09.30.07
Less Talk More Rokk — Freezepop
09.29.07
Thank You Girl — Beatles Wives and Girlfriends
We have enjoyed the recent interviews that Pattie Boyd, former wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, has given in connection with her biography Wonderful Tonight.
Boyd was the inspiration for some of the most famous rock songs ever written including “Something” by The Beatles, and “Layla” and “Old Love” by Eric Clapton. She still looks wonderful, and it’s cool how she can look back at the past with great memories.
While searching Youtube for related stuff, we came across this great video which features each of The Beatles and their girlfriends and wives.
It’s a slideshow, obviously made by a fan, set to the music of “Thank You Girl”. I think it’s touching how well the song works with the images.
Link (to video on Youtube)
Link (to Patti Boyd British TV interview on Youtube)
Fanta Mystery Flavor
There are always a lot of cool soda pop flavors here in Japan, but my favorite is the new Fanta that just came out — it’s Mystery Flavor!
I was delighted to find a bottle at the convenience store a few nights ago. I could immediately tell that it was some unknown flavor by the GIANT QUESTION MARKS and WALKING FRUIT featured on the label.
The soda apparently contains two kinds of fruit and you have to guess which ones. According to Fanta’s website, the drink will be connected to an elaborate new cell phone mystery game.
I have not yet attempted to guess the fruits, but I hope this drink stays around for a while. It’s delicious!
rating: FIVE stars (out of five possible)
Link (to another picture of bottle on Flickr.com)
Link (to Fanta Japan website)
09.27.07
Red Dirt Girl
A recent promotional tour by Emmylou Harris reminded me of her great CD Red Dirt Girl.
I bought Red Dirt Girl when it came out in 2000, impressed by its predecessor, the critically acclaimed Wrecking Ball.
But, amazingly, Red Dirt Girl was even better than that one. It stayed in my CD player a long, long time and I also found myself strumming along to it on guitar. It really brings back memories of my last two years of grad school.
Red Dirt Girl is beautiful sonically (helped by Malcolm Burn’s great production), but is also special in another way. After a career of only occasional songwriting, Harris surprisingly wrote all the songs for the album herself.
Stand-out tracks include “Michelangelo”, “Boy From Tupelo”, “Tragedy” and “Bang The Drum Slowly”.
Now that June Carter is gone, Emmylou Harris easily has the best female voice in country music.
Link (to “Red Dirt Girl” entry on All Music Guide)
Link (to recent NPR performance, featuring live versions of “The Pearl” and “Boy From Tupelo”)
Amazon launches AmazonMP3 Beta
It looks like Amazon.com has just about perfected MP3 selling with their new AmazonMP3 store.
All the MP3s they sell are DRM-free, and they are as easy to search through as regular Amazon.com.
The selection looks decent. A quick browse shows almost the entire Steely Dan and Paul McCartney solo catalogs, for example.
The price is still WAY too high though, especially when the alternatives that consumers have are physical CDs (for about the same price) or file sharing (no price).
But, flaws aside, this looks about like what the entire record industry should have done in 1998 before it was too late.
“Amazon MP3 is an all-MP3, DRM-free catalog of a la carte music from major labels and independent labels, playable on any device, in high-quality audio, at low prices,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music. “This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta, and today we’re excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta. We look forward to receiving feedback from our customers and using their input to refine the service.”
Link (to boingboing post, “Amazon launches AmazonMP3 Beta”)
09.25.07
By The Time I Get Home
Link (to “By The Time I Get Home” video by Grand National on Youtube)
09.24.07
Pareidolia Fun
“According to Carl Sagan, human beings are, as a survival technique, ‘hard-wired’ from birth to identify the human face.
This allows people to use only minimal details to recognize faces from a distance and in poor visibility, but can also lead them to interpret random images or patterns of light and shade as being faces.” – from Reference.com
Here is a cool collection of images that look like faces.
Link (to Faces In Places blog)
09.23.07
Vista System Reboots
Someone recently sent me a link to this video about Windows Visa forced system reboots.
In a Technology Shakedown, ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind discovers a reboot feature in Microsoft’s Vista operating system that he doesn’t like. The feature forces users to reboot their PCs with only a short warning before it happens.
I have been using Vista since the end of August when I got my new laptop, and have experienced the “automatic software updates” and reboots.
But — so far — Vista has always given me the option of postponing rebooting. It looks like sometimes users are not given that option. In my opinion, that would definitely be a major downside to the software.
(Unfortunately, video has short annoying commercial at the beginning.)
Link (to video at ZDNet.com)
09.20.07
How To Play Guitar
A recent project here has been setting up a home “digital recording studio”. It is the first time I’ve ventured into recording since I got rid of my old Tascam four track recorder.
I was thinking about my guitar playing — and how it has not gotten much better or worse since I was about 17 — and was reminded of this great essay called “How To Play Guitar” by David Fair (of the band Half Japanese).
I think everyone who wants to play guitar should read this essay at least once. It really gives you a whole new perspective on the instrument.
Truly, making music can be a lot of fun. Even if your passion is greater than technical talent.
Link (to essay, “How To Play Guitar” by David Fair)
09.18.07
Attack Of The Bacn
I posted before about bacn.
NPR has written a story about it too.
“It’s not spam – you signed up for it, and you actually do want that information. But yet it still feels like it’s wasting your time,” says Tommy Vallier, a Canadian blogger who helped invent the term at a recent conference in Pittsburgh. Vallier says he receives about 150 pieces of bacn every day—and so do his friends.
When I launched this blog, I was careful to only send one notice to friends, and no follow-ups.
In a world where everyone is overwhelmed with “news”, I figured a lot of people would have neither the extra time nor energy to appreciate “regular updates” by email.
Link (to “Move Over, Spam: ‘Bacn’ Is the E-Mail Dish du Jour” article on NPR website)
