Pandora

Music lovers, take note! Pandora (pandora.com) is a great music-listening website with minimal commercial interruption. Here’s how it works.
After creating your user profile (not necessary for previewing the site), you name a genre, song, or artist that you particularly enjoy. Pandora then creates a radio station with that genre, song, or songs by that artist and similar songs. You have a list of radio stations that are kept separate, and you can create a quickmix station that plays music from the chosen stations on your list. For each song that plays, you can give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, bookmark the song or the artist, buy the song, and get tons of info about the song or artist (lyrics, bio, similar artists, and more). There are a bunch more features, but you’ll just have to check out the site to see them.

Pandora is part of the Music Genome Project, a music analysis endeavor described by its founder like this -

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song – everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records – it’s about what each individual song sounds like.

Since we started back in 2000, we’ve carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists – ranging from popular to obscure – and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

The result? You really hear music you like! For example, I created a quickmix station from four stations: Pat Benetar, Johnny Cash, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Brandi Carlile (four artists who would never have their songs played on the same radio station!). I listened to great music for hours, heard much more than is in my personal collection, and discovered some new songs and artists that I happen to really enjoy.

And for the technophiles out there, note that Pandora works not only on the computer, but also on an iPod Touch, an iPhone, and a Blackberry. For all-around town, non-stop grooving.

Seed and bulb websites

Think spring.  Think spring.  Think spring.

For those of us who garden, it is definitely time to start thinking spring. Anything started by seed must be planted soon in order to be ready for outdoor planting (and blooming and fruiting – oh, sweet, warm tomatoes from the garden…) The seed packets that are being sold in stores right now are great.  But if you are a bit of a garden geek (like me) or if you are a little intrigued by becoming more “green” in your garden this year, you might want to check out the following websites dedicated to heirloom seeds.

www.victoryseeds.com/index.html An Oregon farm with lots of vegetable seeds (also flower and herb seeds). The site also has great educational value, explaining heirloom plants and open-pollinated plants, offering almanac links, and providing  information on how to plant from seed and how to save seeds.

www.seedsavers.org An Iowa farm that maintains some 25,000 endangered varieties of vegetables. It also offers a large seed bank of herbs and flowers. An interesting site to visit.  Check out the “About us” and “Saving Heirlooms” sections if you visit.  (And honestly, I never knew there were so many kinds of garlic.  They sell 18 different seed packets.)

www.jungseed.com Ok, so this is not an heirloom site.  But it does have WAY more variety than the grocery store. And it has some absolutely lovely bulbs and roses for reasonable prices. May the natural growers forgive me for including this site.

(Heirloom seeds are seeds from heirloom plants – obvious.  This means that the plants have not been genetically engineered. Heirloom plants are often more naturally pest-resistant than their genetically engineered counterparts, with better flavor.  Some fruits also add interest to a garden because they look unusual – and are indeed becoming more unusual, in the sense that they are endangered in this world of mono-crop homogenization.)

Happy growing!

Online Cookbooks

Often patrons ask for online recipe websites to find a recipe for dinner or to try something new. Here are a few I go to when I need a little help in the kitchen.

• RecipeZaar.com. This website is one of the best available recipe sites online. There are thousands of recipes for a variety of  foods, dishes, and courses spanning the world. And best of all, each recipe is rated and reviewed by the users themselves. Any clunkers in the bunch will be immediately spotted.
• Allrecipes.com. Another good recipe website in the same vein as RecipeZaar.com. This site is also user rated and reviewed. The only shortcoming is the less than extensive recipe bank.
• Kingarthurflour.com/recipes2008. The recipes section of this website is excellent for finding all kinds of recipes for baked goods. This site is also user rated and reviewed. An added perk is the, “KAFGUARANTEED” seal of approval. Any recipe with this mark means it has been tested by the King Arthur Flour Chefs and is guaranteed to turn out well. In addition, some of the posted recipes are mentioned in their blog, kingarthurflour.com/blog, which provides step by step directions, and pictures to guide you through the baking process.

Give these websites a try and see if they please your palate. Bon appétit!

mlive

Looking for a good website that focuses on Michigan, containing  news, travel, business, entertainment and job searching sections? Check out mlive.  At mlive you can find local travel destinations to save money for that summer vacation.  The “Living” section lists many blogs on Michigan topics like: Red Wings, Michigan Travel, and Michigan Business Innovation. Hear about an event or festival you want to attend? You can search mlive’s arts and entertainment listings for the time, date and place.

Guest blog

From our business librarian…

I see all sorts of entrepreneurs at the library and one of the main struggles they face is what tools to use in researching their market/business start-up idea.  CADL has access to a wide variety of resources to help entrepreneurs.  One of my favorites is our collection of business e-books.  We have over 300 business plan samples available electronically.  Why re-invent the wheel when you can view a business plan sample for a business similar to yours?  Here’s how you access them - visit www.cadl.org/business and click on “Check Out Our New e-Books!” at the top of the page.  You’ll also find e-books that discuss how to conduct market research and competitive intelligence.  If you have any research questions, please contact me a business@cadl.org.  Good Luck!