Every music site I sign up for has the same Influences field. To say that an artist influenced me is rather trivial… I may not like 50 Cent, but his work has influenced me (in the “dear God don’t ever let me sound like that” kind of way).

There are a certain number of acts, however, that throughout my development have made me want to play better, write better, entertain better, and be better. They are the ones that made me ask, “why can’t I do that?” And then I asked, “what can I do to be like that?” It’s the line between influence and inspiration, and there’s 7 on my list that cross that line.
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It’s amazing how some businesses will sacrifice $10 to save 65¢.

Update: My friend Christopher Penn pointed me to an article listing recent Block Island retail power prices at about 40¢ pr kWh. I’ve re-done the whole article to match the new math. Higher than I thought, still not worth pissing off your customers.

I eat ate lunch pretty much every weekend at Aldo’s restaurant for the same reason I eat breakfast at the bakery every morning- free internet and a power outlet. Last year it was the perfect routine… donuts, coffee, blogging, then on to the performance or off to bike around the island. Seven days a week the bakery got my money and every weekend the restaurant served me at least two meals.

This year, however, they’ve covered all the power outlets. No more running the laptop on their dime. For all the tourists that drift through and considering rising energy costs, it makes sense, right? Wrong.
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A series of contrasts: Chris Brogan’s Scooter.

(No, you probably won’t get it unless you know the Mayor of Podcasting.)

(Oops! I made that Tinyurl a few days ago, so the actual post ended up here:
http://matthewebel.com/main/2008/07/21/7-bands-that-made-me-do-what-i-do/
Sorry!)

Not only have I been rocking out every single weekday here at Ballard’s Inn, in the evenings I’ve been editing a long, long project for Ariel Publicity and in the mornings I’ve been cooking up new websites for people. One of my recent finished works is over at PeckPack.com.

A lot of you in the New Media world might already know David, though by a different name, body, and gender. Well now you can get to know the real human being behind the blonde hairdo, and hopefully read in style while you’re doing it. I think I’m getting pretty good at this WordPress nonsense, maybe I should do this more often!

The big bang at the end of 4th of July weekend was the annual blowing up of high explosives. And it was awesome.

After waiting a long year for the second generation iPhone to hit the shelves, I’m downright insulted. The hardware promises so much, and yet the ridiculous extortion that AT&T calls a “plan” makes my eyes twitch.

I am not getting one. In fact, I’m going to leave AT&T for Sprint as soon as I can sign on the dotted line. I’ve had it with mediocre service and expensive plans. After 5 years, they’re losing my business because they’re just too greedy.

My only question now is which hardware platform I should be looking at. This is where you come in…

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Please leave your reasoning, ideas, justifications, etc. in the comments, and let me know if there’s anything else I should consider. I’d love to hold out for Android, but my current tube-powered wood-burning phone won’t live that long.