The Cranberries and the Soundtrack of your Life…

My friend Emily Waldman once told me that when she listens to music as she goes about her day that she views it as if it is the sountrack to the movie that is her life.
I thought about the other day while having breakfast in Santiago.
The song “Dreams” by the Cranberries came on the radio in the restaurant.
I hadn’t heard it in a long time, but when I did, it transported me back to another time and place.
You know how there are certain songs that do that, right?
Well, for me, this song was one with which I became familiar during my time in Japan in 1997-98. I had a few CDs in my one room (as part of a shared house) in Tokyo and the Cranberries was one of them.
So, I listened to it A LOT.
It was the soundtrack for that time of my life…young, adventurous, on the other side of the world.
Then, here I was, in Santiago, Chile. Again, on the other side of the world (sort of). Maybe not as young and maybe not as adventurous, but still, I hope (or at least I tell myself), young at heart and with the spirit of an adventurer.
When I heard the song, I thought about the distance between Tokyo and Santiago, not physically, but meta-physically. Spiritually. How the time had passed. How I was, in some ways, very different, but in some ways, very similar.
I liked very much how the song, for that moment, played the role of “1/4 speed button” and life seemed to go in slow motion.

When you put your heart into it…

You don’t even have to know the songs (and most of them are melodies without words) to appreciate the love and joy that the men who got together to produce “Songs at a Table” had for their project.

The vision?

Simulate the experience of sitting at a Sabbath table, with no pressures of the workweek, and engage in uplifting, emotional songs to rejuvenate the spirit.

Mission accomplished.

I found myself uplifted and buoyant just by listening to them. I could FEEL their passion. Just remarkable.

Called the Niggun (a melody with out words) Project, the group donates all proceeds from their CD to a charity in Israel to help fee the hungry.

They got a nice write up in the Washington Jewish Week as well.

Jewish or not, Religious or not, give the music a listen.

No matter what, experiencing people who have a passion for their project is worth the time.

The Soundtrack of Your Life…

A friend of mine, Emily Waldman Ebner, once told me that when she listened to music on her walkman (yes, that’s how long ago this conversation was) that she viewed it as the “soundtrack of her life.”

The other day, Nadia and I were driving back from the pool and Neil Young’s song “My My, Hey Hey” came on and I heard the line:

“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”

It made me think of the sign I saw the other day and raised the question of “what are some of the other songs on my personal soundtrack?”

	Neil Young - My My, Hey Hey.mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

 

So far, I’ve settled on two.

Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and, as my friend Alan told me a few months ago…”the theme song of Never Stop Marketing should be ‘Start Me Up’ by the Rolling Stones” as in “if you start me up, i’ll never stop…marketing!”

So, I have to go with that one as well.

 

	Frank Sinatra - My Way .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

 

	The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

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• Neil Young Heads Down A Twisted Road (undercover.com.au)

Channukah concert and the joy of kids…

A few weeks ago, I took my kids to a Hannukah concert.

There were two very special elements to it.

First, the lead singer was Doni Zasloff who has the unique distinction of being my first girlfriend ever. ;-) Her band and music are just phenomenal, judging from the prestigious award they won.

But, more than that, was the way that my kids responded.

I don’t remember ever seeing them get up and dance in such a pure, innocent way as I saw that day.

I also don’t remember feeling so happy by the fact that they were so happy. They were on the stage, singing, dancing, hugging. Even Nadia was bouncing up and down like a little kid (oh wait, she is a little kid).

Seriously, just a great moment when you FEEL the emotions of your kids through you.

Video isn’t great, but here you go:

The $23,000 11 year old...

Image via Wikipedia I'd heard horror stories of the *great business practice* of the RIAA suing their customers, but it had never hit home...until last week.

Was talking to a good friend, Rachel W. who told me the following story.

Despite warning her 11 year old not to download music illegally online, one night a babysitter came over and introduced the 11 year old to Limewire.

In the digital age equivalence of peer-pressure she said, "yeah, it's illegal, but everyone does it."

Well, fast forward a few months and Rachel W. gets a note from Verizon. Her IP address has been identified and the RIAA is coming after her.

Her husband is a lawyer, but from all looks of it, she's got no out.

They get sent to a website, where they fork over $1000 PER SONG.

Yes, that's right, the 11 year old downloaded 23 songs.

And as if that isn't bad enough, she knew of people in her suit whose kids had downloaded hundreds of songs, but paid the same amount.

Needless to say, she's irritated and wants revenge.

She just doesn't know what to do.

Oh, and she's $23,000 worse off for it.

BTW, Joe Biden is one of the RIAA's top-voting Senators and proposed a $1bn bill to monitor P2P ('filesharing') networks to catch people like Rachel W's 11 year old daughter.

Gianni's Theme Song...

With a call out to Roee Ruttenberg, the first of my kids to have her own theme song.

Sing it..."we're Giannin"

----------------
Now playing: Bob Marley - Jammin'
via FoxyTunes

More on Pandora Event...

Ok, so maybe I was a bit harsh in my post prior to the Pandora event, but come on, I do help companies put on events for a living, so it's a pet peeve for me.

Tim Westergren, the founder, is really an impressive guy.

A passionate musician, at one point, back in 2000, he decided that he was going to begin the Music Genome Project, to identify the characteristics (across 30 'music chromosomes') that make up each piece of music.

A trained musician listens to EVERY SINGLE recording and then scores it. That goes into the database.

What Pandora has built is a highly sophisticated interactive and learning music experience.

I love the service (the average person tells 6 people...guess I'm not average since I've told about 300!) and the story behind it (he had people working for 2 years without salaries; he went to 350 different venture capital firms to pitch his idea [#348 was the magic number])

You just have to love this American Dream story, perseverance, belief in your product.

Tim's on a "listening tour of America" just to get feedback from his biggest fans [I'm proud to be one] and it's clear that he's doing just that.

They have 8.5 million US members now and I'm sure it'll go much higher [soon, it'll be on phones and then who knows what?] And all of this with NO marketing expenditures at all.

A bit of a shaky start, but he made up for it BIG time and is truly an inspirational guy (and fortunately doesn't have an ego as big as his membership).

I've long said that music is the bellwether of the Internet and once again, we see the walls being broken down.

And to show Tim how much I love his service, I added the Pandora My Station widget to my sidebar. Check it out.

Beethoven's 9th...

This morning, as I was driving the kids around and delivering Rosh Hashana packages to homebound seniors, we were listening to the classical music station (as we always do) and we picked up the middle part of Beethoven's 9th Symphony (listen here).

I was transported back to a night about 8 years ago when my cousin Abram called me one afternoon and said, "I've got an extra ticket to the Symphony at Lincoln Center, would you like to join me?" (Similar to another mental association with German culture here)

Never one to pass up an offer like that, I took him up on the offer and am I glad I did.

Hearing the 9th performed LIVE is a powerful experience. The music is powerful. Just fantastic.

As a student of German, I sought out the words from Schiller's "An die Freude" and started just belting them out in the car.

The kids were fascinated...and then mesmerized and quiet. They really liked it and appreciated it (so much so that I put it on at home for them and they just sat there listening. A wonderful scene).

I called my cousin to thank him again.

Take a few minutes and listen for yourself.

More on Why I Love the Internet...

Call out to Shelby Rogers who sent me a link to www.pandora.com

They've got something called the "Music Genome Project," where you can put in the name of any band (see my Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young example here) and based on that one artist, they will craft a radio station comprised of similar music.

It's an awesome tool and a fantastic way to get introduced to new artists.

You can also network w/your friends and see their custom radio stations (see my profile here) as well as on Facebook.

For a non-music aficionado, it's a great thing.

Also, makes you realize that the days of an iPod or mp3 on your PC are numbered (here's a post from Fred Wilson on the topic as well). 

Serendipitous Tunes..

One of the neat things about reading a blog is that you get an insight into different passions of the blogger.

If you open your mind up, you'll be exposed to a whole world which you didn't formerly appreciate.

Case in point.

I read Fred Wilson's blog because he is a leader in the Internet industry, very savvy, and someone whose opinion I really respect. Well, I disagree with his politics, but that's not the point.

Fred is also a music fiend. Most of the time, I gloss over them. For some reason, I read this post and boy, am I glad that I did.

Do yourself a favor and download (it's free), the song called "Pretty Shoes" at the end of the post. Each time I listen to them, I think the song is more and more brilliant.

Opening lines are:

They say you can't judge a man

until you walk a mile in his shoes.

So, I stole your shoes and

I walked a mile in them.

And I still don't consider you a friend.

The tune (sort of folksy) is just the perfect yin to the lyrics yang.