Academik

Holy cow! This stache has inspired people to donate $634.47.  Thank you to everyone who has donated and your efforts have not gone unnoticed… I have continued to not shave in your honor. As you can see the little fern which started growing above my upper lip has now turned into a really nice Tom Selleck.  As one of my coworkers says, all I need to do now is put on 40 pounds of muscle and 15 pounds of fat and then I’ll be a ringer.  Rather than gain weight or work out, I’ve decided to grow more facial hair. Join me?

There’s still a little over a week left to donate to projects on my giving page (I had to go find more because most of my previous projects became funded - awesome!). If you’ve been putting it off, please do it now through this cool widget.

If you’re in San Francisco, mark your calendars for Dec. 17th - there will be a party for all the growers and their supporters.  Details will follow soon.  It will be an excuse to come out and see a bunch of handsome men and other men with mustaches.

Friends,

Mustache, Day 5, Morning

For the next month, I endeavour to test my will, my physical prowess, and my endurance.  Forgoing the ease of training for a marathon [hats off to those who have], I am testing my follicular limits on all levels by growing a mustache for charity!

Rather than submit my body to a long, drawn out, and painful experience for joints and bones, I’ve opted for a month of disgusted looks, complete failure with the opposite sex, and awkward conversations where I have to keep reminding people, “my eyes are up here.”

• Over the next 30 days, myself along with every male at TuneUp Media, a client and maker of the best iTunes plugin to clean up your music collection, will be growing a mustache.

• I will be asking you to sponsor our mustache growth through one-time donations.

• Through this blog and www.TuneUpMedia.com/blog, I will be providing you with regular updates on our mustache growth, fun videos, mustache factoids, celebrity interviews and more.

• ALL OF THE MONEY RAISED WILL BUY LOW INCOME CHILDREN MUCH NEEDED BOOKS AND SUPPLIES FOR THEIR CLASSROOMS @ DONORSCHOOSE.ORG

• Click the Donors Choose link [above], pick a cause you like, fill in the amount you’d like to donate, and click give.

It’s the end of the year so get those tax-deductible donations in, and if nothing else, do it for the kids.

Follicularly Yours,
Academik

I imagine within any life there’s a string of similar realizations happening for most of us.  For some, it happens early in life.  It took me 27 years to realize (or simply remember) that life isn’t what’s going to happen to me.My life is not what’s going to happen when I make more money, or when I travel, or find someone.

My life is tonight, it’s right now. It’s my job and my friends.  It’s playing pool at the Page for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.  It’s watching Dark City until 1am.  It’s waking up at 6:30 in the morning, checking my email, and starting work from bed.  It’s the sink in my bathroom that reminds me of the inside of my colon.  It’s the awkward moments when the toilet seat cover falls in right when I’m about to sit down.  It’s the bus rides filled with familiar strangers.  It’s the ‘Good Mornings’ and the ‘Thank Yous’ to people I don’t know.

It’s time to look at all that and decide if it’s what I want for my life.  If not, what do I change?

Listening to podcast #70.

I just installed the Genius Sidebar on iTunes 8…. What a steaming load of crap.

Even more bloatware + an even harder sell to buy DRMd content from the iTunes Store.

You’re going to recommend other songs from the iTunes store that I can buy and not play anywhere else.  Thanks, but I’ll keep using eMusic and music blogs because I’m sick and tired of all the walls.

I wouldn’t recommend turning on the Genius sidebar unless you live wholly within the iWorld and have tons of cash to blow.  If you want to buy music go to Amazon and eMusic for non-DRM content and you can find plenty of recommendations at either of those places at a similar or less expensive price.

Reading this article on CNN.com about how Senator Joe Biden is receiving less press coverage - even though he is (and perhaps because) the most easily accessible to reporters - reminded me of how we think about launching products that have a long way to go before they’re ready.  Here’s what I mean. . .

When you have a great idea without a final product built you want to build hype, but you don’t want to give people too much of a look under the hood.  You want excitement about your vision, but vagueries on the specifics because many haven’t been decided yet.  In this case, media access to Sarah Palin has been restrictive and details have only trickled out.  Her views on energy have been widely documented, but I haven’t seen a lot of coverage of her views on healthcare, foreign policy, immigration, economic policy, and more.  My guess is she’s still getting up to speed on many of those issues (even if she has personal ideas on them).  Those will come with time.

This entire election I’ve felt pro-Barack, even though on many issues I differ from his opinion, because I want somebody who’s not an old white dude to be president.  I want fresh ideas that integrate technology and governance as well as a foreign policy that looks at the global impact of our actions.  I want someone who’s not afraid to meddle with the established corporate behemoths in this country if it means long term improvement (healthcare, automotive, and energy industries).  Barack Obama was that fresh face.  Now he’s old hat and this hockey mom turned VP nominee has the world’s attention.

So, as in the marketing world, the true test will be when both products are out on the market and available to the consumers.  That means political debate time.  For the moment I’m not too worried about the bad Disney movie scenario, but I’ll be watching the debates closely to see who can keep their version of the truth straighter ( was the lipstick on the pig’s face or on its delicious bacony thighs?).

At least this time we’re not deciding between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.

On Sept. 11, 2001 I was sitting in the smoking lounge of my small college in Switzerland.
50 of us crowded around the TV, watching the planes crash into the World Trade Center over and over again on TV as if it were the latest scene in a Die Hard movie.

To one side of me was Abdul Aziz Bin Laden, Osama’s nephew. To the other was my friend Derek, whose father worked in the World Trade Center, and was later confirmed as one of the victims.

I walked outside onto the neatly manicured lawn with my best friend DeVon. We sat on the pinkish stone stairs and prayed. His mother worked at the United Nations and frequently had meetings at the World Trade Center. “All circuits are busy” answered the woman on the other end of his frantic calls.

The next week was difficult.

New Yorkers called over and over again trying to find out if their loved ones were alive.  The Arab club put up signs around campus expressing their sympathies.  Some kids got drunk so they wouldn’t have to deal with the emotions, but drinking only let down the walls they were using to hold themselves together.

That week, most of the people of our small Swiss Italian town didn’t make eye contact with us.  They knew there was nothing they could say to make it better, so we were left with brief glances that seemed to say, “We’re sorry.” The local paper sent a reporter to interview students about the tragedy.

Around the world, candle-light vigils began.  I believe we held one of our own.

For the next few weeks the school was patrolled by armed guards to ensure the safety of the student body which included royals, mafia, and wealthy heirs.  With two Bin-Ladens in the school, the guards were as much there to protect us from each other as from outside attackers.

For those of us who weren’t overcome with rage or loss, the attacks only further cemented the cross-cultural bonds the school hoped to instill in us.   We felt less like Americans, Arabs, and Asians and more like human beings.  (forgive the cliche).

7 years later it strikes me that we still have a lot to learn about getting along and making the world a better place.

Listeners - I mentioned TuneUp on the podcast a while back and I wanted to let you know it’s finally out.

I’ve been helping the company for a little more than 6 months now and I’ve got to tell you that their iTunes plug-in is legen-and I hope you’re not lactose intolerant because the last half of that word is-dairy.

You drag and drop songs into the TuneUp sidebar on iTunes, and it finds the correct album, artist, genre, year, title, etc. in seconds.  With a collection that’s more than 10 years old and includes tracks from friends,remixes, stuff I’ve collected from world travels and everything I’ve downloaded for the podcast, TuneUp was able to miraculously clean about 85% of my collection.

While it didn’t clean everything it certainly made the task of manually cleaning the rest of my music feasible and after a little bit of work every song in my library has an artist right now.  That in itself is an accomplishment.

In addition to cover art and song information, TuneUp also lets me know when artists are coming to town and shows music videos and eBay merchandise from any playing track.  It’s been a great way to explore my music in a way that I never would have taken the time to otherwise.

Get on the road to a cleaner music collection at www.tuneupmedia.com

I’m fortunate enough to have great friends in this fine city by the bay.  One of them happens to work here, another shoots photos like this, and Bryan, a past colleague, helps Puma throw killer parties in the city.  A few weeks back they did an in-store party with The Morning Benders.

I’m sure everyone comments on this, but they look  young, real young.  I think the guys with razors are faking it.  There was no alcohol in the store, (unlike previous parties) protecting the under-age crowd (and band) from going wild and ransacking the place I assume.  The Benders sat down in front of mics on the top floor of the store and proceeded to woo us with their  melancholy pop.  Think Vampire Weekend and The Shins shaken, not stirred.  The group mixes rock, pop, country, and folk across the CD and within songs to drive forward heartfelt and sometimes sorrow-filled lyrics showing that while lead singer Chris Chu may look young, his heart’s been put through its paces.

One reviewer says of a previous album, “the songs evoke exuberance and melancholic introspection without drowning in sonic ambition.” On Talking Through Tin Cans, the Morning Benders have become sonically more ambitious without losing the exuberance that makes them instantly attractive, or the melancholy which has me looking for mix-tapes to include them on.  While not all the songs are worth consistent listens, the rise and fall melody of “Patient Patient” will quickly get stuck in your head.

The second song of the album, “I Was Wrong”, opens with “I’ve seen love kick a man while he’s down” and wonderfully proclaims, “I was wrong… when I said you were right”.  Too many people from the past have deserved something similar delivered with the same tongue-in-cheek pause between admission and admonition. Other stand-outs are the ode to crumbling relationships in “Heavy Hearts” that kicks into high gear around 2:40, and “Chasing a Ghost”, the album’s most raucous track.

Below is a song called Morning Fog from a previous album… one that he performed live and I highly recommend (although this recording doesn’t do it justice).  The band has also released a collection of songs called “The Bedroom Covers” that are, as you expected, cover songs from Chris Chu’s bedroom.  Download them from their blog before the link dies!

What do you get when you mix great music, a diverse and beautiful city, and some very creative people together with the support of City Sightseeing Tours? The Audiobus.

My good friend Justin Miller of Phonofly is plugged into the music scene and a very good judge of things and people (and if not, he’ll buy you a Newcastle) so when he mentioned some sort of “bus” show last night with local musician Goh Nakamura I was instantly intrigued.

Goh has gained quite the following from his Youtube video for Embarcadero Blues, and is playing shows on both coasts.  His fingers slide easily across the fretboard, and his voice owns its “fall in love again for the first time” feel without trying too hard.  Shegeek, Justin, and I arrived promptly late at 6:23 and were quickly waivered, signed, stamped with rouge stars and ushered into the upstairs of the British double decker bus from City Sightseeing Tours.

The back of the bus enshrined Goh as he played.  Patrons sat in pairs listening to the concert on headphones sprouting from the middle of the seats (I’m guessing the retro-fitting on this bus took quite a while to pull this off).  Odessa Chen, an acquaintance of Justin’s, sat down across from us.

As we prepared for the trip, the wind started to howl through our skin and I lured Odessa over to my seat with the promise of warmth.  She quickly hopped over and introduced herself and then we were off.  Goh began with a song from his first album as we started our journey down Mission street.

Right about the time that Goh started his cover of the Cure’s Just Like Heaven I noticed Odessa looking to the heavens - there was something magical about that moment, feeling like we were canoeing across the sky, the current turned to clouds as we meandered among the skyscrapers defining our route.  Soon after, we turned onto the Embarcadero and watched the Bay Bridge build its way across the way.

Odessa and I pretended to be tourists in this city reborn before us, if only I had brought my camera! Pictures have never done her justice though.  We rolled through his stories from the Embarcadero to Dogpatch to Potrero Hill.  And just as the city arched its back to show us the beauty of her rolling hills, we descended quickly underneath the highway and up through Mission Bay.

At times, with eyes closed, I lost myself in the music; at others, I let my eyes lose me in stories I was creating for the streets and sky before me.  At the best of times, my brain took input from both and bound something within my chest that began to swell. It felt infinite.

Odessa’s Show: 08/08

“It was the cat-poles around the lake at his grandfather’s farm that inspired Ben Sollee’s debut album Learning To Bend. The frailty of those awkward looking plants standing stoutly against winds that challenged even the strongest of nearby trees is an affecting metaphor for human struggle and perseverance. This idea is central to Learning To Bend.”

Ben Sollee is that artist you keep in the clip for special people in your life. He’s that song on a mixtape that everyone always asks about after it’s given.  It’s the album that shifts among political, upbeat and fun, to sensitive so you can find something to relate to no matter what the phase of your life.

I first heard Ben from http://aurgasm.us.  Apart from my natural inclination to give any song with a cello a chance, the first song posted at Aurgasm had me hooked. It’s a remake of “A Change is Gonna Come”, originally a 1964 civil rights song by Sam Cooke, Sollee has turned it into an upbeat song about the war and the hope that a change is gonna come for America… Starting with a simple cello and vocal, when the drums and French Horn (?) hit, it feels like coming home to summers on a lake, surrounded by good friends and an intimate comfort.

The first track on the album, “A few honest words”, is a charming, slow, and plodding track that will immediately draw you in.  Speaking to the deceit of our current administration the track begins with, “If you’re gonna lead my country/if you’re gonna say that it’s free/I’m gonna need some honesty.”  The song’s slow and simple nature allows listener the chance to imbibe the somber reality of the lyrics.

Other highlights include the raucous “Bury Me With My Car” (When I’m gone / bury me with my car / cuz if anywhere is where I end up when I’m gone / I’m gonna need my ride to get around ), the dance inspiring “It’s Not Impossible”, and the sentimental “I Can’t”.  Sollee’s debut album leaves you wanting a private backyard concert, at times twirling among friends, at others watching the maestro play and taking in all that his music means… what they mean to us…

Visit www.bensollee.com for more information
Click on the album title above to buy his music from eMusic, non-DRM goodness.