the MARTINI SHAKER

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Making People Smarter

I spoke to Merlin Mann on the phone the other day. We had a great conversation, and he ended it with an interesting question:

“How do we make people smarter?”

I have a couple of ideas….
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SXSW 2010: I’m done stewing. Here’s the poop.

My very first SXSW experience is now in the history books. I had an amazing time, but the sheer volume of experiences and information that was crammed into 5 days was a little overwhelming. I needed a little time to …
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TweetStar

One of the refreshingly inspiring panels that I attended at SXSWi this year was about people who engage in “Slow Twitter.” These people take their time to craft most of their tweets for maximum entertainment value. Most of the time, …
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Spring Break for nerds.

Tomorrow morning, I’m headed on a plane to beautiful Austin, TX for the South By Southwest Interactive Conference, also known to some as Spring Break for nerds.

This is my first trip to SXSWi, and I couldn’t be any more excited. …
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A conversation that made me cry.

Nathan wanted to go on a car ride with me last night. In addition to being in the “me too” phase, he’s started his “Why?” stage early, so of course he wanted to know why we were taking an …
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Respect: Pedal Steel Guitar

Shaken for you: March 27, 2008

I love the pedal steel guitar. Whether it’s in lounge music or in classic or alternative country music, the pedal steel mellows me out. I wish I could get one and learn to play it, but it looks pretty difficult and at this point would probably take more time than I have to become minimally proficient. Therefore, I admire pedal steel players wherever they are.

This also means that I have to find some good samples of pedal steel to get it into my DYI music. While searching for samples, I found this little gem online that immediately gave me a craving for a dark, smoky room and a cocktail. Enjoy.

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  • I've got years of experience with guitar and can easily sing the parts I hear.

    I guess it all comes down to an intimidating looking instrument coupled with a friend who once said "Dude, pedal steel is crazy tough. Unless you plan on being a serious performer, I'm not sure why you'd pick it up."

    That's my take on it.
  • Do you have any experience with other plucked stringed instruments? A lot of guitar can carry over. Can you sing the parts you hear?

    The pedal steels can be approachable, but they're often idiomatic too... the tuning you use can influence a lot of the things that are under the hand and easy to play. It can be an achievable goal. Depends on the habits you grow.

    Ditto Baxter on lap steels though... here are two good links to the subculture:
    http://www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html
    http://steelguitarforum.com/

    jd
  • Baxter
    Pedal steel is wickedly, notoriously, insanely difficult to master. Lap steels, on the other hand, are fairly simple. Easier to store and cheaper too.

    Of course that could be equivalent to saying you love clarinet and me suggesting a recorder...
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