RIP Skidboot

More Shaker!

I've been playing around with GarageBand on the new Mac.

I recorded some of my own stuff but the background noise makes the guitar a little iffy. I need to get one of those pick-ups > direct input fire wire cables.

For now, enjoy some loops I put together and call...
More Shaker

Google's Hidden Social Network

No, not Orkut. Google Reader.

I've written about Google Reader before.

Simply put, it's a Blog Reader - built right into your browser.

When you're on blog or web page that has an RSS feed (which all sites really should have now) you can 'subscribe' to the feed, typically by looking for the orange broadcast logo or the words 'rss' and be notified in Google Reader when there's something new.

You can even 'Share' the posts you like the most by clicking on a 'share' link and have them show up in your very own Shared Items Page. Here's mine. There's also an RSS feed for that page (a feed of feeds) and I've also put the list of shared items on the right side of my blog, over there ->>>

What I discovered this past week has taken it to the next level.

Google Reader has 'tags' - where you can label each of the feeds you read into different categories for better organization. Nothing mind-blowing, everybody has tags.

But what you can also do is "share" any of the tags, which in turn will share the blogs in those tags. Simply go to Settings > Tags in Google Reader and enable one of your tags for public viewing.

Here's all the "Music" blogs I'm subscribed to. There's (of course) a Feed, too. It will update automatically whenever one of those Music blogs I'm subscribed to adds a new post.

I'm sure I'm missing some good ones so let me know which ones I should add, or better yet, share your Music tagged blogs and I can subscribe to that feed, in turn re-share your feed...get it?

Now anyone can organize a list of stuff they read online and share it with the world. Whether you're into Music, Politics, Environment, Tech, Cooking, Shopping, Business or whatever category you'd like to make up, you can become a zealot of information, and if people trust you, they can subscribe to the stuff you care about, and then in turn share that with other people, and the wheel turns...

I think this could be the continuation of a connected, conscious web...

I'm sure this is what others like del.icio.us has been doing for years, but something about Google Reader feels more elegant, useful and, well, goooogly.

Wii Loop Machine

Geeky...good.

Tea Leaf Green Webcast

If you're home tonight with nothing to do (I'm going to a wedding party), consider tuning into Tea Leaf Green's audio webcast from Irving Plaza.

It's the band's tour closer, and they've been on a tear lately.

Enjoy...

http://tealeafgreen.com/

Chesters 98

The words alone evoke memory induced goosebumps.

Zero's epic 3 night run at Chester's in Fayetteville, AR from 3/20/98 -> 3/22/98. 3 sets a night, pure bliss.

From the Sun Sun Sun opener to the pumping oil Catalina, there was just something special in the air.

Ahhh...

It was these shows that really taught me the meaning of "musical escape velocity"

Check out the High & Lonesome, Cripple Creek (best jam ever), Catalina (!) from the third night, third set.

3/20/98

3/21/98

3/22/98

the good ole days...

My Dog Ate My Homewo... i mean Seatbelts

This is quickly devolving into a 'dog blog', but as many dog owners know, the lifestyle shift that occurs when you adopt a new friend definitely gives you something to blog about.

Last night we went to dinner with some friends and were forced to leave NOLA in the car while we ate. We loaded her up with treats, left the windows rolled down and parked not too far from the entrance to the restaurant. We were gone for no more than an hour and upon our return were met with the following sight:



She didn't just chew through one seatbelt, she ripped apart both of the front seat belts. They line those things with Bacon scent?!

I took the car back to the dealer and unfortunately dogs aren't covered under the warranty.

I also learned that SEATBELTS ARE EXPENSIVE!

It's going to cost over $400 to replace the drivers side one (parts, labor, shipping), and slightly more to replace the passenger side one, which it turns out they can't do right away because it's on backorder. I guess there's been an epidemic of dog-eating passenger side seat belts lately.

Onward...

A Day at the Beach

You have new Picture Mail!

The Rads @ The Sweetwater

I'll Be Home Soon

Our dog NOLA has been having some separation anxiety. She's ok around the house, but when I'm in the office she always has to keep an eye on me. I had to leave her alone for an hour last week and pretty soon after I was gone she busted out of her comfy soft crate.

Our dog trainer recommended a book "I'll be Home Soon" which should hopefully help the cause. If anyone has any advice, we're all (pig) ears.

Here's my other thing - I went online to find the book. We want it NOW. I searched Barnes & Noble and Borders to see if they had it in stock locally. No dice. I went to Amazon and sure they have it but we won't get it until Wednesday (Tuesday if we pay $16 shipping). The book is actually only a $7 pamphlet so it's not that practical to order this way.

I called PetCo and PetClub to see if they had it in stock, they weren't sure. There's a dozen or so specialty bookstores around here, one of which might carry it. Who knows.

What if someone (Amazon/Google, I'm looking in your direction) offered a service where you could see if a book was available locally at one of your neighborhood book stores. The stores could pay some sort of monthly subscription fee in exchange for in-site advertising, or they could just offer it as a nice public service. This would support local economies and give instant gratification enthusiasts like me a solution to the current dilemma.

Maybe Google will add it to their Book Search section (although they didn't even have the book listed)

I'm not at SXSW...

...but a lot of people I know are.

I was supposed to go, for 10 days actually. Interactive > Film > Music. We did a big sponsorship, have a showcase, and a booth for FanMail in the trade show.

Alas, was not meant to be...for me.

About 3 weekends ago I was hiking in the woods near my house with a friend and NOLA and on the way home stepped wrong and hard on my ankle and broke it. Things appear to be healing pretty well. I've got a boot and been trying to stay off of it as much as possible, keep it elevated, iced, etc...

I figured that 6th St. in Austin was no place for a broken foot this week.

Beyond going to work, I've been a bit of a homebody. I did manage to make it out to the Sweetwater last night to check out a great band Free Peoples. It was the first live music I'd seen in a couple weeks and felt good.

You can learn a few things from a situation like this:

1. We take our feet for granted
2. Never underestimate the power of gravity
3. You can get a lot of work done when you can't leave the couch
   
4. Water is the universal healing element

whatever you do, take care of your shoes (or feet, as the case may be)

The World as it Could Be

When you have a few moments of time, check out this video from The Rex Foundation

The World is Spinning

The Cost of War

Someone told me last night that with the money we're spending in ONE DAY on the Iraq War we could instead retrofit all of the light bulbs in the US to be more energy efficient so that we would not longer be dependent on foreign oil.

I'm not sure if it's true or not, but regardless, it's interesting to think about, and someone should do the research to figure it out.

In the meantime, check out: http://www.costofwar.com

Voicemails

I made a bunch of calls to some friends' cell phones this morning. Each time, after hearing their voices tell me who they were and to leave a message, a nice sounding woman came on and said the following things:

1. "Please leave a message after the tone" - duh, i was just told that
   
2. "When you have finished with your message, you can hang up," - thanks
3. "Or press 1 for more options" - who ever does that?!

After my second call, I wondered: Can I skip this message? Turns out I couldn't on the next call. Then I called my own cellphone from a land line and was happy to find out that i could skip the message while I was talking.

I'm sure there's some conspiracy theories out there about why the woman comes on after the message instead of just a beep, or why you can't skip some messages but can skip others - likely to drive up the # of minutes...how much money you think the cellphone companies are making off those few seconds?

I've got to believe that after this many years of phone usage it should be pretty obvious to anyone what the BEEP means, but apparently they still feel compelled to tell us for one reason or another.

What other obvious instructions are out there which we really don't need to be re-told?

iPod Shuffle

Continuing my trend of supporting all things Apple, I went ahead and bought a new iPod Shuffle for my wife. How can you resist? These things are so damn cute! And at $79 each it's a steal...oh, wait...that's about 40x what a 1 GB hard drive should cost, but c'mon! Look at that design!

Once again, right out of the box I was impressed. It's clear that Apple takes a lot of pride in their packages and making it all appealing for someone even after they've bought something. The set-up was a breeze and the quick iTunes integration is intuitive.

They say it holds about 250 songs, but I've currently got it filled up with 144 songs, although that includes the 49 minute JamBase Sampler, two 25 minute Kimock songs and a 17 minute Bisco MEMPHIS from Boulder (sick)

You can either drag the songs you want right onto it, have it AutoFill from your Music Library or a Playlist, or both.

The player itself is small, compact and functional. The clip is cool and the buttons are small yet well placed. You can play the songs in order, or shuffled - which if you AutoFilled randomly would be a shuffle of a shuffle.

So far so good. I'm constantly impressed with Apple's ability to put themselves ahead of the curve and make things that people want (or feel the need) to buy.

One ironic thing I just noticed, and only because Apple and 37 Signals has trained me to think about things like this, is that when the Shuffle is in it's little cradle (also cute), the iPod logo is upside down. I wonder if they thought of this, or if they designed the buttons for maximum logofication when it's in use, and figured that while it's charging then, well, who really cares...

Daylight Savings

Everything you ever wanted to know about Daylight Savings Time, why we change it, why we're changing it early, and what it really means for energy consumption can be found at Wikipedia (along with a ton of other stuff to read)

Seth also has some nice advice for the weekend.

Annotated Dead

This has been around for a while, but always fun to revisit.

Listening to The Grateful Dead, you can easily get lost in the music...and the lyrics.

The Annotated Grateful Dead site let's you really get lost in the lyrics...

Now you can figure out what they might mean by "redeemer"

They also made it into an amazing book.

Langerado = Festival Season Begins

I had the joy of attending the Langerado Music Festival in South Florida last year. Such a great scene down there at a perfect time when you need that warm break. Alas, this year I had a different kind of break (my ankle) and couldn't make it...Good thing we've got some friends there.

JamBase's Coverage (Photos for now)

Tea Leaf Green Video!

Festivals really present the opportunity to explore 'instant gratification' in media. Truly an "Event", where people are watching, wondering, waiting, checking in...

Tonight at 8pm EST, My Morning Jacket is playing at the same time as The Disco Biscuits...woah

Send Map to Car

Now if only they could figure out how to get the car to drive you there, or to get the car to run on water with no exhaust.

I was thinking this morning on the way to work that with the enormous amount of brain power going into the internet and new technologies on a daily basis, it's really surprising and a little scary that the quest for the solution to our global climate crisis isn't more progressed.

Neil Young :: Live at Massey Hall 1971

Live At Massey Hall 1971 by Neil Young

Neil Young is my #1 favorite artist of all time. This album is a good example of why.

Enjoy...

Our First Podcast

One of the benefits I discovered of buying a new Mac was the built in iSight camera. Now I'm video chatting with my friends and staying closer to ever. (yes, we've actually evolved from the "hey we're video chatting! now back to work" syndrome)

Another great feature is the pre-installed GarageBand software. I've been recording some acoustic guitar loops and playing lead over them. Maybe I'll release some one day.

Today, I'm excited about the release of JamBase's first ever podcast - the Digital Sampler Vol 1 featuring 10 great tracks from 10 great bands. It's a great mix, and a great opportunity for me to geek out a bit in creating a Podcast in GarageBand. Enhanced too!

You can subscribe to podcast directly here or check out the sampler page to download the track individually or buy the albums through Amazon & iTunes.

Enjoy!

Email vs. RSS

My friend Chris Baggott started ExactTarget, an email marketing technology company. Ever since RSS feeds have become somewhat popularized, I've been intrigued by the opportunities and threats it poses to the direct email business.

Clearly the value of Email is that it's immediate (so long as someone is online and checking their email), direct and right in front of the person you want to get the message.

Google Reader has called itself "Your Inbox for the Web", which it has certainly become for me. I love it. I can subscribe to any number of feeds, check in on it a few times a day and get my hit of updates whenever I want.

Of course, with RSS there isn't quite the urgency of email, which I think you can look at both ways. Here's why: My goal for the day is to get through my Inbox. I don't want to leave without unread or un-dealt-with messages. It's kind of like going to bed with dirty dishes (sorry honey). If I'm on an email list and I'm not really ready to absorb what they're offering at that moment, unless I know I'll be really interested at a later time, more often than not I'll delete the message.

In Google Reader, I feel at ease to save, star or share the message. Note to Google: make it easier to Email posts, please!

Also with RSS: I rarely get spam, I always get the messages, I know who it's coming from and I trust the sender.

Email & RSS serve different purposes, but what I wonder is if RSS will eventually become your de-facto 'information resource' for the web, while Email will regress into what it was started for: a simple human to human communication mechanism.

I'm sure we'll see a hybrid for years to come.