Summertime Get Up, Get Down

griffith park observatory during 2012 annular solar eclipse
Griffith Park Observatory during the annular solar eclipse.

It’s summertime in Los Angeles (and everywhere else in the northern hemisphere for that matter). Time to hit the beach and The Bowl and spend quality outdoor time with great friends across L.A. County’s 4,000 square miles, from Lancaster to Long Beach. I’ve covered lots of ground already as 2012 is already well on its way to being, yet again, the best summer everâ„¢.

But this is the first summer of Adler Integrated. Yes, myself and a dream team consisting of some of my best friends came together and started a company in January. More on that in my next post (or, uh, we do have a blog). I’m basically doing the same type of work I’ve been doing for some years now, only bigger, better and with more support and collaboration. It’s awesome.

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Suggest Songs for Gulf Coast Benefit Mixes!

Like many on the #CitizenGulf team, I’m powered in part by listening to a great deal of music. Now that we’re focused on raising funds for the families of the fishermen whose livelihoods are affected by the Gulf Coast Oil Spill, we must look to the sounds of the Gulf Coast and the Louisiana Bayou for inspiration and motivation.

Here is the first in a series of digital mixtapes. I’d love your input and suggestions on upcoming mixes. You can suggest a song very easily:

  1. Go to Blip.fm (login or register)
  2. Search for a song and click “Blip”
  3. Include @gulfbenefit in the text and/or #CitizenGulf

Can’t find it on Blip.fm? You can also tweet a song to us via Grooveshark, Twt.fm, Song.ly, or Tinysong.

For more information on #CitizenGulf Gulf Coast Benefit’s August 25th National Day of Action visit gulfcoastbenefit.com.

Listen: Inspiration to Innovate

multitasking, keeping it fresh, summer 2007Over the past few years I’ve realized that I’m not absorbing new music quite like I used to. I continue to discover and accumulate new music constantly, however, I’m not listening as closely. I used to make mixes quite regularly, dating back to the late 80s and early 90s, when I used my trusty dual cassette boombox.

Over the past decade I’d consistently update my Live365 station and spend my days listening to that. There are hundreds of songs that I’ll never get sick of listening to. And, yes, I still listen to a lot of the stuff that you hate and vice versa.

In order to keep my work, creativity, and spirit fresh and on an innovative tip, I feel the need to put forth a more concerted effort to discover and absorb that which informs and inspires me. Hearing, seeing, discovering something for the first time is an entirely different sensation than celebrating that which is proven, known, and comfortable. Innovation is a two-way street and it’s the adventurousness of discovering and absorbing that drives and inspires me.

I’m still hearing a lot of the same music in my subconscious that I’ve been hooked on for the past five to ten years. I went stream of consciousness in curating this mix and what’s apparent listening back to it is that a big part of the musical me is stuck in 2005. To some extent I think it’s lazy to stick with what’s comfortable. It’s outwardly redundant and certainly not innovative. It’s the five year anniversary of my last mix – Extraordinary Renditions (Aug 2005). Five years ago I picked up and drove my Civic out to Los Angeles with my dad to take on grad school and get where I am today.

So here goes, I mixed it all up into one track this time the playlist is below – listen / grab it.

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