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Stephen Pickering

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  • Great Places to Eat in Arkansas

    Great Places to Eat in Arkansas

    1. I saw a Facebook friend of mine post that he was at Taylor’s steakhouse. I’d never heard of it, so I figured he was in another state. Nope. He was in Dumas. Everybody in the comments was raving about the place. Ever since I got back from Charleston, Little Rock has seemed like a Wasteland at least in the eating department. Of course, nothing compares to Charleston, but it would help if I’d get outside the city limits every once in a while. This is a gorgeous state, but I probably know less about it and have seen less of it outside of Little Rock than someone living half way ’round the world.
      Of course, when I clicked on Taylor’s facebook page, they don’t even list there address, much less have a website, and of course they’re closed this Saturday because their daughter is graduating from grad school. That’s par for the course when it comes to a real rural restaurant, but it’s also a pretty good sign that when they are open they really get into what they do. Also, the fact they didn’t have their own website was actually an upside surprise for me because what they did link to was a website of a “gal” as we like to say who specializes in discovering new great little gems of restaurants all around the natural state. Her name is Kat Robinson. The name alone has me closed as a fan. Expect me to do some traveling in the Natural state exploring her finds. Who knows, maybe I can bring my guitar and find a place that’ll let me sing my ditties as well.

    2. [Update 8/14/20] Another Foodie friend of mine posted this tonight with the caption: “THE BEST Charcuterie In LR.” The Restaurant is Sonny William’s Steakhouse in the Rivermarket district. Here’s the photo she posted:

  • A Generation X Woodstock View

    A Generation X Woodstock View

    As a teen I romanticized it. Now, I realize that’s the same as mythologizing something. Of course the reality of the experience was anything but. Unless you were having a good trip, as it were. As a young teen in the early eighties, maybe from my older sister’s record collection, I was into CSNY, Dylan, Clapton, Beatles, Stones, etc. This was odd for 1983 I suppose. Even though MTV fascinated me in and of itself, I always “hate-watched” the content thinking it was so superficial compared to my beloved 60’s.
    But enough about my thoughts on this now. I’ll add to them later including a whole chapter from my novel “The Horizon’s Blue Chance” which is all about a re-enactment of Woodstock at a college party in 1988. (the Chapter that is, not the whole novel. It’s the next to last one in the book, so it serves a prominent purpose to the story as a whole, at least psychologically and spiritually, a sort of “belly of the whale” experience.”)
    I saw an article in today’s New York Times entitled “Woodstock Was the Birthplace of Festival Fashion” and like so much of my blog I just wanted to create a repository for media concerning topics I’m interested in.

  • My New Single Has Dropped

    My New Single Has Dropped

    On all the major and minor streamers. Distrokid is a godsend. God bless you Philip Kaplan!
    It’s called “It’s Nowhere.” I hope you’ll give it a listen, and let me know what you think!

    Here’s the best link. It’s the Distrokid Hyperfollow Page that has links to all the major services. Am I crazy about this song? Not at the moment. I’ve listened to it so many times over the last few days, I just need a few weeks away from it for sure. Mostly when it comes out on these services you’re trying to see does it hold up at least sonically with other things you like.

    I’d say on the whole it does. Like 85% of the time. So that makes me feel good and hopeful about my own mixing and mastering, and the potential of the tools going forward.

    I’ll write more about this song later when I’m not so exhausted with it. Hopefully I’ll go on tour and play it live too—for you! For now, here’s a youtube link to the song, that anyone can listen to, even if they aren’t a subscriber to one of the streamers.

  • Nasdaq 100% Gainers

    Saw this flash up on today’s Halftime Report on CNBC. Not sure what it’s referring to. 100% in what period of time? A year? Year to Date? Don’t know. What I do know is that stocks that gain 100% in a year are worth taking a look at. I’m not saying it’s an immediate buy signal, but rather a good jumping off point for further research. I enjoy research though. I do happen to own AMD in my IRA. No special reason. I think I bought it about 2 years ago (May 3, 2017 for 10.47 to be exact) because somebody recommended it on CNBC. I’ve gotten a triple out of it which is great, but it’s not the typical stock I own. I’m kind of in the Peter Lynch school of things I like and use or looking for trends (Globalization, Digitization, and Urbanization for instance. Or the baby boomers retiring. So things like Healthcare and Vacations.
    So that was a flyer for me. But it does keep me interested, and so far whenever somebody talks about AMD, I listen, and I’ve always heard good things, so I keep holding, although the company itself doesn’t hold any special place in my heart.

    The other three, I have no idea. I might do some research though. (Just looked up Ctrip.com as it fits into the vacation paradigm, but just found out it’s a Chinese company, so I’ll pass. I use to think it was passe to only own American companies, but after getting burned on a Chinese stock and an Indian stock, I’m sticking to American at least for now. I do have one Israeli stock $TSEM and one Brazilian stock $CZZ from long ago purchases.

    If you want a complete list of every listed security that has a gain of 100% or more in the last year (as of the closing price on July 9th, 2019) here is a great tool/website for doing such research: https://stockrow.com/screener/245e1b2b-08ec-4e3c-96e4-46efc80c5969
    I kept the valuation to 1 billion and above, and there is a surprisingly manageable list there of about 30-40 stocks. If nothing else it gives you a great snapshot of what the trend is in the last year or so.

  • Inspiring Quotes for the Creative

    “Don’t be afraid to be obsessed.”

    Annie Leibovitz – from a Masterclass.com commercial just now (19:32hrs CST July 11th, 2019).

    “You become a writer by writing. There is no other way.”

    Margaret Atwood — from the very same Masterclass commercial as mentioned above.

    “I look for a tone. I look for that spark. Oooooooo! That’s dope!”

    “There’s no thought process. It’s about having fun.”
    “If you love it that much, it’s gonna happen.” – Timbaland#quotes #quoteoftheday #quotesaboutlife— ??????? ????????? (@Pickering) June 21, 2019

    I recently heard this from Timbaland in a youtube ad for a new Masterclass he is teaching about music production. But I think the jist can (should?) be applied to any creative activity or maybe even life in general.

    “Creating for yourself should always be first, before anything else.” https://t.co/SqVZecRiL7#quotes #quoteoftheday #quotesaboutlife #Creative #creativity— ??????? ????????? (@Pickering) June 24, 2019

    An article I happened upon today at theverge about the illustrator D’ana Nunez

    I’ve always let the music tell me what to do, and let things happen by circumstance. – Jack White

    https://youtu.be/R17ZBXo1oJ0?t=145

    I like to, to me it’s a testament to myself that I don’t tell the music what to do, I don’t tell myself what to do. The music is telling me what to do. I say, Look, let it happen. Just let it happen.

    https://youtu.be/OLhDFSpAvrs?t=299

    Jack White Youtube 4:59

    “Stop! You see what the feeling made me do? That’s what it should do to you!” — Timbaland, from that same Masterclass ad on Youtube. Those Masterclass ads are great. It’s just that I have so many subscriptions already. They’ll probably close me one of these days though. “That’s what I’m here on Earth to do.” ibid.

  • Pre-Save My New Single “It’s Nowhere” on Spotify

    https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/stephenpickering/its-nowhere