Amazing How Musicians Are Using Web to Collaborate

It is incredible to see how collaborative sites like Jamglue.com and ejamming are changing how people are making music. Not only are people collaborating from afar, but they are making songs together without ever meeting or speaking to each other.

Listen to this great story on NPR about this trend.

"We've already seen the stage where people are consuming music over the Internet in a whole new way," says Wired News writer Eliot Van Buskirk. "What we haven't seen very much of is people creating music in a new way using the Internet and that's what this is all about."

Who Says User Content Isn't Awesome!

These days we hear a lot of people moaning about how user contributed content is no good.

Oh yeah! Check this video out. It's awesome. And who wouldn't want to work at a cool company like this one. Looks fun.

My Old 1971 Cutlass Supreme

Great to see my old car again. When I moved back to New York City a couple of years ago I sold it to my brother where it is sitting in his garage being well taken care of. Can't wait to take a ride again soon...
 

Forging Steel In Iowa (the Bros in Hard Hats)

Arrived back in NYC last night from a great Mother's Day weekend in Iowa. (Priceless pictures of us surprising Mom for her birthday and mother's day coming soon...it was spectacular.)

But first some pictures I took from my phone when I got to tour the company my brother works for back in Cedar Rapids. My brother PS (PatrickSpirit) is one of the mechanical engineers that designs the presses and machines that forge steel parts like the huge shackle below.

It may surprise you but this particular shackle below is worth more than my computer and can lift more than 50 tons of weight safely.

It was cool to see the process of how something seemingly so simple is produced. Seeing it, you realize how much design, energy, work, labor, and time goes into making everything from bolts to ball-bearings to hooks. Each piece requires an entire team and process and is forged from hot steel, pressed in a massive die, and then the steel is cooled, heated, cooled and heated again, cleaned, tumbled, painted, etc.

Great Grandma's Sorghum Gingersnaps

A few weeks ago, my mother sent a "kind of a late Easter basket/Valentine's gift." Among other goodies, the gift basket contained a bottle of Iowa Sorghum and a special recipe for my Great Grandmother's Gingersnaps.

I know it's sorta the wrong season for this, but heck, it's May Day today and cookies are fun all year round. Especially homemade Gingersnaps.

So I thought I would share this first-time-ever-published-online secret recipe for any and all to enjoy on this fine May Day.

Gingersnaps:

1 c. sugar
1 c. sorghum
1 c. butter
1 egg
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
2 tsp. soda
1 tblsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
Flour to make a stiff dough

Combine sugar, sorghum (molasses), butter, egg, cinnamon, ginger, & soda. Mix well. Add vinegar, vanilla & enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll very thin. Cut with cookie cutter. Bake in moderate oven (325 degrees) 10 - 12 minutes. Yield: 48.

That's it! Enjoy

Huck's Tune: Bob Dylan's New Masterpiece

HUCK'S TUNE

Well I wandered alone through a desert of stone
And I dreamt of my future wife
My sword's in my hand and I'm next in command
In this version of death called life

My plate and my cup are right straight up
I took a rose from the hand of a child
When I kiss your lips, the honey drips
I'm gonna have to put you down for a while

Every day we meet on any old street
And you're in your girlish prime
The short and the tall are coming to the ball
I go there all the time

Behind every tree there's something to see
The river is wider than a mile
I tried you twice, you can't be nice
I'm gonna have to put you down for a while

Here come the nurse with money in her purse
Here come the ladies and men
You push it all in and you've no chance to win
You play 'em on down to the end

I'm laying in the sand getting a sunshine tan
Moving along riding in style
From my toes to my head you knock me dead
I'm gonna have to put you down for a while

I count the years and I shed no tears
I'm blinded to what might have been
Nature's voice makes my heart rejoice
Play me the wild song of the wind

I found hopeless love in the room above
When the sun and the weather were riled
You're as fine as wine, I ain't handing you no line
I'm gonna have to put you down for a while

All the marry little elves can go hang themselves
My faith is as cold as can be
I'm stacked high to the roof and I'm not without proof
If you don't believe me, come see

You think I'm blue, I think so too
In my words you'll find no guile
The game's gotten old
The deck's gone cold
And I'm gonna have to put you down for a while

Lee Stoetzel: You Are In A Landscape

Go check out Lee's amazing show on now at
Mixed Greens. 
 
 
 

Congratulations Milena and German!

 





Click here for more wedding pictures.

Orny Adams Friday the 13th Appearance on Jay Leno

Tacos To Eat Before You Die

I love tacos.

Actually, I think tacos just might be my all time favorite food.

I've always loved tacos, and have many fond taco memories. I remember fondly my mother making homemade tortillas as a boy. Hand-rolling flour shells one by one while black beans simmered on the stove. I remember sitting Indian-style munching on one of the best tacos I've ever tasted with a family of migrant workers taking a lunch break from detasseling corn in one of the fields at the end of our driveway. And I remember the first time I ever dared to try the Stupid Sauce they serve with the tacos at San Loco in NYC.

In fact, those memories (and the Food Network) are probably what inspired me to put my very own tortilla press on my Christmas wish list last year (Thanks for the gift bro!).

So I was pleased to hear about the December 2006 cover story from Texas Monthly called, The 63 Tacos You Must Eat Before You Die. And I was thrilled to learn that at the top of the list was my all-time favorite taco from the Fuel City gas station in Dallas Texas.

For years, I have raved about the Fuel City tacos. And they truly are special. I first discovered their tacos when I lived in Dallas at the South Side on Lamar lofts about a half mile away. When I lived in Texas, I used to drag friends and family to Fuel City several times a week at all hours of the day and night to grab a few $1.25 tacos.

So hearing about this article has inspired me to share my own Top 3 list of the my very favorite tacos. The tacos I recommend eating before you die:

1) Tacos from the Fuel City gas station in Dallas, Texas
2) Tacos from La Esquina taco stand on Lafayette, New York City (get the grilled corn too!)
3) The Queso Loco (with Stupid Sauce on the side) from San Loco on 2nd Ave, New York City

Where's your favorite taco?

Here Comes the Sun...

Today is a great day. I can feel the energy. It's almost palpable. It's still cold on the East Coast, but it's heating up. The fog is lifting.

It being Friday the 13th could have something to do with it, but I think it's also because one of my best friends (and former roommate) Orny Adams is going to be doing his second appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight. (And he goes on just before the Shins - one of my favorite bands...I'm really sorry O that I'm missing this one!).

It's great to see your good friends do so well. Especially when they deserve it. Orny has been working tirelessly for the past 14 years at honing his craft - at being a great stand-up comedian. Through thick and thin he has never given up. He has stuck with it and persevered and worked at being a great comedian. He has earned the respect of many of the great comedians of our time including Jerry Seinfeld and Gary Shandling among hundreds of others. I've been standing there and heard the compliments first hand. And he is consistently the best comedian on stage every time I go see him live. Ask anyone in the audience after one of his sets...most likely they'll say the same thing: he was by far the best on the stage. That's because he is a great comedian and his jokes are smart. He doesn't need to swear to get people to laugh. And that's what you'll see no doubt tonight in front of Jay Leno's audience and on the Tonight Show's stage. Great jokes that have been honed for months, years, tirelessly. Every word, every nuance. Most people probably think comedians just get up on stage and try to say funny stuff. Wrong! It's an art, it's a craft, it's an endless job.

So way to go Orny! I'm looking forward to watching tonight from the East Coast. With any luck, the producers of the show will carve out a few extra minutes for Orny tonight to show this hilarious clip of Orny doing stand-up to a group of school children in Fiji. If not, the clip is being featured on Will Farrell's new site FunnyorDie.com.

That's one reason why today is going to be a great day. Watch Orny give it his all on The Tonight Show and then go out and kick in $20 bucks to buy his DVD/CD called Path of Most Resistance. It's well worth it for a lot of reasons. But mostly because it is great comedy and it deserves to be recognized and supported and passed around and blogged about...

Way to go Zack!

Zack Johnson, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, wins the Masters! Here he is visiting Times Square the day after his big win...

New Features Launched Today on OrganizedWisdom

We're making great progress at OrganizedWisdom. Late last night we launched about 10 new features (like private messaging, commenting on WisdomCards, create your own health topic, connect with friends, etc.) that greatly improve the user experience and community. When you get a chance to test everything out, please share your feedback. And spread the word to anyone you know who is either searching for health related information, or who you think has an important story to share.

Go To The Ivy Leagues for Free

I am currently attending Stanford, Harvard Business School, Yale, Duke, and Columbia. And being mentored by some of the top CEO's, leaders, thinkers and entrepreneurs in the world.

Yep, all at the same time. And all for free.

I'm not kidding either. That's because I've been able to download hundreds of complete courses to my iPod on everything from Psychology to Art History to Computer Science. I have over 350 podcasts right now on my iPod, all downloaded for free (legally) via iTunes.

In addition, to being able to audit classes like Philosophy and Astronomy, I am able to listen to priceless interviews, speeches, and lectures from exclusive conferences like TED (normally a $6,000 annual membership).

It doesn't stop there. Better than an MBA, I am being mentored by CEO's, VC's and entrepreneurs who now have their own podcasts and blogs. Some of my favorites include the CalacanisCast, VentureCast, Venture Voice, Marketing Voices with Jennifer Jones and The ScobleShow with Robert Scoble.

It's an amazing world. Anyone with access to a computer and an iPod now has access to a world class education. For free.

For all you non-stop learners out there, I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am.