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February 03, 2005
Things I hate in Superman stories.
In case it's not absolutely crystal-clear, I read a lot of Superman comics. And watch every movie/television show that has Superman in it. And I have a tendency to form an opinion about every single one...I can't help it...I'm a fanboi! Anyway, here are a few of the things that drive me nuts when I see them in any Superman story, regardless of the medium.Read on for the list if you've got a geek tolerance level of 50 or above (level 3 nerd also qualifies).
January 06, 2005
Is it wrong to feel sorry for a pop icon?
So I'm reading this editorial about Ashlee Simpson's disasterous performance at Tuesday night's Orange Bowl game, when I read this:When Ashlee came on and began to perform, though, I literally dropped my fork. Then I cupped my hands over my ears, but it didn’t help. Ashlee’s singing sounded like a cross between a political prisoner being tortured and a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.Okay, I'm sure she was awful, and as far as I can tell, there's no logical reason for her to be famous in any way -- she's certainly not a looker (she seems to me like a cross between Barbara Streisand and Joan Jett). But that's just plain mean....
I happened to look out the window and noticed that some of my neighbors were running down the street, their hands over their ears, screaming for help. I wanted to help them, I really did. Yet I was gripped by horror and disbelief. I was practically catatonic. For their sake — and for mine — all I could hope for was a swift end to the halftime show.
February 19, 2004
The bane of my existence.
I've had an iPod for nearly two years now. The iPod itself, which is a first generation 5 GB model, still works great. It's a bit banged up, and the screen's been scratched to death, but it works fine. The one thing that hasn't fared so well for me are the headphones I've used with it.
In all, I've probably killed about five different pairs of headphones. The reason's not too hard to understand...when not in use, I wrap the headphones around the iPod. Over time (and the abuse anything put in my bag goes through) this wears them out, and this will kill even high-quality earbuds (for the record, I went through three pairs of Apple's buds faster than anything else). I solved this problem by picking up Macally's Retractable Earphones. These things totally rule. They're the only headphones I've managed to keep alive for any significant period of time.
But the earphones are only part of the problem. The bigger issue is the wired remote. As I said, I love my retractable headphones. But see, I'm a tall guy. Which means I can't clip the headphones' base on my belt, because then it won't reach my ears or my iPod. What I usually do is clip the remote to the shoulder strap of my bag, and my headphones plug into that. The retractable cable gives me plenty of room to work with.
Unfortunately, I've killed two of those wired remotes so far. And they're expensive! Again, I have a first generation iPod, so mine didn't actually come with one. I had to buy it. That means I've already shelled out $80 for these damn things, and I keep killing them. Grr.
I can't justify spending another $40 on headphones that won't last a month and a remote I'm just going to kill again. Apparently the wired remote that comes with the third generation models is much more durable, so when I do get a new iPod some day, hopefully that will last.
Until then, I've been forced to clip my headphones to my jacket pocket, where I have to keep my iPod. This is awkward since the headphones can get pulled out of the plug there. But I'll live with it...for now. We'll see how long I can tolerate this.
January 21, 2004
You ever have one of those days...
...where you can't get the music from Phantasy Star out of your head? Maybe that's just me. But for some reason I've had it stuck in my head all day...the overworld music, the dungeon crawl tunes, the battle songs...the whole damn thing. I guess it could be worse...I had the soundtrack to Zillion stuck in my head for years.
January 14, 2004
January 12, 2004
Priceless.
Here's a great quote from the New York Times' story on the HP/Apple iTunes & iPod deal:Microsoft has said that it plans to offer its own MSN music store later this year. Thursday the company appeared unprepared for the Apple-Hewlett agreement, which clearly stung Microsoft executives. They said the agreement would limit choice and harm consumers.Wow...Microsoft complaining that consumers won't be given a choice? My irony detector is off the chart."Windows is about choice, you can mix and match all of this stuff," said David Fester, general manager of Microsoft's Windows digital media division. "We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services."
November 19, 2003
How can you have any pudding if you doint eat your meat?
Boing Boing pointed me towards these awesome maquettes featuring characters from Pink Floyd's The Wall. There are six in all, and they include the Teacher, Worm (AKA The Judge) and the Marching Hammers. They all look really nice, and capture the feel of Gerald Scarfe's original drawings exceptionally well, although I'm not sure if I really want a figure based on the male nether regions on my desk. Ditto for the Scorpion figure, which as anyone who has seen the movie will remember, morphs into shape from the equivalent female form. It's a stunning animated sequence, but on my desk it's a bit creepy. Plus of course, that $80 price tag is a bit steep. But they do look really cool nonetheless.
Oh great...now I'm going to have "The Trial" stuck in my head all day. That's just what I need.
Good morning Worm your honor...
November 11, 2003
\m/ ROCK!!!! \m/
Rolling Stone has published their list of the top 12 (why 12? You got me) rock n' roll movies on DVD. While there are some really good ones here (This is Spinal Tap, A Hard Day's Night, High Fidelity, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) I find myself wondering how on earth a list like this could exist without Gimme Shelter, which is easily the best concert movie ever made. Also absent is Scorsese's masterful film The Last Waltz. Not to mention Woodstock! Any of those should be on this list well before such dreck as Desperately Seeking Susan.
If you've never seen either Gimme Shelter or The Last Waltz, do yourself a favor and hunt 'em down. They do indeed rock (and Gimme Shelter is more than a bit scary at times).
November 03, 2003
iTunes: Share away, it's legal!
This article at Yale Daily News reports that iTunes' ability to legally share music collections over local networks is becoming more and more popular on college campuses. If you've never used this great, great feature of iTunes, basically you choose to share any part (or all) of your music collection with others on your network. Shared music can be listened to and added to playlists, but you can't download it, and once the person serving the music goes offline (or closes the program) it's removed from your playlists.I love this feature, and ever since the Windows version of iTunes came out, more and more people at my office have been taking advantage of it. In a college setting, where everyone in a dorm is on a permanent network, I could see those grumpy music companies getting angry, but the fact is that this is a much, much better alternative to having people download permanent copies. Besides, with the iTunes Music Store, it's entirely possible to go and buy a real copy of the song if you decide you want to keep it or listen to it on an iPod.
Of course, there is the problem where suddenly everyone in my office knows about my bizarre music tastes, which range from Tori Amos to Oingo Boingo to Maria Callas to Yasunori Mitsuda (occasionally all on the same playlist), but that's no more eclectic than the rest of the people here. Okay, maybe slightly. But I'll defend my Xenogears soundtrack to the day I die.
October 16, 2003
iTunes kicks Winamp's ass.
Apple today unveiled iTunes 4.1, which is now available for both Mac OS X and Windows. It's about time. I love iTunes. Back in my days as a tortured Windows user, I swore that nothing would ever replace Winamp. Even when I switched to OS X, I was put off by the bulkiness of iTunes, and I tried out a handful of alternatives, like Unsanity's Mint Audio and Panic's Audion. Once I came to the conclusion that iTunes was the best alternative, I resigned myself to using it...and I'll be damned if I didn't slowly come to love the thing. iTunes has the best browsing and collection management, best playlist features (smart playlists rule) and the iTunes Music Store is just icing on the cake. Looking back on it, I still think Winamp's a well-made piece of software...but it can't come close to the coolness that is iTunes.
In fact, now that I've been using the program religiously for a while, I have only one real issue...what's up with that creepy browse button? It looks like a seriously hung-over or strung-out eyeball. I've grown used to it...but jeez, who came up with that one?
September 12, 2003
We'll meet again...
Johnny Cash, the perennial bar-favorite country singer passed away this morning at the age of 71. When his wife died back in May, few expected him to survive much longer, and so today's news doesn't come as much of a shock, particularly since he hadn't been in good health for some time. But still, today should be about his long and remarkable career and life, and he leaves behind a life's work of remarkable scope and breadth. R.I.P. to the man in black.
April 29, 2003
Pretty Cool
Apple has finally launched their iTunes Music Store. When I first fired the thing up yesterday afternoon I was totally unable to get anything to work, presumably because their servers were being hammered, but today it works great.For the unaware, here's the general idea: you browse the store like you would your own collection, and can purchase songs for $0.99 and whole albums for $9.99 (two disc sets are around $19). After you've bought it, it's more or less yours, and you can put it on an iPod, or burn it to CD. No monthly fees, no expiration dates, nothing.
I only rarely buy new CDs, but I have to admit, this is pretty cool. Ever since I got my iPod and a computer with a seriously huge hard drive, I've been convinced that CDs suck...this pretty much cements it. As I've seen from my insane packing experience, CDs take up space, and they can be scratched or cracked, and generally speaking they're overpriced as well. With Apple's music service, I can bypass that whole burden and get straight to the music right now, and it's legal to boot.
But of course, I really don't buy music very often. The selection on the iTunes Music Store (couldn't they come up with a better name than that?) is pretty good from my casual stroll around the listings. There's an impressive selection of Tori Amos and Pink Floyd, although since I pretty much own all that there's no reason for me to buy any of it. I like the idea of being able to buy a single track off a CD single though, as you can with certain releases. I mean, how cool would it be to buy just the b-side tracks off of singles for $0.99 a piece? And unlike Amazon or any other online retailer, therea are 30 second clips from every song that's available for purchase, with no exceptions. That rules.
I also like the idea of being able to make my own "greatest hits" compilation. In order for this to work there has to be enough music from a particular artist, and that doesn't look possible quite yet with most bands. But if you want your own David Bowie or Bob Dylan collection, you're in luck, as there are plenty available from each.
One criticism I've read online is that there aren't any songs from indie labels. I can't imagine that being a long-time thing. In order to launch they needed mainstream music and lots of it. Now they can concentrate on building their catalog, and I'm sure indie labels will get in on the action. If they really want to be cool, they can go the MP3.com route and let anyone who wants to sell their music. By leveling the playing field, they could really give new bands great exposure.
My one real complaint is that there aren't any reviews of albums on here. I'm a total review junkie, and whether I'm reading ShackReviews before buying a game or movie reviews at NetFlix or book and movie reviews at Amazon, I always like to know what other people think about the stuff I'm about to pay for. There's a rudimentary recommendation system in place, but reviews would be much more helpful.
Beyond that, I'm sold on the thing. The next time I buy music (whenever that may be) it's safe to assume that if I can, I'll get it off of iTunes.
April 09, 2003
And now for something completely different.
An absolute treasure trove of rock oddities, from Leonard Nemoy's "Put a little love in your heart" to the creepiest thing I've ever heard, Ed McMahon singing "Thank heaven for little girls."(Thanks to Boing Boing, who got it from Meme Pool)
March 07, 2003
My return to Tori.
Heather and I saw Tori Amos at Radio City last night. That is to say, we saw her in concert at Radio City -- we didn't just randomly bump into her on the street. This was my fourth Tori show (fifth if you count the half-concert I attended at the Virgin Megastore many, many moons ago) but it was my first in something like five or six years.
Because so much time had passed since my last Tori show (or any non-classical concert for that matter) I was a little nervous that it was going to be wildly different, but thankfully it was pretty much the same old Tori. She did indeed have a backup band, which is very different from the solo-Tori-on-stage from the other shows I've been to, but it was limited to a single bass player and drummer. And they disappeared during several songs, allowing for "Winter," "Icicle" and a couple of others to be performed without any accompaniment. Judging from the show's title ("Scarlet's Tour") I sort of assumed the show would be about 90% from her most recent album (that'd be "Scarlet's Walk") but surprisingly, while about half of the songs were from that album, the rest were older, running from "Little Earthquakes" to "From the Choirgirl Hotel" and most things in between. Noticeably left off the list were her two worst albums, "To Venus & Back" and "Strange Little Girls," something I particularly appreciated.
She also did a nice cover of Stevie Nicks' "Landslide," which was something I'd never heard her do before. One thing she didn't do, which I found surprising, was "Me and a Gun" which she used to do during every show, partially to raise awareness of her RAINN organization, but I guess she doesn't do that anymore.
This being Radio City, there were of course lights flashing and zooming around, but they weren't too offensive, and I acknowledged that they're really there for the kind of people who get bored staring at a single performer on stage with a piano. But that was as far as it went, so there weren't any pyrotechnics to be seen. Tori shows have the right kind of audience, even after all this time. People were civil and generally quiet once she started singing, and that was very nice to see. I had horrible visions of crowd surfing or impromptu mosh pits popping up (okay, not really, but I figured it'd be a little rowdier than it was). All in all a good show, and one that's given me renewed faith in seeing her live. And that's A Good Thing indeed, since during the "Venus" years I was scared off completely.
March 02, 2003
Site tweaks and a little opera humor.
I'm still continuing to tweak this site a bit, and those of you who use news aggregators (I swear by NetNewsWire myself) will be pleased to know that I've modified my RDF file to output full posts, and not just summaries. I've also changed the icons on the sidebar to reflect this using these great icons and Ben Hammersley's RSS 1.0 template (both of which I spotted on MovableBLOG). I still intend to add some more tweaks, as I'm not totally pleased with the way the individual pages or archives look.
And now, a little opera humor. Prior to last night's performance of La Boheme at the Met, a well dressed man (probably the stage director) walked out on stage and said the following:
"For the last four days, our Rodolfo, Ramon Vargas has been stricken with a bad case of influenza (gasps from the crowd). But he's here tonight, and his voice is in great shape. But if you'll pardon our indulgence, the coughs you hear coming from the stage this evening will be from him, and not our consumptive Mimi."
February 27, 2003
Always the man in black.
For a few weeks now, Johnny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around has been a jukebox favorite at the bar I frequent on a regular basis, particularly his rendition of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt." Thanks to an article at Slate, I stumbled across the music video for the song, and I was downright shocked at how good it is.
I can't remember the last music video I saw...it's been at least a few years, probably more than that. Although I must admit I'm very curious to see one by The Strokes, since part of me is dying to know what my old college nemesis has been up to (that's a story for another day). Regardless, this is an unusually honest video, that takes a look back at his career and shows him as he is now. He's not in the best of health and it shows...but what really makes this a powerful bit of cinema are the shots of his wife, both now, as she watches him perform and in archived videos of their better days. It's really something, and apparently my reaction is the same as "Hurt" composer Trent Reznor's. Even if you couldn't care less about Johnny Cash (and shame on you if you don't...you need to hang out in more bars!), check it out. It's definitely worth the four minutes it'll take you to watch.
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