Graham English

TextMate is my second favorite app right behind Logic Studio. I’ve written about my TextMate love affair a lot. In this tutorial, I wanted to share how I use TextMate to write and analyze lyrics, including tips for finding the perfect rhyme and spotlighting important ideas.

I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

In Boulder, I used to the ride the bus every morning to my job with an older gentlemen named Charles. I tell you this because I was happy to see his story go viral in a video yesterday.

Some people will tell you the world is coming to an end. Some people will say you create reality so turn off the news and think nothing but good thoughts. I’m here to tell you to be optimistic, but be very concerned.

I’ve been extremely light on the blogging front lately, but I have big plans to breathe new life into this site. I’ll be shifting gears as I reexamine my time, attention, and creative work. In the mean time, here’s a few links I’ve been meaning to share.

Just a couple of links for you to peruse over Labor Day.

A pupil in such a hurry learns slowly.

This is the true joy in life, the being recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

If you hear some music and don’t know what it is, figure it out immediately. The next time you hear the same chord progression, melodic structure, or rhythm, you’ll probably know what it is. It’s usually as simple as that, and not unlike looking up a word you don’t know in the dictionary. Read on…

Today marks the first time that musicians not affiliated with a label or royalty collection agency can collect revenue direct from a free streaming music platform. Read on…

I’m running a little poll to help me better serve you. If you could take just a moment to answer the following question, I’d greatly appreciate it. Read on…

A URL shortener service called Bit.ly launched today. It has some great features that convinced me to switch from using Metamark to shorten my URLs. Read on…

The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is to waste it all.

You’re listening to a piece of music and it sounds so simple and easy that you say to yourself, “I can do that.” But can you really? And if you can, how come you haven’t yet? Read on…

Rescue time is an application that has become very important to my weekly GTD review. It’s helping me put some metrics to my writing goals. Read on…

The concept is this: To be a good, competent songwriter, it will take 1,000 hours of practice. If you want to be a great songwriter, it will take 5,000 hours. Read on…

Kevin Kelly is back again with some feedback on his article, 1,000 True Fans, by musician Robert Rich. Read on…

A Unix program called Remind is one of the greatest tools for keeping your goals and projects on track. Where calendars like iCal and Google Calendar come up short, Remind fills in the gaps.

Kevin Kelly writes that the long tail is a blessing for aggregators (Amazon, Netflix) and consumers. But not so for creators. Read on…

Mind Hacks pointed me to an interesting study by science journal PLoS One on the cognitive neuroscience of Jazz.