January 8,1997

My Times

The members of NARAS have spoken.
The Celine Dion album, Falling Into You, has been nominated for Album of the Year!

Along with Celine, all the albums producers(14 at last count), are also nominated!
And that includes me!

Dan Hill was nominated as vocalist of the year in the 1980's and David Foster and Celine have both won Grammy awards in the past.
I however, have not been honoured by the 9000 members of NARAS, so I am very pleased indeed!

One thing that really bugs me is how the press get down on Celine, saying she is "only nominated because she has sold 6 million albums".
Well howdy howdy Mr music critic! That means that a hell of a lot of people liked her album!!

And just because the voters are part of the music business doesn't mean they can't vote for an album that they most likely own a copy of!
And as much as I like Beck and the Smashing Pumpkins, they are not universal artists. They do not reach out to the largest percentage of the music buying public. Celine does!
I would define good music as music that people like. If they like it, they buy it.
What could be more simple!

I stumbled across a very interesting topic while looking for some Sting samples at the Ultimate Band List site.
I was led to a page that said they could no longer let us listen to music because the Copyright Laws would mean they would have to pay for allowing us the pleasure, and as they were a free site, what were they supposed to do?
I was a bit shocked. They had a list of songs from people who are not interested in Copyright, and a link to an amazing article all about Free Music Philosophy.
If you don't read the whole article then at least check out why musicians shouldn't make money for being creative...Motivation

Here then is the opposite of Free Music, and my site of the week - The Grammy's.

Motoring

I can't help myself from telling you all about the fantastic

Ferrari web site. You can see all the cars as well as keep up to date with the racing team.

Also worth a look, though they may make better cars, they don't make better web sites...

"If a reward - money, awards, praise, or winning a contest - comes to be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right. With the exception of some behaviorists who doubt the very existence of intrinsic motivation, these conclusions are now widely accepted among psychologists."
Alfie Kohn - Boston Globe 1987