Small city boy, big city dreams
music
The first time I’ve liked a Britney Spears song
…since Toxic. This is the Wolfgang Gartner remix of ’3′ from Britney Spears. While I don’t love it, I do kind of like it, which is a big step for me in terms of BS music.
Though to be fair it has a lot more to do with the fact that Wolfgang Gartner is on remix duties that anything coming out of Britney’s pie hole. Solid Remix.
Inspiration from Michael Jackson
When writing music or lyrics, I always feel pressure to get it absolutely right the first time around. I guess a part of me has been conditioned to think that if it’s not a flash of inspired greatness, then my creativity just isn’t up to the task and shouldn’t consider myself a songwriter.
Writing sessions for me are nothing like a lightning flash. They’re more like cranking up an old generator one rotation at a time until there’s enough juice going to power things along. This was especially the case while writing for Byron Clarke’s album “Self Inflicted,” (especially on “How The Story Goes.”). I remember now how we sat for hours agonizing over each word, how it fit with imagery of the song, whether the cadence and timing was right and of course whether or not the emotion was genuine.
Below is a 1981 of Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones in studio working on Billie Jean. MJ doesn’t have the words yet, he’s just scatting, looking for inspiration inbetween the sounds and in the groove. And that’s what makes it so cool, he’s working on his creativity in a very non creative, almost academic manner. And that gives me some hope.
More often than not, the force is not strong with me and I need to drag every syllable out of the strange and fuzzy place in my head that my words come from. I can’t book a ticket to that place and just get what I need on a schedule, but listening to one of the greatest creative minds in music (at least in my opinion) do things in much the same way, makes me want to take a trip to my strange and fuzzy word corner.
How are you inspired? Does is strike like a municipal worker or bubble up like a minister’s salary?
Create a free desktop Groove Shark player in 2 steps (and save $3)
How to create a free Groove Shark desktop player in 2 easy steps
Groove Shark is a free streaming audio service that allows you to play music in a browser window. The company also offers a paid VIP service that offers an Adobe Air desktop application so that you can play music outside of your browser. Follow the steps below to save yourself $3 a month (especially useful considering how temperamental Groove Shark can be)
Here’s how to build your own Groove Shark desktop player in just a few minutes with Mozilla Prism.
1. Download & install Mozilla Prism from Mozilla Labs
Prism is an application that lets you split web applications out of your browser and run them directly on your desktop
2. Set your URL
Set http://listen.grooveshark.com/ as the URL you would like to use for your new desktop application.
That’s it – you now have a free desktop Groove Shark player 
Optional
- I have set my Groove shark application to display in my Quicklaunch menu for easy access.
- You can also change the icon that you see in the quick launch menu to a Groove Shark icon. You can download the Groove Shark icon here:http://tinylab.tumblr.com/post/325152905/just-a-grooveshark-icon-for-your-mac-pc-icns. To change the icon, simply right click the icon, select Properties and click on Change icon. Now you can select your new GS icon.
Fuck Was I
Most days, I have a hard time figuring out exactly what is it that I’m thinking, feeling or doing at any given time. This track from Jenny Owen Youngs pretty puts out how I (think I ) feel.
(if you’re peeping on facebook, go here to read this)
If you think Lil Wayne is real hip hop
Three people in the last few weeks have tried to convince me that Lil Wayne is not only real hip, but also the future of hip hop. If you’d said pop – sure. Commercial rap – ok. But Hip Hop? I think not.
Now stop trying to convince that what the tattooed midget makes is hip hop and go listen to some Rakim or Common. Please be careful around the lyrics though – I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself while handling a sharp paragraph.
