Author: Wick

So my friends have great ideas, and I usually catch on to them much later.

One recent good idea they’ve had forever, and I just got hip to is: NOISETRADE

There are artists out there who – now get this – care about MORE than just making money from their stuff!! *gasp. I know. Crazy, right?

So here’s the thing. You go to NOISETRADE, and find music you like by sampling the artists right then and there, with no downloads needed and no crazy pop-ups to help them exist. It’s extremely easy to use.

If you find an artist you like, you can download all of their cd one of two ways: 1. Tell 5 of your friends about what you’re doing (they send them a link ONCE, and never anything ever again). 2. Pay them whatever you think the album is worth when combined with how much you have available to pay them. (to say it simpler: pay them ANY amount)

Then you download the music onto your computer, and burn it to a cd…and you’re solid.

My only beef? Most of the music selection is uniformly “different”, with a lot of hippy-sounding indie folk. You won’t have heard of most of the bands, because they haven’t spent much time/money telling the world about themselves. Also, a ridiculous amount of them claim to sound like Derek Webb. (he’s one of the founders, so either they’re sucking up to him, or his fans….or maybe one of them actually does sound a bit like him….but I’ve not found any)

But if you go through the selection a bit…you may find a few worth checking out. And it can’t hurt to listen to a different genre of music once in a while….right? And if you’re one of those people who love to go into a social situation knowing something about a good artist none of them have heard of thereby staking your place the the one “in the know” (you all know who you are), this is a pretty good source. 🙂

And by doing so you’re participating in the sharing of art done in a very “right” way I think.

After putting careful thought and planning into an awesomely creative Mother’s Day gift that ended up being way too small for any adult female…..I decided it’d be better to involve the girls anyways.

So yesterday morning, Sophie, Addie, and I went to Kroger to pick out some flowers and a card for Mother’s Day. Addie objected. “I no have a mother?” Shaking her head. I said, “yes you do, Addie, and tomorrow is her day.”

“No, I no have a mother…I have a MOMMY.” She said back. “Oh, okay, yes. And tomorrow is Mommy’s Day.” I told her. “We have to get something special for Mommy for her day.”

I didn’t even have to prompt her, as we pulled up and she saw the hanging baskets of flowers she yelled, “Flowers!!” (okay, I may have slowed down to emphasize them) “We get flowers for mommy for her day? That make her happy, daddy!”

The girls were both smiling and excited by this point. We picked out the perfect flowers, and went inside for the card. I took the girls to the card aisle, parked in front of the Mother’s Day section, and told Addie to pick ANY card. I was prepared to buy whichever card she truly wanted to give mommy, even if it was actually a birthday card on accident.

She found the giant, $10, song-playing Cinderella birthday card. I found out I actually do have limits. I narrowed the choice for a slightly-teary eyed daughter, asking her to pick one of three cards I was holding…and that’s the one we got. (after going around the store to find Sophie’s missing shoe that had fallen somewhere)

The whole ride home we talked about how tomorrow was “Mommy’s Day”, and how much we loved mommy, and how much she makes us happy. 🙂 We love her.

For my wife: This story is a part of your gift. Wish I could have had a video camera. Our daughters are truly growing up, and we have you to thank for so much of it. We love you, and hope you know how much you are loved and special to us.