I wanted to share a pretty cool experience I had the
other night. Nothing major, but a fun little incident
that we can all relate to, I’m sure.

Here’s what happened . . .

Eddie Vedder was in town here in San Diego performing
an acoustic set. Of course, you already know Eddie as
the lead singer of Pearl Jam, but what you might not
also know is that he is a truly multi-talented guy.

He’s been involved in a bunch of other cool projects,
such as writing and performing the musical score for
the movie “Into the Wild,”

which was directed By Sean Penn.
(More on Sean Penn in a minute.)

The show was a special treat for my wife, as Pearl Jam
has always been one of here favorite bands. (She
assures me it has nothing to do with Eddie’s good
looks. Hmmmmm… gotta think about that one.)

I was stoked to bring her to this show because she has
had her hands full this summer taking care of two
young kids and enough pets to fill a small petting
zoo.

Plus, she gives me all the time I need to head into
the man cave to crank out your favorite guitar lesson
requests so we need to keep her HAPPY, people!

Anyway, we got the kids settled with a baby sitter and
I pulled out my favorite Fedora from the upper shelf

of my closet. This hat is very special to me and is
only brought out on special occasions.

With my trusty hat in hand, we headed off to Copley
Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego. If you’ve never
been there, it’s AMAZING. Just totally gorgeous in an
ornate Victorian style.

The acoustics were off the hook. Not only did Eddie
play his Pearl Jam hits, he performed tracks from his other musical projects as well.

You could hear every tone and texture in his voice.
Not a syllable was muddied by megatower speakers and
guitar effects.

(Look, I am all for rocking it out, but if you have
the chance go see your favorite group or artist in an
acoustic setting, you will be inspired)

I was lucky enough to get killer seats, and my wife
nudged my shoulder just after we got seated. She told
me to look a few rows up and to the left, and then
asked if the person sitting there looked familiar.

It was Sean Penn (of course sitting with what looked to
be a Mrs Universe finalist), so that was pretty cool.

Okay, so here’s the funny thing that happened. The
show went off without a hitch, except in one spot
where Eddie called out a guy in the audience who was
TEXTING away like a moron.

Eddie stopped everything and did something we ALL
wanted him to do. He asked the guy if that was a
REALLY important message.

Note To Self: DO NOT TEXT AT AN
EDDIE VEDDER SHOW, lol.

There’s no other big moral to the story here, other
than to encourage you to get out and hear some
inspiring music whenever you can.

I hope your summer is going great, pull out your
acoustic guitar, head to the beach, and keep
practicing!

Talk soon.

Your friend,

Marty

I was inspired by this super cool Youtube video clip of the US soccer team that was created by a  Purdue college student.
The college  student put together a montage of  short video clips showing people’s reaction to the last second soccer goal by the United States Star World  cup player Landon Donovan.

I thought it was so cool that the video  showed a few seconds of the reaction to the thrilling goal as time ran out, just  as it happened in various cities and places around the world with text detailing where they were from.

I think it would be really cool if i got a bunch of short video clips of you playing guitar or sitting or standing with yourself or include friends and family or band members saying Hi and telling me  where you live.

Upload your short clip to Youtube then send me the link to the video
I will then splice a bunch of them together into 1 clip in the style of this soccer video clip,  and feature the combined video on my YouTube channel.

This could be a fun cool project for us to work together on

Have a great weekend Marty