Gaining Followers on Spotify

About a year ago I signed up for one of the very first American Spotify accounts. It was available in Europe for a couple of years, but for some reason – I’m sure it had to do with money and royalties – they did not bring it to America until 2012. I found a tekkie friend who shared one of his 5 allotted invitations to join up the first day and I’ve been hooked ever since.

I don’t know what the average user does about playlists, but I made up a BUNCH of playlists. I started out with a modern country playlist because it was easy to recognize the current stars and their current hit songs. Then I went to rock and roll from when I was in high school Those songs will always have tons of memories for me – they are what I grew up listening to. The third playlist was harder and took longer, but it is my favorite: adult contemporary. I like this music because it is fresh and easy on the ears. It is the kind of music that you hear on all the different genres of radio stations, but they appeal to everyone.

I had no idea that anyone cared about my personal playlists, but a few months ago I started getting email notifications from Spotify that people were subscribing to my adult contemporary playlist. I don’t know these people and don’t know how they found my playlist, but it is kinda flattering to find out that a lot of people share the same interest in music with you. I keep adding subscribers somehow – about 1 or 2 a week. Last time I checked, I had 64 subscribers to my playlist from all over the world – and I don’t personally know a single one of them!

Wearing Green and Drinking Beer

This weekend is all about Saint Patrick’s Day. Here in Nashville we love any holiday that gives us an excuse to drink beer, so this is a big deal for downtown bars and restaurants. On top of the holiday, we have the SEC basketball playoffs here this weekend, with a huge number of extra partiers to accommodate.

I heard some big numbers on the news about how the downtown bars and restaurants can only actually seat something 75,000 people on a weekend, but with the basketball game there are going to be more like 100,000 people looking for fun and refreshments on Friday and Saturday nights. With all these extra people, Nashville decided to have a big street party and rope off a few blocks downtown to allowing drinking on the street – a very rare thing for our proper southern city!

To be honest, I do not drink much beer. I tend to not want the hassle of watching my intake and fretting about driving home without the risk of trouble with cops. And second, I don’t want all the extra calories. Third, I only like beer that is ice cold. I don’t want to hold a bottle in my hand and just sip on it for an hour with the heat from my hand raising the temperature of the beer. I don’t like drinking from a bottle anyway. I like a glass – and not plastic, I mean a real glass.

Sorry if I sound so finicky, but I have learned what I like and what I don’t like and I will certainly seek out the things that I like if I have that option. Maybe once in a while I might be at the boss’s house for a backyard barbecue and have to drink a beer from a red Solo cup, but most of the time I will be seated in a sports bar or a stadium suite and enjoy an ice cold beer served in a glass along with the peanuts or Chex Mix and a good baseball game or hockey game underway.

Big Party Weekend in Washington DC

Tonight starts one of the biggest party weekends for Washington DC – the Inauguration! I actually know people who are going to one of the Inauguration Balls and loaned one of my girlfriends a gown to wear. How funny to think that my dress is going places that I cannot!

I wanted to know what is going on besides the Inauguration Balls, which are just party of all the festivities in DC, and found a complete schedule of the inauguration events, with names of the celebrities and performers on the ABC News web site.

While surfing around some other sites, I found a playlist of songs by the scheduled singers and bands on Spotify. I think that was a good idea to put together and will check it out next time I’m on Spotify – probably sometime late Saturday, while my dress is dancing with the stars in Washington, DC.

Friday Feels Like Wednesday This Week

All these holidays days off earlier in the week plus bookended by weekends have got my internal date/day/time clock totally messed up. I still know about what time it is, but my days are so confused. This does NOT feel like a Friday. I cannot believe that tomorrow is Saturday and I have two days off again so soon.

I did enjoy having Christmas on a Tuesday. That gave me the whole weekend plus Christmas Eve being on a Monday was like a free bonus day to get all the last minute things done. I know a lot of people took off Monday completely or were able to leave early to get home and prepare for Christmas day.

This weekend is my R & R weekend. I don’t have to clean anything, the tree and decorations are already put away, and I think I will stop by Redbox for a couple of movies to take home with me for a Friday night movie and popcorn night.

Tomorrow I will deal with a little bit of paperwork – I have to make new files for the bills and taxes for 2013 – that means I will get some practice writing 2013 and letting the fact that this really is a new year sink into my brain! Then I might call a friend and see if anyone wants to go to the movie theater and watch either the Hobbit or Lincoln with me. If you want to go, hit me up!

Rainy and Cold New Year’s Eve

Well, everyone that I know was planning to go downtown and party on the riverfront tonight. But the weather forecast is for cold temperatures and 80% chance of rain. I don’t think that sounds very appealing to me, so maybe I’ll cancel on the downtown party.

If I stay home and watch the New Year’s Eve show, I can have some little finger foods and wine. In fact, I think I have a bottle of champagne in the back of the refrigerator. So I can have my own little party right here and not worry about being cold and wet on the first hour of the new year.