereus"
Sheryl's "Homage to Peter Maxx" and
Bob's "Arizona storm rolling in"

And let's not forget those who are suffering through no fault of their own.

Heart of Tucson's Mission Statement

HEART of Tucson (a 501(c)(3) Organization) is a non-profit, pro-horse equine rescue organization run entirely by volunteers. Our mission is two-fold. HEART of Tucson rescues horses of all breeds that are in urgent need of care. We rescue horses that perhaps have been neglected, abandoned or abused. Secondly, our mission is to instruct and raise awareness of the general public about what it takes to own a horse including feeding, grooming, tack, training, boarding, veterinary care and all costs associated with owning a horse.

God made man out of the dust of the earth, but He made horses out of the wind,
an old Bedouin proverb

and a few more of our favorite charities...

Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary Jumpin' Jack Ranch	Your Local Humane Society	The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund

Bob's favorite search engine, powered by
Yahoo's search engine but with GoodSearch you select your
own charity and they receive one half of the profits!

our webmaster's favorite charity,
those wonderful people at Medecins Sans Frontieres.

and a few more photos...

Mavis Staples and Levon Helm
at Jazz Fest singing "The Weight" and
Horses in a gathering storm Amado, AZ

Lisa Pankratz of Guilty Women
Day of The Dead 2010

And season's wishes to all,
each and every single day of the year!