Two weeks ago, we found out about a rental, which we have now secured.  A gorgeous property in our 2nd favorite place in Costa Rica (Atenas – #1 is Cahuita, but business/internet prospects there are much more limited).  The house is fully furnished and the rent was 30% less than the maximum we’d budgeted for.  Now this rental wouldn’t have been possible without friends we made during our trip, which came aboutdue to a simple effort to meet an unschooly family or two.  They were nice enough to be our eyes and check out the property, and let us know that it was well worth it.  It’s great that we have a place to stay for an extended time, but it’s even better knowing that we won’t be alone.

Now as we get closer to the move, I’ve started worrying about money.  This is mostly brought on by non-paying clients, some of whom are having difficulty due to the economy.  Figures that the move would happen in the midst of the worst financial situation since the Great Depression.  Whatever – I’m not the only one who has to deal with it, and I will make sure that my business flourishes.  Networking will be easier by living in the Central Valley and becoming involved in various communities (and without a day job to suck up time).  The choice is simple – I either do whatever is necessary to live well or not.  I’m NOT returning to the US because of money.  Maybe because we genuinely don’t like CR, but not for any reason that might smack of failure.

Today I got a nice reminder that things have been happening for our benefit.  6 months ago I wrote about earning some licensing money for music I made.  I knew royalty time was coming around again and hoped that the news would be good, but I knew that it could easily be zero.  Well, I did start this paragraph off with the words nice reminder so you know the news was good – this time, the royalty check is enough to cover 6 months rent!  I really, really like this intellectual property thing, being able to generate income well after the work is done.  I’ve been on music-making hiatus for ~2 years now and I’m psyched about getting back to doing something I love.  Ah – there’s so much to look forward to, and it does not involve spending 40+ hours a week away from Trish & the kids.  Life is good.

Pandora is described as a music discovery service based on the Music Genome Project, where peeps try classifying songs based on their qualities.  It’s like Amazon’s recommendation action with a brain – instead of making a recommendation based on consumption patterns, it makes a recommendation based on shared musical aspects.  Like a slow moving bassline, rap influences and use of violin.

This is how it works – you create an account, and then you can create stations.  Stations start with an artist or a song (though they will not play the exact song immediately – apparently requests are a no-no).  These are called seeds.  Whenever a song is played, you can just listen to it, give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down.  The more thumbs you give, the more personalized the station gets. That’s all there is to it.  If you give an artist 2 thumbs down on a station, they’re banned.  If you don’t want to ban someone, you can temporarily ban a song for a month.  I love this stuff – new music is engaging me and I’m bookmarking cool songs & artists (with convenient links to Amazon & iTunes so the Pandora peeps can make some $).

My favorite station right now is one I made consisting of dub and 80s-ish hip hop.  I started the station with DJ Vadim, added King Tubby, then Rae & Christian (based on some tracks they played that I liked), Horace Andy, Mad Professor and Gotan Project (not sure about whether I dig the last one’s influence in the station).  I’ve also added stations for rockabilly/psychobilly, irish folk & idm/chillout with good results.  Actually, I was surprised with how good the rock & folk stations turned out to be, and found some good new (to me) music to boot (though I was unimpressed that I couldn’t add Pete Seeger to give my folk station more flavor).

Pandora worked with Christmas music too – I started off with a swingin’ Christmas station, gave a thumbs down to modern crapmeisters like Harry Connick Jr & Diana Krall in favor of Ella, Louie, Sinatra and the like, and added Elvis and VOILA.  Instant Arp Christmas music.

Now this is all web-based, so it’s great for work or if you have some nice speakers hooked up to the home ‘puter.  They have started offering it on mobile phones too, which is pretty cool.  Overall, I totally recommend checking & trying it out.  I for one have started a nice list of new music & artists to shake me out of my 10 year old musical doldrums.

Last week I got a cryptic email from PA’s new owner, Getty Images, and after several emails trying to get the business-speak translated, I got the answer in the mail: some peeps liked my music, licensed it for something or the other and as a result I’m getting nearly a $1000 for doing something out of sheer love.

Needless to say, I’ve celebrated this – regardless of the selling out aspect that I don’t subscribe to – and am happy and currently sh!tfaced.  Along with my Elvis impersonation this past weekend, this definitely makes for a damn good life.

But back to serious matters. Nestled along the Hudson River, just 24 miles from New York City, Indian Point is an aging nuclear power plant that is not being operated safely. That place scares the hell out of me because I live right on the edge of the “Peak Fatality Zone“. Not to mention the 20 million people (including all of New York City) who live within the “Peak Injury Zone”. I guess it’s a gamble whether I’d be dead or injured in the event that Indian Point Explodes. And there seems to be no decent evacuation plan. But even if it doesn’t explode, it is leaking radioactive waste into the Hudson River as we speak. It really makes me sad that the Hudson River, which Pete Seeger helped to clean up in the late ’60′s and early ’70′s, is now being damaged by a new foe. But as old as Pete is, he just keeps fighting for this beautiful place.

At the benefit the other night, we heard Pete Seeger do some older songs (including Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land, and the spiritual Down By the Riverside). One really special treat was hearing Pete and Tao do Guantanamera together. Hearing Pete sing in Spanish is nice, but he isn’t a native speaker. Hearing Tao sing Guantanamera in Spanish was something else. Still, I don’t have a video of Tao doing it, so here’s an old one of Pete:

For those that don’t speak Spanish, here is the English Translation of the song, based on a poem, “Versos Sencillos”, by Jose Marti.I am a sincere man
From where the palm tree grows
And before dying I want
To share the verses of my soul.Guantanamera, guajira, Guantanamera

My verse is light green
And it is flaming crimson
My verse is a wounded deer
Who seeks refuge on the mountain.

Guantanamera, guajira, Guantanamera

I cultivate a white rose
In July as in January
For the sincere friend
Who gives me his honest hand.

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

And for the cruel one
who would tear out this heart with which I live
I do not cultivate nettles nor thistles
I cultivate a white rose

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

With the poor people of the earth
I want to share my good fortune
The brook of the mountains
Gives me more pleasure than the sea

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera