Washington DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

Goodbye, Brandon Otte, goodbye.

When the Lounge Cats found out that their favorite staff writer at the Jordan Independent was leaving the job for finer pastures in the school library industry, they insisted on a tribute to the man. 

Otte, taken by surprise at Heimatfest, started to film a song affectionately titled "Brandon." I'll post the lyrics when I can get them. Oops -- here's just a snippet of the song, because Otte ran out of space on his video camera:

I was driving to work today and I started kicking around an idea in my head: an election season mixtape. The idea came up when I was listening to yet another boring (to me) report from the Democratic National Convention. My mind drifted off to presidential election campaign songs, and from there it was a quick jump to making my own election playlist.

Jordan is busy with many events during the summertime, and they all have their upsides.

For me, born and raised a city kid, one of the best events is the Scott County Fair.

Is there a future for aging rock stars besides bingo on Sunday? Who should hang it up? Who still has the moves?

Reunion tours are all the rage anymore – just ask the artists-formerly-known-as-bands raking in the cash each summer from fans willing to fork it over to relive the glory of days gone by. The Police, The Who, Van Halen, Stone Temple Pilots and New Kids on the Block are just some of the most recent groups to bury the hatchet and climb back into the old tour bus (or several personal tour buses, as the case may be).

Minnesota is arguably as melodious as any state in the union. Over the years, it has produced almost as many great musicians and bands as it has lakes – and the variety is as diverse as the weather.

I was going to start putting together my warm-weather playlist, but I guess I jumped the gun. Today’s colder and dreary weather has me feeling glum. It’s certainly not the kind of weather that calls for open car windows and rocking tunes.

Have you ever heard of giving yourself a theme song? I remember seeing an episode of Ally McBeal where her therapist suggests that she give herself a theme song. She was to play that song in her head when she felt down or her self-confidence dipped (I think Ally's was "Tell Him" by The Exciters). Your theme song should be a song that gives you a lift as you walk down the street, a song that makes you feel happy, confident and in control. This all got me to thinking: If I had a theme song, what would it be?

Band names are like the oft-quoted line from Shakespeare: Some are as sweet as a rose, but some just plain stink. Whether a group’s name aptly represents its image and sound or simply serves as a way to alphabetize their discs in a record store, all bands must come up with one – for better or worse.

What are some of your favorite band names? Which ones should have been left on drawing board?

To get the ball rolling, here are just a few for each column from this blogger’s perspective:

A piece that was shared with me...thought it was worth sharing. Wish I knew who to credit for this but the original wasn't sent with the author.

Count Your Blessings