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It’s a Small World

It’s a Small World, by Amanda Crann

Special guest blog about twin brother’s amazing reunion over StreetJelly!

Merv and Chico

Chico (left) and Merv (right)

We hear this phrase so often in our day to day lives. Recently, Merv, a.k.a. Image, and his twin brother, Chico, were reminded of just what a truism it really is. After almost nine years apart, these two brothers have reconnected through the magic that is StreetJelly.com, and I have been lucky enough to bear witness to this wonderful family reunion.

Wednesday, May 14th, 2014 started off like any other day. Image was buzzing around StreetJelly, like he always does (lol), little did he know that he was about to get a huge surprise. Completely out of the blue his twin brother, Chico, just happened to come across StreetJelly and he stopped to check it out. The two of them ended up in the same show. They both were shocked to be looking at a picture of themselves in the chat while someone else was talking.Merv and Chico Jam

So with the help of Skype, the two of them got talking and even arranged a visit that happened earlier this week. Our home was full of the sounds of music and reminiscing as the two of them shared their stories and filled each other in on their lives now.

It was an amazing experience for all of us to be able to welcome Chico into our home and our family. ☺ We look forward to seeing much more of him. Keep your eyes posted to the Jelly and you just might see him pop up in one of our shows or us in his.

Thanks once again goes to Frankie for providing us with the amazing site that is StreetJelly.com. A site that really does go to show that anything is possible with the power of music behind it.Merv and Chico Hats

Caution: StreetJelly Flies are Biting

JellyflyCaution: You may have been bitten by the StreetJelly Fly?Jellyfly

StreetJelly FlyHow has StreetJelly changed your music listening, daily habits?  I’ll start…

I was listening to music on my headphones, a Grateful Dead ‘tube, and when a song was over…  I reached for my mouse to clap with smileys!  There are no clappy’s on YouTube. LOL  ~frankie

Almost everynight when I say bye on Facebook chat, I keep instictively go looking for a waving smiley to say bye.  ~merv

Musicians I love always come on when I’m cooking dinner.
Frankie gets a lot of burnt meals now. ~martina

Got StreetJelly Syndrome symptoms? Add them below…

How do you Thank a Community?

Thank you Cables

Hello, this is a personal note from me, Frank Podlaha, founder of StreetJelly.com.  I have the best seat in the house to witness the community that is forming around this little experiment of streaming live musicians for the world.  It’s March 2013 and StreetJelly is about six months old.  I am blown away by the support we have received by the members of StreetJelly.

We can all relate to having fans, whether we create music, art, or even websites.  But it’s something even more special when this thing you create takes on a life of its own.  And this thing takes on the life of the people, the super fans, who add their own passion to it.  StreetJelly is not about me, Frankie the computer programmer from Tennessee.
StreetJelly is the community of everyone that works so hard to make it special.

Here’s one recent example.  StreetJelly was a sponsor at the world’s first Virtual Music Conference.  StreetJelly was on an international stage in front of music industry execs, vendor experts, and a worldwide slew of musicians.  It was a lot of work.  And the Jellyfish stepped up to the plate to help man the virtual exhibitor booth, mingle with conference goers, perform three days straight of music on the site, and overall “spread the jelly.”  I hesitate to list names of all those that helped because I fear I may miss someone.  But here it goes.  Thank you Damian, Clifton, Aaron, Rick, Denise, Martina, Amanda, Robert, Jayro, Chris, Kevin, Jersey, Michael, Lindley, John, Diana, Maureen, and especially Merv for the many hours of tireless promotion of our community.  (Oh crud, I feel like I forgot someone already.)

I am humbled by all this help.  But just saying “thank you” doesn’t feel like enough.  I think the best way to show my gratitude is to continue to work as hard as I can to help create an even bigger and better community.  Below is a recent quote about StreetJelly from William Buckley of Fare Play on a Digital Music News article.  He sums up well where my heart is:

Nice guys finish first.  http://www.streetjelly.com/

Six months ago I had the pleasure of having StreetJelly founder, Frank Podlaha, as our first guest on FarePlay Radio.  It was one of those rare moments when you find yourself having a conversation with someone who genuinely cares about helping others.

In many ways Frank and his growing stable of musicians epitomizes everything that FarePlay stands for.  Passionate individuals going after a dream no matter how hard the climb. Musicians chasing a dream that perhaps someday will lead them to a career as full time musician.

If you’re a musician you should check out StreetJelly.  Frank is a tireless promoter of “his” acts.  If you just love music you might find someone you want to follow.  And if you’re walking past someone playing on the street you might just pause for a few minutes and check them out.  They’ll like that, even if you don’t tip them.

Music is like the air we breathe, we can never get too much.

Thanks Frank.

Thank you, Will.  And thank you, StreetJelly Nation!  Onward!

The Jelly Dictionary

Special guest blog by Aaron Samuels a.k.a. “Maestro”

The Jelly DictionaryJellytalk, or “Jellese”

For those of you not entirely hip to the StreetJelly lingo, or even if you just need a refresher, below is the rapidly developing StreetJelly lexicon. This will be updated as the new terms come in.

  • Jellyfish – a frequent swimmer of the StreetJelly ocean. If you peruse the broadcasts often enough, you’ll find out quickly who we are.
  • Jellyfly – any one watching the broadcast but not participating in the real-time chat conversation. It’s all good. We got love for our Jellyflies, and sometimes the fish are in fly-mode. We just like to tease them because it’s much more fun to be a fish than a fly.
  • Jellybird – a performer on StreetJelly, our bread and (peanut) butter.
  • Jellyhead – see “Jellybird”.
  • Jellytainer – see “Jellybird”.
  • JellykingFrank Podlaha, naturally. All hail. The world will sing when he is king…and he is king. So we sing.
  • Jellyfire – a descriptive term for when a Jellybird is performing with passion.
  • Jellyswarm – any significant viewership for any given broadcast.
  • Jellyrat – see “drive-by”.
  • Drive-by – the act of briefly jumping on to another performer’s performance just to let their viewers know via chat that you are performing. Not cool. Performance over-lapping is going to happen and that’s totally fine, just let viewers make up their own mind about who they want to watch.
  • Greenwall – When enough individual token donations are delivered to a performer, the chat wall turns a delightful green (with gold accents). It takes a minimum of nine tokens to greenwall a jellybird.screenshot_clifty_20130127_greenwall
  • Whitewall – When enough blank chat entries fill the room, we call that a whitewall. Use this technique sparingly if at all.
  • Spreading the Jelly – getting the word out about the awesomeness that is StreetJelly.
  • Bluewall – a Greenwall of Rocker Pins. You want this to happen to you.
  • Jellymood – I’m in the mood for love…simply because you’re jelly…
  • Purple Rain – A song by the Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Jellyfish request this song on a regular basis, so you might wanna work it into your repertoire, if you’re a Jellybird.
  • AFJ – Away From Jelly. Not exactly fly status, just temporary absence.

What’s your favorite term? Have another to add? Continue the dictionary below…

The World Didn’t End, It Just Started

Celebrate a great year with StreetJelly.comI know the world didn’t end last month from the Mayan doomsday calendar.  You and I are still here.  I’m pretty smart, huh?  Or I’m just a smarty-pants stating the obvious.  Don’t answer that.  I do know that great things are happening for StreetJelly.

Last month on StreetJelly I witnessed a growing community of musicians meet each other, start friendships, share the holidays, and even build a team to raise money for charity.  Here’s a recap of some notable days in December 2012.

End of the World Shows  On 12/21, the Mayan Doomsday, a few musicians scheduled “End of the World” concerts on StreetJelly.  That must have sparked everyone’s urge to perform one last time before the calamity of global destruction.  Starting around 10:30am, musicians performed one after another all day in one big long concert.  It lasted well into the night.  Fun was had by all.

Christmas Eve  12/24 was a special night.  Yes, it was holiday fun and most musicians were singing Christmas carols.  But a wonderful thing happened during one performance.  A group of musicians were all chatting together watching Maestro when the conversation turned to benefit concerts and performing for charities.  Long story short, this group has teamed up to start performing monthly concerts on StreetJelly for charities.  All tokens collected by these musicians on such days will be donated to a specific charity.  The team is currently working hard behind the scenes to put this all together – stay tuned for more details and a chance to contribute.

New Year’s Eve  Drinking songs, distortion, and …well …more drinking songs capped off the night.  Musicians were performing all night long, and a crew of us were able to celebrate the New Year in most of the US time zones (sorry Hawaii).  Our master jam band extraordinaire Clifton played for hours with his band at a local Shriner’s basement.  The sound took a few to get right, but everyone still enjoyed themselves.  Even when the laptop went flying, nothing was broken!

These were just a few of the great times in December on StreetJelly.  But what stands out to me is that all these events were made special by the people who took part.  It had nothing to do with marketing, or advertising, or social media shenanigans.  It all happened spontaneously from the nice folks that found StreetJelly in 2012.  That makes me very happy, as I know this can only lead to bigger and better things for the site.  It’s just getting started!