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Hey all,Just sitting here in the lobby checking e--mail and the forum (and drinking a cup of strong coffee!!) after staying up well past 2AM imbibing with a cast of forum characters including: Dave Walton, matto, gitarrero, liam, aub, cr7string and a few other TAXI members. Michael Laskow swung by on his way to get some sleep and we shook his hand.We had some great conversation and some great information was shared. Everyone was pretty wiped but hung in there. Big props to the folks that came from Europe and even the East Coast, what a schlep! I admire your dedication!Today should be a great day full of education, enlightenment and, hopefully great connections. I'll try to give some highlights as I can.The weather is cloudy and grey, not the SoCal weather one would expect but we're not here to sunbathe anyway, right? Let's get to work on those Rally Tans!!Cheers,Mazz

Hey Mazz,It's great to hear how the Rally's going! Good luck on the CD handouts, score that deal, son! Keep us updated. It's almost like being there.

LOL....I know I'm near sighted and all but I've barely noticed any dots so have yet to hang. I did meet Anne briefly...Hi Anne! Then again, I haven't even looked outside yet today either...been in seminar after seminar constantly.Where is everyone? LOL

HeyIt's 4 am here... I have to leave for the airport at 5 am so I never went to sleep last night. Hung out with the dot crew until about 3:20 AM... It was a blast!It was phenomenal meeting everyone. We all felt like we knew each other forever... the warmest group of friends anyone could have... Some of the best parts of the rally for me, other than being with the dots were:Jason Blume's melody making session... What a great speaker! There is always something new to learn. And he does a great job of emphasizing that song writing "rules" are tools- use them, but remember the are just that-- tools. I got some ideas on how to make some melodies stronger in songs where I don't think the chorus stands out enough melodically.I attended Pete and Pat Luboff's session on making the first few lines of your song really count. Great stuff on how to make the most of those first 30-60 seconds... Highly recommend this session! This focused mainly on lyrics and it gave a lot of insight into how the "who, what, why, where, and how" of a song can be said in the first few lines, making the listener want to hear more. They played songs from audience participants and gave feedback on the beginning of the songs... Many were excellent. On a few, you could see how 4-5 lines into the song you still don't have a sense of what the song is about... I send up a CD with "Blue Moment" as my suggested track. I sat in the audience sweating, wondering if I was going to be ripped to shreds (so to speak- they are very nice )... They simply said, "This one works!" and "Blue Moment" was very interesting title... It was basically glowing feedback. Made my day! ... And if it didn't go that way, I would have walked away learning something valuable.I attended the smaller open mic session tonight. People were great. So much talent!! Vikki and another friend, Rachel, who will soon be a boardie, were nice enough to perform "Painfully Single" with me-- they sang, I played guitar... I was scared sh*t, but it was awesome. Thank you so much, Vikki! You kept encouraging me to do this and helped me so much! For this and so many reasons, you rock!Well, gotta run. I am major sleep deprived and will have to come back tomorrow and read what I wrote!!!The rally is really a great thing... Casey

Hi I am home now... I had to leave a day early... I wanted to say that another great moment for me at the rally was sitting with all the dots very late into the night, and matto (nicely) kicking me in the butt to write, write, write!! And, everyone around made suggestions and said, "what can we do to help"? Every person meant it with amazing sincerity. This is an awesome group of people we are all fortunate to know. And if you are new here, please know that these outstretched hands are there for everyone-- never feel like it is limited to some "click".And, how can I not say one more time. Vikki made this rally so special for me. She was, as much as anyone, a mentor to me. Her warm hospitality from the moment I arrived (actually long before), was incredible. I think I can... I think I can... I think I can... Well, I'm still sleep deprived, so hopefully I am not typing like an over-emotional blithering idiot (more so that usual, LOL)... Casey

Wow. Vikki's right. This is an old clunker of a laptop. Not knowing any better, I hadn't realized that before. Might explain the lack of sensation in my fingertips. Anyway, just wanted to add a couple of cents' worth here. THANK GOD I had attended a few smaller conferences, or this might have been TRULY overwhelming ... so much to absorb and so little time to drink it all in before you need to move on to the next class/panel/seminar/session. But I gotta say, the rest of you who weren't able to make it MUST, sooner or later. Such an outrageous amount of info, smiling faces, and supportive energy. From MY perspective, there were an extremely small number of egos pushing their way through the Westin when you realize there were nearly (and this is a guess) 2500 people here all total.A few highlights... Michael Laskow, himself. Those newsletters of encouragement he sends us twice a month are the real thing. There's no way he could've EVER pulled this off if TAXI were anything less than 100% focused on US. His passion and his commitment to giving us the tools we need to become bigger and better (and successful) are genuine. Thank you, Michael, for putting this together for all of us.The volunteer staff was never anything less than friendly, informed and eager to answer the 60,000 questions they had to hear on an hourly basis. You guys ROCK.Robin Frederick's class (writing for the A/C market) was AMAZING, and I don't even write A/C songs. Focused on the craft, and filled with GREAT ideas and exercises, it's one not to miss. In an odd way, I'm almost GLAD the Jason Blume "...melodies" class was too full, otherwise I'd never have gotten to hear Robin.Jai Josefs' "melody magic" class was another one filled with laughter and insight and tools to help us step it up. And he was (well...ALL of these guys are) clearly not here to be worshiped. they are here to share their own "A-HA!!!" moments with us. Very cool. Pat Pattison, always giving, always funny. Vikki Flaiwith, a goddess walking among us. Kara DioGuardi, as human and open as you can imagine. The dots, my new INSTANT family. The mentor lunches (while annoying loud and VERY tough to hear what's being asked and answered) were great meals and TONS of info when we COULD hear over the roar.There was/is so much more to share with you guys, but I'd better put a lid on this or it'll kill what's left of my laptop battery. Do NOT miss this, folks. And no matter what I claim, you can bet I'll be posting more thoughts and details later.LORD, I'm going to miss this tomorrow. Ted

This was my first Road Rally and I will go next year! One of the amazing things to me was meeting all the folks who are the regulars on the forum. It was like a reunion rather than, for most of us, the first time we had met. As it turns out, even though we all had our dot on our badge. we were easily able to find each other in the crowd. I did have a number of people ask about the "dot" and the response seemed to be a combination of them not feeling that they are in the loop and in some cases, as I elaborated on who was wearing the dots, a little bit of jealousy.I was also interested to see all various sub- cultures stirring around the Rally. We had the hip hoppers, the country folks,The singer songwriters and even a couple Goth guys in full regalia.I was always easy to pick out the film and tv folks cause they were always hanging around in the lounge. (usually with a cocktail in hand. As one of the songwriters sang at one of the sessions "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere") By far, meeting all the regulars was the highlight of my trip. I learned as much or more with a cocktail in my hand in the lounge than in the sessions. I am also amazed at the lack of any sense of competetion and only the willingness to share ideas about everything from software to insights on the various end users ( libraries, music supervisors etc.) All delivered will the willingness to be genuingly helpful. In my short time participating in TAXI and the forums I have gained far more than the cost of participation. (not a suggestion to raise fees) Over the next days or weeks as I listen to about twenty CD's of my new friends and follow up with emails of praise and support ,I'll probably be even more inspired to write, write, and write more, When you're running with the dogs you can't lay on the porch. (not a bad hook if I wrote country, feel free to steal that Nomi (an inside joke)) Tired and insired ( another hook!!!) Chuck

Quote:In my short time participating in TAXI and the forums I have gained far more than the cost of participation. (not a suggestion to raise fees)

I thought about all-ya'll over the weekend, while I was cleaning my garage and shed! I knew I'd have to pop in here Monday morning to get the scoop! I hope everybody had a great time, and came away from the rally with a heap of knowledge. For any and all that would care to, please do start a thread or three regarding your 'favorite rally experiences', and whatever you consider to be the most valuable stuff you learned during the panels, menton lunches, etc. I think I can safely say that those of us who couldn't make it appreciate hearing the stories.Rob

So many connections...so little time!!! First, THANK YOU! to the entire Taxi staff. The amount of planning you put forth was evidentThis was my 2nd year, so I leveraged all the Do's and Don'ts learned from the Taxi team last year. The most important pieces of advice I used were (1)Have a daily plan to meet as many people as possible, (2)Be able to concisely tell people who you are and why you came to the Rally and lastly, (3)Before speaking with an Label Exec. or mentor or one of your "key" contacts, determine "your purpose" for wanting to meet with them and articulate that to them when you meet (very helpful for me) I was smart enough this year to get my Mentor Lunch ticket That alone was worth my trip. Besides California, I met many people from Colorado and the mid-west. ****Most importantly for me, during this rally, I "personally" learned to never judge a book by its cover...In the past, I probably missed out on many opportunities as a result of not being open-minded enough to meet anybody. For some strange reason I thought I knew what a person "should look like or should be wearing or should talk like" that can help me in the music business...I painfully admit that I was wrong and stupid. There were 4 occasions over the weekend in which I met someone who, at first glance, wasn't my idea of a person I needed to meet. These 4 individuals were EXACTLY what I needed to further expand my passion for songwriting. Moral of the story...Know who you are (the good and the bad), and be honest with yourself; Check your bad habits at the door and plant as many seeds as possible for your career.Reezin