There are times in life when being a blogger can be a good thing.
And by "being a good thing" I mean it will get you free stuff.
I got to see a free, sneak-preview of
Serenity back when it opened last year, which was just awesome. Equally great was last year when Todd A offered me a free copy of his book in e-book format to review.
And while I'm on the list to receive the
Veronica Mars p.r. material and have been invited to a few fan press conferences, I have yet to get what I really want from the p.r. guys over there--screener copies of upcoming episodes so I can hype them up to everyone on Tuesdays.
Let's face it--we all love free stuff. It's cool and while it's not the reason that I blog, it's a nice little perk to occasionally be contacted and asked if you'd like to sample something you might normally be interested in seeing, hearing, or purchasing.
Which brings me to the Yanni Live cd.
Sometime last year, I posted that I enjoyed the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CD. Well, it appears one of Yanni's people Googled and found my blog. I was sent an e-mail asking if I'd like a free copy of Yanni's latest CD and DVD.
Now, I have to make a small confession here. I have actually purchased Yanni CDs before. I heard his Live at the Acropolis a few years ago (goodness, close to ten) and enjoyed it. I picked up a copy and it was a nice way to help me study or work on projects while in college. I have one or two other Yanni CDs as well that I listened to a good bit but I've got to be honest--Yanni kind of fell off my radar.
So, I had no idea that Yanni had done another speical for PBS and released it on CD. That is, until the p.r. guys contacted me, offering me free stuff. I figured they were on the up and up becuase they weren't asking for personal information like my credit card number or the social security number. So, I took them up on the offer and received both the CD and the DVD in the mail the other day.
I have to admit I haven't cracked the DVD open yet. Too much football, too many good new fall shows to have two hours to sit down and watch it yet. But I am going to make time for it soon and I'll let you know what I find.
As for the CD, I opened it up and have listened to it a couple of times. And I've got to say this--I'm no music critic, nor do I play one in the blosphere, but I liked what I heard. There is a mix of new stuff and some old favorites. At least two of the songs were done on the Live at the Acropolis album, but it's interesting to hear a new take on them ten plus years later. For the most part, the songs on the CD are instrumentals and as I read over the linear notes, I saw that there were various guest performers who joined Yanni for this set. So, I will be interested to see them on the DVD version.
So, while I'm no music critic, I did like the CD. I'm sure to some of you this takes away my coolness factor, but oh well. And I don't just like it because I got "free stuff." The music is good and it's a nice CD to have on while I was working on some particularily nasty HTML coding earlier this week. I have listened to it a few times and I can say that while I'm not as fond of it as I am of Live at the Acropolis, it's still a good CD with some nicely done music.
posted by Michael Hickerson at 10/06/2006 01:51:00 PM |
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