then i thought of myself and my busy working friends – and how we need curation.  we have money but not time.  we need to walk into museums of the finest content/ideas/food/experiences/whatever – or even better – let’s have it delivered to me.  most of these things work well – but is that how i want to live my life?  only experience the finest things in life – in a curated fashion?  nah, id rather be the guy out stumbling around in some desert, that happened to find an oasis or two.  discovery.

its sad tho – while washing my hands in the bathroom, i looked in the mirror and thought ‘damn im no longer like those kids with all that time on their hands.  gotta go back to work now.”

the good news is, it doesnt have to be that way.

But yeah, on saturday, 4/23/11 at around 11am I finished recording my first-ever youtube video of an original song I wrote called “Facebook Game” at www.youtube.com/peterjsu.  It took a couple of hours to upload to youtube.  Then it crashed 3x, so I didn’t end up getting it up til sunday afternoon.

I got like 22 views in the first few hours, probably like 15 from myself, but like a few from who knows were…the dark crevices of the internet perhaps.

Then I started sending it to my friends.  So awesome that people like it or can relate to it.  So cool.  I was nervous, putting myself out there.  And to some extent, art is about people hating or loving what you do, but at the end of the day it’s what you do.

On Monday morning i started really sending it out – i think i had like 150 ish views.  By the afternoon I had 300 or so.

I remember thinking at work during the investment team mtg, that if i could get 600, no 500 to be safe by tuesday id be happy.  right now im at about 700.  Crazy!

So on Monday, it was 6pm or so.  I was checking my fb newsfeed then saw my berkeley friend calista wu post on my wall ‘ “haha good job peter!!”  Little known fact – she was probably my favorite California Golden Overtone (female acappella group at berkeley) when I was a 1st year at Cal, she had this absolutely stellar version of “can’t take my eyes off of you” that I remember really digging.  she now is doing music in LA – check it out www.calistawu.com).

I thought it was a link to my video but it was this strange article.  I clicked through and then it was this crazy article about me deciding to forgo staying longer in VC to pursue my dreams in music and startups.  And they knew I started an “almost all asian american” a cappella group in hs.  That was scary.  I was like what the…and High Honors at Berkeley?  I don’t usually tell that to people.  So crazy.  I was smiling big time, as this was like mana from heaven for a guy with closet dreams of doing more stuff in music.  Then at the bottom I saw it was “tipped by David C.”.  I thought it might be my boss at my firm but then realized it was my friend David Cao.  Man, he is so awesome – I can’t thank him enough.  It’s rare in life to have friends that believe in you and your dreams, esp the dreams you’re too afraid to tell other ppl about bc u dont want to put a stake in the ground and fail.  So yeah, I’m grateful for that – thanks man.  Here’s the article.

http://www.channelapa.com/2011/04/facebook-game-by-peter-j-su-venture-capitalist-turns-singersongwriter.html

Then today on Tues.  I was in Berkeley, actually was over there to judge the UC Berkeley Business Plan competition.  They had 200+ applicants this year, the teams were great btw.  So I got cheeseboard with David.  Then at his place, David was like “oh shoot, (paraphrased), someone tweeted to me.  You’re #4 of the top 5 asians on youtube today!”  Hahaha “what??  #4 on the top 5 asians on youtube?”.  Part of me felt bad for only being #4 for a few seconds.  That’s like getting at 3.8 out of 4.  That stings.  But then I saw his laptop, there was like Jay freaking park from 2pm at #3.  After I saw that I was pretty stoked, that’s real bidness dawg!  A baby I think beat me for the top spot haha.  Cute asian babies.

Asiansonyoutube.posterous.com – will be a hot blog.  I love youtube.  I love asians.  I especially love asians on youtube.

http://asiansonyoutube.posterous.com/top-5-asian-youtube-videos-of-the-day-4262011

It’s 1.08am.  I have 729 views.  19 likes.  1 dislike (wtf mf???  haters gonna hate daang)

It’s been so crazy for me – ppl actually like my song.  i like it too so it feels good.  iv been meaning to do this for so long.  a few things happened to push me to finally do it.

1) I’ve been meaning to do this for months/years.  In july-ish I played my first openmic in the us (I played in beijing before), thanks to the prompting of my coworker cindy li, ahead of a group dinner.  That was cool.  I was figuring out what screenames and handles to use across all social media – facebook, twitter, youtube, url, ustream, gmail, etc.  But petersu was already taken – so I had to brainstorm.  Haha I can talk about the crazy names I came up with another time.

2) I met david choi at cafe du nord, i told him im a closet musician and want to post videos but don’t know when a video is ready, asked when/how does he know.  He said “i just post it sometimes too.  Just post it.”

3) I met gary vaynerchuck at books inc. in the marina for his booksigning of the “Thank You Economy”.  He’s a wine expert turned social media guru.  I asked the same thing.  He said, “it’s like learning how to swim”.  deep man.  deep.

4) I got inspired to write “Facebook Game”.

So yeah – things are cool right now.  Feels good to finally jump into the water.

i saw’m then but want to just write a quick note on the concert (more for myself to remember).  will spare details, but my overall impression/feeling from the concert:

overall – the band was tight, they played the good stuff.  ppl were into it.  standing room only, dancing.  crowd was mixed, probably more white than black surprisingly.  the mothership connection, they talked about far out stuff, but u didnt really feel like u were taken to another planet, like i bet u did if u sawm in the 70s.

george came out halfway through.  he coudlnt really sing.  voice shot.  he was energetic tho for a guy in his late 60s.  WAY better than when i saw sly stone at coachella last spring, but still…i guess some things are better left as memories in their prime.

im glad i got to see him perform tho, im just saying if i was him and didnt need the money i dont know if id perform still.  unless i liked just doing it.  which may be the case.

an acquaintence i met at a music conference had played iwth george in the 90s.  apparently he was backstage during this show and hung out with george afterwards. ha.

oh jeez, they didnt even play atomic dog ha.  or maggot brain.  or any of the cool funkadelic rock stuff that i like the most.  yeah… this was liek a 7/10 show.  meh but pretty good and im glad i saw it.  if it wasnt george, probably lower by a point.

hez coming back in jan.  if i was in town and not in tokyo, id go see it again. 

larry graham is coming in april.  need to book tickets now.

payce

lineup was morris day, monte moir (keyboards), jellybean johnson (drums) as original members. i think  i saw a guy that looks like jerome come out at the end to dance with the band during the “jungle love” encore.  bassist was nice and he smiled at me since i was like 2 ft from him.  guitarist was ok, his guitar needed to be turned up more – but he was no jesse johnson.  the other keyboardist besides monte…was on the other side i couldnt tell what he did.  and this pudgy guy was doing the ‘jerome” thing for morris.  he had some good dance moves.

they started with get it up.  cool.  fishnets.  a few other songs i didnt recognize.  a sohrt snippet of 777-9311.  one of the sickest and most wicked beats to come out of the 80s (2pac sampled it for one of the last tracks on all eyez on me – whats your phone number).  i was prett yexcited when it came on, but was disappointed that the drummer seemed to be struggling with playing hte beat.  its a darn complicated beat with the bass kick playing this strange syncopated rhythm while the hi-hats dazzle about at this frivolous kind of pace.  it was short, and i bet bc its hard to play. 

they slowed it down with some slow jams… played girl.  gigolos get lonely too.   sick song…vocals werent on point tho.  morris had to change some of the melody when it shifts into the falsetto register…shame cuz thats my favorite part of the song in terms of vocals. 

audience was mostly black, i was one of mb 4 asians i saw (including my bro).  lots of females.  cool to see, that they dig the minneapolis sound i love so much.  id say of the ffront row at yoshis that reserved tickets like me, 80% were female haha.  the rest were probably cool asian guys with really good musical taste ;p

overall id give the concert a 7/10.  7 cuz i got to see morris day in person.  iv seen him once before, at the staples center opening for prince during the musicology tour – what was this 2004?  i was like 400 ft away.  here i was literally 4 ft from the bassist, like 14 from morris.  front row, way to hte left.  worth the 45 tickets at yoshis.  insane really. 

hez still got the swag…u can see his is old and gets tired.  but still got hte flair.  i wasnt overwhelmed by it tho.  probably works better from far away.  the yplayed through most of their hits.  couldv been higher if jesse johnson was there, the guitar playing couldv been more prominent and more wicked.  drumming was ok. bassist was solid.  morris was pretty good on vocals.

oh. they had this one part where the guitarist was supposed to talk to a girl that came onstage, only through his guitar playing.  and she was only supposed to move if she wanted to respond to what his “guitar” was saying.  that was really cool.

alright…so thats it for morris day and the mthafckin time!

youtube “dont you ever say a bad word about morris day & the time!”.  jay and silent bob frame part of their plot around md and the time being the best band in the world.  its really great.  thats actually when i first heard about them and “jungle love” and the bird.  haha

oooeeee ooo



iv decided that i need to hang out in the mission more.  or at least with ppl with the same vibe. 

one realization i had a few weeks ago…iv never been a mother but it seems to me that a good mother never says “im going to be the best damn mom there ever was, better than all my friends and everybody i know”.   my impression is that the moms that are good moms never thought anything like that and  just love their kids and act accordingly.

the point im trying to make is that im realizing more and more that doing what you love is natural, and grand ambition is not always natural.  id like to do what i love and maybe thats a bit ambitious.  but i dont want to be ambitious just to be ambitious..what i call blind ambition.

so to tie it back to the indie-chic coffee shop im typing this in…most of the people i meet around the mission are pretty creative, and doing what’s natural to them a lot of the time.  i wanna not only be around, but i wanna be like that.

you’re my favorite 90s band

but these days i just dont understand

what happened to the magic

and no, not ur b.o.b. ish

the angst in your voice

the fuzzy guitar noise

with soaring melodies

that used to mean something

i took a spin through hurley

but sad to say, once only

say it aint so, that its not true

i guess you cant always be blue

these days you’re in beverly hills

your hash pipes turned to pills

im glad you’re happy now

but somethings missing somehow

its selfish of me as a fan

but i miss the burndt jamb

you got your half japanese girl

the prettiest girl in the world

no more criss

no more ace frehley

no more hootenannies

u just cant stop partying

maybe you need to rent a friend

to be sharp again

maybe you need another leg brace

or some cello playing babes

its selfish of me as a fan

but i miss the burndt jamb

you got your half japanese girl

the prettiest girl in the world

no more victory songs

or christmas celebrations

i guess ill take a photograph to smile

and go away for a while…

some random lyrics i just thought up. iv been meaning to write about hurley since i got it over a week ago. pretty much it was the first weezer album iv ever listened to once through and put on another cd afterwards.

the first track and single – “memories” is kinda cool and catchy. but after listening to it i cant help but feel like rivers was trying to hard to conjure up nostalgic feelings. when you compare the “memories!” hook vs. a “say it aint so” hook – its just not the same. it doesnt have that raw umph. say it aint sooo. smashing vocals, the heavy heavy guitar riff that seems to match it perfectly.

part of me feels like its unfair to rivers to compare his work now to his work from 20 years ago…but i guess when i go to weezer i go for a certain feeling and sound. these days they got the sound, but not the feeling. i hypothesize that it’s because rivers is probably really happy now – married, successful, chillin…not freshly moved to LA to be rockstar, getting rejected by girls constantly that he hasnt even talked to, practicing kiss riffs.

part of me wonders how much matt sharp contributed to group. blue and pinkerton are by far the best albums, best sounding and with the most emotion impact. a lot of it is due to rivers mindset then, but i cant help but feel like matt sharp played a big role (esp given how catchy and cool some of his rentals songs are). his falsetto toppings on rivers lead vocals are also missing from any subsequent albums.

part of me is sad, realizing that not only is one of my favorite rockstars is getting old…but that i guess i am. mb the 16 year old that listens to live 105 on his way to zero period still gets the same kick out of a song like “memories” like i did out of “buddy holly”.

i thought id never write a post about weezer like this, but after listening to the last 3 albums only a few times (hurley barely, raditude somewhat, red barely; make believe was pretty decent – perfect situation is chill)…i just had to write about the sad feeling i hit the “skip disc” button on my stereo a few weeks ago.

dont get me wrong tho – i still respect the hell out of the band, and especially rivers. his alone i and II stuff is pretty damn cool. and they have always and still are so down to earth – doing hootenannys, youtube videos, all sorts of stuff to reach out to fans. he is still the most down to earth rockstar that i am a fan of. and he still pens super catchy pop hooks. so yeah, ill still buy their next album and listen to it, knowing that rivers is different now. weezer is. and me too.

say it aint so

when i heard that brian mcknight was going to be performing at yoshis a month ago, i immediately made sure to get in on the presale to buy the best seats, just a few minutes after the presale started at 10am.   i had seen him just a few months ago in april at the fox theatre in oakland, so why did i want to see him again so soon?  simply because he is the best singer iv ever seen live, and probably the best soul singer and one of the most talented musicians alive today. 

before i saw him in april, i was just a casual fan – just like everybody else that knows the chorus to “back at one” (which ingeniously builds in easy lyrics to remember) and has attempted to belt out “one last cry” one one or two karaoke nights.  but yeah after seeing him live, iv become a pretty big fan.  having said all that…yeah, i was pretty excited to see him again tonight…this time with my friends david, steph, yvonne – and at a much smaller venue – yoshis sf.

i expected a full band – some very organic rnb, neo-soul type backing, with him dancing around, singing – like he did at fox theatre.  interestingly, when we got there, up on stage, in front of the vibrant crimson red yoshi curtains, it was just a nice steinway piano and 3 guitars in a tight cluster.  and without too much wait (thank you), the man came out on stage.

he said something to the effect of “its just me…iv always wanted to do something, invite you in…to see me do my thing, like when im by myself doing my thing…thats tonight”.  something like that.  o, and guess what – i was 5 feet from him.  he’s a living legend and i only had to pay $50 during the presale  to get the front center table.  incredible. 

anyways – he sat down at the piano – and preceded to just kill it.  early on in the set, he sang “love of my life” – a live masterclass on falsetto singing.  the guys pipes are like the stadivari of vocal chords.  after a few songs, i thought to myself “wow, this guy’s playing and singing is so organic…he KNOWS this songs like they are his kids”  the only way he can stop at a moments notice, and turn the song around on a dime – vocally or with his chordal improv, or via the lyrical phrasing – is seriously by being a complete musician.  a musician who knows his voice, instrument, and the songs - what colors he wants his audience to see, the emotion he wants them to perceive and feel.  a true master.

having said all that – sadly i think i was too amped up by being like 5 ft from a living legend, to actually sit down, relax, and really soak in the music.  im thinking about going back tomorrow night if i can, and if there are tickets available.  then it’d be a twice in a lifetime experience.

anyways – back to the set.  early on, he ran through his history as a kid growing up and getting into music.

he said a lot about being good at something is having the time and the opportunity.  as a kid his mom was a trained pianist, so they had a piano in the house.  he would tinker on it, until his mom tried to give him strict lessons (e.g. ‘wah pow” on the hands if he wasnt curving his fingers properly).  due to that factor, he stopped lessons with her, said hed rather go play basketball than do the piano thing.  but over time, he learned how to play all sorts of songs, by ear.  he claims to be self-taught.  “what does that mean?” he said.  yeah i guess he just learned songs by ear.  his first song was the “rocky” theme song.  then some mozart.  then he got turned onto jazz, and got lessons from his grampa who used to be a bandleader, and was the music director at his church.  instead of the typical classical 1 5 8 chords, he learned the 2 6 7 9.  bam.  in living color baby.  this was at age 10.

by age 12 or 15 – his mom noticed he wa sgood and took him around at all the churhces she played at – shed be on organ, hed be on piano.  sometimes ppl would randomly start seeing freeform gospel melodies, and over time he learned how to play the right changes under them.  he remarked how some of his songs have some of those gospel chords and colors in them.

by 15 – he was playing piano in bars.  when he first came on stage he had this little whiskey glass or short stubby wine glass.  why?  to give the nights show some flavor, reminiscent of his beginnings in those bars, with the glass on his piano and a $10 bill in it.  baller man.  15

by 17, he wa sgoing off to college.  apparently, he was focused on sports.  was really good at bball and football.  was trying to go to the nba – but then music became a lot more appealing to him after sitting on the bench as a freshman too many times.  and also, he was already writing songs for ppl, and then some of them were pretty good.  i think this may have been 19ish?  not sure. 

towards the end of the show he had 10 minutes or so of Q&A.  really awesome – “you guys have my undivided attention, ask away”.  being in the front row, center – i was fortunate enough for him to call on me.

“did you know you always wanted to do music?  was there anything else u thought of?”

then he talked about the bball endeavors in early college he mentioned.  he said, he got pretty close, was in the 2nd or 3rd week of timberwolves training camp or something?  but before like a critical moment, i think the start of the camp – he broke his ankle 2 weeks before.  then he wa slike “but i wrote anytime… and…”  haha.  yeah not too shabby for career choices.  he noted that he had gone on to play in the china nba or something – and lived that dream out.  pretty sick.  he kind of said it with a face that said he wasnt super super good, but was glad he had done it.  or it coulda been a face of “im secretly really proud of it, but dont want to brag about it”.  im not sure.  either way, its pretty darn cool.

excuse the rambling, im really just documenting what i saw and learned tonight.  so if iv lost you by now…or actually, if you’re still with me…please buy my first triple album when it comes out.  you will enjoy it.

brian mcknight is the man.  he’s 41.  started this more than 20 years ago.  anytime was a hit 13 years ago.  and today, he is still around, to play shows…intimate shows, where its just him and a piano, on a stage…with the audience.  very very few popular artists these days could pull that off and actually sustain a good quality show.  lady gaga i hear is actually talented as a singer and pianist.  but i cant see her sit down at a piano, and play more than 3 songs that actually keep the audience engaged, let alone enthralled and emotionally connected, and just sonically overwhelmed.  she may have the flash, and mb the substance – but b mcknight is basically so much substance that he cant help but swag.

i think if i could do anything in the world, it’d probably be to be a singer/musician like brian mcknight.  someone whos able to sing the roof off a place, but able to put a mouse to sleep with the same voice – all the while creating any type of color with an accompanying instrument, whether that’s a piano or a guitar. 

he makes for a great show, bc u can tell he’s just a normal dude who’s being real with you.  he was telling the audience about his life, different stories…from his childhood, from his adult life, when and why he wrote certain songs.  u could tell all of it was coming from one place.  not him remembering a bunch of words and actions.  organic.

ON HIS SET:

 the songs that stood out to me, were “crazy love”, “another you” (my favorite off his new cd).  of course back at one was good.  and ppl really liked anytime.  one last cry for encore, of course.  no 6 8 12 tho, which i was bummed about.  i get that that songs reqiures a lot of harmonies, but i remember seeing him play that on guitar by himself – what the dealio.

set (talked about musical influences – rocky, mozart, jazz, gospel, writing his own songs), more songs (including some covers like stevie wonders “all is fair in love”, mjs “rock with you”)

Q&A

encore – 2 songs (one obscure song from his 13 albums, one last cry)

he came out at the end and shook ppls hands in the audience (including mine.  this is like “shaking sinatras hand” in oceans 11 to me.  thank god for the presale tickets).

just a thought that popped into my head:

id like to see jamie foxx in this type of setting.  i imagine he has pretty decent piano chops – comparable.  is def going to be funnier (although brian is def pretty funny).  songs themselves, probably weaker.  voice – pretty good but not as insanely crazy (tone, emotion, range, falsetto, etc.)

afterwards, he was nice enough to sign ppls cds, and take pictures.  ill probably frame the one i got.  this guy is one of my musical heroes.  and it all stems from seeing him live (hard to say that about many ppl – like, when i saw bob dylan live i kinda had less regard for his music actually). 

oh, one other thing…someone in the audience asked “whats ur advice if my daughter is an amazingly mind-blowing talent?” brian basically responded by saying a lot of young ppl today are aiming at medium-level targets, not high or big.  they believe if they hit the medium-level targets, they can be “successful” now.  but wont be able to sing at yoshis 20 years later. that sounds cocky, but i didnt take it that way at all.  its pretty true and matter of fact.  also, figure out what is unique about you, and your sound.

iv asked myself, and some friends over the years…whens the last time you were inspired?  most of the time, the response is, “jeez, good question. i cant really remember the last time….”.  well, tonight was one of them for me.

http://bit.ly/6uqnA

anyways, i noticed that even tho its 1992 in the video, their age and appearance when singing “end of the road” doesn’t affect how much i enjoy the song. 

i compared to this seeing bsb last week, and realized that boyz ii men are a group with classic songs, that ppl can relate to – regardless of age.  u can be a teenybopper or a 60 yr old retiree and itll be just as good.  however, candy pop songs like “i want it that way” are mostly appreciated by middle school students, or help ppl wax nostalgic about when they were in middle school. 

whereas it was kinda sad to see 30 year + old grown men dancing on stage and singing songs to 16 year olds, i can see an audience of any age group enjoying and relating to boyz ii men, even when the guys are old and grey-haired.  classic songs.  classic group.

i was walking down market towards the warfield, 7pmish with my friends (younggi, jeff, esther, willa) and then i hear someone yell my name form the street “hey peter!”  i look at its chi, in a 3 series wagon – george too!  haha.  “what are you doing, u waiting in line to see the backstreet boys”? 

“yeah man, im stoked”.  i went ot talk to them and when i turned back, i noticed jeff and younggi and had walked really far up, and really quickly. 

haha, dont know why they are tripping, i like the bsb cuz they are good singers and good harmonizers, with some really killer catchy pop songs.  for those reasons, i was stoked to see them tonight.  it would really be my first-ever pop, pop concert.  i saw wang leehom in concert, iv seen boyz ii men at kmel summer jam – but nothing ever as pop as this.  i was wondering what kind of ppl wolud be at the concert – 20s like me, early 30s, some teenyboppers into old skool stuff?

i was essentially right, but there were more young teenagers than i expceted.  the line for the $40 t-shirts after the concert was 100 ppl long – all hs-aged girls.  pretty crazy that 17 years after their inception, they can still draw this type of a crowd.

so regarding the show:

some good news – they are really good entertainers and put on quite a good show.  4 good looking female dancers, 6 or so costume changes.  warfield, full of fans.  the energy level was pretty darn crazy.  i first became acutely aware of this when after the 1st song or so, the whole crowd compressed by half into the front.  we started off in the back, likea wave receding into the ocean, were pulled 10 ft forward.  this happened 3 times or so.  amazing.   by the end of the show, my ears were ringing from all the female fans, screaming behind me.  insane.

also, we ended up with an amazing vantage point.  id say 15 rows of people from the stage, right in the center.  10 years ago, tihis would have been a $500 ticket for sure.  tonight, it cost my $70 and 40 minutes of waiting.

10 years later, they’re on stage.  they put on quite a show.  and gave us our money’s worth.  they sang most of the hits.  and sitting through this, i remembered how many good songs they had.  some songs i remember they did (in no particular order):

shape of my heart

i want it that way

ill never break your heart

everybody

show me the meaning

incomplete

as long as you love me

quit playing games with my heart (i thought they sang this, willa and younggi said they didndt hear this though)

all i have to give

larger than life

stuff from their new album (straight through my heart, etc.)

back to the energy level.  ppl were screaming their heads off.  and they knew the lyrics to every song.  it was so loud that i could barely hear the singers singing.

this brings me to the bad news.  they were lip-syncing.  i was very disappointed by this.  one of the reasons i use dto like bsb over groups like n sync is because they had better harmonies and group-singing.  to see these 4 guys (no bass vocals by kevin) on stage, flopping around – doing all these dances, faking it into the mike – it reminded me of some bad karaoke experience or something, not guys that started off as a vocal group (albeit, shiny pop vocal group). 

they danced so much, and did so many costume changes – and had these entertaining little films of the singers in various popular movies – which was fine.  but man, these guys couldnt sing! 

it may have been the singing of the crowd, that drowned out the vocals; or the sound guy was seriously not turning up the vocals enough - but my hunch is these guys are dancing so much they cant really focus on singing.  nick was definitely faking it.  brian had these really high vocals that looked pretty fake.  howie wa ssinging.  aj was singing.  some.  pretty sad.  i was expecting at least one song, done pure acappella style.  nothing.  hte best they did was have howie or aj sing like a long note at the end of some songs and then scream “san francisco!” to show it was live. 

yeah, so there i was, thinking to myself how – wow i guess its cool when ur auidence knows every old song and can sing along so loudly.  but yeah, how lame is it that no one can even hear you singing, and no one cares either?

this isnt a fair comparison, but i was comparing this experience to when i saw brian mcknight i believe in april at the fox theatre in oakland.  one guy, a full back-up band with real instruments and musicains.  songs he wrote himself.  the focus of the dazzling show was his voice.  i mean, if u put a woman 10 ft in front of brian mcknight, he could melt her by just singing 2 notes and playing 3 chords on his guitar. 

its not a faircomparison bc they are diff genres.  also, that was probably the best live vocal performance iv ever seen in my life.  the man, is just insane.  vocally, he could blow away these bsb guys in his sleep.  and i havent started talking about his keyboard and guitar playing, and just general charisma.  no crazy dance moves needed.  not too many gimmicks, just his songs, voice, and music.  real music.

i got to thinking – who would i rather be?  an amazing musician and songwriter, not as mainstream and less fame and money?  or an ok singer, but really a pop entertainer – wildly mainstream with tons of fame and money? 

id chose the former.  brian mcknight over bsb any day of the week.  that guy, is seriously one of the most talented singers and musicians iv ever seen live.

o also – i saw naturally 7 at yoshis in early june.   7singers, that simulate instruments with their voices.  sick stuff.  no extraordinary individual solo vocals, but very cool acappella style and group harmonies.  very entertaining show and shows what coo lthings u can do with just ur voice.

becoming a big fan of corinne bailey rae.  she seemed so happy and relaxed when she was singing at coachella.

awesome thing is, she seems like a real normal person.  its just that shez really good at expressing herself in beautiful songs.  and she is mad cute. 

the coolest thing for me at coachella by far, was being exaclty front and center for sly stone.  after that there are a lot of things.  but one of the cool parts was seeing corinne bailey rae standing on the sides next to the stage, trying to catch sly perfrm.  halfway through his set, i was filming the audience just for kicks.  then i noticed her in the audience!  she seemed kinda nervous, mb she was uncomfortable being in the crowd.  shez not the beatles or anything, but its probably not fun to be in a huge crowd if ur pretty famous.  i thought about asking her to sign my coachella pack, or to take a picture with me, but figured she didnt want to be bothered. 

i thought that was pretty awesome though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdLExsmCbAg&feature=related