Do You Like To Feel the Feelings? Listen to This Magic

Pentatonix, you guys….

“Oh, the places we’ll go!” – Burning Man Festival

I have heard about the Burning Man festival for a long time. My cousin is actually there right now, and I’m very jealous. I don’t attend a lot of live music shows, but I love big crowds and I love music. This video is a couple of years old, but it’s still one of my all-time favorites. I hope you enjoy it too 🙂

Jimmy Fallon, Robin Thicke & The Roots sing “Blurred Lines” (with Classroom Instruments)

And this is why he is the best…

Playing Jazz for Cows… Seriously!

This is absolutely the best… I just… I can’t stop watching it.

Pi’s Lullaby – Life of Pi

LIFE OF PI MOVIE SONG- TITLE SONG- TAMIL SONG- OPENING SONG – YouTube.

This song won best score at both the Golden Globes and the Oscar’s, and I have been listening to it in the background of working on repeat for a few days now…

How David Letterman and I Became Friends… (1-16-13, Kardashians and Buddy Guy) – YouTube

How David Letterman and I Became Friends… (1-16-13, Kardashians & Buddy Guy) – YouTube.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Grady Carter (@gradycarter)

So recently I had the chance while in New York City to go to a taping of Late Night with David Letterman, and it was a Great experience. I didn’t actually become friends with Dave, but we did get to chat for about a minute, and I like to think that I’ve never met a stranger (so we are friends now…).

*I’m posting the video of the introduction and my explanation right here, and also the segments from the show below to share my experience. I wanted to type out the experience since that is normally how I do things like this (I’m not normally a video blogger). The explanations are somewhat identical, so feel free to skip this explanation below if you’d rather read it.

*The clip of the show starts at about 2:30 in this video.

I went to the show with one of my friends who I hadn’t seen in person since summer camp when I was 13 years old (half of my life ago). But thanks to the miracle of social media he and I reconnected and we had some great conversations, and shared a David Letterman experience.

So, before we went to the show I had been warned by multiple people that we should try to dress reasonably well and be enthusiastic, we did both and we had great seats. Before the show started we got to watch a few minutes of standup comedy (which I loved), and then we listened to the band get everyone fired up. Paul Shaffer came out right before Dave, and then we were off for an hour long adventure filled with Kim and Kortney Kardashian, and Blues legend Buddy Guy. But, before the show started the audience had a chance to ask Dave questions, and I was ready for it. Right when he asked if anyone had any questions I shot my hand up, not entirely sure what I was going to ask. He asked me my name (I told the truth), and then he asked where I was from. When I told him Oklahoma he acted interested and asked which town. I said Norman, and he started asking about the Sooners (University of Oklahoma, for anyone who doesn’t know), and he seemed to be baiting me to explain to everyone that they were the people who cheated in the land run in the late 1800’s.

So finally I get to ask my question, and I decided on the question that I would forever remember asking David Letterman, and I asked him:

“How old were you when you realized that you were funny?”

The audience laughed pretty hard (which was about the coolest feeling ever), and he seemed to think it was a funny question. Due to a surge of adrenaline I don’t remember exactly what he said back to me, but he said something self deprecating about not being sure if he is really funny.

So he then thanks everyone for being there and heads back stage to start the show, and when he comes back out there is a miscue with the cue card guy, and they have to go again. On the second run something happened that I’ll never forget – he came out an introduced himself as Norman Oklahoma… To the audience this was pretty funny, but it obviously made no sense to anyone who wasn’t in the room 3 minutes earlier. It was a very small blip on TV, and meant nothing in terms of David Letterman’s career, but having a momentary inside joke with the Late Night personality of my adolescence and young adulthood was absolutely priceless.

After that it was a blast to watch how the show was run, and it was great to see such a different spread of guests with the Kardashians and Buddy Guy. So here are some clips from the show that don’t include yours truly.

The Monologue:

The Kardashians:

Buddy Guy:

Rodriguez: The Rock Icon Who Didn’t Know It – 60 Minutes

Rodriguez: The rock icon who didn’t know it – 60 Minutes.

This is an incredible story about a man who was living a modest life as a laborer, who was considered the rock n’ roll icon of a generation without knowing it… It’s an incredible true story. I can’t wait to see the film “Searching for Sugar Man” by Malik Bendjelloul.

The Mamas & The Papas – Monday Monday

The Mamas & The Papas – Monday Monday – YouTube.

Do you like what you do? If you can watch this video on an actual Monday morning and enjoy it that might be a good indicator of whether or not you should continue working where you do work… Maybe, I don’t know, I’m not a magician of the mind, but I hope you enjoy this 🙂

Happy 100th Birthday Woody Guthrie

Jon Hopkins – Private Universe

When I’m looking to calm my thoughts a often listen to music without lyrics so that I can clear my head and hear my own thoughts for a minute. The album that I’ve probably listened to most when I have been studying, or just trying to clear my head has been “Opalescent” by Jon Hopkins. This is one of my favorite songs from that album, it’s called “Private Universe”. Enjoy

P.S. I couldn’t find a version on SoundCloud without the intro, so feel free to skip it.