Three Jee Es
Yep, I did it. Now, I had the first generation iPhone. You know, the one with the metal back and no 3G-ness. Well, yesterday Mr. FedEx dropped off my Father’s Day present from Kristin and the boys and I immediately started in on setting it up. It’s not all organized or set up perfectly yet, but it’s getting close.
What’s cool about this whole upgrade thing is that now Kristin can have my old one and let’s face it; What’s not cool about a two iPhone family? Was that the proper use of the semicolon? Anyway. I’m still reading about all the new features, and honestly I’m just glad that I have a phone that doesn’t take thirty seconds to decide to unlock occasionally.
So a big fat, ‘my wife is awesome’ thank you to Kristin and my boys for my new distraction that I can also use for work. So I know a bunch of you out there already have the new iPhone, so what’s your favorite thing so far?
Trash Night
Growing up ‘Trash Night’ was on Thursday meaning that the trash trucks came early Friday morning. I was in charge of moving the trash can forward from the back yard to the curb. I frequently forgot to do that and more often than not woke up to the sound of the trash truck outside slamming around my neighbors trash cans and running outside in my boxers and a t-shirt hoping that it wasn’t too late.
Then I got married. Trash Night was on Wednesday or Thursday morning if you will. Kristin and I had a long gravel driveway so I never heard the Garbage truck but frequently woke up and leaving the driveway would notice that I had yet again forgotten to bring the can forward. Our second house, same thing. Long drive way, always forgetting. Third, we moved back to Thursdays, had a shorter driveway, but I still forgot more often than not.
Our fifth house was an apartment where the trash truck would come every morning to the end of the walkway and pick up the couple bags of trash that you had from the day before. Again, if you didn’t put it out the night before, chances are you’d miss it. Or at least I would.
So here we are at house number six, and while you think this post is clearly about me forgetting to bring the garbage can forward it’s not. While I still forget almost every week, it’s not about that. What I’m wondering is simply this. Does anyone have a trash night at the beginning of the week? I’ve never had one earlier than Wednesday and it’s kind of driving me nuts tonight. I mean, if everyone’s ‘Trash Night’ is later in the week, what are these guys doing at the beginning of the week. Surely there’s someone out there with a Monday Trash Night right? How about a Tuesday? Anoyone?
Let’s take a little ‘…in case you were wondering’ poll here. What night is your Trash Night?
Ready? Go.
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Stats Suck Sunday – In Bullet Points
Welcome to Sunday. It’s time for another installment of ‘Stats Suck Sunday’ where everything is random and it doesn’t matter anyway because no one is reading it. To join in it’s easy. Write a bunch of random bullet points on your blog and leave the link in the comments along with your comment. Things have changed up a little because I’m mad at Mr. Linky for screwing up my blog too much. Here goes:
- First off, I know this video above is old and most of you have seen it, but go ahead, tell me it’s not good enough to post again. Plus with this week being the 4th of July and all, it’s only appropriate.
- I actually have a Saturday and Sunday “off” this week. And when I say “off”, I mean that I get to be home and not on the road.
- I do have to be gone for The Forth of July though. I will be in New York, which is a bummer but I think there will be plenty of time to blow things up with the boys when I get home.
- The Disney Channel weirds me out. It’s like they take a bunch of kid actors and put them in adult story line movies. Like crime fighters, or ninjas, or something else awesome and then these kids are fighting adults. I’ve never seen a kid ninja soccer player girl before.
- I’ve decided to start memorizing songs on the guitar. I’ve always been a slacker at that. I suppose that’s the problem with learning guitar by leading worship. You always have the option of chord charts.
- Playing basketball barefoot hurts my ankle.
- This week is Kristin’s birthday (July 1st), so I’ve got some planning to do, but I have some sneaky ideas.
- Last night we had green beans and spaghetti with basil from our garden.
- ‘Return To Neverland’ is way more intense than the first ‘Peter Pan’ movie. Those pirates are rough.
- I’d like to go on a roller coaster.
- I thought about the green overlay thing on my Twitter avatar, but I don’t really get what it’s supposed to do. Plus that green weirds me out a little.
- I think I need to be done because my foot is asleep.
Happy Sunday. What’s on your mind?
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Bubbles
At the end of Sugarland’s set they get in massive bubbles and run out on to the crowd. I’ve only stuck around a couple times to see it happen and the other night I decided that I needed to get some pictures of it, since it’s you know… a person in a bubble… on a crowd of people. Pretty crazy huh?
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Michael Jackson
I can’t sit here and say that I was the biggest Michael Jackson fan in the world and how devastated I was to hear of his passing. Truth is, I like his music enough to know most of the hits, but I didn’t know much about him. I grew up hearing about him and seeing him on TV or whatever. I had his Greatest Hits CD in high school, and I have the ‘Bad’ and ‘Thriller’ records on vinyl, but that’s mostly because they are cool. What I do know is that his influence on music and pop culture can only be compared to what The Beatles’ was. There’s no denying that Michael Jackson’s influence on music has shaped every form of pop music today. And I think that’s worth remembering.
And here’s what I think is cool. Whether you believe all the weird media child molesting stuff that went on with him, and yes I agree it was weird and creepy, or whether you think that his parenting tactics were weird or his plastic surgery decisions or whatever, the man was an amazing talent.
Now I know that everyone and their brother is blogging about this today, and I think that’s fine. I think yesterday was a day that will be remembered for a long time, as someone who greatly influenced our culture has died.
So let’s hear it. What’s your favorite Michael Jackson song?
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Remember The Better Half
I haven’t been in the “business” world or the “entertainment” world long, but I’ve noticed something interesting recently and am wondering if it’s the same in other facets of business. I’ve noticed how common it is to forget or ‘overlook’ the family of the person you are doing business with. It seems like in the music industry specifically, it should be a family affair and the decisions that are made affect the entire family. Whether it’s signing a record deal, choosing a manager, planning a touring schedule, or even where to live the entire household is affected and the Industry (capital I) needs to recognize that. Now I’ve seen great examples of this, and I’ve seen really bad examples of this.
Look at it this way. If there is someone that you want to do business with, whether you’re a… let’s say web presence company, and want to start working with an artist and want them to understand that their success is important to you, yet when you meet their family you blow off their wife and ignore their kids, it’s sending a clear message that what is important to them is clearly not important to you. Or let’s say you’re a manager and are considering working with an artist, or an artist wanting to work with a manager, or an artist wanting to work with a web presence guy, or a label wanting to sign an artist, or whatever, but you don’t treat their family as if they deserve your time, how can they feel comfortable putting their career in line with you and the direction you would take them? Common sense right? But I think that happens more than we realize.
Now again, I’m sure it’s like this everywhere in business, but more specifically in the music industry, family needs to be more accepted and the ‘business’ side of things needs to realize that more. If an artist is important to you, then the most important people in their life also need to be important to you. If a manager is important for you to work with, their family has to be equally as important. And it goes both ways. Artists, if you want to work with someone, treat their family nice. Sounds simple right?
So this long-winded post is simply to say. ’Hey music business people, stop blowing off the wives and family of the people you want to work with. Yeah I know you want to look ‘cool’ to the artist and you think you’re cool because you work in the music business, but the easiest way to work with them, is to treat them all as if they are important to you.’
So is it like this in other parts of business? Does anyone out there see this happen in business?
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Sinking Ship
So, according to this article Facebook has finally dethroned MySpace. But we all knew that was going to happen right? Now here’s the funny thing to me. The only two Social Networking sites that are shrinking are MySpace and AOL Community. Hmmm. MySpace and something I’ve never heard of. Now, I’m not saying that MySpace is going away forever. I mean, sure, they have millions of dollars and researching and all that, so I’m sure they will be around for a while, but it’s interesting that it’s actually shrinking. Going down. Loosing ground. I love it.
As someone who has never liked the cheap, trashy, Windows feel of MySpace I’m glad to see that there might be a time soon where people don’t ask me if having a MySpace can replace them having a ‘real’ website. In fact, according to that same article, the only thing that MySpace is “winning” at is showing more ads. Makes you really want to go there doesn’t it? I’m excited to see what MySpace pulls out to actually compete with the competition, but really I’m excited to begin to have to think less and less about it.
Now, I know what most of your answers are going to be, but is there anyone out there still using MySpace? Anyone who goes to it daily and says hi to all of your indie hip-hop artist and amateur porn star “friends”? I don’t.
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The Final Countdown (Again)
I discovered music after the 80′s, but there’s part of me that’s starting to love it. The hair, the screeching guitars, the high pitched screams. Now I know there’s probably a lot of you out there that are 80′s music fans and most likely it’s just what we all grew up on. I mean, you might think Pearl Jam sounds like a pissed off teenager singing to the sound of a refrigerator hum, but to me, it’s when represents music made for my generation. But I think today’s music is taking a shift back to the 80′s but without the annoying vocals. You know the vocals I’m talking about don’t you. How many 80′s band lead singers sounded the exact same as this guy?
What I love about this song though, is that keyboard riff. Seriously, who can’t love that? Doesn’t it make you want to climb a mountain or something? Da Da Daa Dun, Da Da Da Da Duh, Da Da Daa Dun, Da Da Dun Da Da Duh Da. It’s great. And no, it’s not from a Rocky movie, but maybe it should be. The cool thing about today’s music is that it’s taking everything that is cool from a song like this, (ie. that sweet keyboard), adding to it, and giving it a fresh sound. New drums, new vocals, and new grooves. So, maybe the 80′s are coming back a little, and I’m cool with it. In fact I love it.
So let’s hear it. What’s your jam? Name one of your favorite high school bands. What will you look back on and always remember as the time you discovered that there was music made for you?
Ready. Go.
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Misunderstood?
Last night I had the chance to see Jars Of Clay play a hand full of songs for some TV / Film Showcase thing that was going on in Nashville. Now, I’ve seen these guys probably four or five times live, and every time they bring it. Last night was no different but with their new stuff it was even better. Yes, I know. I’ve said it before. Somehow these guys manage to outdo themselves with every record and there aren’t many bands out there that can actually do that. I don’t know how they do it, but I’m glad they do.
Now here’s the thing. With every record taking a musical step up, brilliant lyrics on literally every record and the ability to adapt to ‘cultural’ musical relevance there’s no reason these guys shouldn’t be massive. Am I right? And not to knock the Jars guys at all, because they are easily one of my favorite bands out there, but sometimes I fell like they are a little misunderstood. People don’t “get” them for some reason. And it’s not just me. Every artist that I know, and every artist that I have toured with loves them and completely respect them as musicians. So what is it? Is it that they are to ‘arty’? Too smart? Too introspective? Too honest? What do you think? What’s stopping them from dominating the music world?
Either way, I’m continually blown away by these guys and one day I hope to have them on the SkörInc roster. So if any of you out there know how to make that happen let’s hear it. And if you haven’t, go get their new record today. Then listen to it over and over and over. You’ll thank me.
If you don’t have an answer for all of that, let’s hear your favorite Jars record so far. I think I’d have to go with “Who We Are Instead”, no question. That record blows me away every time I put it in.
Ready? Go.
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