I just read Lyle Estill’s manifesto small is possible, an account of how he and others in Pittsboro, North Carolina (population 2,500) discovered how to feed, fuel, heal, and govern itself as a community. First off, the writing is simply first-rate. Lyle writes with humor, but also with a very …
Red Floor Records
Daniel Lanois is pursuing a new business model with Red Floor Records. I will be checking out the music of his first release, the soundtrack to the movie “Here is What Is”, but I have to confess, based on the description, I really want to see the movie (or the …
House Concerts and 21st Century Touring
Last year Chip and Dan Heath wrote Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, and since them I have had a new appreaciation for sticky ideas and the market or strategic position they create. This morning I came across the gem featured in my blog post title, …
Magic Numbers
Kevin Kelley has got me thinking. While he’s blogging away in California, I’m having the exact same thoughts and discussions with people here in North Carolina. Wild! Consider this article written in March: 1,000 True Fans. It quantifies what life in the long tail is like if an artist has …
Creating value when copies are free
Kevin Kelly is a technology, brand, and design maven, not to mention Senior Maverick at WIRED magazine. He is in the process of writing a new book, and he’s collecting his ideas online in an area he calls The Technium. I just read his latest installment, and it reads like …
Possibilities
Last night I was invited by some friends to sit down and watch Herbie Hancock: Possibilities, a DVD that embodies many of the ideas I’m attempting to realize with The Miraverse. First, there is the premise, which Herbie lays on the line straightaway: that to grow as a musician, he must …
John McLaughlin — Meeting of the Minds
The DVD of my dreams has just been released by Abstract Logix, and I’ve already started buying it by the dozen: John McLaughlin’s Meeting of the Minds, the making of Floating Point. It is my hope that when Manifold Recording opens and The Miraverse comes into existence that we will …
If you were famous for 15 people, what would you do?
Amy was listening to Sound Opinions, a radio program brought to us by WUNC on Saturday afternoons, and told me somebody was describing The Miraverse. I only caught the last exchange between the host and his guest, but the comment was highly google-able. The guest said “the world is changing …
The rest is noise…
I read a fair number of books, though not nearly as many as Amy. And many times when I discuss these books with others, they say “can you send me your reading list?” Well, I’m going to start a new category on this blog, which is books and it will …
Linda Ronstadt had her chance…but who’s going to get it now?
Growing up in the 1970s, Linda Ronstadt was one of the first female vocalists that made me want to spend more time on the Rock and Roll side of the FM dial and less time listening to classical music on our local NPR affiliate, WMHT. But a few weeks ago, …