Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

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Vinyl is Far from Dead

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If you’re a music lover like me and own some vinyl records then you know what I’m talking about when I say vinyl is a listening experience. Daniel Adrian Sanchez reports at Digital Music News that Warner Music Group has announced their first vinyl-only record label, named Run Out Groove. He writes: “Run Out Groove is a new vinyl only label that caters specifically to music fanatics, pressing limited edition titles made by music fans for music fans. We want every record we release to be a cornerstone of your collection. Similar to archaeologists, we plan to dig, discover and deliver records … [Read more...]

Sick and Tired of Bad Sound Quality, Americans are Coming Home to Vinyl

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Becky and I love our vinyl record collection. And we’re not alone. 2015 sales of $416 million were the highest since 1988. Stay tuned for 2016’s numbers. Below Josh Friedlander and Cara Duckworth of the Recording Industry Association of America explain the phenomenon of accelerating vinyl sales. Now that our 2015 sales numbers are out, there is one category that continues to befuddle even the most astute industry observers: vinyl (in a good way, of course). So if you’re one of these observers or a casual music fan doing some research on this waxy format (or both), we thought we’d offer up a … [Read more...]

Your Retirement Life: Stay on Beat

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One of my favorite drummers is the Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts, known for keeping it simple, keeping the beat, and playing to the song. He doesn’t look for something that’s not there. There’s a story about how Watts could play a song in the studio then have the volume turned off, with everyone leaving the room, continue  playing in silence, and when they came back in and turned the music back on he was still on beat. Think about that for a moment. Let it sink in as you consider what’s going on today. There’s a lot of noise out there. Imagine turning it off. Would you stop what you’re … [Read more...]

Congratulations to Nobel Prize Winner, Bob Dylan

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In what The New York Times calls a redefinition of the boundaries of literature, Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize. The prize comes with some controversy from critics who charge that Dylan isn't writing "literature," but he also has his supporters. The NYT reports: Billy Collins, the former United States poet laureate, argued that Mr. Dylan deserved to be recognized not merely as a songwriter, but as a poet. “Most song lyrics don’t really hold up without the music, and they aren’t supposed to,” Mr. Collins said in an interview. “Bob Dylan is in the 2 percent club of songwriters whose … [Read more...]

Alaska: The Last Frontier, Jewel's Pioneer Upbringing and Her Music

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Singer, songwriter and author Jewel talks about growing up on the Alaskan frontier and the changes in her life and music that influenced her new album Picking up the Pieces. Joseph Hudak writes in Rolling Stone Magazine: On Picking Up the Pieces, Jewel follows in those same footsteps. The record, her first since 2010's country effort Sweet and Wild, returns the Nineties' queen of introspection to her more folky roots, allowing her poetry-like lyrics to come to the fore. No emotion or feeling is masked, whether it's the awkward doubt of the cocktail-party exposé "Plain Jane" (in which she … [Read more...]

Key West Green Parrot Sound Check

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The Green Parrot has some of the best live music in Key West. And that’s saying something. On our recent visit we walked down to check out the funky sound from the multi-talented Mia Borders. "Use Me" by Bill Withers at Jazz on the Green in Omaha, Nebraska. August 13, 2015. Wayne Maureau on drums. Jesse Morrow on bass. Danny Abel on guitar. Filmed by Vince Baldwin for KPAO Channel 22 Omaha. … [Read more...]