Somewhere in between twenty minute hikes to stages across Golden Gate Park and those delicious sweet potato fries, I caught up with Chromeo at Outside Lands to find out two things they’re really excited about right now. Coupled with their funny fixation on my phrasing (you’d think I was the first person to ask them what they’re “pumped” about), P-Thugg and Dave 1 gave us the inside scoop on some collaborations from their new album, Business Casual, out September 14th. Hint: it involves an awesome redhead and a blood-sucking indie rocker. Are you ready to get stoked, pumped, and psyched? Watch on.

Ice Cream Man, aka Matt Allen, is a man on a mission to travel the country and world giving away free ice cream. Why? He sees the joy it brings to people’s faces and believes it’s pretty much the best job in the world. I caught up with Matt at Pitchfork Music Festival to ask him about his awesome vocation and two things he’s really excited about right now. You’d be hard pressed to find another person who’s loving their work, working their love and inspiring people to go after whatever their dreams may be.

Shepard Fairey happened to be bombing a wall across the street from a pop-up craft night we’re hosting in South Park. I walked over, invited him to the show, pulled out the iPhone4 and asked him 2 things he’s totally excited about right now and why.

If you’ve got a thing for lyrics that make you reflect like I do, folk singer/songwriter Paleo (David Strackany) is worth looking up for a night of your time. Every time I’ve seen him perform, I was privy to something special – a look into an individual’s innermost thoughts and feelings expressed through music. He once wrote and recorded a song every day for 365 days and follows a true traveler’s lifestyle – that is to say no permanent home, lots of driving, sleeping in the car, couchsurfing and conversation with strangers. I think there’s a lot of people that secretly envy that, but to him it has the same simple pleasures, tasks and routines as any life has. He’s also the first to admit that art is sometimes more about elbow grease than inspiration. Here’s two things he is excited about right now though.

1) I’m excited about the concept of the soul again. It’s something I hadn’t thought about since I was a kid, really, and I’ve just recently begun reflecting seriously on my convictions on spirituality – meaning of life types of questions. But just beliefs in general.

2) Questioning beliefs, old ingrained assumptions I’ve been carrying for too long. About happiness, love, art, why I do what I do. I think it’s all so much simpler and farther away than I’d ever thought, like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Sometimes it’s easy to think you’re better off not knowing… but you’re not.

On my trip to NYC last week I caught up with loop artist and comedian Reggie Watts who’s touring as part of Conan’s Legally Prohibited tour and just released his own hilarious CD/DVD Why $#!+ So Crazy? We talked crazy tour memories, technology and just where he got curse word knuckle rings for his music video. Reggie is one awesome dude and I’m personally calling on HBO to give him a television series. Have a listen below. I promise lots of casual swearing.

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For the 1% of you that don’t know Guy Kawasaki, he’s a total grinder, the real-man’s Donald Trump, a marketing machine who speaks-his-mind, a venture capitalist, hockey lover (yeah!), BA from Stanford, MBA from UCLA, former football linebacker, author of nine books, and a man I highly respect for always pushing us jedi-knight entrepreneurs to keep creating and thinking big. It’s this drive and motivation that inspired me to write my own book. So, I asked Guy what two things he’s totally excited about these days. His answers weren’t all that shocking but it’s hard to dis a man whose upbeat passion helped Apple become the rockstar brand they are today. Plus, what’s not to love about a fellow tech-geek infatuated with hockey?!

First, an iPad. I was skeptical at first: no printing, no Flash, no 3G (I bought mine before the 3G version), and no Microsoft Office, but I have come to love it. I haven’t bought a hardback book since April 2nd!

Second, my current MacBook. It’s got 8 gigabytes of RAM and a 500-gigabyte solid-state drive. It’s the best Mac I’ve owned, and I’ve owned too many to count.

Seldom is someone so genuine you feel like you could instantly be friends, but that’s exactly how I felt about meeting Rocky Votolato. I caught up with the singer-songwriter in the car before his show to talk about his new album, True Devotion, and two things he’s totally excited about. But what I got was so much more – some excellent advice for any artist and life in general. Have a listen below.

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