This months soundtrack is loaded with the usual goodness you’ve come to expect from the sOUNDTRACK tO mY lIFE. But instead of telling you about the music I’d like to take some time to tell you about what’s going on with the landscape of online music services.

Due to unfair licencing fees set earlier this year - it costs online music services almost 4 times as much as satellite radio and nothing for typical radio stations - online music services such as Pandora are on the brink of shutting down their sites. In fact the great retro music mix site Muxtape has already been forced to shut down - although not exactly from the costs of licensing. You can learn about how the RIAA created legislation which charges outrageous fees to online services while letting traiditional terrestrial radio pay just a small fraction of those same fees. In an effort to save pandora and bring online music fees inline with typical radio stations please take a bit of time to do one or more of the following.

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Being a music snob I’m always disappointed when one of the songs I’ve selected for the soundtrack to my life ends up in a commercial. It’s even worse when the commercial appears before I introduce the song to you - my faithful listening audience. I feel as though I’ve let you down, Madison avenue beat me to the punch. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened to this soundtrack. Now I know what you’re thinking, crap, I’ve been waiting around for almost two months for this release and now he’s just recycling songs from a Target Commercial. Well if it makes you feel any better I promise to do better next month. So here it is, two months together as one.

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Network neutrality is one of the core concepts that make up the internet as we know it. The basic idea is that each packet or piece of data being transmitted over a network receives equal priority. No matter where the data comes from - be it a large corporation or individual website - and no matter what type of data - image, text, movie or voice - it’s all treated equal when traveling through the pipes that make up the internet. A level playing field throughout the internet allows my web site to load just as fast as IBM’s website. It’s what has allowed innovation to come from every corner of the world in the form of startups such as Google or Facebook. Without network neutrality large companies would gain a stranglehold on the internet - stifling new ideas and controlling everyone’s access to both view and publish information.

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At it’s best art gets us to consider ourselves and others within the world around us.  With that in mind photography is a direct medium that can be used to hold a mirror up to the world around us.

Vitaly S. Alexius photo journal about the ship breakers of Chittagong, India does just that.  The visuals and the story stop you in your tracks and make you question how a person can live like that and how our world can allow a person to live like that.  It’s an amazing combination of photos, Google maps, and journal entry. Read the rest of this entry »

As the snow melts in Whistler the equipment racks around town switch from storing skis and boards to storing mountain bikes.  And like every other action sport, mountain biking has adrenaline packed movies filled with athletes doing incredible tricks.  Of course these movies have a soundtrack and what do you know one of them had one of the best I’d ever heard - previous favorites include Robot Food’s Lame and the Moonshine Conspiracy’s Shelter.  Seasons, a movie by the Collective, premiered in Whistler this spring during the ski and snowboard festival.   It took some time to track down each track but it was well worth it.  With tracks by Damien Marley, Cat Empire, and Citizen Cope it’s been a big influenced in this months sOUNDTRACK tO mY lIFE.  Take a listen and let me know what you like, and if you’re into Mountain Biking go out and pick up Seasons.

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It’s exciting to see artist and designers break the boundaries of traditional media. These new and creative ideas do more than just entertain us they help humanity evolve. Ideas and creativity are at the center of what makes a society unique.

Recently I came across two videos that break through traditional barriers. The artist who created these pieces blurred and then broke through the lines that normally limit the medium they we’re working in. Both videos got my creative juices flowing and I’m hoping they will do the same to you.

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Looking back on the songs I compiled for the month of April I can see I was all over the place. I’m not talking about musical styles I’m talking about geographic locations. I remember hearing MGMT and Joe Dassin while watching movies back in San Mateo at the beginning of the month. Then getting recommendations for Cut Copy from Double A back in Vancouver. And the rest of the tracks were found back in whistler, I might have heard them in my ear phones while skiing or on the car ride to the mountain while listening to CBC 3. These found musical treasure have been compiled and I now submit them to you as April’s soundtrack to my life.

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The culmination of months of design, photography, and development have been assembled together and launched onto the information superhighway….and its name - Neela Bags. Neela Bags is a new, reusable bag venture for those who want to be environmentally friendly and stylish at the same time. When Neela’s founders approached us to create their web site and provide art direction they were looking for a way to show off their stylish bags and demonstrate the company’s commitment to environmental issues all within a clean, modern design. We’re very happy with how things turned out. Jump over to Neela Bags and let us know what you think.

I’m often asked where I find all the music for each month’s soundtrack to my life. It used to be a pretty straight forward process; I spent most of my day in a cube working on my computer and jamming away with my headphones on. I was a regular reader/listen of a handful of music blogs and podcasts such as; Daytrotter, Sterogum, Gorrila vs Bear, KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, KEXP’s Music That Matters, and the KEXP Live Performances. But lately I don’t spend much time in a cube which has made it harder to keep up with these great sources.

Another great source for music are the soundtracks of TV shows and movies. Showtime’s Weeds has provided me with at least a half dozen songs over the past few seasons. And while Weeds is a great show - and if you have not seen it I highly recommend dedicating an entire weekend to watching the first three seasons - my favorite song from this soundtrack comes from a moment of TV weakness. I stumbled upon MC Solaar’s La Belle et le Bad Boy while watching MTV’s the Hills……it’s freaking embarrassing to admit that I was watching the Hills but I heard this song playing in the background and it was sooooo good I had to add it. I feel a bit better getting that off my chest……a bit of cathartic healing…..now onto this months combined February and March sOUNDTRACK to mY lIFE.

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