9 posts tagged “2006”

Imogen Heap, like Brian Eno before her, is one of the few electronic artists that really pushes the boundaries of what music can be. Yesterday I enjoyed this performance but couldn't post it until today. It left my heart full and my tear ducts empty.

If you've never heard this song it is about her parents divorce when she was 12 years old.

This might be old news to some of you, but I just recently discovered this:

David Paszkiewicz, a Kearny, New Jersey citizen who fancies himself a history teacher has to be the most irresponsible putz in teaching!

John R. Bohrer over at the Huffington Post reports on this story that was first reported by Steven Hart of Blue Jersey but has since been picked up by The New York Times and the Associated Press.

Apparently Paszkiewicz is a youth pastor at the Kearny Baptist Church who should never have been in a public school classroom. He denied the reported remarks until a student revealed he had recorded the lecture turned sermon and presented 2 compact discs to the school principal as evidence of Paszkeiwicz's actions.

I'm outraged that the parents of this community aren't demanding more recourse from their school board.

I confess that I was beginning to feel pretty worn thin by the end of 2006. It was a year that was a mixed bag for us. Raven went through a job change that required a bit of an adaptation for both us and we are still recovering from challenges in our past. Even so, the future ahead looks brighter. She now works for DaKine, which is easily one of the Earth's leading active wear companies. She is responsible for the World T-Shirt wholesaler and vendor relationships for the company.

Our wedding looms in May, and we see light at the end of the tunnel regarding a few financial stresses that have been plaguing us for years. Still no home purchase in sight, but we are continuing to grind away at it.

Over the holiday I got her a Black 80 GB Apple iPod as well as a Griffin Roadtrip  iPod to FM transmitter. In both cases the products seemed to improve over the past year. Particularly the Roadtrip. The FM transmitter seems to be a bit stronger, and they've done a pretty good job of addressing the need for a plastic housing to cradle the iPod on the sides. It is a tad more snug than I would like with the 80 GB model, but I guess we all can use a bit of extra work on those forearms, right?

Its a better situation than mine which crackles with static occasionally, and you had to be careful while driving, or it was one sharp turn and your iPod would go zipping off of the cradle and end up on the floor beneath the passenger seat.

In related news, Raven is now looking for some wonderful podcasts to fill that aforementioned iPod. Particularly she has been looking for some solid educational podcasts that cover Early and Medieval languages such as Latin, Old English, Middle English, Welsh and Gaelic. Pretty much anything that will contribute to her ongoing educational pursuit for a Bachelor's degree in History with a focus on Medieval History. Any solid historical podcasts in those veins would also be a boon. So, if any of you has any recommendations, let me know.

I keep trying to recommend some of my favorite podcasts but she keeps returning with a comment like "But I want to learn something!" lol. Now why would she want to go and do something like that?  :P

We finally brought her father into the DVD world. Nearly ten years after DVDs became ubiquitous, he finally owns a player and his first title: Pirates of the Carribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. We had considered getting him an HD-DVD player, but with the standards battles still going on, and with the likelihood that he doesn't own a suitable Television that can take advantage of such an improvement in resolution we thought it would be best to get him something that gives him plenty of options and likely won't be going away for easily the next decade or more. Besides, I think it would have just blown his mind if we tried to explain the possibilities that are roaming around out there with regards to this new technology and the DRM implications.

I await with baited breath the Apple announcements next week. Even though I will be broke, I look forward to seeing if they indeed can make the iPhone the great cell phone the world has needed for sometime now, and if they can get these OS problems with the Apple TV worked out before MacWorld. There have been the usual rumors out there but my favorite hopeful version is the Gregory DeSantos video spec labeled iTalk

EDIT:  iPhone looks scrumptious! Can't wait to get my mitts on one!

Recently I've been purchasing more and more episodes of NBC's hit drama Heroes from iTunes for my iPod.

I love the show. I've heard complaints that the characters are not original enough and that they are based on archetypal comic heroes that have been established in higher profile titles (such as X-Men), but I'm convinced that is why the show works. For once they are treating the superhero genre with the kind of honesty and grit that it deserves. No more of this hokey stuff that is only for the lowest common denominator nor are they pandering to children. The writing has been solid, and the acting is fantastic. My favorite characters are definitely Hiro (love the Neal Stephenson SNOW CRASH reference here by the way (sword and all)), Claire (nice Rogue reference), Peter (the other half of the Rogue reference. It seems the writers will be destined to romance these two together at some point), and Nathan (again, the X-men (Angel and Archangel) reference).

Producer Tim Kring of Crossing Jordan and Misfits of Science (a wonderful guilty pleasure from the 80s) fame, has done a wonderful job of assembling a solid writing team, production team and cast that has me excited again about the possibilities of Television and its convergence with  our interactive age of the Internet. One unique thing about the show that is great is the further exploration of the Heroes world with their online graphic novel at the NBC official Heroes website, which of course I'm sure everyone already knows about but I thought bear mentioning one more time. lol
How many of you are also awaiting the airing of the new episodes on January 22nd?

Consumed by the maw of emotion
I FEEL too much!

I am a raw nerve that is
 bombarded by sound,
blinded by light,
and drowned with tears.

a king of mediocrity,
a slave of perfection,
a master of procrastination,
a dreamer who roams purgatory.

Paint me, experience!
Move me, inspiration!
Teach me, education!
Save me, self respect!

Last night I felt an urge to post about a trailer I discovered from a film to be released in 2007 that I think I am going to dig hardcore, and as I logged in to Vox to prepare the post all the power in my home simply disappeared in one eerie pop.

The time, according to my cheap Timex watch:12:01 am. The exact moment of time was not lost on me. Even though I knew logically the cause was the erratic wind I couldn't help but wonder when the rest of the nuclear blast would strike now that the EMP had knocked out all the power.

After feeling around and fumbling about in the darkness for a flashlight I discovered the batteries were straining and the lamp was emitting light if only by strength of will. The glow happened to be enough that it allowed me to locate a vanilla candle and box of matches. The good news was that I could see and keep warm now, the bad news was that I was on my last candle with maybe an hour of good burning time left on its little wick.

A quick look around the neighborhood revealed that I was not the only residence cloaked in black. It appeared from my limited vantage that the entire eastside of our fair city had enjoyed a blackout. It was also at this moment that I noticed my neighbor's 37 gallon garbage can floating down the street on a blanket of gusting wind, rolling along in slow motion as if it were a tumbleweed in some kind of John Ford or Spaghetti Western.

I dressed quickly and appropriately and made a run to our local Safeway, the only store open 24 hours around here, and replenished our candle and match needs before moving on to explore the extent of the blackout. On my sojourn towards my parent's house I was shocked to discover not one, nor two, but THREE fully grown trees that had been knocked over on different blocks, but no less barring of any further traffic down that street. Most frightening was the tree I discovered down in the middle of the 800 block of 8th St. near my home which was surrounded by a sparkling and active power line that had been apparently severed by the fallen timber. I quickly got my ass out of there and let emergency services know about the situation. Fortunately they had a crane and team on the way before some carouser stumbled upon it on the way home for the local pubs.

Suffice to say my night at work consisted of avoiding many flying objects, downed trees, gawking spectators, rain, and frightened animals. I was VERY happy to finally get back to the safety my home, where fortunately the power had been re-established some 5 hours after it had been disconnected.

----------------------------------------------------

Tonight, as a reward for suffering through a trying morning, Raven and I grabbed a lovely dinner at The Baldwin Saloon. We enjoyed a lively conversation about Field of Dreams, Warcraft, and......Chocolate coated Beef Jerky. It seems that Raven is convinced that all the world is awaiting the culinary perfection of Chocolate coated Beef Jerky. And who knows, she might be on to something. I can't imagine who, other than her that is, who would enjoy such a treat, but after a quick Google search I was unable to locate any vendors for this mysterious niche. A part of me thinks that there are some foods that should never meet outside the body, but who am I to judge?

_________________________________

300 in 2007.

If you are a comic fanboy then you need no introduction to the film that will be coming out in March 2007. But if you are not a fanboy then you might not know that Frank Miller, the creator who unleashed the creative noir graphic novels of Sin City upon us has found another outlet for one of his books called 300.

300 is the story of 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas who took on the dominating Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE.  with an enemy whose troops numbered nearly 1 million, as they defended their small province in an effort to protect their families, way of life and freedom. It was also rumored to have the side effect of inspiring all of Greece to fend of the Persians and emerge as the world's first Democracy.

The film is reportedly another shot for shot adaptation from his 1999 hardcover graphic novel collection of his 1998 Will Eisner winning comic series based on the 1962 film The 300 Spartans.

Suffice to say that I am excited.
 I've been a huge Frank Miller fan for years, going back to his re-invention in the late 70s and early 80s of Daredevil, the pivotal creation of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns,  Batman: Year One, Give Me Liberty, and Sin City. I've also really respected his integrity and DIY ethos to lead the independent comic publishing revolution at a time when it simply wasn't very realistic to do so.

I also look forward to seeing The Prestige. Has anyone seen it and what did they think of it?  I have a hunch it is going to be great. Christopher Nolan directed, who aside from Insomnia, directed excellent films in Memento, The Following, Batman Begins and of course the coming to theaters in 2008, The Dark Knight, which of course his brother, Jonathan Nolan is helping to write the screenplay. His brother was the one who wrote The Prestige and also wrote the short story from which Jonathan adapted the film Memento from. It seems pretty clear to me and most major Batman fans that the Nolans are looking to give the Batman sequel more of that great Frank Miller-esque feeling that we've all come to love.

The worst possible scenario about James Kim has been confirmed. My deepest sympathy goes to the family during this heart wrenching time. :(

What song gives you the most holiday cheer?
Submitted by Roxy.

I'm expecting a bit of razzing for this one but around this Winter holiday season I really, really enjoy the famous Ukrainian folk song "Carol of the Bells".

For one, I'm fascinated by the number of interpretations that have been recorded of this song. My favorite rendition would have to be the classic Johnny Mathis  cut of the song.

Another favorite and nearly impossible to find, is the slightly more upbeat and irreverent version of "Carol of the Bells/Greensleeves"  version by Terminal Man, an acquaintance that Raven and I met in the AOL Nine Inch Nails forum waaaaaay back in 1995 who at one time led and performed with the Reading, Pennslyvania based industrial outfit. The name of the band of course was in reference to the classic Michael Crichton 1972 techno-thriller novel. Unfortunately the tape I once enjoyed has failed long before we were able to archive it in a digital format, and I've been unable to obtain another copy of their EP Ocean of Blood since. If you ever come across it, I highly recommend it.

Well, I fell victim to my exuberance and updated  my iTMS to iTunes 7.0. My first impression is that I like the change from the bathroom stall green skin color to the subtle metallic blue skin color.  The setup took awhile longer than I previously remembered when updating to new iTunes software. The gapless playback compatibility scan took awhile. I only have a little over 2300 songs, so I can imagine what the wait will be like for some of my friends who sport 10,000 to 20,000 songs within their collection.

I tried the gapless playback out on the tracks "Leon Takes Us Outside" and "Outside" from David Bowie's 1995 art murder concept album OUTSIDE and it seemed to work seemlessly.

I really enjoy Cover Flow, the new viewing browser. In additon to the old standby of scrolling through your library list, you can now browse by cover, with the album covers to come and those in the past visible at the same time. It almost feels like you are actually paging through the album covers with your fingers in real time. A great piece of nostalgia for those of us who actually remember the vinyl years.

For those of you who wanted your songs, videos, and podcasts to live in separate libraries. Fear no more. They are all seperated into their own tabs which should make it much easier to find things. No more does there seem to be one overall library category, which is nice.  I have to yet to discover if that means that the shuffle in the music section will no longer accidentally pick up a video file or a podcast, which would often occur in the past and meant that party shuffle or shuffling in the main library could be a rough ride on the ears at times.

One of the newer features I was looking forward to, the "Get Artwork" feature seemed a bit slow, that is when it worked at all. Often, even with some well known major releases, after clicking Get Artwork, it would show the available release in the iTunes store, but would fail to update the artwork. On occasion this function would seem to crash the entire iTunes software program. I hope Apple comes up with a quick patch for this problem. I can hear the blogosphere going nuts over this bug.

For podcast fans, you will certainly enjoy the download tab located beneath the store header. With one click here, you can view the number of podcasts that are updating, who they are, which episode, the number of megabytes downloaded, the number of megabytes to go, and the approximate download time estimated in number of minutes and seconds. This will certainly be useful for me, as I tend to update my iTunes just before I head for work, which often results in a guessing game as to whether I will have enough time to wait for that new episode of TWiT to download or not before I must sync the iPod and run out the door.

Anyone loving the new larger capacity and cheaper 5th generation iPods? I'm bummed that they didn't work out the wireless sync, but I do really, really like the new search software capabilities that will be possibly on the new iPODs. I'm hoping that the upcoming iPOD firmware updates will also give the current 4th generation users this new search functionality. (edit: After a firmware update on the iPod to 1.2, I still don't see the new search functionality. I guess it will only appear on the newer generation of iPods.)

Now the prices are nice. I'm glad that they dropped the 30GB iPod down to $249, this should allow Apple to compete more fiercely with their competitors who had been dropping their prices in order to grab the first time mp3 player users, who could get more machine for $50 to $100 cheaper,  but I wonder what incentive there is for anyone to buy the Nano (other than new colors that is) when they can get nearly 4 times the machine with the iPod. Also, at $349 for the new 80GB iPod, I might have to pick one up this holiday season for the fiance. Anyone else perplexed by the prices on the Nano?

I'm curious what anyone else thinks about the Apple announcements? You like the idea of the games and movies or hate them?

I'm sorry I couldn't make this post earlier. I've been struggling with a cold that I earned (as you will learn from the following post) while attending the NIN/Bauhaus/TV on Radio show.

Saturday, May 27th, as it turned out was an eventful day.  Around noon, we hopped out of bed and gathered our things before we jumped in the van. Unfortunately we seemed to have forgotten a number of key things and had to make more than one trip back home. After plenty of sighing and laughing at ourselves, we finally hit the freeway around 2 p.m. After road delays, rain, and rush hour, we were able to finally get to Portland around 3:50 p.m.

It was while entering the city limits of Portland that we decided we weren't going to have enough cash on hand to enjoy the concert, thus ensued the ATM run from hell. First of all, it was your typical Portland day, which means it was raining buckets. The ATM was located near a Shari's restaurant. And of course, I, ever the foolish type, ran wildly, in the direction of the ATM, over some smooth stone inset pavement, in the direction of the ATM when I wiped out big time. I must have slid an easy 10 feet, grinding over the pavement on my left side, before I realized that I had even wiped out. Customers who were just exiting Sherry's stood agape, as I scrambled precariously to might feet. A quick once over of my body and I knew that it was going to be bad. My thumb felt broken, my wrist was hyperextended, and there was more than a mild trickle of blood flowing down my inner forearm from the two inch gash that fluttered open beneath the pouring rain. I quickly sped inside to the Shari's bathroom. I hoped to briefly wash the cuts off, grab some towels, and make my exit, perhaps all completely unnoticed by the Shari's customers, management, and staff inside. No such luck. First I was visited by a perplexed customer in the bathroom, who claiming they worked in the ER, and whom promptly ran off to get the manager. They disppeared before I could protest. So, soon the assistant manager appeared, followed quickly by the big honcho of the restaurant. I assurred them I was fine, accepted some of their bandages to placate them, and reassured them that I would not being suing them (after all, I was the bozo, running full speed on wet pavement in the rain)

After all of this, I finally made my way to the ATM. By this time Raven had gathered what had happened and was peppering me with questions. I withdrew the money we needed and hopped back in the vehicle. Raven was ashen faced and insisted after a cursory glance of my wounds that we would be visiting her mother, who lives just a short distance down the street for the Sherry's for some first aid gear.

To make a long story shorter, we finally resumed our trek to the NIN concert sometime around 4 p.m. after some bandaging, gauze wraps, and donning of a pair of purple Nitrile gloves.  The show wasn't scheduled to begin until 7 pm, but we were racing so furiously because at previous Spiral concerts we were way back in the line and had missed a sound check or meet and greet. We intended never to make that mistake again.

I should mention that the Ridgefield show was of course an outdoor show, just as the rest of the shows are supposed to be on this 30 date tour. The rain had picked up and there was a delay, as we were not allowed to enter the primary County fairground entrance. We finally parked and made our way to the will call booth where our tickets awaited. Fortunately we were greeted by a friendly face at the booth. Brandy, who we had met on the previous Spiral fanclub show dates was still running the ticket verification. We obtained our tickets and jumped in line. Fortunately we were only about 75 to 100 people back in the line. After about a half an hour wait, we were finally admitted to the fairgrounds proper, and eventually to a special VIP section of the grounds. Unfortunately for the guy standing in line behind me, he was given the choice of returning his umbrella to his vehicle, or disposing of it in the garbage. He chose the latter of course, as, evidenced by other umbrellas, many others had.  It must be said that everyone in the Spiral line were great people. Everyone tried to be helpful for the most part to everyone else. We met a very nice couple, an daughter and her mother, both adults who just share a passion for NIN. We sat next to them in the 3rd row. They were nice enough to guard seats while we were away, as well as providing so much soothing Advil when my injuries were starting to kill during the Bauhaus show.  By the time NIN came on, I was in sonic and Advil induced heaven. We went to Shari's on 181st St after the show for a late night snack. I learned afterwards that there was an informal after party gathering at one of the Shari's restaurants. I wish I had done more research before I went to the show. It would have been nice to trade a few war stories while at previous NIN shows. Anyhow, after another 45 minute wait standing in the howling wind and pounding rain, we were finally admitted inside. The good news was that the Spiral members were guaranteed the middle section of the seats, and because we were so close to the beginning of line, we ended up in the 3rd row. With all of my injuries, I was relieved to see that we had some seats. It was nice, not having to battle in the pit for a view of the concert. I know this pissed off alot of general admission people, but I say fuck'em. I don't know how many times I have been kicked in the head or body by the combat boots of some moronic jock or teenager, who mutters beneath their breath constantly "So when do you think they will play the 'Fuck Me' song?"  

**spoiler alert**

If you haven't seen the show yet and don't want to know what the setlist consisted of, don't read any further.

The setlist wasn't exactly what I would have chosen, but I was happy to get an opportunity to hear some real obscure gems that Trent never plays live, of which I have put into bold.

somewhat damaged
know what you are
sin
terrible lie
march of the pigs
something i can never have
closer
burn
gave up
help me i am in hell
non-entity  (sort of, he did play this last tour, as well as "Not So Pretty")
only
wish
la mer
into the void
the big come down
suck
get down make love (probably one of maybe four or five songs that everyone wanted to hear live sometime)
hurt
the hand that feeds
head like a hole

I missed hearing "Love is Not Enough". I loved the way he opened the show last tour with it. They sort of did the same thing this time with Venetian blinds on Somewhat Damaged, but it wasn't the same. Other noteworthy things: Trent was bald! He also was wearing a black hoodie when he started our show, which was cool, because it kind of made him look like a crazy dwarven sized hip hop artist. 

He was considerate enough to understand the torture we were experiencing from elements when he made some comments about the band also "freezing their balls off", but then again he ironically also found enough time to dowse the first couple of rows with water during a song moments before.

Other notes, Bauhaus played great and had some great theatrical moments, particularly the creative use of rose petals, the murphy dance, the murphy moonwalk, and a cool sax intro by Daniel Ash into a song that sounded familiar, but I couldn't come up with the name, but not enough. While we enjoyed the music, the show itself became a bit long. 

TV on Radio was very cool.  When asked to describe their music I can't help but describe it as  gospel inspired vocal styling layered over jazz, funk, rock, and speed metal riffs. Like most opening bands they struggled to get us moving, but in less than  three songs they had the front row up and dancing. And by the end of their half and hour set, they had most of the entire middle section of the 100 level up and bopping. They were much, MUCH more interesting than Queens of the Stone Age who appeared on the last tour. I think these guys are destined to be headlining their own shows in the near future, probably once they have released another full length record.

Here are a few pics. None of them mine. I wanted to credit the photographer of the last two, but alas I couldn't seem to locate a credit anywhere. If anyone knows who took these, please let me know.