Amazing Little Voice

Sara Bareilles - Little VoiceIn spite of my large music collection, I’m always on the lookout for something new. As part of this quest for new music, about once a month I check the iTunes top 100 albums just to see if there’s anything there that catches my ear.
This week, I stumbled across this little gem of an album: Sara Bareilles – Little Voice. You owe it to yourself to run, not walk, to uhm, the nearest computer and download this record from iTunes. It’s the best $7 you’ll spend this week.
She’s a singer/songwriter from California, and this is her debut record. She’s got an amazing sound. Her songwriting channels a bit of Joni Mitchell. She’s got a soulful voice that reminds me a lot of Fiona Apple and a bit of Natasha Bedingfield. Most of the songs have great hooks, and several are very radio friendly. You can listen to the single “Love Song” on her website: www.sarabmusic.com.
She’s on the verge of making it big, in my opinion. It’s a shame the record industry spends so much time on trying to manufacture new artists via shows like American Idol when there are plenty of talented people like Sara out there looking for their chance. I’d much rather see young artists like these have the opportunity to make it in the music biz over any of the Idol winners.
How big of a difference is a great singer versus a singer/songwriter? Well – let’s put it this way. Almost forty years after they broke up, the Beatles still have a major impact on musicians today. The Monkees? Not so much.
So, give her record a listen and if you like it, spread the word!

LOL! Clueless, greedy eBayer in Dallas

Oh, man, you have to watch this video…
 greedy ebayer
The story is about a woman who brought along $16k in cash with the plan to buy someone’s place in line at an AT&T store, then buy every iPhone they had in stock. Why? So she could turn around and put them up on eBay, hoping to sell them for outrageous amounts.
What she doesn’t plan on is 1) Apple having plenty on hand, and 2) didn’t make any effort to find out how many the store would actually sell her.
So, the cameras follow her up to the line at 5:45 pm. She offers $800 to the kid at the front of the line who’d been there since 8 am or earlier. She gets in line, and sure enough, she’s the first one in the door. The cameras catch her smug look as she thinks her brilliant plan is about to come to fruition. Then, hilarity ensues when she learns, as everyone else already knew, that she could only buy one phone.
Sadly, they don’t show complete footage of her getting pissed off, but the reporter mentions she was clearly pissed. She was even more pissed at the guy who took her money, who already knew the limit on phones. He got to buy the phone and every accessory he could possibly want.
Kudos to this guy for getting a “free” iPhone and toys out of the deal, and for pissing off the greedy, clueless eBayer who wanted to shaft everyone.
Course, with stories floating that AT&T was forcing people to buy accessories with the iPhone, she probably would have been pissed anyway when she found out she’d have to buy cases for all those phones — depending on how much she had to bribe someone to let her buy more than one phone.
But, if you’re reading this, greedy eBayer, I’ll let you have mine for a mere $1200, with case. : )