Also, if you’d like to play it on your podcast, it’s now available at matthewebel.com/podsafe

The Myxercycle was made possible by the folks over at Myxer. Go with it!

If you want to try one of these bike kits, check ‘em out over at electricrider.com

The first live recording has just hit Matthew Ebel dot net- an intimate house concert at C.C. Chapman‘s place in metro west-west-waaaaaay-west Boston.

If you’re not already signed up for one of the passes at Matthew Ebel dot net, you can still get this show by subscribing today!

The Myxercycle was made possible by the folks over at Myxer. Go with it!

If you want to try one of these bike kits, check ‘em out over at electricrider.com

Have you ever heard of Richard Cheese? He’s the guy who takes hard rock tunes like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Down With The Sickness” and turns them into cheesy lounge numbers. It’s his shtick, and he’s made a career out of it. Sort of like Weird Al with no creativity.

It’s like he adds a touch of class to dirty, grungy rock music.

Apparently Cheese proved how completely devoid of class he is at the recent New Media Expo in Vegas. To quote some attendees:

When Richard Cheese started his performance he started complaining about the Audio levels, and from what I heard later he had demanded from the organizer that all other prior performers audio levels be at a lower level then his.
Todd Cochrane, Geek News Central
[Video from the event can be found at this link, assuming Cheese hasn't sued him yet.]
[Too late... you'll have to find video on your own, it seems.]

Okay, I can understand wanting the best sound possible at a show. But I played that gig last year and, considering the crowd was apparently smaller this year in a room twice as large, I would’ve focused more on making a connection with the crowd than the levels.

And on that note, connect with the crowd he did:

Cheese began the assault on some of his biggest fans during the opening song..Cheese ripped a device from the hands of one of the concert’s main sponsors…before shutting the camera off and throwing it back. Several minutes later, Cheese spit water on another fan and his camera. The song closed with a lecture about how he hates people who like to capture fleeting moments with any sort of video device.

After the show concluded, Cheese assaulted one last guest who was talking into his own camcorder.
Matt Gunn, Average Samaritan

To me this is about as futile as walking into South Station in a tiger-striped speedo and yelling, “stop staring at me!”

So what’re the lessons here? Your fans have cameras (fans like Langley). Your fans are what matter. Sure, you want to sell a DVD later on, so do I. Your DVD will be a hell of a lot better quality than anything caught on a Palm Centro, and all those YouTube videos are going to be what sells that DVD in the long run.

And the number one lesson to take away from this? If your show is awesome, people might blog about it. If you’re a total prick, everyone WILL blog about it.

Notice: I usually like to leave my comments unmoderated, but blatant flame-baiting and “bring it on” escalation BS will be deleted immediately.

The Myxercycle was made possible by the folks over at Myxer. Go with it!

If you want to try one of these bike kits, check ‘em out over at electricrider.com

The Myxercycle was made possible by the folks over at Myxer. Go with it!

I mention Sheldon Brown in this video as well. Sheldon is the quintessential bike nerd with all kinds of helpful articles on bike maintenance. If it can be done, he’s got a procedure for you to read through. Believe me, it’s a lot easier than working on your car.

If you want to try one of these bike kits, check ‘em out over at electricrider.com

The Myxercycle was made possible by the folks over at Myxer. Go with it!

If you want to try one of these bike kits, check ‘em out over at electricrider.com

I’m a geek, for heron’s sake, I prefer the high-tech methods of saving the world. And I don’t want my house to smell like poo.

So on the less-extreme side of environmentalism, I recently partnered with an awesome company named Myxer to bring you a whole series of videos and posts about some alternative transportation. It’s graceful, it’s technological, and it’s a lot cheaper than a Prius (a hell of a lot cheaper than a Tesla).

Keep your eyes here for more of what I’m calling The Myxercycle. I’ll be posting some videos soon!

Well, there’s a lot more to recycling than just paper, plastic, glass, and cans. A friend recently pointed me to an article called 21 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Recycle Some of the items, like batteries or motor oil, I already knew about, but some were a bit of a surprise:

1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances, www.goodwill.org, or you can contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them. 800/YES-1-CAN, www.recycle-steel.org.

6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling: www.ikea.com. [Ikea? I had no idea. This is great, considering fluorecents contain mercury, which really shouldn't ever be thrown out.]

20. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.

21 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Recycle
www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/28729

That’s just a few from the list, obviously there’s more. So if you’re lucky enough to live in a town with curbside recycling^*, you’ve got most of your work taken care of. I plan to at least save my CFL’s and old computer parts from the trash, now that I know where to send them!

* Right now I live in an upscale Boston suburb… that doesn’t even have regular trash collection, let alone curbside recycling. So if you have it, consider yourself very lucky, and make good use of it!

[tags]Matthew Ebel, piano rock, environment, recycling[/tags]