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Over at The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century, Joey relates how he was threatened by Quick Boys Moving & Storage over a negative comment about the business that someone posted on his blog.
Of course, the ensuing blogostorm has ensured that the bad publicity that Quick Boys was so eager to avoid has been multiplied tenfold (just getting covered in BoingBoing alone means that several thousand people have read about it).
Oops. Or, rather, HaHa!
Smashed Robot has put together a mix of Deluxe Rock Songs to commemorate his 26th birthday (!).
There's plenty there to appeal to the thirty-something crowd however, as the mix includes tunes from Squeeze, Blondie, The Buzzcocks, The Jam, Joy Division, and many more old faves. Also thrown into the mix is some newer stuff that harkens back to the old sound (including The Futureheads covering Kate Bush's "The Hounds of Love").
(Speaking of Kate Bush, Kick & Go has a bunch of Kate Bush mp3s available for download.)
The last two posts from Take Your Medicine feature tunage from The Go! Team.
Today's post includes "The Power is On", a song that saw some heavy morning play for me a few weeks back, while Tuesday's post has the song "Bottle Rocket".
And, just thought I'd mention again that you can buy The Go! Team's album Thunder, Lightning, Strike in MP3 format from Bleep for $9.99 (US) -- a pretty good deal considering that we here in North America are stuck paying import prices if we want it on CD.
Bleep encodes their MP3s at an average bit rate of around 205kbps VBR, so the quality is better than what you'd typically find online. As well, there's no evil DRM, and you can play the tunes using any hardware or software that plays MP3s. And their catalogue includes a lot of artists and labels that you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere. Go check 'em out -- I like them a lot.
Addendum 29 July 2005: Billboard reports that The Go! Team has signed with Columbia Records, and that Thunder, Lightning, Strike will see release in the U.S. (and, presumably, Canada) in September. The disc will also feature "two additional songs and new vocal arrangements for 'Bottle Rocket'". (via Silence is a Rhythm Too)
I meant to mention this sooner, but all this week Silence is a Rhythm Too is featuring mp3s made classic 12-inch singles, ca. late 80s/early 90s. So far, there's been some good stuff there.
I have to admit though, prior to today's post, this was the only "Bass-o-matic" I was familiar with.
After six weeks of frenetic activity, the pace over the last week slowed significantly.
My contract ended two Fridays ago (yep, it was quick), so the last week was spent updating the resume, talking to recruiters, and hitting the usual sites in search of a new gig.
Mind you, whatwith the now extremely flexible schedule and the very hot temperatures, a lot of napping also took place. Gotta work on that.
On the media side, I picked up the Special Edition DVD of the Oscar-winning animated short film Ryan (which made an appearance on a previous mood board). To recap:
"Ryan, directed by Chris Landreth, is an animated tribute to Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Thirty years ago, at the National Film Board of Canada, Ryan produced some of the most influential animated films of his time. Today, Ryan lives on welfare and panhandles for spare change in downtown Montreal. How could such an artistic genius follow this path?"
The DVD includes three animated short films by Larkin himself, as well as two older shorts from Landreth. Also included is the 52-minute documentary Alter Egos (directed by Laurence Green), which further compares and contrasts the careers of Larkin and Landreth.
I haven't watched Alter Egos yet, but it's been interesting to see and compare the animated shorts. Larkin's work has a cheery, whimsical quality to it, although the pacing seems draggy by current standards. The two earlier pieces from Landreth are technically slick, but seem a bit too clever by half. Ryan itself remains compelling, even after repeated viewings -- in all likelihood, there will be a few more.
Can I just say something here...
I don't give a rat's ass about Harry Potter.
I haven't read any of the books, or seen the movies. It's not a question of like or dislike -- I'm simply not interested. Meh.
Here's a nice take on an old Far Side cartoon about people who don't like Harry Potter.
(via Manifesto Multilinko)
Has it been totally freaking hot this week, or what?
Admittedly, I wasn't outside very much during the week, having spent most of it spent head down at the computer, sucking back the coffee, and bashing out use cases, among other things. Yeah, I know -- I'm boring you.
I don't even have any notable media consumption to report -- while the headphones and CD Walkman got a good workout, it all was just one big long soundtrack to type along with.
The weekend, at least, has been largely recreational in nature, as "N" and I made the drive down to Niagara Falls. There was the requisite trek to view the mind-boggingly huge quantities of water falling over a cliff, as well as the flashy cheesiness of Clifton Hill.
And there was Casino Niagara, where I performed an amazing feat of magic known as making some $20 bills disappear into various shiny machines with blinking lights. I won't deny that there is some sort of buzz factor that happens when you gamble -- and those lights and the blipping sounds can be surprisingly hypnotic. However, the sober realization that you don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning anything (let alone making back what you've already fed into the machine) tends to dampen the amusement factor of pressing a bunch flashing buttons over and over again. This meant (fortunately) that the trip to the casino was relatively short and inexpensive.
It is 6 am on Saturday and I am awake.
That is so wrong.
Yeah, so my excuse for being late with the mood board this week is that I had the board and the writeup all ready to go, and then my internet connection went down. It's always something, isn't it?
Anyway, the job thing is still going on. Still busy. Don't worry, though -- despite what it sounds like, I actually really like what I'm doing. It's just been hectic, is all.
There have been so many details to attend to, that there've been a couple times during the week that I've found myself with a severe case of monkey mind. Just jumping around from one thing to the next to the next. Have to keep reminding myself to calm down and stick to one thing at a time.
On the media side, I finally broke down and bought The Go! Team's album Thunder, Lightning, Strike (in MP3 form, from Bleep). The Go! Team has appeared on the mood board twice before, thanks to the single "Ladyflash". The rest of the album serves up more of the same -- great beats, cheery melodies, and a real 'get up and go' attitude that just brightens your day. The track "The Power is On" has become a 9AM favourite of mine.
My other acquisition of note was a pair of Sony MDRNC6 Noise Cancelling Headphones. I'd been toying with getting a pair for a while, and the fact that the HVAC system at work is so freaking loud is what pushed me over the edge. Here's a blurb from the product detail page:
"Noise Canceling Headphones reduce ambient noise, and provide a quieter environment to enhance audio entertainment. Ambient sound is synthesized with an anti-sound signal produce (sic) by the noise canceling circuit, and reduced (Over 10dB is reduced at 300Hz)"
The 'phones work pretty well in an indoor setting (both underneath the wretched HVAC, and when riding the subway) -- they don't block out all external sound, of course, but the worst of it is gone. The noise-cancelling function even works if you don't have any music playing. However, it takes some getting used to. While I couldn't actually hear the "anti-sound signal", my ears could still somehow tell that there was something being transmitted, which left me for the first day with a sensation akin to the inner-ear pressure you feel when you're in an airplane, or when you go up the elevator in the CN Tower quickly. After a couple days' use, it didn't affect me as much.
BTW, I found that the noise-cancelling feature didn't work outdoors when there was a breeze -- the sound of the wind whistling through the earpieces was actually amplified through the circuit. Not good. You can, however, turning off the noise-cancelling thing and use the headphones just like conventional ones, which is what I ended up doing when outside.
The other thing too, is that, since the noise cancelling feature runs on a battery, I have to remember to turn my headphones off when I stop listening to music.
It's been over two months since I last did a retro MP3 upload to Circadian Shift: The Outpost.
Part of the reason is because I've just been busy. The other reason is that, if you've tried at all to visit the site in the last six weeks or so, more often than not the page has looked like this.
That's because the service I've been using, ProHosting has put a bandwidth cap on their free accounts. They've also imposed various limitations on the type and size of file that you can host with said accounts, although I haven't been contacted in any way to take down the media files I've got up there now. I've just been peppered with regular emails telling me that my daily bandwidth limit has been exhausted.
So, I've taken down the MP3s that were in the "Rotating Collection" (I think someone was direct-linking some of the files, because nothing was showing up on SiteMeter indicating where everyone was coming from). I'll leave up the "Permanent Collection" for the time being.
I do have the option to upgrade my ProHosting account to one of their paid hosting packages and the caps will be removed, but I don't think I'll bother. Not that I begrudge them for putting limits on their free service -- I got a good two-and-half years of unfettered use out of them before this, and, well, things happen and life goes on.
I'll probably be making use of another free hosting service for my MP3s for the next while (which is what I did for that ZIP file of Carpenters tracks that I put up on Sunday). There are a few different ones out there to choose from.
Back in May, regnyouth put up this overview of various free file sharing services with some notes on their limitations. Since then, a few of them that he's listed have changed their terms of service, so, as always, YMMV.
It's sad that the last entry made in this blog was last week's mood board (and I'm late with this one). All work and no play is making me very dull indeed.
Actually, things have eased off a bit chez office. It's still busy, but not the insane pressure-cooker like in previous weeks. I must getting the hang of things. Still, much of the week was spent at the computer, cranking out flowcharts.
And I still had time for some media consumption...
Yes, I had the TV on for a good chunk of Saturday to watch the Live 8 broadcast (although I went out in the afternoon -- hey, it was a nice day outside). There's a decent overview at Wikipedia of what the event entailed, as well as criticisms of it.
I saw the movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (here's the link to the official site -- needs Flash). While I knew the basic outline of what happened, this movie filled in a lot of the details, and brought out the people behind the headlines.
It just boggles my mind how the key players managed to emerge relatively unscathed, after ripping off thousands of people -- including their own employees. As Roger Ebert writes in his review of the film:
"Strange, that there has not been more anger over the Enron scandals. The cost was incalculable, not only in lives lost during the power crisis, but in treasure: The state of California is suing for $6 billion in refunds for energy overcharges collected during the phony crisis. If the crisis had been created by Al Qaeda, if terrorists had shut down half of California's power plants, consider how we would regard these same events."
Lastly, there was this week's musical nostalgia selection, namely The Carpenters. Yeah, shut up -- if they were good enough for the likes of Sonic Youth and Matthew Sweet to pay tribute to ten years ago, they should be good enough for you.
Actually, I come by my Carpenters fanhood quite honestly. Back in the day, my dad had an 8-track tape of their hits that he used to play in our van frequently during our drives up north to the cottage. (Geez, nothing says "The 70s" quite like the words "8-track" and "van", huh?) I knew them all, and of course I sang along. Obviously, my voice was nowhere nearly as good as Karen's.
Just because, here's a ZIP file (EXPIRED) (6.85 MB) with two of their tunes. "Only Yesterday" was the duo's last Top Five hit (they actually thought the track was going to bust the charts wide open, but it didn't get any higher than #4). There's something about the lyrics and the way the song builds that reminds me a little of The Ronette's "Be My Baby". (OK, maybe very little.) The other song in the ZIP, "Superstar", had already been recorded by other artists (including Bette Midler) before The Carpenters got ahold of it; they really managed to make the tune their own.
If you go to this page of Sonic Youth MP3s (from their official website), you can download their cover of "Superstar". It may be almost blasphemous of me to say it, but I think it surpasses Karen and Richard's version. You can decide for yourselves.
(Note 1: The flowchart shown on the board is not one of mine, but is this one. Also, the pic of the computer user is not me; I got it from some free stock photo site, can't remember which.)
(Note 2: The ZIP file is being hosted on RapidShare, which will entail a wee bit of clicking before you get to the actual download link. And, you won't be able to use a download accelerator -- just right-click and "Save As...").
