Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Firefox 1.5

A new version of Firefox just came out today. There's no huge updates, but little cool ones. First, you can drag and drop the tabs. Second, which is really cool, you can high light text, then drag that text into the search box and it searches for that text instantly. Third is RSS support, which I thought it already had, must be better now. Overall it runs faster, blocks more pop-ups and supports more code. Worth the update.

Oh yes, I've also found a trailer for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It's looking pretty good.

Trailer

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Rush Limbaugh Is A Dick

In the, I think, 10 month history of my blog I've only attacked one mascot for the right side of American politics, well today it's 2. Al Franken may have called him a big fat idiot, but I'm going to go with dick.

This little excerpt from The Truth(With Jokes) is so infuriating. How can this man possibly get millions of listeners?

Excerpt

The Go! Team

If anybody feels like checking The Go! Team, the song "Huddle Information" is fantastic.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Juicebox Music Video

Just saw the music video for "Juicebox" and it's not very good. It trys to be funny but it's not. Nick Valensi looks awful. I'm not enjoying those black Les Pauls, I am enjoying the white Musicman Sterling though, good choice there. Quite a poor video though. Click on play button.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Work For Love

Here's another radio.blog. I'm really only posting it to put something up.

Tracklist:

1. Ministry - Work For Love
I don't know about you, but when I see the name Ministry, I think super heavy industrial. Turns out Ministry has some skeletons in their closet. This song is very kitschy 80s new-wave with a dash of goth. First, it's hilarious, it's like Metallica doing a record of Beach Boys covers. Secondly, it's a pretty catchy song.

2. Stereolab - Cybele's Reverie
An indie-pop track. It had a comfortable pop bounce to it, relaxing, but you still want to bop your head to it. I really like the string parts and the French lyrics, they just sound nice.

3. The Cardigans - Carnival
May also be classified as indie-pop. Just a really catchy song. I really like the post-chorus, again nice string parts. The production is fantastic.

4. The Young Tradition
What? More indie-pop? Word. Definitely a 60's feel to this song. The intro if very folky, while the rest of the song has a California-pop/bossa nova feel to it. I love the trumpet bits, such a perfect fit.

[radio.blog]

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Amazing

...is what the Harry Potter movie was. Ralph Fienes was such a creepy Voldemort. Yeah, amazing.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

3 - Iron

I definately recommend this film. The performance from these actors, mainly the female lead, is beautifully poigant. Here's the trailer.

3-Iron

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Music Quiz

I found this music quiz. It's pretty tough, takes a little formal music knowledge. You've got to know your "classical" and a dash of theory, but either way it's fun. Little hint, they use some crazy system for music notes.
Crotchet = 1/4 note
Minim = 1/2 note
Quaver = 1/8 note(note positive on this value)
Semiquaver = 1/16 note

I only got 6/10. I really should have done better.

Music Quiz

Monday, November 14, 2005

The A-Team

If there's one thing you should know about me, it is that I love The A-Team. Divine forces decided to combine The A-Team and Family Guy to create a comic miracle. Two great tastes that go great together, like peanut butter and chocolate or ummm, milk and cookies? No, no peanut butter and chocolate is the better example.



Oh yeah, that and the Rocky 4 training montage.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

23%

France

Visit This Site

Wow, that was amazing. I heard of this site through a BBC internet TV Show. The site is Tokyo Plastic, and it blew me away. It's full of these quirky flash animations, they all look very neat and are just gorgeous. With these flash animations there's a host of robust sounds, which are extremely cool with some headphones on. You have to click on various objects to cause these animations to progress, which adds even to the experience even more. Really neat, check it out.

Winner
Audience Award - Animation
Sundance Film Festival

That good.

Tokyoplastic

Delicious

I ran across this mp3 player and this thing is ridiculously small. It's the size of a piece of Bubbleyum. Supposedly, it's a fairly good mp3 player, but wow, think about how many pencils you lose, now think about the size of this player.



So that's a piece of Starburst, but I thought Bubbleyum first, plus Bubbleyum sounds funnier.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

A Proper One

Yes, it's another radio.blog. The theme, stuff I've listened to recently, plus one song to tie it all together. No one who reads this should ever be all, oh yeah I was wondering about Orange Juice, it's right there peeps.

1. Orange Juice - Falling and Laughing
Quality track. A mix of post-punk grooves and dreamy surf pop, kind of. Very good song.
2. Modern English - I Melt With You
On the surface it may seem like a fairly standard pop song, with all the proper notes but not terribly interesting. The bridge messes that all up though, with it's sparse twinkling piano and deep gritty bass, it's rather interesting, also makes the composition more interesting.
3. Orange Juice - Blue Boy
Quite a catchy number. Full of subtle quiet to loud dynamics. I do like the lead singer's style too.
4. Orange Juice - Simply Thrilled Honey
Started with a guitar line that makes me think Interpol for a second, then quickly bursts in with a high pitched, theromin like synth, and builds into something much more upbeat. The song never climaxes, the "chorus" of "Egads, I'm simply thrilled honey" is more of an anti-climax, but on repeated listens the song has lots of charm.
5. R.E.M - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Ok, this doesn't work at all in the sequence, but ordering the playlist is a hassle. This a brilliant example of early 90s alternative pop. I dunno, I can describe it but whatever, I enjoy some R.E.M. here and there.
6. Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy
Why the Buzzcocks? Two reasons. They influenced Orange Juice and side by side you can hear that. Second reason, it's a pretty good song.

[radio.blog]

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Orange Juice

You know, that Scottish post-punk group that keeps getting name dropped. I'd recommend the song "Blue Boy" by them, it's quite good. I'd post it for download, but I think that's why my previous hosting website deleted my account.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

I Will Return To Haunt You With Peculiar Piano Riffs

Radio.blog is back in action. Three tracks for now.

1. Judy and Mary - Suteki Uta
Pretty good, bouncy pop number. Manages to pull some moments of tangible emotion that make the whole song more than just catchy, especially the end.
2. Sparta Locals - Tokyo Ballerina
A track from the only Japanese post-punk group I'm aware of. Not really a post-punk track. There's these great, very" Japanese" sounding guitar riffs scattered throughout. There is a standard bouncy bassline, but the carefree pop elements is what creates the distinction.
3. Sparta Locals - UFO Banzai
The rhythm section is thoroughbred post-punk. The lead singer does a bit of David Byrne action before the breakdown, except the scream, which I don't know of as a Byrne signature. A rockin track though. Fits right under 3 minutes, which is just the right amount for such a track.

radio.blog

Harper's Index Nov. 2005

The monthly news magazine Harper's has an list of hilarious, or interesting facts called "Harper's Index". I might have done something like this before, either way, here's some highlights from this month.

Number of journalists killed in Vietnam during twenty years of war there: 63

Number killed in Iraq since March 2003: 71

Average number of blogs created each second: 1

Number of erotic Harry Potter fan-fiction stories posted on a website run by an Illinois woman: 1,750

Average number of hits the site receives each day: 198, 000

Estimated chance, worldwide, that a father is unknowingly raising another man's child: 1 in 25

Minimum # of infants impeded from boarding airplanes because of their names were on the U.S. no-fly list: 14

Percentage of U.S. women who own vibrators: 46

Friday, November 04, 2005

The Beatles Ended the Cold War?

According to Al Franken, yes. I'm listening to "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them - A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" and it is hilarious. Just the fact that he calls Ann Coulter a bitch probably 10 times, is enough for me. I'd go with crazy bitch, but whatever. I have honestly laughed out loud twice while listening to this and I'm only 7 chapters in.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Awww

This car is the cutest thing I've seen that isn't a small animal.



10 posts in a row, I haven't done that in ages.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

The Magic Numbers

Currently in the process of checking out this band and so far they are fantastic. I'm two songs into a KCRW performance and this is just some wonderful pop music. Verdict still pending, but I'm won over for now. Ok, they are pretty good some fantastic songs, some pretty good songs. Sometimes the lyrics seem like everyone else's sorry instead of the lyricists own. Not bad lyrics, but you've heard something similar I'm sure.

Ok I just heard an acoustic, folky cover of a certain Beyonce song, and the best part was they did a pretty decent job which makes it even funnier.

The Magic Numbers