Gadiel.com: 02/01/2008

Lego Darth Vader Canteen Incident

Art is a Verb, Not a Noun

I attended the SF Music Tech Summit on Monday. I was invited to speak on a panel in the late afternoon, but spent all day hanging out and listening to lots of brilliant people talk about music, tech and the intersection.

One of those great minds was John Perry Barlow, who was given a broad microphone to express his theories on everything from copyrights to Bob Weir. His biggest, obvious point was that copyright used to be a lot more successful when it was difficult to copy things.

He pointed out that while most media is moving online into a free form, there are still people figuring out ways to use the new medium to spread the message and raise awareness for their goods which are paid for (read: Radiohead).

John has been through a lot in the past year. He recently underwent major back surgery and is consistently traveling around the country taking meetings, speaking at conferences and rallying for electronic freedom.

He's a man with a deep appreciation for the history of things and a keen awareness for where they're going as well. I admire his philosophical perspective and always appreciate it when he tells his stories.

Not to mention, he wrote some pretty fantastic songs back in the day.

Most of the panels (including mine) are archived over at the conference's UStream page

Thanks to Brian, Shoshana and everyone involved in the conference for a great day in the city!

He Said It

Keeping Up vs. Catching Up

I had the pleasure of spending the last week in Hawaii. Big Island, Kona. It was great (duh) with 80 degree weather everyday and beautiful ocean views.
Aloha. Mahalo. Namaste.

While I did my best to try and stay away from the net, the pervasive wi-fi and my semi-addicted nervous tick made it nearly impossible. I justified the occasional check-ins by telling myself that if I didn't clear out the Inbox just a bit I'd come back to 1000 emails and be buried. I avoided missing anything planned, took a few nice walks on the beach, played golf twice and had a lot of delicious fish. Still, the web was there. Emails, blogs, news, you name it, you can get it, anywhere.

As expected, re-entry was a little less than overwhelming today due to the ounce of email prevention. All that held me back was my own vacation fatigue and a 30 degree shift in temperature combined with constant rain. Nevermind, I am in no way complaining, not for a second.

Beyond the usually stuff, the time away did well to remind me of what's most important. My wife, family and my own health. My favorite moment was running along the ocean and stopping at one of the several lookout points to sit on the bench and ponder the infinite. After a minute of quiet staring and breathing, my mind stared rushing with inspired thoughts and motivated ideas. It's an incredible phenomenon. To quiet the mind for only an instant will reveal a wellspring of hidden gems.

Since we bombard ourselves constantly with commercial stimulation and busy-work, we never quite get the chance to catch-up, let alone keep up. Slowing things down for just an instant serves to actually create more space.

Space to breathe, to think and to just be...

Aloha. Mahalo. Namaste.

SanFran MusicTech Summit - 2/25

I'll be speaking on a panel at the SanFran MusicTech Summit at the Hotel Kabuki Japantown in San Francisco on Monday February 25th.

Visit http://www.sanfranmusictech.com/ for more information.

If you'd like to go, you can use the coupon code "jambase" (no quotes) to get 10% off your registration :)

From http://www.sanfranmusictech.com/
The SanFran MusicTech Summit will bring together the best and brightest developers in the Music/Technology Space, along with the musicians, entrepreneurial business people, and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We will meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment.

Panelists are already confirmed from Yahoo, YouTube, MusicIP, Pandora, Jambase, Rhapsody, SomaFM, Sun Microsystems, Gracenote, Apple, iLike, Rhapsody, MP3Tunes, Eventful, SMTV, and more, invitations out to numerous marquee technologists, musicians, entrepreneurs, press, investors, and others.

Confirmed attendees from organizations such as Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Project Opus, SeeqPod, NPR, the American Federation of Musicians, VentureBeat, Revision3, Rolling Stone Online, Scripting News, Recombinant, Inc., DiscMakers, the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency, Kadoink, GETV, iMeem, The San Francisco Weekly, The Village Voice, and many more.

The SanFran MusicTech Summit will bring together digital thought leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as from all around the country to the region which currently leads the way in innovating (both socially, and technologically) new ways of interacting with both music, and musicians. We will be working long term to help enable a sustainable, ongoing, Northern California based music and related technology market.

Mickey Hart: Drumming As Peacemaking Tool

From The Rex Foundation Blog:

"Humans are rhythm machines. That’s what life is built on, rhythm, so when you share that with someone you make a connection at a very deep level. You get to understand their emotions, their hopes, dreams, fears, whatever.
"When you entrain you get in sync, you have common ground, you’re touching the essence of life. You’re sharing some kind of sacred space with these people. That makes peace.

"I don’t ever remember coming off of a stage where people were really passionate about playing music at that moment, and feeling bad towards them. It’s always a heightened experience; it’s always enlightening in some way, and it makes you feel good. And it’s fun."

Read more in the Rex Foundation Food For Thought Mickey Hart Interview

GDHour Marathon

David Gans is hosting a 16 hour Grateful Dead marathon on KPFA today (94.1 FM in the bay area)

You can listen live online via dead.net, nugs.net, gdradio.net, and KPFA

Support KPFA by calling 510-848-5732 or 1-800-439-5732 or pledge online.

Playlist and program notes updated in real time on the GD Hour blog: Cloud Surfing