Circadian Shift

I had a couple days downtime between contracts this week (I start a new gig on Monday), which gave me the chance to catch up on a few things, like sleep. And music. Lots and lots of music.

I went and bought Coldplay's latest album, X&Y (thank you, iTunes). As mentioned previously, I'm fairly new in catching on to Coldplay. The new album is OK, but I don't like it as much as I liked A Rush of Blood to the Head.

Also, I joined eMusic, finally succumbing to the "try us for two weeks and get 50 MP3s for free" pitch. So, for my free trial, I got the following albums:

• Funeral by The Arcade Fire -- this has gotten some good reviews from various music bloggers, and even my regular weekday morning mainstream radio station recently started playing the track "Rebellion (Lies)"; I like it, although some of the tunes sound kind of similar to me
• Light & Magic by Ladytron -- "Ladytron?" you're saying, "How 2002!" and you'd be right; although I'd heard a few of their tracks back in the day, and even saw them perform live, I'd never heard one of their albums in its entirety; I nearly bought Light & Magic once in HMV, but balked at the price ($21.99, IIRC) -- I'm glad I didn't buy it then, because listening to it now, I don't think it's really held up all that well
• Ciao! 1989-1996 by Lush -- another attempt to backfill the gaps in my music collection; I had an ancient cassette of Lush tunes that a friend made for me, and a handful of MP3s that I found online, but never actually "bought" anything from them before now
• Ultimate Sleep System by Ambient Music Therapy -- the above three albums brought my total up to 47 tracks, so this release -- 3 tracks of ambient electronic noise, clocking in at 25 mintues each -- filled out my 50 track quota

The one silly thing that eMusic does, IMHO, is that they don't encourage you to browse the catalogue before signing up -- a real mistake, because I think most people would want to know if the music that they offer is any good before forking over all their information (plus credit card number). Fortunately, you can circumvent the "start your free trial now" splash screen by clicking one of the footer links (such as the one for 'Privacy Policy'). From there you can access the navigation to browse through the various musical genres that they offer. There's some really good stuff there, particularly for indie/alternative fans; the electronica section is also strong, and my jaw dropped when I saw their jazz offerings -- classic releases from Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk, Bill Evans, and more.

I've elected to go for monthly "40 MP3s for $9.95 (US)" package (sign up before August 31st and get 20% off an annual subscription), which, if you do the math (between 2 and 4 albums per month, on average) is a damn good deal. I've already queued up enough stuff in my 'Save for Later' list to take care of the first nine or ten months.

In terms of other media consumption, I went to see the movie The Island (Flash site) (IMDB info here). I enjoyed it, although the film's taken a real beating from the critics, mostly due to Michael Bay's noisy and chaotic directing -- I won't disagree, as the sound and visuals can be rather overwhelming at times. But the story's interesting, if you're willing to forgive a few plot holes.

On my way home today, when I got to the subway and reached the turnstile, I pulled out my keys instead of the coin purse which holds my tokens.

Oops.

As you might have guessed, the mood board is late because I have been very busy.

Last week in four bullet points:

• spent a lot of time at the computer
• saw the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin and enjoyed it
• played a lot of different MP3s; someone overhead me playing a track from MC5 and concluded that I'm a "headbanger"
• also played some 90s/early-00s era Madonna tunes on Sunday afternoon, which provided a nice pick-me-up while working at said computer

As most of us know, blogging from work is supposed to be bad. However, I presently feel no guilt in doing so, because:

1. It's Saturday.
2. I'm eating lunch (leftover pad thai from last night) right now.

Just wanted to share a pic found on this page, via the toothpastefordinner mailing list.

There's really nothing I can add to that.

Addendum 23 August 2005: There are more moneymaking signs here.

Extremely busy week at work. Deadlines will do that to you.

Also set a new personal record for staying late at the office: 4 am. I know, there are probaly a few of you out there saying "why, that's nothing -- one time I was at the office for (insert ridiculously high number here) hours straight." Congratulations -- you win (or lose).

Anyway, the MP3-CD Walkman was pumping out a stready stream of tunes, most of which I don't really remember. I do know that several mixes from SonicSunset.com figured prominently on one day -- might have beeen Wednesday or Thursday. DJs Matt and Dave are always a good source of old-school electro, mixed in with new stuff, so go check them out if you like that sort of thing.

BTW, pix on the board this week are all courtesy of stock.xchng.

OMG, it's only Wednesday and I've already put in 12 hours of overtime at work this week.

Anyway, here's some tunage that'll take you back...

Silence Is a Rhythm Too has been such a fountain of MP3 riches lately, that I should just display the RSS feed in the sidebar or something instead of sending you over there every few days. Anyway, the latest offering is an extended mix of The Beloved's "Hello", and there's a pointer to the group's official site where you can download many more MP3s.

Meanwhile gabba / pod has the KLF's "What Time Is Love?" (KLF vs. The Moody Boys remix edition). (Note that free registration is required to download; the MP3s are located in the left-hand frame -- some scrolling may be required.)

Anyway, you probably won't hear from me again before Sunday, so have a nice rest-of-the-week.

It's sad, but a busy week can make for a boring mood board.

I went to work and... well... worked. It was busy, but productive (and, of course, it was a short work week). However, the coffee maker was broken during the latter part of the week, so you can imagine what that was like. If it hadn't been for an ample supply of strong tea, I probably would have died.

When not working, I did a lot of walking around. And, it was hot outside.

Media consumption of note:

• I finally got around to seeing the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle on DVD. It's a fun, ambling sort of buddy flick, nominally about a quest for the ultimate burger, but of course all sorts of wacky stuff happens on the way there. Not exactly The Odyssey, but better than what first impressions might lead you to believe.
• Been liking the song "Mushaboom" by Feist. It's a charming, idyllic sort of track, perfect to listen to on hot, lazy summer afternoons.

(Thanks to toothpastefordinner for the oh-so-appropriate cartoon. Other pix came from stock.xchng and FreeFoto.com.)

• In praise of grumpiness
  "We try and we try and we try and we try, but we can't get no satisfaction. And that's okay, because humans weren't meant to be happy"
  (tags: meta squishy)
• A nation's happiness
  "The 25 most contented societies, as judged by the latest World Values Survey"
  (tags: meta squishy)
• Don't hurry, be happy
  "How the once-speed-addicted Carl Honore became the guru of the slow movement"
  (tags: meta squishy)
• Slow is beautiful
  Excerpt from "In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed"
  (tags: meta squishy)

Some MP3 goodness for you:

• gabba / pod (free registration required) has "The Promise" by When In Rome (scroll down a bit in the left hand frame)
• Blow Up Doll has "I Know What Boys Like" by The Waitresses
• Alarm Will Sound is a classical music ensemble who performs tunes by Aphex Twin (courtesy of bomarr blog)
• copy, right?'s latest offering of cover tunes includes Kirsty MacColl covering The Smiths, The Housemartins covering The Isely Brothers, Propaganda covering The Velvet Underground, and more...
• lastly, Lost Bands of The New Wave Era has posted "Baby Judy" by The Hawaiian Pups

The week got off to a fairly idyllic start, then took a shift about halfway through.

Monday and Tuesday were typical 'lifestyles-of-the-unemployed' days, with lots of puttering around and napping.

On Wednesday morning the phone rang. The company whom I was recently contracting with needed me to come back and do some more work, so I was back in there -- and hence back into employment-time-and-space -- before noon. The next two weeks promise to be more of the same.

As for the weekend, Saturday was spent in the city, and it was hot humid. Then, yesterday "N" and I made a day trip up to Wasaga Beach, where it was... rainy and cold. It figures.

On the media consumption side, I went to go see Wedding Crashers. It's a reasonably enjoyable light comedy -- if you like Vince Vaughan or Owen Wilson in other comedies, you won't be disappointed here. Fun, but hardly a cinema classic.

I've also been trying to catch up on the huge backlog of work-related books I have, so this week's reading selection has been The Elements of User Experience. It's a short book (that's a good thing), and serves as a useful refresher, especially if you need to articulate to other people what the heck it is that you do.