Posted By Chris on February 2, 2010

It’s hard to believe that just over 5 years ago, when I was working at our Ke’eaumoku location, some guys who said they were TV show producers needed to buy some gear for an up and coming TV show that was being filmed in Hawaii.  They bought an acoustic guitar, a couple of cases, a guitar tuner and some other random stuff.

Little did we know that they were buying these items for the show Lost, which just had the first episode of its final season.

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: abc, ca-30, final season, gator, gc-dread, guitar case, hawaii, hugo, hurley, korg, lost

Posted By Chris on January 27, 2010

So I’m watching Apple’s presentation of its new computer called the iPad live as it happens!  This device is the next step in mobile computing. The speed and beauty of this device is really amazing.

They’ve created a new store called the iBookstore and you can read books on the unit, just like a Kindle. Yet you have a 9.7″ full color multi-touch screen similar to an iPhone or iPod Touch.

I see so much use for a device like this for musicians.  Look at sheet music, lyrics, chord charts, whatever you want, live at the gig without the traditional laptop. This thing is basically just the screen part of a laptop, or you can say it’s a big iPhone.

Whatever you call it, I think it’s technology like this which will stretch the music industry and create many more possibilities for us.

Starting at $499 for a 16 gig version up to $699 for a 64 gig version, it will be available in 60 days.  Models with 3G incorporated will be shipping in 90 days.

All photos are courtesy of engadget.com.

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: apple, ipad, tablet

Posted By Chris on January 26, 2010

Today I’m starting to have all my employees set their own daily goals – clean this, tune these, fix that – so they can have a task in mind throughout the day and to create an opportunity for the sense of achievement everyday.  The goal should be something that can be accomplished in one day, or a weekly goal where specific tasks are chosen everyday to attain that weekly goal.

A quote came into my mind the other day while walking a few miles to Target from my hotel in Anaheim: If you don’t set a goal, you will never reach it.  

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: goal setting, goals

Posted By Chris on January 18, 2010

Hey all,

We just got back from the NAMM show. My apologies for the layout of the site and all the pictures. It was very hard to organize everything with the very slow networks up there. I’ll work on cleaning up the site this week, but check out all of the new gear that we saw in person in Anaheim.

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: NAMM

Posted By Chris on January 11, 2010

Wow, I can’t believe it’s here already.  As quickly as 2010 came, so did the NAMM show.  I’ll be leaving today for Anaheim and I have some meetings before the show actually starts.  Thursday is when the actual show starts and each day gets more and more crazy!

Are any of you heading up to the NAMM show?  Hope to see you there!

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: NAMM, namm show

Posted By Chris on January 4, 2010

Mashable is a website dedicated to Social Media like Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, FaceBook, etc.  They are a great resource to help us figure out where the world is going with all this internet stuff.  I follow their Twitter and FaceBook feeds, and if you want to know the latest on Social Media and other tech stuff, please subscribe to their feeds!

They just posted 5 tools for musicians that utilize the internet and Social Media.  

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: mashable, musicians, social media

Posted By Chris on December 29, 2009

Web 2.0 – Whether we like it or not, it’s here to stay. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube… What did we even do with our spare time before these things existed?!

Another popular business on the internet in the past decade is business review websites. Google has always had reviews on their Maps program, but there are many sites now that are dedicated to reviews.  One in particular is Yelp.  Their tagline is “Real People, Real Reviews” and many (real) people write (real) reviews on the stores they visit to share their experiences, good or bad.  They even have an iPhone app!

We’ve had a bunch of reviews written for our stores, but you won’t see them if you go to our Yelp pages.  

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: reviews, web 2.0, yelp

Posted By Chris on November 23, 2009

That’s right, folks! Christmas is right around the corner, although I swear that corner gets smaller and smaller every year.  People have already been shopping for a few weeks for Christmas presents, and the local malls have had their decorations up since Halloween it seems!

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: accessories, amps, christmas, drums, gifts, guitars, halloween, keyboards, pa, studio, thanksgiving, ukulele, xmas

Posted By Chris on October 29, 2009

Windows 7 was officially released last week, and many PC users are ecstatic.  People are saying that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been.  

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: computers, hardware, microsoft, software, upgrade, windows, windows 7

Posted By Chris on October 21, 2009

Sheesh! It’s been really busy at the store lately and I haven’t had time to post. We’ve had a lot of great clinics lately and people always tell me “Aww man! I should have gone!” Make sure you get on our email list and find out about all the clinics and performances happening at our stores.

Category: Chris's Conundrum
Tags: apple, blog, christmas, homestar runner, imac, mai tai rumble