Get your cool on

Last night was my first Christmas party of the season. ‘Tis the season as it’s said. SESAC was the holder of the event. SESAC is one of the Performing Rights Organizations in the U.S. Meaning they collect money for writers of music when it’s performed. Of course it’s an uphill battle when you have consumers thinking music is free. That’s a whole other issue for another time.

My meeting with Fox Sports Music yesterday may lead to something really nice in the future and as the Zen Master says about the little boy… We’ll see. While there at Fox we had a little discussion about the SESAC party as my contact supposed to attend, unfortunately he didn’t make it. However he did say that he thought SESAC threw the best parties. I have to agree with him. They are pretty darn amazing. My guest with me last night felt the same. Loved the party and had a great time.

One fun thing is when people who know you and you have seen them in a while are at a function like that, it gives you a chance to catch up and chat for a little bit. I ran into several people I haven’t seen in a year or so. That was a good thing. As well, I’ll be making some phone calls today to be setting up year ending meetings at Interscope, SESAC, and a couple of publishers.

There was one person that managed to let me know that I never got back to them when they messaged me – via myspace. I asked how it was possible seeing as how I don’t allow people to message me on myspace, I have that blocked because I don’t want them having my conversations residing on their servers. Regardless, I took her information and will make it a point to contact her today. I don’t like when people don’t get back to me, and I certainly don’t like to blow people off.

All in all it was a very festive party. A great way to kick off the season.

Speaking of kicking off a season, Ariel over at Ariel Cyber PR is kicking off a first annual holiday fundraiser. I know things have been rough for a lot of people, but this is a great idea. Here’s a link as to what you can do to help spread the word and participate as well. http://www.arielpublicity.com/holidaydrive/. If you donate, she’ll turn around and help you out in return. That’s a win/win/win because your charity wins, Ariel wins, and you win!

As such I’m attempting to continue doing a month of Christmas genre music. Which leads me into today’s pick – Chris Daniels & The Kings. They’ve got a rendition of Cool Yule that has a little bit of bite to it. While most of us will be familiar with the Louis Armstrong version, how can anyone miss it? Well, I understand that Louis has a voice that no one else in the world has, but Chris and his band has certainly done a good job with this tune.

There’s the familiar run with the horns. Which of course for this song is practically a prerequisite. Chris has much more slick voice so it doesn’t have that Louis growl, but it still works. There’s some nice jazzy drumming going on to hold the rhythm of the song together.

Of course one of the powerful elements to music is that some songs can instantly remind of a memory, a time, a person, or a place. For this song in particular it seems to remind me of a movie. One that I probably shouldn’t admit that I like, but said movie has an actor that I really like in it. Serendipity. Actually I also think the actress is awesome too. John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. The movie isn’t bad either.

Have a great hump day and listen to ya tomorrow. Support Ariel’s Fundraiser and of course go get Chris Daniels music legally.