National Tolerance Week & LET IT SNOW!

I recently learned that the first week in December is "National Tolerance Week". Being at the start of the holiday season its a great time to remind ourselves that its okay for others to be different than us. Race, Age, Sex and Religion are just a few factors that we all pay too much attention to when interacting with others. Lets face it...we are all human beings at the core and irregardless of our own beliefs we should all be respectful, tolerant and understanding of each other in every aspect of life. I tried to search online for some more information on National Tolerance week and was surprised when most of the search results had to do with promotional products to be bought (yes Hallmark has even invaded the peace message :)). Oh well at least its a start. So when you go out into the world this week, this month and next year....when you run into someone who is different from you and your first inner reaction is to pull back...think again and instead reach out. We are one world, one planet and one race..the human race.

That's my heavy topic for the weekend...now on to the lighter side...specially snow. I'm happy to say that we have SNOW in Philadelphia again in early December. My first son was born today and it seems that almost every year there is snow on Dec 5th...maybe its just me but I think I'm on to something...maybe he should have been born an elf or something :)

Hope you are having a great week and keeping warm (I heard it snowed in Houston this week...really???). We'll be back with another post on Monday and some music news you can use :)

~Vincent

Put One Foot in Front of the Other

Yes its almost holiday time so I'll throw in a Christmas reference now and again :) All I can say is thank goodness the local radio stations aren't playing holiday music already. I guess all those complaints we made finally got their attention. Although I was in the grocery store on Nov 1st and was treated to some way too early Christmas music...o wellll...

Alright on to the topic of the post. Slowly (very slowly) but surely we are making strides to move forward with the website. We updated our Voting charts last week for Nov and December and we will have a special holiday chart that launches day after Thanksgiving. We'll also post a few Holiday related MP3s for you to download between then and New Years.

Whats next...well we've been wanting to launch an International Love Songs section for quite a while and it will finally be real on Jan 1st (as opposed to April 1st...no Foolin :)). We have visitors come to LoveSongs.com from all over the world so many countries I lose track. Our first rendition of the International section will have favorites from 10-12 countries and we'll build from there. Look for more info in our November newsletter going out this Friday (if you're not on the list just sign up on the top of the our home page at LoveSongs.com

Other good stuff is on the way stay tuned as we slowly put "one foot in front of the other"...soon we'll be "walking out the doooooor"...quick name that Holiday special!! Have a great Wednesday and we'll be back with another post on Friday.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Whats Your Purpose??

Did you ever wonder why the person known as you was put on this planet Earth? I have to say thats not something I often thought about during my own life. I was recently had the good fortune to read a motivational book entitled "Success Principles" by none other than Jack Canfield...co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series (more on how this happened later...it starts with horses). While reading I soon discovered that I've been wandering (not wondering) my entire adult life without any purpose at all. I tried this activity and then I tried that one, and then maybe I tried something else. Sometimes I tried all three things at the same time (lack of focus..thats another chapter in the book). It turns out I was missing the ground floor of the building of success...namely having a purpose that gives your actions some meaning...gives you something to build upon.

So I spent some time thinking about it...I know I love music..I love to play it, hear it, write it, pretty much anything to do with music. I also know that I have a deep caring for my fellow human. It really bothers me when I read or hear about bad news whether its a friend or someone far away in another country. So after breaking my brain for a few hours I've come up with this purpose:

"My lifes purpose is to use my creativity and compassion to entertain, inspire and motivate others to live joyfully and to be loving towards all humanity"

Pretty much this just means I want to use the creative gifts that God has given me to help make people happy and to help us all treat each other better.

I've been slacking bigtime on the LoveSongs website and this blog (6 months between posts really??). Now that I have a purpose my goal is to have 3 blog updates per week with Monday's purpose highlighting the chapter in the "Success Principles" book. Chapter 1 was about finding your purpose and I've finally found mine.

Did you know that today November 16th is International Tolerance Day (and Dec 1-7 is National Tolerance week in the US). Lets all try a little harder to be nicer to folks we meet, people we know and even people we don't know (a little more smiling on the road and a little less yelling ha ha). Life is too short to be spent being angry at anyone especially for things that in the grand scheme of things are not important. As the Beatles once said "All We Need is Love"

For info on "Success Principles" visit Success Principles Online Site. There are lots of free online resources here to help you on your way.

Have a great Monday folks and we will be back on Wednesday with a musical update!

~Vincent

American Idol down to 5 and we’re baaaaaack

Last week was such a blur I barely remember a single thing that happened...hopefully this week will be much calmer and we’ll actually get our blog postings out. Okay here’s whats up:

Last week on American Idol we lost two folks Anoop and Lil’Round and neither was a surprise to go. Both were very talented but there was nothing original about the sound of their voice, look, song selection, etc that made them stand out as star material. Not to say they won’t continue to develop these qualities and one day become stars it’s just not happening right now. Now we’re down to 5 contestants and the choices are going to be tougher. After last night’s performances I would definitely put Matt and Kris in the bottom two. Adam, Allison and Danny are all at a different level than Matt and Kris and I think the results this week and next will pan that out (or at least I hope so :)). Beyond that I had been hoping for an Adam vs. Allison finale for a long time but I can see its going to be difficult to keep Danny out of the finale. I really like Danny a lot, his voice and artistry are really good..I just think commercially that both Adam and Allison have a better shot at becoming a legimate star after the intial Idol attention fades (ie. A Kelly or Carrie vs. Taylor or Ruben.

This week is apparently National Karoake week so there are many opportunities to sing your stuff in your local bars, clubs and even online. Its kinda funny that this week coincides with nearing the end of the Idol season. Maybe you can use this week as a springboard to audition for next years American Idol :)

Mothers Day is around the corner (less than 2 weeks) and we’ll be posting lyrics to some of our favorite songs about Mom later this weekend. In the meantime have a great Tuesday and we’ll be back at ya on Thursday after the Idol results.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Weekend Edition - National Record Day 4/18/2009

Saturday April 18th is National Record day where you can help celebrate the spirit of the independant record store in 1000 locations throughout the US. Once the hot spot where almost everyone stopped and shopped to listen to and buy their favorite records, the number of stores continue to dwindle as the big chains and online retailers take over. I can remember early in my youth going to record stores, walking the aisles and browsing through hundreds of artists and titles and being fascinating by the very cool album covers (remember album covers anyone??). Oh well maybe album art will make a comeback in some fashion in the online world so we can print out own covers and posters from our favorites. Well remember a bit of history tomorrow by visiting your local indy record shop..there are contests, live performances and other cool stuff going on to help celebrate the day (visit Record Store Day for locations near you.

Sad note for all you baseball fans, our Philadelphia Phillies announcer for the last almost 40 years has moved on to the big baseball diamond in the sky. That's right Harry Kalas "That ball is outta here" passed away suddenly earlier this week and will be greatly missed by many. You could also hear Harry's voice prominently on NFL films for the last 32 years which brought Harry fans far beyond the Philadelphia and baseball worlds. Baseball and music were my two passions growing up and Harry's voice on the radio was a big part of my baseball world and I will definitely miss hearing him.

That's all for the weekend edition folks...enjoy the weekend and we'll be back at ya on Monday with some new music news.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Saved by the Bell and Britains Got Talent Toooo!

As expected Adam and Allison were both safe safe safe (yeah) and our bottom three of the night was Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud and Anoop Desai. Matt drew the short straw and was sent home...no wait a minute the judges have decided to finally invoke the special save and Matt stays another week. Matt is certainly relieved and next week two contestants will be sent packing (most likely two out of the three in the bottom three this week). Next weeks music theme is ugggh Disco week :) Well I kinda liked Disco as a passing fad (no other music sounds more dated to me). It should be interesting to hear what 7 song choices these folks come up with and I hope and pray they mix it up at least a little bit (ie. take a Disco song and extract the disco out of it...should be interesting.

So what did everybody think of the two judge comments after each performance on Tuesday instead of all four? I have to say it definitely felt better paced though at times I missed hearing what certain judges (meaning Simon) had to say about a certain performance. If all of the judges could learn to keep their comments brief and not ramble on then I guess it wouldn't be necessary ...I guess we'll see what happens next week.

I'm sure many of you have seen the story already but in case you haven't, there recently was an amazing audition contestant for AI's counterpart Britain's Got Talent. Apparently for this show there is no age limit and when 47-yr old Susan Boyle took the stage absolutely no-one in the audience wanted to give her a chance. As the old adage goes "appearances can be deceiving" and they certainly were as Susan "rocked the house" with her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Le Miserables. Check out this incredible clip on YouTube at Susan Boyle Audition tape

That's all for Thursday will be back Friday with some non-Idol related music news (hey we've got to find something else to talk about once this years show is over sometime in May :))

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Tuesday - Adam in Concert and This Rose isn't blooming

Sorry we missed our post yesterday this means we'll need an extra one this weekend to catch up ha ha. Last nights Idol Movie Theme night demonstrated once again why Adam Lambert is the clear front runner. Singing "Born to be Wild" from Steppenwolf he managed to take his performance both vocally and visually to another level. I honestly don't see any other contestant having a chance against Adam in the finals. The trick will be what song choice will they dump on Adam once he is the new Idol and how much leeway will he have after the initial Idol song to forge his own artistic direction.

Most of the other songs sung last night were nicely done but my goodness with all the possible movie songs did we really need to hear that many sappy ballads (and this is coming from me the king of ballads ha :)). Anoop sang "Everything I do" from Bryan Adams and Matt sang "Have you Ever Really Loved a Woman" both well sung and with great feeling but just too much slow stuff. I more enjoyed Kris Allen's take on an obscure song that I can't even remember at the moment but at the time it had me more interested (bad me I'll have to look up the tune again..it was faintly recognizable as I heard it last night).

Lastly Lil decided once again to sing an old song "The Rose" which is again again another ballad and another old song for her. Yes she dressed up the 2nd half with some R&B flavor but in the end its still "The Rose" from like 1980 and you would never hear that song in a ballad arrangement as a new tune on radio. With all the great vocal ability Lil has, she really doesn't understand what Simon means about song choice...pick something more current/hip, whatever you want to call it and even then re-arrange it to make it your own. For the first half of "The Rose" last night I could close my eyes and it was almost exactly like Bette Midler's version from way back..which was real nice way back :)

I really think that unfortunately we'll be down to a single lady contestant after tonight and that will actually be teen Allison Iraheta who did a nice job with Aerosmith's "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing". It was a current song (within last decade) and was sung originally by a different gender (always smart to do) and although the beginning part of the arrangement was a little dull, the song and her voice picked up considerably after that.

So my bottom 3 for tonight will be Lil, Kris and Matt and Lil getting the unwanted ticket home.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com