Work Your Jam
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A soulful peg in an AI hole
Hi Reader, I'm about a month into a "teach AI to write like me" experiment. And I wonder if it's been worth my time. If you've been hanging with me since I began this newsletter... You've seen me connect many random things. Star Wars, with my new YouTube video format. Kelly Clarkson's Christmas album, with my musical healing livestreams. The Beatles, with my 5-day challenge to track your soulful life, and chart your next career move. That writing style has been hard for my AI tool to wrap...
What if you're not feeling festive?
Hi Reader, I used to think everyone felt good in December. I mean, what's not to love? It's a time for family, food, and festive cheer. And whether you celebrate Christmas or not, those holiday tunes make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Then I met a professional singer, who professed they hated Christmas. Wait...what? Was it because their holiday gigs were exhausting? Or because work took them away from family? It was neither of those things. That singer has seasonal affective disorder (yes,...
Link it up...
Hi Reader, It isn't always easy to connect the dots. Since my last email to you, I've been down a rabbit hole of discovery. It's probably happened to you before. You do a quick search on YouTube for Thing #1. Then the algorithm serves up Thing #2, which you hadn't known about or thought of. 3 hours later, you ask yourself, "Whoa, where did the time go?" If you're lucky, what you learned in the rabbit hole becomes valuable in life or work. Otherwise, that was 3 hours of...something. 🤷♀️...
The songs that light you up
Hi Reader, By United Press International (UPI Telephoto) Some musicians never get old. I don't mean in the chronological sense. But in how you can listen to their songs, a million times over, and somehow they still sound fresh. That's how it is with me and the Beatles. 🥁 When I returned to music in 2020, their discography was top of mind to learn to sing and play. And boy oh boy, there was so much to choose from. Fancy some songs about holding hands, or how she loves you? Check. What about...
Take a beat. Or five.
Hi Reader, We're into the home stretch of 2025. There's something about shifting from Summer to Fall, or knowing that the fourth quarter of the year is just around the corner. In between "OMG, where did this year go?" and "OMG, those grand plans I made in January...so much left to do!" we all hope to make these remaining months count. I get that urge. But it's also been the kind of year where SO much has shifted for each of us, inside and out. Things that used to be predictable and reliable?...
Does your work pass the truth test?
Hi Reader, Summer breeze makes us feel fine. It's also a great time for some down time...to be with family, in Nature, and with yourself. This has been a working summer for me though. I've been figuring out how to integrate my spiritual work with the (mostly) technical/intellectual roles I used to have. The inner yin/yang struggle is real, y'all. ☯️ But it's a "struggle" that feels true for me. As Lady Gaga sings, I was born this way. I have a soul-deep desire to integrate opposites, inside...
For your musical healing...
Hi there, I'm grateful for you. Some of you joined me when I started this newsletter, taking the leap of faith as I figured out what I was trying to say. The rest of you, wonderfully, beautifully, stumbled upon my newsletter...and felt there was something here for you. Either way...thank you. 🙏 Nowadays, as the world gets louder, it gets harder to put yourself out there, and to feel you have something interesting or useful to share, without adding to the chaos. And when there's more than one...
Your important memories
Hi Reader, I met my first war veteran 10 years ago, on Memorial Day 2015. After Memorial Day weekends spent indoors, watching department store and car dealership TV ads, I wanted to connect to the essence of the day. I sat in a military cemetery chapel, listening to a Vietnam War vet tell his chilling and inspirational tale, of being cornered by an enemy soldier in an underground chamber. After the chapel service, I heeded an inner nudge to meet him, to shake his hand, and to thank him for...
Magical mashup
Hi Reader, What do Beethoven, Laufey, and LL Cool J have in common? They were all part of an iconic set at this weekend's Coachella music festival. The LA Philharmonic Orchestra, or LAPhil for short, displayed flair and artistry at their Coachella debut. No, they didn't pay me to say any of this. I'm just an excited music fan right now, wowed by how imaginative their music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel is. (That's him in the picture, wearing a bucket hat that's part of rapper LL Cool...
I got a new attitude...
Hi Reader, Sometimes, old songs take on a new meaning. I'm feelin' good from my head to my shoesKnow where I'm goin' and I know what to doI tidied up my point of viewI got a new attitude (from "New Attitude" by Patti LaBelle) This tune popped into my head earlier today. Songs tend to do that. It's like I'm wearing an invisible crown...only it's more like a radio station antenna. I reflect on something going on in life, or in the world and, poof, a song drops into my consciousness that...
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