The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Music

Sunday Afternoon Songfest

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A quick snapshot of what I am listening to today as delivered by the shuffle function on Google Music.

  1. In The End– Linkin Park
  2. Mordred’s Lullaby-Heather Dale
  3. Back In The Saddle Again- Gene Autry
  4. Raiders Of  The Lost Ark– John Williams
  5. Mrs. Robinson– Simon & Garfunkel
  6. Who’ll Stop The Rain– CCR
  7. What Would I Do Without You– Ray Charles
  8. Wait– The Beatles
  9. I Am A Rock-Simon & Garfunkel
  10. Roadhouse Blues– The Doors
  11. My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)– David Ruffin
  12. Tight Rope– Leon Russell
  13. All That Heaven Will Allow– Bruce Springsteen
  14. No Time– The Guess Who
  15. Into The Ocean– Blue October
  16. You’re My Best Friend– Queen
  17. Brilliant Disguise– Bruce Springsteen
  18. Everlasting Love- Carl Carlton
  19. Margaritaville– Jimmy Buffett
  20. Life is Beautiful– Sixx AM
  21. Happy Jack– The Who
  22. As Long As You Follow– Fleetwood Mac
  23. Hold on Loosely– .38 Special
  24. Ain’t That Love- Ray Charles
  25. Love Rollercoaster– Ohio Players
  26. A Thousand Years– Sting

What Songs Inspire You?

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Here are some of the songs that I use to inspire and motivate me to keep writing. There isn’t any particular order here, just sort of including them as I find them.  It is a partial list. I may adjust it later or I might not.

My Review of Google Music

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Dear Steve Jobs,

You are dead and there is a greater chance of your haunting my house now than there was of you dialing my number to ask for my opinion about iTunes while you were alive.

If you would had the resolve and temerity to have done so I might have hung up on you because I wouldn’t have believed that it was actually you calling. However if you had called back I would have told you that I like iTunes and use it daily. And then I would have told you why I don’t like the iPhone and how Apple products are overpriced.

We would have gotten along splendidly.

My current phone of choice is the Motorola DroidX. It is not a perfect phone but it does many things well and I have it equipped with an 8GB memory card that has thousands of songs on it. But I love music and I want more so I signed up for Google Music today. I listen to music all day long virtually every where I go so it seemed silly to me  not to try and take advantage of their services.

Here, take a look at this excerpt:

Listen anywhere, even offline

You can get to your personal music collection at home or on the go. Listen from the web or your Android 2.2+ phone or tablet with the Music app available from Android Market. Not online? No problem. You can select the specific albums, artists and playlists you want to have available when you’re not connected. And the songs you’ve recently played will automatically be available offline.

You can also access the Google Music player from your mobile browser if your device is iOS 4.0 or above. Just like you would on a computer, simply visit music.google.com from your device’s web browser to access the Google Music player.

Stay in sync, without the hassle

Spend more time listening to your music and less time managing it. Once your music is online, it’s always available. Playlists are automatically kept in sync, and you don’t have to worry about cables, file transfers, or running out of storage space.

Your collection, now in one place

Upload up to 20,000 songs from your personal music collection, even if they’re scattered across multiple computers. You can upload music files from any folder or add your iTunes® library and all of your playlists. And when you add new music to your computer, you can automatically add it to your music collection online.

That is 20,000 songs hosted for free. I couldn’t pass that up but I have to admit that the music store is thinner than I would like it to be. But if I can use it in conjunction with iTunes well that makes a significant difference now doesn’t it.

And those tunes are important to me. I am busting my ass to try and write a book. That link is to one rendering of it, about 14,000 words or so. But that blog has far more in it as do some of the other blogs I run.

Uploading songs to Google Music is slower than I would like it to be. It feels a bit like 14.4 Baud but since it is not 1998 that is probably not accurate.

I am excited about this. I see real potential. I use a ton of Google products, Gmail, Calendar, G+, Maps and more. Brin and Page should call me and say thank you because I help to keep them outfitted in their mansions. Me, I am just a simple man of the people who likes tech and gadgets.

Well, the good news to you Ghost of Steve Jobs is that I am not completely sold on this. But I wouldn’t say that I don’t like it either. What I know is that it has a good feel to it and it appears to provide a useful solution to some of my challenges and that makes for a happy customer.

Stay tuned and I’ll keep you posted about this.

The Greatest Hits of Music Monday+ One Writing Tip

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It is time for another edition of the Greatest Hits of Music Monday. Music is a constant presence in my life and were a genie to grant me 7 wishes two of mine would be for musical talent. In more specific terms I would gladly love the ability to sing and to play many instruments.

As always you are encouraged to play along in the comments by sharing your favorites. Alternatively you can sign up for my fan page and join the discussion there. Don’t forget it is International Talk Like A Pirate Today.

  1. New York’s Not My Home– Jim Croce
  2. Photographs And Memories- Jim Croce
  3. These Dreams– Jim Croce
  4. Father & Son– Cat Stevens (his politics drive me crazy, but I love some of his old stuff.)
  5. Tea for The Tillerman- Cat Stevens
  6. The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald– Gordon Lightfoot
  7. Sundown– Gordon Lightfoot
  8. Hurt– Johnny Cash
  9. Help Me– Johnny Cash
  10. Ring of Fire– Johnny Cash
  11. Hero Of The Day– Metallica
  12. No Leaf Clover– Metallica
  13. Unforgiven– Metallica
  14. El Dorado– Iron Maiden
  15. The Number of The Beast– Iron Maiden
  16. Let It Be– The Beatles
  17. Eleanor Rigby– The Beatles
  18. Norwegian Wood– The Beatles
  19. Picture– Kid Rock w/Sheryl Crow
  20. Rockstar– Nickelback (video cracks me up)
  21. All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down– Hank Williams Jr.
  22. Old Love– Eric Clapton
  23. Crossroad– Robert Johnson
  24. Forever Young– Gregorian
  25. May It Be- Enya

And now for your writing tip. Just write and stop worrying about whether you are eloquent, profound or insightful. Just put pen to paper and good things will happen.

Worth a second look:

The Soundtrack of My Life

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My friend Bill Dorman the man who is most definitely not an invisible blogger receives credit for inspiring me to write this post. In the spirit of giving I need to mention Danny Brown and Margie Clayman for similar reasons to Bill. And then for good measure I need to add Erica, Ameena, Gini, Shonali, Kaarina, Jessica and Brankica to this list.

If I am not mistaken I have shared Spotify lists and or discussed music with all of them. In truth though that is an incomplete list and there are a ton of other bloggers that I have had the pleasure to share music with. It is a cliche but music crosses borders, race and religion. It is a bridge between people and something that is of critical importance to me.

That is no secret to the 17 long time readers or any one else who has ever spent real time reading the blog. Roll through here and you’ll find entire posts devoted to sharing what I listened to that day. Sift through my fiction and you can rest assured that the posts are peppered with quotes and links to songs.  At one time I had a list of about 100 songs that served as the official soundtrack for this story.

If I had the time I would set the tone for every post by including at least one song in it. And one thing you can be certain of if I ever meet a real genie one of my three wishes will be to gain the ability to play/write music. Music is powerful, enlightening, educational and something that I find great joy in.

Music can be deeply personal and quite intimate, but it is meant to be communal. Music is designed to make you feel and it is something that should be experienced. So, please help us here by providing lists/links to your favorites. And don’t be afraid to leave quotes either, I love those.

If you have Spotify here is a whole list of links to a bunch of different playlists that you can sift through and enjoy:

40 Years

The Beatles

For Droid

Springsteen

In addition I’ll share a partial list of some of the songs on my iTunes. Most of these were purchased by me for me, but not all. Before we begin here is something just for fun

  1. Lonely is The Night– Billy Squire
  2. Don’t Take Your Guns To Town– Johnny Cash
  3. Firework– Katy Perry (My daughter LOVES this and insisted on listening. I kind of like it, don’t know why.)
  4. Yerushalayim Shel Zahav– Ofra Haza
  5. Dr. Feelgood– Motley Crue
  6. Show Me The Way– Peter Frampton
  7. I’m Shipping Up To Boston – Dropkick Murphys
  8. Love without end, amen– George Strait
  9. Face To Face-Siouxsie and The Banshees
  10. Helter Skelter-Paul McCartney
  11. In the End– Linkin Park
  12. It’s Been Awhile– Staind
  13. Fire on Babylon– Sinead O’Connor
  14. Molly Malone– The Dubliners
  15. The One– Elton John
  16. Chariots of Fire– Vangelis
  17. One Slip– Pink Floyd
  18. Telephone Line– ELO
  19. Baby I love You– Aretha Franklin
  20. Baby, Now That I Have Found You– Alison Krauss
  21. Please Read the Letter– Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
  22. Tunnel of Love– Bruce Springsteen
  23. Join Together– The Who
  24. Calling You– Blue October
  25. Close My Eyes Forever-Lita Ford & Ozzy Osbourne
  26. Pour Some Sugar on Me– Def Leppard
  27. Atomic Dog– George Clinton
  28. Visions of Paradise- Mick Jagger
  29. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper-Blue Oyster Cult
  30. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door-Bob Dylan
  31. 1812 Overture, Op. 49 (Conclusion)-Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
  32. Possession– Sarah McLachlan
  33. Everything I Own– Bread
  34. You’re Gonna Miss This– Trace Adkins
  35. Just Another Day– Oingo Boingo
  36. Happy- Bruce Springsteen
  37. The Wrestler– Bruce Springsteen
  38. Lover’s Cross-Jim Croce
  39. Maybe I am Amazed- Paul McCartney
  40. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)-The Beatles
  41. W*O*L*D-Harry Chapin
  42. Over The Hills And Far Away- Led Zeppelin
  43. I Can’t Quit You Baby- Led Zeppelin
  44. Since I’ve Been Loving You – Led Zeppelin
  45. The Golden Road- Grateful Dead
  46. Friends in Low Places- Garth Brooks
  47. As Good As I Once Was– Toby Keith
  48. Drown In My Own Tears– Ray Charles
  49. Pictures of You– The Cure
  50. I Will Find You– Clannad
  51. The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)– The Fun Boy Three
  52. In My Life– The Beatles
  53. Whiskey Lullaby– Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss
  54. With Or Without You– U2
  55. Growing Up- Bruce Springsteen
  56. The Gambler- Kenny Rogers
  57. Extreme Ways- Moby