This week I had the great honor of delivering remarks at the US District Court House in Utica to 60 individuals from 22 countries who were taking the oath of US citizenship in front of a packed house of family, friends and supporters. I’ve been to naturalization ceremonies before and it’s something that I think…
Last week I had the honor of being the Commencement speaker for Mohawk Valley Community College’s Class of 2017. Getting to deliver that kind of address in front of over two thousand people was both terrifying and exhilarating. It’s a role I never thought I’d get the chance to play – a bucket list item…
I loved this pep talk from Kid President. Yes, take the road that leads to awesome.
I’ve been writing music for over a decade now. Rock songs, folk songs, fast songs, slow songs. The only common thread has been that I’ve tried to write what I know. Making records and making music with people is something that it seems like I’ve always just done, and while it’s a performance and I…
Some things, some goals, some ideas to attempt and accomplish throughout 2012 Business Build an iPhone App Learn to Program in Ruby Become a better Amateur Photographer Projects Finish the Boat Grow the Utica Firefly project even bigger Make a Rock N Roll Record Visit the West Coast Grow a Better Garden Cut Down the…
This is true for so many things. Copying and imitating helps you find your own voice, your own look, your own style…. “Copy out things that you really love. Any book. Put the quotation marks around it, put the date that you’re doing the copying out, and then copy it out. You’ll find that you…
For anyone that struggles with being creative on a deadline – this is for you. Great experiment.
Yesterday I was listening to the Diane Rehm program, as I often do – and really got into her interview with Suzanne Marrs who had written a book covering the lengthy correspondence between Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty and her New Yorker editor and fellow writer William Maxwell. For more than 50 years, they corresponded…
I’ve been a big fan of the photoblogs that Ree (Pioneer Woman), Kathleen Connally (A Walk Through Durham Township), Amanda Pair and the Boston Globe have been running for a long time now. Other friends like Bernie at Medraw and Erin’s Photo 365 project have been trying to do a photo (or sketch) every day…
When I gave a talk about Bootstrapping in the Mohawk Valley to the MV Young Professionals group last month, one of the points I tried to drive home was that you need to surround yourself with people that make things…and that you should make something too. Whether those things are businesses, films, music, art, pieces…
I watched the Oscars this past Sunday. I’ll admit it. It started as background noise while I cleaned up around the house. Basically since I don’t have cable or an antenna for the TV I plugged my mac into the TV and fired up the pre-Oscar video stream on ABC.com – but as soon as…
I was having some food the other night with my good friend Geoff Storm and he got talking to me about how cool the tour at the New Belgium brewery in Colorado was. What impressed him the most was how they try to help employees be more green, and have built a really cool corporate…
I, like many other iPhone and iPad users am still disappointed that Flash still hasn’t made its way onto those devices. Yes, I’m aware of ‘Frash’ but the big thing that’s missing in that package is the ability to play Flash Video – which is really all I care about (#iwantowatchTheDailyShow). But what I’m really…
I saw this great TED talk by Clay Shirky recently about how we’re starting to have a cognitive surplus in the world and shifting from a society based on consumption to one that is starting to be about creation, production and sharing. According to Shirky, the earth has about 1 trillion hours of downtime per…
Have you ever seen Shit My Dad Says on Twitter? Check it out. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Really funny stuff. Justin Hepburn, who set up the account as a place to share his father’s snippets of wisdom, currently has 1.4million followers, a TV deal, and a new book which is a collection of stories and…
I admit it. I don’t play fantasy football. But I’m curious as to why it’s 2010 and we still only get delayed and edited footage from the Olympics via NBC. Furthermore, why hasn’t the idea of Fantasy Olympic teams taken off? Could that be a key to increasing viewership, knowledge of more atheletes and engagement…
I was listening to This American Life online over the weekend. Normally I try to catch it live but hit up the podcast this time. Before the show plays, you get a nice message from Ira Glass telling you that the podcast is very popular and eats a lot of bandwidth – and bandwidth is…