Life is short

photo by jaymce

It’s always nice when you can make someone smile or laugh, especially when it’s unexpected. The following excerpted from Ken Nelson’s blog post:
From the tbbs mailbag, a link from The Brooklyn Bluesman to a music station he created on Pandora that he entitled “I’m A Lonesome Fugitive Radio�.

I’m listening as I type, and found out I can’t type and tap my feet at the same time.

I’d played with Pandora just a bit over the holidays, and created a couple of stations of my own. Basically, you key in an artist or a song, and Pandora finds other music you might like based on your input. It is, as BB so aptly put it, “Like AmigoFish, except for music.� Darned if Pandora doesn’t do a good job. I didn’t realize you can email URLs of your music stations to others. Check it out; it’s pure coolness, in spite of the fact they don’t know the Siderunners. Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys, on the other hand, are well-known.

Think about this: BB, from Brooklyn, is now in Taiwan creating music lists of country music, emailing them to me in Northern Virginia, where I’m diggin’ the heck out of it. Gotta love these internets. I may have to Twist the Knob here in a bit, and listen to more of these songs.

Thanks, Mark!

My pleasure Ken- the Chinese have a saying, “A good thing should be shared with a good friend!” His Here’s to continuing the conversation and making these “internets” more sociable.

Cruisin’ with the kid

In preparation for my upcoming US trip his Fri., really wanted to spend a little father/son time with Kevin.

We agreed on a trip to Lukang after stopping at office and playing some computer games. It was great having some quality time in the car, crankin’ the tunes, and enjoying the drive and unseasonably mild weather. Great time with some good pics.

I wish I made that…

How many times have you encountered a product, or computer application and say to yourself, “I wish I made that…?” Well here’s one for me and probably you too. I’m talking about Musical Genome Project’s “Pandora.” Think of an internet radio station that will build channels based on songs or artists that you reccomend. It will generate other songs/bands it feels you’ll like. You can rate them or delete them, never to appear on your station again, or if you love them-add to avorites list. You can also order via direct ITunes store (for single) or Amazon store (for CD) links. Feel pleased with a station you made-great, now e-mail it to a friend. I’ve been using it over a day now and it’s total serendipity as to what Pandora will generate. Lovin it.

Hard to explain that feeling…

Photo by Eileen Dehli

It really is difficult to explain that feeling I get sometimes when I hear some music or a song I really connect with. It’s a form of euphoria, very detached. Not dissimilar to the feeling the Ricky Fitts (drug dealing character) got in “American Beauty” when he saw the little plastic bag, spastically twirling around in a whirlwind. It’s evident to me , the older I get the more sensitive my ear becomes and the more immediately I respond to musical stimuli. Anyhow, just and observation.

Call me a hopeless romantic..

Got a good tip from Boing Boing on some great chillit dj mixes-was just listening to one when Stevie Wonder’s, “I Believe when I Fall in Love(with You It’ll Be Forever).” Yes, it got me-that is such an overwhelmingly beautiful song, it caused deep reflections on that stuff of legend, “love” which inevitably produced some tears. It’s amazing the effect music can have on a person, melancholy, anger, laughter, the full range of human emotion. Kudos to Stevie, one of many great songs he wrote and/or performed.

Update: I remembered after the post that this beautiful song was played at the end of “High Fidelity” starring John Cusack and Jack Black, one of my favorite music movies of all time.