Commercinals*

Royksopp, Melody A.M.

Apparently this album has risen to #503 on the Amazon Charts on the basis of the "GEICO Caveman Commercial" that features "Remind Me". So, it's not cool to like anymore, and I am selling my copy that features a bonus disk of remixes and videos. If the above link doesn't work, someone has snapped it up at a bargain price.

Seriously though, this is the album that introduced me to the stylings of Erlend Oye. I skipped Kings of Convenience when I read the reviews, because I don't really like Simon & Garfunkel. But then it turns out that I do like the KoC.

The brilliant new era of sampling music online has made me a much happier person.

*My daughter calls commericials "commercinals"- we TiVo everything, so she doesn't see many and gets very excited when they do come on.

You can't find this anywhere

I think concept blogs are better than random "personality (or lack thereof)" blogs like this schlumpf you are reading at this very moment for some reason unknown to me. Dalston Oxfam Shop is one such blog. The genius behind this one grabs a tape from the cheapo bin at the Dalston Oxfam shop and makes and mp3, plus commentary and a scan of the cover. As usual, I am late on this one, as an awesome post was featured on the BBC on Oct 26- however I didn't happen to be listening to radio 6 at that moment. I didn't even know there was a BBC Radio 6. Reminds me of ESPN 8 "el ocho" from the dodgeball movie. Anyway, it clears up some of the mystery about where taxi music used to come from. In case anyone was wondering.

Rock on.

Quiet is how I like it

December was a month to remember...so why have I forgotten?

I have been awash in the world of mp3 blogs and music. For too long, I have been living basically in silence. I have purchased nearly 1000 albums in various forms- CD, cassette, vinyl, the hideous AAC itunes format which is going to kill your cat, etc. I have now realized, I don't like the silence, I just want the quiet. Loud music is great when you are trying to make your life more exciting. When you live in a world that is too loud- children screaming and other family disturbances, work, cars and buses and trucks, the constant whirring hum of fans...I just needed some quiet sounds. I am thinking about Kings of Convenience here. It's the medicine for whatever it is that's wrong with me- and something definitely is wrong. If you listen to the Erlend Oye DJ-Kicks album and don't like it, I am sorry. If you already have, I am just a late to the game guy on this. But really, it is something that everyone has to listen to, because if you like it, it could change your life, or something, maybe.

To get started with the new way to find music, or to have it find you- you check out a blog like fluxblog(nyc) or indie mp3(uk). It's music writing, with a twist, you get to hear the music. If you like the song, you can buy the album. Then you find the hype machine- a blog aggregator that collects link from across the galaxy of blogs into a playable stream.

There's so much going on.

The most efficacious level

I have a naive trust in the universe......that at some level it all makes sense, and we can get glimpses of that sense if we try.”
......Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (as quoted in the little book of flow)

At which level does the universe make sense? It depends. Different parts make sense at different levels. You don't use particle physics to understand human behavior, the level of complexity would make it impossible to see why certain quarks could explain why I am in a bad mood. But you could use chemistry to explain it- neurotransmitter levels surely appear to be highly correlated to mood. Maybe it's something more circumstantial, like doing the dishes after midnight on a Saturday that provides the most sense making. Or an ethernet switch with an overly noisy fan. Things that make my flow static. Then again, sometimes you really can't point to the circumstances, but the chemistry is still there. Serotonin is low, sadness is high. So is the chemistry the better explanation, or is the universe the circumstance?

Consumed by Consumption

"Most jobs and many leisure
activities—especially those involving the passive
consumption of mass media—are not designed to
make us happy and strong. Their purpose is to
make money for someone else. If we allow them
to, they can suck the marrow out of our lives,
leaving only feeble husks.” -Andy Hunt?

Well, I don't know if the purpose is to make money for someone else, but I suppose that it is at least one of their purposes.

Even without being passive, browsing the internet often becomes wasting time.

There is no real purpose in the mere accumulation of knowledge. We must apply that accumulation.

Do. Create. Live.

Accept Yourself

Google Wisdom

Today's mantra: Accept Yourself

The Smiths

Dreams have a knack of just not coming true
And time is against me now...

Everything is hard to find
When you will not open your eyes
When will you accept yourself ?

But it's not just for the depressed:

Vedanta
If elephants spent their time wishing they were goldfish, or peacocks spent their time wishing they were crows, they'd live totally useless and disharmonious lives.

Sometime, something simple, repeated, becomes real.

Dilbert

I suggested a few cleverly designed, hypnosis-inspired phrases that were the linguistic equivalent of Kung Fu. They were simple (that’s my specialty), and once you heard these phrases, they made any competing ideas seem frankly stupid. Think of Johnny Cochran’s famous refrain “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” In my opinion, O.J. is a free man largely because of that phrase. My phrases worked the same way.

The people in high places tried my phrases. The phrases became world headlines the next day. I could tune the TV to any news channel and hear my words coming out of pundits’ mouths. The phrases smothered the competing ideas and just maybe changed the course of world events. (One can never know for sure.)

Today's Mantra: Accept Yourself.

This doesn't mean, don't change, don't improve, but understand and admit where you are starting from. How else will you know if you are making progress?

Welcome to School, Commence the Begging

But I will no longer sell, cook, walk, wash cars, run or beg for any school fundraising project. Frankly, I've done my time. I've sold my share of candy bars, wrapping paper, tumblers of tiny jelly beans, cookies and books. I deserve time off for good selling. I'm tired of begging.

That was from a great column in the Washington Post on the begging that children are forced into by their schools. It's really really stupid to waste children's time this way, and teaches them some goofy principles about selling overpriced garbage for a good cause. Why can't they sell something that people want at a fair price? If schools want to go into business- let them...have the students earn money on the mechanical turk so they can learn the true value of their labor.

In the meantime, shouldn't they be wasting their time doing homework? Graded homework sucks- school is about learning, not about proving who can do the most work. If you need two hours of homework to get the test scores you want, then do it. If you don't, then don't! There was nothing worse than sitting there going through hours of problems that were easy but time consuming, making stupid things on poster board, etc. It totally demoralized me in school...but now I am much better at dealing with meaninglessness...

Asobi Seksu

How out of touch am I? I knew/know nothing about this crew, except that maybe they are from NYC, etc. from their bio. Beautiful music though. I found it with one of those "people who liked this also liked" features when I was grabbing some early 90s Moose ("Honey Bee") on emusic. There is a lot of music out there these days that has evolved from that line of shimmery guitar stuff. I can trace the temporary demise in my interest in guitar music to the ascendancy of plague known as grunge. Loved Nirvana, hated Pearl Jam and there guttural imitators.

There's something nice too about not having to understand any of the lyrics that are in Japanese. It's always a worry when there is a band you like, but the lyrics are exceedingly vapid. I prefer to just hear total nonsense, or something that I just have no hope of understanding. Of course, there is the danger that they are saying totally idiotic things and you are singing along. A tough guy Russian cab driver that took me from the airport in Moscow to my hotel while singing along to the Backstreet Boys comes to mind. Fortunately I can't sing, so there's little danger of that particular embarassment.

Anyway, this Asobi Seksu album, Citrus, is more structured than a lot of the shoegazy stuff. The rhythmic underbelly of the band is a lot more modern sounding than the 90s stuff was. It gives the vocals and the guitar effects something to ride on, really a lot more pleasant to listen to.

I'll have to give it a few more listens before I drop my final rating on it, but it's got some definite 5 star tracks and few real clunkers.

iTunes Music Store = Garbage

The iTunes Music Store is for the short-sighted. Speaking as recently cured member of this sect, I have to say...stop buying AAC files now! What's an AAC file you might ask? Why, it's a file that only plays on your iPod and in your licensed copy of iTunes. Unless you burn it to a CD and burn it back to a nice format, like OGG or MP3- losing all track metadata (artist, title, album, etc.) unless you burn the CDs whole, which doesn't work if you're only buying the good songs, as is my wont.

You may not have been burned by this yet, but as more non-Apple options for entertainment become prevalent- you will be, you will be.

The alternatives- if you like independent music, emusic.com is great. If you like buying from dodgy Russians, allofmp3.com is even better. And now, MySpace is letting artists make money more or less directly from downloads on their pages.

Prediction: Fox will be one the biggest "record labels" in five years, if the others don't adapt, they could just go away.

I am interested to see what Universal's Spiral Frog thing turns out to be, but if it doesn't output MP3, I am not interested.

Pride...

The Dilbert Blog: Yay! Both Sides Won!

If you want to win the Nobel Peace Prize, figure out a way to trade land for pride.

I don't think it's all about pride in the mid-east, but I do think we need to approach the negotiations from a different perspective. We can't give the same land to everyone: people can't seem to share. Getting back to pride though, it's unfortunate that pride often means dominance over an other. That's the cheapest way to get respect.