Cellist Plays The Memory Songbook: Music Triumphs over Severe Amnesia & Other Forms of Memory Loss

November 17, 2011

The Huffington Post reports that a 68-year-old concert cellist lost all memory in 2005 and yet … … “his musical memory remained intact.” Imagine.   You can remember nothing and nobody, save for one sibling and a daily caregiver.  And yet you can pick up a musical instrument and remember every concerto you’ve ever played, and [...]

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Gabrielle Giffords, Courage and The Memory Songbook: Music Restores the Mind and Saves Family Saga

November 16, 2011

The Diane Sawyer  interview of Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly was remarkable for many reasons. First,  Giffords survived a gunshot to the head earlier this year.   Her radiant smile also survived.  She can speak,  with limitations, and walk. Throughout her recovery therapy, Kelly videotaped Giffords’ progress and allowed some of that footage to [...]

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‘King City’ Author finds Gold in E-publishing with Out-of-Print Books and Amazon’s 47 North

November 8, 2011

It was not so long ago that self-publishing was synonymous with “vanity press.”  The self-pub author was someone who apparently had been rejected by traditional publishers.  That was the subtext, in any case. Forget that even in the old days there were some amazing stories about books that were produced independent of main stream literature [...]

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The Memory Songbook – Coming Soon to a Kindle, Nook or other E-Reader Near You!

October 26, 2011
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“Guitar Lessons” by Bob Taylor Provides Insights and Inspiration for Musicians and Business People

September 28, 2011

A memorable ad campaign turned Taylor Guitars into a global brand. But the innovative method used by the company to pay for the marketing outreach is one of many priceless revelations offered in “Guitar Lessons” by Bob Taylor. Published earlier this year by Wiley, this is not your typical business book.  But then Taylor Guitars [...]

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‘Mixed Blood’ — noir in Cape Town — is a riveting debut that thrills to the last page

September 15, 2011

  Mixed Blood is the first novel by screenwriter Roger Smith. But you wouldn’t know it. His mastery of character and narrative are immediately apparent. His prose is lean but not without plenty of blood and the sinew of telling details and insights that separate skilled writing from pulp. Desperation runs deep in Cape Town, [...]

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Alan Jackson’s Ballad ‘Where Were You’ Asks Poignant Questions About Consequences of 9/11

September 9, 2011

You don’t have to wear a big hat to tell a big story. Alan Jackson wrote “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” in response to the 9/11 attack in New York City. He doesn’t weep his way through tragic consequences. Instead, his lyrics ask the kinds of questions that allow the listener to [...]

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Author Dara Marks Gets ‘Inside Story’ Right

August 31, 2011

You don’t have to be a screenwriter to admire the storytelling insights Dara Marks shares in her book Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc. In fact, any writer who wishes to wring the most out a central character’s journey through a short story, novel or even memoir would be wise to read what [...]

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The Loog Guitar Revolution: Heaven on Earth for Guitar God Wannabeez … and their children

August 12, 2011

I loved the Loog Guitar the first time I saw it at Kickstarter, a new way to fund and follow creativity.  The musical start-up group set a financial goal of $15,000 to help cover costs of production.  They raised $65,618. Wonder why?  I dare you to visit their site and watch the video … and [...]

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The Memory Songbook: ‘This is Your Brain on Music’ author Daniel J. Levitin explores how music helps us understand motives, fears & memory

August 8, 2011

“Music listening, performance and composition engage nearly every area of the brain … and involve nearly every neural subsystem.” Since my new project The Memory Songbook is a story about restoring memory through music, I was excited when friend Thomas Musci, MD, recommended Daniel J. Levitin’s This is Your Brain on Music. The book elucidates [...]

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