tag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:/blogs/this-is-a-test?p=9The 23rd Hour Blog!2023-05-22T01:51:40-07:0023rd Hourfalsetag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/72133432023-05-22T01:51:40-07:002023-10-16T07:51:01-07:00Becoming American — Reflections on my journey to becoming the naturalized U.S. citizen I am today<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/becoming-american-reflections-on-my-journey-to-becoming-the-naturalized-u-s-citizen-i-am-today-37e9cbb3c603?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/828/1*aFyecP41E9kuQH_O2IrPBw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="828" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">I started 2021 as a Sino-Mauritian-Canadian and ended it with “American” added to the mix. I’ve since been unpacking what this means and…</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/becoming-american-reflections-on-my-journey-to-becoming-the-naturalized-u-s-citizen-i-am-today-37e9cbb3c603?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/69148892022-03-05T17:00:03-08:002022-11-04T02:50:42-07:00Reconnecting with my many muses — what I’ve learned from writing 14 songs in 28 days<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/reconnecting-with-my-many-muses-what-ive-learned-from-writing-14-songs-in-28-days-84a5a71d50ee?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2316/1*DUOAlbcYhvrdWMg-TBLdbA@2x.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="2316" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">Every songwriter starts their journey longing to convey the complexity of the human condition into digestible nuggets of perspective…</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/reconnecting-with-my-many-muses-what-ive-learned-from-writing-14-songs-in-28-days-84a5a71d50ee?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/66987662021-07-26T15:31:10-07:002023-12-10T09:09:34-08:00Resort to Love: how I got to help represent my island in Netflix’ upcoming flick<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/resort-to-love-how-i-got-to-help-represent-my-island-in-netflix-upcoming-flick-d98ca8fc0fa5?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2240/1*CEdPmoSWTw5m6B_1I4VHFw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="2240" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">June 2020. Long before the film even had the vague title “Untitled Alicia Keys Project”, the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius was abuzz…</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/resort-to-love-how-i-got-to-help-represent-my-island-in-netflix-upcoming-flick-d98ca8fc0fa5?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/66756752021-06-30T22:07:29-07:002022-01-28T07:09:53-08:00What is an American name? What Bob Dylan and Chloe Bennet have in common.<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">Some of the biggest names in entertainment industry were Wonsal, Gershowitz, Bulsara, Beilin, Konigsberg. Don’t recognize any of them…</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/what-is-an-american-name-what-bob-dylan-and-chloe-bennet-have-in-common-e3bc60698e00?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/66439462021-05-29T19:32:10-07:002021-05-30T00:00:12-07:00How Spotify failed AAPI Heritage Month and what the music industry could learn about representation…<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/how-spotify-failed-aapi-heritage-month-and-what-the-music-industry-could-learn-about-representation-c1757f29320a?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1125/1*taM8t6eKIPsdkbOdnTZmyA@2x.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="1125" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">The perception of us as Asians who happen to be in America, as opposed to Asian Americans is so deeply-rooted that even well-meaning…</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/how-spotify-failed-aapi-heritage-month-and-what-the-music-industry-could-learn-about-representation-c1757f29320a?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/66309122021-05-14T19:10:37-07:002021-05-23T06:57:57-07:00Things people say to Asian Americans at music conferences<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/things-people-say-to-asian-americans-at-music-conferences-6f293c763043?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2600/1*PUNYs0VwhOlI7RLxB2pnaA@2x.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="2743" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">And why they make us so uncomfortable</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://sherrylynnlee.medium.com/things-people-say-to-asian-americans-at-music-conferences-6f293c763043?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/64068772020-08-10T19:29:10-07:002022-05-29T04:26:40-07:00Help Mauritius survive Wakashio — a guide for the Mauritian diaspora and visitors.<h3>Help Mauritius 🇲🇺 survive Wakashio — a guide for the Mauritian diaspora.</h3><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Zx2ol9d2LQFAYBkhfVimAg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Fuel leaking from the cargo ship, spilling into the marine park lagoon. Photo by Eric Villars</figcaption></figure><p>It is hard to watch helplessly as the dark fluid oozes onto our favorite shade of blue. Here are four ways to help meaningfully from afar.</p><p>Our motherland, Mauritius, went from obscurity to being a prominent fixture of international news in a matter of days. Everyone has heard of the Wakashio oil spill by now. The latter endangers our biodiversity, food supply, and tourism industry. The economy was already in the tank from COVID-19. It’s hard to even fathom the consequences of this crisis.</p><iframe src="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDsxjD7Aw10/embed/?cr=1&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com" width="658" height="882" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/667de20031662b4876c29cb2364e5c62/href">https://medium.com/media/667de20031662b4876c29cb2364e5c62/href</a></iframe><p>That said, the sheer magnitude of Mauritian solidarity has restored my faith in humanity — a faith most recently corroded by anti-maskers and white fragility. Folks from all walks of life have come together, creating and installing barriers to contain the oil slick. I have never been the patriotic kind, but seeing these harmonious images and videos all over my feed made me proud. As a Mauritian, I felt compelled to mobilize from afar.</p><p>If you’re an (ex-pat or a visitor who loves our island), you are probably feeling helpless, wishing you were there to help clean up our beloved ocean.<em> So did I. </em>Although I donated to the NGOs, I still felt like there had to be <em>more</em> I could do. Then I got an idea that I hope you will deem worth sharing:</p><blockquote>“What if ex-pats like us could help local businesses get back on their feet by sponsoring them to support cleanup sites?”</blockquote><h3>1. Sponsor locals to help — two birds, one stone</h3><p>I have several family members who are restaurateurs. COVID-19 saw their businesses unable to operate fully for months. Despite the reopening, the mandatory mask policy has put a damper on social dining. It’s a tough time to own a small family business. Yet,<em> in spite of it all</em>, my relatives are still volunteering their time and helping create bagasse-filled barriers to contain the oil spill.</p><p>I decided to help by sponsoring one of their restaurants to prepare and deliver lunch for the 200 volunteers at a cleanup site. That way, they get some business while still directly helping the cleanup efforts. Everybody wins. I connected them with an Eco-Sud organizer and it is happening this Wednesday!</p><p>I estimate it will cost between 550–600 USD for the 200 lunches I am sponsoring. If you earn a living in a stronger currency than the MUR, a sponsorship is likely more affordable to you to than it is for a local. If you can’t afford that amount, maybe you can get a few friends or relatives to pool money together to support your favorite Mauritian restaurant/snack for one day.</p><p>If enough of us do this over the next few weeks, we will have created quite a lot of income for local restaurants and helped volunteers clean up our ocean from afar. Let’s help our paradise get back on its feet and emerge stronger from this tragedy.</p><h4><strong>How to sponsor a cleanup site lunch.</strong></h4><ul>
<li>Contact your favorite <strong>local restaurant/snack/laboutik in Mauritius</strong>.</li>
<li>
<strong>Offer to pay </strong>them to prepare and deliver food/drinks to Eco-Sud volunteers. Set a budget (say ~ Rs100 per person). If they cannot deliver, maybe you can find someone to help on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/682627752330288">Wakashio Facebook group</a>.</li>
<li>If they are on board to help, get in touch with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ecosud.mu/"><strong>Eco-Sud </strong></a>via Facebook to decide which day/site, and how many volunteers are to be thanked with a meal. If you don’t want to use Facebook, email me and I will give you the phone number for the volunteer I talked to.</li>
<li>You can foot the bill yourself or <strong>get friends and relatives to pitch in</strong>. PayPal is available in Mauritius to facilitate transactions. You’ll be helping both the <strong>economy <em>and</em> </strong>the<strong> ecology</strong>.</li>
</ul><h4>Not just food & drinks — other sponsorship ideas.</h4><p>This can also be done for stores and businesses that could offer other materials needed for the cleanup.</p><ul>
<li>Businesses selling masks, gloves/boots/diving gear/ other PPE to minimize exposure to the toxic fuel.</li>
<li>Businesses selling needles, nylon thread, or material to make the sausages.</li>
<li>Businesses selling heavy duty containers to store the fuel.</li>
<li>The list is endless. <strong>Contact Eco-Sud/MWF and ask them what they need</strong>, then sponsor it. It’s quite simple, and there is a lot of work to be done. You can also find out some of the needs on the Facebook group mentioned.</li>
</ul><p>I hope you will join me in rebuilding our community from afar by sponsoring some local businesses to help in the cleanup efforts.</p><p>Now on to the easier options for helping — donations and connecting people.</p><h3>2. Donate to Eco-Sud (NGO)</h3><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ecosud.mu/">Eco-Sud</a> is the NGO leading the cleanup efforts in multiple locations. Due to a recent law imposed by the government, locals are required to sign up as volunteers in order to participate. You can donate directly to Eco-Sud here:</p><p><a href="https://www.crowdfund.mu/mauritius-oil-spill-cleaning-2020-mv-wakashio-306.html">Mauritius Oil Spill Cleaning 2020 - MV WAKASHIO</a></p><h3>3. Donate to Mauritius Wildlife Foundation (NGO)</h3><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/MauritianWildlife/">Mauritius Wildlife Foundation</a> is the NGO responsible for protecting endemic species and advocating for animal rights in the country.</p><p>The oil spill is very close to Ile Aux Aigrettes, an islet that is dedicated to protecting endangered endemic species of birds, skinks, giant tortoises, and more. It is also adjacent to the Blue Bay Marine Park, which is home to our most beautiful coral reefs and their aquatic inhabitants. Donate to MWF:</p><p><a href="https://www.mauritian-wildlife.org/donate">Mauritian Wildlife Foundation</a></p><p>Here’s who you will be helping:</p><style>body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;}</style><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-align="center" data-dnt="true"><p> — <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulKerrison91/status/1291653042169946114">@PaulKerrison91</a></p></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><script>function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height);resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});</script><script>if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}}</script><style>body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;}</style><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-align="center" data-dnt="true"><p> — <a href="https://twitter.com/san_dreyne/status/1291634429614370819">@san_dreyne</a></p></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><script>function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height);resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});</script><script>if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}}</script><h3>4. Connect resources to people (crowd-sourced)</h3><p>There is a Facebook group where people are coming together to organize transportation, material drop-off and other logistics. Even if you are not an official volunteer for one of the sites, you can be useful there.</p><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/682627752330288/">Wakashio - Oil Spill - Anou Mobilisez</a></p><p>You will see requests for certain materials, or certain skills, or transportation and other logistical help in the group. Here are examples of donation requests I’ve seen in the group:</p><ul>
<li>Buckets</li>
<li>Needles</li>
<li>Nylon thread</li>
<li>Hair</li>
<li>Diving gear</li>
<li>IBC tank</li>
<li>Boots & gloves</li>
<li>Overalls</li>
<li>Workshop space</li>
</ul><p>While you are not able to physically provide these remotely, maybe you can connect them with someone back home who can. Get involved and connect people with the resources they need.</p><h3>Together when it matters 🇲🇺</h3><p>The posts linked below are a testament to the community spirit that has come alive on our small island nation. We may not agree on a lot of things, but when push comes to shove, we show up and we do what we have to do. We leave the blame game for later and we put our community’s safety and wellbeing first.</p><blockquote><strong>If that is the world’s first impression of the Mauritian people, well… You can color me proud. 🇲🇺</strong></blockquote><iframe src="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDrBoyHhisS/embed/?cr=1&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com" width="658" height="882" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/03413e43ea1db9d421a4650cbc9f1201/href">https://medium.com/media/03413e43ea1db9d421a4650cbc9f1201/href</a></iframe><iframe src="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDtx0gtADZe/embed/?cr=1&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com" width="658" height="882" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/2018ec128cec03d897a5869a52d701cb/href">https://medium.com/media/2018ec128cec03d897a5869a52d701cb/href</a></iframe><style>body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;}</style><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-align="center" data-dnt="true"><p> — <a href="https://twitter.com/atish81087140/status/1292424104818216960">@atish81087140</a></p></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><script>function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height);resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});</script><script>if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}}</script><iframe src="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDqaK0ihpHE/embed/?cr=1&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com" width="658" height="882" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/dcafb8a2b74a7d36cd47f6e81a46cfc8/href">https://medium.com/media/dcafb8a2b74a7d36cd47f6e81a46cfc8/href</a></iframe><iframe src="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDtx0gtADZe/embed/?cr=1&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com" width="658" height="882" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/2018ec128cec03d897a5869a52d701cb/href">https://medium.com/media/2018ec128cec03d897a5869a52d701cb/href</a></iframe><style>body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;}</style><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-align="center" data-dnt="true"><p> — <a href="https://twitter.com/LFabiolaMonty/status/1291765757013983238">@LFabiolaMonty</a></p></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><script>function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height);resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});</script><script>if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}}</script><style>body[data-twttr-rendered="true"] {background-color: transparent;}.twitter-tweet {margin: auto !important;}</style><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-align="center" data-dnt="true"><p> — <a href="https://twitter.com/daphneydupre/status/1291808352155009025">@daphneydupre</a></p></blockquote><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><script>function notifyResize(height) {height = height ? height : document.documentElement.offsetHeight; var resized = false; if (window.donkey && donkey.resize) {donkey.resize(height);resized = true;}if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var obj = {iframe: window.frameElement, height: height}; parent._resizeIframe(obj); resized = true;}if (window.location && window.location.hash === "#amp=1" && window.parent && window.parent.postMessage) {window.parent.postMessage({sentinel: "amp", type: "embed-size", height: height}, "*");}if (window.webkit && window.webkit.messageHandlers && window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize) {window.webkit.messageHandlers.resize.postMessage(height); resized = true;}return resized;}twttr.events.bind('rendered', function (event) {notifyResize();}); twttr.events.bind('resize', function (event) {notifyResize();});</script><script>if (parent && parent._resizeIframe) {var maxWidth = parseInt(window.frameElement.getAttribute("width")); if ( 500 < maxWidth) {window.frameElement.setAttribute("width", "500");}}</script><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=9efffa36355d" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/63402532020-06-02T18:51:25-07:002022-05-08T04:38:04-07:00Powerful ways we can all be better allies.<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://medium.com/@sherrylynnlee/powerful-ways-we-can-all-be-better-allies-6c39b6127aec?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1920/1*PTT95S1tWLX7UtAGSqn-5w.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="1920" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">Why is this country still treating African Americans so poorly? Inertia. Sadly, it’s that simple.</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://medium.com/@sherrylynnlee/powerful-ways-we-can-all-be-better-allies-6c39b6127aec?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/63075882020-05-07T01:36:03-07:002020-05-30T06:21:59-07:00Coronavirus: What’s the problem?<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://medium.com/@sherrylynnlee/coronavirus-whats-the-problem-56c9cf5bcb3e?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1920/1*mCR_VCYoasXg19WDmrFaUQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="1920" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">The three types of pandemic responses and how they define success.</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://medium.com/@sherrylynnlee/coronavirus-whats-the-problem-56c9cf5bcb3e?source=rss-2917f7c62eea------2">Continue reading on Medium »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62876412020-04-19T21:28:28-07:002020-04-19T23:30:37-07:00Nice one. I’ve read that this is more prominent in millennials than previous generations.<p>Nice one. I’ve read that this is more prominent in millennials than previous generations. Do you think it applies to all? I know I have refused many interviews just on the basis of the company’s cultural reputation, eg if female engineers faced a lot of discrimination or if they seem to be exploiting the contractors who are the fuel they operate on. The problems they work on are interesting for sure, and the roles are intellectually stimulating, but I can’t in good conscience join such an organization unless it is making significant efforts to change for the better.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=a87e6c213fb7" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62875452020-04-19T15:01:51-07:002020-04-19T19:00:51-07:00Hi, thanks for reading and responding.<p>Hi, thanks for reading and responding. I did not mean to imply that Canada was involved in each one of those wars, but more that they have both taken federal action to go to war multiple times and thus, are able to organize at the federal level in emergency situations. I will make a rectification per your point on Vietnam to make it more clear.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3ce205b58c03" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62875462020-04-19T14:56:35-07:002020-04-19T19:00:52-07:00Hi Eric,<p>Hi Eric,</p><p>I appreciate your response and I can agree with you on a few points, but there are nuances.</p><p>I agree with you that sitting at home for a year is not a viable option. No one is saying that the lockdown will last this long. However, I do not agree that staying home is useless. Here is why: if less people are out circulating at any given time, the rate at which new people get contaminated will be slower. Therefore, it is more likely that those who do get infected, and who do need ventilators and such, will be able to get the care they need. If everyone just goes out, then the healthcare system will quickly be overwhelmed like it is in New York, and there will be more preventable deaths that are simply due to lack of hospital beds/equipment. This “flattening the curve” also gives us time to create/import more PPE to protect those who, as you say, do not have the choice to stay home and have to work. Does that make sense?</p><p>If all the states had gone on lockdown at the same time, then we would not have had as many cases as we do now.</p><p>I am also looking forward to re-opening, but I still would not go out (even if I can) unless I have to. Even though I’m unlikely to experience severe symptoms, or even have any symptoms at all, I could be a carrier and infect my loved ones. I would never want to risk their life unnecessarily, just because I felt like going to a crowded beach. I don’t think any country is planning to just reopen everything at once, that would be chaos. I think a staggered approach would make sense, when the data suggests that the curve has been flattened, and the risk of re-opening part of it is not going to get us right on a logarithmic growth path.</p><p>If you believe that comparing Mauritius to the U.S. and Canada is unfair, then you should also concede that comparing the U.S. (340 million) to Belgium (11 million) is unreasonable.</p><p>Right now, the death rate per million in the U.S. is lower. But the U.S. was a few weeks behind Europe and hasn’t peaked yet. It takes a while before people who are contaminated actually die from the disease. The picture might look very different in a few weeks. I’m sadly quite confident that by the end of it, we might be #1…</p><p>Also, it is work asking whether “death rate per million” is the right metric to use here. You can slice and dice numbers in different ways based on what insight you are looking for:</p><p>If you want to know the difference between universal vs private healthcare, perhaps it would be more useful to compare the ratio of deaths to confirmed positive cases, because people who don’t have coverage are more likely to die if they can’t have access to ventilators when they need one.</p><p>If you look at today’s numbers for the U.S., that’s 40,478 deaths and 762,496 positive cases, giving us a death rate of 5.3%, which is higher than the estimate from WHO.<br><a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/">https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/</a></p><p>But even that is not quite accurate, since the people who die today, are a proportion of the number of people who were positive at the time when they got infected. For every person who dies today, there’s a bunch more people who are getting infected today, that we won’t know about until a week or two later. Here’s more on that: <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-are-covid-19-death-rates-so-hard-to-calculate-experts-weigh-in#Why-calculating-the-death-rate-is-so-tricky">https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-are-covid-19-death-rates-so-hard-to-calculate-experts-weigh-in#Why-calculating-the-death-rate-is-so-tricky</a></p><p>The reason those countries in Europe are struggling is partly due to the healthcare system being overwhelmed with so many patients reaching critical condition at the same time. It has nothing to do with universal healthcare.</p><p>Europe definitely got caught like a deer in the headlights with the surge of cases. Europeans might look like they’re in worse shape right now but there is a nuance that is fundamental to the discussion here:</p><p><strong><em>They might not get care because the hospital is completely full, but they will not be denied care because they don’t have money to pay for it. </em></strong>That is something you do not seem to get, or care about. If your family were to fall on hard times and have no insurance, I would not want you to die because you couldn’t pay for hospitalization! That sounds criminal to me! You deserve treatment, just like the rich people.</p><p>We are “lucky” that the U.S. is not at that point yet, except on the East Coast. We should use that to our advantage and improve our healthcare system, and improve access to care before the next epidemic/pandemic. Because it will happen, that’s just life. But we can prepare for it and be more fair to our citizens who are less financially secure.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=a6b7bc5bd13" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62873632020-04-19T14:20:00-07:002020-12-15T06:09:57-08:00While I concede that higher traffic would account for a higher initial infection rate due to travel…<p>While I concede that higher traffic would account for a higher initial infection rate due to travel cases, most of the cases currently in the U.S. are through community transmission. In that department too, the U.S. has not done a very good job on the federal level. With the resources the U.S. has, the federal government could have done so much more to raise awareness about the risks of the disease instead of minimizing the problem, even after cases were identified on U.S. soil.</p><p>Border control, while could have been better, was not the main issue. Everything else after that is the issue. Lack of preparedness when it comes to PPE and ventilators, minimizing the risks, pandering to right leaning states by pointing fingers at other cultures, and now, encouraging people to gather and protest lockdowns. That is just criminal in my opinion. It’s inevitable that some of those people will get infected and possibly die.</p><p>Even just implementing rules for supermarket shopping (see the <strong>Curfew</strong> section) would have been a huge help in keeping this under control.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=657bb4c7f9f9" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62873642020-04-19T14:12:07-07:002020-04-19T14:30:24-07:00Thank you for your response Amrita. I really appreciate you taking the time.<p>Thank you for your response Amrita. I really appreciate you taking the time.</p><p>I completely agree with you that now is NOT the time to get complacent at all. However, the intent of my article is to compare what measures were mandated by each government to curb the spread, and in that department, I certainly think Mauritius went the extra mile, especially when it comes to the shopping rules, as well as isolating every single case, whether or not they are symptomatic.</p><p>I definitely agree that more could have been done, especially when it comes to repatriating Mauritians. I hope they will do so soon. However, of the measures they did take to contain the virus locally, I think they did a good job in such a short amount of time, and especially when you compare the resources and infrastructure that Mauritius has, compared to the U.S. or Canada. It wasn’t perfect, but it did impress me. And I’m not usually very impressed by the Mauritian government… I can assure you that…</p><p>While I agree that an island has topographical advantages, Canada only shares borders with the US, though a very very expansive border. But my main beef with their measures is that it seemed more perfunctory at first, not rigorously enforced. Canada never implemented temperature screening. After Italy was a hotspot, there were reports from passengers coming from Italy who were shocked that they breezed through the airport with no further screening at YUL, one of the designated screening airports.</p><p>9/11 and previous wars lead me to believe that the U.S. has the ability to react faster and more cohesively at the federal level when it wants to, but did not do so in this case because Trump was hoping it would go away and the stock market would be doing well when it’s election time. Every day, there is misinformation in the US and some people still aren’t taking this seriously enough. The focus for the right is how much the economy will suffer. They’re not talking about how many Americans are dying because of lack of coverage. They’re not talking about how many people got infected because they didn’t shut down the beaches in Florida or the churches in some of the western states soon enough. There doesn’t seem to be a decisive, cohesive plan on the national level.</p><p>Canada is doing much better in terms of their messaging, as pointed out in the article. I like that Prime Minister Trudeau constantly emphasizes his reliance on public health officials and medical experts. He does a good job of calling for Canadian solidarity.</p><p>I don’t claim that the economies of Mauritius, Canada or U.S.A. are comparable, but I think it is fair to compare the leadership and agility shown by the three governments.</p><p>I did not know about the vitamin D deficiency being a factor. That is interesting and as an expert in your field, I’m sure you’ve done your research. However, immunity is one thing. But can the added immunity after summertime be more than enough to compensate for the difference between raising awareness instead of minimizing the problem, erring on the side of caution instead waiting and seeing, mandating strict sanitary rules in shops instead of leaving it to businesses to volunteer to do so? I can’t say for sure, but I highly doubt so.</p><p>But, I agree with you, we need to stay vigilant! It’s not over yet in Mauritius. It’s a sign that the government is doing the right thing, but it’s not over yet.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=73c9ee3f8a08" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62862202020-04-17T22:13:49-07:002022-05-22T12:27:37-07:00The little country that could — and did — take on the Coronavirus<h3>The little country that could — and did — take on the Coronavirus</h3><p>A small African democracy shows the Western World a thing or two about leadership and organization in controlling a pandemic</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*2TAp6SdBCazNhJG9gzNZ8g.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Grandma showing me around her favorite hawker stalls in Mauritius, circa 2014. She can’t wait to get out of confinement to take the bus and walk the streets again.</figcaption></figure><p>The tiny island nation of Mauritius — my homeland — has been hit hard by the Coronavirus. And, like many transplants to the United States, I am checking in daily with my family to see how they are doing.</p><p>But here’s the twist: they may be in a better place than I am right now.</p><p>That’s because the government of this diminutive “Third World” nation of 1.26 million people seems to have to put into place a plan that is actually working. In the past five days, no new cases have been detected.</p><p>I think I’m in a unique position to do a case study of three countries — the U.S., Mauritius and Canada — having resided in each nation for a number of years. As I compared each government’s response to the pandemic, I was left with the unmistakable conclusion that bigger is not always better.</p><p>Growing up in Mauritius, I never thought much of the local government. They did an OK job, but there have been scandals with flagrant evidence of cronyism and nepotism. But in the past weeks, time and again, I have been impressed as Mauritius outshined its North American counterparts in dealing with the pandemic.</p><p>Although I think Prime Minister Trudeau’s team is doing a reasonable job in Canada, the United States has proven to be inept at the federal level, although some state governors and county officials are demonstrating leadership.</p><h3><strong>A little slice of paradise</strong></h3><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/920/1*Hb_8AjpKKhRhto6q2ttljw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>You probably have not heard of Mauritius, unless you remember reading about the Dodo bird in history class. Mark Twain visited the place, situated east of Africa in the Indian Ocean, and designated it “heaven on earth.” Roughly the size of Maui, and very similar in climate and terrain, Mauritius is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density">10th most densely populated country</a> in the world.</p><p>Most inhabitants are descendants of former slaves from Africa or indentured laborers from India, brought hundreds of years ago to work on sugar and tea plantations by the Dutch, French, then British empires. My family and other Chinese arrived in the middle of the last century, mostly to flee war in China.</p><p>Mauritius declared independence in 1967 and its political system, a hybrid of British and French, ranks as the only “fully democratic” government in Africa, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index">according to one study</a>. By the way, it ranks higher than the U.S. in that index.</p><h3><strong>The early response</strong></h3><p>The World Health Organization (WHO) was first notified of the novel coronavirus on Dec. 31, 2019. They did not declare it a global health emergency until Jan. 30. So I was impressed to find Mauritius started screening passengers landing at its international airport on Jan. 22, with nine passengers isolated in quarantine centers by Feb. 1.</p><p>The U.S. and Canada both started screening on Jan. 17, but only at select airports and only requiring symptomatic passengers to self-quarantine at home.</p><p>On Jan. 29, a few days after the U.S. and Canada had confirmed their first travel-related cases and yet still before WHO had declared emergency, Mauritius announced additional screening measures, including body temperature measurements, for passengers to and from China. It also set up a fast-track system for suspected cases, to minimize contact with other passengers and staff.</p><p>The next day, the Centers for Disease Control in the United States (CDC) confirmed t<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/health/coronavirus-cdc-usa.html">he first case of community transmission in the U.S</a>., prompting additional U.S. locations to start screening passengers from China. Canada made similar updates to its process.</p><p>Being a small island, one could argue that Mauritius had the advantage when it comes to screening and quarantining every passenger coming through its single airport.</p><p>However, even before this pandemic, all arriving passengers were required to report sore throats, fevers, coughs and other symptoms to the authorities. The health department would then diligently follow up on those with symptoms.</p><p>Mauritius receives about 1.3 million tourists per year and is among the 20 busiest airports in Africa. Screening passengers is no small undertaking, but when the economy is so heavily dependent on tourism, it makes sense, economically.</p><p>By March, there were still no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Mauritius. While some locals were worried that the government was covering up the presence of the virus, the government was being cautious without being alarmist. For example, Independence Day celebrations on March 12 were canceled as a precautionary measure.</p><h3><strong>Targeting hot spots</strong></h3><p>As soon as South Korea, Iran and Italy started showing signs of outbreak, visitors from those countries were not allowed on Mauritian soil. Mauritians returning home from those countries were sent to a 14-day quarantine center, fully paid for by the government. The announcement was made on Feb. 28, at which point 24 individuals were isolated. Remember, this is before any cases had even been identified on Mauritian soil.</p><p>During the same time frame, Canada discouraged non-essential travel to Wuhan, where the outbreak originated in China, and re-routed planes from China to one of four international airports for screening. But no measures were taken to reduce traffic from other hot spots.</p><p>In the U.S., flights from China were also rerouted to a handful of international airports for screening. The federal government advised against flights to Hubei province, and discouraged non-essential travel to China. Again, no measures were taken to reduce traffic from other hot spots until <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/03/17/fact-sheet-dhs-notice-arrival-restrictions-china-iran-and-certain-countries-europe">mid-March</a>.</p><h3><strong>Shutting it down</strong></h3><p>On March 18, Mauritius confirmed its first cases and the country did not hesitate in ordering a mandatory lockdown. No inbound commercial flights were allowed into the country except for repatriating Mauritians. No passenger flights at all were allowed in after March 22. Tourists could leave the island before then but no foreign nationals would be allowed entry until further notice.</p><p>As of March 5, Canada determined that it was too late to close the borders to China, reasoning that the virus had already spread to Europe and beyond. Of course, it could have just closed its borders completely at this point, but did not do so. Although Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam reported <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/national/the-road-to-canadas-covid-19-outbreak-pt-3-timeline-of-federal-government-failure-at-border-to-slow-the-virus/">high compliance</a> to the mandatory 14-day self-quarantines, those were imposed for symptomatic passengers only. It wasn’t until March 20 that Canada completely locked down.</p><p>On March 11, the U.S. closed its borders to all foreigners who had visited China, Iran and a number of European countries affected by the outbreak. There has not been any updates on the list of countries, except for a closure of Canadian and Mexican borders on March 20. U.S. citizens are discouraged from any non-essential travel. However, this is an advisory, not a restriction. Borders are still technically open and I still see quite a few <a href="https://flightaware.com/live/airport/KLAX">incoming planes</a> from my downtown Los Angeles apartment.</p><h3><strong>Curfew</strong></h3><p>In addition to the travel restrictions, Mauritius enacted a nationwide curfew. Those who could work from home were required to do so. If remote work was not feasible, the business was required to close but still pay employees their salaries. Only essential businesses are now allowed to remain open, and all those commuting to those businesses for work are required to have a permit to be on the move. Anyone found outside without such a permit is liable for fines and imprisonment.</p><p>Not every plan in Mauritius was flawless, but the government proved able to adapt to changing conditions. When the curfew created a surge of panic buying and crowded supermarkets, the government responded by ordering all supermarkets and bakeries to also close immediately. The next day, a plan to deliver food packs to those in need was announced.</p><p>A week later, supermarkets re-opened with strict guidelines. Surnames are split into three alphabetical groups. Two days of the week are assigned to each group. A national ID card, face mask, gloves, and your own shopping bag are now required to enter a supermarket. All shoppers must also undergo body temperature screening prior to entering and are given hand sanitizer upon entry.</p><p>Supermarket aisles are one-way only, and the floors are marked with 1-meter (3-foot) guides to help shoppers stay apart. Staples are limited per shopper; no hoarding is allowed. Shoppers have 30 mins to complete their purchase.</p><p>Shopping carts, credit machines and check-out counters are disinfected between each customer. Glass panels were installed at each cash register to protect the cashiers. Any supermarkets/convenience stores unable to abide by these rules are not allowed to open until they can do so. This is still in effect.</p><p>Like any working democracy, citizens can voice their opinions. Some disapproved of the radical measures that were put into effect with so little warning, while others complained about the country moving too slowly. Yet the majority of people responded positively to the plea of solidarity.</p><p>Mauritian businesses and government officials are being proactive in helping as well. Hotels volunteered their rooms for quarantine centers, ministers and members of parliament pledged to donate 10% of their salary to relief efforts. A sunglass factory converted to creating face shields for front-line workers. Doctors volunteered their phone numbers to help patients with minor concerns, at no charge, so that health centers can concentrate on viral cases.</p><p>As I struggle to find toilet paper, rice or flour among hoarders in the U.S., where it seems everyone is looking out only for themselves, it warms my heart to see the Mauritian people stand united in this battle.</p><p>In the U.S., California mandated the closure of all non-essential businesses on March 19 and was promptly followed by New York and a few other states. By the end of March, several state governors had mandated lockdowns, but to varying degrees of enforcement.</p><p>States such as the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas and South Carolina still have little to no measures in place. In some states, churches continue to hold church services. In Florida, youngsters flooded the beaches over Spring Break.</p><p>With the White House flip-flopping on its messaging on a daily basis, states have been left to fend for themselves. To this day, there is still no federally mandated lockdown, let alone strict shopping guidelines.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Q0k1K0j4vl9aupvMizR9Sw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>US States with stay-at-home orders, colored by date of implementation.</figcaption></figure><p>Canada also left it to the regions to mandate their lockdowns. All provinces have closed schools, most have closed sit-in restaurants and bars, but not all have ordered a full lockdown. Trudeau has been consistently vocal about the importance of staying home and social distancing. He did state that Canada’s response and eventual opening will be informed by scientific, evidence-based methods only.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ljvP9gV2ksmy4_G74W-vjw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Lockdowns implemented in Canadian provinces</figcaption></figure><h3><strong>Testing, isolation and contact tracing</strong></h3><p>Unlike the U.S. and Canada, Mauritius actually isolates every single positive case and then uses contact tracing to find additional positive cases.</p><p>Anyone testing positive is sent to dedicated hospitals. No visitors are allowed.</p><p>All hospital and health care staff dealing with the disease are essentially quarantined in designated hotels to prevent further spreading.</p><p>Any potentially contaminated individuals are quarantined and tested. After 14 days of quarantine, two consecutive negative tests at least 48 hours apart are required to be eligible to go home. The same requirement applies for recovered patients.</p><p>As of April 14, the testing rate per million in Mauritius is not as high as the U.S. or Canada, but higher than the U.K., France, South Africa, and most African countries. And Mauritius tests every suspected case, unlike Canada and the U.S.</p><p>In Mauritius, free hotlines have been set up to pre-screen anyone with concerns of infection. Lab testing is prioritized for those presenting symptoms such as cough, sore throat, fever. Next in line are people identified through contact tracing and then healthcare workers and other professionals in essential businesses.</p><p>In Canada, online tools for self-diagnosis have been set up in all provinces. Canadians are asked to self-isolate if symptomatic, and only go to healthcare facilities if recommended by a physician. Laboratory tests are not currently recommended for <a href="https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/laboratory-services/test-information-index/wuhan-novel-coronavirus">asymptomatic persons</a>, even if they were identified through contact tracing. Instead, self-isolation is recommended.</p><p>Based on the government’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/health-professionals/interim-guidance-cases-contacts.html">website</a>, health officials have been conducting contact tracing for confirmed and probable cases, but the extent seems limited. Canada is currently <a href="https://emploisfp-psjobs.cfp-psc.gc.ca/psrs-srfp/applicant/page1800?toggleLanguage=fr&poster=1437722">looking for volunteers</a> to ramp up its contact tracing capacity.</p><p>The U.S. has a process very similar to Canada’s, but there are signs that various states will ramp up their tracing capacity and<a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/13/coronavirus-health-agencies-need-army-of-contact-tracers/"> make it a prominent tool in their fight against the coronavirus, as they did to fight SARS in 2003–2004</a>.</p><h3><strong>Healthcare comparisons</strong></h3><p>Both Mauritius and Canada have universal healthcare and so tests and treatment are fully covered.</p><p>The United States does not have universal health coverage, leaving some <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-267.html">27 million Americans</a> without protection even before this pandemic.</p><p>Many of the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/09/830216099/6-6-million-more-file-for-unemployment-as-coronavirus-keeps-economy-shut">17 million of Americans who have lost their jobs</a> in the resulting economic downturn will at some point be cut off from their employer-sponsored healthcare.</p><p>Those without insurance who need medical help can end up in crippling debt, or even worse, denied treatment altogether, as was the case of t<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/us/california-coronavirus-death-child.html">he teenager who contracted the virus, was denied treatment and died </a>simply because he had no insurance.</p><p>It is mystifying that one of the most advanced countries in the world does not consider healthcare a fundamental human right. This leaves the country’s vulnerable citizens even more exposed. Many of them are minorities, according to the CDC.</p><h3><strong>Addressing racism</strong></h3><p>When a few incidents targeting people of Asian descent surfaced, Canada’s Dr. Tam spoke out, as did many other officials.</p><p>In the U.S., Trump exacerbated tensions by intentionally referring to the “China Virus” instead of the internationally adopted COVID-19 or coronavirus.</p><p>It is worth noting that there were no racial incidents in Mauritius.</p><p>Although a minority of 2% of the population, Chinese Mauritians have cohabited peacefully with citizens of Indian, African, and European descent throughout the island’s history. I strongly believe that being taught about my fellow classmates’ religious rituals and beliefs in primary school greatly helped promote respect and tolerance by all. I never felt less Mauritian because I was a minority.</p><h3><strong>Language choices</strong></h3><p>Prime Minister Trudeau called for solidarity and has repeatedly <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/03/16/prime-minister-announces-new-actions-under-canadas-covid-19-response">deferred to public health and medical experts</a>, making it clear that Canada is taking a rational, evidence-based approach to dealing with the pandemic.</p><p>The Trump administration made several war analogies, calling the virus an enemy. But at this point, the White House is mostly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-governors.html">battling the state governors</a> on how to proceed. While Dr. Anthony Fauci, the executive director of the CDC, has become a household name, there have been blatant attempts from the White House to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/us-coronavirus-pence.html">censor the CDC and other agencies</a>.</p><p>In Mauritius, the National Communications Committee has been holding daily briefings, led by health officials. Citizens are advised to be smart, work together and help those in need. The message consistently keeps the population informed and reassured. The language focuses on common sense, solidarity, patience, scientific logic, and compassion. No war rhetoric. No finger pointed at other countries or cultures. No blaming the media.</p><h3><strong>People vs. economy</strong></h3><p>All three countries have taken measures to sustain their economies. But are they putting their people or business interests first?</p><p>Tourism accounts for roughly a quarter of the Mauritian GDP. In the beginning, the population was worried that business would take priority. In late February/early March, Mauritius considered advertising more aggressively in the Australian and African markets to make up for the loss in travelers from Asia and Europe.</p><p>Yet, as soon as it was clear that this pandemic was going to affect the country, there was no hesitation to shut the borders and curb the spread of the virus. This is a country that imports practically everything. Every day, the lockdown is costing the Mauritian economy about 0.19% of the GDP, which has accumulated to 5.3% after 28 days.</p><p>When asked about reopening the economy, and potential lobbying from the business sector, the Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravind_Jugnauth">Pravind Jugnauth</a> asserted that public health and safety come first, and that he will not compromise on that subject.</p><p>Canada, relying heavily on WHO and scientific data available, initially decided that transmission was unlikely. By the time WHO confirmed otherwise, the virus was a pandemic. The rationale then was that closing borders would not do much good, since the virus was already everywhere. Canada, the second largest country geographically, is resource rich, and can produce much of its food. Could the Canadian economy not have sustained the same approach as Mauritius?</p><p>For Trump, it has been clear from the onset that the economy — and re-election — are his top priorities. It took state governors to implement mandatory lockdowns to mitigate the threat.</p><p>One might argue that both Canada and the U.S. are much larger countries and could not do otherwise. However, the fact that they were able to mobilize their entire countries to go to war in World War II, Vietnam, Iraq, and federally mandate increased airport security after 9/11 suggests that, if they had the will, perhaps they could find the way.</p><h3><strong>Conclusion</strong></h3><p>One thing you learn very early on as a computer scientist is the difference between linear and logarithmic scales. Every additional day spent weighing the pros and cons of a lockdown results in exponentially more cases, increasing chances of overwhelming the healthcare system and causing a spike in death rates.</p><p>Mauritius’ <a href="https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56">swift action </a>resulted in a very clear success as of this writing. For the past few days, no new cases have been reported. In the U.S. and Canada, by contrast, it is unclear whether they can even say when curve might flatten, let alone achieve zero new daily cases.</p><p>Now, before discounting Mauritius as some puny little island, please note that other countries in the region have also achieved zero positive cases per day, including poverty-stricken Madagascar, with a population of 26.3 million and a geographic size slightly larger than California.</p><p>It is worth asking why much more developed economies with vast resources were unable to bite the bullet and shut down completely as Mauritius did.</p><p>The nine Mauritian virus fatalities are tragic, but compare that to the U.S., as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/hart-island-mass-graves-coronavirus-new-york/2020/04/16/a0c413ee-7f5f-11ea-a3ee-13e1ae0a3571_story.html">New York digs mass graves to cope with the staggering number of deaths</a>. Canada is doing much better than the U.S., but is that the best it could have done, given the information at the time?</p><p>Since the first confirmed case on March 18, Mauritius has logged 324 positive cases and nine deaths. But WHO had originally estimated that Mauritius would have up to 1,017 cases at this point, well over twice what the country is now reporting. It has now been five consecutive days without positive cases, and it’s looking like the curfew might be lifted soon.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/468/1*a3OiLVWyr91_ZEyfSm_SIQ.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Projected cases by WHO (red) vs actual cases (green) in Mauritius as of 4/8/20</figcaption></figure><p>Mauritius knows well that protecting lives ultimately is good for the economy. That’s actually something we are taught in school: our country’s only true natural resource is the Mauritian people.</p><p>It’s ironic that the most modest of these three countries has been the most nimble and effective in protecting its people and showing the world how to handle a pandemic.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=c36cb841fa2f" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62677002020-03-31T14:45:04-07:002020-03-31T14:45:04-07:00Great American Song Contest Finalist!<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.greatamericansong.com/honorary.html"><img src="http://www.greatamericansong.com/images/finalist-200.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="167" width="200" /></a></p>
<p>We just learned that our song "Let a Day Together Be Christmas" is among the top 10 finalists for the Great American Song Contest in their Special Category (Holiday). A few months ago, Sherry's song "Heads Up" was also announced as a semi-finalist in the rock category for the International Songwriting Competition. These aren't fancy awards, but they are little signs that we're heading in the right direction. It's hard to evaluate one's own art objectively, so little wins like these are welcome positive reinforcements! Time to celebrate with a glass of wine :)</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/62547842020-03-19T02:38:16-07:002020-03-19T07:15:38-07:00How COVID-19 can help you as an artist.<p>Gigs are being cancelled, the future seems uncertain, there’s a lot to cause anxiety right now if you’re an artist. But have you seen the videos that have been circulating from Italy lately? In this time of crisis, it is music that is keeping the Italians connected at a distance.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fx_rLw6SCSmE%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dx_rLw6SCSmE&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2Fx_rLw6SCSmE%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/10f150549759957a6459db2967347b0f/href">https://medium.com/media/10f150549759957a6459db2967347b0f/href</a></iframe><p>This pandemic will have horrible ramifications for many of us, but it is also a reminder to the world that art is valuable. Your art. Your music. It’s powerful stuff. That’s what people cling to when everything else is up in the air. They come together and sing and hope for better days ahead.</p><p>Many of my friends have started live streaming on Facebook and Instagram. Some include Venmo/Paypal links as digital tip jars. Some just do it for fun. You can too. It might be good therapy for both you and your audience.</p><p>Some of my artist friends are getting even more creative and offering to read/sing to children. Some are creating mantra songs. Some are writing funny <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCYxhUAWUv0">PSA spoofs</a>. Some are writing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0VWEM7UIdo">songs about the virus.</a></p><p>This too shall pass (if we all abide by social distancing and hand hygiene protocols). But not without a spurt of creative output. People are sick of hearing about the virus or the elections 24/7. Give them something else to take their minds off of current events. Take them on a journey to a positive place of hope and compassion. Doing so will remind your audience how magical music can be, and how much it should be valued. So…</p><blockquote>What will you do provide relief through your art?</blockquote><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=e247858688d6" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/how-covid-19-can-help-you-as-an-artist-e247858688d6">How COVID-19 can help you as an artist.</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/59965312019-12-07T17:43:47-08:002020-07-11T05:10:54-07:00Use our card designs this holiday season!<p>Every year, we like to design our own holiday cards to send to colleagues, friends & family. This year, we're happy to announce that the card designs are included in every purchase of our latest holiday EP. We have three designs this year, all inspired from our original holiday songs, and you get all three of them for FREE when you get the EP! If you don't want to buy the EP, you can still buy the cards. You get all three for just $1.00. We will donate the revenue from the cards at the end of the year. </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="CHRISTMAS" data-link-type="page" href="/christmas" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/d4308a9e5daccfafa1971119345ef29b9a612980/original/img-2066.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>HOW TO GET THE DESIGNS: </p>
<p>Head to <a contents="23rdhr.com/christmas" data-link-label="CHRISTMAS" data-link-type="page" href="/christmas" target="_blank">23rdhr.com/christmas</a>. If you buy the EP "Home for the Holidays", it will be among your bonus files. If you prefer to buy the cards only, scroll a little further down and you'll see the option to buy the cards. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>HOW IT WORKS:</p>
<p>We've set it up to be as simple as possible. The PDFs you will receive will have two identical cards on each page. All you have to do is print, separate, write & send!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PAPER SIZE:</p>
<p>The designs will print beautifully on standard US letter size paper.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PAPER TYPE:</p>
<p>You can use any paper type you prefer. You can get card paper from your favorite office supply stores. We personally prefer to buy the type that is pre-perforated so that the cards separate with just a gentle pull. No need for scissors! You can get them from Amazon and they come with envelopes too!</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004Z63V/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&psc=1&linkCode=li2&tag=23rdhour-20&linkId=0653ae08d40ac78f7377c2afb228de2c&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00004Z63V&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=23rdhour-20&language=en_US" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a><img src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=23rdhour-20&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=B00004Z63V" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" width="1" /></p>
<p>Note: We are part of Amazon's affiliates program. Should you click and buy this item, we would receive a small referral commission at no extra cost to you. </p>
<p> </p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/59873102019-12-01T13:56:30-08:002020-12-02T22:50:43-08:00Our New Christmas Album is Out!<p><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="Rkcdmc0omAQ" data-video-thumb-url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/Rkcdmc0omAQ/mqdefault.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rkcdmc0omAQ?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="180" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="album" href="/album/1248929/home-for-the-holidays" style="" target="_blank"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/370d1ec4e581c96b4508ac331ec2e8d745281ed8/original/3000x-home-for-the-holidays.png/!!/undefined/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.png" class="size_m justify_center border_" /></a>Each year, we pledge to begin work on our Christmas songs early. Each year, we fall short of our goal and find ourselves in an all-too-familiar predicament, working through the Thanksgiving weekend to put the finishing touches on our latest musical creations. (This year had a bit of twist in the culinary department: Chinese takeout on Turkey Day.) </p>
<p>The challenge, of course, is finding inspiration to write about snow and eggnog and presents under Der Tannebaum when it’s a balmy 90 degrees Fahrenheit in downtown Los Angeles. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, we did it! And our latest album “Home for the Holidays” is available for downloading at 23rdhr.com (streaming will be available Dec. 10 or thereabouts). </p>
<p>As always, we have included some classics and are introducing some new original tunes. </p>
<p>“Get Me Home for the Holidays” was co-written with <a contents="Caley Rose" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://caleyrose.com" target="_blank">Caley Rose</a>, another resident of the greater L.A. basin.</p>
<p>Songwriting is a craft, like any other. It requires practice, diligence, the ability to review and edit your work objectively. And sometimes, a song just seems to fall from the sky. I believe the entire co-writing process on this number was about 2 hours. It began with a guitar riff from George (our usual starting point), and the lyrics and melody just seemed to fall in place. </p>
<p>For recording, Caley also takes the lead on the vocals, with Sherry adding harmonies. Sherry and George performed and arranged all the instrumentation (both real and virtual instruments). And Sherry produced this masterpiece, which includes 85 separate tracks. We figure she spent 100 hours in the process. Much of this was a learning curve for her, with many lessons learned. But she is now a bonafide L.A. record producer.</p>
<p>Sometime during the summer, Sherry and George were kicking around some ideas for another original song. We love the slow, melancholic ballads and decided to try our hand at crafting one of these. </p>
<p>The end result is “Christmas Feels Lost Without You.” </p>
<p>Once again, the arrangement was by George, based on a guitar riff he had kicking around, and Sherry handled all the production. She put all her learnings from the work on “Get Me Home for the Holidays” to practice, and, thankfully, she was able to polish this one off in far less time. </p>
<p>“O Holy Night” is a classic hymn performed in a late-night jazz cabaret style, with just George on piano and Sherry on vocals. </p>
<p>For “Ave Maria,” we stuck to the traditional Schubert melody and style. This number also includes just George on classical guitar and Sherry’s mellifluous voice. </p>
<p>If you’ve been following our music for the past two years, you’ll recognize “Let A Day Together Be Christmas” and “Have You Noticed the Season?” These tracks are remastered as part of this package. </p>
<p>We would like to thank Caley Rose for her contributions to our new offering. </p>
<p>And, as always, a shout out to our friends at StudioPros for mastering our tracks. We’ve been working with Kati O”Toole and the gang at StudioPros for many years now. Kati handles our frantic last-minute requests with aplomb and she and the team always come through for us.</p>
<p> </p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/59316612019-10-18T15:25:14-07:002021-12-23T03:36:18-08:00How to get people to pre-save your song on Spotify.<h3>How to encourage people to pre-save your song on Spotify.</h3><p>I recently was complimented by other artists about a post I made on facebook for our upcoming release’ pre-save campaign because it made them actually want to click that link. One asked me if she could copy what I wrote.</p><p>I realized during that conversation that many musicians don’t actually know why pre-save campaigns exist and why people should care about it.</p><p>Below is the post I made on facebook. You can copy it for your own campaign if you like. <strong><em>You don’t have to give us credit, but adding a song of ours to your playlist would be amazing.</em></strong> Further down, I explain the whole algorithm thing and why pre-saves and pre-orders help indie artists.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*kMijzX2M27Lyno2ET-08eQ.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><h3>What I wrote (go ahead and copy it)</h3><p><em>In this “algo-driven” world, every pre-save and pre-order counts.</em></p><p><em>That’s because on release day, you’ll get the download or it will be added to your library.</em></p><p><em>This tells “the algorithms” that the song might be worth showing to more people via their playlists.</em></p><p><em>Maybe we’ll get a cup of coffee’s worth of royalties.</em></p><p><em>So please click below? :-)</em></p><p><a href="http://bit.ly/32nM6wF">Sidelines Aren't for You by 23rd Hour</a></p><h3>Why it works</h3><p>Most people don’t know how streaming works, and how user behavior drives the algorithms that ultimately decide how many new listeners will be shown your song in their customized playlists. Just telling them to pre-save often annoys them more than anything because… Why should they pre-save it when they won’t be able to hear it until it’s out anyway?</p><p>What you really want to do is give them context as to why it’s important to you, and how a <em>small action that is of little cost to them</em>, could make a huge difference for the artists they like, especially indie ones like you.</p><h3>What’s the fuss about algorithms anyway?</h3><p>Imagine you’re designing Spotify. Your goal is to suggest songs for your listeners that they will enjoy to keep them listening. If you suggest songs that are too different from their taste, they’ll think you’re an idiot and move to Apple Music or another competitor! No pressure…</p><p>To complicate things, your platform is receiving 1000 new songs per hour from indie artists and majors. That’s 168,000 new songs a week on top of the existing catalog of almost all songs ever recorded! How do you decide what goes on Spotify’s curated playlists, what goes into various users’ “Discover Weekly” or “Release Radar”, and what doesn’t go anywhere?</p><p>You can rely on humans to curate playlists to certain extent. All streaming services have staff playlist curators who tend to their high profile playlists. But humans are slow. There’s only so many songs they could go through before the next #NewMusicFriday and there’s no way you can have enough of staff to listen to 168,000 new songs in a week and classify them into the right playlists. You need a better strategy that will both be easier on your staff and more rewarding for your listener.</p><p>This is where “the algorithms” come in. If you collect some data about each listener, you can create a profile for that particular listener’s taste, take note of the songs they skip, songs they like, songs they put on repeat, and then make an educated guess as to what new music you can present them that they will love. So if the algorithm notices that I have a healthy number of Mauritian artists on heavy rotation, it might put a new release by another local artist on my radar. Makes sense right? They help me discover my new favorite artist, and I happily keep paying them $9.99 a month.</p><p>The problem with indie music is that there is often not enough listener data for the algorithms to know where your music would fit best. I suspect that eventually they will get better at analyzing the music itself and rely less on heuristics like “listeners who like this artist also like artist X, so let’s show this song to artist X’s fans too”. I’m over-simplifying here, but you get the idea.</p><p>Another way they use data is to gauge popularity of a song. If a growing number of people are listening to a song and not skipping it, there’s a pretty good chance that song is very catchy and will keep listeners engaged. It’s in Spotify’s best interest to serve that to people who like that kind of music and keep them listening on Spotify.</p><h4>Why pre-saves and pre-orders matter</h4><p>Especially if you have a small following, it would benefit you to use pre-save/pre-order campaigns. Here’s why.</p><p>Let’s say you run a pre-order campaign and you get 100 friends to pre-order it. This actually means that the minute your song actually goes live, you’ve already sold 100 copies.</p><p>In contrast, let’s say you didn’t have the pre-order campaign but instead just told your friends that the song is coming out on a certain day. Assuming the same 100 friends intend to buy your song, there’s a good chance some of them will get it on release day, and some of them will get around to it the next day, week, month or year.</p><p>Now for the basic math. What would give an impression of more momentum: 100 downloads in 1 day or 100 in 100 days? You can bet the algorithm is more impressed with 100 downloads on day one.</p><p>The same concept applies for pre-saves. If 100 people have pre-saved your song, it will be added to their library on release day, and increase the chances of them listening to 30s of it. Not only does that get you a streaming royalty, but it also tells the algorithm that people care about the song you just released and that it might be worth showing to more listeners. That is why you need to use pre-save/pre-order campaigns</p><p>Here is my template once again:</p><blockquote><em>In this “algo-driven” world, every pre-save and pre-order counts.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>That’s because on release day, you’ll get the download or it will be added to your library.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>This tells “the algorithms” that the song might be worth showing to more people via their playlists.</em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Maybe we’ll get a cup of coffee’s worth of royalties.</em></blockquote><blockquote>
<em>So please click below? :-) </em><a href="http://bit.ly/32nM6wF">http://bit.ly/32nM6wF</a>
</blockquote><p>You can use it as a guide to write your own, or you can just copy my exact words if you like. I hope you found this helpful.</p><p>Oh and if you did, do us a solid and pre-save/pre-order? It would mean the world if you could click below and add “Sidelines Aren’t for You” to your library.</p><p><a href="http://bit.ly/32nM6wF">Sidelines Aren't for You by 23rd Hour</a></p><p>Thank you!</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ffd347e2301a" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/how-to-get-people-to-pre-save-your-song-on-spotify-ffd347e2301a">How to get people to pre-save your song on Spotify.</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/57776192019-06-02T17:08:54-07:002019-07-07T13:51:28-07:00The right way to quit your day job to pursue your passion<p>I left my high paying, very cool tech job to spend a year doing something else I love: music. Some found my decision inspiring, bold. Others were a bit befuddled but wished me well. Many expressed gratitude for my contributions and especially for the way I handled my exit. One manager said he has never seen such a smooth transition. I was surprised to find out that what I did isn’t the default. So, I thought I would share how I think you too can leave your day job gracefully and pursue your passion.</p><p>Spoiler alert: this is no shortcut scheme.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*xffsLl0mwgi4BaUsWdSVNQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><h4>Save up some money</h4><p>It took me about five years of full time work to be able to take one year off. I have to admit I am extremely lucky that my second passion (programming) is a rather lucrative one, but it doesn’t have to be one year. Depending on how much you can earn and save, you can take 3 months off, or 6, 12, or forever. Ideally, if you can make some money doing what you love during that time, it will help you last a little longer. But for that, you’ll need the next point.</p><h4>Practice saying no to yourself</h4><p>I don’t allow myself to impulse-buy much. When I buy clothes online, I preset a budget limit to how much I’m allowed to spend ($100), and can’t buy more clothes for at least 6 months. I’m not stingy at all. If I’m going out, I’ll go to a nice place, but I’ll go less often. Having to choose what to delete from the cart is an exercise in self-managing. When you have no boss, no rigid routine and accompanying paycheck, you need to be able to manage yourself to last as long as you can. If you can’t do that, it will be hard to resist the temptation of just having fun and not really advancing your goals.</p><h4>Run towards your goal</h4><p>“It’s better to run toward something than it is to run away from something” — from one of the many podcast interviews I’ve listened to in the last year.</p><p>In other words, don’t quit because you hate the job. Quit because you found something you’re so driven about that it keeps you up at night, gets you out of bed every morning and makes you feel alive. Quit because you know specifically what you want to do and you need time to do it. Quit because you believe in yourself. If you quit because of this inner passion, rather than because of outer grievances, you will have a much more graceful exit and it will feel great.</p><h4>Plan your exit</h4><p>How much money will you need for housing, healthcare, travel, whatever gear or other expenditure your passion project requires? Have your ducks in a row, know what the consequences will be, have your back up plans figured out. Do you have to move somewhere cheaper? Do you have to apply for new insurance? Check the prices, eligibility, availability of all of these. If your phone is paid for by the company, make sure to add that to your budget. Realistically, how long can you last on the money you’ve saved? Half that is a good goal. So if you’ve saved enough to theoretically last a year, give yourself six months, then re-evaluate whether you can last a full year or need to find a new job.</p><h4>Give at least 2 weeks notice</h4><p>I announced the big news right before the winter break, giving a desired end date of Jan 15. I offered to stay a few more days if they felt it was needed and they asked for 19th. People were a little surprised but understood and wished me well. They also thanked me for telling them in advance and giving them the opportunity to prepare for this change.</p><h4>Find new homes for your projects</h4><p>When I got back after the winter break, my immediate supervisor was away on vacation. After consulting with her boss and his boss, I started transitioning things over to whoever we agreed would be most appropriate for the task. Some were easy, some took weeks of negotiation, but overall, by the time my manager was back, everything had been transitioned with clear documentation on where the project was, what the outstanding items were (if any), and who the contact person would be moving forward. The goal for me was to make sure that my manager wouldn’t have to worry about the transition at all except for the paperwork and hiring someone else eventually.</p><h4>Train your replacement</h4><p>I wanted to train those taking over one of the more involved project and make sure they had the chance to ask me any questions before I leave. My plan was to walk them through the project step-by-step. However, since the negotiations took a few weeks, I was only able to briefly go over the process in an hour-long meeting. Still better than nothing I suppose. If you have the opportunity to do so, train your replacement before you leave.</p><h4>Be gracious</h4><p>Be thankful for the opportunity. After all, without this day job, you wouldn’t be able to afford your passion time off! The least you can do is be gracious, respectful and do your best to make your exit as smooth and pleasant as possible. Leaving on a high note never hurts. Multiple people have said they would love to hear from me if I ever want to go back into the field. Mission accomplished!</p><h4>Keep in touch</h4><p>It never hurts.</p><h4>Be adaptable</h4><p>You might need to move to a smaller place, sell some of your belongings, change your lifestyle. We did. Was it easy? Not exactly. But because we have a clear goal, we don’t let anything else distract us. We can and will adapt.</p><h4>That’s all folks!</h4><p>If you do decide to embark on this crazy voyage like me, please do say hello.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=9ea324200456" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/57603562019-05-19T12:37:49-07:002019-05-19T13:00:54-07:00How to fill a room on a bad weekend<div class="medium-feed-item">
<p class="medium-feed-image"><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/how-to-fill-a-room-on-a-bad-weekend-df9ad49213c?source=rss-5df247e34272------2"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1920/1*35GY7C28P-Evb_Afr6SW2Q.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" width="1920" /></a></p>
<p class="medium-feed-snippet">It is hard to turn down a sweet gig. We were aware that at least part of our core audience would likely be out of town for the July 4th…</p>
<p class="medium-feed-link"><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/how-to-fill-a-room-on-a-bad-weekend-df9ad49213c?source=rss-5df247e34272------2">Continue reading on SmartMusicianGuide »</a></p>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/57356562019-04-28T17:20:43-07:002019-04-28T18:15:23-07:00Thank you for making music sustainability an integral part of your company vision.<p>Thank you for making music sustainability an integral part of your company vision. It is imperative for us creatives to do our due diligence and carefully vet our distribution channels, making sure we are not shooting ourselves in the foot in the long run. Your article does a great job explaining why we have good reason to stand our ground when it comes to the value of our art.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=8872d1cfa243" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/55461302018-12-08T19:05:09-08:002018-12-08T21:15:30-08:00Wrap Your Head Around Backups — Musicians Edition<h3>Wrap Your Head Around Backups — Musicians Edition</h3><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*IQwsZLFiI2joJzVimrOdNQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>You know you need it but just the thought of it is so… boring. I get it. I get that feeling too and I’m a techie! That said, if making music is your business, then you have to set yourself up for success by being prepared as much as possible. Here’s how to do it.</p><p>The gist is, you want</p><ul>
<li>a setup that makes sense for your work</li>
<li>a physical backup (or two) — this would be the fastest recovery method</li>
<li>a cloud backup — slower than physical, but good to have in case your physical backup is also lost.</li>
<li>a workflow that will allow you to focus on music, not backups!</li>
</ul><h3>The Setup</h3><p>Here are a few types of files you might primarily be concerned about</p><ul>
<li>Your “<strong>finished products</strong>”: releases, artwork, and any other accompanying document. You need to be able to access those from anywhere, quickly. For that, I recommend saving them to a <strong><em>synchronized</em></strong> <strong><em>cloud storage</em></strong> service like DropBox, Box, iCloud, GoogleDrive so that you can get to them from any of your devices anytime. I personally use DropBox, which is $9.99/month for 1TB</li>
<li>Your <strong>recording projects</strong> such as Logic Pro X or ProTools sessions. Depending on how much you’ve got, it may or may not make sense to have it all in Dropbox. I personally save the recent ones/the ones I’m currently working on in Dropbox for easier collaboration. If you are very prolific and are running out of space to store them, you could move those to an external drive. Let’s call this your <strong><em>archive drive</em></strong>. You may have multiple ones.</li>
<li>Your sample libraries and loops such as EastWest, Ivory or ThatSound. These easily take up a lot of storage. Left on your main computer, you will quickly find your system slowed down to a crawl due to lack of space. It would make more sense to move those to a separate drive. I am moving all of mine to a 4TB external drive that I call the <strong><em>sample library drive</em></strong>: <a href="https://www.logicprohelp.com/move-logics-additional-content-secondary-drive/">https://www.logicprohelp.com/move-logics-additional-content-secondary-drive/</a>
</li>
</ul><h3>Physical Backup + Cloud Backup service</h3><p>Dropbox and similar services only provide a convenient way to access particular files (that are in the Dropbox folder). It does not store all your other stuff such as app data, mail, downloads, documents, etc. For that, you want a true backup system. Preferably, you want both a physical and cloud backup for extra protection.</p><h4>Physical Backup</h4><p>First let’s talk physical backup. If you’re a Mac user, you already have the most intuitive backup system at your fingertips: <strong>Time Machine. </strong>If you’re on Windows, <a href="https://beebom.com/time-machine-alternatives-windows/">perhaps Genie</a> might be a comparable alternative. If you’re on Linux, you probably don’t need my help ;-)</p><p>Time Machine basically stores a copy of your system and files and allows you to “go back in time” by restoring your system with all its files exactly as it was at a particular point in the past. Let’s say you installed some new software that completely screwed things up, you can just go back and pretend it never happened. How far back you can go depends on how much storage space you have for the backups. Time Machine will do an initial full backup (which may take an entire day), then incrementally save the changes you make. It’s very easy to set up. You can also encrypt the backup.</p><p>There is one catch. Time Machine backups are not bootable. If your computer’s main drive is completely fried, you need to be able to boot from something before you can restore from Time Machine. For this reason, it is also advisable to have a bootable backup of your main drive. This would especially come in handy when you’re on deadline. You can do so using <a href="https://sites.fastspring.com/bombich/product/ccc5">Carbon Copy Clone</a> ($39.99) or using the Mac’s free Disk Utility to do it manually. CCC allows you to schedule it and make automatic incremental backups, which is nice.</p><h4>Cloud Backup</h4><p>Why do you need this? Well, let’s say someone broke into your house and stole both your computer and your backup drive. Then what?</p><p>I am currently researching options. Here are a few:</p><p><a href="https://www.backblaze.com/backup-pricing.html">BackBlaze</a> offers unlimited storage, advanced security features, they’ll send you a hard drive anywhere in the world for free if you need to restore your data. It has a 15-day trial and then it’s about $5/month per device. It works with both Mac & Windows.</p><p><a href="https://store.qdea.com/synchronize_pro_x_features.html">Synchronize! Pro</a> is the only one that offers a bootable backup. It seems to also offer unlimited storage and archiving capabilities to free up space on your drive. Unfortunately it does not support versions of Mac OS more recent than 10.10. We are currently on 10.14 so that’s a problem in the long run if the software is going to be discontinued. It works on Mac only.</p><p><a href="https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/business/features/">CrashPlan</a> keeps your deleted files forever, has unlimited storage, advanced security features. It is used by many large corporations so it is unlikely to go away soon. However it is the most expensive option I found so far. It offers a free month trial then is $10/month per device for the small business option. It works on both Mac & Windows.</p><h3>Final Thoughts</h3><p>Arguably, the online backup systems could be a replacement for the physical backups. The only caveat is that, when on deadline, you want to be able to get your stuff fast.</p><p>Remember, you want a “set it and forget it” system so that you can do it once, then go back to way more interesting tasks like making music :-)</p><p><strong><em>Credits:<br></em></strong><em>The tips were compiled from a forum discussion I had with a few other ladies (and gents) in the biz. Thanks to Patti Boss, Carla Kay Barlow, Anne House, Michelle Lockey, Bill Lefler for sharing their strategies with me.</em></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=32378442bef" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/wrap-your-head-around-backups-musicians-edition-32378442bef">Wrap Your Head Around Backups — Musicians Edition</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/55461842018-12-08T17:18:34-08:002018-12-08T23:00:40-08:00Why Crazy Rich Asians Gives Me Hope<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*kSBEU47-UHrjgvlxcHlO7w.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>I recently attended a party where I found myself chatting with two lovely caucasian ladies. Another couple joined the conversation, and we went through the usual “what do you do?” and “what’s next?”. One of the ladies had worked at the same company as I did for a number of years. Both go to church a few blocks from our previous home. It’s a small world.</p><p>Then, I happened to mention that I’m considering a move to Nashville. I fell in love with the city the day I first set foot there. There is no other place like it. Music is just everywhere. It’s not pretentious, it’s reasonably priced. There’s only a few drawbacks: not a huge variety of Asian food, the weather, and… once you get outside of Nashville, it’s a different demographic. I mentioned that the couple of times I’ve been there, I was often the only Asian person in the room, and it felt a little weird. I felt like an outsider, and I felt that my experience didn’t matter. And that was <em>in Nashville</em>. I’m not sure how welcome I would be outside of Nashville as a progressive, Asian, artistic immigrant.</p><p>At that point, my fellow alum interjected. “<em>Wait a minute, I’m from Tennessee…</em>”</p><p><em>Oops. </em>I hope I didn’t offend the lady.</p><p>I invited her to tell me more about how it is to live in Tennessee. She said I’m right about Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville being very different from the small towns in between. Then, she whispered something to her friend and they <strong>promptly turned their backs and left without another word to the rest of us</strong>. So much for God’s word on tolerance? The couple and I gave each other a baffled look, and could only shrug and laugh. I felt bad but also incredulous. I would have apologized for the offense given the chance, but it seemed my interlocutor had no interest in breathing the same air if it could at all be avoided. Oh well.</p><h4>But here’s the point.</h4><blockquote>These ladies were offended by the fact that I dared to say I felt uncomfortable as a minority, thereby reinforcing the feeling that my experience as a minority doesn’t matter. Especially if it doesn’t make the “majority” feel good about themselves. They don’t have to acknowledge it. They can simply dismiss it and go on with their lives.</blockquote><h3>Crazy Asians</h3><p>For so long, the Asian American community has struggled both to fit in and to stand out. I have been told since I was a little girl that I will never, ever make it in western pop music because I’m Asian. It doesn’t matter how talented I am or how hard I work at it. I just don’t look like the rest of them. My own family told me this!</p><p>Now, before you judge them for not being supportive, consider this: Caucasians in America never have to say to their kids “<strong><em>your dreams will never come true because you’re white</em></strong><em>, and that’s just the sad truth</em>”. These parents might have 99 other reasons to discourage kids from an artistic career path but “race” isn’t one of them.</p><p>And this is why Crazy Rich Asians means so much for Asian Americans, especially Asian American creatives:</p><ul>
<li>It has broken the glass ceiling for future generations of Asian American actors. It is a big budget, big studio rom-com. The success of the movie shows that, contrary to Hollywood lore, there is in fact demand for ethnic leads telling ethnic stories.</li>
<li>It’s hard to explain why but it makes me feel at least acknowledged. Before this, I’ve never gone to a movie theater and seen people who look like me on the screen. Not in lead roles in a Hollywood romantic comedy. Definitely not telling our stories as Asian Americans, trying to balance fitting in and preserving our cultural heritage. It always felt like we weren’t an important enough demographic to accurately represent in American media.</li>
<li>It humanized us in a way that only movies can. The Asian cast was not there just to play stereotypical roles. It showed that we’re not just kung fu masters, or tiger moms, or math nerds. We’re people, with dreams, heartaches, and the universal apprehension of in-laws :)</li>
<li>It gives me hope that perhaps my family was wrong about needing a different skin tone, eye color, and face shape to succeed in music nowadays. Personally, one of my favorite parts of the movie was Kina Grannis’ cameo. I’ve been watching her videos since the early days on YouTube and I was just happy to see how far she’s gone.</li>
<li>May I point out that the music was amazing? Loved all the Mandarin covers of jazz standards and pop classics. It helped reinforce the fact that we are really a diverse bunch with different personalities, tastes and talents. I did not understand a word, but I really enjoyed the music. Hats of to music supervisor Gabe Hilfer for that.</li>
<li>Last but not least, it was really cool to find out that the director (Jon M. Chu) is none other than the son of our favorite Chinese restaurant owner and chef. Chef Chu must be very, very proud.</li>
</ul><p>Have you seen the movie? What did you think?</p><p>Also, in your opinion, what would have been the most appropriate response to the ladies I encountered at the party? Was I wrong to say how I felt?</p><p>Let me know in the comments below!</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=94f2c2b69bf4" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/55418972018-12-05T19:40:47-08:002018-12-05T20:45:19-08:00The Opportunity Cost of 10,000 steps<p><em>Or why I never used to exercise.</em></p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*WAJMNGrIxpUjyltfuOOGZg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>This daily goal has always seemed so daunting. On an average work day, I would barely get a few thousand steps. At the end of the day, I would want to spend whatever energy I had left writing, recording and performing music. That usually doesn’t help my step count much, no matter how much I stomp my foot to the rhythm. Yet, just yesterday, I did over 11,000 steps and it seemed like nothing.</p><p>It dawned on me that my lack of energy was probably a result of perceived opportunity cost. I always felt like the gym was too much of a time sink. I had a membership but never went. When you factor in driving there, finding parking, changing, working out, showering, driving back, it really adds up. There’s so many other things I could be doing that would feel more productive AND more enjoyable…</p><p>Although I don’t think I’ll ever truly enjoy the gym, here are things I do to make it feel like a more productive option:</p><ul>
<li>When I’m feeling lazy, I take a book with me and ride the bike for a while. I’ve missed reading and time on a machine goes by so much faster with a book. Audio books are even better.</li>
<li>If something is on my mind, eg. I’m stuck on a problem, I’ll download a tutorial or podcast episode related to the topic on my phone and listen to it while I work out.</li>
<li>If what I need to do is more visual and doesn’t lend itself well to audio learning, then I’ll load a playlist of reference tracks and make mental notes on the songs while I work out.</li>
<li>When all else fails, inspiring podcast interviews or funny YouTube videos might do the trick :-)</li>
</ul><p>That said… I still don’t get to the gym as often as I should, but I am making a little progress. Baby steps!</p><p>What do you do to motivate yourself to exercise? I’m all ears for new ideas.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=341b9e3131c1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/55417452018-12-05T17:39:07-08:002020-06-22T01:13:03-07:00Bookers will love you for this<h3>Venues & Bookers Will Love You For This</h3><h4>Top 17 things to do to make sure you’re booked again</h4><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*0iv5MTgKnmIwfDe5JbRjvw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>You’ve landed a cool gig. Maybe you’re really new and you just booked your first coffee shop feature. Or maybe you just scored your first festival or showcase. Every new gig is an opportunity to make new connections in the music business, no matter how small the venue or audience. You always want people to feel like they were lucky to book you. It’s not hard to do, but it is all in the details.</p><h4>Before the gig</h4><ul>
<li>Make sure you know where to go, what to bring, who will be the point of contact beforehand.</li>
<li>Decide on your set list. You should at least know how many songs you can fit into your allotted time slot.</li>
<li>Think about your banter. Is this a venue where people will want to hear the story behind your music? If so, which story do you tell? Refresh your own memory so you don’t stumble on stage. You want to be as professional as possible to make your booker look good!</li>
<li>Promote the event. Everybody loves some help promoting their event.</li>
</ul><h4>At the Gig</h4><ul>
<li>Bring your best attitude and be flexible. You’re an entertainer, it should be fun to be around you. Introduce yourself to other musicians if you get a chance.</li>
<li>Show up at load-in time. If applicable, ask where to put your gear until it’s your turn to soundcheck, so that it’s not in other people’s way.</li>
<li>Once you’re there, stick around until you’re done soundcheck. Don’t have people chasing you around when it’s your turn.</li>
<li>Try really hard to remember everybody’s names: the sound engineer, MC, volunteers, anybody who’s helping out. It does matter.</li>
<li>Thank everyone personally before you leave.</li>
</ul><h4>On Stage</h4><ul>
<li>If it’s a new audience, repeat your band name a few times.</li>
<li>Mention your social media and/or merch if applicable.</li>
<li>Thank your audience.</li>
<li>Thank your host/venue and the event staff.</li>
<li>Do not apologize. It doesn’t make you appear humble. It makes you appear unprofessional and undeserving of the audience’s time. Even if you make a mistake, the show must go on.</li>
</ul><h4>After the gig</h4><ul>
<li>Send a thank you note. Bonus points for physically mailed thank you cards.</li>
<li>Tag the venue, organizer, photographer etc in your social media posts about the event. If a photographer provided pictures, make sure to give them credit whenever you post those photos!</li>
<li>Share any posts about the event. Promote them. Reciprocity is the name of the game.</li>
</ul><p>There you have it! Have we missed anything?</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=cccf6026c07f" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/bookers-will-love-you-for-this-cccf6026c07f">Bookers will love you for this</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/53956322018-08-21T02:49:23-07:002018-08-21T06:30:48-07:00THE GIST: “The Linchpin” by Seth Godin<p><strong><em>The Gist</em></strong><em> is a new series where I summarize books I’ve read and my reflections on how their concepts apply to my life as a music entrepreneur.</em></p><p>It was 2008 and I was about to release my first EP of 7 songs. As I sought for marketing strategies, I came across bloggers Derek Sivers and Seth Godin. What was supposed to be marketing advice turned out to be full blown life philosophies that I have lived by for about a decade. Both Derek and Seth are gentle, articulate heretics. Their respective blogs are generous with their wisdoms. They have an optimistic outlook on life and the future of art. They question the status quo, and don’t settle for “that’s what people do”. My kind of people. It was not hard to win me over as a customer.</p><p>I’ve just finished re-reading Seth’s book “The Linchpin”. Here are my take-aways:</p><ul>
<li>There is art in every job. All of us are artists when we find an elegant solution to a problem, or add a personal touch to make a customer feel special, or even just offer a kind smile. Art isn’t just for musicians, painters, writers, film makers. It’s for everyone who is willing to be creative.</li>
<li>In a post-commercial world, we need artists. Those people who come up with creative ideas, who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo, even if that means risking ridicule. The linchpins. Not necessarily glamorous people. Just people who are very, very hard to replace because their mere presence makes things better.</li>
<li>Emotional labor is quickly replacing physical labor. It takes emotional labor to care about the job, the customer, the problem, and to come up with a creative solution. It takes emotional labor to put something out in the world despite our lizard brain begging us not to risk rejection and make a fool of ourselves. It takes emotional labor to distance ourselves from our work enough to be objective and not take it personally when it does not work out.</li>
<li>Fear and anxiety are not the same thing. Fear keeps us physically alive. In modern society, very few things actually warrant fear. We mostly experience anxiety. Anxiety is redundant. It is practicing failure that will not actually happen and often makes things worse.</li>
<li>The lizard brain (the resistance) wants you to fit in, worries about what others think, would prefer you to settle for less. Recognize it, acknowledge it, and move on. Often, the lizard brain will urge you to do something rash. Do nothing. Great negotiation tactic.</li>
<li>Linchpins do not let emotional attachment or ego get in the way of the work. Attachment can lead to denial. E.g. the record industry in the early 2000s.</li>
<li>You can fit in or you can stand out. You cannot do both. Success starts with a choice.</li>
<li>We experience joy from giving. Giving only what you are paid for deprives you of an opportunity to experience joy. Do not let the transactional nature of business get in the way of creating joy. It will make work more rewarding.</li>
<li>In the connection economy, the generous win, the hoarders lose.</li>
<li>Masterpieces are shipped. Always ship. On time. The work is worth nothing if it does not ship.</li>
<li>Projects often don’t get shipped because of too much thrashing at the end. More and more people are brought in as the project develops and request different approaches and features, which then introduce bugs and other issues. It should be the opposite. Get all the opinions upfront, then lock it down. Less and less people should be involved closer to ship date. Thrash often, but thrash early.</li>
<li>Artists don’t color outside the box. Outside the box is doomed to fail. On the edge is where everything is happening, where projects are shipped and problems are solved.</li>
<li>You don’t need to change titles, jobs, or careers to be a linchpin. You can decide to become one by seeking interesting problems to solve within your current organization.</li>
<li>You are a genius. Sometimes. Most people are geniuses sometimes. No one is a genius all the time. You could probably do Richard Branson’s job most of the time, except for a few minutes or hours a year when he comes up with the next big thing. The rest of the time, his work is just average work.</li>
<li>The education system was founded on the economics of factory production. Factories needed trained workers who can follow and obey simple instructions. Schools created obedient, competent workers for the factories. Cogs.</li>
<li>In the new connection economy, we need creative people who are not here to follow instructions. And we need to allow them to challenge the status quo. You can have a culture of obedient workers, or one of (sometimes disobedient) linchpins.</li>
<li>Art by default has external benefits for those who haven’t purchased them. If I buy a painting and hang it at my house, anybody who visits can also enjoy it. Art is to be shared.</li>
<li>What people truly want is connection. To be seen.</li>
</ul><h3>So how do I apply this to my career as a songwriter, producer and music entrepreneur?</h3><p>I often wonder what life would be like if I had other people to do all the non-musical tasks. The “genius sometimes” concept is a good reminder that it is acceptable, even normal, for a lot of my work to just be… work.</p><p>Now about thrashing… I have to admit that a number of songs at various recording stages are stuck in limbo. It is time to put in the emotional labor of going through, finalizing, releasing with inevitable imperfections, knowing a shipped piece is better than 20 shelved ones. <em>Much easier said than done. </em>But I will try.</p><p>As a songwriter/musician, I have submitted songs to various opportunities and most of them never pan out. By now, I am used to rejection. Write, record, pitch, rinse, repeat. I don’t take it personally. I know it’s a numbers’ game and that’s just the cost of doing business. That said, sometimes I just can’t help thinking “if I could just get a break”…</p><p>Well, it is time to reverse this rhetorical question and instead ask “how can I be someone else’s break? How can I find and serve a music consumer, solve their problem, and make their day, even if it is to refer them to a different musician?” The challenge to myself here is to go out and make those connections. That’s the part where I’ve honestly been slacking. As emotionally labor-intensive as it gets if you ask me.</p><p>Next, anxiety. It runs so strongly in the family that it’s anybody’s guess whether it’s nature or nurture. Probably both. If I don’t call home, it will be assumed that I am likely deathly ill, kidnapped, possibly murdered by a serial killer. It’s no wonder that to this day, I have nightmares of people dying. Next time I catch myself worrying about things I cannot control, I will have to remind myself of the fact that anxiety is merely practicing failure that hasn’t yet happened (and likely won’t). That said, please try not to die, thank you :-)</p><p>Last but not least, the gift. While the intention comes naturally to me, I don’t always execute. For example, I often think about sending cards, but then I put it off and forget. I also often have ideas for a blog with tips for fellow musicians, but then leave it 3/4 finished in the draft folder for a month. I’m going to try and clear out more time for this in the future. For starters, I’ll try to write a blog on every book I finish with the main points and how I can apply it to my own life. Hopefully it will help someone somewhere.</p><h3>What’s your favorite take-away from the book? Let me know in the comments.</h3><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=742c26969be0" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/53752042018-08-04T21:40:05-07:002021-12-23T22:54:33-08:00Finding Authenticity<p>One day, I stumbled upon the world of sync licensing. Many of the songs being licensed were three chord songs, simple melodies and lyrics, cute but nothing complicated to them. Our songs naturally tend to be cute, but with intricate progressions, so writing a three-chord song felt easily achievable. After all, the first few songs I wrote were similarly simple. I could easily do it again. Or so I thought.</p><p>I was going through a difficult time. As I re-evaluated my life goals and searched for answers, I would go to my car during my lunch breaks and attempt to write happy songs. Even then, I saw the irony. I would look at the list of themes that I had decided were sync-friendly and just brain dump. Most of it was terribly trite. We did finish a couple of these songs, and they weren’t bad, but none of it rang true to me. The result was lackluster music. Happy, upbeat, simple, but nothing I was particularly eager to share or spend a lot of money to produce.</p><p>During one of these solo car lunches, starting with yet another sync-friendly prompt, I found myself writing about what was truly consuming me. I forgot about the theme (independence) and followed my muse to the internal debate I was silently going through every day. I was feeling lost and trapped. I found myself wondering whether I was really enjoying that dream data scientist job I had. What really made me happy? Why was I so anxious all the time? Am I being selfish? Am I crazy?</p><p>It took me months to figure out why I wasn’t feeling fulfilled and what to do next. But in less than 20 minutes that day, I was strumming the chords and singing some of my most honest lyrics to date. It turned out to be a 5 chord song, ridiculously simple, with universal lyrics, all the hallmarks of a sync-friendly song. But it rang true. Perhaps because it <em>was</em> true. I finally got it. I locked the car and walked back to my desk feeling a little lighter than I did before lunch.</p><p>A few months later, I quit my job. I decided to dedicate a full year to building our catalog, learning production, and growing our music business. When I played the song for the first time, the audience reaction was immediate. I could see people connecting with the song, the melody, and my story. Unlike the dozens of happy songs that I half-heartedly tried to write while feeling unhappy, this one was a positive twist on emotions I was really feeling when I was writing. That was the key to the simple but authentic song. Although not everyone will connect with it, I’m confident that we’ll find a home for it somewhere.</p><p>The song is now in production and we will release it soon. In the photo below are the lyrics. If you’d like to hear the song, we’ll be sending it to our subscribers in one of our upcoming newsletters. Sign up now to get it for free: <a href="http://23rdhr.com/signup">23rdhr.com/signup</a>. We send a newsletter every 4–6 weeks.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*YDNBJi6dzhxJ1VTv8RBgCw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=fc470b96a0f0" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/52478472018-05-21T15:40:24-07:002020-11-17T03:36:08-08:00I Quit My Job To Start My Music Business: People React.<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*DHKHm_jqlJAELy7AnQYdiw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Photo credit to the incredibly talented Lesya Kulchenko.</figcaption></figure><p><em>I wasn’t quite sure how my colleagues, friends, or family would react to my departure. For a long time, I dreaded that my decision would be met with derision, shaking heads/eye rolls, and full-blown panic attacks respectively.</em></p><p><em>After months of weighing pros and cons and recalibrating my fears vs what is really likely to happen, I finally got to the point where I had to do it. I just had to.</em><strong><em> I left my job, taking a full year off the 9-to-5 to focus on the craft of songwriting, to travel, and spend time with loved ones. And the reaction was not quite what I expected.</em></strong></p><p><em>I am writing this hoping it will help at least one person out there realize that it likely wouldn’t be the end of the world if you wanted to explore something different for a little while. People will support you. And you can still go back. And going back isn’t proof that your idea failed either. We no longer are expected to pick one thing and stick with it all the time, for ever. Take advantage of it.</em></p><p><em>Below are my favorite reactions and lessons I learned from them.</em></p><p>If you’d like to listen to our music while you read, please do enjoy the embedded @SoundCloud links :)</p><p>The song below is called “Risking More”. It was inspired by a quote found on a friend’s Facebook profile around 2008. It read:</p><blockquote>“If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”</blockquote><p>— Unknown.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F91371216%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fsherrylynnlee%2F02-risking-more-available-on&image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-000210267126-t2tg0d-t500x500.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/2d74b9bf50a5836584aa62ab3cfbef68/href">https://medium.com/media/2d74b9bf50a5836584aa62ab3cfbef68/href</a></iframe><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F443305485%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2F23rdhr%2Fyou-mustve-known&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-000347641464-oy1wbt-t500x500.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/f5f15334acb449d68277208b60748ec9/href">https://medium.com/media/f5f15334acb449d68277208b60748ec9/href</a></iframe><h4>Quote</h4><blockquote>“Glad to hear that you are taking the time — you would have had more regrets about not trying than you will have about a year’s salary. “</blockquote><p>— a colleague</p><h4><strong>Lesson: Time vs money</strong></h4><p>Life is both long and short. We have a lifetime to earn a paycheck. Taking a year or two off to launch your business is not such a crazy idea in the grand scheme of things.</p><h4>Quotes</h4><blockquote><em>“I did a similar thing a few years back — left my job to pursue music production. “</em></blockquote><p><em>— another colleague</em></p><blockquote>“I just came back from a similar break. I took 8 months off to travel with my spouse. Congratulations!“</blockquote><p>— yet another colleague</p><blockquote>“I did the same thing for 18 months. It was awesome. You can always come back and everything will be the same. A little different, but mostly the same. I’ll likely to do it again every 10 years or so. “</blockquote><p>— yet another colleague</p><blockquote>“We’ll miss you. If you’re ever back in the market for a job, definitely let me know. “</blockquote><p>— a boss</p><h4>Lesson: Not that big a deal</h4><p>They got their jobs back. Nobody thought they were out of their minds. In fact, it seems more people do this than I previously thought. And it is something that is celebrated. Most companies want people to come to work refreshed, energized, focused. If you need to take some time off to do your own thing to get to that state, then do your thing and come back when you’re ready to give it 100% again.</p><p>Creativity is becoming more and more salient. To be creative, we have to acquire different experiences. We have to live life in order to find true inspiration and identify real problems to which we can contribute a solution in this world. If you’re running out of ideas, maybe you could benefit from a change of scenery, too.</p><h4>Quote</h4><blockquote>“I have to admit, I’m a little jealous.”</blockquote><p>— many colleagues</p><h4>Lesson: You’re not alone</h4><p>More people long to do this same “crazy” thing than you might think.</p><p>If you are in a position where you can afford to, and you’re driven to make a passion into a profitable business, just start. Even if you end up going back to a 9-to-5, you’ll have a lot of fun and the experience of a lifetime. I know I am!</p><h4>Quote</h4><blockquote>“You’re so brave, you’re inspiring me. “</blockquote><p>— yet another colleague</p><h4>Lesson: Bravery is for the beholder</h4><p>When you acknowledge your authentic self, and how you fit in the market place, and what changes you need to make to maximize both your productivity and your happiness, people won’t think you’re cray-cray. They might actually admire you for daring to do it.</p><p>The best part? <em>It’s not even about “daring” to</em> <em>do it</em>. It looks a lot harder on the outside than it really is. While I did take a long time to make the decision and ensure a smooth transition, it didn’t really feel like I was taking a huge risk, and that it was a do or die career move or anything this dramatic. It just felt like I had to do it. It was almost a compulsion. <em>I needed to do my thing for a while.</em></p><p>You don’t have to be or feel like a hero taking huge risks. Just take calculated steps to what is right for you. <strong>It’s just a bunch of small steps, one foot in front of the other. Bravery lies in the eye of the beholder.</strong></p><h4>Quote</h4><blockquote>“So when are you coming to visit? You can stay longer now!“ — Grandma</blockquote><p>Yes we can, and yes we will.</p><h4>Lesson: Time is all we have to give</h4><p>Your family will be just fine. Just make sure to budget some weeks in there for quality time with them and assure them that your finances are in order. Time together with the <em>whole family </em>is a luxury for those of us who are immigrants. They’ll be happy to see you.</p><p>If you’ve enjoyed this blog, clap, repost, comment, send it to someone who needs it.</p><p>Written by <a href="https://medium.com/u/2917f7c62eea">Sherry-Lynn Lee</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=5f8b74082f59" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/52434042018-05-18T14:59:20-07:002018-05-18T17:45:23-07:00ASCAP EXPO 2018<p>Words of wisdom from those who are at the top of their game in the industry. A selection of our favorite golden nuggets from ASCAP EXPO “I Create Music” 2018, including Meghan Trainor, J Kash, Greg Wells, Claudia Brant, Jeff Ellis, Ne-Yo, Amanda Berman-Hill, Priscilla Renae, Lindsey Stirling.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/784/1*CL7r4PBEutjgfeMR81iXqw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p><em>“My dad told me if you’re gonna do this, you can’t rely on anybody else. You have to know how to do it all yourself. He would buy me gear for Christmas. He would tell me to set it up. Then he’d tell me “Ok, record a song”, then he’d say “Ok, tear it down and put it back in the box!”</em></p><p><em>So I was this 16 year old girl going into the studio and I knew how to do everything and it kinda freaked people out a little.</em></p><p><em>He told me I need to write 200 songs. When I did, then he said write 500, then write 1000. He’s been a great supporter.</em>” <br>— Meghan Trainor</p><p>“If you’re good, people will know. It’s a small community. You might not think we know, but we know”<br> — J Kash<br>(lyricist: Charlie Puth, Meghan Trainor, & more)</p><p>“<em>When I first started, I would do five sessions a day, and often two songs per session.</em>”<br> — Priscilla Renae <br>(songwriter: Iggy Azalea, Train, Nick Jonas & more)</p><p><em>“My songs that did the best were all written from real life experiences.” <br></em>— Ne-Yo</p><p>“<em>When mixing, create a playlist of reference mixes. Every now and then, take a break from mixing and go listen to the playlist</em>.” <br>— Greg Wells <br>(producer: The Greatest Showman, Adele, & more)</p><p>“<em>You’ll be surprised how many successful people let others control their life. Know what makes it fun for you, and respectfully say no to anything that isn’t worth it. I don’t care if it’s Drake or Kanye calling, I won’t be on call and I don’t work weekends unless it’s an absolute emergency, which it usually isn’t.</em>”<br> — Jeff Ellis <br>(producer: Frank Ocean)</p><p>“<em>I don’t care if it’s fully produced or a guitar/vocal. It just needs to feel authentic</em>” — Amanda Berman-Hill <br>(Publisher, Sony/ATV)</p><p><em>“When I translate lyrics I usually do my best to stick with the original meaning, but it’s not just that. You also have to match the vowel sounds, and that’s the hard part!”</em> <br> — Claudia Brant <br>(Multi Grammy winning songwriter: Alejandro Sanz, Camila Cabello, & many more)</p><p>“<em>I was told over and over that I was too different, but that’s the very thing that people liked about me on YouTube</em>”<br> — Lindsey Stirling <br>(dancer/violinist/composer, YouTube sensation)</p><h3>Recurrent themes</h3><p>These are just a few quotes. However, the same themes keep showing up everywhere:</p><ul>
<li>Write music that comes from the heart, that you truly believe in/feel, that you have a deep connection with. Those resonate the most with other people.</li>
<li>Work harder than everybody else.</li>
<li>Know what your goals are so that you can design your ideal job and set your own boundaries.</li>
<li>If you’re good, people will know/notice. The songwriting community is relatively small.</li>
<li>Hustle, hustle, hustle.</li>
</ul><p>So, for all you songwriters and musicians, this is yet another reminder to treat your music like a business, and hustle like a startup! You are your own CEO and the decisions you make today will determine your value and how much people will want to invest in you in the future.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=1bcf33557be8" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/52316202018-05-13T00:08:35-07:002021-04-01T01:01:53-07:00You Must’ve Known<p><em>A song for our favorite superheroes: our moms and dads.</em></p><p>With Mother's Day and Father's Day being just around the corner, we decided to write our next tune in honor of the first superheroes we ever get to know as kids: our parents.<br><br>"You Must've Known" is an acoustic pop tune, with a bit of a Jack Johnson vibe. Lyrics are included below. We'd love to know what you think of the song!<br><br><a href="https://soundcloud.com/23rdhr/you-mustve-known">https://soundcloud.com/23rdhr/you-mustve-known</a></p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fsong.link%2Fembed%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fsong.link%252Fus%252Fi%252F1383903972&dntp=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsong.link%2Fus%2Fi%2F1383903972&image=https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fsonglink-public%2Fsonglink_icon_blue_background_480x480.png&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=song" width="560" height="414" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/2c96759fe1bab2f467a83541232f34bf/href">https://medium.com/media/2c96759fe1bab2f467a83541232f34bf/href</a></iframe><p>For a limited time, it is available for FREE download on our website:</p><p><a href="https://23rdhr.com/track/1473699/you-must-ve-known">You Must've Known by 23rd Hour</a></p><h3><strong><em>You Must’ve Known</em></strong></h3><p><strong><em>Music & Lyrics by </em></strong><a href="https://medium.com/u/f8b4ad2dc08"><strong><em>George Paolini</em></strong></a><strong><em> & </em></strong><a href="https://medium.com/u/2917f7c62eea"><strong><em>Sherry-Lynn Lee</em></strong></a></p><p><em>You must’ve known my name before I came along <br>The way you say it sounds just like a song <br>So I am pretty sure <br>You already knew my name <br>Before I came along <br>You must’ve known my name before I came along</em></p><p><em>And when we first walked hand in hand <br>I couldn’t reach couldn’t understand <br>But you were there at every step<br>Anticipating every fall <br>Gave me strength to move on <br>You must’ve known my strength before I came along</em></p><p><em>I made more mistakes than I can remember <br>You bit your tongue and kept your smile <br>Knowing eventually I’d figure it out <br>On my own but meanwhile</em></p><p><em>[Whistled/instrumental verse]</em></p><p><em>I just want to say thanks to you <br>For never saying I told you so <br>Except a million times but that’s okay <br>You must’ve known that too before this song</em></p><h3>
<strong><em>Thank you for listening to </em></strong><a href="http://bit.ly/23rdhr-ymk">the new tune</a>.</h3><h3>It is best served with loved ones gathered around a yummy brunch.</h3><h3>Forward this to a parent who would enjoy it :)</h3><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=4104072408da" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/51816342018-04-13T21:53:17-07:002018-04-14T03:15:20-07:00Gravity Can Wait<p>Ever seen a skateboarder or snowboarder doing tricks where they seem to hang in mid-air for a second? That imagery is what inspired the song “Gravity Can Wait”. In that brief moment of weightlessness, it seems that gravity can wait, everything else can wait.</p><p>The song is now available on all major platforms. See below for lyrics. If you know a friend who would dig this, be a cool buddy and pass it along!</p><p>See below for lyrics.</p><p>Thank you for listening!</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fsong.link%2Fembed%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fsong.link%252Fus%252Fi%252F1370713352&dntp=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsong.link%2Fus%2Fi%2F1370713352&image=https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com%2Fsonglink-public%2Fsonglink_icon_blue_background_480x480.png&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=song" width="560" height="414" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/756152848fd0ae7d07bb91657eb79c5e/href">https://medium.com/media/756152848fd0ae7d07bb91657eb79c5e/href</a></iframe><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F386798105%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2F23rdhr%2Fgravity-can-wait&image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-000288470468-gucu15-t500x500.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/ea8a1cdbd25e43b7bee2403f434c4866/href">https://medium.com/media/ea8a1cdbd25e43b7bee2403f434c4866/href</a></iframe><p><strong>GRAVITY CAN WAIT<br></strong><em>Music & Lyrics by </em><a href="http://23rdhr.com"><em>23rd Hour</em></a></p><p>Give me more of the long, long days<br>Warming to the golden rays<br>Riding free, I feel the wind<br>the rhythm in my skin<br>In my skin</p><p>When your soul is free and awake<br>The past and tomorrow can skate<br>Tricks to try, moves to make<br>You want to fly<br>One more time</p><p>Gravity can wait<br>Gravity can wait<br>Gravity can wait<br>Gravity can wait</p><p>All we have is the warm, warm breeze<br>And we wear our hearts out with ease<br>Feel the wind, on our sun-kissed skin<br>This is our time<br>We’ve got time</p><p>Gravity can wait<br>Gravity can wait<br>Gravity can wait<br>Gravity can wait</p><p>Give me more of the long, long days</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=895a26671676" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/51813572018-04-13T19:00:14-07:002020-12-03T02:17:33-08:00Life Ingesting Plastic Ain’t Fantastic — Our trash problem<p>Our trash is washing up on a Hawaiian beach, or ingested by the seafood we eat. Think about that.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*yB7NQvlATGMHv2LHZKtz5Q.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Everything from crates to minuscule plastic pieces strewn along the beach.</figcaption></figure><p>It’s the most beautiful beach we know. Turquoise waters, fine golden sand, little tourist traffic. As we catch the mesmerizing sunrise, I can’t help but notice the debris strewn across this East-facing beach on the island of O’ahu.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*cIL-FeUmnHmoEIN84OX4DQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>A crab hole amidst plastic debris on the eastern shore of O’ahu</figcaption></figure><p>Some of the items are clearly recognizable. A tub plug, part of a comb or toothbrush. Others have been reduced to mere colorful specks of plastic over time by the thrashing of the waves. These were not trash from visitors. These washed up on the beach from the ocean!</p><p>This is not a new problem. You may have heard of the Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean. Due to the ocean currents, the eastern shores are the most vulnerable to the plastic invasion and the Big Island apparently has the worst of it.</p><h3>Why do I care?</h3><p>You may have already seen videos such as this ad by Zooey Deschanel or the BBC special “How much plastic do you eat?” which estimates that <strong><em>a garbage truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute</em></strong>! And these little pieces make their way into the seafood we eat. If you eat mussels, you’ve eaten plastic.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FKFvNQ2vlJFA%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKFvNQ2vlJFA&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FKFvNQ2vlJFA%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/48abfda94ac622a9d784f6560d20ffe2/href">https://medium.com/media/48abfda94ac622a9d784f6560d20ffe2/href</a></iframe><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FveMdowmPSbw%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DveMdowmPSbw&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FveMdowmPSbw%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/4a85a9ead1078c900bf0b2ccc732f7a5/href">https://medium.com/media/4a85a9ead1078c900bf0b2ccc732f7a5/href</a></iframe><h3>Why is there so much plastic in the ocean?</h3><p>Mismanaged waste disposal is responsible for the majority of trash in the ocean. Here are a few articles that go into more detail on the problem.</p><ul>
<li><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tips-to-save-plastic_us_590c1a02e4b0104c734db229">10 Things You're Not Doing (But Should) To Help The Ocean</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/plastic-waste-oceans_us_58fed37be4b0c46f0781d426">The Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic -- And No One's Paying Attention</a></li>
</ul><h3>What is being done?</h3><ul>
<li>Annual beach cleanups are scheduled and coordinated in Hawaii.</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/hawaii-plastic-straws-ban-hilton-modern-hotel-824725">Some hotels no longer serve drinks with plastic straws</a>.</li>
<li>
<a href="https://psmag.com/environment/hawaii-wants-to-ban-styrofoam-food-containers">Hawaii is trying to ban styrofoam food containers</a>.</li>
<li>Meanwhile, the<a href="http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/seychelles-ban-on-plastics-takes-effect/"> Seychelles have put a ban on plastic</a>.</li>
</ul><h3>How can I reduce my use of plastic?</h3><ul>
<li>RECYCLE if your town supports it.</li>
<li>Opt for glass instead of plastic containers when shopping for spices, juices, etc if you can.</li>
<li>Bring your own reusable grocery bags.</li>
<li>Opt for paper or biodegradable alternatives to plastic straws, cups, plates, silverware.</li>
<li>Bring a reusable water bottle instead of buying plastic bottles.</li>
</ul><h3>How can I reduce the amount of trash I create?</h3><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*iNCKqZiYTqVPy0U0Ox80Aw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Garbage in the Waikiki harbour. I felt sorry for the fish swimming underneath.</figcaption></figure><ul>
<li>DO NOT LITTER the beach, the harbour, the streets. Use garbage cans and make sure your garbage is securely in the can. Mismanaged waste disposal is responsible for the majority of trash in the ocean.</li>
<li>Make sure your garbage bags are closed securely to avoid littering during transportation.</li>
<li>Find out what your city can recycle and recycle as much as possible.</li>
<li>If you have to use disposable food containers, use recyclable ones and make sure to recycle properly.</li>
<li>Avoid purchasing items with excessive wrapping material.</li>
<li>Make your own compost.</li>
<li>Opt for detergents that come in recyclable or biodegradable containers.</li>
<li>Use a Diva Cup instead of tampons/pads.</li>
<li>Urge your politicians to regulate the use of plastic</li>
</ul><h3>Thank you</h3><p>Thank you for reading and doing your part in reducing trash and reducing your use of plastics :) Below is a picture of shells collected on a single beach in O’ahu. The ocean is a beautiful ecosystem. It would be a shame to give it up for plastic convenience.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*vf7JgEXrgAekaqtcHRKHTw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Tiny shells collected on a single beach.</figcaption></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=de044bbd0193" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/51712982018-04-08T17:40:43-07:002021-08-02T10:01:08-07:00Taxes for musicians<p>Deductions for 2017</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*aFDdP60R9bkg3AUst3766Q@2x.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>Let me preface this by stating that I’m not a tax accountant or expert by any stretch of imagination. I’m just a musician doing my taxes and learning how it works along the way. I’m sharing what I’ve learned but it may/may not apply to you or be 100% correct. The information below is not replacement for expert tax advice/services. In other words, don’t quote me on it :)</p><p>That said, here are a few things you might find useful when filing your taxes this year if you’ve set up your music business.</p><h3>
<strong>Contractors</strong> vs Legal & Professional Services</h3><p><strong>Musicians for hire</strong></p><ul>
<li>If you’ve hired somebody multiple times AND you’ve paid them $600 or more in this tax year, then you’re required to provide them with a 1099-MISC. This can easily be created online. We created ours using TurboTax.</li>
<li>If you’ve hired somebody only once, you could deduct that in professional services instead, even if it is over $600.</li>
</ul><p><strong>Other items that fall under professional expenses</strong></p><ul>
<li>Production Services (production, mixing, mastering) if hired on a per-project basis. If they’re hired on a full-time or contractor basis, then report them appropriately.</li>
<li>Subscription to professional publications in your field (i.e any music industry publication)</li>
<li>Membership fees to join professional organizations such as a musician union, a songwriter association, or websites like Taxi and BroadJam that offer members only access to opportunities.</li>
<li>Distribution service fees such as TuneCore, CD Baby to make your music available on various digital platforms.</li>
<li>Short-term consulting fees</li>
<li>One-time management consultation fees</li>
<li>One-time marketing consultation fees</li>
<li>One-time engineering consultation fees</li>
<li>Fees paid for website analysis</li>
<li>Other outside consulting fees for short term advice on specific deals</li>
<li>One-time logo/web design fees</li>
<li>Fees paid to talent agents and business/personal managers who are not paid as employees.</li>
<li>Legal fees for business matters</li>
<li>Accounting fees</li>
</ul><h3>Vehicle Expenses</h3><p>If you use your car for business reasons (eg to go to your gig), you can deduct certain expenses such as:</p><ul>
<li>Miles driven for business</li>
<li>New tires, repairs, maintenance</li>
<li>Gas/oil changes</li>
<li>Insurance, registration, license fees</li>
<li>Lease payments or depreciation (see Assets)</li>
</ul><p>There are two ways to claim these expenses: <em>actual expenses</em> and <em>standard deduction</em>. If you use a software like TurboTax, they usually guide you to figure out the best way to go for your situation.</p><h3>Business Travel</h3><ul>
<li>Airfare/train/bus</li>
<li>Hotel</li>
<li>Rental car</li>
<li>Taxi/ride-sharing services</li>
<li>Baggage fees</li>
<li>Gas</li>
<li>Gear rental for gigs</li>
<li>Internet access fees (e.g on planes or in the airport/hotel)</li>
<li>Phone calls when away on business</li>
<li>Tips while traveling (except for meal tips, which are only 50% deductible)</li>
<li>Dry cleaning</li>
<li>Cost of shipping your equipment that is necessary for a gig</li>
<li>Cost of storing baggage/equipment during business trip</li>
<li>Late check-out charges if you’re required to stay over-time for business</li>
<li>You want to have receipts for anything $75 and over. You have to be able to show the business purpose of an expense if requested.</li>
</ul><h3><strong>Miscellaneous expenses</strong></h3><ul>
<li>
<strong>Photography</strong> services can be deducted under miscellaneous business expenses</li>
<li>
<strong>Music Conferences</strong> that you’ve attended to improve your skills, maintain relevance in your field, or otherwise improve your professional performance can be deducted under miscellaneous</li>
<li>
<strong>Cloud services/software</strong> such as LANDR, Dropbox, etc also fall under miscellaneous.</li>
<li>Accompanist fees.</li>
<li>Banking/credit card/financial service fees (including interest) for your business accounts/cards.</li>
<li>Books, magazines and other subscriptions for business</li>
<li>Tax return software</li>
<li>Startup costs</li>
<li>Prizes to fans</li>
</ul><h3>Communication expenses</h3><ul>
<li>Cell phone service.</li>
<li>Internet service.</li>
<li>Second phone line.</li>
<li>Long distance calls.</li>
<li>Voice mail/answering machines</li>
<li>Call-waiting/message center fees</li>
<li>Video conferencing services (e.g if you use Skype or other such tools to call clients)</li>
<li>Modems and wireless routers</li>
<li>Ringtones for your work phone (who buys ringtones still, I don’t know…)</li>
<li>Fax line for work</li>
<li>Text messaging service (auto-responding text service)</li>
</ul><h3><strong>Advertising expenses</strong></h3><ul>
<li>
<strong>Website</strong> hosting, Domain name purchases,Website design (e.g Wix, Bandzoogle, SquareSpace, GoDaddy, 1and1 hosting, WordPress, etc)</li>
<li>Business cards (for your music business)</li>
<li>Poster design & printing</li>
<li>Design services of any kind (artwork, posters, etc)</li>
<li>Online ads (Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads, local newspaper online ads like patch.com, event promotion ads like Evensi)</li>
<li>Print advertising (duh)</li>
<li>Any merchandise that you’re giving away for free</li>
<li>Fees paid to ad agencies or PR firms</li>
<li>Yellow pages listings</li>
<li>SEO/web traffic analysis</li>
<li>Marketing email/direct mail campaigns</li>
<li>Professional performance videos and CDs (promo material)</li>
<li>Package design fees</li>
<li>Signs, display racks</li>
<li>Sponsorships</li>
<li>Basically any cost directly related to promoting your business.</li>
</ul><h3>Taxes and Licenses</h3><ul>
<li>Cost of applying for your business license.</li>
<li>Business license.</li>
<li>DBA/Fictitious business name one-time filing fee.</li>
<li>Incorporation fees.</li>
<li>Business name search fees.</li>
<li><strong>Copyright application and registration.</strong></li>
<li>Trademarks and logo fees.</li>
<li>Domain name search fees.</li>
<li>Fees paid to the state board.</li>
<li>State and local taxes.</li>
<li>Property taxes (NOT for home office).</li>
<li>Fees to acquire, draft, or cancel a lease.</li>
<li>Cover song licenses that you might have paid via Loudr, EasySongLicensing, CDBaby, WeAreTheHits or others.</li>
<li>Software licenses.</li>
<li>Image/Video footage licenses (purchases on sites like pixabay, shutterstock).</li>
<li>Payroll taxes for employees such as Medicare, Social Security. *</li>
<li>Unemployment taxes for employees. *</li>
</ul><p>* We did not hire anybody as an employee or intern, so we don’t know much about the deductions for that. Feel free to comment below if you know more.</p><h3>Home Office</h3><p>If you have a home office/studio, you can deduct the following, pro-rated for the square footage and percentage of business use:</p><ul>
<li>Rent/Mortgage</li>
<li>Utilities</li>
<li>Upkeep</li>
<li>Improvements/renovations on the home office</li>
</ul><p>For example, if you rent a 500 sq ft place for $1000/month, and your office is 100 sq ft, then your pro-rated rent for business use is:</p><p>(Office space/ total space) * rent or mortgage per month</p><p>(100/500) * $1000 = $200 per month</p><p>So if you use that office room for business 100% of the time, you can deduct $200. If you use the room for business 50% of the time, then you can deduct 50% of $200, which would be $100.</p><h3>Office expenses</h3><ul>
<li>Office supplies</li>
<li>Shipping & postage</li>
<li>Office cleaning</li>
<li>Shredding services</li>
<li>Security system</li>
<li>Office decoration, soundproofing</li>
</ul><h3><strong>Supplies</strong></h3><ul>
<li>Equipment accessories (carrying cases, straps, pedals, music stands)</li>
<li>Instrument accessories (cases, strings, reeds, tuners, metronome)</li>
<li>Sheet music and books</li>
<li>External hard drives, trackpad, mouse, cables/cords</li>
<li>Cleaning supplies</li>
<li>Safety/protective gear</li>
</ul><p>Equipment purchases of over $200 can be deducted as assets. Some examples include your computer, guitar, keyboard, studio monitors, etc.</p><h3><strong>Assets</strong></h3><p>Equipment purchases of $200 or more can be declared as asset purchases. These assets can be depreciated over time (5–7 years). If you use TurboTax, it will automatically set the correct lifespan for it.</p><p>Some examples of common assets for musicians would be:</p><ul>
<li>Laptop</li>
<li>iPad</li>
<li>Instruments</li>
<li>Recording equipment</li>
<li>PA system</li>
<li>Studio monitors</li>
</ul><p><strong>How depreciation works</strong></p><p>Let’s say you buy a piano for $5000. Suppose you can depreciate it over 5 years. Each year you’re entitled to claim an equal amount of depreciation.</p><p>However, there are a few other options to consider:</p><p><strong>Section 179</strong> allows you to take the full amount of depreciation in that first year (year when the asset was purchased/put into use) instead of depreciating it over a number of years. However, it requires that you have income of the same amount or more, meaning you can’t use it if you’re running at a loss. This is a good option if you have a high enough income the year you buy the piano.</p><p>Didn’t make enough money for Section 179 to be an option?</p><p>If you bought the piano NEW, then you can use “<strong>Bonus Depreciation</strong>”</p><p><strong><em>Bonus depreciation </em></strong>allows you to take 50% of the cost as depreciation in the first year. So that means you’re left with $2500 to depreciate the “regular” way, over 5 years. That remaining $2500 is your “basis for depreciation”. You can take the first year depreciation on the basis on top of the $2500 Bonus depreciation.</p><p><strong><em>Good to know</em></strong>: Bonus depreciation can be taken as a loss, meaning you can take it regardless of how much money you’ve made this year.</p><p><em>Bonus depreciation is not available every year, and tax laws change all the time. Be sure to stay updated. We use TurboTax, which updates according to tax laws every year.</em></p><p>Here is a video that helped me understand the difference between the two. It goes into much more detail and is worth watching:</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FboTQIFg8U4w%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DboTQIFg8U4w&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FboTQIFg8U4w%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/c045f32491accc51300cfe071016ca8f/href">https://medium.com/media/c045f32491accc51300cfe071016ca8f/href</a></iframe><h3><strong>Inventory</strong></h3><p>If you have CDs or other merchandise for sale, you are required to declare them on your taxes the year you acquired them. I’m not sure about the grey areas such as if you paid for them in a different year than you received them. I’m not a CPA :) Do your homework.</p><p>You are required to maintain inventory (ie you’ll need to report how much you had at the start and end of the year).</p><h3>That’s All Folks!</h3><p>Hope you found this useful. If so, claps, shares, comments would be very much appreciated :)</p><p>If you’d like to receive updates on our blogs directly to your inbox, sign up here:</p><p><a href="http://eepurl.com/dqL7Zv">Smart Musician Guide</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=bc0d95a21191" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/taxes-for-musicians-bc0d95a21191">Taxes for musicians</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/51162662018-03-07T06:16:00-08:002020-06-27T03:35:24-07:00Letting go is a beautiful thing — the real value of all your stuff.<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*XBPaytTinkkgVkarU6ud6g.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Garden art made out of old wrenches and other tools by George.</figcaption></figure><p>As we prepared to downsize, we looked around the house with dread. We were going from a 3+2 with garage/workshop, back and front yard to a one bedroom apartment with no balcony. How can we ever let go of enough of these things?</p><p>What started out as a dreadful task turned out to be a most interesting juxtaposition of human connection and transaction. That one decision we made to move impacted so many lives in such a positive way. We could not have imagined that selling/donating our “stuff” would end up being such a beautiful thing.</p><p>We offered the family first dibs on some tools, instruments, and handmade furniture. If you have to part with your treasures, giving it to loved ones eases the heartbreak. It warmed our hearts to know that our family would be enjoying our copper sheets, premium lumber, Martin guitar, microphones, handmade bookshelves, chisels and power tools.</p><p>Our beloved SawStop table saw was purchased by a guy in Utah who drove all the way to our house to pick it up and drove right back. He used to be a professional wood turner, and is now diversifying into general woodworking. He couldn’t find a retailer for the SawStop where he lives and he couldn’t believe how cheap we were selling it, with all the extra attachments. This was an amazing deal, even for him. But we didn’t mind as much after meeting our new friend. Getting to know the people you transact with recalibrates your monetary expectation. Somewhere in the equation, genuine appreciation factors in.</p><p>Next came the movers, a very friendly crew of three. They carefully wrapped, packaged and sealed everything we were keeping and moved them to the garage. One of them asked us how much we wanted for the flatscreen TV and sound system. He probably thought we were crazy when we replied $150. We liked these guys. They were polite, professional and careful not to scratch any surface during the move. We’d rather sell our TV to them for cheap than sell it to somebody who’s just going to resell it for a profit. Again, the human connection buffered the prices.</p><p>Once our selected belongings were moved, we held an online auction to sell everything else. With bids starting at $1, it was heart wrenching to see high-price items sell for so little. It was even more depressing to see that our handmade garden art wasn’t going to bring in much either. <em>These people are so darn cheap! They don’t appreciate the craft, the beauty, the art. All they want is a good deal! </em>But then everything changed on the day of the pickup.</p><p>If you’ve ever wanted to let go of stuff but somehow talked yourself out of it, consider how much positivity your letting go could have on somebody else who is on the receiving end. One guy bought our bed and mattress. As George helped him dismantle the frame, he told us that he works with a shelter and was getting it to help a homeless person get back on his feet.</p><p>Another woman bought a rusty old bench and a bird bath that we had made out of an old salad bowl, a piece of wood and cast iron legs of an old sewing machine that we painted turquoise. She told me that, since her husband passed away a couple of years ago, she started taking on creative restoration projects. Being creative and working with her hands keeps her busy and makes her happy.</p><p>A couple came in with a huge trailer cart attached to their vehicle. They drove all the way from Sonoma County. They took our sofas, microwave, oven, and various other items throughout the house. Perhaps our stuff will help them furnish a new home. Maybe they were getting it for somebody affected by the Napa fires. Who knows.</p><p>A couple with a young kid picked up our kitchen table and chairs for less than $20. We’d carved pumpkins, painted, written songs, and had countless cups of coffee at this little table. Now it was theirs.</p><p>A friend of mine bought a good number of our plants and handmade planter boxes and pots that once adorned our yard. George and I had spent so many fun afternoons making those planter boxes, painting them, then filling them up with premium soil and carefully chosen plants. It was time for them to brighten another life now.</p><p>Another friend scored two of our handmade console tables. One was our entryway console table that George had made from an oblong-shaped walnut slab. I loved it. The other had a live edge maple top with Honduras mahogany legs, made using Japanese woodworking techniques. It has featured in some of our WineWednesday videos and has always been one of my favorites. Knowing that they will be welcomed and appreciated in a friend’s home is hard to put a price tag on.</p><p>It was hard at the beginning. The couch where we had our first jam, the kitchen where we fell in love, our studio where we wrote and recorded many of our songs, the garden art that George had made by hand, the furniture we had made together in the workshop, the vegetable garden we had created last summer, the side patio George had put in a few months ago, the cute porch swing. It was a lot to say goodbye to, but goodbye is not the end.</p><p>Now a new family will be making new memories in this home. A homeless man has a new bed. A creative soul has a few new projects to keep her busy. A man in Utah finally got his SawStop. Our friends and family have planters, tools, music gear, furniture, books, and other cool stuff to enjoy. One mover got a few instruments for his daughter while his pal scored a nice TV set. And we are left with just enough: lots of happiness and a newfound freedom.</p><p>For us, the most important thing is that we have each other. Everything else is just stuff our memories are made of. How many things do we buy, enjoy for a while, then eventually forget all about? Instead of letting these things collect dust in a closet, why not let them bring a little joy in another household? Why not keep on passing the gift?</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=1fac3f7dfa2a" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50887922018-02-19T22:16:34-08:002020-06-27T04:08:29-07:00“Retired” at 30. What Now?<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ONbds7qHlIYzxhXAtoOh-A@2x.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Photo from our trip to Hawaii, Feb 2018.</figcaption></figure><p>As we finished breakfast today, George asked me:</p><blockquote><em>“What do you want to do today?”</em></blockquote><p>Exactly a month ago, I officially resigned from my position at a Silicon Valley company to “retire” for a year. After two weeks of moving, paperwork and other minutiae, we went on vacation for two weeks. Today is the first “work day” since we got back.</p><p>For the first time since I left my job, I was experiencing the “what now” moment. There are so many things to do but I don’t <em>have</em> to do any of them <em>right now. </em>It’s a very strange sensation. As far as I can remember, there’s always been something that needs to be done with an imminent deadline, self-imposed or otherwise. Now I find myself contemplating life outside an office, trying to find the right balance between taking it easy and deep-diving into my next project like mad scientist.</p><p>On one hand, a mushroom cloud of possibilities exploding in my brain, competing for attention. The urge to do something before time runs out is ringing the alarm bells. The expansive universe of options is almost making me agoraphobic.</p><p>On the other hand, there is stillness. There is space and silence. Space to breathe, to stretch, to experiment. I can finally hear my own thoughts articulate themselves quietly, without being drowned out by the noise. The inner peace is comforting enough to ignore the outer chaos for a little while. It is an introvert’s dream. I’ve even started working out every day. <em>I never worked out.</em> I think that’s a good sign.</p><p>It’s relatively easy to be on vacation. You’re aware that you have a finite amount of time, and that the whole point is to relax and not worry about the future. You’ve still got emails to respond to, projects to complete in a few weeks. You’ve also got health and life insurance, a steady paycheck and you might even be getting paid while away. The routine you expect to go back to is a safety net that makes the vacation all the more enjoyable.</p><p>“Retirement” however is a completely different beast. There is no fixed end date, and while you may have money set aside, it is hard to accurately predict how long it will last. Health insurance and other benefits traditionally provided by an employer can become a major concern. There are many more variables. Retirement is not vacation. But what is it exactly? Does it have to be so black and white?</p><p>Growing up, my only idea of retirement was the usual narrative. People work all their adult lives until they are 65 or so, then they retire and receive pensions from the government or their employer. They stop going to work and stay home, watching their grandchildren, playing mahjong and what not. In other words: they stop working and start enjoying the simple joys in life. However, I was soon struck by a much harsher reality. Not everybody lives to be 65. I saw relatives and acquaintances die in their early 50s or 60s and it broke my heart to think that they never got to enjoy the fruits of their labour in their old days like they planned to.</p><p>Work used to be a necessity, to pay the bills. My great-grandfather escaped communist China disguised as a woman to avoid being drafted. Mauritius was a safe haven to raise a family, despite not knowing the language and not having any money. My parents grew up poor, too. They had to borrow money to get a fridge after they got married. Thanks to the tireless work of the previous generations, the dream has finally come true. My generation has a much better standard of living. So much so that we can actually choose our career path and pursue a fulfilling one. I don’t think there is a better way to honor their hard work than to fully take advantage of the opportunities their sacrifices have afforded me. That sometimes means breaking away from good old conventional wisdom and retiring at 30, while the people I love and I are still alive, healthy and financially stable.</p><p>The meaning of retirement is changing. It doesn’t have to start so late. It doesn’t have to last for the remainder of your life. It doesn’t have much in terms of guarantees, but really it never did… A colleague of mine (who previously took 18 months off to sail around the world with his wife) put it best:</p><blockquote>“We don’t need to have one big retirement at the end of our life. Why can’t we take mini retirements every decade or so?”</blockquote><p>I see this “retirement” as more of a sabbatical that I’m taking to pursue other creative projects and see what comes of it. My goal isn’t to sit around doing nothing as long as possible. Rather, it is to nurture other facets of my personality that did not have space to grow and thrive in a corporate environment. I’ve saved enough to survive a year but I don’t plan on using it all up. I intend to generate income, just not in a conventional salaried way. Most importantly though, I’m looking forward to spending more time with the people I love.</p><p>I’m aware that I am extremely lucky to be able to afford this year off to myself. While I’ve worked incredibly hard, so have many others who still couldn’t dream of doing this at my age if they wanted to. I hope that I’m not the only one who will benefit from this sabbatical year, but that something meaningful to many others will be born out of it. I hope it will at least inspire more people to think about their retirement plans, their careers, and what it means to be the heirs of the baby boomers’ success.</p><p>A few years back, George asked a newly retired neighbour whether he was going to find another job to pass the time. His response?</p><p>“I’m way too busy to work”.</p><p>Retirement doesn’t have to mean “I will no longer be contributing to society. Here are some alternatives:</p><ul>
<li>I’ve saved enough to try something different that may not be cashflow positive but would be rewarding. Could be a startup, could be writing a book, could be volunteering, could be traveling, could be anything really.</li>
<li>I’m taking a break to find new inspiration in order to do more meaningful work later on.</li>
<li>I’m spending some time with loved ones before I move on to my next gig.</li>
<li>I’m starting a new company.</li>
</ul><p>Here’s to many mini retirements. Remember that retirement doesn’t have to last forever. Nor does it have to be cash flow negative.</p><p>Written by <a href="https://medium.com/u/2917f7c62eea">Sherry-Lynn Lee</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=29ac49733b47" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50744172018-02-11T22:46:05-08:002018-04-17T12:10:15-07:00Chasing the sun<p>Ocean sunsets can be spectacular. Ocean sunrises, while usually a bit more subdued, are at the very least an inspirational way to greet the morning.</p><p>But how often can you see both in one day?</p><p>We decided to give it a try.</p><p>We rose in the pre-dawn hours, gulped a few cups of (what else?) Hawaiian coffee, and jumped in the car. The roads were, not surprisingly, empty in town. But as we rounded the bend from due south to swing toward the east coast, traffic picked up.</p><p>Not only did we have company, we were already late to the party. There were motorists, cyclists and even hikers already hitting the roads and trails to witness the very phenomon we were pursuing.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*RVr1d_KR9OocPwKeSkodCw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Sunrise, Oahu.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*8fgieabDx07C1A9sH7Z-zg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Sunset, Oahu.</figcaption></figure><p>There are several vantage points on the island of Oahu from which to observe the sunrise. The <em>Wai’anae Mountain Range, </em>the remnants of a string of volcanoes that gave birth to the land mass, provides a bird’s-eye view. But virtually any beach on the east and southeast side of Oahu will do nicely.</p><p>We decided to try our “secret” location, a half-mile stretch of sand that is hidden in plain sight just off the highway on the eastern seaboard. We discovered this place by accident a few years ago. (For two avowed introverts, having a beach all to ourselves is a blessing.)</p><p>We parked in the empty lot and hiked a short distance to the water’s edge. An ominous interlocking bank of grayish clouds hugged the horizon, threatening to photo-bomb our festivities and, perhaps, provide a bit of precipitation in the process. So we weren’t sure we’d witness anything of note. Yet the breeze, while a bit gusty, was balmy and pleasant enough to wake the senses and stir the soul. It was not a bad place to be kicking off the daylight hours.</p><p>Soon, as if on cue, the billowing mass of cumulus out at the vanishing point lifted, as though a curtain parting for a show, surrendering its position to the main act: a fiery red solar ball.</p><p>Hawaiian legend has it that the demigod Maui had to capture the sun to slow it down because it was moving too fast. As we watched the sun rise in super- slow motion, Maui’s work seemed to have had the desired effect. The sun leisurely eased its way into the sky.</p><p>When it was overhead enough to transform from its crimson hue to a more pedestrian yellow, we decided it was time to get moving.</p><p>So we checked off the first task for our day and hopped back in the car to head into town to grab some breakfast. We strive to shop locally wherever we are, avoiding the homogenous conglomerate chains if at all possible. But at this early hour, the only thing open for the early birds searching for worms or any other edible sustenance was a Whole Foods. So we dropped into Jeff Bezos’s newest acquisition, wolfed down a couple egg sandwiches, slurped more coffee, and headed back to our <em>incognito loco, </em>with the intention of getting in some snorkling before the sun got too intense.</p><p>Unfortunately, the wind and surf picked up considerably. And, as the only inhabitants of our secret spot, we decided it probably wasn’t advisable to test the ocean currents on our own. So we spent a few hours on the sand reading, painting and just enjoying the weather before heading back to home base.</p><p>Despite the demigod Maui’s efforts, the solar disk sped through the sky, and before we knew it, it was time to to hike the short distance from our apartment to the docks of the boat harbor to catch the final act.</p><p>Once again, the clouds seemed to have a mind of their own, threatening to put on their own dark show. But again, the sun prevailed, poking through the puffy obstacles right on time, putting on a spectular display before dropping off for the night.</p><p>Our work — and our day — way done. A little thanks goes to Maui.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=1c6a97d86c53" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50730642018-02-10T08:11:38-08:002018-04-24T11:29:42-07:00The Sands of Time<p>The Russians have taken the beach. The Japanese, apparently, ceded control peacefully sometime in the night.</p><p>Gone are the formal Japanese wedding parties. Gone are the couples posing in front of the sea, with coconut trees providing a handy frame on each side. Gone are the giggling teenage girls, attired in anime-inspired fashions, who dip their toes in the water only to be chased back to higher ground by each lapping wave, invoking more giggles. Gone are the ambitious amateur photographers with cameras of every kind around their necks and over their shoulders: phone, video, SLRs with multiple lenses.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*MABAGwMT2b0PfqPKhkdvsw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>Gone are the couples in snorkel masks, trodding laboriously in the sand with their flippers, looking like zombies attempting to return to the lagoon. Gone are grown men with brightly colored kids’ inner tubes wrapped around their waists as though this were very natural beach apparel. And gone, thankfully, are the tour buses with their tour guides blasting amplified instructions to their flocks.</p><p>In their place we now have Eastern Europeans whose girths test the weight limit of the lounge chairs they have occupied. Their skin color suggests they have for months been seriously deprived of any solar-induced vitamin D. They blast strains of some generic Euro-synth-pop music from their devices.</p><p>A middle-age couple in front of us seems to typify the new inhabitants. Her hair is blonde, but the long roots reveal that shade is now a thing of the distant past. He has let the gray take over. But it is hardly noticeable since his ultra-bright, phosphorescent lime-green swim trunks draw all the attention to his torso.</p><p>After a few moments of lying in the sun, he stands up, sucks in his belly and puffs out his chest. He inserts his thumbs inside the waistband of his swimwear and, with a semi-circular motion of each hand, straightens his attire. He then takes a short jog to the water and dives in. He swims as if competing with Michael Phelps. But this race lasts only 10 or so meters.</p><p>He then pops up, turns about-face toward the beach and shakes his head to clear his vision. He glances toward his partner to see if she has noticed his acquatic accomplishment, clearly proof enough he has not lost his youthful vitality. His audience of one, unfortunately, has not bothered to look up from her phone.</p><p>It’s a scene repeated by other couples throughout the day.</p><p>How long will the Russian invasion last? Hard to know. A new crop of invaders from another distant land are, no doubt, imminent.</p><p>The sands on this beach are relentlessly shifting.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=90120a80d1fe" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50720492018-02-09T15:36:11-08:002018-11-04T07:10:42-08:00Under the Sea<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*P8G2GkKRMOzU6TEwgB9dvg@2x.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/667/1*NrbZTNNw0HFGZ3_z-5USjA@2x.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle swimming in the lagoon with us.</figcaption></figure><p>The previous day, we had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of two Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles. I even caught one on camera up close. Now we were back with snorkeling gear, hoping to catch a glimpse of their underwater world. We were not disappointed.</p><p>If meditation is not for you (it isn’t for me), snorkeling in the tropics might be a good alternative. Once the mask is on and you’re in the water, the interlocking rhythm of your own breathing and the gentle flopping of the waves are all you can hear. Meanwhile, your eyes are feasting on an infinity of warm, blue-green water as magical creatures cruise by. I could feel myself entering a zen state as my muscles relaxed and my mind cleared itself of everything else.</p><p>Under the mesmerizing tapestry of glistening turquoise is a whole other dimension, an explosion of color brimming with life. First, we noticed very slender, silvery fish with a blue streak along their body swimming just below the water surface. There were schools of them everywhere we looked. The fact that we had been swimming among all these creatures the previous day, completely oblivious of their presence, is mind-boggling.</p><p>This was only the tip of the iceberg. Or in this case, the tip of the reef. Swimming a little closer to the cluster of basalt rocks and corals that create the small, shallow pool, we were greeted by its diverse community of inhabitants. Some look familiar, from Disney cartoons or nature documentaries perhaps. Others boast striking color palettes that only nature could ever imagine so beautifully.</p><p>Suddenly, my turtle friend from the previous day appears right below me. He does not seem to mind my being there. I try to keep my distance to give him his space but the waves insist on bringing us closer together. His shell is just a few inches under my belly, grazing on seaweed sprouting from the sandy floor. I‘m tempted to stroke his back but decide he shouldn’t be disturbed. Can’t a turtle have lunch in peace?</p><p>Observing the fish in their natural habitat, it becomes clear why their bodies had evolved just so. I watch the angel fish use its tiny, angled lips to reach into the crevices of the reef. Sea urchins lurk quietly in tiny round caves, seemingly tailor-made to fit their size. Meanwhile, George witnesses another fish burying itself in the sand and completely disappear.</p><p>We snorkel in tandem for a little while, fingers interlocked, as we let the fish create the tour unfolding around us. Intrigued fish peek at us from under their hideout before deciding to come out and show off their colors just long enough for us to admire. There is so much beauty to behold, if we can only take a moment to notice.</p><h3>PSA</h3><p>Please respect the natural habitats by abiding to the law.</p><ul>
<li>No pet policies are not only because of the inconvenience to other humans, but also to protect the wildlife.</li>
<li>Similarly, if the sign says “please give turtles space”, then do that.</li>
<li>Do not feed wildlife. It can disturb their feeding patterns.</li>
</ul><h3>Sea turtle comes to say hello to the camera</h3><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FlNQgReveCzA%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DlNQgReveCzA&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FlNQgReveCzA%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/189ddc9ed50fbae878ca3760db243d50/href">https://medium.com/media/189ddc9ed50fbae878ca3760db243d50/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=57cf57aad746" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50626022018-02-05T10:54:03-08:002020-12-06T15:02:49-08:00I think we can all relate to some degree and logically so.<p>I think we can all relate to some degree and logically so. By definition, most things, people, places are average.</p><p>As to why people rave about average things, it’s probably a combination of personal taste and the experiences that color our perception.</p><p>Someone may be raving about a book that’s just OK but so happens to resonate with something they’re going through at the time.</p><p>If you go to the most wonderful beach in the world, and it’s crowded like a sardine can, you’ll probably feel like getting out of there ASAP.</p><p>However, despite all the average and OK in the world, I have personally found some amazing places, food, people, wine. I hope you will too :)</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=4a1dfe60ff49" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50607582018-02-04T04:00:57-08:002018-02-04T09:45:26-08:00Perhaps you’re conflating the hustler and the workaholic.<p>Perhaps you’re conflating the hustler and the workaholic. The hustle is about being resourceful and advancing your business efficiently. Not keeping busy till you drop. Overworking is not efficient. I agree with the sentiment but not the terminology :)</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=b7af56bc622c" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50599982018-02-03T11:34:23-08:002018-02-03T13:31:26-08:00Gravity Can Wait<p>I’m staring at white, yellow and black fish swimming nonchalantly in the clear turquoise water, just a few inches from my nose. I’m lying face-down on my newly conquered island with my head hanging over the edge. As the floating platform undulates to the swinging rhythm of the lagoon waves, I am lulled into a peaceful, relaxed state. The gentle afternoon sun keeps me warm. The worries that seemed so daunting just few days ago seem so distant already.</p><p>The idea of finally being on vacation is slowly starting to sink in. For the next 10 days, we’re allowed not to worry. I’m hesitant to get too comfortable, but I oblige. Why not. The phone providers, the insurance companies, and the myriad of minutia awaiting us can wait. <em>Gravity can wait</em>.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F386798105%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2F23rdhr%2Fgravity-can-wait&image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-000288470468-gucu15-t500x500.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/ea8a1cdbd25e43b7bee2403f434c4866/href">https://medium.com/media/ea8a1cdbd25e43b7bee2403f434c4866/href</a></iframe><p><a href="https://23rdhr.com/track/1397508/gravity-can-wait">Gravity Can Wait by 23rd Hour</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ee32fef9b59c" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50563702018-02-01T13:02:26-08:002018-02-01T13:45:26-08:00Hawaiian Thunderstorm<h3>The happiest-looking storm you’ll ever see</h3><p>As soon as we booked our flights, it dawned on us that we hadn’t checked the weather forecast for O’ahu. Naturally, the prediction was a full week of thunderstorms. We shrugged it off and hoped the weatherman was wrong.</p><p>A few years ago, we found a magical beach while driving on the north eastern coast. The water was a shade of turquoise that looked too pretty to be real. To top it off, we had the whole beach to ourselves in all of its golden fine sand glory. We eagerly made the forty minute drive back to the sacred spot.</p><p>The ocean was its happy shade of turquoise, just like we remembered it. So far, the weather seemed fine. There were some clouds but nothing menacing. We paused for a moment, taking in the scenery. No sooner had we sat down that it started pelting. Not pouring. Pelting. A sunny, cheery storm drenched our paper straw hats and everything around.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?type=text%2Fhtml&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&schema=facebook&url=https%3A//www.facebook.com/23rdHr/videos/846293418876040/&image=https%3A//scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t15.0-10/27416767_846293815542667_5490442035200524288_n.jpg%3Foh%3Dd3409c46055fb9d6ad188d40c8d1fac6%26oe%3D5AE1AB53" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/b35922855feaa9ff90f2b6f661b6a32a/href">https://medium.com/media/b35922855feaa9ff90f2b6f661b6a32a/href</a></iframe><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?type=text%2Fhtml&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&schema=facebook&url=https%3A//www.facebook.com/23rdHr/videos/846288948876487/&image=https%3A//scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t15.0-10/27248945_846289278876454_3216008864851820544_n.jpg%3Foh%3D885312434782cbdbcc9533b21ea75404%26oe%3D5ADFF61D" width="600" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/350185e7f62fd31f421fcfbcb5135296/href">https://medium.com/media/350185e7f62fd31f421fcfbcb5135296/href</a></iframe><p>Five minutes later, it was over and time for a swim. Then we watched a mighty little crab dig its hole, dragging tiny buckets of sand with its pinchers and legs, and throwing them out with vigor.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FxRYBMKKzM20%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxRYBMKKzM20&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FxRYBMKKzM20%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/00c2dbffce85e2aba46872da426ce112/href">https://medium.com/media/00c2dbffce85e2aba46872da426ce112/href</a></iframe><p>Tiny mosquitoes were our cue to leave the creatures to their evening routine. We packed our wet blanket, towels, hats, etc and ambled back to our car, content to have witnessed the happiest of storms.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=87b7c88418a8" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/50481342018-01-27T23:42:23-08:002018-01-28T01:31:53-08:00The making of my tribute to Chester Bennington<p><em>Or ideas on how to make a cover song your own.</em></p><h3>Interpretation</h3><p>There are many types of covers. Some sound just like the originals, some sound nothing like it. I absolutely love cover songs that are somewhere in between. It takes intentionality to create a cover that feels authentic to you as an artist while also honoring the song. I love comparing originals and covers and see what artistic choices were made. If you’re wondering about that process and how to do that, or are just curious, I’ll describe my process for creating this cover. below</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fembed%2Ftrack%2F35rPIW28dqmPwsE5VOqLVu&url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Ftrack%2F35rPIW28dqmPwsE5VOqLVu&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.scdn.co%2Fimage%2Fd8cb3e21100f1c69bd3fb5b9bd12967a460ca737&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=spotify" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/79d916090cfdf9709a8353c31b091521/href">https://medium.com/media/79d916090cfdf9709a8353c31b091521/href</a></iframe><h3>Picking the song</h3><p>I was first introduced to LP by a friend when I was 15 and I was hooked immediately. Chester had such a versatile voice, sometimes powerful, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes both at the same time. The band’s sound was very unique, and the songwriting was very appealing to me. I know the lyrics to most of the songs on Meteora and Hybrid Theory but the LP songs I listened to the most are probably “Breaking The Habit”, “Points of Authority”, “P5hing Me A*wy”, and “My December”. So when I heard the news, I thought I might cover one of those. But that’s not how inspiration struck.</p><p>I have to admit I hadn’t kept up with all the latest LP releases but I knew the singles. I did finally get to see them live with my brother in Toronto a few years ago, soon after I moved to California. For a night, we relived our favorite songs from our teenage years and we sang along to all the songs we didn’t even know we knew the lyrics to. At one point, I took out my phone and caught a little snippet of us singing along with the crowd to “Castle of Glass”. After watching the video again, I decided this would be the song to do.</p><h3>The Linkin Park Version</h3><p>First, here’s the original: Linkin Park’s “Castle of Glass”.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FScNNfyq3d_w%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DScNNfyq3d_w&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FScNNfyq3d_w%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/f6809da1bd1cbdae544eb01dcab86753/href">https://medium.com/media/f6809da1bd1cbdae544eb01dcab86753/href</a></iframe><h3>My version</h3><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F340087966%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fsherrylynnlee%2Fcastle-of-glass-acoustic-cover&image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-000240437214-yrhzd0-t500x500.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/b2c9def45a5b980d2b270a514ae6406e/href">https://medium.com/media/b2c9def45a5b980d2b270a514ae6406e/href</a></iframe><h3>Analysis</h3><ul>
<li>Would you recognize the song if you knew the original? Yes.</li>
<li>Would you have guessed it was a Linkin Park song if you didn’t know it? Probably not.</li>
<li>Does it feel consistent with my original material and my sound? Yes. I can get behind this version.</li>
<li>Does it fit my personality? Yes.</li>
<li>Do you like it? Maybe yes, maybe no and that’s okay.</li>
<li>Did I make it my own? I would say so.</li>
</ul><h3>So what did I change?</h3><p>For all you musicians who would like the juicy details, or all you music lovers who wonder how these sonic experiences come to life, read on :)</p><h3>Instrumentation</h3><p>While LP’s version has very prominent beats, padding, harmonies, etc, mine would be stripped down to an acoustic version. Just guitar and one vocal.</p><h3>Key & Vocal Approach</h3><p>It will often help to change the key, especially if you’re covering a voice with similar range. In this case, I didn’t have to. While this song had Chester singing in his lower range in a very soothing tone, the same key was perfect for me to hit that mid-high range where I could do some of the more vulnerable variations I was going for. Note that I chose a more low-key approach as opposed to an Evanescence-style powerhouse belt.</p><h3>Meter/Rhythm</h3><p>You’ll notice that my version is slower that the original with a bit of swing to it. When I slowed it down, there was all that space to play with. So instead of singing it like I would a faster version, I emphasize the words/phrasings differently. Compare the first line: “Take me down to the river bend”. I add a little pause after “down” to align the vocals with the guitar’s rhythmic pockets and it gives the song a different feel.</p><h3>Tension</h3><p>The original has a very interesting beat that creates tension with Chester’s evenly smooth vocals. Since I changed the vocal rhythm a bit, that tension wasn’t replicated in my version. Instead, I created tension in the vocal delivery.</p><h3>Melodic variation</h3><p>I like to only do a few melodic variations when doing cover songs because I think part of the reward for the listener is to recognize the melody. The variations provide a nice element of surprise, but not so much that it detracts from the essence of the song completely. Listen to the last chorus around the 1:35 mark for the “in this castle of glass” line.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>What did you think? Did you like the cover? What would <em>you</em> have done differently? Comment with a link of a cover of which you’re proud of, or a cover which really resonates with you. I love to hear interesting covers :)</p><blockquote>If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or more of the following:</blockquote><blockquote>- Drop me a comment and let me know what you think!</blockquote><blockquote>- Clap/Recommend/Bookmark this blog</blockquote><blockquote>- Share this blog with a friend who likes Linkin Park or who makes covers</blockquote><blockquote>- Add the song to your library on Spotify</blockquote><blockquote>- Buy the song on iTunes or add it to your Apple Music library</blockquote><blockquote>- Say hello via <a href="http://www.23rdhr.com">www.23rdhr.com</a> or sign up for our mailing list:</blockquote><ul>
<li><a href="http://eepurl.com/czAWy5">23rd Hour Mailing List</a></li>
<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/castle-of-glass-acoustic-single/1279282835">Castle of Glass (Acoustic) - Single by Sherry-Lynn Lee on Apple Music</a></li>
</ul><p>Written by <a href="https://medium.com/u/2917f7c62eea">Sherry-Lynn</a>.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ab9f29dfdead" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/the-making-of-my-tribute-to-chester-bennington-ab9f29dfdead">The making of my tribute to Chester Bennington</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/49468672017-11-23T17:28:28-08:002021-04-21T10:10:41-07:00We had the idea to write a traditional Christmas song for some time.<p>We had the idea to write a traditional Christmas song for some time. But it didn’t seem to be going anywhere until one sleepless night (at least for one of us). That bout insomnia sparked a flurry of creativity on Sherry’s part, who, bored in the wee hours, dashed off the lyrics to our new song, “<a href="https://23rdhr.com">Have You Noticed the Season?</a>”</p><p>The next day, with the bulk of words on paper, we sat down with a guitar and in the span of an hour magically had the melody, the chorus, a rough bridge (the transition point in a song) and, most importantly, the “hook” (the combination of melody and lyrics that is the catchiest part of any pop or rock song).</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*DS_MuFwDv7XmfixO2XIMWg.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>You can listen to our new Christmas single “Have You Noticed the Season?” by clicking <a href="https://23rdhr.com">here</a>.</figcaption></figure><p>Over the next few days, we tweaked the lyrics, the melody and the chords here and there, but felt pretty good about what we had. It was the first week in November. Could we actually get this produced to sound like a new, yet classic Christmas song in the style of the ’40s jazz standards and get it out by the start of the Christmas holiday season?</p><p>We called our friends at Studio Pros, a group of top-flight L.A. sessions musicians that specializes in producing music for people like us, (i.e. songwriters who have sufficient talent in the writing department, but aren’t or don’t care to be technical masters of the production world.) After a bit of discussion with our producer, we decided on the arrangement we were looking for, with real woodwinds and horns (In this case: clarinet, trombone, trumpet and saxophone). We sent along a demo that we cobbled together, with our desired arrangement.</p><h3>The devil is in the details</h3><p>Paul McCartney was asked once what the secret is to song writing. He replied that it’s actually quite simple. You just take a guitar, pad and pencil, go into a room and 20 minutes later you come out with a song.</p><p>There’s an element of truth to that. But taking that rough idea to finished project can be time consuming, tedious, nerve jangling and exhausting. And anyone who has followed the Beatles (guilty has charged) knows the legendary stories of the hours they spent in the studio with their producer, George Martin, iterating on take after take to get the right mix.</p><p>We were doing the same thing, only on a much more meager budget, and, since this is the 21st Century, we were collaborating remotely, shipping files back and forth rather than dropping into Abbey Road Studios for a series of all-night sessions.</p><p>We started with basic tracks (what’s known as the rhythm section) of bass, drums, guitars and began building or layering on top of that. We worked with the arranger for the horn/winds and those instruments were recorded remotely while we worked in our home studio to lay down vocals, piano and additional guitar parts as well as some of the effects (Christmas bells, xylophone etc.) .</p><p>With all the tracks (18 and counting) captured, it was time to get into the nitty gritty of the technical stuff. Hours were spent in our home studio and in L.A. editing down to individual notes which were “quantized” (fixing the timing) or tuned to keep everything on pitch.</p><p>From there it was a question of arranging. Einstein once quipped that the reason we have time is to prevent everything from happening at once. Arranging is something like that.</p><p>It is truly an art form and without it, you’d have every voice and every instrument at “11” going nonstop. It would be nothing but noise. The song needs to “breathe,’ it needs dynamics (highs and lows) and it needs a sense of space between the instruments. This is especially critical with a full orchestra sound as we were striving for in “Have You Noticed the Season?”.</p><p>It was touch and go toward the end but, after a few 14-hour days in the home stretch, we made it. We have our first Holiday Season original out. We hope you enjoy it.</p><p>Thanks for reading — and listening.</p><p>George & Sherry</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=9d9dbf4d46f7" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48951772017-10-17T03:41:03-07:002017-10-17T10:01:06-07:00Trains, trams, boats and butterflies<p>We were lost. And trapped. Maps — physical and via phone — were of little use. But this was no time to panic. We put our survival skills to good use. (Sherry spent her summers as a Scout and I am no stranger to hiking and camping in the wilderness.)</p><p>First rule in this type of situation: observe your surroundings. Could we see daylight anywhere? (No.) What could we see?</p><p>That’s when we detected a pattern. There were signs everywhere, we just hadn’t been looking hard enough. And what were those signs? <em>Tommy Hilfilger, Diane von Furstenberg, Cartier, Columbia, Nike.</em> These were important clues.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*X_vhctX22SztXpUx_3qh-A.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>One of the over 200 very colorful species of butterflies in Hong Kong Park.</figcaption></figure><p>Yes, it all became clear. We were stuck in yet another mall in Hong Kong.</p><p>We decided to rest, regroup and devise a new strategy. We made camp at (what else?) a Starbucks. (Ironically, not the best cup of <em>Americano</em> coffee in Hong Kong). And with the help of a few kind strangers, we found a way out.</p><h4>The dark secret of Hong Kong</h4><p>You will not learn about this from travel guides, the Hong Kong Tourism Board and certainly not the government. They are all in on it.</p><p>To be sure, the MTR transit system is an amazing infrastructure. The network of trains carry 4.7 million people. <em>Each day</em>. It all seems to work like the proverbial Swiss watch. And it’s clean, at least much cleaner than any other urban railway we’ve ridden.</p><p>So what’s the dark secret? It is this: you can get on but, like <em>Hotel California</em>, you can never leave. At least, you can never leave without going through a mall.</p><p>When we finally made it out into the open air we were greeted by the din of traffic and a downpour. But at least we were out.</p><p>We trekked to our desired destination: Hong Kong Park, resplendent with waterfalls, gardens and, best of all, a butterfly sanctuary. The colorful winged creatures danced gracefully, oblivious to the hectic bustling of the city and the skyscrapers that towered on all sides of their diminutive oasis.</p><p>After stops at the tea pot museum and the quaint Lock Cha Tea House, we hiked to the Peak Tram, one of the most popular tourist spots in the area. We were greeted by a long line. But, as we have learned, Hong Kong queues are very deceiving. The transit staff know how to keep things moving. And we soon found ourselves aboard the antique funicular-type device, ascending 1,200 feet in elevation at about a 45-degree angle.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*6tokN15ILfiBvsYOsLmRBw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>A panoramic view of Hong Kong from the peak of the Peak Tram.</figcaption></figure><p>Atop the mountain, we were able to survey a stunning 270-degree view of the islands of Hong Kong, with more skyscrapers than anywhere in the world.</p><p>And then it was time to head home. We found our way to the pier and for a nominal fee of a little over four Hong Kong dollars (about 60 cents U.S.) we hopped the ferry to cross the harbor back to our hotel in the Tsim Sha Tsui district, the dangers of the morning’s mall mishap now just a distant memory.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/750/1*Maqi5nfeZzJXw_hKgYP-qw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Taking the ferry across Hong Kong Harbour.</figcaption></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=967079b32c76" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48923282017-10-14T19:38:25-07:002017-10-15T02:00:55-07:00Big Buddha and the Big Wind<p>Our hotel must be well constructed. From our perch on the 21st floor, we can see a light rain falling. But we hear virtually no sounds from the streets below.</p><p>It’s only when we attempt to go outside that we realize todays inclement weather is not just a light drizzle but a full blown storm. Technically, it is a “Signal 3 Typhoon.”</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/250/1*zLonCjTEZHeor40vV6ku0w.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Typhoon warnings are posted in Hong Kong</figcaption></figure><p>What’s the difference among a typhoon, cyclone or hurricane? Not much, really, except the direction the wind blows (counter-clockwise in the north; clockwise below the equator). Other than that, they are bad storms with lots of precipitation and sustained heavy winds.</p><p>This storm is mostly about the wind, which, as it happens is appropriate for this particular day. In Chinese, <em>tai fung </em>means “big wind.” That term is derived from a Portuguese word which arrived, no doubt, from Hong Kong’s nearby neighbor and former Portuguese colony, Macao. The term can also be traced to Arabic and even Greek (<em>tuphōn, </em>or whirlwind in that ancient language.<em>)</em></p><p>We might not have known at all about the storm had we not stepped out to the balcony on the 10th floor, where the wind is fierce enough that they have to keep the doors locked in place.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/500/1*N5T7qPz2I8f1F5HNpoOfhg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Hong Kong’s Big Buddha is really, really big.</figcaption></figure><p>This pretty much kills our plans to visit the Tian Tan Buddha high atop a mountain at the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island. The bronze statue, affectionately known as “Big Buddha” is supposed to symbolize the harmonius relationship between people and nature.</p><p>Harmony, indeed. Mother Nature wins this round.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=822ac0e093f" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48916562017-10-14T04:46:32-07:002017-10-14T06:30:23-07:00Finding Krishna in Kowloon<p>Everything moves fast in this town. You’ve heard of the New York Minute? Welcome to the Hong Kong Second. (Yes, that’s a thing; I didn’t make it up.)</p><p>When leaving your hotel lobby, you need to look both ways. That’s just to merge on to the sidewalk. It is a sea of moving humans and they are yielding to no one. These people are on a mission to get to their appointed destination. Many of them are pushing or pulling hardshell roller bags as though they are late for a plane.</p><h4>What’s in the bags? We don’t know, but we’re guessing things they have picked up while shopping. Shopping malls are tucked into skyscrapers on nearly every block.</h4><p>The streets are relatively clean. There is a dirth of litter compared to the U.S. And the malls — sporting all the famous designer brands — are spotless. Gleaming marble floors, brightly lit stores of every kind.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*aaY3nIUnG-leNxghj_hMww.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>The streets of Hong Kong are jammed packed, morning, noon and night.</figcaption></figure><p>We’ve got no particular place to go today. We just want to take in and enjoy the Kowloon district of Hong Kong. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need to compete with the crowds to get anywhere.</p><p>We take the Metro subway a few blocks. Underground is another city in and of itself. Once again, the thing that stands out is how clean and well lighted it is. (By the way, you can’t peak around the corner to see the train lights up the subway tunnel. The tracks and subway platforms are separated by a wall of glass.)</p><p>After a short hop up the Red Line, we arrive at our stop. Smack dab in the middle of this organized chaos of a city we find Kowloon Park, where Banyan trees line the entrance to an urban sanctuary. The Hindus believe Krishna resides in the leaves of these botanical wonders, with their mythic-like dripping roots. The god of compassion could not have picked a better perennial wooded plant.</p><h3>Finding refuge</h3><p>We ascend a flight of stairs, greeted by some Disneyesque characters that are part of a three-dimensional tribute to Asian cartoon artists, and we settle at a park bench. We decide this will be a good, quiet place to busk. So we set up and commence playing, only to be greeted by the noisiest birds in the East. Their chirping is no worse than the noisy chatter of patrons at an open mic coffee shop, where baristas yell out drinks over the din of the hissing of the espresso steamer.</p><p>And so we carry on, unfazed.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*FaeeOoFLNuuTC99Se6I-rg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Snow White and a few of the dwarfs.</figcaption></figure><p>After playing a few tunes — to quizzical looks from other park goers — we pack up and take a stroll ourselves. This activity works up an appetite.</p><p>We merge back into the busy surface streets and end up (where else) but in another mall. According to the “You Are Here” map, there is a very good dumpling joint on the 3rd or 4th floor. We’re not sure of the exact floor, because the Hong Kong system for levels is very confusing. There are not only lobby levels, but upper lobby and lower lobby. And below the lower lobby there might be the ground. And below that can be the parking levels. Hard to know how high or low you are in this system.</p><p>Everything moves fast in this town, except the elevators, which, it should be noted, are manufactured by Otis or Schindler. Not only do they move at a comparative snail’s pace to the rest of this bustling city, but once the doors open, there is little to no space, especially for people carrying extra baggage like musical instruments.</p><p>We give up and hoof it up the stairs to finally find the restaurant and get seated.</p><p>A family next to us has a toddler in a high chair. The little guy is a husky fellow with a crew cut. He’s dressed in red, white and blue sneakers and the tiniest letterman jacket. He’s holding his mother’s rose-gold colored iPhone — it’s bigger than his head — and he’s clicking through a game that includes English nursery rhymes for the soundtrack.</p><p>Dad grabs a portion of his meal with his chopsticks and attempts to feed the boy while the little one is distracted. He gives the universal sign for “no” by shaking his head. The days of distracting kids to feed them with the “airplane game” are long gone. Doesn’t seem video games on phones are much more successful, though.</p><p>It’s feeling like rain so we skidaddle back to base camp, also known as our hotel. We ventured little and gained nothing on this day and we’ve got little to show for it, except the memories.</p><p>Legend has it that Krishna, in his childhood, reinforced the concept of <em>lila</em>, playing a game for enjoyment rather than to compete to win. Maybe Krishna is right.</p><p>Time for a nap.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=210464a4df1e" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48915012017-10-13T17:45:44-07:002018-05-09T23:58:16-07:00A Day at the Hong Kong Beach<p>As we descend the steep, winding grade, the emerald green waters of the South China sea come into view and the white sands of the beach gleam invitingly. Our Uber driver is looking for a place to pull over and let us out. He asks:</p><p>“Do you want to go to the mall?”</p><p>A natural assumption. When in Hong Kong, you must shop. There seems to be a mall every 50 meters. When you’re not in the mall, you’re negotiating pedestrian traffic with street vendors selling every and anything that may or may not be legal.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*0pG7CgU3oOiLrTb0k_tEhg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Container ships entering Hong Kong are larger than many of the islands that dot the harbor.</figcaption></figure><p>But no, we are actually here for the beach, we tell him. It took us a good 45 minutes to traverse the 7.8 miles of Hong Kong traffic, inching our way from the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon to Repulse Bay on Hong Kong Island. And the beach it will be.</p><p>We negotiated our way through the tour buses, all parked in a row. The tourists, who probably have about 20 minutes or so at this stop, make the requisite trek through the sand to the water’s edge to take a group shot before again boarding the bus to their next destination.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/288/1*1HiOyxp9eSTD0A73rLtrzg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Sherry’s illustration of a lonely nut tree that provides shade at the beach.</figcaption></figure><p>All in all, the place is not that crowded. It is a Friday and so we’ve beat the weekend traffic. We find a quiet, shady spot to make camp with our hotel towels. It’s warm out, probably 30C (about 86F) but there is a steady breeze and the shade helps.</p><p>Just as we’re settling in, a loudspeaker blares an announcement, first in Cantonese, then Mandarin, and then in English. The English speaker has a proper British accent, no surprise given Hong Kong’s history as a colony of the Empire until just 20 years ago. The Queen’s representative asks us in the most civil tone imaginable to refrain from the flying of kites, the “throwing of disks” (aka Frisbees) or from disrupting other beach goers in any way and please, especially please, do not smoke on the beach, except in the designated smoking areas. She is so polite, I’m half expecting her to invite us to tea.</p><p>A couple next to us, conversing in Russian, is either ignoring the announcement or unable to understand. They are puffing their Marlboros.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/216/1*5DPcY8K-mYDWIhwODaU_dg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Lifeguard station command center</figcaption></figure><p>Eastern Europeans do seem to love this place. Another couple, probably in their late ’30s, are showing all the signs of a comfortable relationship. The man is attempting to situate the towels so that he is has shade and she has sun but the towels are together. He is doing this all while being second-guessed by the woman. He will lose this battle, but perhaps not the war. That turns out to be an appropriate analogy as he plops down and opens a thick paperback book titled OBLED ’44, a historical tome about Warsaw during World War II.</p><p>As the tourists continue their parade on the beach, another parade — of giant container ships — is visible out to sea, just past the dozens of tiny forested islands that pop up out of the water. The vessels chug along, one after the other, carrying goods to and from this megalopis that has been a pinnacle of international trade for centuries.</p><p>We take a dip to cool off and the waters here are as warm as any tropical locale, and this includes Sherry’s home of Mauritius, out in the Indian ocean, off the coast of Africa.</p><p>The waters are well protected. There are life guard stations every 50 meters, patrolled by young men carrying radios and who look physically fit to swim a mile at a moment’s notice. They also patrol in the water by paddle boats and jet skis. They trade stations every hour to ensure they are staying alert. And the whole network of guards, whether stationed or mobile, is coordinated by guys in a command center, a three-story tower that could easily serve any small airport.</p><p>The only protection the tourists need, though, is from the sun. No doubt, many will be back in their hotel rooms this evening seeking salves and ointments for their reddened skin.</p><p>And if they, like us, find on this vacation that the beach is more enticing than the shops, well, no worries. Whatever goods you want to buy here are no doubt available at home. The merchandise probably started its journey to its final destination through these very channel islands.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=f69faf3fc006" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48878742017-10-11T15:29:34-07:002020-12-04T00:20:11-08:00The Day it Rained on the Columbus Day Parade<p>A balmy, tropical wind drives a light drizzle and that is all it takes to disrupt traffic in the borough of Manhattan, which seems to be perpetually teetering toward chaos on its good days. To make matters worse, it is not only raining, but a parade is pending, with pageants, floats and a lot of city streets blocked. This is not just any parade but one to honor the first of many Europeans to invade this continent. Yes, they still celebrate Columbus Day here.</p><p>We are inching along in a cab smack dab on Wall Street, the heart of the “free market” of the free world, a block or two from the New York Stock Exchange.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*1Wz23WPnCVz6BlEwzk3iCw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>We’ve got about a day to kill and so we heading to the Guggenheim. After crawling along past 1 World Trade Center, Jahangir, our driver, explains that he will have to take FDR Drive to get uptown. We will essentially circumnavigate the island via this route. With the weather and the impending festivities shutting down the middle of town, it’s our safest bet, he assures us.</p><h4>We had absolutely no intention of being here at all on this day. Our plan was to circumnavigate not this tiny island but the globe.</h4><p>Our itinerary had us in Portugal for a week’s vacation before moving on to Hong Kong for a conference. And, after a week there, we’d harness the tail winds of the jet stream once more to land back home in the Golden State.</p><p>But, unbeknownst to us until we arrived at JFK the night before, our proverbial parade was rained upon as well. While preparing to board a red-eye flight to cross “The Pond,” one of our passports was deemed unacceptable. To be sure, it was valid. In fact, it was valid for another six weeks. But that is not good enough for <em>República de Portugal,</em> where your travel documents must not expire for three months after you have bid their fair land “adieu.” <em>Three months after</em>.</p><p>One of us did not qualify under this strange requirement, and it was the traveler with Canadian citizenship. Surely the Portuguese know full well that Canadians are much too polite to do anything so uncivil as overstay their welcome, especially by such an inordinate amount of time. But no such luck.</p><p>Apparently the airline could only tell us this bad passport news in person and just minutes before departure. This minor detail could only be conveyed at the gate and only after we had spent six hours flying across the U.S. to get here. Never mind that all our passport information had been logged in to the airline database weeks ago. I know. I put it there.</p><p>After hours of failed negotiations and pleas with the gate personnel, who, of course, were just doing their jobs and had no authority whatsoever, we came to the cold realization that we had as much chance reaching Portugal as Columbus did landing in India. We watched the plane take off. And as the graveyard shift workers at JFK began polishing the floors and taking out the trash, we began a search for a place to sleep.</p><p>Cell phones in hand, we dialed and clicked to find a room. The entire East Coast, apparently, was at 100% occupancy, except for a flea bag hotel on Wall Street. And it was there that we arrived via Uber at 1:30 a.m. only to learn once again how the world of e-commerce does not synchronize properly with the physical realm because the online booking system we used to secure our room did not agree with the information Monique, the hotel night clerk, had in her system.</p><p>Our first hurdle was convincing Monique that we were checking in for the previous night and not the night to follow in about 20 hours. She finally understood this distinction but we were not done. She still could not give us the room until she sorted out a discrepency in the booking rate. We were quoted online a price of $426. But she couldn’t give it to us for that rate because she didn’t have a certain code. She would not let us have the room for a penny more than $208. We weren’t sure whether to laugh or cry at this point.</p><p>We redialed our cell phone to the online booking person and handed Monique our personal phone to sort this out. In the end, she found the code and we graciously gave in to her terms for the cheaper price.</p><p>We trudged to our sleeping quarters which were conveniently located so close to the elevator we could open our hotel room door without leaving the elevator itself. To be fair, we found no fleas in the room, only a lonely cockroach and a very mysterious red stain on the carpet.</p><h4>Also, our door did not completely close, but we figured that was a feature, in the event we needed a rapid escape.</h4><p>After three or four hours of very restless sleep, I crawled out of bed and found myself in the lobby foraging for caffeine.</p><p>As I carried two cups of coffee onto the elevator for what I certainly hoped would be my last ascent in this establishment, I was greeted by a middle-aged woman with a thick southern drawl. She struck up a pleasant conversation with me, at least I think she did from what I could understand through her accent.</p><p>The elevator doors opened and a family with an Eastern European accent tried asking whether we were going up or down. We pointed up. They were going down. The doors closed and my friend from the South remarked under her breath but conveniently audible enough for me to hear that some of these visitors to our country should “learn to speak our language.”</p><p>She smiled at me as though she and I had a connection regarding this opinion. I smiled back because I was thinking that she and I didn’t even speak the same language. And I was calculating all the time I had spent learning Portuguese for nothin’.</p><h4><em>And so this is how we find ourselves, jittery from too much coffee, sleep deprived, jet-lagged and in a cab in New York City with a day to fill before rerouting our trip to Hong Kong.</em></h4><p>Our cab driver, whose name is Jahangir, is a friendly fellow, although a bit hard to understand.</p><p>He asks us where we are from. I say “near San Francisco.” I ask of his origins, and he points across the East River and says “over there.” But he laughs, explaining that “over there” has been his home for the past 20 years and he is a transplant from Sri Lanka.</p><p>I ask how he got here and the story is as old his adopted country. He knew someone who had a place to stay. He journeyed to the Promised Land and took any job he could find, working in restaurant kitchens, etc. And just as I am conjuring a vision of how he has spent the past two decades inching up the economic ladder of free commerce to the coveted role of taxi driver, he hastens to add that cabbing is just a sideline, not his primary source of revenue.</p><p>Jahangir’s full-time gig is a business he and four partners run in his homeland.</p><p>Naturally, I again jump to a conclusion of what that must mean. This endeavor must involve the importation of goods manufactured by cheap labor, maybe shirts hand-stiched by under-paid sweat-shop workers and sold in a Target or a WalMart.</p><p>Not at all, he politely explains. He and a partner run a 14-person data processing business.</p><p>What kind of data are they processing?</p><p>He points to the skyscrapers out our windows. From the banks, he explains. And what kind of bank data? Mortgage foreclosures. You know, the kind that were at the heart of the subprime-derivatives housing crash that just about sank the entire world economy a decade ago.</p><p>Welcome to the wonderful world of business without borders, where information flows at the speed of light, while geopolitical boundaries are still in the dark ages, regulated via little pieces of paper in books, books that may or may not be valid.</p><p>“I’ve never been to the Guggenheim,” Jahangir notes. “Do they have art from around the world?”</p><p>I respond affirmatively, though at this moment, I can only remember the names of Kandinsky, Chagall, Picasso whom I know are on exhibit. All Europeans and hardly representative of the entire world of art.</p><p>Jahangir is all New York when it comes to taxi driving. He is tailgating, swearing at the other drivers, and texting, all while turning around to talk to us. He asks when our flight to the airport will be. He graciously offers to take us there and proceeds to pull out a piece of paper and write down his phone number. We can call him anytime, he notes.</p><p>We smile and accept the paper. If we make it out of this cab alive, we may kiss the ground, but we will not be calling Jahangir for any future excursions.</p><p>He exits FDR at 96th only to be greeted by a police roadblock. The parade is under way. Sirens blast past us as a van with the Italian flag whizzes by. Maybe it’s the Mayor of Genoa here on behalf of their famous son.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*YjNeH83J1B7SBkp1aVxNUw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>Jahangir tries a sidestreet but police lights are making it clear this won’t be easy. He is not discouraged. He turns the meter off to give us a break on the fare and we traverse paved surfaces that may or not be meant for motorized vehicles until we pop out across from the Guggenheim. Columbus should have had this guy for a navigator.</p><p>The Guggenheim line is around the block and the precipitation has turned from drizzle to downpour. We have no umbrella so we duck into a little pizzeria seeking shelter from the storm.</p><p>Since we’re here, we order a classic Margherita pizza and two glasses of chianti. Afterall, when in Rome, especially on this day, do as the Romans, except for speaking their native language. None of the staff are speaking Italian, either, only Spanish.</p><p>And it dawns on us that right about now we should be in Lisbon checking into our AirBnB and maybe sipping a glass of <em>vinho verde.</em></p><p>But this will do. It will have to do.</p><p>Habla português? Anybody?</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=d9ce6b4b7dab" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48428112017-09-08T11:57:26-07:002017-09-08T16:15:24-07:00Weekends of Wine and Music<p>Event round-up for wine enthusiasts and music lovers for the weekends of Sept 9 and Sept 16 in the Mountain View/ Los Altos areas.</p><p>In addition to the WineWalk and the Art & Wine Festival, we’re highlighting a brand new type of event, premiering at the Los Altos Tasting Room on Sept 16: A wine pairing like no other.</p><p>If you have followed us for any length of time you know we have an affinity for wine and music. So we’re pretty excited about these big events coming up in the next two weekends.</p><h3>1. Mountain View Art & Wine Festival (Sept 9, 10)</h3><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/200/1*BLQ-O0SYvt07HDgjgxfICA.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>This two-day event takes over Castro Street from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday (Sept. 9 and 10.) Lots of good music, gourmet food and of course, wine and artwork. For us, we’ll be on the job interviewing local wineries for our <a href="https://www.23rdhr.com/winewednesday"><em>WineWednesday</em></a> web cast series.</p><p>Admission is free. More information is available <a href="http://mountainview.miramarevents.com/"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p><h3>2. Wine Walk (Sept 16 — daytime)</h3><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*6l38--8tT0PKsZEptjhYrw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>Downtown Los Altos stores will be hosting some of your favorite local wineries at the Downtown Los Altos Late Summer Wine Walk 2–6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16.</p><p>You can enhance your shopping experience with wine tastings from a number of local vineyards.</p><p>Wines will be available from Portola Vineyards, Russian Ridge, Fernwood, Creekview, Domenico, Greyscale, Wildeye, PRIE, Wrights Station, Roudon-Smith, Guglielmo, and Muccigrosso.</p><p>Tickets are $35 in advance through <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/downtown-los-altos-late-summer-wine-walk-2017-tickets-32485966400"><strong>Eventbrite.com</strong></a> or call 650–949–5282.</p><p>This event is organized by the Los Altos Village Association.</p><h3><strong>3. Wine and Live Music Pairing Experience (Sept 16 evening)</strong></h3><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*vDMiIL4idWkNA5S4FvunyQ.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>How does music affect your wine tasting experience? Find out 23rdhr.com/byington</figcaption></figure><p>On Saturday, Sept. 16, we’ll be hosting a very unique night at the Los Altos Tasting Room, 366 Main Street, Los Altos. It will be an interactive show with a small to medium audience. A tasting is included in the ticket price. As we taste the wines, we will guide the audience through pairing the wine with music. Byington Vineyard & Winery’s award-winning wines, our cross-genre acoustic live music, and a fun experience for everybody.</p><p><strong>And each ticket includes:<br></strong> — Wine Tasting (flight of 5) <br> — An additional glass of wine of your choosing <br> — A free copy of our album “Perfect Strangers”</p><p><a href="https://www-153q.bookeo.com/bookeo/b_byington_start.html?ctlsrc=1504797584810&src=01d&type=3153CYUAUE15E4A419651"><strong>Tickets</strong></a> are $40. Or for more information, you can click <a href="https://23rdhr.com/byington"><strong>here</strong></a>. Hope to see you there!</p><p>Here’s our WineWednesday episode at the Los Altos Tasting Room:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzQtAGJcSWo&list=PL2-ppDRf8Tw8jozyAINLQem5Kei1sJxss&index=6&t=83s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzQtAGJcSWo</a></p><h3><strong>About the Los Altos Tasting Room:</strong></h3><blockquote>The Tasting Room is owned and operated by the Byington Vineyard and Winery. We will be partnering with the Byington team to bring you a very unique night.</blockquote><h3><strong>About us:</strong></h3><blockquote>We are a Los Altos based jazz-pop duo. Our sound is an eclectic mix of jazz, pop, classical and rock influences. We’re often compared to early Norah Jones, James Taylor, and The Civil Wars.</blockquote><blockquote>We also host the following shows:<br>- <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKBCZioGOKk&list=PL2-ppDRf8Tw8jozyAINLQem5Kei1sJxss&index=1"><strong>WineWednesday</strong></a> show on YouTube <br>- <a href="http://medium.com/bayareamusician"><strong>Bay Area Musician</strong></a> on KZSU 90.1 FM</blockquote><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=40eb1e14253e" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday/https-medium-com-twentythirdhour-weekends-of-wine-and-music-sept-9-10-16-los-altos-40eb1e14253e">Weekends of Wine and Music</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday">WineWednesday</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48303542017-08-29T09:46:32-07:002017-08-29T13:45:29-07:00The beginning of 23rd Hour<p>Three years ago, two musicians met up for an ordinary jam session. That day — July 19, 2014 — ended up being a turning point for the both of them. Here’s their take:</p><p><strong><em>Sherry</em></strong><em>: “We got together and quickly realized that our repertoires were almost mutually exclusive. George knew all the jazz and classic rock up to the early 80s. I mostly played classic rock, pop, R&B from the 90s onwards.”</em></p><p><strong><em>George</em></strong><em>: “There was a big gap in between but a sense that since we were already together, we might as well see where we can find common ground.”</em></p><p><strong><em>Sherry</em></strong><em>: “While I think we were both scratching our head to remember any songs we might know of the other’s repertoire, it never occurred to me that this might have been a bad idea. I was convinced that writing together could really create something interesting at the very least.”</em></p><p><strong><em>George</em></strong><em>: “It didn’t take long to discover that a common repertoire was not all that important. What was important was that we both favored tunes with strong melodies and thoughtful lyrics. By the end of the afternoon, we had worked up a few songs that were well enough rehearsed to take to the coffee house open mic.”</em></p><p>And that’s just what they did. Here is the video of that first performance as a duo at Red Rock, only a few weeks after this first fateful musical encounter.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/640/0*OhwObBadEurI9qmu.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>George & Sherry — first performance together.<strong><em>Where Do We Go</em></strong> went on to become <a href="https://23rdhr.com/track/1164435/where-do-we-go?autostart=true">track #4</a> on our album. Yesterday, we were incredibly excited to see that our album has been downloaded/streamed in at least 23 different countries over the past 3 months. We never could have guessed three years ago that we would be writing this to you today. We feel so lucky to have met and shared July 19, 2014 together.</p><p>You can stream our album for free on <a href="http://www.23rdhr.com/music">www.23rdhr.com</a><strong>.</strong><br>If you have a subscription service, we’re also on <a href="http://bit.ly/23rdHr">Spotify</a><strong>, </strong><a href="http://bit.ly/23rdApl">Apple Music</a><strong>, </strong><a href="http://amzn.to/2kOnFD8">Amazon Music</a><strong>.</strong></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3b7b6b6a31be" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/48201552017-08-20T16:33:20-07:002020-12-07T00:01:51-08:00Ellen Seeling on Women in Jazz<p>This post is incomplete. We will add the actual blog very soon. In the meantime, here’s the full personnel list of the Montclair Women’s Big Band!</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*zMHzPnmS5bz3cCUlfh4lcA.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Sherry & Ellen in the studio</figcaption></figure><h3>Montclair Women’s Big Band</h3><p>Ellen Seeling, Founder and Director, trumpet <br><a href="http://music.berkeley.edu/people/ellen-seeling/">http://music.berkeley.edu/people/ellen-seeling/</a><br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MWBigBand">www.facebook.com/MWBigBand</a></p><p>Jean Fineberg, Assistant Director, composer, arranger, saxophone<br><a href="http://www.jeanfineberg.com/">www.jeanfineberg.com</a><br><a href="http://www.partymonstersband.com/">www.PartyMonstersBand.com</a></p><p><strong>SAXOPHONES/REEDS</strong></p><p>Kasey Knudsen <br><a href="http://www.kaseyknudsen.com/home.html">www.kaseyknudsen.com</a></p><p>Mad Duran <br><a href="http://www.madduran.com/">www.madduran.com</a> <br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/madduranjazz">www.facebook.com/madduranjazz</a></p><p>Jean Fineberg <br><a href="http://www.jeanfineberg.com/">www.jeanfineberg.com</a><br><a href="http://www.partymonstersband.com/">www.PartyMonstersBand.com</a></p><p>Yvonne Lin</p><p>Carolyn Walter <br><a href="http://www.mirthkon.com/">www.mirthkon.com</a></p><p><strong>TRUMPETS/FLUGELHORNS</strong></p><p>Ellen Seeling <br><a href="http://music.berkeley.edu/people/ellen-seeling/">http://music.berkeley.edu/people/ellen-seeling/</a><br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MWBigBand">www.facebook.com/MWBigBand</a></p><p>Marina Garza <br><a href="http://www.odslive.com/">www.odslive.com</a></p><p>Sarah Wilson<br><a href="http://www.sarahwilsonmusic.com/about.html">www.sarahwilsonmusic.com/about.html</a></p><p>Tiffany Carrico</p><p><strong>TROMBONES</strong></p><p>Mara Fox</p><p>Sarah Cline</p><p>Crystal Bryant</p><p>Becca Burrington<br><a href="http://sfcmc.org/teachers/brass/#trombone">www.sfcmc.org/teachers/brass</a></p><p><strong>RHYTHM</strong></p><p>Erika Oba (piano)<br><a href="http://www.erikaoba.com/">www.erikaoba.com</a></p><p>Ruth Davies (bass)<br><a href="http://www.ruthdavies.com/">www.ruthdavies.com</a></p><p>Michaelle Goerlitz (Latin Percussion)<br><a href="http://michaellegoerlitz.com/bio.html">michaellegoerlitz.com/bio.html</a></p><p>Lance (drums)</p><p><strong>New Album coming up:</strong></p><p>Women’s Work — compositions and arrangements by Women</p><h3>Next show for Montclair Women’s Big Band</h3><p><strong>Nov 10, 2017</strong> — San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music (swing dance for Veteran’s Day)</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3b884790e6d" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47998802017-08-01T23:21:53-07:002017-08-02T02:34:18-07:00Wine Wednesday, S.2 E.9: Fernwood Cellars<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/624/1*KpI5iLpHna2C8rlaSGlzVQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Matt Oetinger, owner and winemaker. Photo courtesy of Fernwood Cellars.</figcaption></figure><blockquote>“The wonderful truth about drinking wine is that every bottle has a story. Every winemaker pours a little bit of their soul into a very handcrafted product.”</blockquote><blockquote>— Matt Oetinger</blockquote><p>There is more to Fernwood Cellars’ wine than technique and terroir. Hints of history with, perhaps, notes of tradition. Located on the historic Redwood Retreat Road, the estate had several incarnations since Charles & Annis Sanders first bought it in 1836. From cabin to Victorian hotel, to lodge, to personal dwelling, each generation inheriting the property started a new chapter, culminating in a spectacular winery with acres of vineyards.</p><p>Matt Oetinger’s passion for winemaking was first sparked by learning from his dad. Matt went on to study viticulture at UC Davis and managing another winery before establishing Fernwood Cellars in 1999. Built on the property that has been in his family for five generations since 1863, the winery remains a sacred place where the past generations’ work on the land and family traditions continue to influence the wines that Matt produces each year.</p><p><strong><em>What will make the best possible wine?</em></strong> According to Oetinger, this question drives every decision. Using estate-grown varietals exclusively, Fernwood is among only 7% of wineries to do so. This practice gives the winemaker more control over the entire process. From farming techniques to barrel choices, nothing is left to chance. Oetinger points out that he does not use “oak alternatives”, preferring instead to use real oak barrels of the highest quality.</p><p>Producing only 3000 cases per year, Fernwood Cellars prides itself in handcrafting excellence in every bottle, using 6–7 estate-grown varietals planted over 100 acres on the property.</p><p>Below is our interview with Lani Dorff, who represented the winery at the Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fjhm0ouK_NB8%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Djhm0ouK_NB8&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2Fjhm0ouK_NB8%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/832d750552dea10aec6e4281458b7117/href">https://medium.com/media/832d750552dea10aec6e4281458b7117/href</a></iframe><p>The winery is open for tastings the first and third weekend of every month.</p><blockquote>If you enjoyed this episode, please consider recommending it (click the heart), leaving a comment, bookmarking it, etc. It helps other people find the show AND it’s free ;) Even better: share it with your wine lover friends. You can also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2-ppDRf8Tw8jozyAINLQem5Kei1sJxss">subscribe to our YouTube channel</a> or follow us on Medium :)</blockquote><blockquote>For more information about the winery, go to <a href="http://www.fernwoodcellars.com/overview/">www.fernwoodcellars.com</a>
</blockquote><blockquote>WineWednesday is hosted by <a href="https://medium.com/u/f8b4ad2dc08">George Paolini</a> & <a href="https://medium.com/u/2917f7c62eea">Sherry-Lynn Lee</a> in association with <a href="https://medium.com/u/5df247e34272">23rd Hour</a>.</blockquote><blockquote>For more information: <a href="http://www.23rdhr.com">www.23rdhr.com</a><br>The complete back-catalog of WineWednesday episodes are available <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2-ppDRf8Tw8jozyAINLQem5Kei1sJxss">here</a>
</blockquote><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=c6ec885c7bd3" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday/wine-wednesday-s-2-e-9-fernwood-cellars-c6ec885c7bd3">Wine Wednesday, S.2 E.9: Fernwood Cellars</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday">WineWednesday</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47934662017-07-26T14:50:14-07:002021-01-22T22:49:29-08:00Wine Wednesday, S.2 E.8: Martin Ranch Winery<p>You might think that two business partners with distinctive approaches to their craft would have very little desire to work together.</p><p>But at the Martin Ranch Winery, nestled 600 feet up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, just west of Gilroy, the two winemakers on staff have appreciably different styles and opinions, and yet they get along just fine. Good thing, too, since they’re married.</p><p>Thérèse and Dan Martin have been producing wines now for about 20 years. And while they do everything together, from managing the business, to working in the vineyards, harvesting, crushing and fermenting the grapes, they have very distinctive tastes for the outcome.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/837/1*ZbLpa9HfL7hqAiTw42Tc5A.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Thérèse and Dan Martin, owners and winemakers at Martin Ranch Winery, Gilroy, CA.</figcaption></figure><p>“They are like yin and yang,” says Martin Ranch’s Bonnie Randall, with a laugh. “And for that reason we actually have two different labels.”</p><p>Dan is very interested in creating wines that appeal to a large number of people, says Bonnie. His JD Hurley label experiments with blends, apparently with success. His 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, includes Martin Ranch and Santa Clara Valley grapes. It won Best of Class of Region and was awarded 95 points at the 2017 California State Fair.</p><p>Thérèse Vineyards, on the other hand, reflects Thérèse’s intent on producing single-varietal “showcase” wines. Her 2012 Estate Cabernet took Gold in the San Francisco Chronicle 2017 wine competition. This is just one of many accolades her label has garnered.</p><p>In any given year, Dan and Thérèse, who dry farm their vines and are avid practitioners of green production, deliver some 22 different wines.</p><p>“They are, in my opinion, crafted lovingly and exceptionally well,” says Bonnie.</p><p>The winery is open to the public the first and third weekend of every month on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.</p><p>“Bring a picnic,” suggests Bonnie. “It’s a very family friendly and dog friendly atmosphere at Martin Ranch.”</p><p>For our Wine Wednesday show we decided to pair Thérèse Vineyard’s 2012 award-winning estate Cabernet with an old Duke Ellington song “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” Not that we’re choosing sides or picking favorites. We’re pretty sure the tune would go fine with one of Dan’s blends as well.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dck4KTM4KGNE&src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fck4KTM4KGNE&type=text%2Fhtml&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/41ceff35292fecf9fb956c2ab2a5078f/href">https://medium.com/media/41ceff35292fecf9fb956c2ab2a5078f/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=6ec93f077148" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday/wine-wednesday-s-2-e-8-martin-ranch-winery-6ec93f077148">Wine Wednesday, S.2 E.8: Martin Ranch Winery</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday">WineWednesday</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47857182017-07-19T17:41:22-07:002020-06-26T23:51:25-07:00Wine Wednesday S. 2 Ep. 7: Domenico Winery<p>Dominick Chirichillo says he got the “passion, the bug, the love and the tradition” for wine making from his grandfather, who introduced him to the craft by making a barrel at a time using a hand-crank press.</p><p>So it seems only fitting that when Dominick decided to move from the East Coast to California to pursue his hobby on a commercial scale, that he would name the winery after his grandfather, Domenico. Located in San Carlos, CA, Domenico Winery also carries on the family’s heritage with over 20 different wines, many of them fermented from grapes grown in the Golden State from rootstock brought in from the Old Country.</p><p>We caught up with Dominick, the owner and winemaker at Domenico, at the recent Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival. Domenico was one of seven vintners present at the event in early July.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/844/1*OPXF_tWT2CXsH9SsAqD-kA.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>We met up with Dominick Chirichillo, owner and winemaker at Domenico Winery in San Carlos, CA</figcaption></figure><p>Dominick is completely self-taught in the art. While running his own real estate development company, he also started a wine making school. He sold both businesses before he and his wife, Gloria, moved to the sunnier climes of the San Francisco Peninsula.</p><p>They purchased a 25,000-square-foot facility in San Carlos, where they make and store their wines, as well as run a wine tasting room and events — everything from weddings to corporate team building exercises.</p><p>They are in the process of expanding the facility with a separate wine tasting room and osteria, an Italian style kitchen with a pizza oven.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1004/1*xsXBmOAVWgidxi6-cKbeUA.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>He sources grapes from Napa Valley, Sonoma’s Central Coast, Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley, Amador County and the Lodi District. And he is a member of the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association, where he sources Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes.</p><p>But Domenico’s also grow their own grapes, with 5 acres of Syrah and 3 acres of Primitivo up in Amador County in the Sierra foothills.</p><p>We noted what we see as a resurgence in Italian varietals in California and Dominick agrees. “It’s great that California growers are willing to plant (Italian vines),” says Dominick. “They are making wines very typical of the wines from Italy. It’s close to my heart.”</p><p>And he enjoys sourcing these grapes to make small batches for his label. “It goes back to my days of making one barrell at a time,” he says.</p><p><a href="http://www.domenicowinery.com"><em>Domenico Winery</em></a><em>, 1697 Industrial Road, San Carlos, CA 94070, is open to the public on weekends and hosts live music every third Sunday of the month.</em></p><p>The Wine Wednesday Youtube episode is available here:</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dq3K-CEEBqDE&src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fq3K-CEEBqDE&type=text%2Fhtml&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/fbb5f504764b91edfe4747c7e8272e51/href">https://medium.com/media/fbb5f504764b91edfe4747c7e8272e51/href</a></iframe><blockquote>We highlight wines from boutique wineries around the San Francisco Bay Area and pair them with music. If you enjoy this post, please click the heart and/or follow us. You can also share it via email or Twitter and tag us (<a href="https://medium.com/u/5df247e34272">23rd Hour</a>). It helps a lot. Thanks! :)</blockquote><blockquote>For more info about us, go to <a href="http://www.23rdhr.com">www.23rdhr.com</a>
</blockquote><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=aed1dee945bf" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday/wine-wednesday-s-2-ep-7-domenico-winery-aed1dee945bf">Wine Wednesday S. 2 Ep. 7: Domenico Winery</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday">WineWednesday</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47813772017-07-16T14:56:49-07:002021-12-23T02:53:34-08:00Bay Area Musician: Will Ackerman<p><em>Our interview with Will Ackerman will be covered in two episodes airing 7/16 and 7/23 6–7pm on KZSU 90.1 FM (or </em><a href="http://kzsu.stanford.edu/live"><em>http://kzsu.stanford.edu/live</em></a><em>). To listen to previous episodes, subscribe to </em><a href="http://bit.ly/BayAreaMusician"><em>http://bit.ly/BayAreaMusician</em></a></p><h3>Season 2: Episode 2</h3><p>Will Ackerman, renowned composer, guitarist, recording artist, founder of Windham Hill Records and the man essentially responsible for creating a whole new genre of music, was running late to our meeting. At least he had a good excuse. He had to run to town to pick up diesel fuel for his tractor.</p><p>When we finally connected with Will by phone, he apologized for his tardiness and explained that immediately following our interview he had chores to do, including mowing a field on his farm in Vermont.</p><p>What was scheduled as a 20-minute call concluded just shy of 2 hours as we delved into a variety of topics, including the history of Windham Hill, farming, construction, poetry, life in general, and, of course, the music business today.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/480/1*H6vi3eEU8lwhRpxCUJqlvA.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Will Ackerman</figcaption></figure><p>Will and his wife have lived and worked on their property for over 20 years. After selling his share of Windham Hill Records in the mid ’90s, Will high-tailed it from the hustle and bustle of California and the music business to his refuge outside Brattleboro in Windham County. At last count, there were 17 buildings, all of them built by Will. (His first endeavor was Windham Hill Builders.) One of those structures encapsulates Imaginary Road Studios, where Will produces, not surprisingly, hand-crafted, pristine recordings for many acoustic-oriented artists.</p><h3>Warmth vs. clinical perfection</h3><p>After walking away from Windham Hill “with a bundle of dough,” Will decided to build his dream recording studio. <a href="https://imaginaryroadstudios.com/">Imaginary Road Studios</a> is just that: a state-of-the-art facility blended with custom and vintage gear. But Will hastens to note that he views the machinery as a means to the end. “I see technology in service of beauty,” he comments.</p><p>To him, recording technique is only a part of the equation. It’s getting the best out of the performance of the artists that concerns him the most. And he brings the discipline of his sparse-but-elegant playing style to his role as a producer.</p><p>“If it’s not emotionally evocative, I don’t care how fast you can play,” he says.</p><p>But why produce at all? After a dozen-plus years building Windham Hill to a multi-million dollar business, he walked away and could have rightly claimed victory.</p><p>Instead, he waited the three years required under his non-compete clause and then went right back to work doing what he loves to do. He admits that the break was necessary, but it also gave him a renewed appreciation for the role of producer. And so he found himself back in business of mentoring, this time with a new generation of artists.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/650/1*491S1pnkCiS2evlI-UcNAA.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>“I think I’m better at it now than I have ever been,” says Will, who acknowledges that a little wisdom, humility and perspective has been gained with age.</p><p>“My understanding of the gig is better than it ever has been. There’s no ego involved. I’m not a young man trying to prove anything anymore. I tell the people who come in here that I am working for them. I will tell them my opinion, but not angrily and egotistically.”</p><h3>“There isn’t a metronome to be found in this place”</h3><p>Will has assembled quite a team in his efforts to produce about 16 albums a year. In essence, he has his own “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)">Wrecking Crew,</a>” a group of top-flight, world-renowned musicians who will come in to support and back up various artists. “We laughingly call them our ‘House Band,’” says Will.</p><p>The roster starts with Will himself, as well as his partner and sound engineer Tom Eaton, an accomplished pianist. Other members include bassist Tony Levin, drummer Steve Holley and saxophonist Premik Russell Tubbs. They have collectively played with the likes of Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Santana, and Lady Gaga, to name just a few.</p><p>Members of the House Band admit that sessions at Imaginary Road present some of the most challenging work in their careers. The music is essentially free-form. There are no charts, no click tracks. But Will’s intensity at getting just the right sound makes it critical to be on one’s game.</p><h3>“The skill of Ackerman is he can listen”</h3><p>— <em>Jeff Oster</em></p><p>We caught up with Bay Area composer and horn player J<a href="http://jeffoster.com/">eff Oster</a>, who has produced four albums with Will.</p><p>Jeff, who has performed in everything from school marching bands to funk and lounge acts professionally, favors the flugelhorn and has developed a unique ambient style which he describes as “Miles meets Pink Floyd.” About a decade ago, after gaining traction on mp3.com with tracks he recorded on a laptop using loops and a cheap microphone, Jeff decided it was time to take his sound to the next level.</p><p>He contacted Will and sent him a few tracks. “He listened to them, then called me up and said, ‘Your music is actually good,’ ” Jeff says with a laugh. It wasn’t long thereafter that Jeff found himself at Imaginary Road.</p><p>A professional and personal friendship quickly developed and now Jeff not only records his solo work there, he also sits in as a session musician at Imaginary Road. And he and Will are part of a new quartet known as <a href="http://flowthegroup.com/">FLOW</a>. The group has just finished up a new album which will be released in October with a <a href="https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2017/10/6/0800/PM/FLOW-a-New-Age-Music-Ensemble-with-Guest-Artists/">concert at Carnegie Hall</a>. When asked about Will’s approach to recording, Jeff corroborated Will’s take on the process.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ol_8pme6m0OJcZF_n5-jhQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Flugenhornist and composer Jeff Oster</figcaption></figure><p>“There’s never a written note. We will listen, and build an entire performance. I have never seen Will with charts.”</p><p>We asked Jeff about Will’s philosophy as a producer.</p><p>“The skill of Ackerman is he can listen,” says Jeff. “I would have been done 10 takes earlier but he will always get the best out of the performer. He does it by feel. There is a degree of respect and a degree of pushback. It’s very collaborative.”</p><p>And as is true with his own compositions, Will is aiming to evoke feeling with music that stirs the soul.</p><p>“As a producer he gives you a lot of freedom and he waits for the magic. He knows how to capture it. He would rather have the essence of three notes than the skillset of 40.”</p><p><em>Next week: The early days of Windham Hill and the role of FM radio, the sense of community then vs. today, the return of “the muse” on a trip to Italy, and Will’s affinity for physical work.</em></p><p>You can listen to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAEECk--Jf8">music from today’s show</a>, which includes:</p><p><strong><em>The Bricklayer’s Beautiful Daughter</em></strong> (Will Ackerman)</p><p><strong><em>Next</em></strong> and <strong><em>On Bended Knee</em></strong> (Jeff Oster)</p><p><strong><em>Ritual Dance </em></strong>(Michael Hedges)</p><blockquote>
<strong>Bay Area Musician</strong> highlights the Bay Area’s music and musicians, their insights, their journey, and their opinions on what we can do to ensure a bright future for the Bay Area music scene. The goal is to get listeners and musicians excited about the local scene and inspire the local community to seek out and support local/live music. Please send inquiries to bayareamusician@kzsu.stanford.edu</blockquote><blockquote>
<strong>Bay Area Musician </strong>is hosted by Sherry & George from the jazz-pop duet <a href="https://medium.com/u/5df247e34272">23rd Hour</a>. <a href="http://www.23rdhr.com">Click here for more info</a>
</blockquote><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ffd38586d4b8" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician/bay-area-musician-will-ackerman-ffd38586d4b8">Bay Area Musician: Will Ackerman</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician">BayAreaMusician</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47772632017-07-12T18:31:30-07:002017-07-12T19:17:47-07:00Wine Wednesday S. 2, Ep 6: Naumann Vineyards<p>Becky Naumann told her husband, Don, he needed a hobby. So he put his horticulture degree and career in viticulture sales to good work. He started Naumann Vineyards.</p><p>Today, the boutique winery, perched 2,000-plus feet above Cupertino, CA, in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, produces about 750 cases a year and specializes in Merlot blends.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/833/1*7HyrbUhJtwxZIPlJQz1vyg.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption><strong>Naumann Vineyards, 16505 Montebello Rd., Cupertino, CA 95014</strong></figcaption></figure><p>We caught up with Don at the 38th Annual Los Altos Art & Wine Festival last weekend. It’s Naumann’s 11th year at the festival, one of Don’s favorite events.</p><p>And, although he’s proud of all the wines he produces, he highlights the Rose Merlot as one of his more unique creations.</p><p>“There’s only one other winery in the state that does the Rose Merlot. We’re pretty proud of that,” he says. This particular blend was something of an innovative way to make use of juicier grapes on his property. Although he dry farms his crops, a natural spring runs under one section of his grapes.</p><p>“I didn’t want to blend that in with the traditional Merlot,” he says, noting that the Rose Merlot is aged in stainless steel, while the rest of his blends are aged in French oak barrels.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/394/1*jY9Hq7Whx91b7B30kmYEoA.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Don Naumann on the deck of Naumann Vineyards, overlooking the Santa Clara Valley.</figcaption></figure><p>We explained our process of pairing a wine with a song, and Don says he prefers light country and light rock. So we think we have come up with the perfect combination for our latest Wine Wednesday episode below. We hope you enjoy it.</p><p>And if you’re free this Saturday from noon till 5 p.m., Don’s winery will be open as part of the Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Growers Association <a href="http://scmwa.com/event/july-2017-passport/">Passport Days</a>.</p><p>It’s one of only five days a year his winery is open. In addition to the four Passport Days each year, he holds a release party for his latest vintage. This year’s party will be held on Aug. 26. “We’re really small,” says Don, “the release party is basically on my deck overlooking the valley. This year we will be opening the 2014 Merlot, which has been aging in oak.”</p><p>Sounds like a perfect setting and an ideal vintage. Hope to see you there. Naumann Vineyards is located at <strong>Naumann Vineyards, 16505 Montebello Rd., Cupertino, CA.</strong></p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F-NwS5prKoKE%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-NwS5prKoKE&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F-NwS5prKoKE%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/7518fbf389068003d42d698a35cec190/href">https://medium.com/media/7518fbf389068003d42d698a35cec190/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=db432433d11c" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday/wine-wednesday-s-2-ep-6-naumann-vineyards-db432433d11c">Wine Wednesday S. 2, Ep 6: Naumann Vineyards</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday">WineWednesday</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47686702017-07-05T19:40:03-07:002017-07-05T20:34:11-07:00Wine Wednesday, S. 2, Ep 5: Byington Winery<p>Nestled in the hills above Los Gatos is a magnificent estate known as the Byington Winery. But we only traveled one mile from our Los Altos home to sample the fruits of their labor. That’s because a few short weeks ago, Byington opened the first tasting room in downtown Los Altos.</p><p>We recently caught up with Benny Madsen, the owner of Byington, at the light-filled and modern-style space, where the paint is practically just drying and a few more shelves and other fixtures are yet to be installed. The outlet serves multiple purposes, says Benny, and it fills a niche between a coffee shop and a full bar.</p><p>“We wanted to create alternatives. A place you can come to in the afternoon or have a small business meeting and enjoy the wine. But we also want to create awareness for Byington, to be able to sell directly here to customers rather than asking them to drive up a winding road all the way to the winery.”</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*OZSrWlSkgYLgEtKFcxoxkQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>We take a moment for a selfie with Dre Council, wine tasting associate at the Los Altos Wine Tasting Room.</figcaption></figure><p>He notes that the tasting room will also be available for corporate events, such as team-building exercises.</p><p>Benny, who has had a very successful career in high tech, entered into the wine business less than five years ago. He must be a quick study. Not only has he acquired and significantly improved the operations at Byington and opened the Los Altos Tasting Room, he has also acquired another winery in the Pine Mountain-Cloverdale AVA (American Viticulture Area) in the heart of the Alexander Valley.</p><p>“I think Santa Cruz has some fantastic grapes. It’s just that the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA is not very well known outside the area. We needed something that was easier to recognize as a famous AVA.”</p><p>In addition to the expansion of brand marketing, the second vineyard complements the grape varieties quite well. While the Santa Cruz location provides an abundance of Pinot Noir, the Alexander Valley locale supplies Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Chardonnay and Petit Berdot.</p><h3>Pairing Music and Wine</h3><p>Music, we are pleased to note, is a big part of Byington’s event calendar. “We do music (at the winery) every Sunday come rain or shine,” says Benny.</p><p>He sees live music as a great way to not only provide a pleasant ambiance for the winery, but to help musical artists establish themselves.</p><p>“There’s a lot of synergy in working with musicians. It’s a great way to create an audience for lesser known bands, but we also want to draw on some of the fan base to come up and experience the winery and we hope some of these fans will stay and become fans of the winery.”</p><p>Benny knows a thing or two about music, as an amateur big band trombonist from his college days. But choosing his favorite big band composer is as futile as choosing a favorite wine from his vineyards.</p><p>“I like them all,” he says with a laugh.</p><p>This inspired us to make the hard choice of pairing Byington’s exclusive “Liage” white blend with a classic Duke Ellington tune: “I Got it Bad (And That Ain’t Good”). You can watch our latest installment of Wine Wednesday below.</p><p>The new tasting room is open this weekend for the <a href="http://www.downtownlosaltos.org/events/aw_main.html">38th Annual Los Altos Art & Wine Festival</a>, which runs Saturday and Sunday, July 8 and 9, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. We’ll be there. And we hope to see you as well.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FOzQtAGJcSWo%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOzQtAGJcSWo&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FOzQtAGJcSWo%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/5e9b45cc5a75ee6ed9898b463a7ee5d0/href">https://medium.com/media/5e9b45cc5a75ee6ed9898b463a7ee5d0/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=5c5b9ef8d25b" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47644122017-07-02T09:19:00-07:002021-08-19T14:53:42-07:00Bay Area Musician Season 2 starts today, 6–7pm on KZSU 90.1FM and kzsu.stanford.edu/live<p>Bay Area Musician Season 2 starts today, 6–7pm on KZSU 90.1FM and kzsu.stanford.edu/live</p><p>Tune in at 6!</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=a0cb3bd5ffeb" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician/bay-area-musician-season-2-starts-today-6-7pm-on-kzsu-90-1fm-and-kzsu-stanford-edu-live-a0cb3bd5ffeb">Bay Area Musician Season 2 starts today, 6–7pm on KZSU 90.1FM and kzsu.stanford.edu/live</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician">BayAreaMusician</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47597202017-06-28T00:29:22-07:002017-06-28T00:47:01-07:00The penny and the apricot tree<p>The lone apricot tree in the nursery seemed to be calling out to us.</p><p>It boasted one lone fleshy, ripened orb on its branches. A promise, we assumed, of its bounty yet to come.</p><p>We made an impulse decision to buy the tree, only to discover, after hauling it out to the car, that it was too tall to fit in our little hatchback. No problem, we thought, since we live just a few blocks from the nursery. We borrowed a hand cart from the store and began to hoof it home, pushing our new prized possession.</p><p>It was a quiet Saturday morning, but the neighbors were out in full force, trimming hedges, planting flowers. And there seemed to be a great deal of interest in our endeavor.</p><p>“Is that a Blenheim?” we heard someone say.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*YDjd1ZC9sC69s7p7ISVL0g.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>Having no idea what a Blenheim might be, we stopped and chatted with our friendly neighbor, who gave us a concise but comprehensive history of the area.</p><p>Our town, it turns out, was once a vast series of apricot orchards and Blenheims were the preferred variety of “cots,” as they were called by those in the industry. They were grown and dried for shipment worldwide.</p><p>The greater Santa Clara Valley, was, for approximately 100 years, the largest producer in the world of this and other fruits. Living here, it’s not hard to understand why. The soil is fertile. The weather is near perfect as ocean breezes and fog temper the heat of the valley in the summer and mitigate the cold in the winter.</p><p>At the start, ground water supplied most of the last vital ingredient needed to grow things. And by the turn of the last century, vast networks of aqueducts and pipes pulled that liquid commodity out of snow pack of Sierra range to slake the thirst of the rapidly growing agricultural industry.</p><p>After World War II, things changed, and in a hurry.</p><p>Technology quickly overtook agriculture as the primary economic force in the region. And with the new jobs, came a new need for housing. Over night, it seemed, the myriad rows of fruit and nut trees were displaced by crops of track homes and strip malls, office parks, freeways and all the other entrapments of modern suburbia. Gone were the orchards.</p><p>Santa Clara Valley became Silicon Valley.</p><p>After a few more neighborly conversations on our trek home, we got to planting our new apricot tree. As I began tilling the soil, a dull, reddish glint caught my eye. I retrieved a well-worn but familiar-looking object. See a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.</p><p>I could decipher that it was a Lincoln head, and the date appeared to be 1941. I dropped it in a bowl of lemon juice for three days, and the sediment of 75-plus years dissolved.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*DF0Ei0Dr67Ff_Zhsf04ROw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*5_55gqYho5I0x8JhLQDgnw.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>A litte worse for the wear, but it’s still in tact. This is a 1941 Wheat penny discovered in our garden.</figcaption></figure><p>A little research reveals that it is what is known as a “Wheat Penny,” for the stalks of grain that adorn the tail side of the coin. It is a bronze alloy of 95% copper, mined and smelted from Michigan, and a little tin and zinc.</p><p>It’s not worth a whole lot in the world of coin collecting, maybe as much as 35 times its face value.</p><p>Typically a coin has a small letter above or below the year of minting. The letter indicates the source of the printing; a “D” for Denver or a “P” for Philadelphia. But this vintage apparently had no such demarcation, or it is too worn to reveal its geographic origin.</p><p>But my research got me to thinking. This coin was our very own little time capsule. A glimpse into the past of this rich region.</p><p>The piece would have been pressed into service at a very tenuous (and soon to be turbulent) time in our history. The Great Depression was just ending, but by the end of that year, of course, we would have the day that would live in infamy, and a world war.</p><p>How many times did this piece of currency change hands during that global conflict and how many times thereafter? What did it buy? With eight of this particular monetary unit, you could buy a loaf of bread at the time. Five would get you a soda or a cup of coffee.</p><p>And when and how did this little sliver of stamped nonferrous metal find its way to being buried a foot or so down in what is now our front yard?</p><p>I imagine a farm worker tending the apricot orchards and the thing slipping out of his pocket. Or perhaps, when the orchard was ripped up to make way for housing during the Eisenhower era, the coin made its unintentional descent from a construction worker’s clothing. Hope he had enough to pay for his coffee break that day.</p><p>What a remarkable coincidence it would be, then, that I would find this penny while digging up the same soil to plant an apricot tree where the penny had been dropped while displacing that very type of tree 60 or so years ago.</p><p>A penny for your thoughts, they say. This one has given me more than that to ponder.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=d72f1e4f001c" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47579092017-06-26T11:27:18-07:002017-06-26T12:47:31-07:00So many great events this summer in Redwood City!<p>So many great events this summer in Redwood City! It’s great to see so much happening to promote arts and culture.</p><p>We will be back at Angelicas on July 1st for another Jazz Supper Club experience. Looking forward to seeing all the great people of Redwood City there again! Details: <a href="http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj">http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj</a></p><p>For those of you who maybe are looking for more low-key events, there are plenty of those as well! Check out our top 4 list of things to do on July 4th weekend here: <a href="https://medium.com/@twentythirdhour/fun-low-key-things-to-do-in-the-bay-area-over-the-july-4th-weekend-efc4f7080f8e">https://medium.com/@twentythirdhour/fun-low-key-things-to-do-in-the-bay-area-over-the-july-4th-weekend-efc4f7080f8e</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=30d9ef67dad2" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47572212017-06-25T22:52:37-07:002017-06-26T01:07:59-07:00Fun, low-key things to do in the Bay Area over the July 4th weekend<p>If you’re visiting from out of town and are looking for things to do, here is a list of some of our favorite things to do in the peninsula area.</p><ol>
<li>Wine Tasting: Big Dog Vineyards</li>
<li>Retro: Classic movie with theme played live by an organist!</li>
<li>Arts/Nature: Filoli Gardens</li>
<li>Retro: <a href="http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj">Jazz Supper Club (Dinner with Live Music)</a>
</li>
</ol><h3>1. Big Dog Vineyards (Milpitas, CA)</h3><p>This winery is a gem. It has gorgeous views of the bay and excellent, unique wines. The owners Mark & Sandy are super welcoming and personable. Family, kid, and dog friendly.</p><p><strong>Hours</strong><br>Friday 5–9pm <br>Saturday/Sunday 12–5pm</p><p><a href="http://www.bigdogvineyards.com">More info</a></p><h3>2. Classic Movies at Stanford Theater (Palo Alto, CA)</h3><p>We don’t go to the movies often, but when we do… The floor opens, an organist rises from below the stage and starts playing the theme music. Then he disappears into the floor again and a Hitchcock movie or other classic starts playing.</p><p>“African Queen” and “Desk Set”</p><p><strong>Hours:</strong><br>Friday 6/30<br>Desk Set (1957) 5:35, 9:25<br>The African Queen (1951) 7:30</p><p>Saturday 7/1<br>Desk Set (1957) 5:35, 9:25<br>The African Queen (1951) 3:40,7:30</p><p>Sunday 7/2<br>Desk Set (1957) 5:35, 9:25<br>The African Queen (1951) 3:40,7:30</p><p>Closed Monday, Tuesday</p><p><a href="http://stanfordtheatre.org/calendars/Comedy.html">More info</a></p><h3>3. Filoli Gardens (Woodside, CA)</h3><p>Whether you just want to soak up the sun in an Instagram friendly environment or are looking for a magnificent place to read a book or bring your favorite set of watercolors, you’ll be enchanted at Filoli Gardens. Picnic tables, cafe, hiking trails, nature preserve, all in one place!</p><p><strong>Hours</strong>:<br>Tuesday-Sunday: 10am — 5pm</p><p><a href="https://filoli.org/events/">More info</a></p><h3>4. Angelicas Jazz Supper Club (Redwood City, CA)</h3><p>Jazz supper clubs were very popular a few generations ago. While they’re less common, they’re still swell and alive in the Bay Area! Angelicas has gourmet food, an extensive beverage list, tasty vegetarian options and great live music! You will be transported to another time with light music. From old Duke Ellington standards to Beatles classics to the latest movie soundtrack, with some original tunes interspersed.</p><p><strong>Hours</strong>:<br>Saturday 7/1 — Reservations available 7pm onwards. Show is 8:30-10:30pm</p><p>Tickets: <a href="http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj">http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj</a></p><p>The San Jose Mercury News article <a href="http://bayareane.ws/2rI4bCr">http://bayareane.ws/2rI4bCr</a></p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FwsJpA2svaN0%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DwsJpA2svaN0&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FwsJpA2svaN0%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/5e6b891e64c98f0878e33062dbdf90e6/href">https://medium.com/media/5e6b891e64c98f0878e33062dbdf90e6/href</a></iframe><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D_ZMy537k2MA&src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F_ZMy537k2MA&type=text%2Fhtml&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/ddea2a94f74cf7a05114dc2c96eb8410/href">https://medium.com/media/ddea2a94f74cf7a05114dc2c96eb8410/href</a></iframe><h3>Recommended schedule</h3><p><strong>Friday Night</strong>: Movie at Stanford Theater</p><p><strong>Saturday morning/lunch</strong>: Filoli Gardens</p><p><strong>Saturday evening</strong>: Angelicas - gourmet dinner & live music</p><p><strong>Sunday</strong>: Wine Tasting at Big Dog Vineyards</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=efc4f7080f8e" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47559692017-06-23T22:35:25-07:002017-06-24T02:07:11-07:00Guerrilla Composers Guild Part II<p>This week we conclude our discussion with Nick Benavides, administrator for the Guerrilla Composers Guild (GCG) in San Francisco. The GCG is an organization dedicated to supporting composers of contemporary classical music and finding artists to perform the new compositions.</p><p>Nick is joined by fellow composer Michael Kropf, as well as performers Tori Hauk and Jessie Nucho from the Suroko duo.</p><p>We delve into a discussion about music in the Bay Area and what defines this region. Nick points out that the GCG is not necessarily about “pushing the envelope and ripping it open.”</p><p>“We don’t see ourselves as the Ballet Russe causing riots at Davies Symphony Hall. It is about cultivating talent. We run the gamut from very experimental music that might push people to be uncomfortable in their seats to music that is flowery. It’s really about honing the craft of those performers and composers. It’s really about putting a lot of faith in those artists.”</p><p>Michael Kropf sees the Bay Area as very different than New York City, often considered the epicenter of culture and art. As an undergrad, he lived in the Big Apple and then moved to San Francisco directly after.</p><p>“They are two very different scenes. New York is held up as the Gold Standard and it is a very vibrant scene. But I function better in the Bay Area because of its openness. All those things (that make New York special) exist in San Francisco without negative feelings or a feeling of conflict.”</p><blockquote>“In New York there is always the sense someone is trying to take control of the narrative. I don’t think that’s ever been a part of the Bay Area scene.”</blockquote><p>Jessie Nucho and Tori Hauk comment on the Bay Area’s environment for performers. Younger performers in high school are not only playing the traditional classical music, but eager to experiment.</p><h3>Building audiences and community</h3><p>One of the biggest challenges for any musical artist today is attracting new listeners. It is an especially acute problem in the classical music genre. But GCG is using some creative techniques to tackle the problem.</p><p>One of those tactics is to focus more on the ensembles than on the individual pieces of composition.</p><p>“It kind of works. We get people who want to see Suroko Duo. They want to see a human achievement on flute. Focus on the ensemble.”</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/748/1*JhmiUhxGl3zfIVxskvspzw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>The International Low Brass Trio performs “de Profundis” by composer Danny Clay</figcaption></figure><p>Another tactic is to make the performance intimate and interactive. They usually produce their events at the Center for New Music in San Francisco.</p><p>“It’s very supportive of the new music community. It’s essentially a big living room. We like to choose venues that facilitate interaction with the composers and the performers,” says Nick.</p><h3>Advice for new musicians</h3><p>We wrap up the show asking Nick and team to give advice to new musicians just starting out. Nick’s suggests artists work to help build opportunities for friends and build a community. By doing so, they will not only aid the community but generate opportunities for themselves as well.</p><p>Jessie from Suroko urge performers to “keep going. It takes a lot of effort to get things off the ground. It’s OK to have false starts. If you don’t give up and seek your authentic musical self, it will work.”</p><p>Tori adds that being a musicians is about 98 percent perseverance, and 2 percent talent. “Be graciously stubborn. Keep putting yourself out there and keep going.”</p><p>This week we feature in our show a wide variety of musical styles produced by the GCG. To listen, you can click here:</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51XHKQGlOBY">I Smoke My Pipe</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTjofKXRqi4">Three Lorca Songs</a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZxvA-y1PXs">Touch</a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA-Npjyg6oc">de Profundis</a></p><p>Hope you enjoy the music and the interview as much as we did!</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ee8dd2c0d7d6" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47541922017-06-22T10:57:13-07:002017-06-22T14:33:33-07:00Defending Bill Withers (and ourselves)<p>We started busking — playing music on the street — almost from the moment we met. At first, we’d go out there with just the two guitars. We were just jamming.</p><p>Almost immediately, we had to adjust. People wanted to throw a buck or two in a hat. We were out there for the fun of it, but, hey, if people want to express their appreciation in a remunerative fashion, why argue? So we made up a tip jar, a sign, a sign-up list, a table to sell our CDs and brought an amplifier to compete with the street noise.</p><p>We found ourselves a nice little spot on Castro Street in Mountain View where people often congregate. It’s between two sidewalk cafes and has a lot of foot traffic as well. The children are usually mesmerized by watching us play and want to linger. The parents, appreciative of a respite from the never-ending chore of keeping their kids busy, will usually respond with a donation. It’s endearing as they hand a buck or two to their child and instruct them on how to place it in the tip jar.</p><p>Of course, compared to our day jobs, the money is nominal. But we’ve gotten accustomed to using the tips as a feedback mechanism for what people like.</p><p>A few weeks ago, we had a crowd of 30 or 40 people dancing and singing along and the tip jar was overflowing. We brought down the house with Sherry’s vocals on the Led Zeppelin classic, “Whole Lotta Love.”</p><p>But this weekend, we reached a new milestone. Our first ever hater.</p><p>The whole thing happened so randomly and ended so quickly, we are still processing it.</p><p>It was a warm night and the street was busy but not brimming. We had an older group of three couples sitting next to us and they seemed to really enjoy the old Beatles and Sinatra tunes. (As we play, we watch the audience closely and gauge their reaction. If they are reacting to a particular genre of music, we’ll run through our repertoire that fits the bill. We can and will play everything from Duke Ellington to Coldplay.)</p><p>When the older group left, a younger group started hanging out. Sherry proceeded to belt “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and we kicked it up a notch.</p><p>I especially appreciate this song for three reasons:</p><p>1. It’s a classic. Simple, raw, full of emotion.</p><p>2. Sherry knocks it out of the park on vocals.</p><p>3. I get to hang back (even sit down) and just riff a bit on guitar.</p><p>It was dusk turning to full night at this point. I was leaning back and Sherry was up front on the sidewalk. As were finishing up the song I heard a shout from the other side of the street.</p><p>“Hey, Bill Withers!”</p><p>I turned around to see a woman, dodging traffic to get to our side of the street. “That was Bill Withers!” she said. I couldn’t tell if she was just excited, out of breath from running, maybe a bit inebriated, or maybe all of those things.</p><p>I’ve been playing gigs since I was 15. You learn to identify certain behavioral patterns as people approach a band. Some are polite but inebriated and want a turn at the microphone to sing some song for which they know half the lyrics and for which they can approximate the tune plus or minus a key signature or two. Some are three sheets to the wind and belligerent, and want to argue with you. I wasn’t sure yet where our new friend was going to be on the spectrum.</p><p>She didn’t try to grab the microphone, so that was a good sign. But then she said:</p><p>“You HAVE to play that song again!” It was not a request.</p><p>“Bill Withers, right?”</p><p>Yes, we said, this is a classic Bill Withers tune.</p><p>“OK,” Sherry said, nonchalantly. “We have our first request for a repeat.”</p><p>And so we reprised the song. Our friend seemed in heaven, occasionally shouting out a “yeah,” or “all right,” but other than that, she was respectful of our space and enjoying the music.</p><p>As we finished up the tune we saw a tall, bespectacled Baby Boomer. Balding with white hair, he was probably in his early ’60s. We are used to people patiently waiting to praise Sherry’s singing, or our harmonies, or maybe my guitar work. But before we even finished, he was yelling.</p><p>“That’s awful!” he said. “What is it going to take for you to leave?”</p><p>I looked at Sherry and our Bill Withers fan-club friend. None of us could believe what he actually had just said. Maybe it was a joke.</p><p>“Seriously,” he said. “That’s awful.”</p><p>Sherry responded diplomatically, in a calm voice, along the lines of: “Sorry to hear it’s not your kind of music,” and “You’re entitled to your opinion.”</p><p>But our Bill Withers fan came immediately to our defense in a much more animated tone. “Hey, that’s Bill Withers!” she said the to grumpy boomer guy.</p><p>“Seriously,” said the boomer, “How much will it take for you to pack up and leave. I’ll give you five bucks.”</p><p>“Really?” I said. “I’ll give you a hundred to leave town and never come back.”</p><p>The man looked at me for a moment. I was out of the light, but he was illuminated by a store sign. I could see he was clearly agitated by my insolent remark. He did not expect such a response, I guess.</p><p>As I looked at him, I began to sense that I had met him before. And then it dawned on me, that he might have recognized at least my voice. And this made him more agitated. He felt superior and entitled to talk condescendingly to a couple of street musicians, but if he knew me, that changed the game.</p><p>He was now even more frustrated. So he turned to address Sherry instead of me. I was about to jump back into the fray, but our Bill Wither’s fan beat me to it.</p><p>“It’s Bill Withers. You don’t get it!”</p><p>And then I heard someone to my right say:</p><p>“Honey, what are you doing?”</p><p>There stood an African-American male, who was apparently married to or in a relationship with Bill Wither’s № 1 Fan.</p><p>The woman tried to explain to her partner that she had to defend Bill Wither’s honor and by extension the duo paying homage to the legendary songwriter. But her partner was having none of it.</p><p>“Get out of there,” he said. “This is fucked up.”</p><p>He turned to me. “Don’t get me wrong, the music is great. You guys are great.”</p><p>“Thank you,” I said.</p><p>“Come on,” he said to her. “Let’s get out of here.”</p><p>And so Bill Wither’s № 1 fan and her partner left. And the boomer dude decided it was a good divergence to provide for his escape, since he wasn’t winning his argument.</p><p>We played a few more songs but clearly this had put a damper on the evening. So we packed it up.</p><p>The whole interaction lasted no more than two minutes. It took me another 24 hours to analyze what had happened.</p><p>— In the eyes of the aging white Baby Boomer, street musicians are a step above the homeless. It reminded me of the experiment of one the world’s greatest violinists going <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/pearls-before-breakfast-can-one-of-the-nations-great-musicians-cut-through-the-fog-of-a-dc-rush-hour-lets-find-out/2014/09/23/8a6d46da-4331-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html?utm_term=.235696f5ab22">undercover in a Washington D.C. subway stop. </a>Our boomer critic had no appreciation for street musicians and he felt entitled to tell us what to do. This was his street while he was on it.</p><p>— Boomer Dude was uncomfortable addressing, discussing or arguing his case with me, another aging white baby boomer, especially someone he has at least met before if not worked with in the past. This completely undercut his sense of entitlement.</p><p>— He was clearly more interested in addressing Sherry, perhaps because of her age, ethnicity or gender. This also backfired. Sherry is diplomatic but does not back down from stating her point of view. (Not that I’m speaking from experience.)</p><p>— I’ll admit I was a bit incensed at boomer dude’s condescension, treating us as beneath him. He felt he owned the street and could tell us lowly musicians what to do. But I also had to admit that my outrage was an ephemeral thing. I could go back to being myself. This was put into perspective by the husband/partner of our Bill Wither’s №1 fan. He wanted no part of this. Can you blame him? An African-American man in the middle of what could have turned into a much uglier situation. Had the police arrived for some reason, who would they have questioned first? This guy lived with and is living with this type of condescension all his life. Here he was, out for a nice night and he still has to be on guard every moment.</p><p>We talked about it a bit on the ride home. “I could have taken him,” I said in jest, omitting the dependent clause (“…if I were 20 years younger and in better shape”).</p><p>Sherry laughed but added a wise assessment: “He wasn’t worth it. Clearly he is dealing with low self esteem.”</p><p>So that was our weekend. Another milestone, another notch in the belt as a musician.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=67be9b3356cf" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47532542017-06-21T15:39:15-07:002017-06-21T21:07:12-07:00How “World Music Day” has changed my life<p>While not as widely celebrated in the US, World Music Day was first introduced in France in 1982 and has since been celebrated in over 120 countries all over the world, including Mauritius. It has been the single platform available to me, once a year, if I was picked to perform at school and it was always my favorite day of the year.</p><p>From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%AAte_de_la_Musique">Wikipedia</a>:</p><blockquote>
<em>Fête de la Musique’</em>s purpose is to promote music in two ways:</blockquote><blockquote>Amateur and professional musicians are encouraged to perform in the streets, under the slogan <em>“Faites de la musique”</em> (“make music”, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone">homophone</a> of <em>Fête de la Musique</em>).</blockquote><blockquote>Many free concerts are organized, making all genres of music accessible to the public. Two of the caveats to being sanctioned by the official Fête de la Musique organization in Paris are that all concerts must be free to the public, and all performers donate their time for free. This is true of most participating cities, now, as well.</blockquote><p>My first music day celebration was in 1996. I was in grade 3 and I sang “Colors of the Wind” in front of the entire school (~1000 students), acapella. It was the first music day that I had attended as far as I could remember. I don’t know how I got picked but I remember standing in front of the assembly, with the staff standing behind me. As I starting to sing, I heard of the teachers say to her colleague <em>“eh li kone santé do”</em>, meaning “<em>hey, the kid can actually sing</em>”. This was my first taste of performance and my first positive reinforcement. It would light a fire in me that several decades later, is still blazing.</p><p>Since then, I would look forward to June 21 every year. It was the one day of the year where I had a chance to perform in front of an audience, if I was lucky enough to get picked. I have played guitar, sung, accompanied other singers, choreographed dance numbers and trained/danced with my newly formed crew — a few enthusiastic friends who had little to no dance experience but were willing to try it out for fun.</p><p>Fast forward to a few years to 2003. I just wrote my first song. In fact, I’ve written about 4 or 5. I don’t play guitar yet, so I get a friend to accompany me. I audition to perform at our all-day Music Day concert and get picked. The note accompanying my acceptance said “<em>should encourage her for writing her own material</em>”.</p><p>The next year, I played another song I wrote. I’d been playing guitar for a few months at that point and managed to get through the performance. I noticed the incredible difference between playing a cover song and playing my own material. It’s so much more nerve wrecking to play your own material. It felt like an achievement to have been up there, playing and singing something I had come up with out of thin air.</p><p>I kept auditioning and playing music every year until I graduated from high school. After my first year of college, I was back in Mauritius for the summer and took an internship. They decided to celebrate music day for the first time at the office and, of course, I was ecstatic about it. Through this, I made friends with a successful local drummer, who encouraged me to register with the local PRO and send my demos to a few people. That resulted in a potential record deal, a single, and eventually a <a href="https://23rdhr.com/album/467597/change-me-as-we-go?autostart=true">self-produced EP</a>.</p><p>For many people, music day is just another festival, just another occasion, just another local festival. For others, it may even be an annoying, noisy street fest. For me, it was the one prized outlet without which my creativity might never have seen the light of day.</p><p>Today, I will again be doing my favorite thing at a private show. My next public show is with <a href="https://medium.com/u/5df247e34272">23rd Hour</a> at Angelicas on July 1. Come if you can. Tickets are cheaper if you <a href="http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj">order online</a>.</p><p>Happy World Music Day — Joyeuse Fête de la Musique</p><p>Written by <a href="https://medium.com/u/2917f7c62eea">Sherry-Lynn Lee</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3989a95348bf" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47477062017-06-16T16:17:09-07:002017-06-16T18:06:44-07:00Guerilla Composers Guild<p>Modern classical music is not only alive, it is thriving in the Bay Area. Evidence of that bold statement can be corroborated in the first of our two discussions with the San Francisco-based <a href="http://www.guerrillamusic.org/">Guerrilla Composers Guild</a> (GCG).</p><p>Founded by Nick Benavides and Danny Clay, the non-profit GCG brings performers and composers together in what we see as a very unique supportive environment that is mutually (and musically) beneficial to both types of artists.</p><p>For performers who are seeking new material, they can work directly with the composers. For composers, it is a chance to iterate on drafts of their <em>oeuvres</em> based on feedback from the performers.</p><p>We spend a good deal of time with Nick this week and with fellow composer Michael Kropf. Also joining us is Tori Hauk and Jessie Nucho, who together perform as the the flute duo “Siroku.”</p><h3>“We don’t have any artistic agenda, we don’t want to tell people what to do,” says Nick Benavides, the administrator of GCG and a composer himself. “If they want to express a certain thing with two flutes, we want to help them achieve that vision to the fullest, whatever that vision is.”</h3><p>The guild’s philosophy and approach seem to be working. To date, the organization has comissioned and premiered over 35 new pieces from over 30 composers.</p><p>Most pieces are performed at the <a href="http://centerfornewmusic.com/about-us/">Center for New Music</a> in San Francisco and the next event for GCG at the center will take place in October. We have it on our calendar, and suggest you do the same.</p><p>In the meantime, if you’re interested in hearing (rather than reading about) the Guerrilla Composers Guild, check out their channel at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/GuerrillaComposer">https://www.youtube.com/user/GuerrillaComposer</a>.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/948/1*RCFaP203s4udh5d_5NGuzA.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Alexandra Iranfar and Timothy Sherren perform as One Great City and debuted “A Small Picture of a Large Place” by composer Michael Kropf. (Photo by Matthew Wasburn)</figcaption></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=cbc5f1340fff" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician/guerilla-composers-guild-cbc5f1340fff">Guerilla Composers Guild</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician">BayAreaMusician</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47386402017-06-08T13:05:37-07:002021-12-23T02:44:44-08:00Grammy-Winning Bay Area Musician: Rob Hotchkiss<blockquote><strong>This show will air Friday June 9, 4–5pm PT on kzsu.stanford.edu/live and on KZSU 90.1 FM. We will add a streaming link here after the show airs.</strong></blockquote><p>On this episode of the Bay Area Musician, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rob Hotchkiss, co-founder of the SF Bay Area band “Train.”</p><p>The early Train records were a huge influence as I started songwriting in 2002–2003. It’s where I found my love for the raw acoustic, organic rock sound that is again reflected on Rob Hotchkiss’ latest release, “Midnight Ghost”.</p><p>In our conversation with Rob, we talk about how Train started, why he left the band, his work since then, and his advice for musicians. <strong><em>What does Rob have to say to musicians whose music may not be the hottest sound on the market?</em></strong> Listen to find out!</p><h3>Coming up in the Bay Area</h3><p>In our conversation, Rob tells us about how Train started as a duet with him and Pat Monahan, playing open mics at Hotel Utah and a few other clubs on Haight. The band must have had something special going on because shortly after, they were selling out the Fillmore.</p><p>Fast-forward a few years to 2002, past some label rejections and interminable tours in a van that occasionally caught on fire, the band is now playing “Drops of Jupiter” at the Grammy Awards and takes home two of the coveted trophies. According to Rob, there was never really a moment when they became an “overnight success.” It was all very gradual. He even points out that it was more impressive to him that they sold out the Fillmore so quickly than it was to win a Grammy.</p><h3>Creative Differences</h3><p>Rob’s musical contributions were instrumental in getting the band signed and can be heard on their albums “Train,” “Drops of Jupiter,” and “My Private Nation.” Their single “Drops of Jupiter” was nominated for 5 Grammy awards and took home Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Arrangement. This success which catapulted the band to worldwide fame and it was then clear that the band’s sound was irreversibly moving into a pop direction, away from their roots sound that Rob had envisioned. Unwilling to compromise on making the music he loves, Rob left Train, despite the band’s commercial success.</p><h3>Midnight Ghost</h3><p>Rob talks about his album and how the title track feels quite special to him as a songwriter. We’re also treated to a very cute story about how his children <strong>(aged 2–11 at the time) were </strong>featured as guest performers, sometimes with the help of cookie bribes. Making music he loves with the people he loves most. If there’s any better definition of happiness, we can’t think of one.</p><h3>Try</h3><blockquote>“I don’t believe in Lennon” — Rob Hotchkiss (Try)</blockquote><p>Next we talked about Rob’s music since leaving Train. One of the songs George and I both really enjoyed is “Try.” Rob explains that this line was meant as a tip of the hat to Lennon, but inevitably offended some Lennon fans who didn’t quite get the reference. George was very curious about the instrumentation. Rob was proud to say he played all the instruments, including the slide guitar on this track, and he was particularly pleased with how the acoustic sound cut through the electric feel of “Try.” Definitely one of our favorites on “Midnight Ghost.”</p><h3>If he could jam with any Bay Area musician…</h3><p>I believe this answer made George even more of a fan. Both Rob and George are major Beatles fans, and while growing up both had older brothers who loved Creedance Clearwater Revival. But then Rob chose for his “jamming partner” another major Bay Area artist and renowned rhythm guitarist: Steve Miller. He elaborates that rhythm guitarists are often underrated in his opinion. We couldn’t agree more!</p><h3>What musicians need to succeed</h3><p>Before ending the conversation, we asked Rob if he had any final advice for budding musicians who are trying to make it. His advice?</p><p>Listen to the show to find out :)</p><h3>Show notes</h3><p>Rob Hotchkiss’ website<br><a href="http://www.robhotchkiss.net/about.html">http://www.robhotchkiss.net</a></p><p>Rob Hotchkiss’ Midnight Ghost album <br><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/midnight-ghost/id41725278">https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/midnight-ghost/id41725278</a></p><p>Hotel Utah open mic in San Francisco<br><a href="http://www.hotelutah.com/event/1465283-hotel-utah-open-mic-host-san-francisco/">http://www.hotelutah.com/event/1465283-hotel-utah-open-mic-host-san-francisco/</a></p><p>The Fillmore<br><a href="http://thefillmore.com/calendar/">http://thefillmore.com/calendar/</a></p><p>Rob Hotchkiss with Train at the Grammys<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpD1NN9uRT8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpD1NN9uRT8</a></p><p>Train’s first, self-titled album<br><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/train/id158908899">https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/train/id158908899</a></p><p>Train’s “Drop of Jupiter” album<br><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/drops-of-jupiter/id311629490">https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/drops-of-jupiter/id311629490</a></p><p>Steve Bowman, original drummer of The Counting Crows<br><a href="http://stevethedrummer.com">http://stevethedrummer.com</a></p><p>Sparklehorse<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparklehorse">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparklehorse</a></p><p>The Counting Crows<br><a href="http://countingcrows.com">http://countingcrows.com</a></p><p>Steve Miller<br><a href="http://www.stevemillerband.com">http://www.stevemillerband.com</a></p><p>Ryan Hotchkiss<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMJtpSoYIHU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMJtpSoYIHU</a></p><h3>Featured tracks</h3><p><em>“Midnight Ghost”</em> by Rob Hotchkiss</p><p><em>“Try”</em> by Rob Hotchkiss</p><p><em>“Rainmaker”</em> by Rob Hotchkiss</p><p><em>“Lost In America”</em> by Rob Hotchkiss</p><p><em>“Drops of Jupiter”</em> by Train (music by Rob Hotchkiss, lyrics by Pat Monahan)</p><blockquote>
<strong>Bay Area Musician</strong> highlights the Bay Area’s music and musicians, their insights, their journey, and their opinions on what we can do to ensure a bright future for the Bay Area music scene. The goal is to get listeners and musicians excited about the local scene and inspire the local community to seek out and support local/live music. Please send inquiries to bayareamusician@kzsu.stanford.edu</blockquote><blockquote>
<strong>Bay Area Musician </strong>is hosted by Sherry & George from the jazz-pop duet <a href="https://medium.com/u/5df247e34272">23rd Hour</a>. Their next live show will be on Saturday July 1st at Angelicas in Redwood City. <a href="http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj">Click here for more info</a>
</blockquote><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=c1bdc490e18c" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician/grammy-winning-bay-area-musician-rob-hotchkiss-c1bdc490e18c">Grammy-Winning Bay Area Musician: Rob Hotchkiss</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician">BayAreaMusician</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47317002017-06-02T14:04:41-07:002017-06-02T14:17:45-07:00Bay Area Musician: KC Turner<p>A true San Francisco lover, KC Turner has spent the last decade devoted to the music community in the city. As a singer-songwriter, artist manager, show promoter and booker, KC has made a name for himself in the Bay Area Music Scene. We had the pleasure of chatting with him at the KZSU studio about his career, the music scene in the Bay Area, his amazing partner’s support, and how they made it all work.</p><p>I first learned about KC through Facebook. One of my friends was attending his open mic event and, as a curious musician, I went to his website and read about KC Turner Presents, SHHHHHongwriters Open Mic, House Concerts, Megan Slankard and KC’s music and tour dates. Based on the acts he was able to book, it was clear to me that this guy was doing something right. I signed up for the mailing list, followed, liked, etc. Although I didn’t make it to the events up in the city, I was cheering along.</p><p>When we decided to create Bay Area Musician interviews, KC was top of mind because I would often get notifications about new events. I thought he would be a great guest to talk about the music scene that perhaps might still be thriving under the radar. We were not disappointed!</p><p>Stream it live 4–5pm PT today on kzsu.stanford.edu/live</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*5mLlNQs7-olN4k1j2UzIEQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=6332a7446696" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician/bay-area-musician-kc-turner-6332a7446696">Bay Area Musician: KC Turner</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician">BayAreaMusician</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47294322017-05-31T21:06:08-07:002021-01-22T22:49:11-08:00Wine Wednesday S. 2 Ep. 4: La Honda Winery<p>Redwood City is a town of contrasts. This oldest of jurisdictions on the San Francisco peninsula has among its distinguishing characteristics that it is only deep water port in the Bay Area. On any given day, cranes and ships are in view as tons of commodities in liquid and solid form are being unloaded and loaded. To add to this image, a nearby recycling plant and concrete plant spew smoke and steam reminiscent of the big industrial cities of long ago.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1004/1*2_hMC7CQWmxJPrhKY4Ajvg.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>But, as is the case with many bedroom communities in Silicon Valley, Redwood City has become home to a bevy of high tech companies, including Oracle, Equinix, Silver Springs Networks, Electronic Arts, Shutterfly and Box, among other notable brand names.</p><p>And, to expand the juxtaposition of old and new tech is another business that is an integral part of the California economy. Amid the industrial-looking grid of streets just south of a revitalized, robust downtown, lies this most unlikely enterprise: a winery.</p><p>To be sure, there is not a grape vine within a mile of this little building occupied by La Honda Winery, which takes its name from the nearby town in the foothills (where many a vine can be seen on neighboring hillsides).</p><p>But La Honda Winery is a very unique business. Partnering with its sister company, Post & Trellis, the two businesses cultivate and harvest grapes grown in a variety of locations throughout the Bay Area peninsula. And these sites can be anything from a revitalized vineyard to a residential front yard.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*mT6_pQ0w7WwILlqNbDgo8Q.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>We stopped in on La Honda Winery during a recent weekend and the tasting room was bustling. We chatted with the amiable owner, David Page, for just a moment, as he juggled pourings, the cash register (well, an iPad with Square) and all the other things a manager of a successful winery must deal with on any given day.</p><p>We sampled the roster of wines on the menu and took quite a liking to the Chardonnay, which we paired with Neil Young’s Heart of Gold.</p><p>It was just a line in the chorus that echoed the name of the tallest trees in the world that gave us the idea. But we think it works well.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FbljN7lTQs5Y%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbljN7lTQs5Y&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FbljN7lTQs5Y%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/e0fa31c8b1d00af0162608a3dfec73db/href">https://medium.com/media/e0fa31c8b1d00af0162608a3dfec73db/href</a></iframe><p>By the way, we are playing in Redwood City on July 1 at Angelica’s. We’d love to see you there. More information can be found at:</p><p><a href="https://23rdhr.com/shows">23rd Hour - Shows</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=f4ddee39ca9c" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47254242017-05-28T09:50:19-07:002017-05-28T11:06:15-07:00Not Asking Is Assuming The Answer<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/604/1*D2b6Do4yMMkP_JsgX494sA.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Jan 2007: The cast of “Culture Sparkles” post-show at the Indira Ghandi Institute (Réduit, Mauritius).</figcaption></figure><p>Rejection does not feel good, so we avoid it. We avoid asking questions unless we feel confident about the answer being in our favour. Does this qualify as calculated risk or is this simply irrational? If you have a 50% chance of getting a yes, that’s a lot better than 100% of getting a no, which are your odds if you don’t ask the question! This is a story about how I learned to ask the question.</p><p>When I was 16, I created a music club in my school. We were an all-girls elite academic school with no music program so I started teaching guitar and dance to my schoolmates for free. I wanted to share this passion for music with as many people as I could. The next year, I wanted to put together a show. Not a concert, but something a bit closer to a musical, with dancing, singing, a bit of acting and a storyline. Maybe it could be a benefit concert for the school or for a charity. Here are some of the reactions I got:</p><p>“We’re known for being bookworms here, not dancers and musicians! We will be ridiculed!” — my music club facilitator.</p><p>“What if nobody comes? I’m not sure we can do this. If it fails, we’ll look like fools. I doubt the rector would approve it.” — many other teachers.</p><p>Frustrated, I went to the rector’s office. I told her about the club, about the classes I’ve been teaching over the summer holidays and the show that my 22 friends and I put together. She watched patiently as I went on. I couldn’t tell if she was on board or not, but she looked amused. Then she said:</p><p>“This would fit quite well with the new initiative that the Ministry of Education is rolling out in an effort to make our students more well-rounded. Let’s do it.”</p><p>Suddenly, everybody was on board. Naysayers were now proud supporters. Every time I met with the rector, she had some more exciting news. Our venue got upgraded from the school hall to the Indira Ghandi Institute, a theatre seating 700, with fully equipped stage and green rooms. People from the conservatory were invited. The Minister of Education was invited. We got the greenlight to sell tickets. Somebody took care of the sound and lighting, somebody would be filming it.</p><p>We sold out! It was the first show open to the public that our school had ever produced and it was sold out to a cheering crowd, over 700 people strong. It was standing room only and we got a standing ovation at the end. The Minister was in attendance and stayed throughout the show. What started out as a long shot turned out to be a resounding success.</p><p>I was the lead choreographer, set designer, dancer, singer, coordinator of the 22 other high school girls on stage, <strong>many of whom were performing for an audience for the very first time</strong>. I felt truly honored to have been the driving force behind their first performance. The stage is an experience that I think everybody should try at least once. I’d say this show was my first taste of leadership and entrepreneurship. I loved every minute of it. My first gig as a producer was a success, but one that would not have seen the light of day if I had stopped at the first no!</p><blockquote>After that, I made a conscious decision to ask the question instead of assuming the answer.</blockquote><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*XBY2C4g2ae7x6NB7z-CP2A.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>Here are a few other questions I thought would be answered by “no” but resulted in a yes. <strong>Hint</strong>: 23rd Hour resulted from one of those questions!</p><p><em>Mom, Dad, can I record an EP?</em></p><p><em>Will anyone pay money to see me perform?</em></p><p><em>Can I play you a song?</em></p><p><em>Wanna play a show together?</em></p><p><em>Mom, Dad, are you ok with me moving California, despite the fact that I don’t know anybody there and have had serious health problems?</em></p><blockquote><em>Hi George, I’m Sherry, I loved your set. Do you ever collaborate, and if so, would you like to collaborate with me?</em></blockquote><p><em>Are you up for busking?</em></p><p><em>It’s 3am and we just finished busking and jamming all day but I’m not done playing. Are you up for more?</em></p><p><em>We’ve played all day and all night. Want to start writing a song?</em></p><p><em>Can we have our album launch at your venue even though we’ve never played your town?</em></p><p><em>Would you follow me on Spotify?</em></p><p><em>Would you like to have me as a guest on your blog/podcast?</em></p><p><em>Would you publish our story to CD Baby’s DIY Musician blog?</em></p><p><em>Would you publish our story on Hypebot?</em></p><p><em>Can we come play live for your radio show?</em></p><p><em>Can we </em><strong><em>have</em></strong><em> a radio show?</em></p><p>BTW, we do have a radio show! It’s called “Bay Area Musician”. The show highlights the San Francisco Bay Area’s music and musicians, their insights, their journey, and their opinions on what we can do to ensure a bright future for the Bay Area music scene. The goal is to get listeners and musicians excited about the local scene and inspire the local community to seek out and support local/live music.</p><p>If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, tune in on Fridays 4–5pm on KZSU 90.1 FM. For those of you online, stream it live at <a href="http://kzsu.stanford.edu/live">http://kzsu.stanford.edu/live</a></p><blockquote>In the age of information overload, we can no longer wait for somebody to hand-pick us. So many opportunities were granted to us because we found a fit and we asked to be considered. What questions should <strong><em>you</em></strong> be asking instead of assuming “no” for an answer?</blockquote><p>Written by <a href="https://medium.com/u/2917f7c62eea">Sherry-Lynn Lee</a></p><p>PS: If you’re in the SF Bay Area, we will be playing at Angelicas in Redwood City on Canada Day! That’s July 1st. If you’d love to see great live music that comes with gourmet food, a good wine selection, table seating, a relaxing ambiance, and a volume that won’t blast your ears, you need to get your tickets now! 23rd Hour at Angelicas is the show that will make you fall in love with live music all over again. Make it a date or a girls night out. We promise you won’t regret it.</p><p><a href="http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj">Get your tickets</a>:</p><p><a href="http://bit.ly/2r2b0lj">23rd Hour - Acoustic Jazz, Rock, Pop</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=c0753f9170a4" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47236222017-05-26T10:21:06-07:002017-05-26T11:47:16-07:00Break the Business Interview<p>Ryan Kairalla is an entertainment lawyer, writer, podcaster and teacher. His Break the Business Podcast is a show for indie artists and the people who love and support them. It is a fun and informative discussion of entertainment law (for non-lawyers), independent artists, and popular culture.</p><p>Our conversation with Ryan was filled with marketing tips, and covered a bit of our backstory. We talked about:</p><ul>
<li>How George changed his mind about never being in a band again</li>
<li>How we both used interests outside of music to promote ourselves</li>
<li>How aligning our goals with a cause can help us reach new audiences</li>
<li>And more!</li>
</ul><p>Listen here:</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F320218601%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fbreakthebusiness%2Fbtb-ep-83-23rd-hour-stops-by-to-talk-about-effective-music-launches&image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-000220366581-u6bxlb-t500x500.jpg&key=d04bfffea46d4aeda930ec88cc64b87c&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/495b9f7799d6d5d1ee977cb7cc1d0737/href">https://medium.com/media/495b9f7799d6d5d1ee977cb7cc1d0737/href</a></iframe><p>Also, if you’re interested in learning more about the music business and the legal intricacies that come with it, check out the book:</p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Break-Business-Ryan-Kairalla/dp/0692590668">Break the Business</a></p><p>Thanks to Ryan for having us on the show. We had a blast! If you enjoyed this episode, please recommend it :)</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=7bd18254d465" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/break-the-business-interview-7bd18254d465">Break the Business Interview</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47208882017-05-24T07:11:01-07:002017-05-24T12:17:21-07:00Female Entrepreneur Musician Interview<figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*z_TOQ8Wa2eiwoh5gE2E74w.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>A few weeks before our album launch, I started seeing ads for Bree Noble’s “Women of Substance Radio” and “Female Musician Academy”. Eventually, I also found her Female Entrepreneur Musician podcast. After binge-listening to CDBaby’s DIY Musician podcasts for weeks, I was happy to have new material to listen to. I enjoyed listening to all the accomplished guests on her show, sharing tips and tricks and tools that help them get through this crazy journey.</p><p>Then the album dropped. Unbeknownst to us, we would be featured on iTunes and next thing you know, we’re running with it. Soon after, I was invited to chat with Bree on her podcast about what strategies have worked for us. It was a real pleasure to share this conversation and I heard that Bree’s gotten good feedback about the episode, so I thought I’d repost it.</p><p>You can listen to the podcast here:</p><p><a href="http://bit.ly/2qnZYI0">#FEMusician Episode 88</a></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=35541e6d3246" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/female-entrepreneur-musician-interview-35541e6d3246">Female Entrepreneur Musician Interview</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47131382017-05-17T17:16:09-07:002017-05-17T20:07:33-07:00Big Dog Vineyards<h3>Wine Wednesday: Season 2, Ep. 3</h3><p>The suburbs surrounding San Jose, CA blur seamlessly together, with their cookie-cutter high-tech office parks, nondescript apartments, condos and generic single-family homes. The streets and avenues look pretty much the same, too.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*QI6Mw9A6YI50A1uF1JX18A.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>We chat with Big Dog Vineyards wine maker Mark Campagnolan and Daisy</figcaption></figure><p>You don’t really know when you’ve left one town and entered another. Milpitas, just north of San Jose, qualifies on all those counts. It’s squeezed in between I-880 and I-680 — in one of the country’s most congested areas — yet that’s about it for personality.</p><p>But head due east of town and within literally minutes you are traversing little country roads that snake up through the foothills of the Diablo Range (which separates the Bay Area from the massive San Joaquin Valley).</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/550/1*qUKMklMBO5WvPEDUD7xEtA.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Silicon Valley is just below the bucolic hills of the only winery in Milpitas</figcaption></figure><p>After a few miles and a climb up to about 1,200 feet, you are a world away from the Bay Area. Amid rolling hills and ranches with grazing cattle, llamas and horses, you will discover Big Dog Vineyards. Greeting all new visitors, not surprisingly, is the establishment’s mascot, Daisy, who happens to be calmest, coolest and most cordial Great Dane you’re likely to meet.</p><p>Inside the winery’s tasting room, the place is bustling. But owner Mark Campagnolan possesses the same cool, calm demeanor as Daisy (or maybe it’s vice versa), as he takes time out of his busy schedule to show us around the place and fill us in on the winery’s history.</p><p>The family-owned, boutique winery opened in 2009, 12 years after they had planted their first vines. With about 5 acres in Cabernet Sauvignon and Cab Franc, they bottle and sell everything they produce.</p><p>“We originally thought we would plant 5 and see how it goes. And then we had an opportunity to plant another 10 or 15. And after planting 5, it was so much work (and a lot of fun) we thought, ‘nah, we’re OK with 5,’” he says, with a chuckle.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/144/1*OnFOfeg-tvWpyQCTixp0HQ.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>The soil and climate, he noted, are perfect for the Cabs that they grow.</p><p>“Nature decides,” said Mark. “We did soils and weather analysis and it turns out we’re just perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon and Cab Franc. “</p><p>But, like most vineyards, these days, there is a vast cooperative of growers who work their land for what is most suitable and source from others for the grapes that grow better in different micro-climates. With a sister winery in the cooler Santa Cruz Mountains, Big Dog has an ample supply of grapes for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Merlot. They also blend the best of the two mountain ranges with their brand-named Montage, a blend of the Merlot, Cab Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. They are still experimenting with this blend, so each year is unique.</p><p>The sister vineyard “is at the, same elevation, but it looks out over the Monterey Bay,” notes Mark. “That ocean influence is better for cooler climate variety like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.”</p><p>We described to Mark our concept of pairing wine with music. He likes the idea, but has his own concept of pairing music: with a day.</p><p>“I always think of music in terms of moods that pretty much align with the time of day. My progression would be going from lighter and easier, maybe even some classical in the morning, then to something easy but with a little rhythm, maybe some jazz. And by afternoon or certainly by evening, something with a little bit of energy.”</p><p>We’re pretty sure that energized music at the end of the day will also pair nicely with Big Dog’s estate-growned Cabs.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FLU7bxXKkL3c%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLU7bxXKkL3c&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FLU7bxXKkL3c%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=d04bfffea46d4aeda930ec88cc64b87c&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/505ac3f5fae858033f43e1700a280fad/href">https://medium.com/media/505ac3f5fae858033f43e1700a280fad/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=e476755c46a9" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday/big-dog-vineyards-e476755c46a9">Big Dog Vineyards</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/winewednesday">WineWednesday</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47073112017-05-12T19:05:16-07:002017-05-12T21:17:05-07:00Around the Bay<p>On this show we take a virtual drive around the Bay Area in counter clockwise fashion.</p><p>We begin in Oakland with Tower of Power, legends in the world of soul and funk. Their piece <em>Soul Vaccination</em> kicks things off with a big bang. Mosey on up to Berkeley with the Counting Crows and their first hit, <em>Round Here</em>.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/777/1*PQtsX8a8ixl0oV0eFaGWvw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>Take the San Rafael bridge over to Marin County and the town of San Rafael to hear David Grisman get things back into high speed with his <em>Dawgy Mountain Breakdown</em>. Let’s hope the traffic isn’t too bad traversing the Golden Gate Bridge as Green Day blast out their tribute to a friend, titled <em>J.A.R</em>.</p><p>The Grateful Dead get into the groove with Sugar Magnolia.</p><p>And then the Kronos Quartet get serious with Aaj Ki Raat (Tonight is the Night). And then we really mellow out with Girl From Ipanema and Autumn Leaves, performed by none other than Vince Guaraldi, better known for composing most of the music to the iconic Peanuts and Charlie Brown TV specials.</p><p>Michael Hedges takes over on the guitar with two of his original works, Ritual Dance and Because It’s There.</p><p>Since we reside in Los Altos, we thought we would stop to chat about <a href="http://hypebot.com/hypebot/2017/05/run-your-diy-music-career-like-a-tech-start-up.html">how living the life as a D.I.Y. musician is much like running or working at a start-up </a>in Silicon Valley. (We’ve had some experience in that department.)</p><p>Now, on to San Jose, where Smash Mouth does their best impression of reggae with Road Man, and the ever fresh Doobie Brothers give us Listen to the Music.</p><p>And that pretty much completes our swing around the Area, a region rich with music. This little tour provides just a glimpse. Hope you enjoyed it.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fvideoseries%3Flist%3DPL2-ppDRf8Tw-zFJHQjUlR38hMirmF1qLa&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fplaylist%3Flist%3DPL2-ppDRf8Tw-zFJHQjUlR38hMirmF1qLa&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F46hd6DZS0ww%2Fhqdefault.jpg%3Fcustom%3Dtrue%26w%3D168%26h%3D94%26stc%3Dtrue%26jpg444%3Dtrue%26jpgq%3D90%26sp%3D68%26sigh%3DU40T0ViIkcvHYPVehzqQijsYfm0&key=d04bfffea46d4aeda930ec88cc64b87c&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="853" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/bdfa03e60ce32b555c8234bec02af7cb/href">https://medium.com/media/bdfa03e60ce32b555c8234bec02af7cb/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=330478963d94" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47073122017-05-12T16:37:08-07:002021-03-31T23:43:30-07:00Let’s get serious<p>When hearing the term “Bay Area Music” you might be likely to think of Santana, Michael Franti, Counting Crows, Green Day, Doobie Brothers. Fun tunes, groovy bands.</p><p>This week, we take a look at some more “serious” music from the Bay Area.</p><p>We start with East Bay resident (and East Coast emigrant) John Adams, perhaps the pre-eminent contemporary classical composer in the Bay Area, best known for revitalizing modern opera with his work “Nixon in China.” Adam’s featured piece this week is “Phrygian Gates,” one of his very earliest compositions. Its title is a play on words, but not of the kingdom of Phrygia from Greek mythology (think Midas who turned things to gold).</p><p>It is instead a twist on what are known as modes in music, and the piece bounces between the Phrygian and Lydian degrees of scale. “Gates” in this context, is a reference to a term used in early electronic synthesizers (signifying on/off) that seems quite quaint now.</p><p>Next up is Carla Bley, who like Adams, is revered. Born in Oakland, Bley might have passed Adams on his journey west as she traveled east. She makes her home in upstate New York. But hey, she still qualifies as a Bay Area citizen since her musical education began at home in the East Bay.</p><p>Bley’s piece is the “<em>Hotel Overture”</em> to her jazz opera “<em>Escalator Over the Hill</em>.” This ambitious opus is to jazz and opera as important as “<em>Nixon in China</em>.”</p><p>Bley, by the way, just turned 81 this month. And another fun fact: she is married to the renowned bassist Steve Swallow. They have toured together as a duet for years.</p><p>We bounce back to the “classical” world — sort of — with Darius Milhaud. The French composer moved to Oakland to teach at Mills College in 1941. Before arriving, however, he toured New York and specifically Harlem, where he became enamored of jazz. Somewhere along the way, he also took a liking to Brazilian samba music, which you can hear in the third movement of this work titled “<em>Scaramouche</em>.”</p><p>Dave Brubeck probably needs little introduction. The Concord, CA native was the biggest jazz star of his generation and made this American musical genre something of a household name with his platinum-selling work “<em>Time Out</em>.”</p><p>We hear “<em>Blue Rondo a la Turk”</em> from this album. <em>Blue Rondo</em> is in 9/8 time. And, in fact, all the compositions on <em>Time Out</em> are in unusual time signatures. (Perhaps the best known is “<em>Take Five.”) </em>Brubeck was a student of Milhaud’s so we come full circle back from the classical world to the jazz world.</p><p>And finally, we hear from Lady Gaga.</p><p>Wait, you say, Lady Gaga is hardly in the realm of these composers and she is a New Yorker through and through. All very true. But what we have here is the Friction Quartet, a contemporary group with ties to the Bay Area, treating us to their take on Lady Gaga’s pop tune “Bad Romance.”</p><p>The four players in Friction are all graduates of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and are keen to use their talents to create a type of music alchemy, converting any composition — pop, rock or otherwise — into an arrangement more reminiscent of Ravel than America’s Top 40.</p><p>So there you have it. It may be “serious music,” but it sure is a lot of fun to hear, and you can do so by clicking on the playlist here.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fvideoseries%3Flist%3DPLAMCUUhr8bqCeYx6WG91ezYHSzknKkzwf&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2yxSSg6XzuQ&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F2yxSSg6XzuQ%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=d04bfffea46d4aeda930ec88cc64b87c&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/b9d68eb0317c3a89227c7d7e6976a7d3/href">https://medium.com/media/b9d68eb0317c3a89227c7d7e6976a7d3/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=da0866185fb9" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician/lets-get-serious-da0866185fb9">Let’s get serious</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/bayareamusician">BayAreaMusician</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47059192017-05-11T21:08:10-07:002017-05-11T21:47:41-07:00Our CD Baby guest blog<p>Read our 6 tips to amplify your success on CD Baby’s DIY Musician Blog by <a href="http://bit.ly/2qKDgtr">clicking here</a></p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*btLOmMI4hDx8xangn7c4lA.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=9966be43a8f1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/our-cd-baby-guest-blog-9966be43a8f1">Our CD Baby guest blog</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47059202017-05-11T21:03:29-07:002017-05-11T21:47:41-07:00Our Hypebot guest blog<p>We wrote an article for Hypebot titled:</p><blockquote><a href="http://bit.ly/2qp7Rwr"><em>Run your DIY music career like a tech startup</em></a></blockquote><p>Read it <a href="http://bit.ly/2qp7Rwr">here</a> and let us know what you think :)</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*oZW-n4z0U6FpJ0H9XaHDAQ.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=69c1812c6b2e" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" /><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide/our-hypebot-guest-blog-69c1812c6b2e">Our Hypebot guest blog</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/smartmusicianguide">SmartMusicianGuide</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/47044862017-05-10T18:44:18-07:002017-05-10T22:33:39-07:00WineWednesday Ep. 14: Picchetti Winery<p>Our little hatchback chugged up the steep grade of the crumbling road in the foothills of Cupertino, CA. We rounded yet another hairpin turn, where we were saluted by some airborne creature the size of a turkey taking flight directly in front of our windshield. Good thing we were moving at a snail’s pace or we might have hit it.</p><p>As we know, turkeys have long since lost their ability to take flight. This bird, we would learn, was <em>il Pavone</em>, a peacock, and the official mascot of the Picchetti Brothers Winery.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/370/1*U6L1lWRZsuKuijDcOnAN4w.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><p>It seems that the fraternal siblings who founded this establishment decided to bring two things with them when they emigrated from Italy to California: grapevines and the aforementioned, colorful feathered friends.</p><p>The winery is one of California’s oldest and has a rich history. And it is in a rather unusual setting. The property was acquired by the <a href="https://www.openspace.org/preserves/monte-bello">Monte Bello Open Space Preserve</a>, part of a vast network of hiking trails and natural wilderness throughout the Bay Area. The winery is still privately run, but as part of the preserve, you can hike in the hills to your wine tasting.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ooghjCQLNz25H6jGRMJSRg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Our wine steward, Andrew, was helpful and knowledgeable about Picchetti’s wines and the vintner’s history</figcaption></figure><p>It was a blustery afternoon when we arrived and so we were thankful to arrived by motorized vehicle and to have the warmth of the tasting room in which to sample a glass or two of Picchetti’s refreshments. The place was bustling; not one table was empty.</p><p>We mosied on up to the one bare spot we could find and met Andrew, a friendly and enthusiastic wine steward. He filled us in on the history of the place and provided a sampling tour of the winery’s offerings. They range from a Chardonnay and the White “Pavone” blend to a variety of reds, including a Pinot Noir, a Sangiovese, a Zinfandel and, of course, a Cabernet Sauvignon.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/259/1*C7KQqHqV5qS5RQKOwt46Tg.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Hiking trails around the winery</figcaption></figure><p>These are topped off by both a white and red port, providing you with a complete meal’s worth of beverages from appetizers through to dessert. (The red port certainly helped to shake off a bit of the outside chill.)</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/726/1*yEkiMGHXXlUj5A_CJeQ1WA.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Picchetti is one of the oldest wineries in California</figcaption></figure><p>All of the wines are either grown on the premise or sourced locally. The Sangiovese grapes, for instance, were picked in nearby Morgan Hill. It was a nice comparison to the Sangiovese we had sampled the week before from Vino Noceto, up in the foothills of the Sierra Madre in Amador County. Both worked equally well.</p><p>We decided to pair the Pavone White Table Wine with a song for this week’s episode. And given the blustery day on which we sampled this vintage, we decided on Bill Wither’s classic “<em>Ain’t No Sunshine</em>.”</p><p>For Bay Area wine enthusiasts, you can’t go wrong with Picchetti. Especially for those of us in the South Bay, it’s just a short hop for a wine tasting, convenient if you’re not in the mood or don’t have the time for the trek to Sonoma or Napa.</p><p>Just keep an eye out for <em>il Pavone </em>on the drive up.</p><iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FdEaq9v-YuCo%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdEaq9v-YuCo&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FdEaq9v-YuCo%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=d04bfffea46d4aeda930ec88cc64b87c&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/aa014c0d8594a16b21324cd7fffd1ade/href">https://medium.com/media/aa014c0d8594a16b21324cd7fffd1ade/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=87dd1ce1bb1d" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46960012017-05-03T20:20:08-07:002020-12-03T03:07:41-08:00A little dirt road ambled through the vineyard in the foothills of the Sierra Mountain Range and…<p>A little dirt road ambled through the vineyard in the foothills of the Sierra Mountain Range and tempted us to to pull the car over over to shoot our video for Wine Wednesday. It was a beautiful spring day, not a cloud in the sky and a light breeze. We got out our mandolin and guitalele (a kind of guitar and ukukele combined) and did a version of the Gershwin classic, “Summertime.” We had just finished recording when a car pulled over and the window rolled down.</p><p>“Uh oh,” we thought. “We are probably on private property and are about to be asked to leave.”</p><p>A kindly gentleman leaned over to the open window. “Would you like me to take a photo?” he said.</p><p>This was Jim Gullett, the owner of Vino Noceto Winery.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*f6bqKUjZn1yfxabVW0532w.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Jim Gullett, proprietor of Vino Noceto Winery</figcaption></figure><p>We were by now quite accustomed to the wines and friendly atmosphere of the boutique Vino Noceto Winery, having just sampled their offerings in the tasting room and having spent a good amount of time discussing the vintner family’s labor of love with Jim’s daughter, Lindy Gullett.</p><p>In our conversations with both Jim and Lindy, we learned quite a bit about the business.</p><p>They have been up and running for over 30 years, having produced 27 vintages of Italian varietals, mostly based on the Sangiovese (Italian for “blood of Jupiter”) grape.</p><p>Jim and his wife, Suzy, bought the 40-acre property in the town of Plymouth in the Shenandoah Valley while they were still living in the Bay Area. The land sits smack in the middle of the fast-growing Amador County wine region. A grove of walnut trees on the property gave them the idea to name the place Noceto, which means walnut orchard in Italian. The town of Noceto, Italy is the sister town of Walnut Creek, CA, where Suzy was raised, adding support to their decision on the new brand.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*nlvFFDZ0Ql9GAzPtUcGiuw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /><figcaption>Chatting with Lindy Gullett, VP Sales at Vino Noceto Winery.</figcaption></figure><p>Jim and Suzy did their homework before planting their vineyards. They studied the climate (long, dry, hot summers), elevation (1,400 feet) and soil (sandy loam with granite particulate) for their property and took a trip to Italy when their sons were just toddlers and before Lindy was born. It was there and then that they decided to plant a version of the classic Italian Chianti.</p><p>The winery started as a weekend project, with Jim and Suzy and the kids making the trek from Lafayette, CA to the vineyard.</p><p>“They thought it was a great hobby and then realized you can’t run a winery from somewhere else and it can’t be a hobby,” says Lindy, with a laugh. And the rest is history, as they say.</p><p>What we especially appreciated about Vino Noceto, the beautifully balanced wines aside and amicable family members aside, was their love of wine combined with music.</p><p>“The music you listen to actually has an effect on the taste of the wine,” says Lindy, who attended a seminar on the very subject of music and wine.</p><blockquote>Remember, she says, “Wine tasting is not just about the wine. The wine can be wonderful, but it’s also about having fun.”</blockquote><p>Try drinking a very hearty red with the Beach Boys and the music will seem discordant, she notes. “Try a muscato, light and bubbly, with the Beach Boys and it will taste fabulous,” she notes. “There are all kinds of outside factors that affect what you taste in the wine.”</p><p>Andrea Boccelli, the renowned tenor, apparently is suitable for any of the Vino Noceto wines, she adds.</p><p>We sampled a bit of Vino Noceto’s Rosso Tuscan blend. It’s 90% Sangiovese, and 2% each of Barbera, Syrah, Petite Syrah and Aglianoco.</p><p>“It’s the kitchen sink of blends,” says Lindy, who calls the vintage the “ode to Amador” for its big fruity, robust flavor.</p><p>“Most of our wines are really light, bright, Italian style. “This is much more Amador style.”</p><p>So how about the Gershwin song we mentioned. How would it fare with the Rosso?</p><p>“Quite well,” says Lindy, with enthusiasm.</p><p>On that bright, sunny day amid the fragrant vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley of California, we couldn’t have agreed more.</p><figure><img src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ASwJGaS5GmuyCQU94qc2lw.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" /></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=58f3b8f85b36" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46854102017-04-25T21:51:26-07:002017-04-25T21:51:26-07:00Wine Wednesday Episode 12: Markham Vineyards<p>Wine: Markham 2015 Sauvignon Blanc <br>Song: Same Things (from our album <em>Perfect Strangers</em>)</p>
<p>We are back in the greater Napa region with a very nice Sauvignon Blanc from Markham Vineyards. It's described as "Golden straw yellow with a bouquet of citrus zest and fresh pineapple that grab your attention while white peach and wet stone add structural support to the abundant aromas. "<br><br>Couldn't taste the stone, but we agree with the rest.<br><br>We paired this wine with our song <em>Perfect Strangers</em>. The wine is described as being "well-balanced," and the song, written by Sherry, is all about finding balance in a relationship.<br><br>A little more about Markham:<br>They've got 350 acres of vineyard "strategically located" in several of Napa Valley’s regions, because they like to take advantage of the various microclimates to achieve balance (there's that word again!) in their wines. The winery is among the oldest in California.<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/ffd593be2f8b360907825b66909d8ba9b3a3a3f1/original/screen-shot-2017-04-25-at-8-43-18-pm.png?1493182179" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46833302017-04-24T12:39:25-07:002017-04-24T14:33:15-07:00Be your publicist’ dream client<p>As musicians, we can’t control how we compare to our peers. While we should strive to be the best musicians we can possibly be, there will always be somebody who can do it better. <em>We can’t control how good other people are </em><strong><em>but</em></strong><em> we can control how pleasant we are to work with.</em> We believe that being awesome clients can be a key differentiator. We are thus starting a series to inspire other musicians to use this strategy to advance their careers.</p><h3>Hiring a publicist: Expectations vs Reality</h3><p><em>Expectation</em>: Getting a publicist means you can focus on the music and let the publicist do her thing.</p><p><em>Reality</em>: Getting a publicist means you have to write guest blogs, do interviews, and possibly other stuff. It’s work but it can be fun.</p><p><em>Expectation</em>: The publicist will find you more exposure because your music is great.</p><p><em>Reality</em>: The publicist will find you more exposure because you have an identity as an artist. The publicist may be familiar with your musicianship but they don’t know your strengths and weaknesses as an artist. Are you good at public speaking? Are you a good writer? What else can you talk about? What else are you passionate about that might resonate with potential fans? The more you know the answers to these upfront, the more angles your publicist can use to pitch your story.</p><p><em>Expectation</em>: The publicist will also get you featured on Pitchfork and Spotify.</p><p><em>Reality</em>: You’re probably not getting on Pitchfork or Spotify unless you’re at that stage of your career.</p><h3>Help them help you</h3><p>The whole idea is to help them help you. They are part of your team and you’re the boss. What kind of boss do you like best? The boss who makes demands and does nothing, the boss who passively exsits, or the boss who works tirelessly so that the team as a whole succeeds? We prefer the latter, and we try to set the example. As with anyone we hire, we were prepared to work really hard, and work with them to get us to the next level. We want to be partners.</p><h3>A publicist’ value</h3><p>What is the most valuable thing that a publicist brings on your team? What is it that you are willing to pay them big money for? Publicity, of course. How can you maximize the amount of time they are publicizing you? Get rid of anything else they need to do for your campaign that is NOT publicity. That includes doing all the tedious stuff they would have to do to set up your campaign, and anything they would have to do during your campaign that isn’t using their time efficiently.</p><h3>Maximize results by eliminating boring tasks</h3><p>Every job has tedious tasks. For the publicists, we figured it would be to gather all the materials that will be necessary for each pitch. Having done some of these ourselves, we know that websites have various preferences. Some like full bios, some want one paragraph. Some want tweetable snippets. We realized that our publicist would have to adapt her pitches to all these different formats. What a waste of energy! Her time would be better spent creating valuable connections for us.</p><p>If we could eliminate all the tedious stuff, that would free up a few hours of her time. She could use these hours to start pitching instead! So here is what we prepared and sent her on day 1 of the campaign:</p><ol>
<li>A text file with all our relevant links. These include social media links, shortened social media links, links to our private album on soundcloud, link to our latest video, shortened link of latest video, website address, website bio page, email addresses, links to older videos they might want to share.</li>
<li>A text file with all our blurbs for easy pitching. These include short blurb about our release show, 1 line bio, 3 line bio, 1 paragraph bio, short bio, medium bio, long bio.</li>
</ol><h3>Less work, more play</h3><p>When we got on a call with her the next day, she said:</p><blockquote>I almost fell off my chair when I saw this. I have been doing this for a long time and have NEVER had a client do this for me. This will save us so much time!</blockquote><p>Not only would these save her team hours of work, but it also leaves them with the fun part of the job, which is to use their connections to send our music to potential influencer fans. That’s what publicists love to do, so let them do it!</p><p>When we first approached our publicist, we were an unknown duo releasing our first album, nothing extraordinary for a publicist who has been doing this for over a decade. However, the quote above shows that our attention to detail and our willingness to work together as a team set us apart from most other clients. There is always a difference between working for a regular client versus a client who makes the job easier and more fun. So get rid of the boring stuff and make the job fun for your publicist!</p><h3>Thoughtfulness inspires confidence</h3><p>Being well organized and professional is a good sign that you’re likely to succeed. Going the extra mile for your publicist means that you are mindful of their time and value, and it shows that you’re smart, driven, and considerate. The fact that you’re treating them with such thoughtfulness gives them confidence that whoever they refer you to will also be pleased to work with you. This opens up more opportunities for you. A good publicist will not send all their artists to all their contacts. They select carefully. The more influential the less likely the publicist will contact them about a smaller act. Remember that a publicist’ value is in her connections. All these people being pitched are connections that the publicist wants to keep! Therefore, if you’re hoping to be introduced to a higher tier of contacts than your current status merits, you have to give them a very good reason to. Asking is not enough. Actions speak louder than words. Start with genuine thoughtfulness. It might not get you on Pitchfork, but it might get you a tiny bit further than you would have gotten.</p><h3>Your future publicity</h3><p>You might think of your publicist’ job as a service. You pay, they deliver some press, and you move on. However, that’s a very narrow-minded view. Especially if you ever plan on hiring a publicist again. You want to be part of growing your publicist’ business, or at least not hurting it. So take the long-term view and remind yourself why a publicist might want to work with you again.</p><p>For every pitch that goes out, your publicist is taking a chance on you. Long after you’re gone, the publicist will still want to maintain a relationship with that blog/paper/writer. If you’re ungrateful (or worse, unpleasant), that reflects poorly on your publicist too and it could reduce your publicist’ chances of getting other artists featured in the future, including you (especially you).</p><p>Don’t be that guy.</p><p>Your publicist is giving you an opportunity to develop relationships with these outlets. The least you can do is thank each person, like, retweet, share their post on your social media. It takes time to create a feature, and these people did it for you. Be thankful.</p><h3>Small actions that publicists love</h3><p><strong>When your publicist gets you a spot as a guest on a podcast/radio show:</strong></p><ol>
<li>Listen to at least a few episodes of the show and get to know what they’re all about. Don’t go in cold. People like to know that you took the time to get to know them in return for them taking time to feature you on their show!</li>
<li>Prepare and send all the materials they ask for ASAP. This usually includes 1 paragraph bio, website link, and maybe talking points.</li>
<li>Prepare your topic if there is one. If there isn’t, ask how you can help prepare for the show.</li>
<li>Make sure you know when the show is going to air or be released and promote it.</li>
</ol><p><strong>When your publicist gets you a guest blogging opportunity:</strong></p><ol>
<li>Read the blog to get a feel of the style and type of content that resonates with its audience.</li>
<li>Take note of the preferred length. Some like to be brief, some are very detailed.</li>
<li>Keep the readers in mind, write in a way that will inspire them to engage with your post AND with the blog. Again, you want to leave everything a little bit better off.</li>
</ol><p><strong>When your publicist gets you featured on a blog:</strong></p><ol>
<li>Go wherever the main post is, and like/comment, and thank them.</li>
<li>If you have the person’s email, also email them a thank you note.</li>
<li>Go everywhere else they’ve posted it and repost (eg retweet, share).</li>
<li>Add it to your website with a link back to the original website’s post.</li>
<li>Like their page, follow them, and engage with other content that isn’t about you as well from time to time.</li>
<li>If you want to go the extra mile, sign up for their mailing list. Everybody loves more people on their mailing list!</li>
</ol><h3>That’s all folks!</h3><p>Did I miss anything? Can you think of something I could do to be an even better client? Let me know in the comments!</p><p>If you would like more posts like these, please sign up for our mailing list <a href="http://bit.ly/2mmBoSj">here</a>.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=d5cc1176ae9a" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46796842017-04-20T17:10:56-07:002017-04-20T22:47:49-07:00Playing through<p>The legendary Graham Nash dropped in on one of the late shows recently and sat down to play one of his hits “Just a Song Before I Go.”</p><p>He has been playing this song for 40 years, performed it, no doubt, a thousand times. But on this night, live on network television in front of millions of viewers, he can’t remember the chord progressions. A few of the mistakes are slightly audible, others are clearly visible, at least to a guitarist. But he is cool and calm and finds his way through the piece.</p><p>Of course, it happens every day, in coffee houses or at Madison Square Garden or live on the Grammys. Performers make mistakes; there are technical glitches they have to endure. Sometimes the audience notices, sometimes not.</p><p>But how the performer handles the situation makes all the difference.</p><p>On another show, Celine Dion takes the stage, puts the microphone up to her mouth, but the voice emanating from the PA system is a man asking technical questions to the backstage audio crew. She puts her hand to her ear-piece and shakes her head to indicate she hears nothing. Finally, a guy rushes to stage with another microphone, and after what seems an eternity, they get the glitches worked out. She nonchalantly begins singing with a smile.</p><p>And then on one of the music awards show not long ago, Adele is performing a tribute to George Michael. She is off key, noticeably so. She decides to take matters into her own hands and abruptly halts the song, swears, and asks the band for a restart. She apologizes profusely to the audience, claiming that she has to get this right, in honor of her late countryman.</p><p>For me, in the above three examples, I admire Nash and Dion for persevering, especially Dion. None of this was her fault and yet here she was on a live broadcast looking silly. A prima donna could have (in his/her mind anyway) thrown a fit. She was graceful and resolved, and when the glitches were worked out, she carried on with her pitch-perfect tone as though nothing happened.</p><p>I’m ambivalent about Adele. She was on live TV after all, and hey, this was pretty good proof she wasn’t using auto-tuning or, worse yet, lip syncing. She claimed she was compelle to restart to honor George Michael. Maybe that was how she genuinely felt. But in that case, she was putting her feelings ahead of the audience’s. They were undoubtedly lost in the moment until she jolted them back to reality.</p><p>The press lavished praise on Adele’s bravery. Because of her star power, for her, it worked. For me, not so much.</p><h3><strong>The single biggest gift a performer can bring to his or her listeners is to make them feel transported out of that time and place, to let them feel lost in the moment of the music. It’s their time, not yours. They’ve paid money to see and hear you, and it’s your job to deliver.</strong></h3><p>The “restart because things are quite just right” syndrome is behavior I see all too often. Drop into an open mic or weekend coffee house gig, and more often than not, someone is interrupting a song to retune or explain that they forgot a verse to their very own song.</p><p>If you didn’t think enough of the song to tune your guitar beforehand or to memorize your lyrics, then suck it up. That’s your fault, not the listeners’. By restarting, you get the chance to make it right in your mind. But you’ve just ruined the moment for the audience.</p><p>Lots of other greats have made mistakes and dealt with it in their ways. Ella Fitzgerald, in her later years, was performing with the inimitable jazz guitarist Joe Pass in Germany. After a flawless rendition of Nat King Cole’s hit “Nature Boy,” she asks for a do-over.</p><p>She apparently wasn’t happy with her performance for some reason, but she made it through, giving the audience the time and space. Compare that to Adele’s f-bomb-dropping fit.</p><p>Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton, in their respective “unplugged” albums in the ’90s, each made mistakes. Paul forgot his own lyrics, and started “We Can Work it Out” with the second verse. Ironically, when he restarts, he still messes up the lyrics. In my view, he could have played through the first time and the audience wouldn’t have cared. So no hall pass for him. (Though he did make light of it in his usual, goofy persona.)</p><p>Eric made a silly, unrecoverable error and had to halt his performance. He had just finished a song on the dobro using a slide on his little finger but didn’t realize he still had the dobro on when he began playing the blues traditional “Alberta” using a standard guitar. He wasn’t going to get too far with that setup.</p><p>“Hang hang, hang on,” he says, laughing, and holding up his hand to reveal the slide. The audience laughs along.</p><p>Apparently, when the concert finished, he asked the audience if they would mind if he redid a few songs for the final taped version. Of course, they were happy to oblige. He repeated performances of five numbers, but the false start for “Alberta” earned a spot on the recordings, both audio and video. Proof we’re all human.</p><p>I had my Eric moment at a performance last year when I forgot to put a capo on my guitar. I played the first chord in E with the band playing in F. Not a good start.</p><p>I made a little joke, grabbed the capo and we moved on. It happens.</p><p>At another performance, I somehow managed to cut one of my fingers while playing guitar (it’s a dangerous profession). At the end of the set, the place looked like a crime scene, blood everywhere. No one but the band noticed, though. It was a little inside joke, best kept a secret.</p><p>So what’s the takeaway? First and foremost, the audience comes first.</p><p>— Play through if you can. There are mistakes you notice and ones the audience notices. Even the ones the audience notices are only a very brief moment in time.</p><p>— Be as quick as you can about a restart. If you have to take it from the top, for technical or other reasons, be as expeditious as you can to correct the situation.</p><p>— In all mishaps, be gracious and engaging with the listeners. Humor never hurts, either.</p><p>As the great jazz pianist/composer Bill Evans said, “There are no wrong notes, only wrong solutions.”</p><p>Music to my ears.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=b877568bbbf1" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46722672017-04-15T07:49:40-07:002017-11-20T17:54:01-08:00My favorite show<p>I’ve produced events in Silicon Valley for many years. My last show, however, was a little different and, without a doubt, my favorite.</p><p>The crowd on this occasion was a bit smaller: a mere 90 souls compared to the usual thousands in the conferences I’ve managed in the past. And the venue was a tad tinier: a modestly-sized restaurant in a Bay Area suburb vs. a typical Madison Square Garden arena. Production value? Just an unassuming stage with a few spotlights. No laser light shows or hi-def video montages illuminating a screen. Opening acts? Nope, couldn’t afford Cirque du Soleil acrobats or those Taiko drummers that are loud enough to stop your heart. And forget about headliners. No tech luminaries or Hollywood celebrities to drive ticket sales.</p><p>That’s because this event was not my typical corporate schtick. It was, in fact, my event in every sense of the phrase. I was not only the producer but “the talent.” It was an evening of music provided by my partner, Sherry-Lynn Lee, and me. We were on stage to launch our new album, “Perfect Strangers.” It was our job, for two hours, to entertain the audience. But we weren’t just the headliner. We were the opening act, producer, stage hand, logistics coordinator, project manager, music arranger, marketing maven, and of course “roadie,” all bundled together.</p><p>Despite the difference in scale and scope, I can say, unequivocally, that I learned as much from producing this event as I have from the dozens of other multi-million-dollar extravaganzas that I have managed over the years. And perhaps the biggest reason is that this was truly a hands-on endeavor. I’ve certainly rolled up my sleeves before. But as a senior executive at Sun Microsystems, SAP, Avaya, Informatica and other Silicon Valley titans over the past 20 years, I had plenty of “helping hands” to whom to delegate most of the minutiae.</p><p>In fact, I’m not sure that until now that I fully appreciated the phrase “hands-on.” If my hands, or Sherry’s hands, weren’t directly on a task, it didn’t get done.</p><h3><strong>Rule #1: Fill the Hall</strong></h3><p>The very first rule of any event is attedance, or, in the vernacular of the corporate world, get “butts in seats.” We knew we could rely on friends and families to create a respectable crowd. But how to reach beyond out inner circle to generate some excitement in the broader community? Certainly, social media is one avenue, and Sherry is a wizard at working the channels: Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter. Me? I’m sufficiently adept at LinkedIn.</p><p>That helped us to create some buzz. But the secret to moving beyond just a monolog and creating a conversation is still good, old-fashioned email. It’s what we all check in the morning over our caffeinated beverage of choice and in the evening before turning out the lights. And so we built a good old-fashioned email database and began our campaigns. The list needed to be compiled, sorted by geographical location, “de-duped” (eliminate duplicated names) and other tasks that have you staring at spreadsheets until your eyes water. This was tedious work. But with no admins, coordinators or college interns in sight to help us out, it was up to us. Email address by email address.</p><p>These days, email marketing must be done through a bona fide email marketing service that allows recipients to “opt out.” These systems, all cloud-based services, have a lot of capabilities. Their interfaces, unfortunately, are invariably clunky, outdated and confusing.</p><h3><strong>It’s all about the content</strong></h3><p>We begrudgingly mastered the mechanics of the database and email marketing apps and the social media platforms. But what did we want to say?</p><p>We needed content. Compelling content, as they say. Pithy writing. Catchy headlines. Captivating imagery. What was the story? Why would anyone care?</p><p>So we sat down and started writing. We could have paid an agency to do this. But, costs aside, would they capture the essence and emotion, straight from the heart?</p><p>With content created, it was time to test the email system. These systems are designed to test messages, see what’s working, and provide you the ability to pivot or change course as needed. And so we nervously pressed the “send” button and anxiously kept our eyes glued to the responses (more spreadsheets and bar charts to blur our vision). Revise headlines and subject headers accordingly. Rinse and repeat.</p><h3><strong>New school, old school</strong></h3><p>We still weren’t done. We wanted to make sure we could fill the room to capacity. Redwood City isn’t our “hometown.” We are not regulars on the local entertainment scene. So we decided to combine our passion for music and music education with a strategy for packing the place. We contacted the community foundation that raises funds for school music programs. We made a proposal to them: If they helped us get the word out about our event, we would donate our proceeds from the gig to their charity.</p><p>We worked with the foundation to create bilingual (English and Spanish) posters to send to 8,000 area homes. And, thanks to a few Redwood City high school volunteers, we plastered every store front, every utility pole and other open space with signage announcing the gig.</p><h3>Customer Experience</h3><p>We decided up front that our ultimate goal was to drive album sales (both physical and online). We knew we would generate revenue from the event (tickets weren’t cheap, starting at $17). But we wanted to create a memorable evening, or, as they say in the corporate world, “a rich customer experience.” So we decided to invest in that experience.</p><p>To improve the ambiance of the event, we hired a backup band. Since we were already planning to give our proceeds to the charity mentioned above, we were now, in the parlance of venture capitalists, “cash-flow negative.” (Translation: “losing money.”) But our philosophy was this: If people liked the show, they’d tell their friends (word of mouth), and this could be a key marketing tactic. To us, this was an investment.</p><h3>I’m with the band</h3><p>With a band, the first order of business is scheduling rehearsals. Professional musicians have erratic schedules, which made this difficult at best. Once we worked through the calendar logistics, we needed to ensure our time together was productive. We printed detailed set lists with the song order, the key, each musician’s role, etc., all spelled out in advance.</p><p>Content in the corporate world usually consists of speeches. The tools of choice are either Powerpoint or Keynote. For a musical group, especially one that has not played together before, it requires a slightly different approach. Here, our tool of choice was something called iRealPro, which is “slideware” for musicians. It is a shorthand for creating music charts so that the band can play the same chords and notes at the same time. It comes in handy if you want to sound like a band, as opposed to, say, the Kindergarten Kazoo Ensemble (all due respect to kindergarten teachers everywhere).</p><p>We did rehearsals at our home. We happen to have a nice large and open living room with high ceilings and great acoustics. So space was not a problem.</p><p>But, as the saying goes, an army marches on its stomach. Musicians aren’t much different. You have to feed the troops. Since both Sherry and I come from large extended families, we are accustomed to cooking in volume. I won’t brag about the quality, but I know for sure quantity was not lacking.</p><h3>The nail biting begins</h3><p>As with any show, for me at least, the tension is highest about two weeks out. That’s when I’m looking at the registration numbers (which invariably spike only at the last minute) and when I’m still rehearsing and critiquing my material and wondering whether it’s all in place and perhaps most importantly, any good.</p><p>But there was still plenty to keep us busy and focused, including the technical aspects of the event. Production planning included countless phone calls and emails with the club owner and his sound engineer. There were specs to be drawn for the stage, technical details to review (number of microphones and other inputs) all down to the very last detail. Again, in the past, I would have had “my people” talk to “his people.” No people. Just me.</p><h3>The gig is up</h3><p>Throughout the two months leading up to the event, our days were quite consistent. We began each day with laptops on the kitchen table and coffee, lots of coffee. We ended each evening with laptops at the kitchen table and a glass of wine. It was nonstop planning, rehearsal, discussions, emails, phone calls and social media postings.</p><p>In the end, the show was a success. We filled the room. The crowd seemed to love the show. The owner invited us back.</p><p>How did our “marketing investment” work out? Well. Very well. The next morning we were delightfully surprised to see we made the charts for new jazz albums on iTunes. (More on that <a href="https://medium.com/@GoGirlsMusic/how-we-reached-10-on-itunes-best-sellers-list-in-the-new-jazz-releases-category-fafeebc70c8e">here</a>.)</p><p>Was it worth it? Yes. But as with any event, it’s not over when you strike the set. Now the real work begins, building on the success of the event and the iTunes listing.</p><p>And, of course, planning the next gig.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=bc1181346c0a" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46691712017-04-12T20:59:14-07:002017-04-12T20:59:14-07:00Wine Wednesday Episode 11<p><strong><span class="font_large">Wine: Thomas Fogarty 2013 Pinot Noir </span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font_large">Song: Heart of Gold </span></strong></p>
<p>Today we ventured only a few miles due west of our humble abode in Los Altos, CA to the Thomas Fogarty Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains.<br><br>We taste-tested the winemaker's 2013 Pinot Noir and we have to say, unequivocally, this is a unique vintage. <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/19d899761e6ddea621cb7dc21e69fd741a34df4d/small/fogarty.jpeg?1492055393" class="size_s justify_right border_" />As the vintner notes, this wine "beautifully reflects this nearly perfect growing season. </p>
<p>"The clarity of this red fruited vintage is highly apparent in both the aromatics and mouth." </p>
<p>We couldn't agree more. This wine tingles the palate. We agree that it has hints of cherry and spices. It almost tastes like a sparkling red.<br><br>The wine critics rank it between 91 and 93 points. It's a moderately small batch, with 4,000 total cases.<br><br>The area where Thomas Fogarty resides is of historical significance since it once hosted some the oldest growth Redwood trees in the world. Sadly (and not surprisingly) they were hacked down to provide lumber for the burgeoning Bay Area at the turn of the 20th Century. </p>
<p>So we thought it appropriate to tie a song that is, at least in passing, linked to those majestic conifers. That song is "Heart of Gold" by the inimitable (though often parodied) Neil Young. </p>
<p>Hope you enjoy the show.</p>
<p> </p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46631722017-04-07T21:33:12-07:002017-04-07T21:33:12-07:00It's Wine Wednesday No. 10: Wente<p>Wine: Wente Arroyo Seco Monterey Chardonnay 2015 <br>Song: Perfect Strangers</p>
<p>Here's how Wente described their Chardonnay: "With lovely aromas of tropical fruit, citrus and banana, this wine displays flavors of pears, lemons, baked apples, stone fruit and creamy notes of butter, amoretto, creme brulee and toasty vanilla from barrel aging. "<br><br>Our take: couldn't really taste the banana, but otherwise, a very smooth and buttery flavor.</p>
<p><strong>Background </strong></p>
<p>Wente Vineyards is the country’s oldest, continuously operated family-owned winery, founded in 1883. </p>
<p>Under ownership and management by the fourth and fifth generation of the Wente family. </p>
<p>Located just East of San Francisco in the historic Livermore Valley.<br><br><strong>Our song pairing:</strong> Perfect Strangers is the title track from our newly released album, available online everywhere or by physical CD shipped to you in the comfort of your own home. <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/73a9a3482eab7f90796fb4afbf71a649387025bc/small/img-4344-jpg.jpeg?1491625871" class="size_s justify_center border_" /></p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46462552017-03-26T09:29:57-07:002017-03-26T09:29:57-07:00Hitting the airwavesIn the midst of the madness of recording and releasing a new album, we somehow managed to squeeze in (and pass) a class at Stanford University's FM radio station to get our "clearance" to go on the air. We're planning on pitching a hybrid podcast/radio show delving into the trials, tribulations and and rewarding experience of being a DIY musician/singer/songwriter in this day and age. As they say, stay tuned.<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/933e5b3057945f3d2d2168ac41f753de111c7681/small/kzsu-web-logo.png?1490545668" class="size_s justify_right border_" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46420642017-03-22T20:15:09-07:002017-03-22T20:15:09-07:00Wine Wednesday Episode 9<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/e21c2656d49e985dc322f81b961997552bcbb072/small/ww-no-9-dry-creek.jpeg?1490237940" class="size_s justify_right border_none" alt="" /><p>Wine: Dry Creek Winery The Mariner 2013 <br>Song: Yesterday<br><br><br>Today we travel to Sonoma County's Dry Creek Valley to test The Mariner 2013, a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot, 8% Malbec, 4% Cabernet Franc </p>
<p>According to Dry Creek Winery, the grapes are grown on a hillside and it provide aromas of blueberry, vanilla and cherries. </p>
<p>They also say "there's a good balance between juicy dark fruit and oak structure."<br><br>The sweetness combined with the dark texture brought to mind a bittersweet ballad by Paul McCartney. It happens to be one of the most covered songs in the history of music. <br><br>Sonoma County is an interesting wine-growing region. Geographically next door (to the west) of Napa, it the Sonoma wine region is twice the size of Napa. But Sonoma produces only half the volume of wine of its more famous neighbor.<br><br>Listen/watch our live streaming video every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time. Available at:</p>
<p><a contents="Facebook" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://bit.ly/23rdHourFB" target="_blank">Facebook</a> <br><a contents="Twitter" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://bit.ly/23rdHrTw" target="_blank">Twitter</a> <br><a contents="Instagram" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://bit.ly/23rdInsta" target="_blank">Instagram</a> <br><a contents="YouTube" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://bit.ly/2kEfBr4" target="_blank">YouTube</a> </p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46323212017-03-16T15:05:11-07:002017-03-16T15:06:16-07:00It's Wine Wednesday #8!<p><strong>Song:</strong> So Good </p>
<p><strong>Wine:</strong> Hess 2014 Chardonnay </p>
<p>Today we headed south to the Monterey region to sample the Hess Select 2014 Chardonnay. <br><br>Take the warm air from the Central Valley and the moderate breeze blowing in from the ocean. Go up a few feet in elevation. Sandy soil. These elements combine to produce some of the wines like the Hess Chardonnay. <br><br>"Fully ripe flavors that tend to show some lemon and lime zest, a touch of ripe apple and tropical aromas and flavors. We call it crisp and clean, with well balanced acids."<br><br>That about describes what you'll experience.<br><br>We decided to pair this with one of our more breezy, carefree tunes. We hope you enjoy.</p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/2cfc80a7cc23929b0c58f65f9932ac2f1edcd855/small/img-4282-jpg.jpeg?1489672076" class="size_s justify_right border_none" alt="" />23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46269822017-03-12T14:17:13-07:002017-04-05T17:23:32-07:00First Impressions<p><span class="font_large"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/6610305f36cbebb3c09ec879118eab772fd019bd/large/screen-shot-2017-03-12-at-2-09-45-pm.png?1489353052" class="size_l justify_right border_" />We waited patiently in the recording studio lobby. Our engineer and his crew were late. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">When they finally shuffled into the facility, they seemed distracted and hurried. They took one glance at us, didn’t even say hello, and then went into the studio, leaving us in the lobby. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Finally, one of the assistants came and escorted us to our stations. Sherry set up at the piano and I took the spot where I would record guitar. We put our headsets on and the engineer (let’s call him Mitch) was now at the recording console. He clicked on his microphone and rattled off some instructions to us. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">We could see Mitch behind the glass. If we were reading his body language correctly, he was wondering how quickly he could get this project finished and move on to some real work.<br><br>Can't say we could blame him. After all, we were unknowns and could have been any amateur vanity act. He had recorded al the professionals and had no idea of what we could do.<br><br>The crew had a number of technical things they had to do: setting up microphones, positioning acoustic baffles, etc. And the musicians that we had hired to back us up started to arrive and they also needed assistance.<br><br>In all the chaos, Sherry and I were left on our own. So we did what we do every chance we get: we practiced.<br><br>After we made it through just a few bars of one our songs, we heard the click in the headsets. It was Mitch again. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Hey, George and Sherry,” he said enthusiastically, “How’s the balance? You guys comfortable?” </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">We didn’t know he even knew our names based on the initial reception. Now we were best friends? Mitch chatted some more pleasantries and told his assistants to drop what they were doing to help us get things adjusted <em>just</em> right. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">We are used to this reaction. Based on first impressions of us, people are skeptical we’re going to have any talent. And then we play. We may be not be earning a living making music, but we approach it professionally. So for the people who make snap judgments and lower their expectations just based on a glance, they seem to walk away impressed. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">It’s now happened more times than we can count (the latest incident was just last week at a songwriting competition). <br><br>At first this bothered us a bit. We weren't sure if it was a combination of </span><span class="font_large"> agism (how old is that guy?) or sexism (she probably can’t play an instrument) or racism (do Asians even know jazz?). <br><br>Now, we embrace the opportunity to surprise and delight the skeptics.<br><br>We’re both introverts so we are not inclined to come into a room and shout for attention. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">But we are far from shy. We know how to perform. We rehearse and polish our material. And we’re passionate and serious about what we do. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">We walked out of the studio that day having recorded with some of the top sessions players in town. They seemed to enjoy our songs and working with us. “Y’all come back and see us some time,” one of them said. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">As for ol’ Mitch, he left humming one of our tunes.</span></p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/46228142017-03-08T21:34:51-08:002019-07-07T13:51:40-07:00It's Wine Wednesday! Edition No. 7.<p><span class="font_large">Every Wednesday evening we find a nice bottle of wine from the region (Bay Area) and we "pair" it with a song.</span></p>
<p><iframe class="justify_inline" data-video-type="youtube" data-video-id="P-z_VUWvH6s" data-video-thumb-url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/P-z_VUWvH6s/0.jpg" type="text/html" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P-z_VUWvH6s?rel=0&wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1" frameborder="0" height="200" width="320" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe><br><br><span class="font_large"><strong>Featured wine</strong>: <em>Round Pond Kith and Kin 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon </em></span></p>
<p><span class="font_large"><strong>Featured song</strong>:<em> L'hymne à L'amour </em></span></p>
<p><span class="font_large"><strong>About the winery </strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Located in the acclaimed Rutherford region of Napa Valley, Round Pond is a family-owned and operated estate designed around our vineyards, gardens and orchards. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large"><strong>Winemaker's Notes </strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">"Beautifully balanced, this<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/4c06e99b2ebd531167726ec3430aaabab2d7db90/medium/red-truck.jpg?1489037196" class="size_m justify_right border_" /> wine jumps out of the glass with aromas of candied cherries, cassis and strawberries with vanilla cream.<br><br>"The supple entry opens brightly with intense sweet fresh fruit of blackberry and boysenberry. Softening through the mid-palate, fleshy red fruits of black cherry and rhubarb ..."<br><br><strong>Reviews </strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">92 points on Wine Spectrum </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large"><strong>About the Music </strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Today being International Women's Day, we decided to feature a pair of women who were pioneers in popular song during the 1930s, '40s, '50s.</span><br> </p>
<p><span class="font_large">Marguerite Monnot was a child-prodigy classical pianist who turned to writing popular songs after health problems ended her performing career at age 18. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Édith Piaf, nee Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French cabaret singer, songwriter and actress who became widely regarded as France's national chanteuse, as well as being one of France's greatest international stars.[1] </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Together, the duo wrote many songs that are regarded and revered worldwide. </span></p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45547022017-01-18T15:00:03-08:002017-01-20T09:23:59-08:00Payback<p><span class="font_large">I should have known there would be cosmic payback for my last visit to Walmart. The story thus far: I had gone to that bastion of unfettered capitalism on the day before Christmas. I needed to buy a set of snow chains to be able to journey through the snow for a family getaway. It was the only place that carried them and there was but one pair of chains left on an empty shelf in the store. I grabbed them just before another man was able to do so. This left me to ponder an ethical, moral, maybe spiritual choice. I could have been the Good Samaritan. Instead, I stole Christmas from that poor soul in a move that would have made the Grinch proud. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">And now for the epilog to that episode. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">The tire chains were the wrong size. (Why else would they be the last ones in the Walmart store on Christmas Eve day?) Now I had to return them to Walmart. <em>Oh, and I had lost the receipt. </em> <br> <br>There is only one thing worse than shopping at Walmart. And that is returning merchandise to said establishment. I lugged the hundred pounds of iron links like a convict on a chain gang. I made it across the rain-drenched parking lot and into the store only to find, at 7:45 a.m. on an average Tuesday, that the line was already around the block. I waited patiently for my turn at the returns desk. I amused myself by reading the very gracious statement hanging on a poster in the returns area. It was a Happy Sign and it was warm and welcoming to all Walmart customers. These beloved customers, who were practically family, said Happy Sign, could return anything. No receipt necessary, it exclaimed. And all this because Walmart delighted in filling our hearts with joy. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">I waited patiently with expectations high. Under the glow of fluorescent lights, amid the cacophony of screaming babies, beeping carts, crackling loudspeaker announcements about something called “aisle safety checks,” I tried to pass the time. After doing email, reading an e-book or two and playing four or five games of chess on my phone, I looked up to see that my turn had arrived. Natasha, my clerk, spoke with a thick Russian (I think) accent. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Have receipt?” she inquired, rolling that R just right. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“No,” I said, contently, since Happy Sign made it clear this was just a formality. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">She scanned the item. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Oh, no,” she said, “These cost $69.50" </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">As I already knew this information, I did not see how it warranted a woeful tone in her voice. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Yes,” I said. “And I would like a full refund.” </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“But that is over $25.” </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Again, with the unnecessary information Natasha. Everybody knows $69.50 is more than $25. I expected next she would enlighten me with other obvious minutiae, such as the fact that the sky is blue. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Must have receipt for over $25,” she said. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Hmm. I scanned Happy Sign again. No receipt necessary, it said. I had read it correctly. No reference to a magical $25 threshold. I relayed this information to Natasha, pointing to Happy Sign for her edification. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">She bent down, disappearing from sight, and I could hear her rustling with papers under the counter. She resurfaced with a binder and began to flip through its dog-eared pages. She found something and pointed to some very fine print, which I could not read from a distance, especially since it was upside down to me. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Here,” she said, maintaining a perfect batting average with her pronunciation of a rolled R. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">I asked for the manager. She got on the loudspeaker, summoning someone named Jonah. A thin mustachioed gray-haired gentleman appeared. His name appeared to be Jonah. He spoke briefly with Natasha. And then he turned to me to explain, in an ever-cheery voice, that even though Happy Sign said no receipt was necessary, it was not what the sign meant. Because the manual hidden under the desk said in very fine print that a receipt was in fact needed for anything over $25. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">We debated this paradox for a few minutes. He could see he was getting nowhere with me. He offered to have me speak to his manager. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Please,” I said. Now, I thought, maybe we can get somewhere with the Head Honcho Big Manager. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">More minutes passed. Then someone named Julia appeared. This diminutive young woman who could have passed for a junior high school student was, apparently, the Head Honcho Big Manager. But, whatever her age, she was well trained and did not deviate from the script. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“It’s clearly stated on the web site,” she said. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“I’m not on the web site,” I explained, “I’m in your store. And this is what your sign says,” I said, pointing to Happy Sign, also known as the promised land of enlightenment and reason. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">She had no interest in gaining new wisdom. I had no interest in seeing how Walmart makes money by deceiving its customer with deceptive practices. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">The conversation — argument really — continued with neither side budging a proverbial inch. She walked away. I stormed out of the establishment, chains in tow. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">After a few minutes in the rain, I cooled off. As I returned, Jonah saw me coming. He scurried quickly to do some kind of paper work. He approached me and offered a gift certificate in lieu of actual cash. The last thing I wanted to do was shop at Walmart but I took the offer. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">“Only thing is,” he said, “we won’t be able to do this again. So just try to remember your receipt for the next time,” he said. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_large">I nodded and smiled. I didn’t bother to tell him that this constituted my third visit to Walmart. That’s three visits in my entire life. And this would be the last.</span></p>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45503452017-01-11T13:57:00-08:002020-07-11T03:54:08-07:00 Noodles on Your Birthday - Chinese Birthday Traditions and Superstitions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="font_large"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TrgmpGWjhYw/WHap0WT_68I/AAAAAAAACus/jHOocNfXx8Q2giCpTPn9i6pKy8KrtCS-gCLcB/s1600/IMG_1739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TrgmpGWjhYw/WHap0WT_68I/AAAAAAAACus/jHOocNfXx8Q2giCpTPn9i6pKy8KrtCS-gCLcB/s320/IMG_1739.JPG" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="chow mien" height="320" width="240" /></a></span><br><span class="font_large"><em>Disclaimer: these are probably very dated, small town traditions and may not reflect modern chinese culture. Also, perhaps they are of pseudo-chinese-african-indian origin, I don't know. </em></span>
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<div><span class="font_large">According to the Chinese tradition as taught by my superstitious grandmothers, here are the rules of birthday celebration. </span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">1. Eat noodles. Noodles are long. They will give you long life. </span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">2. If you're an adult, do not celebrate your birthday unless the Gods have told the nuns to tell you it's okay to do so. Celebrating your birthday on a bad year without the blessings of the Gods will bring you bad luck (and that possibly means death).</span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">3. If you're an adult, do not have a birthday cake and absolutely do not have candle blowing involved in this party that you're not supposed to have in the first place. That will bring you bad luck (read death).</span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">4. NEVER give someone flowers for your birthday or any occasion other than their death. Because cut flowers are dead, and anything dead is bad feng shui. Dead flowers what you bring to funerals, and hence bringing them to a happy occasion is like telling somebody you wish they were dead. It brings bad luck (read death).</span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">5. There has to be a fifth rule because 4 in our Chinese dialect sounds a lot like death in said dialect. So I'll give you another one. NEVER wear all black or all white or purple to any birthday or other celebratory occasion. As you may have guessed by now, these are the colors associated with death and will bring bad luck (read death).</span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">Since any celebration seems to increase the likelihood of you inviting bad luck (read death), it is therefore recommended not to celebrate at all and just have an ordinary day, and reflect silently on the fact that death hasn't caught up with you yet. </span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">On a brighter note, when you're a child, none of those bad luck rules typically apply AND you often get a little red envelope (called Fong Pao) with money in it. As to why the Gods only allow adults to be stricken by self-inflicted bad luck, perhaps it's because they should know better, or perhaps because they should be able to afford expensive prayer services to ward off evil spirits. </span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">If you've enjoyed this post, I have a few questions for you:</span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">Did you also grow up with quirky birthday traditions? Tell me all about it! I want to know that my culture is not the only one with outlandish superstitions.</span></div>
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<div><span class="font_large">If you're Chinese, do you know about any of this or did the Mauritian Chinese nuns make this whole thing up?</span></div>
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<span class="font_large">Please share this with your friends so we can learn more about the birthday traditions and superstitions from cultures around the world :) </span><br><br><span class="font_large"><em>--Sherry</em></span>
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</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514912017-01-08T12:23:22-08:002022-05-14T14:09:21-07:00The birth of Deadweight<div>
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<span class="font_large">It was a cold but clear Sunday 45 years ago when five teenage boys descended the back stairs into the basement of the Methodist Church in Madison, Maine. They lugged various pieces of musical equipment: amplifiers, guitars, microphones, stands, cables, drums.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Three of the boys were from Madison High School and had played together in the past. They were:</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Rick Demchak, lead vocals and rhythm guitar</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Larry Vigneault: Lead guitar and background vocals</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Arthur LeBlanc: Bass and background vocals</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">The other two were from a different school in another town</span>
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<div><span class="font_large">and this was an implicit audition for them.</span></div>
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<br><span class="font_large">Mark Myers, the drummer, was essentially a shoe-in. He had his own gear and had been playing semi-professionally for a few years already.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">George Paolini, keyboards, guitar, harmonica and vocals, was a different matter. He had no equipment (other than a harmonica) and was an unknown quantity, having recently moved to the area.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">(The five lads had been brought together by impresario Mike Poland, the only witness to the day's event.)</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Arthur was kind enough to lend George some gear for the occasion. So they set up and began to go through the paces, including: <em>Johnny B. Goode</em>, <em>Blue Suede Shoes</em>, <em>First I Look at the Purse</em> (J. Geils version), <em>Country Roads</em>, <em>Sounds of Silence</em>.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">During a break, Rick and Arthur gave George a few tips on how to play rock progressions on the guitar. It appeared the jury was still out as to whether George was up to the task of playing in the band.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">And then Larry, the coolest member, who looked a lot like John Lennon and played his Fender Jazzmaster like Jimi Hendrix, had a few questions of his own for George. Did he know any Tull? (As in Jethro.) Any Cooper? (As in Alice.)</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">George faked his way through the interview. But there was an old upright piano nearby, and George walked over and pounded out a few riffs from Grand Funk Railroad’s Mean Mistreater.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">And George was in.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Rick then suggested it was time to decide on a band name, because there was a sock hop at the junior high school in two weeks and the gig was for the taking.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Arthur had a couple ideas. The first one was voted down because it sounded too much like The Kinks and the second one was something akin to "Purple Curtain" which everyone said was nowhere near as cool as Velvet Underground, which, of course, was already taken.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">They kicked around a few other ideas and began to riff on the word “Dead,” which was unmistakably cool. If any of them thought this term might invoke copyright infringement from The Dead (as in Grateful), nothing was verbalized.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">And so they settled on <em>Deadweight</em>. Not <em>The Deadweight</em> and certainly not <em>The Deadweights</em>. Just <em>Deadweight</em>. One word.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">They played the gig at the sock hop, netting $9 apiece. In the newspaper, the band was billed as The Rick Demchak Trio, which was a running joke for sometime thereafter.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">They did many other gigs for the next couple years and became, unequivocally, the second best rock band in the Madison-Skowhegan area.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">The No. 1 group was the Craig Barnaby Blues Band. For the record, there were no other bands in the area.<br><br><em>-- George</em></span>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514932017-01-04T15:10:24-08:002017-01-17T12:37:35-08:00Losing your religion<span class="font_large"><img src="//static.wixstatic.com/media/9741ca_782b6a5a716945ecaef7e4312a0c7582~mv2.jpg" class="size_s justify_right border_" /></span>
<div><span class="font_large">One of us was indoctrinated with Catholicism, the other with Disney. Consequently, our conversations often sound something like this:</span></div>
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<br><span class="font_large">Me: "When I was in the first grade, Sister Ursula rapped my hands with a ruler for wearing my coat in class."</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Sherry: "Ursula is always mean.”</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Me: “How so?”</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Sherry: “Well, she stole Ariel’s voice in The Little Mermaid."</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Here’s another:</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Me: "So, you know who Lucifer was, right?"</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Sherry: "You mean that cat in Cinderella?”<br><br><br><em>--George</em></span><br> </div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45503462017-01-04T11:08:00-08:002018-04-17T12:09:43-07:00Another year older<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DnjUrGgB43U/WG2DS-DlkHI/AAAAAAAAA7k/36sOtfSA140ENWc2uPtnct9qfFu6RYv8ACLcB/s1600/Copper%2Btable.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DnjUrGgB43U/WG2DS-DlkHI/AAAAAAAAA7k/36sOtfSA140ENWc2uPtnct9qfFu6RYv8ACLcB/s320/Copper%2Btable.jpeg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="320" width="240" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">End table made of recycled<br> copper and wine barrel staves</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>Time flies when you’re having fun. A quick list of accomplishments for 2016:</div>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Remodeled the house</li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Got a son graduated from high school</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Got the same son off to college</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Visited the tiny island-nation of Mauritius</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Visited the East Coast friends and family (Manhattan, Boston, New Hampshire)</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Finished an album of new material</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Licensed songs for a new indy film (Three Days in August)</li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Attended La Costa Film Festival premier of Three Days in August</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Took weekend getaways to Marin, San Diego</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Made lots of furniture</li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Wrote lots of new songs</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Gigged here and there</li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Busked everywhere, including Paris, Dallas, New York City, Nashville, San Diego and of course the San Francisco Bay Area.</li>
</ul>
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<ul> <li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Saw some great acts, including Pete Escovedo, Chick Corea (twice), Bela Fleck, Norah Jones, Javon Jackson, Victor Wooten and Celine Dion (it was either her or Britney Spears).</li>
</ul>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">How was your year?<br><br><em>--George</em>
</div>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45503472017-01-02T15:30:00-08:002021-09-16T21:16:11-07:00What's in a name?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">We have been contemplating changing the name of our group.</span>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">23rd Hour has some personal significance for us. It was after a marathon 23-hour jam session that we wrote our first song together. We like the name, but it’s not that easy to convey when we are referencing on the radio or over a microphone at a gig. What’s the URL? That’s when we have to get into spelling it out. “It’s 2, 3, R, D, H, R, dot com.”</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fwc2UtHUqOM/WGriS5V3xlI/AAAAAAAAA7U/AbqcZqgz0DkGmbQVbmT-vmznrHoPdWlIQCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-01-02%2Bat%2B2.56.35%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fwc2UtHUqOM/WGriS5V3xlI/AAAAAAAAA7U/AbqcZqgz0DkGmbQVbmT-vmznrHoPdWlIQCLcB/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-01-02%2Bat%2B2.56.35%2BPM.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="100" width="320" /></a>You can see right there what the problem is. Maybe there’s no easy name when it comes to spelling it out for web sites.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Another problem: people are not good remembering numbers. (Blame it on Google and the Internet. Nobody needs to remember anything anymore when you can search for it.) We tell them the name, and somehow it ends up 24 hours, or the 11th hour. And then they’re confused.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">And yet one more problem: There’s a cover band with the same name out in Duluth. I don’t think we’re going to face much competition from them here in the Bay Area, but still, if you search for 23rd Hour you’ll come across them and wonder how we’re going to make it back to Mountain View or San Jose for our next gig.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">So, what do you think? Keep it? Change it? And if so, to what?<br><br><br><em>--Sherry</em>
</div>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514942016-12-24T12:59:29-08:002017-01-17T12:41:04-08:00A Christmas story<div>
<div><span class="font_large">I’m not what you might call a religious person.</span></div>
<span class="font_large"><img src="//static.wixstatic.com/media/9741ca_c27736dc1cab4d2aaaadd6946e525897~mv2.png" class="size_m justify_right border_" /></span>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">So the fact that I found myself in the High Church of Capitalism, also known as Walmart, on Christmas Eve day was, to say the least, unusual. But sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. And in this case what a man had to do was provide for his family by securing a set of tire chains for traveling up into the mountains. We would be celebrating Christmas there. A fresh blanket of the white stuff had just fallen and the only way to reach our destination would be with chains. And apparently the only place that carried them was Walmart.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">I arrived in the parking lot of the biggest of big box stores at 7:08 a.m. The place was already buzzing, but inside it was relatively calm. A Christmas miracle right there. I asked for directions to the automotive/hardware department and an employee, who was quite cheerful given the day ahead and the prospect of earning below minimum wage, guided me to the back of the store.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">I looked out to the horizon, past the acres of plastic toys, synthetic clothes and 200,000 other unnecessary items on the shelves and proceeded on a brisk hike. I arrived at my destination and found the automotive accessories. There was one shelf completely empty. I knew immediately what this signified. I wasn’t the only one who had this idea. The entire population of Bay Area residents was also planning on being in the snow for Christmas. Every box of tire chains at our local Walmart had been wiped out.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">But then a little sparkle of something blue on the bottom shelf caught my eye. It was the very last package of chains, hiding in the corner and waiting just for me. Another Christmas miracle.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">As I laid my hand on the gift from heaven, or maybe from Saint Sam Walton, another customer came around the corner. He stopped, stunned at the sight. In a timid voice he asked: “Is that the last one?”</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“I’m afraid so,” I said.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">He smiled, trying to conceal his disappointment. I knew what he was thinking: If Walmart, which has everything in the entire world, didn’t have tire chains, there would be none to be found anywhere.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">This put me into a quandary. Here was a humble father in need, trying to reach his destination, just like Joseph. What if his Mary was sitting in his car in the Walmart lot, waiting patiently? How would they make it to Bethlehem?</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">What was I to do? Would I be the Good Samaritan and help the blessed couple (soon to be three, no doubt) on their way? Or would I show the indifference of the innkeeper and turn them away?</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">I took the box to the cash register and high-tailed it out of the store. After all, it was his family vs. mine. As anybody who has ever been in a Walmart knows, it's all about survival of the fittest.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Merry Christmas.<br><br><br><em>--George</em></span>
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</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45503482016-12-15T15:08:00-08:002017-01-20T10:12:22-08:00College Circuit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-24A1yNnYu-4/WFMhzsAcFlI/AAAAAAAAA60/XM2HYNlDscUD8agdahU0G62bB5OuJX95gCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-12-15%2Bat%2B3.04.58%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-24A1yNnYu-4/WFMhzsAcFlI/AAAAAAAAA60/XM2HYNlDscUD8agdahU0G62bB5OuJX95gCLcB/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-12-15%2Bat%2B3.04.58%2BPM.png" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="320" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">It’s gratifying to see that in this day of age of social media and smart phones everywhere that college radio is still alive and well.</span>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">Last night we did a gig at KZSU 90.1 FM in the Bay Area. This is Stanford University’s station.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">KZSU is housed in a dingy little basement (where else), but the atmosphere is, well, electric. The staff is comprised of volunteers and boy do they love doing what they’re doing.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">We set up, played live, spun a few tunes from our upcoming album, and chatted with the host. The hour flew by.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;"> </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px;">We highly recommend this venue for Bay Area artists.</div>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514952016-12-06T11:49:00-08:002017-02-05T13:56:58-08:00Our Holiday Card<div>
<img src="//static.wixstatic.com/media/9741ca_88129798711640ad927f8e033742ec9b~mv2.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_" /><img src="//static.wixstatic.com/media/9741ca_2734460b92a043b092392e51c1667129~mv2.jpg" class="size_s justify_left border_" /><div>
<span class="font_large">So why a balmy, tropical beach scene for our yuletide greeting?<br><br>And why do the coconut trees seem to be upside down?<br><br>A few reasons (or maybe a bit of rationalization).<br><br>First, about the image: It captures a watery reflection on a winter's day in Mauritius, a tiny island nation out in the Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometers off the eastern coast off Africa.<br><br>It is considered part of that continent but is not to be confused with Mauritania, another African nation on the western seaboard. Mauritius was one of the <a href="http://sploid.gizmodo.com/where-was-the-last-place-on-earth-discovered-by-humans-1788075726?utm_source=taboola">last pieces of land on earth discovered</a> (invaded?) by humans, who, doing what they do best, proceeded to wipe out another species, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo">Dodo bird</a>. The atoll is below the equator, at about the same latitude south as Hawaii is to the north and, hence, has a very similar climate. The photo was snapped in late June, the start of summer in the northern hemisphere and conversely the onset of winter in the southern hemisphere.</span><br> </div>
<div>
<span class="font_large">So what we have is an upside-down image of tropical trees taken in the southern hemisphere in winter there to express a warm "Happy Holidays" during the northern hemisphere's chilly season.</span><br> </div>
<div><span class="font_large">One of the most remarkable things about Mauritius is its culture. You will see Buddhist and Hindu temples, Islamic mosques and Catholic churches. And they seem to get get along just fine. One reason might be the entire country (about 1.3 million people) celebrate (i.e. take a day off) for each religion. That's a pretty clever incentive.</span></div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Peace on earth and good will to all.</span>
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</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514962016-12-06T11:42:37-08:002017-01-17T12:41:31-08:00The root of all evil<div>
<span class="font_large"><img src="//static.wixstatic.com/media/9741ca_e9236f61277545168168adc34523fd6b~mv2_d_3024_4032_s_4_2.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_" /></span>
<div><span class="font_large">We have been battling with a most vexatious weed in our yard. It seems capable of propagating anywhere, sprouting to a couple feet in height with incredible speed and agility. Its tenacious roots anchor defiantly in the soil, making it almost impossible to pull out. Grabbing the thing isn’t easy, either. It defies hand-to-hand combat, defending its turf with prickly, contorted leafs that get the message out to keep your distance.</span></div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Meanwhile, our little quarter-acre lot is run rampant with squirrels. And from the looks of things, they are as healthy and happy as can be. They’re going nowhere, content to obliviously dig up newly seeded grass or uproot lovingly planted flowers. They’re on a frantic mission to bury (and subsequently forget) their nutty treasures.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">It took awhile, but we finally made the connection between the “weeds" and the squirrels. And I’m somewhat embarrassed to even admit it, given I have been living in California nearly my entire adult life and should be at least nominally acquainted with the native vegetation. But thanks to modern technology (i.e. a newly installed app on the phone) we were able to photograph and identify the plant.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">It turns out the “weed” is actually quercus agrifolia, otherwise known as Coast Live Oak. These plants clearly haven’t been taking root of their own accord. They have had a little help from their bushy-tailed friends.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Our own mini-ecosystem in action.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So we took the time to laboriously replant one of the oak trees. We’ll see how well it grows with a bit of kindness instead of hostility.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Our enemy has become our friend, now that we have been educated to overcome our ignorance of what was once considered a foreign intruder.<br><br><em>--George</em></span>
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</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514972016-11-29T11:16:52-08:002019-07-07T13:50:34-07:00Our humble harvest<div>
<span class="font_large"><img src="//static.wixstatic.com/media/9741ca_4b7118fbb1e84154a61b0e818659d21c~mv2_d_1433_1211_s_2.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_" /></span>
<div><span class="font_large">Throughout the summer and fall, we endured endless photos and postings from friends and family about their bountiful gardens.</span></div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">We looked on in envy and awe at the cornucopia of fruits and vegetables that people seemed to effortlessly grow. Tomato plants the size of Christmas trees. Carrots that could double as police batons. Watermelons with such heft they require power machinery to hoist onto the table.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“We don’t even know what we’re doing,” they say, as though that should be consolation.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Or our favorite: “These cucumbers just sprouted in the compost heap.” Thanks. Now we feel better.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">We bite our tongues, refraining from saying what we’re thinking.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">That’s because there's something funny going on in our yard.</span>
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<div><span class="font_large">Everything we grow is stunted. Things ripen as they should. And they appear and taste normal. They’re just teensy tiny replicas of their respective species.</span></div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">It’s not for lack of water. We’ve got drip irrigation and hoses everywhere. It’s certainly not on account of the soil. We’ve hauled in cubic yards of organic matter that’s so expensive they sell it by the ounce. Sunshine? Got plenty. As for tender loving care, we weed and till the ground and prune our leafy compatriots day and night.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Still, our harvest is on such a diminutive scale, we could fit it all in a doll's house.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Perhaps our little quarter-acre plot is some sort of self-contained ecosystem. Maybe the plants are adapting and evolving, using less resources to survive. It’s a well known phenomenon titled “Island Dwarfism.”</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">It certainly seems to apply to the plants. But apparently no one told the mammals. We’ve got more than our fair share of squirrels and they are as big, fat and happy as can be.<br><br><em>--George</em></span><br> </div>
</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514982016-11-27T13:58:54-08:002017-01-16T19:44:46-08:00Season of Sharing<div>
<div>
<hr>George<hr>
<span class="font_large">Years ago, I decided to have a little holiday dinner party. As I returned from the grocery store I was greeted eagerly by son Anthony, then 7, who, like most growing boys, has a fascination with food.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">As we brought the supplies into the house, he interrogated me about the menu.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">I ran through the list and then said:<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/234067/4dad3fea16afdb560896f90841e5e3b9287af520/medium/apple-pie.jpeg?1484624631" class="size_m justify_right border_" /></span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“And just for you, I got dessert.”</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">His eyes lit up.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“You did? What did you get?”</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“Pie,” I said.</span>
</div>
<div>
<p> </p>
<br><span class="font_large">“Mmm, I love pie,” he said.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“Me too,” I said.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">The gleam in his eyes turned to one of concern.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“You do?” he asked, somewhat tentatively.</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“Yes,” I said, "I really do."</span>
</div>
<div>
<br><span class="font_large">I could see he was trying to figure something out. And then a look of resignation appeared.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">“Well,” he said, “You want half?”</span>
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</div>23rd Hourtag:www.23rdhr.com,2005:Post/45514992016-11-27T07:37:20-08:002017-01-16T19:47:11-08:00A perfect day<div><img src="//static.wixstatic.com/media/9741ca_147a325890ce4a0aac269864f5886c9d~mv2.jpg" class="size_m justify_right border_" /><div><span class="font_large">Wake up after 11 hours, feeling fully recovered from jet lag, travel, visiting and feasting.</span></div>
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<br><span class="font_large">Decide upon plan for day: 1. Go on diet 2. Put up Christmas lights 3. Build fire in fireplace.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Look for diet food. None in house. In fact, no food of any kind in the house.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Go to grocery store. Buy food.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Return home.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Check weather for showers before putting up lights.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Put up lights. Showers ensue.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Go inside to build fire.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Realize no fireplace grate exists.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Go outside in rain and fire up welder. Make grate.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Put fireplace grate in fireplace. Light fire.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Realize fires are really nice with wine and music.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Pour and drink wine. Get out guitars and make our own music.</span>
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<br><span class="font_large">Time for dinner.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Since it’s been several hours of dieting, time for real food. Make lasagna and pie.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Eat said items.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Go back to fire, now dying down.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Realize embers would be perfect to roast marshmallows.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">No marshmallows.</span>
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<div>
<br><span class="font_large">Make grocery list for tomorrow: 1. Marshmallows.</span>
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</div>23rd Hour