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First, let’s define a few things.

This article is intended for self-hosted installations, however these techniques may also work fine on wordpress-hosted installations.

The difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org is simple but unfortunately confusing.  It’s just this:  WordPress.org is self-hosted, while WordPress.com is hosted by the people at WordPress.  Don’t feel bad; we all have forgotten which is which at some time!  The benefits of using WordPress.com are that the software is updated without your interaction, and you don’t need a hosting platform.  But you can’t create a custom theme or edit the CSS (unless you pay for a CSS upgrade) and can’t access the PHP files.  This may be fine for your purposes.  If you host the site yourself, you are a WordPress.com user.  If your hosting company includes an automatic installation feature, like Network Solutions does at the time of this writing, the installation and upgrading of software and plugins is very easy to do within the admin interface, and the installation of themes is simply an FTP upload.  If you can handle that, you can have a much higher level of customization.  You can also break things, so be careful!  Back things up, and I usually wait a couple of weeks before giving in to the admin-area update nags (please update!) just to make sure there aren’t a lot of complaints about the updates I might be initiating.

Now here is what you need to know about the comments function and how to make it work better for you.  You may not want the comments function to show up at the bottom of pages, or posts, or both.  It’s fairly simple to handle without editing code.  This technique should work in most cases and should not break anything, because it uses built-in functionality.

There are three places you will be going.

First, on the left side at the very bottom, under Settings, click on Discussion.  Here you will see “Default article settings.”  See the selection called “Allow people to post comments on new articles”?    If you have that box checked, all new pages and posts will have comments enabled at the bottom of the page or post.  For now, uncheck it.  Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the Discussion Settings page and hit “Save Changes” before you leave the page.

Second, along the left side, drop down “Posts” and click on “Add New.”  Do you see a box that says “Discussion?”  Maybe not.  By default, this box is not shown, which causes a lot of confusion.  Possible this default visibility setting will be different in the future.  But for now, you have to make it visible for you, the admin.  In order to do this, simply go to the top of this page without entering any new post information (you’re not creating a new post right now) and find “Screen Options.”  Hit it – then select the “Discussion” check box.  Notice the “Discussion” box becomes visible on the page.  See what the other “Show on Screen” checkboxes provide, then simply close the “Screen Options.”  You can drag around the boxes on the screen if you want.  In the newly-visible “Discussion” panel, “Allow Comments” should be unchecked, based on the previous step, above, in “Default article settings.”  The good news is, you now can see the option to manage this for each individual post, via the new “Discussion panel” in the admin area when you create a new post.  If you never check the box, you’ll never have comments on new posts you create.  If you want comments on any post, new or existing, check the “Allow comments” box, then “Post” or “Update.”

Do the same thing (make the Discussion panel) visible, using the same steps, for Pages.

Third, you can now go to previously-created pages and posts and simply uncheck the box if you don’t want comments on any particular post or page.

That’s it!

You can also rem out the

<?php// comments_template( '', true ); ?>

line of code in your individual page .php files, but that isn’t necessary if you follow the instructions above.

Remember, you decide what the default is for all new posts and pages in the Settings –> Discussion area, then make the choice visible for each post or page through “Screen Options.”

The Settings –> Discussion toggle will effect the default for both pages and posts – at the time of this writing there is no easy way to choose a different default for pages than for posts.

No code changes or plugins are needed to accomplish what most people are looking for, if they want to have a page or post that doesn’t have comments on it.  The essential issue is that the checkbox on individual admin panel “create page” pages is hidden by default.

If you are interested in making the comments text area less “tall,” across your theme, there is a way to do this, but it involves changing coding, and is probably not a universal solution, so it may or may not work for you.  In many of the installations I have worked with, I have had success by making a simple change in the style.css page, which is accessed by clicking on Appearance –> Editor.   Please be careful in here, as you can do some damage if you make a mistake.  Best to back up the style.css original file, so if you need to you can simply re-upload it and overwrite your mistake if necessary.

Inside style.css, scroll down to the section that deals with “comments.”  Sometimes the code will refer to the comments functionality with another name, for example “respond.”  You are looking specifically for the subsection that is often called “textarea.”

Add the line

height: 60px;

to make the comments box less “tall.”  Change the 60 to whatever value you like, although 60 seems to be a nice height.  Always remember any changes you make in case you need to undo them.

Of course, if you already have a “height” attribute here, replace it, don’t just add another one.

Good luck and let me know how it has worked for you!

Nicholas helped raise funds for High Street Yoga’s “HSY Teacher Training Scholarship Fund,” as well as celebrate the local studio owner, Tamsy Markham’s 49th birthday, while also promoting his new album (the first for him since 2005) “Future Blues.”

Cindy Cashdollar on slide complimented Nicholas seamlessly, prodding and stroking an arms-length assortment of guitars that sang like baritone steel. The flavors of Nicholas’s inspired songwriting and Cashdollar’s almost invisible harmony blended together like a good bowl of soup.
- Mark Urso, Wham Universal
http://www.whamuniversal.com

“Future Blues” album review: Though Texas bluesman Johnny Nicholas has played with the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf, Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt – not to mention his former group Asleep At The Wheel – in recent years, you’d be more likely to find him at his roadhouse restaurant The Hill Top Café near Fredricksburg, TX. Nicholas, who Texas music legend Stephen Bruton called “one of the best bluesmen ever,” is set to release his first album in six years, ‘Future Blues,’ on July 12 via The People’s Label and tour with an all-star band this spring and summer.

Musicians on the album include Cindy Cashdollar (Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield), guitarist “Scrappy” Jud Newcomb (Ian McLagan, The Resentments), drummer John Chipman (Band of Heathens), accordion and keyboardist Joel Guzman (Joe Ely), and guest appearances by Sam Broussard and Jimmie Vaughan. ‘Future Blues’ was produced by Bruce Hughes (The Resentments, Texas Sheiks, Jason Mraz), who also plays bass on the record.

The tone of ‘Future Blues’ is set with lead-off track “Hey Hey,” a jaunty boogie-woogie with stellar harmonica work, Nicholas’ voice smoky and assertive. “Hard Time Livin’” and “Roads On Fire” are two slow-burning stand-outs supported by gritty guitar and Cashdollar’s slide flourishes that melt into the rhythm section, while Nicholas’ re-imagined version of Dylan’s “(It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue” is punctuated by a free-spirited, driving shuffle.

‘Future Blues’ reunites Nicholas, Hughes, and Cashdollar after their successful collaboration with Geoff Muldaur, Bruton and Jim Kweskin on the 2008 acoustic blues Texas Sheiks project.

(Shore Fire Media)
http://shorefire.com/clients/jnicholas/

Press Coverage, The Westerly Sun: One of Westerly’s most loyal native sons, Johnny Nicholas, comes to town July 23 for a CD release party, held appropriately at the Knickerbocker Café. Titled “Future Blues”, this CD is Nicholas’s first collection of new material since 2005′s Living with the Blues. It has 10 Nicholas originals, a cover of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” and the adaptation of two of Willie Brown’s tunes.

Although Nicholas feels the album is more introspective than previous releases, he admits that many of the cuts “can’t escape a dance feel-it’s gotta be something you can dance to.”

Indeed, the first song, “Hey, Hey,” will get your hips swaying to its classic country jitterbug rhythm. The second picks the tempo up, so that you find yourself boogieing to a gospel-flavored proclamation. But it’s the fourth cut, “Hard Time Livin’,” which lays down a twangy gutbucket blues sound and puts tough-fisted politically-tinged lyrics on top.

Nicholas agreed that the latter is, indeed, a “protest song,” written just last summer. He elaborated in a phone conversation from his Texas home in Fredericksburg, where he and wife Brenda have run the Hill Top Café, a B & B/restaurant /music venue since the late ‘70s.

“A lot of ‘protest songs’ are limited artistically,” Nicholas observed, “and I wanted to use metaphors and make it musical and mysterious and make people think. It’s not about individuals-it’s about huge corporations and government entities that allow it to happen-to rake the people.

“I’ve committed myself to doing more of these kind of songs,” he continued. “I want people to stop blindly following a talking head from the Right or the Left. It doesn’t matter, which side-if you’re listening to that person and not digging through the facts and making a critical judgment, then you’re not thinking. And we’re in trouble.”

The refrain in the song speaks of “toxicity” and “pollution in the air,” not only as environmental poisons but also in people’s minds. Nonetheless, Nicholas doesn’t want to be consumed by those thoughts.

“I mean to be aware and armed with knowledge, but if you lose your ability to laugh and love and to be happy and to have fun, it’s not worth it,” he concluded.

Nicholas emphasized that songwriting is a lot of work. Some of the songs on this album had been kicking around a while and were just never finished, until he made his own writing a priority-”I decided to stop doing covers and do my own stuff and put it out there from my heart and soul.”

One of Nicholas’s favorites, “Roads on Fire”, was written while visiting his mom in Westerly. On his visit he learned that a good friend of his had cancer. “I sat down on the front steps and this came to me,” he recalled. “It’s about loss and friendship and how hard we all try to do the right thing and to be good people, on the road of life. But how are you gonna change that? Do you get out and change a tire when the road’s on fire? It’s difficult to change or to make something that you want to happen.”

Nicholas himself has made a lot of things happen, beginning with his friendship and blues/R & B alliance with Duke Robillard in the early ‘70s; his subsequent tours with Big Walter Horton, Roosevelt Sykes, Johnny Shines, Robert Pete Williams and Robert Lockwood Jr.; his multi-year gig with Asleep at the Wheel; and then his own blues bands.

Yet several of Nicholas’s musical projects pay homage to many kinds of music, and Future Blues is no exception. Toward the end of the album, there’s a New Orleans-style piano backbeat to “That’s the Price You Have to Pay”; a smokin’ swinger, “Pass Your Tender Lips”; and another gospel testimony on “Steadfast.”

Nicholas brings a band called “Hellbent,” including the legendary slide guitarist Cindy Cashdollar and this region’s own Greg Piccolo, to the Knick’s stage. His conviction that people need to experience the arts in their everyday lives in order to be “whole human beings” colors his concern for his audiences.

“I just want them to come out and hear live music,” he stressed. “And I’d like for them to listen really carefully to the stories and to think about them, but also to enjoy the music and get out there and dance!”

(Johnette Rodriguez / Special to The Sun, Westerly Sun, July 21, 2011)

http://www.thewesterlysun.com

Regarding Nicholas’s new album, see “Johnny Nicholas comes down from the Hill Country with a new album of blues,” by Austin360.com at http://www.austin360.com/music/johnny-nicholas-comes-down-from-the-hill-country-1640234.html

High Street Yoga’s website is at http://www.highstreetyoga.com

Johnny Nicholas iTunes Preview: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/johnny-nicholas/id6742128

Liner Notes from the album “Future Blues”:

Track Listing

Hey Hey
Hell Bent
Don’t Say I Never Told You So
Hard Time Livin’
Roads on Fire
Mister Moon
Future Blues
Graveyard Blues
That’s the Price
(It’s All Over Now) Baby Blue
Pass Your Tender Lips
Steadfast

Johnny Nicholas- Vocals, Gibson J50, Kay, Silvertone & Rickenbacker guitars, Gibson Mandolin, Piano, Harmonica
Bruce Hughes- Backup Vocals, Fender P Bass, Guild D30, Wurlitzer, Claps
Scrappy Jud Newcomb- Guild Starfire, Guild D30, Telecaster, Gibson 6 string Banjo
John Chipman- Drums, Percussion
Cindy Cashdollar- Remington Steel Guitar, National Baritone Tricone, Beard Resophonic, Gibson Lapsteel, Pogreba Baritone Weissenborn
Joel Guzman- Button Accordion, Wurlitzer
Ernie Durawa- Drums (That’s the Price, Tender Lips) Red Young- Hammond B3 (Steadfast)
Bobby Sparks- Hammond B3 (Baby Blue)
Sabrina Cummings- Gospel Vocals
Special Guest:
Jimmie Vaughan- Stratocaster (Hey Hey, That’s the Price, Tender Lips)

Produced by Bruce Hughes

All songs written by Johnny Nicholas
Dynaflow Music (BMI) administered by Bug Music
except:
Roads on Fire and Mister Moon by Johnny Nicholas and Bruce Hughes Lonescar Music (ASCAP),
*Future Blues by Willie Brown, Arr. by Johnny Nicholas,
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Bob Dylan Special Rider Music (SESAC)

Recorded and Mastered at Satellite Studio in Austin by Matt Shultz
Mixed by Matt Shultz and Bruce Hughes

Executive Producer: Roger Kasle
Photography by Mary Keating Bruton
*Video Still by Dave Glassco and Curtis Cole
Graphic Layout and Design by Paul Fucik and David Pappenhagen at Arts and Recreation

*Johnny would like to thank: Brenda Sue, Roger Kasle, Bruce Hughes, Mary Keating Bruton, Ken Kushnick, Dave Glassco, Matt Shultz, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Johnny “Morocco” Chipman, TSB, Robert Jr, Rio, Willie, Alex, Mom and Dad, Uncle Medie , Aunt Alice and my big brother Billy Nicholas, who forced me to listen to great shit at an early age and dragged me around to house parties to play for his friends

Dedicated to Turner Stephen Bruton

I had much enjoyed John’s work with Asleep at the Wheel, particularly the 1979 live album “Served Live,” recorded at the Austin Opry House, Texas.  He was much obliging to perform “The Last Meal,” a ditty from that record I knew was a real local favorite.   Join us for what promises to be a great party this Wednesday, July 27, 2011 when Johnny hits >>The Bridge Restaurant in downtown Westerly (37 Main Street) for a fundraiser for >>High Street Yoga.  The music promises to be splendid.  Get there early and have a great meal; the restaurant itself is a local favorite; and the party gets going at 5:00 PM.  See you there!

I pulled these recordings from the archives. Enjoy.  -Mark Urso

I Can’t Be Satisfied
WERI-FM, August, 1997. (MP3, 5.9 MB)

The Last Meal
WERI-FM, August, 1997. (MP3, 5.3 MB)

Living With The Blues
WERI-FM, August, 1997. (MP3, 6.6 MB)

From John’s biography at >>Wikipedia.com:

Nicholas grew up in Rhode Island, where he formed his first band, The Vikings. The band performed cover versions of popular rhythm and blues hits of the time, along with songs by the Rolling Stones. In the mid-1960s, he formed the Black Cat Blues Band with Duke Robillard, Fran Christina and Steve Nardella. Around 1970, he formed the Boogie Brothers with Nardella. After attending the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1970, the band eventually moved on to San Francisco, California in 1972 pre-request of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen.

By 1974, Nicholas had moved to Chicago, Illinois and began playing with Big Walter Horton. During his time in Chicago, he would record music with Horton, Boogie Woogie Red and Robert Lockwood, Jr. In 1974, he created his own single, “Too Many Bad Habits” for Blind Pig Records. Moving to Providence, Rhode Island, he formed his own band, Johnny Nicholas and the Rhythm Rockers, which included Kaz Kazanoff on saxophone, Terry Bingham on drums, Sarah Brown on bass guitar and Ronnie Earle on electric guitar.

Nicholas began his stint with Asleep at the Wheel in 1978, when the band asked him to perform with them. During his off time, he would travel to various cities for solo shows, but would often visit Louisiana to play with Link Davis and Cajun accordion player Nathan Abshire.

By 1980, however, Nicholas decided to take time off from music in order to raise a family. Between 1981 and 1990, Nicholas and his new wife Brenda owned and managed a roadside restaurant (formally a gas station) called the Hill Top Café near Fredericksburg, Texas. After fathering three boys, Nicholas returned to recording blues music with Johnny Shines and Snooky Pryor on the album Back to the Country in 1991. Since then, he has released one studio album and three live albums on Topcat Records while also returning to regular live shows.

Here’s a couple free samples of recordings from the convention held January 25-27, 2008 at the NH Krystal Hotel:

>>Jerry J., Whitney Texas
Speaking in Mexico in 2008 at the Sobriety Under the Sun Convention. (MP3, 183 MB)

>>Bob B., St. Paul, Minnesota
Speaking in Mexico in 2008 at the Sobriety Under the Sun Convention. (MP3, 143 MB)

Full CD sets are available from ReXark through its website at www.rexark.com.

Click >>HERE to visit the site.  Click >>HERE for the Amazon store.

You are not alone.

These problems are so common that everyone has experienced them, whether it was a graduation at a school gymnasium, a stage performance, lecture, wedding, dinner celebration or awards ceremony.

The events are planned for many months; participants and guests travel long distances; and while itʼs critical that everything goes perfectly, the audio system is overlooked, taken for granted.

Feedback, echo, hum and distortions from the PA system can ruin your event.
The problems are insistent and ever-present. But they donʼt have to be.

Hosted by 30-year audio engineer Mark Urso, “Everything You Need to Know About PA Systems for Small Groups, Volume 1 ~ Getting the Audio System Under Control” from Wham Universal DVD will show you how easy it can be to understand the mysteries of sound systems for groups of up to 500, by far the most common type of gathering where simple Public Address systems are pre-installed in hotel ballrooms, or rented, and where problems are waiting in the wings!

Mark will show you how the PA system is interconnected; explain where feedback comes from and how to avoid it, show you how to “read the room,” and how to guarantee everyone in the room will be able to hear clearly.

Using diagrams and animations, Mark guides you through individual PA system components, and shows typical room shapes and sizes, pointing out why some rooms echo, and some PA systems howl like wolves, and heʼll show you how to make these problems go away. Youʼll be amazed at how simple it can be when illustrated in a clear and deliberate way. Youʼll be able to “assess” a room at a glance, and determine what the problems might be, so they never happen!

An indispensable guide for anyone involved in hosting or organizing gatherings where portable PA systems are used, those who have problems with built-in systems, and anyone who wants to understand the system, stop the feedback, and get the system to enhance the event, like its designed to, not cause trouble!

Itʼs an eye- and ear-opener!

Available on DVD from Wham Universal DVD Copyright 2010 Wham Universal DVD For more information, contact Mark Urso by email >>Here.

To purchase via Amazon checkout, click >>Here.

Audio expert Mark Urso says “when the Public Address System is working properly, it should be completely unnoticed.  However, it often is overlooked, and once the event begins, becomes the problem that’s the only thing anyone remembers.”

Urso has published a 60-minute technical video aimed at helping churches, schools, self-help groups and other small groups of 500 or less get their “audio under control.”

The video, published by Urso’s “Wham Universal DVD,” is entitled “Everything You Need To Know About PA Systems for Small Groups, Getting the Audio Under Control.”

Urso has spent 30 years in audio, as a radio professional, and for the past decade as a touring recording pro, attending and recording conferences and conventions for self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon.  He doesn’t charge the groups for his services, but instead aims to create a high quality catalog of these historic recordings for archival purposes.

“I got involved in archiving AA meetings about ten years ago,” Urso says, “and was intrigued by the amazing power of the stories that are told by the people in these groups.  I started a small company called ‘Rexark,’ which is an acronym for ‘archival recording.  I have about 100 titles so far, and it’s turned into a wonderful hobby.”

Urso says he found that one of the banes of his project was that small groups don’t know how to set up PA systems.  As a result, the meetings were often interrupted by adjustments that needed to be made to eliminate howling and feedback, problems Urso says can easily be avoided if you understand some simple concepts.

“I made this how-to video to help the thousands of people who have the same problems every time they set up for a gathering.  The speakers are in the wrong place; the controls are randomly adjusted, and the sound system is generally taken for granted, until the problem starts.  It probably happens hundreds of times every day in the US alone.”

Using diagrams and animations, “Everything You Need to Know About PA Systems for Small Groups” guides you through individual PA system components, and shows typical room shapes and sizes, pointing out why some rooms echo, and some PA systems howl like wolves.   Urso says heʼll show you how to make these problems go away, and you’ll be amazed at how simple it can be.

Available immediately from Wham Universal DVD
Visit www.rexark.com or www.whamuniversal.com
For more information, email info@rexark.com

For Further Information contact
Fred Genovese
Phone: 800-369-9394
email: info@rexark.com

Downloads of Alcoholics Anonymous Speakers at an All Time High

Downloads online of self help audio have hit an all-time high, according to one industry expert.  Sam Randeau, who runs the website rexark.com, says he’s seen a steady increase of Customers who choose to download the talks his Company records, of speakers from AA and Al-Anon Convention and Anniversary meetings.

“We’ve been recording AA speakers and various conventions and conferences for over ten years,” Randeau explains, adding “and there’s been a big change in the way people are choosing to listen  to these recordings.  In years past it has always been that people liked to have the recordings delivered via cassette tape or even Compact Disc, but lately people have been choosing to buy downloads because the Customers are becoming more sophisticated, the delivery is almost instant, and it costs less.”

ReXark is an archival recordings company, specializing in recording self help groups when they have special events, like regional anniversary and convention meetings. Recently ReXark added the functionality for Customers to download MP3 files of almost their entire catalog of recordings, and also added a “free download” section.  “Response has been great,” according to Randeau.

“We’ve always been on the cutting edge with the best technology we can use for making these high quality recordings, and now we’re glad to see people are choosing the MP3 downloads of the AA speakers and Al-Anon speakers on our website,” Randeau says. “The quality is really excellent and we can get the recordings out to even more people all over the world.”

For more information on how ReXark produces AA speaker recordings and to view the catalog of available recordings, visit ReXark online at www.rexark.com.

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