Sunday Mix Vol. 1
I fell in love with Xaphoon Jones Mix Tape Vol 1. (which you can download for free from PMA) so this weeks music is built around his song I Wanna Know Now (Bob Marley, MGMT) which is pure genius.
Play on 8tracks as I can’t seem to edit my lala playlists.
Enjoy…
Goodbye 2009…
2009 was a great year but I’m looking forward to 2010.
2009 Travel Recap:
- 121 Days on the Road
- 4 countries (only one new…need to work on that in 2010)
- Finally found the perfect bag for my 3 day road life
2009 Tech Recap:
- Made the switch to an iphone but I HATE ATT as all I do is drop calls
- After a long dismissive break in period fell in love with Twitter
- Sold a lot of Kindles on flights across the US. There is nothing better than having the NYT and WSJ at the ready for the 6a flight out of BTV
2009 Alec Recap:
- Braeburn St. and S. Burlington finally feels like home after 7 years on Willard St. in Burlington
- Made it to the gym for regular beatings by Virgina most weeks despite the hectic travel schedule. (You know your life has changed when you pass on grabbing a beer with the crew so you can get a decent workout in)
- Milton and life on the lake have become the place to relax with family and friends
New Tunes: Sunday Plays 12.6.09
Sunday Plays 12.6.09
This playlist is built around Joss Stones new single; Free Me with support from OneRepublic, The Noises 10, Sting, Imogen Heap, Never Shout Never, Etta James, and John Mayer.
The rules: I have to use new music to my library since my last playlist. Thanks to lala.com for allowing me to share. Bummer that they were purchased by Apple on Friday but we will see what Steve and Co. do with this little gem.
You can also play it on 8Tracks.
Newcomb’s Liner Notes: 8tracks & lala
Music is at the core of my life. It just makes me happy. So, it has been great to recharge this holiday weekend by playing with 8tracks and lala. A co-worker introduced me to 8tracks which is this very simple tool to upload MP3’s and share playlists. It’s brilliant way to discover new music. It has some severe limitations in that you can’t skip more than three songs in an hour and the track uploading can be tedious. I can live with these limitations easily as now I have a simple tool to share and discover new music. In some ways it brings me back to the nostalgia of High School when I spent countless hours making mix tapes.
The other service that I finally got to play with is lala. Which is a much more sophisticated tool as you can easily upload all your playlists and music to the cloud. Out of the 12,352 tunes in my iTunes library lala had some 8,300. It took about 8 hours to do the match but now a decent chunk of my music is accessible to me on the road. As someone who travels most weeks and can’t load your music on the company laptop I always get these random cravings for tunes not carried on my iPhone. Now when I need to hear the White Album or the Jackson 5 I can just jack into the cloud and listen to lala. I have found lala much harder for unaided music discovery than 8tracks. 8tracks will just take you from one great mix to another effortlessly. Lala is better than iTunes in that you can play a full track once and buy the rights to listen to a song on the web for only .10 which means a lot of music that you might not pay .99 becomes readily available. You can still buy tracks/albums and download them but we will see if this replaces my iTunes usage anytime soon .
Now if only they could merge the two services I’d be in paradise by having the easy discovery of 8tracks with the web album ability of lala. If you are into music I strongly recommend checking both tools out and I look forward to listening to your mixes.
Happy Thanksgiving…
Happy Turkey day to you and yours. There is a lot to be Thankful for this year. Family, friends, and good health. In the last months cancer has suddenly struck hard at three people in my circle. All three face it with more grace and strength than I could hope to muster. They are a resilient crew and I daily think about their fight. So, this season I’m thankful for one knowing them and two for their inspiring me to live better. Life is short.
As we gather for T2(a tradition of a second gathering) tomorrow around my table I will raise my glass in thanks for having them in my life. And I plan to take a little extra time for hugs this season…as they can be in short supply in this rushed life we lead.
Sunday Tunes…
The middle seat on flights goes better with some new music to get lost in. Spent the weekend recovering from the plague and now packing for another week on the road: Chicago, Minneapolis, and CT this week.
New Tunes:
- Katie Herzig – Apple Tree. Easy on the ears and after one listen I’m in solid like.
- Anuhea – Anuhea. Think Colbie Caillat crossed with an island/surf vibe sound.
- Will Hoge – The Wreckage. Reminds me of Stephen Kellogg on first pass.
- Jason Mraz – Jason Mraz’s Beautiful Mess – Live On Earth. Caught him live in Vegas this year so only fitting to pick up the live album. He does a solid show that is worth catching anytime he is in driving distance.
- Joe Goddard – Harvest Festival. Apple Bobbing really caught my ear.
- Lindstrøm and Christabelle – Baby Can’t Stop. This is going to be my new happy music when stuck in the middle seat on a ground hold for two hours.
- Mishka – Above the Bones. The Reggae sounding brother of Heather Nova. Check out: Guy with a Guitar.
Tunes of late…
Lots of travel of late so I’ve been downloading music most Sunday’s to get ready for the week on the road. As the plane ride is always better with good music.
- Break Up by Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson. It has legs and some good loops. It has gotten some flack for being too bubbly and shallow but it is good music to bounce your way through being sandwiched in the middle seat on a flight to NYC.
- Winter by Jon Foreman. It is sparse. Clean and the lyrics are worth a listen. I’m not sure I’d buy the entire album again more likely just the tracks: I Am Still Running and Learning How to Die.
- Two tracks from Nelly Furtado’s new album: Silencio and Manos al Aire.
- I’m not loving Get Lucky which is Mark Knopfler new album but to be fair I’ve only given it a shallow listen. The majority of tracks sound flat.
- Build Me This by Joshua James. Just listen to Coal War. Speaks for it self.
- Bomb In a Birdcage by A Fine Frenzy. Genius. If you only get one album on this list this is the one to get. I love the song Electric Twist. Some of the old guard aren’t loving the updated sound but I like electronica so this album is nothing but a pleasure.
- The Scene of the Crime by Bettye LaVette. Caught her live this summer but just picked up her album. Not bad for 63 years young.
- Etana’s song I Am Not Afraid for a Reggae track.
May you enjoy them from the middle seat 30,000 feet up…
Albums of Late
- Sia – Colour the Small One : I’m in heavy Sia rotation at the moment. Working back through her albums.
- Deb Talan – A Bird Flies Out : Liked the Weepies. iTunes labels her as Pop which makes me laugh. Folk/Singer Songwriter who can happen to play well.
- Kate Nash – Made of Bricks : Go MySpace! This album continues to grow on me as the lyrics demand your ear. Plus I love D******d the hell with the nay sayers. It is honest and it gets me snaping my fingers.
- Rosi Golan – The Drifter and the Gypsy : The tracks, Come Around and I don’t wanna to wait got my ear, and now the album is growing on me. Plus she was on tour with William Fitzsimmons.
- Jose Gonzalez – In Our Nature : Intresting sound and voice but I’d skip buying the album and just get track one.
- Gavin DeGraw – Free : Powerful voice but the lyrics do little for me.
Dock is in…Now we just need some Sun
The dock is in but we need some decent weather as it seems more like Scotland than VT of late.
Facebook vs Twitter vs My WordPress Blog
I’ve been trying to sort out my thoughts on three good tools of our digital era: Facebook, Twitter, and my wordpress blog. Lately I’ve been using all three in rather passive ways. I don’t have time in my life for all three. So, today I’m saying goodbye to contributing to Facebook. I’m sick of the drivel that seems to be the majority of what flows out of Facebook. I’m in awe of its unique user growth and that it has gotten the majority of my family to participate on a single platform. I do love seeing my far flung crews photos and all these acquaintances of old that it has reconnected me to. But it lacks authenticity. I keep having these horrible four word interactions with people. Being the third person to pile on to a comment train to blurb some inane comment has to stop. So, I just posted my last facebook comment at 9:56 EST on the picture of my friends Kristen and Patrick’s new house. I’m done.
Which brings me to Twitter. It took me a long time to warm up to Twitter. It took real effort and TweetDeck for me to be at least open to using it. My Twits are mostly airport posts from JFK > BTV and are ghastly. I’ll improve I promise. Though I’m getting comfortable with using it and I knew I turned the corner when if I have 10 minutes in the airport security line I’m firing up TweetDeck on my iPhone for a quick read. Of great posts from GuyKawasaki, mashable, SteveCase, fredwilson, mattcutts, tferriss, Jason, and dannysullivan. They add insight, value, and humor to my day. Even the posts from coworkers and friends are better on Twitter because people seem to know they are posting to a wider audience on Twitter vs. the closed circle on Facebook. So, I’m a convert. Twitter ads real value to my day and is now part of my routine. Plus, I like the open eco system with its constant rapid innovation. Its breathtaking from protesters in Iran to community built anti spam tools.
Back to old and boring…my WordPress blog. I miss it. I like the longer format. and the public square nature that requires some thought and proof reading. The ability for strangers I’ve never met in Hong Kong to disagree and enter the debate. That debate and interaction is critical to how I want to spend my time. I’m sure Facebook will suck me in as the voyeurism in hard to escape but I’m going to chose to spend my time engaged here on my Blog for long form ramblings, music updates, etc. and Twitter for the short form update.
So enter the conversation as I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments…