The internet keeps getting more interesting in so many unexpected ways. The newest thing that I’ve seen is Kiva.org, a website that allows you to invest in businesspeople in developing countries. Instead of giving them money, making them forever dependant on your handouts, you make loans to them to help them get their dream businesses off the ground. Some of these budding entrepreneurs are truly touching. I’m going to try this eventually, being pushed into it by some of the folks over at AppleNova. I was interested, but not surprised to see that one of the people in my newer circle of friends, singer Juliana Finch, is giving a similar internet loan website a whirl in a bid to raise enough money to produce her first true studio album, the one that will surely launch her star.

The friends we share in common, most of them singers, assure me that Juliana will indeed be famous one day, it’s only a matter of time and funding. Click over to her MySpace page for a sample of her work.

Juliana is being invited to perform at larger and larger venues around Atlanta, perhaps you’ve already seen her. I look forward to investing in Juliana’s career, after all, how cool would it be to tell people that you helped finance a famous singer? Pretty darned cool. How cool would it be to say that you’ve financed a famous singer AND made a loan to a grocer in a tiny developing nation somewhere in the world? Amazing cool.

Yes, and her legs went on for ever.
Like staring up at infinity
through a wisp of cotton panty
along a skin of satin sea.
Hot night in Budapest.

Ian Anderson Rocks.
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The stars are bright tonight
The air is sweet
Though summer’s over now
There’s a strange new music in the street

Strangely familiar music at that.
Oh wait, that’s just Donald Fagen’s new album Morph the Cat.
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Cirque du Soleil has announced that they’re introducing a brand new show named “Love” based on the music of the Beatles, with preview shows beginning in Las Vegas in June. The preview clips from the show are inspiring enough to make any Cirque-loving Beatles fan reach for their bankbook to see if they can swing tickets, airfare, lodging and poker chips. I’m tempted.

I knew that she would return one day. I just had to be patient, turn my heart back and wait. Over the moors, through the mists, inside my head her voice soars and inside my heart her words cut… pretty, pretty. Aerial. Welcome back Kate. I’ve missed you.

Since I’ve had XM radio I have found a handful of bands that electrify me the first time that I hear them. From Snow Patrol to Air to Keane, the latest, most incredible pop hits me enough to keep my inspiration clock ticking. The latest band on the scene is Athlete, who I heard a month or so back. Tonight I was listening to Geoffrey Brown’s song “Bea Arthur” in iTunes and saw a link for downloading Athlete’s latest hit “Wires” for FREE. Go check it out for yourselves to see if it’s still up there for download because it’s a great song; atmospheric with a hip, measured pace, the lyrics trip down corridors through automatic doors… got to get to you, got to see this through. Wait, those are lyrics. Download the song, buy the album. The band is Athlete, the song is Wires. Listen to ‘Wires’ in iTunes now

Wow. I love it when a band makes me an instant fan, and that’s just happened with the UK group “The Streets”. It’s a matter of days before I head to Tower Records to load up on their new album “A Grand Don’t Come For Free”.

I first heard the song “Dry Your Eyes” on XM channel U-Pop and I didn’t know what to make of a Cockney dude rapping out the story of his girlfriend breaking up with him in real-time. But when the chorus eased in I started to catch the feeling of the band; street smart with heart. By the time the song was over I wanted to hear the it again. It was catchy and poignant and ever-so close to home.
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I finally opened up the DVD of “A Concert for George” that I bought back around the beginning of the year, something I’d first encountered on public television a while back. Set one year to the day of George Harrison’s passing, the concert was an incredible gathering of musicians celebrating George’s life in music and song and comedy (thanks to a grizzled assortment of Monty Python alum).
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