Category: arts and entertainment

[Music] Instrumental Jazz Soloists – If you can’t sing it, don’t play it

I’m guessing most of you probably just think of me as an Internet geek, but I used to be a classical pianist geek, choir geek, and jazz pianist geek.  I have performed over 200 times, won a bunch of Bach festivals, and studied under jazz greats Ashley Alexander, Frank Mantooth, and others.  This does not… Continue reading [Music] Instrumental Jazz Soloists – If you can’t sing it, don’t play it

Fair use, mashups, and profits – why hasn’t anyone figured this out yet?

Lots of us love music and we love to share it; I think that’s even more powerful than simply “grab lots of music for free”—it’s the sharing that excites us, motivates us.  Music is a shared experience! Why, then, hasn’t anyone made it easy to share music snippets legally from a simple iframe, a simple… Continue reading Fair use, mashups, and profits – why hasn’t anyone figured this out yet?

Blippet: [Video] Avenue Q + Fiddler on the Roof — oy vey, so gay!

Love Avenue Q?  Appreciate Jewish humor? Watch what happens when the cast of Avenue Q mashes up with the cast of Fiddler on the Roof! P.S.—I’d like to hat-tip a fellow blogger, but I can’t remember exactly where I first saw this (I just re-found it via a YouTube search).  Much apologies.  Next time, I’ll… Continue reading Blippet: [Video] Avenue Q + Fiddler on the Roof — oy vey, so gay!

Don’t Download This Song! (listen to another gem by Weird Al Yankovic)

Unless you’re a fan of the RIAA or a bitter, clueless artist… I urge you to run, er, click, not walk to go hear Weird Al’s new ditty: “Don’t Download This Song.” [warning: music autoplays]. I’m looking forward to the music video promised for this evening, but in the meantime, you can hear the song… Continue reading Don’t Download This Song! (listen to another gem by Weird Al Yankovic)

Brave Combo rocks in countless ways. Here’s why you will love them, too

Brave Combo is 26-year-old (!) “hot jazz quintet, a rollicking rock’n’roll bar band, a Tex-Mex conjunto, a sizzling blues band, a saucy cocktail combo, a deadly serious novelty act, a Latin orchestra, and one of America’s dance bands par excellence.”  [see their bio page] But they kick ass for many other reasons, too. For those… Continue reading Brave Combo rocks in countless ways. Here’s why you will love them, too

Trying out online database services (see my movie list!)

Microsoft Access is for masochists.  It’s expensive, a pain to learn, and—frankly—quite overkill for nearly any home application. So, for too long, folks like myself have kept lists in Excel.  This works… sort of.  But it’s a pain to share, and it lacks a lot of the usefully-database’y features that make working with data multidimensionally… Continue reading Trying out online database services (see my movie list!)

Yet more awesome a cappella & an affordable music studio

First, a quick note to those SEOs who are still reading my blog hoping for detailed Google search-related tidbits.  It’s still unlikely.  If I ever do post nuggets of search wisdom here, I’m sure you’ll hear about it :-D.  With that said, Google is moving ahead to improve communications, both internally and externally; I recently… Continue reading Yet more awesome a cappella & an affordable music studio