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Music Exploration – 30 Artists, 90+ new songs 150 150 admin

Music Exploration – 30 Artists, 90+ new songs

I decided that last quarter I wanted to do an exploration of music I’d never heard before. I decided to try at least 30 artists with at least 3 songs from the artist that I’d never heard before. Sometimes I knew of the artist, but I didn’t know any songs they produced. Sometimes I even know of the artist, knew of some songs they’d written. I didn’t want to include those songs I had already heard here, but I felt I still wanted to explore more of their music. However, this exploration was mainly artists that I’d never heard before – especially as I kept going. The main goal was to listen to at least 90 new songs in the quarter. It took me longer than the quarter, but I’m glad I completed it. I also wanted to stay completely away from RnB and rap music because I listen to so much of those genres already. These are in the order that I explored them in.

Before I list the songs, here are some things I’ve learned throughout all this:

  • Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between Rnb and Pop. I wanted to steer clear of Rnb and rap, but that wasn’t as easy to do as I thought.
  • Some songs are too dark and murky for me. At a point in my life, I might have listened to them, but some were borderline agonizing to listen to.
  • I like what I like. I still like Rnb and Rap. The songs I really liked and wanted to keep in rotation (there were some) had an Rnb feel to them.
  • The extremes stood out and were therefore more memorable…even if I didn’t necessarily like them. I guess this is because we remember what violates our expectations.
  • This exploration showed me how many ways you can actually deliver value through music. It was great to get exposure to the many different ways individuals expressed themselves through this medium.
  • This made me really appreciate Rnb and rap even more and start looking for more songs. I found some new great Rnb artists I like and more music from Rnb artists I already knew. It was like venturing out made me appreciate what I have even more. I heard this from open relationships too? I wonder what people in open relationships think about this.

Cher  – Have heard a lot about her, but never payed attention to her music

  • Song For Lonely
  • Bang Bang
  • Half Breed
  • If I Could Turn Back Time (pretty cool music video here)
  • Woman’s World
  • We All Sleep Alone
  • Gypsy’s, Tramps, & Thieves

Prince  – Wonder what the mystique is all about

  • Let’s Go Crazy
  • U Got The Look
  • Erotic City (my favorite of the prince songs I heard)
  • The Beautiful Ones (interesting screaming at the end)
  • Pop Life

Lenny Kravitz  – Have been curious about his music

  • Are You Gonna Go My Way
  • Believe
  • I Belong To You
  • Rock & Roll is Dead
  • Mr. Cab Driver – interesting song about a racist cab driver

Rema  – Amazon Music recommendation

  • Corny
  • Dumb
  • Iron Man

Robert Schuman

  • Kinderszenen, Op. 15 (played by Martha Argerich)
  • Fantasie, Op. 17 (by Evgeny Kissin)
  • Kreisleriana, OP. 16

Madonna

  • Crazy For You
  • La Isla Bonita
  • Into the Groove
  • True Blue
  • Borderline

The Beatles

  • Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • You Never Give Me Your Money
  • Penny Lane

Elton John

  • Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me
  • I’m Still Standing
  • Don’t go Breaking My Heart
  • Bennie And The Jets
  • Crocodile Rock

Ya know…with Madonna, The Beatles and Elton John I feel like I’ve heard their music in so many places, but many times didn’t connect the music with that particular artist.

Harry Styles – my style of music but more pop style, recommended by Google Play Music

  • Adore you
  • Watermelon Sugar
  • Lights Up
  • Cherry

Thomas Rhett – saw him on Kennedy Center Honors

  • That Old Truck
  • Look What God Gave
  • Center Point Rd (ft. Kelsea Ballerini)

Depeche Mode – couldn’t get into this type of music, at least not these songs I listened to

  • Just Can’t Get Enough
  • Enjoy the Silence
  • Everything Counts

Bonobo – like that there weren’t words in many of his songs (if not all?), but great music

  • Linked
  • Cirrus
  • Kong
  • Kiara

Daft Punk – blend between techno / and RnB

  • Give Life Back to Music
  • The Game of Love
  • Giorgio by Moroder

I am Jen – unique style, really like the intro music

  • Broken in all the right places
  • Neon Zee
  • At the Same Time
  • Blowing My Mind (like this piano intro)

Ben Folds – pretty funny music…might be the most memorable for me so far :joy:

  • Effington
  • Bitch Went Nuts
  • Brainwascht
  • Kylie from Connecticut (I like this one)

Nils Frahm – I could see this music used in slow parts of movies…not really feeling it though

  • Familiar
  • Some
  • Our Own Roof

Infected Mushroom

  • U R So Fucked (probably not the best idea to start with this one…this is scary)
  • Serve My Thirst – sounds like it could be used on a video game…they got skills
  • I Shine
  • Drum n Bassa

Daneil Padim

  • Harmonics Got Crazy
  • Waiting For You
  • Fridays Beauty

Dido

  • Hurricanes
  • Take You Home
  • Some Kind of Love

Ionnalee – kinda dark and quirky

  • Open Sea
  • Wipe It Off
  • Some Body

Marmozets

  • Why Do You Hate Me? (interesting screaming sections)
  • Captivate You
  • Play
  • Born Young and Free (very stark and definite contrast between melody park and screaming section)

Led Zeppelin

  • Immigrant Song
  • Stairway to Heaven
  • Rock and Roll
  • Black Doll (like this one because of the off beat unusual rhythm that works)
  • Ramble On (like this one too)

Muse – I like the album art…colorful

  • Uprising
  • Madness
  • Starlight

Franz Ferdinand – every artist below this point was found by Google Play Music

  • No You Girls
  • Take me Out
  • Do you want to

Justice – like this

  • Pleasure
  • Alakazam!
  • Fire

Tori Amos – too dark

  • Broken Arrow
  • Cloud Riders
  • Up the creek

Janis Joplin

  • Down On Me
  • Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
  • Cry Baby

Patti Smith

  • Free Money
  • Redondo Beach
  • Kimberly

Bee Gees

  • How Deep is Your Love
  • Jive Talkin’
  • Night Fever
  • More than a woman

Billie Eilish

  • bad guy
  • bury a friend
  • when the partys over
  • lovely
Charity Water 150 150 admin

Charity Water

Charity Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries.

The video below pulled me in on a Youtube Ad (wtf?), and I’m happy it did. I decided to donate a small amount monthly and want it to grow over time. This is actually the best money I’ve spent in a while…as in…I’m really happy about this purchase.

Join me in supporting them! But before you do watch the videos below, check out their mission here and if you feel inspired like I do, donate here.




Why Water?



Where to rent a swimming pool 150 150 admin

Where to rent a swimming pool

Damnit I love these P2P services. I just stumbled on Swimply. Where has this been all my life? Now you can rent a swimming pool for a party or for you and your boo or to just chill alone.

The other options

You can purchase a membership to a gym or fitness club with a pool…but you might not know the people you’re swimming with. And you don’t know have the whole pool to yourself, so you have to be semi aware of where others are so as not to invade their space.

I can remember me and friends / roommates would use apartment pools, but those have limitations too. We were always getting the cops called on us for being loud even though we weren’t loud at all. And again, you might not know who you’re swimming with.

Don’t get me wrong. Public pools and pools reserved for tenants and their guests are where I’ve actually met a lot of friends. It’s one of the best social places to meet the people around you if you live in apartments, condos, etc – (if they clean it!). It can be fun and upbeat in the daytime, and an intimate, chill place at night. Or maybe fun and upbeat the whole time there. Nothing like the light in the pool mixed in with the dark night and lots of fun people to make it a memorable experience. BUT sometimes I don’t want to be social and meet NEW people. I just want to swim by myself or exclusively with people I know…or people that know people I know if it’s a private party.

Enter Swimply

Another update will come after I actually use this service. This is just the beginning. Muahahahahaha!

Know Your Game 150 150 admin

Know Your Game

For some context in the video below, former players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) interview Kobe Bryant (one of the best to ever play professional basketball) to pick his brain on some things they want to know about.

Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson interview Kobe Bryant post-retirement on their podcast All The Smoke

@ 30:43 Stephen Jackson to Kobe Bryant: You got a lot of young players reaching out to you now. Your advice to them? What do you tell em? How did that feel?

Kobe Bryant: Depends what they ask. A lot them will come and ask about their game and things that they should do and things like that ….and I say listen, you know the answer to that…I don’t know. You know what makes you uncomfortable when you play. I think that’s the biggest thing for kids nowadays is that they wanna rely on coaches too much and workout guys…which is fine to have them help you work out, but you have to tell them what you need…right? You gotta be able to say, OK I’m uncomfortable with “this”. And if you don’t know, then you’re not as prepared as you should be…right? You need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are first, and then I can tell you some of the things…the rhythmic things or some of the exercises or some of the repetition you need to be doing on certain things. You’ve got to know your game.

This is in a sports setting, but I think it’s a great concept with any mentorship. Be prepared and do your homework before you go to a mentor. Sometimes you won’t “use” your homework though simply because this preparation or homework was done from your perspective, and when you get coaching or mentorship, they might flip your whole perspective upside down completely. BUT better to be as prepared as you can beforehand right? Especially if you don’t have much time with this mentor.

This also speaks to knowing yourself and being able to be vulnerable in the presence of a mentor. I wonder how many of the athletes who go to Kobe for mentorship know what they’re uncomfortable with on the basketball court, but aren’t open to sharing it. There’s some big growth that can come from sharing your weakness with the right person / people. And other times it might be better to double down on your strengths.

The Rise of Live 150 150 admin

The Rise of Live

I’m seeing a trend where there are lots of live broadcasts where business owners / creators are going live and interacting with people. I’ve had soooo many questions answered from being in Pat Flynn’s or Karla Marie’s or Glendon Cameron’s or Derek Doepkers Youtube / Zoom / Facebook Live broadcasts.

I really had to restructure my days to be able to make these broadcasts because I would usually be at my 9-5 job working during those times, but I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to get answers to your questions if you’re interested in sales, marketing, creating etc, and it’s underutilized which makes it an even better opportunity because everyone isn’t aware of it yet. I see them everywhere. It’s a win-win too. They like people being there and participation and connecting with people who follow their work, and I like following them because they deliver so much value and put a lot of time and effort into their work.

The most powerful parts of them are the Q & A sessions. Even books like The Power of Now and so many of Eckhart Tolle’s videos are just Q & A’s. I love them because I often have the same questions other people ask, and even if I don’t, I might still hear an answer to a different question that I needed to hear at that time.

What Slows Productivity Down 150 150 admin

What Slows Productivity Down

I see so many, “how to be more productive” articles, but I don’t ever see this problem framed as “you’re naturally productive, so what’s stopping you”.

So I Googled “Things that slow productivity down” to see what was out there already and this article popped up that pretty much echoed everything I was going to write about. And written 4 years ago. That’s wild! Well done StartupGrind. Well Done.

I especially agree with the “energy levels” section of that article. I saw this a lot with jobs. Many jobs I worked for would push and push and push the employees and not give any significant downtime. It was like they wanted more orange juice, but they were squeezing an orange that had been all squeezed out. That orange might produce more teeny droplets, but there is no flow any more.

Another approach that seemed to make more sense, is to play and have fun and rest until you want to go back to work! And if you don’t want to go back to work, evaluate the work or how you’re actually doing the work. I had never thought of this perspective, but I saw the value after taking an extended break to Mexico. I wasn’t even aware of this perspective until I received coaching in my coaching program.

I think this really works well if you’re doing creative work. Your mind goes to different places on vacation and when you come back to work you relate to it differently.

The Best Book I’ve Ever Read 150 150 admin

The Best Book I’ve Ever Read

The Power of Now

This book might have singlehandedly be responsible for making me a positive person no matter what.

“All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.” – Eckhart Tolle

Just that quote alone changed my emotions from then on. Now that I think about it, that quote has saved me so much stress. I might go into a negative emotion, but I won’t stay there for long because I’ve become way more aware of my emotions and what is causing them. I was spending years in negative emotions not knowing it. If I feel like I’m in a negative emotion, all I have to do is return back to the present moment. That’s where answers can come in and problems can’t exist.

It introduced me to Eckhart Tolle too and his work with other people. His answers are just so right and simple.

I read this book 10+ years ago and it continues to remain the best one I’ve read. Thank you Eckhart.

How to lose weight if I can’t stop eating 150 150 admin

How to lose weight if I can’t stop eating

A big insight I realized was…WHAT I was eating was waaaay more important than how much I was eating.

If I continued to eat foods with sugar and flour products, it made me want to eat more and more sugar and flour products. It just never ended until I couldn’t fit anymore in my stomach. It felt like I couldn’t control it and I was never satisfied.

However, during the year and a half I went without sugar and flour products, I lost 100+ pounds where I was eating big meals, feeling full, actually feeling satisfied, eating foods I could buy out of pretty much any grocery store that me feel good and were better for my body.

The difference was eliminating sugar and flour and doing all I could to maintain that lifestyle change. The only downside seemed to be social. People, at least here in Texas, can’t seem to wrap their head around eliminating sugar and flour or seeing it as a literal addictive product.

I wondered why I was even introduced to sugar and flour products if they really serve no nutritional value and I could live just fine without them (actually WAAAAY better).

If you feel like you can’t stop eating, I’ve been there. I kept eating because my body was still starving for nutrition instead of the empty calories I was feeding it.

As I would consume all the fast food, bread, grains and sugar products, I bet if my actual body could talk it would say something like “wtf are we supposed to do with this? here he goes again…ok so we’ll just store this as fat because we don’t know when we’re actually going to get a real meal with the amount of vegetables we need up in there.”