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She looks more like a rock star than a classical cellist.  When speaking, she sounds like a total sweetheart, very intelligent and tech savvy, and enthusiastic about her life.

But what about her music? 

It’s amazing.

Jad Abumrad of Radiolab dubbed her the "Quantum Cellist" and I suppose that fits in a way — the music is all her, just her, but sounds like an entire ensemble — but to me her music is Zen.  Pure of heart, spirit, and thought.  Zoe Keating’s music is pure Zoe Keating.

I actually change the genre of the music in my collection, to make it easier to sync various types for various moods, and my most favorite assigned "genre" is Zen.  The music I assign to that keyword is only that which I absolutely love.  The two albums I bought of Zoe’s off of iTunes were pigeonholed differently, one as (I think) Ambient, the other Classical. 

Now they’re both Zen.

The cello is one of my favorite instruments, the sound so rich and human, with such a wonderful range of timber.  Zoe uses this full range, even to the point of using it for percussion, her playing absolutely brilliant and even beyond brilliant.  Using technology and a laptop, she creates loops of what she plays, then plays along with those loops, each building off each other.

It’s amazing what she does.  Each song starts off simply, then builds on itself, layer by layer — and we’re not talking in a studio, here, she does this live — the voice of the cello is so pure, and fun, and lyrical, and romantic, it gives me chills listening to it.

Here is a person who loves what she does, and puts that love into her creations.  You can hear this plainly.  You can also hear creative genius in the music as she’s weaving it, layer by layer, note by note.  I can’t help but think this is how she lives her life as well, building on it layer by layer, expressing what she feels, truly creating herself as she goes.  For this, too, I applaud her.

To actually hear Zoe’s music, and also links to videos and podcasts, visit her website at ZoeKeating.com.

The population estimates from the US Census Bureau (www.census.gov):

299,398,485 people, of which
147,434,940 are male
151,963,545 are female
225,633,342 are over 18 years old, and
6,112,646 are 65 years old and over

Keep these figures in mind, especially when watching a panicky news broadcast about things like a mosquito-born virus which has made 126 people sick.

299,398,485 people the USA, and 126 people get sick. You do the math. The chances of it affecting you — even in the 65 and older population — would be so close to zero that it might as well be zero.

Please, always keep in mind, that the news media wants to scare you.  Why?  It keeps your attention and helps them sell more advertising.

A while ago I crushed my iPhone by accidentally running it over with my car.

I considered getting a new one, or having it repaired, or simply abandoning it. I came close to abandoning it. I even bought the antithesis of the iPhone to replace it, the Zen feature-free nothing-but-a-phone Motorola F3.

The folks at iResq.com read my blog and contacted me, saying they could fix it. At first I didn’t know if I wanted it fixed (I know, crazy talk, right?) but after speaking with them and checking up on their company, I decided to go for it. After all, crushing your iPhone under a car tire kind of voids the warranty, so what did I have to lose? Besides, they charge way less than Apple, while still being Apple certified.

I was once Apple certified. While working at ComputerLand back in the 80’s I used to repair Apple II’s, IIe’s, IIgs, Apple Lisa, and the original Mac. I know what you have to go through to get Apple certified, and these guys are, so I knew they must have their act together. Plus, they’re a really friendly group of people. I like them.

So I sent it off, and the same day they got it, they fixed it and overnighted it right back to me.

I now have the iPhone back in my life. It’s as good as new. And everything is still there!

So here’s another difference: from what I understand, when you send your iPhone in to repair with Apple, they hand you back an already-repaired replacement phone. You have to go through activation again, and migrate all your stuff over to it, etc.

Me, I just plugged mine in and … everything is fine, exactly the way it was!

I’m up and running again!

So, you’ll be seeing iResq ads on my sites for a while. I am extremely happy with them. The iResq folks are my heroes, and I hereby officially proclaim them to be Groovy Gizmo Gurus.