General

Experimenting with mandolin

I’ve played instruments for the majority of my life, and playing music has been an enriching and enjoyable way to express myself creatively. I grew up playing band and orchestra instruments (violin, alto horn, clarinet) but in high school and college moved over to guitar and bass guitar. Those have been my instruments of choice […]

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General, Share-topia 2018

Quick YouTube Music thoughts

I got into the early access of YouTube Music, and after a few days, I’m genuinely confused. When I first pulled up the interface, it looked very similar to Google Play Music, however with just a darker theme. Many of the buttons and graphics look the same, and that extend into even the fly-out menus. […]

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General, Share-topia 2018

Returning to the scene

A week ago my wife and I got a message from our friend Mike. He had plans to take his wife downtown on Friday night and catch a show at the Dakota Jazz Club, and since the table he found, available, seated 4 people, he decided to surprise her by inviting us to show up. […]

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General, Write-a-palooza 2017

Revisiting great music

Many times when at the office I like to put on instrumental music while I work. Today I pulled out an old album from 2011 by my good friend Michael. His instrumental work is amazing, and the album I chose for today, Six By Six, is an amazing piece of work. It was the perfect […]

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General, Write-a-palooza 2017

Mass with no music

Many years ago, while traveling through Illinois, I was exposed to a Catholic Sunday mass that contained no music. This meant no hymns, or any instrumental accompaniment. Everything was spoken word, with a short chant here and there from the priest at various portions of the liturgy. I love the quiet reverence of a service […]

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General, Write-a-palooza 2017

A concert on a lake

This past week we’ve been up on the North Shore, and on Thursday we got the opportunity to partake in a truly unique experience. Minnesota artist Jeremy Messersmith is in town to play a show at Voyageur Brewing Company. However, before the show at the brewery he gave a free show out on Artist’s Point, […]

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Blog-o-rama 2016, General

Some Yo-Yo Ma neo-folk

Yesterday my wife happened across a video of Yo-Yo Ma with Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. I love these types of collaborations and this one was put together brilliantly. It turned out that the video was from a recording session in 2011 for an album called the Goat Rodeo Sessions. Needless to day […]

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Blog-o-rama 2016, General

Nostalgic punk

In college and high school I enjoyed a lot of alternative music, including some of the more popular punk bands. One of the bigger bands during my college, and post-college, years was Blink 182. They’ve had spotty recording since the 90s with band breakups (and reformations) and other tragedies, but just this year they came […]

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Blog-o-rama 2016, General

Wireless Headphones

At work my desk is set up with my laptop off to the side, and my main screens and keyboards right in front of me. This means that using headphones at my desk can be somewhat difficult. I could use wired headphones, but I would need a very long cord. My desk also is equipped […]

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Blog-o-rama 2016, General

Cultural icons

The news broke on Monday about the death of David Bowie. Much of my social media feed has turned into remembrances from people who grew up listening to Bowie. I was never that much into his music, which is to say I never bought any of his albums. However, I was familiar with most of his […]

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Blog-o-rama 2016, General

New bluegrass music

As many know, I’m a fan of bluegrass music, both traditional and modern. In the past few years there have been a lot of new acts that have brought instruments such as the banjo and mandolin, back into mainstream music. One of the groups that I have enjoyed for a few years now are Duluth, […]

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Create-a-thon 2015, General

Sweater Weather

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve come to enjoy some of the radio stations on Google Play Music, and often put one of them on when I’m driving places. The other day I came across a really fun station that I wanted to post about. It’s called Sweater Weather and it is an incredible […]

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