The Gift of Song Writing

A couple of years ago, Neil Young sat down with Charlie Rose, and it was an unforgettable experience.

I highly recommend checking out the video, but I felt the need to capture the words he used to describe the "gift" of songwriting. I do admire prolific artists...

NEIL YOUNG: I had a guitar, yes. I carry one with me most of the time. CHARLIE ROSE: Because you never know when you are going to be inspired. NEIL YOUNG: You never know, you know. CHARLIE ROSE: That’s the reason you carry it with you? NEIL YOUNG: That’s right. I have to be ready. CHARLIE ROSE: It is an extension of you too. NEIL YOUNG: I have got to be ready. You never know when it is going to happen. And whenever it happens, if I have an idea for a song or something that strikes me -- I would leave right now if I had an idea that I couldn’t get out of my head, because I figure I wouldn’t even be here in the first place if it wasn’t for these ideas, and I owe it to that. So I have a kind of a mentality that I am working for this. This is my boss or something, you know. CHARLIE ROSE: That speaks to you? You don’t know when it will speak to you? NEIL YOUNG: I don’t even know if it is speaking to me. I don’t know what it is. I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t think, you know, that I am special. I don’t think that anything is coming through me or that someone is speaking to me. But suddenly it happens, and I have learned that if I don’t get it, I don’t get it. It’s gone. You know, you have got to get it, and it is a gift. So if you don’t pick up the gift -- if you don’t pick it up, what kind of respect do you have? Where is your -- you know, I mean it is a gift. You know, so you need to accept it. CHARLIE ROSE: So how many times has it happened to you? If you’re out at a dinner, do you get up from the dinner table? You get up... NEIL YOUNG: Countless times. CHARLIE ROSE: Wherever you are, you speak to it, you grab it? NEIL YOUNG: Whatever it is, I will leave and go do that first and then come back and say, I’m sorry, I had to leave. I had something to do. And I may be gone for five minutes, I may gone for two hours, I don’t know. But that is the way it works with me. And sometimes -- most of the time there is nobody around and I am not doing anything. And it strikes me and I will, you know, be alone or something, because I get comfortable when I am kind of by myself, and that’s when I write. If there is other things going on, I don’t write. But sometimes it just comes to you and you can’t ignore it, s

Every summer, my family and I spend some quality time on Cape Cod. We go to the "real Cape Cod," the Outer Cape, a town called Truro. Not much happens here and daily decisions range from swimming in the ocean, bay or pond. However, I'm lucky enough to have made connections with folks that balance a bohemian-homesteader lifestyle with a common-sense livelihood like a shell-fisherman or musician. Its the second vocation that fascinates me.

I hear music all the time. Its really great stuff in my mind. Fully orchestrated and produced, just like a Danny Elfman soundtrack. However, there is no "record" button for the brain, yet. I guess I have been waiting for this technology to hit the market. Yeah, that's my excuse.

Of course, when I meet a composer/performer like Chandler Travis and tell him I write songs too, I realize the need to have more than nine in my quiver. I mean, this dude's got like 400 in the bank. "Well, there's still time for you..." I believe the semi-interested response was. Hey, I'm getting used to embarrassing myself in these situations, but maybe that's the fuel I need to commit to transforming these ideas into ditties. No, they don't need to study the musical theory up the road at Berklee, but they do need to be.

How can I fit my hobbies into a busy life primarily as a father and entrepreneur? It's the same reason why I have become so hostile to simply jamming the night away in a high-end man-cave? It's simply not enough. Recently, James Franco has taken a lot of heat for his sucky performance hosting the Oscars. He even sat down with Playboy (via Huffpo) to explain his disillusionment with the writing. But, take a look at how much this guy does every day to document his experience as an A-Lister. Isn't this the same worthy pursuit of any prolific artist i.e. Neil Young or a writer like Stephen King? All of these folks take their trade very seriously. And, they take the time to share their experience of the process. I appreciate the mentoring. And, hey, I've got an iphone and about twenty different ways to record the music of my mind. Now, I've got eleven.

LG watch phone at CES

ok, this is clearly the future. why strap a rolex or philippe patek on your wrist? of course, at the end of the interview, LG wants to release it in Europe at the end of the year and they have no idea what they want to charge for it. big weak.

Agassi's Electric Car Grid

Chris Anderson interviews $200M seed entrepreneur, Shai Agassi about the prospects for his battery recharge start up, Better Place.
The video production team should learn how to properly capture close mic audio because the room reverb is extremely annoying, but the interview is timely and interesting.

This Guy Predicted The Financial Crisis And Was Derided For It (VIDEO)

When you are advancing a politcal agenda in lieu of sound financial analysis, you deserve to eat crow. Kudos for Peter Schiff for being alone in the wilderness.
About Housing Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Presidentz Dance Off

This video is really well-executed. Funny.

http://view.break.com/592648 - Watch more free videos

San Francisco Halloween Decorations

Received this in an email from my pal Remi of Mastermind PR...
I showed this pic around the office today. Thanks for the LULZ.

Joe the Plumber Revealed

Many of my @tweeps were looking for more of the lowdown on Joe the Plumber. Here's KO's fine summation....

I predict Joe will be involved with the fine folks at WWE some time soon. He'll bulk up, naturally I assume, and become the $250k hero.

This is too much fun. My wife thinks he looks like Michael Chiklis from "The Shield," but I see more of a Robert Patrick from "Terminator 2" fame.

Its not a big deal his name is Sam. Its still okay by me if you want to go by your middle name.

Look, he is a private citizen and if he chooses to not capitalize on the fame, then, I apologize to hype the story needlessly.

But, the New American Dream is to cause attention to yourself and stay interesting. When that dries up, you go on Wrestlemania or "The View."

Hey Sarah Palin (with lyrics/subtitles)

This is so funny and creative... Don't let them escape to Canada. We need them here.

Must see viral vid

Sarah may have dumped Jimmy, but she scores a KO with this completely funny yet sincere appeal for Jewish grandkids to schlep to Florida to canvas their Nanas.


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Palin Revelation: The same Third Wave documented in "Jesus Camp"

First of all, for those interested, there is comprehensive detail on Governor Palin's Assembly of God church at the following link...Again, the bloggers over at TP Zoo put together a doozy.

Crazy ministers? How about one that administered a Witch Hunt in Kenya. Meet Bishop Muthee. How about that YouTube video where the Guv prays for God's pipeline dreams? She and here Lt. Guv were blessed by the "laying of the hands" which makes it totally cool that they flew back to Wasilla on the State's dime. Her rambling speech where she must mention "Alaska" more than 30 times was to graduates of the Master's Commission. Yes, training for Christ's Warriors, the Third Wave. Watch the compilation video from the Huffington Post's Bruce Wilson...


Palin's Churches, Thomas Muthee, Witchcraft and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

We are a troubled nation. Truth has been obscured for quite some time now. I respect all people's quest for spiritual understanding. Training for Holy War is just not a future I want for my children. I have to ask rhetorically, "What would Jesus shoot?"

ZOMG Republican Delegate from Colorado telling it like it is.

He's rather hawkish and seems unaware that Link.TV is actually a Liberal media outlet. It's kind of tragicomic. The host does a great job asking follow-up questions. Fascinating time capsule that deserves to be preserved for posterity.



Now, the Karmic funniness is that this tool was slipped a roofie and robbed by a prostitute for $120k. Who walks around with $120k, in Minneapolis? Randy Moss never blinged as hard. Read More...
Gabriel Nathan Schwartz, 29, a single attorney from Denver, told police he met the woman in a bar and took her to his room at the new Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis

Oasis gets bumrushed in Toronto

Apparently still pissed at the Gallagher brothers for claiming to be better than the Beatles, footage of an assault on them on stage. Crowd cheers.

Off-shore drilling reality

From Slate's Curse of the Black Gold.

Who has received the oil wealth in Nigeria? Not the people who live there. They struggle on $1 a day while having their fishing paradise completely destroyed. Speaking out gets you killed. Sadly, this story does not shock me as I know this is reality. I hope the world does not turn a blind eye forever. Spread...

John Stewart providing his public service

Again, why the MSM cannot perform this role, I do not know. It will bring in ratings. So, there must be some reason why they don't call out video contradictions from politicians and pundits. Allow this video to be the very definition of "viral."

Why the Dead Kennedys had the best logo in Rock.

I’m a wannabe barfly. Fortunately, living in the burbs with toddler boys makes me cherish the rare opportunity to hang out and kvetch. I also demand that my work neighborhood provides the breeding ground for revolutionary, and yes, disruptive solutions to life’s problems. All of which can be accomplished with increasingly early-starting happy hours and beer for less than 3 bucks. Once again, mirroring the plummeting parking prices, the bargain-hunting, pre-funded, wannabe barfly can now hang out a stone’s throw from the Financial District and their better-heeled patrons. Even though my office is above Kate O’Brien’s, I can tell you they’re the worst bar in town with their phony Irish theme, so I never go there anymore. No, you can find me searching for liquid inspiration at either Zebulon or Varnish.

They ain’t perfect. Zebulon has a good kitchen and makes a decent sweet potato fries, but their bar is kind of a joke. The $2 Hefeweissen draft happy hour sure brought the office yups in, but what did this establishment do with this crowd? Served ‘em a drink a minute. Patrons seemed all to accommodating waiting in line for 15 minutes to get a drink. We hung on as long as we could before we decided we had to leave the nearly free as in beer giveaway. Next door at Varnish, you know it’s a tad imposing when passer-by-ers peer in and need to be waved in by the proprietor before they step inside. My friend Josh says they have the best bar bathroom in the city. I would concur, because there are pictures of the space before they got it, and they really did transform it in to a fine gallery with an excellent sound system. And, they have that killer minimalist big bowl sink that dares you to wash your face in its elegance.

As we sidled, I paused to admire the gargantuan collage being assembled on top of a DaVinci’s Last Supper by an older gentleman wearing a Dead Kennedys shirt with a blazer and fedora. This off-kilter vision inspired my tweet about why their logo is the best in rock. This is awarded not because I was a big fan of their music. It was mainly because it was the one logo I used to like to copy so much in the 8th grade. (I was a big-time rock doodler). I can’t draw, but I can sketch logos with a lot of practice on notebook covers since I never actually took notes in school. Plus, it effectively signaled to all that I am not your run-of-the-mill serious Asian American straight-A student. I’d rather fail and change my grade just like the kid in War Games, except that I couldn’t break into the school computer, so I just retook the class in summer school erasing that unacceptable grade. Any way, I figured out the next morning that the aforementioned artist is none other than Winston Smith, the designer of the subject of this post. He is an illustrious cover art designer and quite an Art Criminal. This anti-corporate manifesto is to be admired. Winston, like most designers, do not receive royalties for these logos. Its de facto open source now, as both Jello and Winston's core styles are derivative and Warholian on crack.

Being extended an equally generous offer of an early happy hour special of $3 drafts, coupled with the fact that they have my new fave on tap, Racer 5 IPA, I was blissful again about my work neighborhood and my 2 (sf-sized) block walk to Montgomery BART. Mindful, of course, that the entire block of buildings that house Varnish and Zebulon is slated for demolition next year in order to build a bigger, better bus terminal. Ah yes, progress via wrecking ball.

Let’s rage against this dying of the light and appreciate this moment in nirvana. I’ll admit that I appreciated from afar the few bits of skateboard culture that permeated my suburban Chicago upbringing. This DK logo looked like Anarchy. Its was the Burning Man on its side passed out. It create the illusion of dimension and it’s extrusions are so simple, juxtaposing white and black. The fact that this logo speaks so much about the band even though I was uninitiated into the music is impressive. I knew that coolness was happening over in California, that the rebellion was alive and well with authentic Punk Rock. Of course, 20 years later, Jello Biafra and the other members of the band could never escape the inevitable revenue-splitting issues that haunt every band not named Bon Jovi. Everyone needs to make a living, right? You formed a band and played music, and that was good enough when you’re twenty. In your 40s, its time to strategize your revenue potential and synergize your investment portfolio, right? Can revolutionary rock bands be created like a tech startup? Would it destroy the very essence of rebellion and art that make you great? I know that I can appreciate the slight economic downturn in this boom town. We need breeding grounds and moments like these inspire me to hatch the next user-centric revolution. I now love the music of the Dead Kennedys thanks to my Sonos and Rhapsody, can relive the culture they helped define. I have been passively exposed to the artwork of Winston Smith and can question how collage as an artform is still relavent today. All this in search of cheap beer, in the very neighborhood which I work.

Family Work = Chaos - Mega's Muse: Sonos Controller Takes a Bath

Sonos Controller Takes a Bath
If anyone asks me why they should have a Sonos system... I usually tell them that throughout the $12M of custom electronics I've installed in my career, one product provides the best User Experience. I knew it is toddler-proof, did not know it is water-proof.
Now, if we can only get Sonos to ditch hierarchy-based UI and go voice-search :)

In order to really disrupt music, try slicing the cones of your guitar amp

Do you love music but hate the industry? What's it going to take in order for fans to access the pantheon of recorded music whenever, wherever, and in the highest quality? Its unsustainable for you to package the music with plastic and then dispose the many unsold copies, so that model is over. Alas, we get web sites, apps and services that offer us these morsels of memory for free or nearly free. Great, you say, well, the experiment that is Muxtape and the industry that Pandora has become threatened. I don't see how Muxtape survives, but Pandora should be able to charge for the valuable service to their large customer base, thus placating the investors' concerns.

In the aftermath, Chris Pirillo has convinced me to check out grooveshark. The founders boldly proclaim that they are cleaning up the mess that is the music industry. Godspeed, but there is much work to be done. First of all, fix the metadata. I know most of your users' mp3 collection is a lazy mishmash of Unknown Artist and Track 01, but there are methods to clean this up. And, it makes browsing a chore. Still streaming me 5 million tracks for free or for a text-based ad, I'm not complaining, much.

So, in order to spend an evening listening to every Kinks song I've never heard, I had to fire up ye olde Wikipedia page. The community did a bang up job for Ray and the boys. It was fascinating to learn how Dave Davies came up with the sound that not only launched their career but created the sound that would beget hard rock, heavy metal, punk, new wave, garage rock, grunge, and indie rock.

With a loud, distorted guitar riff — achieved by Dave's slicing of the speaker cones in his Elpico amplifier (referred to by the band as the "little green amp") — gave the song its signature, grittier guitar sound.

So, that's Disruption and Distortion with a capital "D." In order to distinguish their brand amongst the plethora of British pop groups, they used a blade. I like that. The Kinks never enjoyed the commercial success of the Beatles, Stones or Who. But, they started a revolution and history judges memeticians kindly.

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

The first collaboration by David Byrne and Brian Eno in 30 years.  They truly milk the most out of the most simplistic of chord progressions and song composition.  But, there's a reason I-IV-V A-A-B-A works so well.  Its comforting and speaks to the soul.  The title itself is a helpful reminder to seize the day.  It also speaks to the exponential speed of our connected world today.  I wonder if David can hit these high notes live.  They really are dramatic.

 

louisgray.com: Could UDO Be The Next Killer App?

Interesting story by Mark Dykeman, would like to find out more about where UDO is in development. I believe he's referring to the Internet of Things.
louisgray.com: Could UDO Be The Next Killer App?

D-I-Y Touchscreen for EeePC

This youtuber has a point why this laptop touchscreen mod is superior to a tablet pc. I think this will do as my coffee table UI... Stick one of these in any room where you want control of audio/video/lights what have you. All fer less than $5oo bucks a pop?