Life listed chronologically

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

  • Music of the Moment

    Lately I seem to have this bad habit of buying CDs and then letting them sit around for a few months before I open them up to listen to them. The latest was Derrick Carter & Mark Farina Live at Om. I really have no idea why I waited so long and now I’m kicking myself. I’ve been bopping around to it all morning. I think I like the Mark Farina mix a bit more out of the two, but they’re both great. Now I just need to put it on my ipod.

  • Reason #4 I Dig World of Warcraft

    One of the things I love best about World of Warcraft is its sense of humor and pop culture references. I started a new undead character today and while running through starting area ran across three zombies. Their names: Daniel Ulfman, Karrel Grayves, and Stephen Bhartec. Every once in a while Daniel says things like “You really couldn’t blame him…”, “No one lives forever…”, and “Where’s the rest of the guys?”

    I couldn’t stop chuckling about it the whole time I was playing. Brilliant.

    Edit: And I just had to kill Samual Fipps.

  • Everyone Else

    Bunnysex

    Seen over on a friend’s LJ, a flash movie with a dancing and singing bunny.

  • More Signs of the Times

    Thinking that students might be threatening the president by performing Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War”, the Secret Service paid a visit to a Boulder, CO high school this week.

    School Talent Show Draws Secret Service

    Colorado Band Singing Dylan Song Seen as Threatening President Bush

    BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 12, 2004 — Parents and students say they are outraged and offended by a proposed band name and song scheduled for a high school talent show in Boulder this evening, but members of the band, named Coalition of the Willing, said the whole thing is being blown out of proportion.

    The students told ABC News affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver they are performing Bob Dylan’s song “Masters of War” during the Boulder High School Talent Exposé because they are Dylan fans. They said they want to express their views and show off their musical abilities.

    But some students and adults who heard the band rehearse called a radio talk show Thursday morning, saying the song the band sang ended with a call for President Bush to die.

    Threatening the president is a federal crime, so the Secret Service was called to the school to investigate. [abcnews.com]

    For further reading, here’s the lyrics to “Masters of War” (which was first released in 1963).

  • Stewart Copeland, Mac Geek

    Derrick Story writes about his Favorite Stewart Copeland Story:

    The next day, when we had a few moments to talk, I asked him what he thought of the laptop. Stewart was in a great mood. He said that since he didn’t have any of his stuff on it, he just nosed around, and quickly discovered GarageBand. Stewart is more of a ProTools kind of guy, so he’s never taken the time to check out GB.

    “I saw this cool looking guitar on the dock,” he said. “So I clicked on it. It seemed like about 20 minutes had passed, but it was more like a couple hours. Next thing I knew, I had some pretty sweet tracks put together. And that was without a USB keyboard (as in the musical type). I was just tapping on the computer itself.” [O’reilly:Derrick Story]

  • Neko Mimi Mode – Dimitri From Paris

    Vicl-35712 P.1
    Oh yes, there is nothing like watching a new anime and realizing that the theme song was done by Dimitri from Paris. It is quite slick. Neko Mimi Mode (AAC) is a bit of a variation on Love Love Mode, and is a nice little bit of grooviness (and it’s even better with the animation (with the cute vampire girl with cat ears on)). Definitely a fun little song that had to be shared.

    Of course I now keep having it run through my head and hearing Chiwa Saito say “Neko Mimi Mode” all day long.

  • Microsoft Calls the Kettle Black

    When Microsoft opened up the MSN Music Store the other day, there was a comment about Apple and how their system is “closed”. This was given as a reason that MSN is better.

    “iTunes has done a great job of helping to elevate the [digital music] market,” said Christine Andrews, lead product manager of MSN. “We’re different because Apple is a closed system. If you want Apple, you have to use the iPod. A lot of people want choice and we offer that.” [macnn.com]

    So let’s see. My choice is use iTMS and an iPod, or buy a whole second computer in order to use the MSN Music Store. Let’s be honest, they’re both closed in different ways. IMHO MSN’s is more closed because I can’t even use it on my computer. Though I wouldn’t hate Apple if they opened up access to their DRM a little bit. Given their market share I think they can afford to let people use a few other players. There is still a market for flash players that aren’t that expensive.

  • My Own Private Radio

    I posted about Audioscrobbler ages ago. It is a service that tracks what music you play on your computer so that you can see what artists/songs you listen to the most. It also tries to recommend music to you based on what your profile (here’s mine). An added bonus is getting to listen to a radio station based on other users with similar profiles, or one with your profile at last.fm.

    So, I’ve added a link to listen to my radio on the left that looks like this: . So give a listen and enjoy.

  • iTMS Update

    The other week i wrote complaining about the iTunes Music Store. After going back and forth with support a few times I finally got a nice note from their technical support team saying to check back in a few weeks while they fixed the tracks I wanted. I just went and checked the store to see if they were still listed and Lard – Last Temptation of Reid isn’t even listed anymore. Also, they’ve removed the short version of Original Sin from INXS – The Swing.

    Good job so far. Now we’ll wait and see if that Lard album ever comes back.

  • Original Sin – INXS

    Cover of INXS - The Swing
    The other day I posted about the Apple Music Store and how I felt they were misrepresenting what they sell. While out shopping yesterday, I found a copy of the CD I wanted to buy, The Swing by INXS. So in honor of that, I’m posting the actual version of Original Sin (aac) from the CD (though other folks had also gotten it to me).

    I also happened to check back at iTMS to see if the listing was still incorrect, and it was. So here’s the question I have. How should Apple handle this kind of thing? Should they pull it from their site till it is fixed? Or just let people keep buying it? The first seems like the correct answer.

    I think the reason this is annoying me so much is that I had a similar issue with an audiobook I bought there. In the middle of the second file it suddenly jumped a bunch of chapters ahead, and in the third file, it jumped back. So it had obviously been encoded out of order. Yet when I called customer service on it, they just credited me back, and then didn’t change the version online, it was still available. It makes me wonder how much they really pay attention to problems.

    Anyway, enjoy the song.