MusicHawk Member Blog

Is this work?

Hello Hawk People,

Well we had a great time out at The Kazem in Brentwood California.  Joe Perez was a gracious host and we really appreciated the schwag table and power cords.  We came packing in our usual "wired to the hilt" way.... complete with iMac G5s and laptops galore to let the people have a *deluxe* Music Hawk experience.

We didn't take a "statistically valid" poll but it seemed that a lot of people are really into Audrye Sessions (they are unsigned, hint, hint).  They appear to have a combination of great sound and a very unique look about them.  Since we were spending most of our time manning the table we snapped a shot of Audrye's merch table with hand made purses that look like art pieces that sell for a lot in fancy "urban" stores in San Francisco.

 

Another point of goodness was Minmae. They made the trip down from Portland, Oregon.  We made a fair trade with the band.. we picked up 3 cds for 20 bucks because they rock and they walked away with bright and shiny Music Hawk memberships.

 

Website Development Day 2

Well it isn’t a day so much as it is a day spread over 2 weeks. Christmas came in and crushed our time into tiny morsels, like sugar cookies on a plate, awaiting Santa’s chubby fingers. Ok, maybe that bit of writing was pushing the envelope of silliness, but hey, the egg nog was getting to me. At any rate, over the next 2 weeks we carved out time when we could, pressing onward towards the goal. Music Hawk beta launch loomed overhead—and we had to climb it on brick at a time. Between reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard (so Christmassy!), more website copy was finished. Betwixt egg nog, sugar cookies, and snowboarding, more coding was done. Behind the Christmas tree (that’s where the power outlet was) we wrote more handsome web pages for your eyes to consume. Music was in our blood, even if it was the Johnny Mathis’ Christmas album from 30 or more years ago. Classic!


We are closing in on Music Hawk 1.0… we can feel it. And see it, taste it. And surf to it! Web pages are coming together, unlike Nick and Jessica’s relationship. Did I just write that? Sorry, the wife’s magazine headlines are jumping out at me from the coffee table. Well, pardon us as we move on from the blog—there are bugs to squash and more things to be done. The list of “To Dos” is longer than Santa’s Beard. Get that man a shave!

Website Development Day 1

Santa Claus was making his list, and we were making ours. We were still cracking on the web pages for the future Music Hawk website on that Thursday night in mid-December, but our list was a little different than the bearded man in the silly red suit. Did we have a nice, long artist list that would have your favorite bands as well as our own? Did we have all the materials we needed to promote the new site? Did we have enough guts to get this sucker started? Did we need more coffee? At least the last question on the list was an easy item to check off—since we were at our temporary office, the Red Rock Coffee (www.redrockcoffee.com) shop. A few cappuccinos and blended mochas later and we were on our way. Some friends came by, and in between editing and FTPing new code and pages, we discussed the music wafting over the airwaves. What were the real lyrics to Manfred Mann’s Blinded By The Light? Something about “running like a deuce”… We laughed at some of the tracks the radio played—some brought us back to high school days, to concerts we’ve seen, to people we knew who loved this band or that. And that’s when it his us—we were making this website because we not only wanted to solve a few problems in the music space, but also because for us, music is in the fabric of our lives. It provides a texture, a quality, an essence. It can evoke emotions and memories, it can speak to us and into our lives, it can teach us things. It is art, it is entertainment, it is a love. And we do love it.

Frankly, we had no idea what we were getting into when we embarked on this journey last summer, but as the website took shape, we realized there was a big mountain to climb. The “other guys” in the web music space make it look easy, with their big budgets and massive staff. It was the process, not the destination; we have to keep telling each other. And as much as that proverb is true, it sometimes doesn’t make the burden of the moment any lighter. Especially since we wanted to use the website ourselves!

We continued on into the night, the radio some company on the first steps of our journey.