The Benefits of Being Open to Life!

I have had some neat opportunities this week, in part because of my willingness to embrace life. For those that wonder "why should I network or connect" or "what is in it for me - now!," life often requires that you simply wander into its waters and see what the tides bring you. For those who have not seen the benefit of connecting to life richly, I hope these stories will encourage you that - yes, you too can add a lot of great opportunities to your life - if you are open to them.

Earlier this week, I had a great conversation with John Pointer, a local musician, who was kind enough to perform for the Catalyst 8 and Austin Music Foundation "Band Together" event that occurred on Tuesday.

While I have had some prior conversations with John, I saw his whole performance and he impressed everyone at Catalyst 8. John is such a great performer and very smart guy. I was also able to get a better sense of him, and took some great photos at his show for his use. For those interested, please note that he has a show at Momo's in Austin this Saturday, March 1st, so consider checking him out. John's future is definitely bright and you only get the full since of his skill when you see him live. http://www.johnpointer.com/bio.php.

But in addition to that, I met his friend Erin Ivey. Erin does the awesome vocals for a new group called Grand Hotel, which has a 20's/30's jazz piano sound. The song I would strongly suggest you check out (it will take a few minutes of your time) is "SportinLife" which is the first to pop up on their website. Erin is definitely a talent who is going to break out at some point soon - in a big way - trust me on this. I want to try to work with my contacts in the art community here in Austin to make sure local filmmakers know about her. If their music were to be included in the right movie, it will dramatically increase the likelihood the movie would also break out.

http://www.myspace.com/grandhotelonline.

Finally, at the mixer for the Network Austin Mixer, I was able to meet more really neat people. One was Joe Morton, whom many of you know as "Miles Dyson" from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Joe is in Austin, where his new movie will be released soon, called "Badlands," so consider checking it out. While I took some photos of him and the others associated with the movie, I tried to make sure the Hollywood people were ok with my photographing them since we don't want to get that much like LA. Other than this blog, I will be only providing the photos to the Network Ausitn Mixer for their website.

If you are at all into art, any kind of art, consider coming to a future mixer since the people there really are some of the most generous people around, - in town or otherwise. http://www.networkaustinmixer.com/

jtp.