Archive for the 'music' Category

Schnauss in da house!

Published on April 15, 2005 in music. 0 Comments

Forgive me if I am overly excited right now. I just discovered that one of my favorite artists is going to be in town next saturday. Ulrich Schnauss. The two albums I’ve heard of his are magnificent. Absolute genius-level techno. That entire genre of music doens’t translate all that well to performance, but I don’t care, I’m just excited to see him, and the merch table!

PS… oh yeah, and I don’t think I’m going to review a poem tonight. I just spent the last four hours doing my taxes. I picked up my copy of Octavio Paz’s collected poems, but only halfheartedly read a few poems before deciding to turn to fiction for the evening. There was one called Certainty that I found pretty interesting. No really good metaphors or imagry, but I like the idea quite a bit. See you on the flipside.

Tattle Tale

Published on March 10, 2005 in music. 1 Comment

Bonfire Madigan (a band containing at least one former member of Tattle Tale,) has a CD out that I hadn’t before seen. It’s a retrospective kind of thing, called i bleed: a decade of song.

It contains the song Glass Vase, Cello Case.

I had heretofore been giving away that mp3 because I’d assumed the song was only available on Tattle Tale’s out-of-print album Sew True. Now that the song is back in print (and making the artists money), I can’t in good conscience give away the song anymore.

Philosophically, I think the artists should probably offer that particular song (one that is incredibly sought after because of its inclusion in the movie But I’m a Cheerleader) for download. This would obviously increase their fanbase, and I have little doubt that many listeners would then want to purchase more music by the artist. (Of course, the artist doesn’t technically exist anymore, so maybe that was part of the decision to release a new CD with the song on it instead.)

Anyway, you can order the CD from their website. I plan on doing so myself as soon as I get a spare minute.

two short poems and an ice cream cone

Published on October 9, 2004 in music. Closed

I didn’t write or post a poem yesterday. I did write a 1200 word short story (that doesn’t actually feel finished quite yet). In a few minutes I’ll post two short ones as penance.

Last night Laura and I went to see Low, Kid Dakota, and the Fog at the Tripplerock. It was an alright show, but toward the end of Low’s set I found I was having trouble standing up. My big toe joint was seriously in pain. I decided to check out the merch table one last time before we left, and I’m glad I did, because I’d somehow missed Dosh’s new album lying there. (Not in stores till Tuesday.) I wanted to make sure it wasn’t the third release of his first album before I got it, (since I picked up the re-release not knowing it was the same album with a different cover — in retrospect a third cover for the same album would be extremely unlikely, but what do I know?), and when I asked him about it, he said he’d have to cut me a deal to make up for my buying the other one on accident. He basically threw in his live album when I bought the new one and the new single. He was really nice about it, seemed like an awesome guy.

After I post this, I’m going to go see John’s art exhibit at the Tilsner in the St. Paul Art Crawl.

There is no ice cream cone.

Mmmm… shower.

Published on October 5, 2004 in music. 1 Comment

I can’t bring myself to update Norton Antivirus. It’s another $50 for a year’s worth of protection. It’s like paying for insurance. I never want to do it. I feel like insurance is legal racketeering.

Laura and I saw the faint tonight at First Ave. Their new album ($10 at the concert) is awesome so far.

This is my six hundred and first blog entry.

I’m trying to decide if my “remix” of jason’s poem counts as my poem for the day. I didn’t write any of the imagery, so I don’t really think it should count. But I’m going to be going to bed soon, so I don’t know if I’ll get around to writing another. Laura is waiting for me in the shower right now. She told me to wait a minute, then come in after her. Yummy.

impending steampunk cinema

Published on September 14, 2004 in about, movies, music and video games. Closed

Tonight is a sneak preview for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I’ve been excited to see this since I first saw the previews what must be at least a year ago. Feels like this movie has been about to come out forever. I’m really only going to see giant robots trampling through a steampunk city.

I reached a milestone today in my “rip all CDs to mp3″ project: I’m finally into the ‘C’s. I have about 215 albums ripped at this point, and about a hundred of them are filed under A or B. At last count, I had about 800 CDs, (but that doesn’t count multi-cd sets or box sets) so at best I’m about a fourth done. Looking at my shelves at home is frustrating though, as the progress seems nowhere near that far.

In City of Hero news, the Atomic Pig made level 19 last night. I’ve sworn I’d make level 20 before the new update comes out… but seeing as how we’ve all already downloaded it (it just hasn’t been “turned on” yet), I’m guessing they’re going to throw the switch sometime very soon. (Which means I may not make my self-imposed deadline.) I didn’t even have to convince laura to create a character the other day when she did. She spent over two hours in the character creation process, and then spent about ten minutes playing before she was tired of it.

I have a new idea for blogistry.com (which I own but have done basically nothing with. I’m thinking about just writing or finding some kind of syndication software to syndicate blogs that are “known” experts in the blog software realm. Ideally, I’d only syndicate entries that were in suitable categories. Of course, this brings up rights issues and all that kind of jazz, so I’d probably want to get permission from everyone first. But the idea is that there’s no way I’m going to be an expert in every blog-related field. Hell, I doubt I’m an expert in ANY blog-related field at this point. My changes to WordPress are still sitting in the back of my brain, unmade and only half-formed.

I notice that I have more desire to read blogs when I’m actually actively blogging. A month or two ago in an IM conversation, Yami said she reads blogs like I play videogames. (Which basically meant for her every day after she gets off work. My video game schedule is much more sporadic and unscheduled.) Anyway, reading even just the ones I want to read is quite a hefty time commitment. I don’t think I was probably ever “into it” to the point where I would read all the ones I wanted to, and I probably never will be. I just hope I can at least keep up with my friend’s blogs for a while at least. (But by “keep up” I don’t mean every day or anything.)

It is interesting to note the rate at which emails and comments about my last entry have hit my ears and inbox. I suppose it carried a fair bit of “heavy” news, and coupled with your inability to leave comments here, you’re probably all just dying to express some kind of sympathy. I’m not sure where I’m going with this, other than to reassure people that it’s probably not as bad as it all sounded. I was quite depressed, but have been much better. Laura and I are good, but not really in danger of getting engaged again any time soon. (And she has certainly not expressed a desire to do so, despite having occasionally seemed wistful and upset about it herself.) I don’t think I’m going to go into all the gory details here, (although some part of me wants to) mostly because they’re over, and I want to focus on the present.

…like Sky Captain in T-minus 1.5 hours.

sweet movies and music

Published on April 22, 2004 in movies and music. 0 Comments

Last night I watched the Hero DVD I bought off ebay last week. I invited a few people over to watch it, but by the time they all got there, Nate was playing DDR in the living room, so a few of them did that, while I finished up a puzzle in the kitchen with Keith and Mike. It got to be 11, and everybody had to get up early, so they all left me to watch it by myself.

The movie feels a lot like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It doesn’t have quite the emotional impact of Crouching Tiger, but the cinematography and visuals are at least as good if not better. Also, I think there may be more/better fight scenes overall (a few more viewings are needed to make that judgement, however). Anyway, the fight scenes were very well done. Hell, everything about the movie was well done.

I posted a pic of the import dvd cover over on the moblog.

Today’s other news is that I picked up my listener appreciation gift for buying 25 watts from RadioK this morning. (Also wrote them a rather fat check while I was there–each watt is $10, you do the math.) Anyway, 25 watts was the only way I could get the complete first year of Some Assembly Required on CD. (I called and asked, believe me.) Seeing as how it’s the only radio show I really try to catch, and also seeing as how I basically almost never do, I figured it was worth the money–plus it’s a really good cause in general.

Cool link of the day: This Flash movie illustrating a song made entirely in windows SNDREC32.EXE. It’s a pretty sweet song actually, and worth listening to.

things that I used to do

Published on September 3, 2003 in music. 6 Comments

“lower than the ocean
swimming in the sea
like I’m a starfish
check me, baby
shining all night long
just to get some…”
-g-love

All the lyrics sites out there think it’s “like I’m a swordfish”, but I’ve always heard it “like I’m a starfish”. (Makes it more clever that way.) I’ll have to go home and listen to it tonight. I had it stuck in my head this morning when I woke up, and thought about bringing it to work. Guess I should have.

Now I’m listening to the Fugee’s version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Weird shit. (Not that the original wasn’t weird as fuck.) Also covered by the fugees and listened to this morning: “Killing Me Softly With His Song”, and “No Woman, No Cry”.

I recently re-alphabetized my CD collection, which may have jarred my brain back into music listening mode.

Also on my playlists recently: The new Weakerthans album, Mara Naylor singing Naked and Sacred (in about fifty remixes), and the Street’s album Original Pirate Material.

We’re living in this incredible flux.

Published on February 19, 2002 in books and music. 2 Comments

We’re living in this incredible flux. This book I read, some really dumbass science-fiction psychology focused book–Cyteen–was constantly talking about how we live in flux. How our minds are full of contradictions, and that causes us to “flux” which really just meant let our emotions control our actions. I don’t think lack of thought automatically means we’re acting based on our emotions. I’m not even sure the book meant this. I’m getting what the book was saying and what I’m trying to say all mixed up. It’s not important about the book. It’s one of those epic things that’s far too long to forget. I wish it had been much shorter (like 400 pages shorter) and I’d have already forgotten all about it.

Anyway, I feel moody today. In flux. Maybe it’s the moon. Maybe it’s the stars. Probably it’s just my weird sleep patterns that end up getting in the way of work and my schedule for the day.

I bought the new Freddy Fresh album. It’s grand. Good-ole techno. Hard beats and catchy loops that go on for probably too long. It’s his first american release, and I’ve got one of his imports (the one with the fatboy slim remix on it) and I think this is better.

I’m gonna go take a shower, and wash away the moody sleep-eye residue. Water falls different on my head now. It doesn’t run down my hair. If there’s anything I miss about my hair, it was the way the hot water sorta soked into it slowly, moving it’s way down my back like a snake or something. Now the water is just there, instantly, and it slides off my head just as fast, heating my scalp for only so long.

I recommend everyone go from having really long hair to shaving their head once in their life. It’s like you’re a new person, only you’re still the same. And everyone comments about it, even people you don’t talk to that often. (or, as was the case yesterday, people you never talk to–a waitress at a bar I go to two or three times a month with co-workers came up to me and made some comment.)

The response to the change so far has been very positive. I don’t have any weird lumps on my head or anything. I look tougher now, I guess, and my ear-rings stick out more, which I think is good. I’ve always wanted to look more punk, without actually doing anything terribly drastic. OK, so I guess shaving my head is kinda darastic. Maybe. Really, I’m just afraid Yami is going to never speak to me now. (And, as predicted–not here–she hasn’t really been writing me since she got back to caltech. So I wouldn’t even notice a difference… not that I’m bitter. ;)