ouij

A: THUNDERDOME

One of my colleagues, who will remain nameless was singing Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" to himself as he edited a paper.

As luck would have it, I would soon be linked to the music video. Pay close attention to the metallic, dome-like structure in whose shadow Miley's shakin' her hips (like yeah!):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA

Hmm. Los Angeles, lots of AutoTune--THAT'S IT. Return with me, teenyboppers, to '95 and Tupac's sublime video for "California Love," about a minute and a half in:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWOsbGP5Ox4

This is, of course, THUNDERDOME:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hQC3nkftrk

So, my gentle readers, let me put it to you: Two tunes enter, one song leaves. Who's it gonna be? Tupac or Miley?

Your note has been created.
My life according to Radiohead
Share
Today at 11:29pm | Edit Note | Delete
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to as many people you like. You can't use the band I used. Do not repeat a song title. Repost as "My Life According to xxx"

Pick Your Artist: Radiohead

Are you a female or male: Bishop's Robes
Describe yourself: Paranoid Android
How do you Feel: Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
Describe Where You Currently Live: Planet Telex
Describe Where You Wish You Could Live: Palo Alto
If You Could Go Anywhere, Where Would You Go: Sail to the Moon (Brush the Cobwebs out of the Sky)
Your favorite form of transportation: 15 Step
Your best friend is: Idioteque
Your favorite color is: Nude
Your favorite animal is: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Favorite Time of Day: Morning Bell
What's the Weather Like: High and Dry
If your life were a tv show, what would it be called: Reckoner
What is Life to You: House of Cards
Your Relationships: Like Spinning Plates
Your fear: A Wolf at the Door (It Girl. Rag Doll.)
What is the best advice you have to give: I Might Be Wrong
If you could change your name, you would change it to: Kid A
Thought for the Day: True Love Waits
How I would Like to Die: A Punchup at a Wedding (No No No No No No No.)
My Soul's Present Condition: Lull
My Motto: Bullet Proof...Wish I was

Yet another shuffle meme

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?
Telephone (Shelby Lynne)

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Burning Man (Third Eye Blind)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
I'm So Happy (Nirvana)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Problems (The Sex Pistols)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
It's a Bird (Parokya ni Edgar)

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?
Flying South Alone (Gold Mind Squad)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
J.S. Bach--Sinfonia No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 792 (Glenn Gould)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Founders Come First--Then Profiteers (Nixon in China, Act 1, Scene 2) (John Adams)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Where It's At (Leonard Nimoy)

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
Southern Comfort (Boban Markovic Orkestar)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
The Fitz (The International Beat)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Do Wah Diddy Diddy (Murray Lachlan Young)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Lee Hyla-- Howl: Poem & Reading by Allen Ginsberg (Kronos Quartet)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Tutte le feste al tempio (Rigoletto, Act. II)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Numbered Days (Mighty Mighty Bosstones)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
I Wish You Would (Train)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Friends Stoning Friends (McLusky)

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?
Walang Nangyari (Parokya ni Edgar)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Life's a Joke (Acoustic) (The Speaks)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Overdrive (Eraserheads)

I just got Philip Glass's Solo Piano album. A bunch of reviewers on Amazon hurl brickbats at Glass's piano-playing--complaining that what would otherwise be excellent music is spoiled by his less than technically perfect playing.

After a few listens in the headphones, I agree-- Glass does seem to stumble in a few places. Where the patterns speed up, you can hear him start to go a bit uneven.

That said, I don't think it detracts unduly from the recording. The five pieces in the "Metamorphosis" cycle are hauntingly simple. Repetitive, yes, but not droning or overwhelming in the way that, say Einstein at the Beach can be. For "out-there" music, it's pretty accessible and (to me, anyway) eminently listenable.

Here's the most famous piece, "Metamorphosis Two"



I really need to go watch The Hours now, because I've heard snips of Glass's score.

I have the Credo from Arvo Part's Berliner Messe stuck in my head. Particularly the little trill that comes in at visibilium omnium et invisibilium

This is probably the umpteenth time I'm going to post this, but I really dig this remix. In about a week, I'm probably going to end up doing a bit of parallel citation for the second verse---I think I've finally worked out allt he cases Jay-Z relies on in his conversation with the cop.

A techno/ambient remix of scenes from Jean-Luc Godard's dystopian sci-fi classic, Alphaville, which has become one of my favorites, despite it's being very strange and very, very French.

I'd been reading the Technology Liberation Front blog a lot lately. In amongst the many interesting & insightful posts was this: a post about Soma FM, which streams commercial-free music in a number of flavors. I personally prefer Cliqhop for my ambient chillout needs.

Go check 'em out.

Also, I've been working on my Raleigh. I haven't been riding all that much, but I've added fenders and a dynamo. Still to come: a sweet French/Belgian alloy chainguard and some dynamo lights. Might want to order up a fender-mount light from St. John's Street Cycles--they're listing a suitable light that's a bargain for £ 9.99 plus shipping--which isn't that bad since the pound has fallen so dramatically against the dollar.

So yeah, pictures soon. Until the build finishes, though, here are a couple of things I think it will look like: Pashley's retro Guv'nor--or perhaps a Velo Orange Gentleman's Bicycle.

Photek: "Full Spectrum Dominance
Folk Implosion: "Leaving It Up to Me"
Spectre, "Memories Now"
Thea Gilmore, "Razor Valentine"
Social Distortion, "So Far Away"

Regular readers will know that I use Rockbox, an open-source firmware replacement for certain digital audio players. Rockbox has recently announced a feature freeze pending the release of version 3--which is cool. Now I expect an orgy of Rockbox bug-squashing.

There's one bug in particular I'd like squashed, as it prevents me from running Rockbox in its full glory on my iRiver H340. But I recently snagged a Sansa e200 player for CHEAP on eBay. The Sansa e200 runs Rockbox, and runs it very well thank you. Indeed, Rockbox on the Sansa is miles better than the factory firmware. Remember to get a Sansa whose factory firmware is v. 1.1 or older, though; the v.2 updated firmware won't run Rockbox.

"Will You Smile Again?" by . . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead.

If you don't want it then you could at least pretend
That the paper's your soul and your blood's in the pen

. . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead performing "Will You Smile Again?"---LIVE.

Massive Attack, "Protection."

. . . you can't change the way she feels, but you can put your arms around her . . .

<3 Kitchie Nadal.

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every entry, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you’re cool

Opening Credits: "'Round Midnight," Stan Getz

First Day At School: "Pipeline," The Chantays Surf Music? WTF. . .

Falling In Love: "Ligaya," Eraserheads Appropriate

Fight Song: "Yellow Ledbetter," Pearl Jam. surreal

Breaking Up: "Colorblind," Counting Crows interesting.

Prom: "Bulletproof," Christopher O'Riley (covering Radiohead). Creepy, considering Barristers' Ball is coming up.

Life's OK: "Lonely Stranger," Eric Clapton

Mental Breakdown: "Sulk" Radiohead

Driving: "Royal Oil," The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Flashback: "Splish Splash" Cappadonna

Getting Back Together: "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan," Bobby Darin

Wedding: "Sunny Came Home," by Shawn Colvin This is getting more and more surreal by the minute

Birth of Child: "Likeness," Virginia Coalition

Final Battle: “Ring of Fire," Johnny Cash

Death Scene: "Let Love Speak Up Itself," The Beautiful South

Funeral Song: "Yakap sa Dilim," Apo Hiking Society This is just bizarre.

End Credits: "A British Tar," Gilber & Sullivan (from "The H.M.S. Pinafore")

I might be the last person on the series of tubes to catch on to this. But as I was shopping for next semester's textbooks, I noticed that Amazon.com has begun offering mp3 downloads!.

OK, go ahead. Be smug. I know that you've all been using the iTunes Music Store for ages and ages. And you know that I've been resisting iTMS and similar services because of my opposition to Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).

Amazon at last has begun to compete with Apple--not just on price, but on the terms offered. The Amazon mp3 store gives me pretty much what I've been missing at much more favorable licensing terms than what Apple has been insisting on for iTMS. This vindicates Judge Easterbrook's opinion in ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg:

Terms of use are no less a part of "the product" than are the size of the database and the speed with which the software compiles listings. Competition among vendors, not judicial revision of a package's contents, is how consumers are protected in a market economy

ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447, 1453 (7th Cir. 1996).

There is still one annoying hurdle. In order to complete your purchase, you must install Amazon's MP3 Downloader. All well and good if you run Windows or OSK--not so much for Linux. Linux users can still purchase individual tracks, but are shut out of purchasing albums at the "album discount" price--

Or at least they were, until mad-scientist took a crack at the problem. He has cleverly figured out a way of using the Amazon MP3 Downloader in Linux with WINE with the help of a bit of bash script-fu.

I've tried it out and it works. This is extremely useful--and possibly ruinous to my budget. But there you have it.
http://mad-scientist.us/amazon.html

Probably the most amazing song/poem written about the post-Martial Law generation in the Philippines: A martial-law kid remembers Batman and simpler days when things made more sense.


Lyrics translated (very) roughly--my Tagalog isn't what it should be. Corrections MORE than welcome:


So--It was 1986 the first time I met Batman. There was no ABS-CBN then: he was on BBC-2. That was the time of Marcos, who was close to dying. There was no Kris Aquino. There was no Boy Abunda. Herman Moreno was still cool. I said, "shit, this is great!" I was inspired when I first saw Batamn. "Shit, this is great," I said to myself. "Batman seems great! great great great great great!" It was like his face had been planed flat. His costume was great--his chest bulged out but his belly didn't hang down. His gadgets were great. His car was great. His house was great. He was good at speaking English. He was great at Karate--actually, all his enemies were like dust, and I'd watch him all the time every afternoon, I'd always fight with our maid because she wanted to see LotLot and Friends and That's Entertainment but for me I only wanted to see one thing. He was my idol.

So he was my idol, right? Robin, not so much because he seemed kind of gay--but I wonder what kind of relationship he had with batman? I used to draw him all the time, I used to imitate him all the time. Everything that was Batman I loved and I had. My T-shirt? Batman. My lunchbox? Batman. My pencil case, my handkerchief, my hat, my toothbrush, my underwear--all Batman. I loved my father because even though we were poor he always used to buy me Batman stuff. But there was one time that I really wanted a Batmobile toy. "Dad, buy me a batmobile!" But he had just been laid off from his job and was out of money because I guess he was in a union and he was on a picket line and he was fired. So he cut up an old sardine can and punched holes in it and put bottlecaps on it and that's when I found out what it meant to love someone.

And the years went by and Batman was nearly eclipsed in my memory, but in one dark corner of my dreams I knew that there still was Batman, a silent, shattered shadow in the darkness and mystery of my mind and my room. But then the winds shifted, the world's turning was messed up, the colors of life faded. Then passed love-affairs and marrages and people you thought you were your friends and who turned out to be bums, the actors you'd watch every day on TV that were idiots, the idiot politicians, the jobs with too little money, a mountain of a million problems, a life of complaints, a world that hates that I couldn't last in, I couldn't handle, I couldn't take any more.

So now I can't really take it any more, I really can't take it I can't take it--I heard an explosion in my brain, the knot's come undone, the volcano's erupted, the eggshell has cracked, so now, on a dark dark night here I am at the very top of a tall, tall building here in Ayala--the wind blows sweetly, billowing my cape. I am raising up my arms. I am raising up my arms. I am raising up my arms. I can almost fly, I can almost fly, I can almost fly--fly, Batman, fly! Fly! Fly! Fly up to the sky, fly! I have raised up my arms--

But suddenly, I remember: Batman can't fly, Batman can't fly, Batman can't fly--so

Goodbye, cruel world--goodbye, my love. Goodbye Mom, goodbye Dad--big brother, big sister, goodbye--goodbye granddad, goodbye grandma, goodbye. . .