halllujah

“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, and particularly the version by Jeff Buckley, is one of my band’s favorite songs to perform. It’s enjoying a sudden resurgence in popularity since Jason Castro covered it on American Idol last week, but I found an even more amazing rendition on YouTube today, by four Norwegian singers. Enjoy!

american idol

Still hooked on Twitter: I am now tweeting American Idol . See you tomorrow.

cool facebook feature

I got a friend request on Facebook tonight, and after I approved it, Facebook notified be that this particular person was new to Facebook (she signed up tonight, it turned out), and would I want to welcome her by writing on her wall or send her a message. Nice feature, and I immediately wrote her a welcome message for her wall.

coffee, fruit, and a phone company

OK, so really this should be: Starbucks, Apple, and AT&T. Starbucks announced earlier this week that it will start offering wireless through AT&T – a major departure from their partnership with T Mobile (which has been in place since 2002 – pretty much an eternity in internet-years). This new venture has all kinds of interesting possibilities attached – and here’s a great article that does just that. Glenn Fleishmann does a much better job outlining the different issues than I could, so I will leave that to him, but here are a few interesting quotes:

“Starbucks has always cultivated an artificial living room: a place probably more comfortable and convivial than most of our actual living rooms (if we had them); it’s also an extension for Gen-X of the ranch house they might have grown up in that they couldn’t afford to rent.”
“It’s not a leap at all that Starbucks….. would embrace the idea of being the place people who don’t even like their coffee come to fill up on media, use the network, and hang out.”

facebook frustration

I got into Facebook sometime last year, and have been enjoying it – although I have to be careful not to get carried away with throwing penguins, sending waterglobes, and giving flowers. So, I try to limit my activity to wall posts, posting pictures and videos, and being a part of FB groups – and it has turned out to be a great way to keep up with friends I don’t see often or have not seen in a long time.Enter Facebook band profiles – a relatively new Facebook endeavor, and one I was very excited about: finally, a way for our band to have a Facebook profile. But for some reason I can’t quite figure some of the things out. Like how to add events from our reverbnation-profile to our Facebook band profile. And how to leave comments for people through our Facebook profile – right now they show up from my personal profile instead. Frustrating. And I cannot figure it out.

twittering and blogging the Grammys

Watching the Grammys on tv is so….. 2007. Tonight I am following the big music night via A Deeper Shade of Soul blog, and Ariel’s twitter. Oh yeah, and I have the tv on in the background.

wired

Great article on Twitter in Wired.

twittering

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that does one thing, and does it well: asks you to answer the question “What are you doing right now” in less than 140 characters. People who subscribe to your “tweets” then get those updates delivered to their computer, their IM, or their phone. It’s very addictive once you get into it, and it has several great uses: it lets you keep in touch with friends – especially those you don’t see daily – and be a part of their daily lives and it can help you discover great new links and sites. Just the other day I got a notification that a music marketing author and speaker from London, Kavit Haria, had found my twitter-profile and signed up to follow me. I, in turn, decided to check out his profile, signed up for his RSS feed, and downloaded a helpful report from his website. All because of these little, less-than-140-character messages. 

start

I sing. I play guitar. I write music. I perform – a lot – with my own band, Offering. I also handle all the marketing, booking, production, and day-to-day business for the band. That got me started on web 2.0 and social networking. I first thought – don’t laugh too hard – that the world began and ended with MySpace and Facebook.It did not take me long to realize there are lots of sites and services out there. I am no expert, but I am trying to make a way through this maze of continually developing mix of community and technology. Hence the title of this blog, and the purpose: to learn and explore. Have fun in the process.