Well, it has been 2 weeks since I begun Kickin' it here and this my 16th posting. If you missed any of them, please click on the little orange box in the left column with the letters XML in it (looks like this... ). This will give you a list of all of the postings to date. Even if the title or topic does not interest you, I encourage you check them all out because every posting ends with the special features including "check this out," "quote of the day" and "download this." If you enjoy my blog, I also encourage you to subscribe which you can do by clicking on the words near the top of the right column "Subscribe to Old School's Pop Culture & Sports" right under the picture of the old school. We have had some pretty solid postings in the last 2 weeks, but I expect them to just keep getting better and better. Please continue to leave feedback whether it is commentary on the topic or on me, the write. Thanks so much for reading and I hope you come back often. Now on to today's topic...

I have mentioned before my incredible love of music. Well, I came across the coolest music website and I think all of you will agree when you go see for yourself. It is called Pandora® - radio from the Music Genome Project. First, I think I have to explain what the Music Genome Project is because I never had heard about this before I came across this website. Back in 2000, a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever and this became the Music Genome Project. Together they set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. They ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like. That alone seems pretty cool to me.

Now back to the Pandora website itself... It is really a commercial free streaming radio station, but it plays ONLY songs that it thinks you would like. How does it do that? Well, it first asks you to enter a particular song or artist that you really like. It does a quick bit of analysis and immediately starts playing a song that you should also like. This is achieved by finding similar music based on those attributes/genes compiled through the Music Genome Project. I was skeptical about it at first, but after just two songs, I was AMAZED and continue to be amazed the more I have listened. You can then add additional songs or artists to your "station" and it continues to evolve the song choices it plays based on the combinations. The station plays songs that you have heard, but also mixes in some songs or artists you might not be as familiar with as well. I have been very impressed with the music it has been kicking out for me so far.  It is fantastic and best of all it is FREE! You can create a profile and it will save your station you create and allows you to create and save multiple stations, too. It offers a service for a fee which allows you to have this service on your phone, but that is not required. You have to at least go check this out. I am sure you will get hooked. You get free music that is specifically chosen based on your musical tastes and there are NO COMMERCIALS. It is like a satellite radio station made just for you. Enough praise for this phenomenal invention, here is the website: www.pandora.com.

If you go, let me know what you think. That is all I have for today. Lots of great football to watch starting this afternoon. Go Pack Go!

Check this out:  I saw this little news story about a high school wrestler who makes a move that you have to see to believe...  www.yahoo.com/s/786994

Quote of the day:  "In a world full of people, only some hope to fly.  Isn't that crazy?" -Seal from the song "Crazy"

Download this:  My quote above is from Seal and I am a fan of much of his music.  There are acoustic versions of many of his great songs available on a couple different albums.  One is called Seal: The Acoustic Session and also his greatest hits called Seal: Best 1991-2004.  Though most of the songs are solid, I particularly recommend the following ACOUSTIC versions from those Seal albums:  "Crazy (Acoustic Version)," "Love's Divine (Acoustic Version)" and "Prayer for the Dying (Acoustic Version)".