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ResourcesForLife.com News 201106

ResourcesForLife.com – News 201106 | 30 June 2011 | Thursday

Dear Friend,

I know that time is precious for everyone these days, so I’ll try to keep this update short. The approximate reading time for this message is about 5 minutes. Feel free to reduce your reading time even more by skipping over topics that don’t interest you. This month I’ve moved the Heart Songs update below the What’s New section.

Personal Update. My Personal Update for June is now available.

Inspiring Music Videos. Inspiring-Music-Videos.com is a new website that I launched just a few months ago to help promote high quality videos that are inspiring because of their message, or simply because of their technical quality. Somewhere with You performed by Tyler Ward is an example of the music videos features on the site. Other examples are Rolling in the Deep performed by Maddi Jane, and Mean performed by Alex G and Adam Stanton.

Computing Security. As you are probably aware, numerous businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies have been hacked into recently. I’m planning to provide a special report and some security guidelines for safer computing soon. Until then, you might want to read The Cloud Darkens, an article published by the New York Times on the subject of computing security.

What’s New.During the month of June, 37 new articles were added to the site. I think that’s a record for the most documents posted in a single month to the site. I encourage you to visit the Documents Page and the What’s New Page to view the latest updates to the site. Or, simply refer to the article title links in the right column under the Recent Documents heading. Here are a few of the new articles and documents that I’d like to highlight from this month:

Heart Songs. The Heart Songs selections for June 2011 are now available on iTunes. Using iTunes you can listen to previews that are 1 minute and 30 seconds long. This month there are 79 songs that span a variety of genres. The other day, I heard an old familiar song on the radio, it was Green Grass & High Tides by The Outlaws. The song is 9 minutes and 47 seconds long — and that’s the studio/radio version. While sometimes the Grateful Dead and other live performers at special concerts might have extended live versions of their songs, studio recordings for commercial radio are typically in the 3 to 4 minute range. For example, of all the songs recorded by The Beatles, 166 of them were under 3 minutes. For songs to get airtime, they must be advertising friendly and short enough not to become monotonous for the average listener. I began thinking of other long songs and thinking about how rare they are. The record industry, pressures of producers, advice of agents, and the desire to make it on the charts, these all cause popular music to be more marketable and formulaic. So, this month’s Heart Songs selections are dedicated to unusual songs that don’t fit the formulaic mold. The songs selected represent some of the classic ballads marked by one or more of the following characteristics: tells a story, lyrically dense, longer than usual, multi-instrument, changes genre within song, changes of key within song, extended solos. American Pie by Don McLean is a good example of this month’s collection, and it’s a special song to me because in October of 2005, I negotiated with the legal team at Apple to have the price of that song lowered from $10 to $1 (you no longer need to buy the entire album). Other song titles you’ll immediately recognize from this month are Stairway to Heaven by Led ZeppelinBohemian Rhapsody by Queen, Hurricane by Bob Dylan, and Nights in White Satin (Including “Late Lament”) by The Moody Blues & London Festival Orchestra.

Thanks. I want to thank the global team of volunteers, contributors, and workers “behind the scenes” who help make all this possible. I’m very grateful to the many people who continue to uphold and advance the mission of Resources for Life. Thanks again for your support. Please let me know if there is any way that Resources for Life can serve you better.

Regards,
Greg

Greg Johnson, Director
ResourcesForLife.com
“Resources for Better Living”
Internet: https://resourcesforlife.com/g
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By Greg Johnson

Greg Johnson is a freelance writer and tech consultant in Iowa City. He is also the founder and Director of the ResourcesForLife.com website. Learn more at AboutGregJohnson.com