Month: November 2018
The indie music scene and Lonely Oak Radio
Are you into the independent music scene or do you have curiosity into what’s currently going on in that music realm? Perhaps you’d like to discover a new flavor of rock/alternative/pop music? I’d like to recommend a radio stream for such.
I’ve been listening to Underexposed Soft Rock and Easy Listening playlist (Note: Don’t take that as a sign everything Lonely Oak plays is on the softer-sound side because it’s not, its only a fraction of the sound cache the station produces). Not many of the acts on the station are widely known, that’s the life of the indie artist – the chase for exposure
This link will take you directly to the radio stream of the site. No, it’s not a bare-bones audio stream tool but shows the song currently playing as well as the artist and the next artist. There are links to AmazonMP3.com so you can get the song playing if you’re interested in as much. It’s just really integral to have knowledge of what’s playing (without a DJ yammering at length before and after the song plays). It’s also integral to actually hear music without having to deal with advertising (or pay a monthly fee for ad-free radio).
If you’re an artist, you can submit your music to Lonely Oak Radio here. If you’re a fan or supporter of an artist featured on the station, you can donate money to Lonely Oak Radio to get a song to play a few days in a row (the quirk is knowing if you’ll actually catch the song on-air, but I digress).
There are more indie stations out there than I know of, providing more music y little known artists they world over… This stream is just one sampling of what’s out there.
“The Playlist Exchange” is a promotional avenue for content on Spotify
Just a heads up for musical artists who are looking to promote their tunes on Spotify as well as for people running niche playlists who want to promote that list, there’s a place for that.
The Spotify Community is a message forum area devoted to the Spotify platform, covering a lot of areas of the field including playlists. The Playlist Exchange is the specific forum in the community where playlists are promoted and curators look for new songs to add to their lists. Many music genres get covered, but so do many niche areas such as topics, moods, musical arrangements and what have you.
Mind you, the Exchange may be an avenue for promotion but it doesn’t guarantee songs getting added to playlists or people actually following a playlist you post. I’ve submitted music by little known groups to playlists (songs by artists I am not associated with, I’m just a fan of) and got passed over while I’ve also posted my Underexposed Soft Rock and Easy Listening list with little gain.
Marketing is a chore. The Playlist Exchange is simply a potential contributor to goal achievement.
Reacting to chatter of expanding the NHL playoffs
A season in professional sports is played with the intention of winning a championship. That’s basic sport, ain’t it? You play a regular season with the hope of making it to the proverbial second-season: The playoffs. To make it to the post-season, to contend during the marathon of the regular season, is an accomplishment unto itself, and to go further is the dream.
In the NFL with its short 16 game season, only 12 of the league’s 32 teams make it to the playoffs. In Major League Baseball, after the grueling 162 game season, only eight of the league’s 30 teams make it to the second-season. The NBA and NHL are both 82-game regular season leagues, they’re also passing 16 teams to the playoffs each season. The key difference is the NHL has 31 teams (and soon to be 32) while the NBA has 30.
The NFL and MLB formats make the playoffs a divine achievement by itself. The NBA and NHL have an open format to contention… And there’s talk in the NHL about expanding the contender option.
I cringe at the notion. Read More
“Die!! Can I get fries with that?”
Reviewing morning headlines… I’m not sure if I should be laughing or cringing at this one.
Woman chokes a McDonald’s restaurant manager over ketchup
Police are seeking a woman who pushed, punched and choked a McDonald’s manager because she wanted ketchup.
Police in Santa Ana, California, say the assault took place around 11 p.m. on Oct. 27 when the drive-thru customer entered the restaurant through an employee door and asked for the condiment.
(There’s video footage by the way, click the link to see it.)
It’s a sign society is twisted – that someone was led to do this. It also makes me wonder how she would have reacted to In-n-Out Burger giving her mustard and no ketchup?
Like all history, this “Revolution” remains relevant
The world has changed quite a bit in 50 years but a song has regained immense relevance. It’s a song that societies around the world and pop culture has found relevance time and time again during its existence. Sometimes it’s just figuratively relevant while other times it’s very much directly relevant.
In the United States of America in the fall of 2018 we’ve seen mass shootings (several times) with political ideological history tied to the gunmen. That’s not as literal as the #MAGABomber that attempted assassinations of political and public figures through mailed pipe bombs.
That’s what makes Revolution by The Beatles extremely relevant at the moment.
For the record (and those who don’t know history), “Chairman Mao” is a reference to Mao Zedong, former Chinese emperor.
With the 2018 election having set in just days ago, the requests for a contribution has been common (a norm in US politics). All-too-common for this election cycle was ”minds that hate” looking for cash.
There’s a healthy form of politics and then there’s what is occurring in America at the moment. Political ideologies always contrast, but it’s when society works in cohesion that America can thrive. Society thriving isn’t the driving factor of “Make America Great Again” and those using death and destruction to show support toward it are proving it.
Both sides of the political fray should take some comfort in the chorus of “Revolution” though it seems distant at the moment. You don’t need to go extreme, life works its way out:
Don’t you know it’s gonna be
All right
The bitterness of politics meets the cold of ice hockey
2018 election year campaign contest… Nikita Kucherov vs. Jack Eichel. Seeing I’m a Kucherov supporter, I’m sharing his ad here.