A-HA (Neil & Gene)

1. Embrace humility. Sometimes you'll fail. And while failure is overrated (having known them both intimately, you're fairly certain that success is much better), you know you can still learn something from every experience. It's always good to keep it real.

2. An artist makes art. As lovely and exciting as everything else can be, never forget to focus on the source. A painter paints; a musician makes music; a writer writes. Wander from the source at your own peril.

3. When you ask for adventure, you don't always know what you'll get. That's how adventure works. You could choose the safe route and avoid the risk of disappointment, but a good adventurer would never do that.

Three from Chris Guillebeau, of the Art of Non-Conformity. I like his stuff.

Sometimes things come at us in odd ways. The lightening bolt of inspiration most always is subliminal, and usually is without the booming thunderous counterpart. It is subtle. I used to do PR for a national radio host (late night, new age and very cool) who was fond of saying, "here we are again at another a-ha moment". That would get listeners attention as everyone knew that things were about to head towards resolve, some big questions would get discussed and answers were at hand (after the commercial). It didn't always happen but it made for great talk radio. Engaging is the term that comes to mind. Thought provoking, important, topical and timely are a few others. Tasty, too.

I heard a keyboard solo coming from a orange VW yesterday. I immediately recognized the solo but not the song. But I DID remember the feeling I used to get whenever I heard it played as an AM hit in Los Angeles (most likely KFWB - Channel 98). It was 1964. I was 12 and this song always touched an emotional cord that felt like 20,000 volts running up and down my spine.

If you play the two versions of "It Hurts to be in Love", Neil Sedaka's and Gene Pitney's they are hard to tell apart. Researching this last night I found out the reason. Money again. RCV Victor withheld the Sedaka release because it was recorded out of their 'allowed area', and so the author, Howard Greenfield and his partner Helen Miller, simply took the orchestration across the street and replaced Sedaka's vocal rendition with Mr. Pitney's. Thereby creating perhaps the first vinyl mashup of a 45 to make it to number 7 on the national charts. Did that sound like Casey Kasem?

The song also made my daily a-ha moment on a gray and drizzling Sunday. I am not sure everyone in class this morning got those same 20,000 volts from the scratchy, peaking, distorted and mono recording, but like they say, if the thunder don't getcha the lightening bolt will. I like to keep it fresh, even if the original versions were first payed on AM radio over 48 years ago.

I also like Mr. Guillebeau's three topics of the day (above).

Photo: "I Get Around" went gold for the Beach Boys in 1964, same year that "It Hurts to be in Love" peaked at number 7. In case you weren't around then, this is what 45s looked like (except that those selling less than 500,000 copies were black). PS. The Beatles had six of the top ten.