Bravo David Taylor - Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The other day I shared a story of how people driving in Ohio weather handle a rough slippery road. It was a pretty funny story, especially if you are from Ohio and like our family and friends -- you would get it. It was because of that very story, when I shared with my cousin Cindy Taylor that I had blogged about her, one thing led to another ... and to this blog post today!

Thinking back to family reunions, Holidays with Grandma, it usually meant seeing all our cousins! We had the cousins Nagy and the brilliant, musically-not-challenged cousins Taylor! Wow, that Taylor family. No sibling rivalry there, but just a huge case of AH and AWESOME. You've kind of already heard of one of the cousins, Cindy. Oh, she was quite remarkable on that piano -- I'll have to ask her if she is still performing as I don't know this bit of information and it is a shame. It is a shame that you can move to another part of the country and lose valuable contact with your cousins.

So, here I am today telling you about a Bravo moment with my cousin David Taylor! Oh, how I so remember the holidays when we would all get together. We liked going to visit the Taylors because David would play his violin for us. Wow! I am smiling now with the moment of nostalgia. Fast forward to yesterday. I opted to do a SquidWho lens on Who is David Taylor! Yeah. I don't think as of this writing that he or Cindy have reviewed it, but I am hoping to spice and spruce the lens up with some valuable insight and cool content as only Cindy and David can share after all those years of playing that violin -- probably a Stradivarius or two too!

This is my moment of pause and consternation for David! You must, simply must, visit Who is David Taylor and check out the YouTube video of him in performance as the violin soloist with Ho Chung Yeh, Conductor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra at the International String Music Festival. The performance is of the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

Please set aside not quite ten minutes to enjoy David's performance. And, please pay close attention to ALL the action in the first three minutes and twenty seconds. This is my question! Have you seen similar performances of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with a violin solo? Is this NORMAL? That the violin soloist would -- have to do what David does? Stand in front of that orchestra awaiting his moment? Why is there not a chair in which he can sit comfortably until it is his time to play? I don't know, it didn't quite seem right to me. Please tell me what YOU think! And, thank you for dropping in to check out David Taylor -- he is brilliant and I do hope if you are in the Chicago, Illinois area that you do get a chance to see him perform.

David Taylor not only plays the violin quite brilliantly, but he is also the Assistant Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The Power of Squidoo - Check THIS Traffic

If you Squidoo, you are very familiar with lensrank and people talking about all the traffic to their Squidoo lenses. But, do you really know who the top traffic lensmasters are? Or which lenses actually GET the MOST traffic? Yes, there is the Top 100, but that is really not a list of the top traffic lenses. The Top 100 is a topic for another discussion or two.

Today I want to take a moment to recognize that we have just passed the Thanksgiving holiday and survived Black Friday ... only to be hit with Cyber Monday. I had a fellow lensmaster share with me an article about the myth of Cyber Monday. It is a myth to me because I am not the typical shopper. Yes I shop like crazy online and have been doing so for some ten years. But, I don't save my shopping for Black Friday or Cyber Monday -- I shop every day of the year if I want or need something.

So, thinking of Cyber Monday, I decided to check a particular lens on Squidaholic.com. Wow, I am blown away by the huge traffic that fellow lensmaster flowski is getting for a 7-day period on his lens, Top 10 Best Christmas Gift Ideas 2009. I thought that traffic was pretty huge the other day when it was showing over 92,000 unique visitors for a 7-day period. But, today, it is sporting over 117,800 unique visitors. Now folks, that is traffic!!! Congratulations to Brandon on this wonderful success with the huge traffic. "Brandon "flowski" has been a member since August 18 2006, has rated 2,586 lenses, favorited 443, and has created 120 lenses from scratch."


I have a similar lens Best Christmas Presents for Gifting that was created on November 29, 2007 -- a two year old lens. But, I would wager a guess that my lens has probably NOT had 117,800 unique visitors in its two-year life span!

You know, when you have had a number 1 lens on Squidoo, it is a blessed experience. I've been there just once with Stuffed Cabbage -- this is the ONE lens out of my more than 593 lenses which means the world to me. In it I celebrate my grandmother Julia Nagy and the fond memories of Holidays with Grandma. So, having had a number 1 lens, I get lots and lots of emails which have questions about getting to that number 1 spot. A recent question from a lensmaster asked if 10,000 was a lot of traffic or normal for that number 1 spot. My answer was something like, "well a number 1 lens should surely have that amount of traffic." What about Brandon's lens? Oh, it is ONLY at number 14. Gosh, doesn't quite seem right does it? I would think traffic over 117,800 would guarantee that number 1 lensrank!

Doing my research for this blog post about traffic, I check many lenses in the Top 100. I could find no other lens approaching flowski's high traffic lens. In fact, I found many a lens well under 1,000 in 7-day unique visitors. There was a lens that passed 50,000 in 7-day unique visitors for traffic, yet that lens appeared to get no higher than maybe 40 or so in lensrank! I've seen another lens with over 15,000 traffic in one-day, and that lens was near the bottom of the Top 100. Yet, there are two additional lenses that come to mind with high one-day traffic on topicable topics -- the Presidential Vote Poll and Kevin Skinner -- those lensmasters achieved a Number 1 lensrank for their lenses.

So, how do lenses with high traffic get to the top spot? How do we as regular lensmasters even know when theses lenses have such wonderful successes with the traffic and the Google love? Recently, thefluffanutta got my attention with a Twitter tweet about the top lensmasters list that he provides us through SquidUtils.com. That made me ask, what about a list of the top traffic lenses? Wouldn't that be an interesting list to see? I know I'd love to see it.

Happy Cyber Monday to all my loyal readers, friends, buddies, chums! Have a great day.

About Me: JaguarJulie has been a member since March 21 2006, has rated 6,298 lenses, favorited 488, and has created 593 lenses from scratch.