In the mean time, here’s a few links I’ve been meaning to share.

New Brain Machine Improves Musical Creativity. Any tool that can help me clear the way for great music to happen is a friend of mine.

Cosmovox is an iPhone app, a music theory-infused theremin.

Korg is coming out with some really sweet compact USB-MIDI controllers. I’ll be first in line for the nanoKEY.

From Digg: Study: Musicians Use Both Sides Of Brain More Than Others. My favorite comment: “they can force their brains to do unnatural things in the pursuit of ass. hats off to all of you!”

Have a great weekend.

This video made the top peak performance articles of 2006. There’s no doubt why.

By far the most popular and most controversial post of 2007 was The Zen Of Attraction. I’m surprised at the attention it received because I wrote it as an aside. Some people loved it and some people hated it. But what was most interesting for me was how many people hated not the article, but me. I mean these were just simple ideas that are totally debatable. This post led me to define some comment rules that include no personal attacks. I’m willing to debate ideas but not whether I’m a good person or not. It was a very interesting experience!

The second most popular post was iQuickTwitter – My Quicksilver + Twitter + iChat + Growl Hack. This little app got some serious link love from TUAW, Ars Technica, and many other fantastic blogs. And a big reason why I didn’t blog as much as I did in 2006 was because of Twitter. If I ever had something short and simple to say, rather than try to develop it into at least 250 words, which I previously believed warranted a blog post, I would just post it to Twitter, which has a limit of 140 characters. I think my strategy will change some in 2008. My new Lifestream category will probably see a lot more action whenever I find that 140 characters is not enough. The most significant change is that I won’t keep such a tightly controlled niche blog. The only thing tying this blog together is that I am writing it, not the subject matter. So if I feel like saying something, this blog will take priority.

Along similar lines as iQuickTwitter were my many posts on automation. Some of them were conceptual, like Automation As Part Of An Integral Life Practice and Automating The Quality Of Your Attention. While others were specific and geeky, like IM Status: Update Your Skype, iChat, Or Adium Status With Quicksilver, Top 5 AppleScript Productivity Hacks for WordPress Bloggers and Podcasters, and Blogging With Quicksilver And AppleScript. I’ve really grown to see automation as an important part of life that I need to revisit again and again.

Some of my favorite songwriting articles were Applying The 80-20 Rule To Your Songwriting, my Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast, The Secret Alchemy Of Songwriting, 5 Sure Fire Ways To Kick-Start The Songwriting Habit, Rewriting Song Titles For Practice And Inspiration, and What Makes a Good Song? My biggest disappointment of 2007 was the small amount of completed songs. I finished only about half a dozen songs and published just one of them, which I’m quite proud of, “When The Wall Falls Down.”

I also didn’t write about ear training or music theory nearly as much as I did in 2006. But I have a few favorites, such as How To Use Tension And Release In Your Melodies, my Absolute Pitch Ear Training Podcast, Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale, and Ear Training or Listening Practice?

Two great moments of 2007 were getting my new MacBook Pro and iPhone. The new Mac inspired a whole new series of podcasts called Graham English Talks and introduced my own videos, like The Best Of Dwight Schrute Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. The iPhone inspired Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies For Your iPhone and made my tech life much more streamlined.

2007 was definitely a year of social networking. Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, Stumbleupon, and many other social networks occupied a large part of my time online. And there were many benefits like making new friends, reconnecting with old friends, finding a larger reach for my articles and music, and discovering new forms of self-expression. It confirms how important relationships truly are.

Which leads me to the very best of 2007, You! My life wouldn’t be nearly as fulfilling without the special presence of you. The support of my readers and listeners has made the tough times easier and the good times even better. I sincerely hope that we stay connected through 2008. Thanks for sticking with me through 2007. w00t!

Around 11 p.m., Katie and I heard sirens directly outside our house and we discovered the beginnings of a massive fire right outside our back door.

The good news is that the fire victims are reported to be recovering. As I write this, the house is being demolished while firefighters continue to spray water on the burning embers.

I wish I had remembered to continue taking pictures after I was too tired to drink, stand, or even flirt, but I didn’t. I would have captured some marvelous moments of Brian passed out in an underground bar, being woken up to show yet another random girl his temporary bachelor tattoo.

It was fun. But here’s to hoping there isn’t a next time.

We are the people our parents warned us about.

Operation: Get Girls To Give Brian Lots Of Attention

The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a necessity.
–Oscar Wilde

No patience for the long drives to the overcrowded and expensive gym? This simple kettlebell will make you dangerously strong and ripped FAST!
…for only $51 on Craig’s List!

I picked up a 16kg/35lb kettlebell off Craig’s List tonight. Actually it was more of a heave than a pick. All in preparation for the 300 workout that I start tomorrow. I can tell that it will be tough! Not like “It’s too hard, I can’t do it” tough. It’s more like saying-no-to-a-free-lap-dance tough.

a) Pullups – 25 reps
b) Deadlifts with 135lbs – 50 reps
c) Pushups – 50 reps
d) 24-inch Box jumps – 50 reps
e) Floor wipers – 50 reps
f) Single-arm Clean-and-Press with 36lbs Kettlebell – 50 reps
g) Pullups – 25 reps

See what I’m sayin?!

I don’t expect to make the full 300 tomorrow. But I’ll get there fast. Count it. 1…2…3…

The snug laptop compartment is closed by a zipper which rubs against the Mac every time I put it in or pull it out. It’s a dull rubber zipper, but I’m still concerned that it will gradually wear on the laptop casing. I’ll probably end up getting a sheath or something similar.

The best part of BBP’s bag design is the ergonomics. In backpack mode, it sits much lower on the back which reduces back strain. Walking 25 minutes to Harvard with a messenger bag is a painful process so my back is very thankful.

I don’t feel nearly as fond of this bag as I did my Timbuktu, but maybe time will change that. My Timbuktu was a slick and stylish messenger bag and at least it didn’t threaten to scratch my laptop. If they had some more ergonomic models, I would have gone with them.

It’s give and take.

The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in 13 states in the course of 11 years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one.
– Thomas Jefferson in letter to James Madison, 20 Dec 1787

You see, when you’re running on a treadmill and you have your media device on the part of the machine that all the girls keep their copies of Self magazine, if your arm comes down too hard on the headphone cord your shit will hit the ground… hard.

Fortunately, with my agile grace and soccer ball deftness, I was able to stop the iPhone from being shot off the belt like a tennis ball launcher and, instead, dribble it safely to the ground beside me. Of course, not without a minor scratch.

You still won’t catch me putting any protection on it. To me, that’s like putting plastic coverings on your furniture. Tacky. And what’s the point of having nice furniture if you make it not nice by covering it in sweat inducing plastic?!

I’ll beat this thing until I get a new one in a year or sooner.

Someday, Weederman, we’ll look back on all this and laugh… It will probably be one of those deep, eerie ones that slowly builds to a blood-curdling maniacal scream… but still it will be a laugh.
– Mister Boffo

It was time to make Mail.app obey me. That’s the subject of my latest podcast.

Help stamp out and abolish redundancy and repetition.

I love the new iWeb!

It’s one of a million reasons to buy a Mac. The new iLife suite is so much fun. Sure, iWeb isn’t as flexible as WordPress but it’s so easy and sexy that it’s hard not to play with.

Go buy one!

Are you back yet?

Good. Now search for my series on automation for some slick Mac tips and tricks.

See ya next time.

To be or not to be.
– Shakespeare
To do is to be.
– Nietzsche
To be is to do.
– Sartre
Do be do be do.
– Sinatra

There’s around 40-60 people in front of me. I think that’s a good sign.

Not sure exactly when I got here. Probably a little before 3PM. I got in line while Katie went to the food court to get us some food (Salad for me). Everyone’s pretty cool. Newspapers are interviewing people left and right. Exciting.

3:46 – Now Katie and I are watching a BBC documentary on my iPod as we wait. Lots more people joining the line and it’s getting louder. Wait until the after work crowd shows up.

4:00 – Stepped out of line for a bathroom break and nobody freaked out when I got back in line. That’s cool.

On the way back I passed a quaint little T-mobile booth. Doubt anyone’s going to line up for them anytime soon. Although their new Wifi plan is pretty sweet.

By the way, anyone want to buy a BlackBerry 7100i on the Sprint/Nextel network?

4:33 – iPhone Mania

5:13 – I’m definitely in the front half of the line. Lots of new MacBook Pros in attendance. I’m wicked jealous.

5:30 – They just tore the paper down. There’s a big iPhone in the window counting down the minutes and seconds. Friggin’ awesome!

An Apple employee came out and gave us the details. They’re letting groups of people come in to keep the experience under control and answer questions and demo the iPhone.

7:37 – Just got in the door after purchasing my iPhone. Something strange has happened to my BlackBerry. I’ll write more about that later. Right now, I just want to activate it.

7:51 – iPhone is activated. So much nicer than talking to a sales person. Very smooth.

8:00 – Initial sync completed. Very cool. Amazing resolution.

8:53 – Don’t want to blog about it anymore. Just want to play with it. But iPhone does RSS!

A few things. Couldn’t login to my wireless network for some reason. It wouldn’t accept the password so I disabled my password (temporarily) and it connected fine. The keyboard is going to take some getting used to. My thumbs are big. Safari is simply amazing! Also, I couldn’t manually drag music to iPhone in iTunes. Hopefully it’s just a setting that I’m overlooking.

I might be back later with more good news after I’ve had a chance to play more.

10:16 – I’ve made a few calls and played with just about everything now. Absolutely gorgeous!

About my BlackBerry… When I got into the store and was waiting in line, an Apple employee started showing me an iPhone demo. At the same time he was doing that, I was preparing a Twitter on GTalk. So he goes to make a phone call and all of his contacts are missing. “Hmmm,” he says. No big deal, I thought. Because at that point, I was about to go to the front of the line. After I’m finished purchasing, I look down at my BB to Twitter the good news and something’s strange. All of my emails are missing. “No Messages” reads the display and GTalk has been disconnected. I tinker for 30 seconds or so and then restart it a couple of times but something’s gone very quirky. Do I really care? No. I have a new iPhone. But I can’t help but wondering if when the iPhone and the BlackBerry get together, they try to establish dominance and go all alpha on each other.

I’ll dig into it more tomorrow. For now, my iPhone is commanding my attention. It’s really a phenomenal gadget.

If you don’t know what Twitter is, it’s basically a social micro-blog to update your friends on what you’re doing right now. What makes it different from a blog you might already publish is the use of text messaging to update your personal Twitter page while you’re out in the real world.

I signed up when it first came out but didn’t get around to using it until today. Not only is it a great way to keep people updated about you at a micro-level, it’s makes a great meta self-awareness tool. Because if you’re not living a life that you want to share with others, then what are you actually doing with your time, right?

Here’s what Graham’s doing right now…

Ze inspired me a lot this past year. His show is most definitely 2nd Tier, even if he doesn’t know it. But that didn’t inspire me as much as his prolific output. That, and his total honesty and authenticity.

Another thing that hit me when I realized that he was only doing the show for one year, which was about half way through the show’s life, was that it’s a good idea to have an exit strategy. All thing’s must come to an end after all.

I’ve got about 20 of my favorite episodes in iTunes that I’ll revisit when I miss The Show. It was a great run and it made huge waves on the internet. Congratulations, Ze! And I hope to see you somewhere else soon.

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.”
– Leonard Bernstein, conductor

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‘Thus far and no farther.’
– Ludwig van Beethoven, composer

If you found my blog through I-I, I welcome you and thank you for dropping by. You’ve caught me during some integral blogging downtime. I’m still posting but infrequently because I’m spending most of my time on a music project. It is February Album Writing Month, after all.

Please poke around and comment. Join me in the Integral conversation. If you’re new to blogging and RSS, I’ve written an article entitled, What is RSS and why should I care?

If you’re in the Boston area, let’s have coffee.

Tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker died Saturday at the age of 57. The artist was one of the jazz world’s most prolific studio musicians. He toured or performed with Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Herbie Hancock. Brecker was known for his powerful tone and his stamina for a solo.

This is so sad. He’s been sick for a long time now and I would read the news each day hoping not to see this headline. I’ve studied all of his music. I’ve memorized his solos. Transcribed his toughest lines. I’m going to miss his beautiful music.

He had the most soul of any sax player ever. Rest in peace, Michael.

Happy New Year!

btw, I’m blogging from TextMate again. I can tell you that it won’t be replacing Ecto because I can’t create excerpts. Bummer. But if I can figure that out, I’ll have a new blog editor.

Link: BLOG: Meditate and Eat Your Veggies

I don’t plan on writing much new stuff for the rest of the year. But I will be looking back over the year’s material and creating a “best of” series.

I also plan on looking forward and refining the vision for this blog and how it fits into my life. If you have anything you would like me to cover more of, please let me know in the comments.

12-08-06: Update here.

12-11-06: Ken sent an email to staff today. He’s a tough dude and he’ll heal. Really great news.

All the more reason for me to visit the Scientology Power Center and polish my perceptics. I’ve already got serious play with the ladies. But if anyone out there can get me a license to kill, please let me know.

Some interesting links while I was away:

MySpace to Let Members Sell Music:
A new partnership will allow indie artists and established rockers to sell mp3s of their songs directly to fans on MySpace.

From Crypto to Jazz:
A new jazz album draws on cryptography and number theory for its riffs and rhythms. Listen to saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s melodies with audio clips of digits turned into notes. By Alexander Gelfand.