Sleeveface: Fun with Vinyl Album Covers

Today’s post is just for fun. Thanks to my friend Teri for giving me a heads up on this website that features pictures of people superimposing album covers over themselves to create fun faux pics. There’s probably more appeal in this to those of us who actually remember vinyl album covers.

When I interviewed Joe Santa Maria for my book Everything We Needed to Know About Business, We Learned Playing Music, he reflected on the joy of vinyl albums as a boy:

“I can still remember that Christmas my mother got me the best gift in the world, The White Album,” he said. “The double records and the posters and the pictures. I can still remember coming home from Christmas. I couldn’t play the record. I got it, but then I couldn’t play it [until he came home later that day]. I had to walk around with it all day.”

He added, “Coming home Christmas night and crawling into bed and just looking at The White Album! Like ‘I’ve got The White Album!’ Looking at the lyrics and then just playing it really soft so no one could hear it. And to this day, it’s still my favorite album of all time.”

“That is missing from music now,” he said in reference to the purchase of tangible vinyl as opposed to digital downloads. “I can’t wait to see what the cover looks like, and I can’t wait to flip it over and stare at it while I’m listening to it. The bands don’t have that kind of lure to them. You had no money, so it was a big deal that you bought it. It was so much fun.”

Link to the website Sleeveface.com

Music Education in America: Missing the Bigger Picture

A quick word of thanks to The Daily Riff and Catherine Westerberg for inviting me to provide a guest post regarding a new twist on the benefits of music education. Lots of great info and ideas on education and education reform on the website – take a few minutes to take a look!

Link to article

Music Education Advocacy Quick Links

I’ve posted these before, but for quick reference:

“Why Music Education Continues to Lose the Funding Battle” (and why sports programs win)
http://bizmusician.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/why-music-education-continues-to-lose-the-funding-battle-part-i/

“FROM THE BAND ROOM TO THE BOARDROOM…The 9 Common Lessons of Music Education That Translate into Success”
http://bizmusician.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/435/

“CEOs and Business Leaders Interviewed on the importance of music education”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BquzvlLmMYA

Link to Free E-book Everything We Needed to Know About Business, We Learned Playing Music at Google Docs (view or download)

Link to purchase hard copy of Everything We Needed to Know About Business, We Learned Playing Music at Amazon.com

Music Education Blog Carnival – May 2010

Alan Zweibel hosts this month’s Music Education Blog Carnival, a compilation of blog posts related to music education that appears at a different music education bloggers website each month during the school year. Thanks to Alan for compiling this outstanding resource and for including me in this month’s edition:
Link to the May 2010 Music Education Blog Carnival