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Willy Go Home: Karaoke at BlogHer
July 27, 2009 by Renee Blodgett
Karaoke took a center stage at one of the BlogHer09 after parties in Chicago this year. Yes, men too.
John Sebastian TODAY
June 14, 2009 by Renee Blodgett
This past month, I saw musician John Sebastian at a private party in the Bay Area. Woodstock attendees will remember his musical claim and his group The Lovin’ Spoonful, which played a major role in the mid-’60s rock revolution.
Below is an online video of Times Herald reporter Steve Israel with John Sebastian where they talk about ‘his roots.’ Below the video are a few shots I took of him performing at a very small venue where roughly 50% remember his ‘time’ while the other 50% who had never heard of him, tapped away to some of his more well known melodies.
May 2009 in Silicon Valley at a private event:
Children Dance in the Richtersveld
December 5, 2008 by Renee Blodgett
Take a look at South Africa’s Richtersveld as seen through the eyes of Nama children, who danced for us on the banks of the Orange River, along the Namibian border.
It was followed by a picnic lunch consisting of grilled fish, game stew, salads and cheese……and of course, a taste of the local beer. You’ll be incredibly moved and if the dancing alone doesn’t bring on a smile, the face below most certainly will. See if you can find her in the videos.
Videos of their performance below:
J.D. Steele & Shangilia
June 22, 2008 by Renee Blodgett
Musician J.D. Steele performed at the PUSH Conference this year. He and his siblings started performing together as children, forming that other singing family group from Gary, Indiana.
Since then, J.D. has performed with The Steeles all over the world, and his talents as a composer, arranger and vocal artist have earned him recording contracts, awards, commissions for musicals, operas, movies and commercial jingles.
On stage, he is quietly charismatic in a zen-like way, meaning he exudes passion but is completely in his own body, controlled, relaxed and calling us all to do nothing but smile and fall into his music.
Steele’s most recent project is with Shangilia, a 200 kid orphanage in Nairobi, where he has led the group in performances at the Kennedy Center and toured Tanzania, the U.S. and Greece.
It started when twenty-three children gave their first public performance at Nairobi ‘s National Theatre in July 1994. The occasion was the visit to Kenya of four members of the United Nation’s Committee of Ten (established to monitor the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child). The children’s exuberant performance culminated in the building…
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Japan Knows its Electronics & its Toilets
May 7, 2008 by Brad Kava
As I walked around the biggest electronics store I’ve ever seen in my life in the “Electric City” district of Tokyo (also called Akihabara), the strains of a familiar song kept jumping into my brain.
It had happy Japanese words and was repeated over and over. What was that tune?
OMG: It’s the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with new peppy words that sounded like they were saying this is a happy place to shop. It’s the theme song of Akihabara, which is a huge Times Square-like district devoted to electric necessities and toys ,and it has me wondering: is the Battle Hymn based on some ancient samurai tune, or did they rip this once solemn song from the public domain?
On weekends costumed anime characters wander around. The rest of the time, people with bullhorns shout out the latest sales.
Imagine the biggest Fry’s you’ve seen. Add seven stories to it and high end products with testing rooms and then multiply it by 30 buildings and you have Akihabara. Don’t forget to throw in a handful of goofy restaurants where Japanese women in Merry Maids costumes will bat their eyes at you and talk to…
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The Japanese Mind: An Inch Wide, Two Miles Deep
May 6, 2008 by Brad Kava
So says my friend Andrew Morse, who covers Japanese companies for the Wall Street Journal.
Morse gave me an awesome tour of Tokyo, including a series of small bars in districts tourists rarely find. The bars seat nine or 10 people, and each has a specialized theme.
We saw three that did nothing but play blues music; one that only played the music of the Who; one that just played old jazz on vinyl records.
They were glorious, my favorite things about the spotless, thriving city of 12 million. You could walk in and communicate with music, the universal language, even when there was no common verbal language.
At one bar called Bar Comforts, the owner picked up a guitar and jammed with me on harmonica. All by telepathy. Then, he played the music of harmonica player Little Walter, on whom he was an expert.
That’s when Morse made his comment about the Japanese mind.
“He won’t know other music. He won’t know rock, or reggae. But he will know everything about the blues. And maybe just a small piece of the blues, like 1938. But he will know everything about that. One inch wide, two miles deep.”
I…
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SanFran MusicTech Summit
May 1, 2008 by Renee Blodgett
Next week in San Francisco, the SanFran MusicTech Summit plans to bring together the best and brightest developers in the Music/Technology Space, along with the musicians, entrepreneurial business people, and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. You can register here.
