October 31, 2006
Playlist - October 2006
Another month, another hour of disjointed listening...
| Mojave 3 - Running With Your Eyes Closed >> As I think I mentioned a few months ago, Mojave 3's latest album is a bit different from their previous efforts. The more I listen to it, the more I like the fast-paced guitar-pop sound. Their sound is still instantly recognizable, and ahhhhh.... that pedal steel... |
| Headlights - Lions >> |
| British Sea Power - Please Stand Up >> |
| Ben Folds - Jesusland >> Ben Folds rocks (the suburbs!), but I share his songs with others with some trepidation because as strange as it may sound, I don't think a lot of people really get Ben Folds. (See all the discussions about his awesome cover of Bitches Ain't Shit.) But I decided to post this one anyway. Enjoy. |
| Arizona - Some Kind of Chill >> |
| Neko Case - Things That Scare Me >> I was actually going to put a different Neko Case song on this plyalist, but this one fit better. Her voice mesmerizes and is particularly well-suited for these sorts of dark, eerie country tunes. |
| The Mountain Goats - Magpie >> |
| Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around >> Yes, I'm posting a song based largely on the Book of Revelation. Don't expect it again, because only one person could write a song about the Christian apocalypse and pull it off like this. |
| James Carr - The Dark End of the Street >> I've heard several versions of this old classic, but I never really cared for it until I heard this one. |
| Vetiver - Busted >> Ah, sweet pedal steel... |
| Arms - Whirring >> |
| Cracker - Low >> This one will take you back to the good ol' days of the early '90s when things were simpler... especially the idea of "alternative rock". This is actually from a re-recording the band made as a response to their old label's 'best of' album. It's not terribly different from the original but, oddly, I like it better. Some of you may prefer the version from Kerosene Hat instead. |
| CSS - Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above >> I have mixed feelings about everyone's favorite Brazilian pop throwback-to-the-80s band. I've avoided posting anything for months and months, but I think I'll just finally do it. I don't really care for this band and I'm sick of hearing about them, but damn it, their annoying songs are still annoyingly fun. So what the hell. The brave should check out their annoyingly weird Euro-80s video. Everything to love and everything to hate about pop music. (Don't blame Brazil... unless you like the song. Blame Sub Pop.) |
| Thievery Corporation - Heaven's Gonna Burn Your Eyes >> |
| Mobius Band - Taxicab >> A beautiful lonely winter city song. |
| Bonobo - Nothing Owed >> Along with choosing the name of one of the most interesting great apes, Bonobo produces lots of extremely cool songs... sadly, they don't make it onto these playlists very often. (I think this may be the first time.) |
31 Oct 21:31 | Link | Category: Music
October 26, 2006
George W. Bush and his celebrity translator
If you've seen the recent 'celebrity' ads from Geico (particularly the Little Richard one), you might appreciate this:
26 Oct 16:54 | Link | Category: Humor, Video
Rollercoaster Kid
Watch this video of a kid hanging on for dear life on a catapult ride (though whether or not he's actually in real danger is up for debate). The carnival music and maniacal laughing from 'Janis' (whoever she is) combine to make this one of the most bizarre and utterly classic videos I've seen on the 'net in a long time. God bless you, GoogleTube.
26 Oct 16:32 | Link | Category: Humor, Video
Fixer-Upper
It's slightly ironic that this video was created by a company trying to sell beauty products. Still, it does a good job of showing how billboards and magazines are completely distorted compared to reality.
You should also check out these excellent images: Celebrities without makeup.
26 Oct 16:18 | Link | Category: Photography, Video
Living Without The Sun
Nature never ceases to amaze:
The first known organisms that live totally independently of the sun have been discovered deep in a South African gold mine.
The bacteria exist without the benefit of photosynthesis by harvesting the energy of natural radioactivity to create food for themselves. Similar life forms may exist on other planets, experts speculate.
Uranium and other radioactive elements in the rock emit radiation that shatters water molecules, producing high-energy hydrogen gas that is able to cleave chemical bonds.
The bacteria exploit this hydrogen gas to turn sulphate (SO4) molecules from the rock into hydrogen sulphide (H2S). It is the energy-trapping equivalent of photosynthesis. The energy of radiation, which makes hydrogen gas energetic enough to form these bonds, replaces the energy of the Sun.
As Bill Nye might say, "Isn't that wild?!"
26 Oct 15:41 | Link | Category: Science
October 21, 2006
Saga of the dead iPod, part three (happily ever after)
When I last updated you over two months ago, I had just called American Express to see if I could use the one-year warranty extension they include in their Buyer's Assurance Program. (Thank God I happened to use my AMEX card when I purchased the iPod.) They sent me a form in the mail. But it was the wrong form. I called them and they sent me the correct one. It required a bunch of paperwork (original receipt, manufacturer's warranty, credit card statement, etc) but luckily I was able to find all of those things in my filing cabinet. I gathered it together and sent it in.
Then I waited and waited and waited. After about a month, I finally called the insurance company that handles the claims and asked them what the deal was. They told me they were just waiting on a repair/replacement estimate. Oddly, this requirement hadn't been mentioned in the documentation, so I wasn't aware that I needed to get a repair estimate. I vaguely remembered the first representative at American Express mentioning that I might need to get one, but I figured it would either be listed in the paperwork or the insurance company would let me know they needed it after I sent the initial paperwork in.
Anyway... no worries. I took the iPod into the local Apple Store. The decidedly non-genius guy at the "Genius Bar" seemed a little confused and annoyed when I explained why I needed a repair estimate. After about ten or fifteen minutes of fiddling around, he finally produced it. Wanna know how much Apple expects people to pay to replace a hard drive in an old 40 GB iPod? $249 + $30 labor. (So it'd be cheaper to buy a new 30 GB Video iPod.) That's steep, but in my case that was a good thing. I faxed the repair estimate to the insurance company, crossed my fingers, and waited.
A week or two later, I opened up my mailbox to discover nothing other than a check made out to me for $279. That's right, folks, American Express came through on their promise! I had to save paperwork and jump through a few hoops, but I think it's very cool that they automatically extend the warranty of items you purchase with the card. It's a wise benefit for them to offer, because they were just able to guarantee that I will purchase all electronics with my American Express card from now on. (I should note here that some other credit cards offer similiar protection.)
Instead of fixing my old iPod (since the 40GB hard drive would just die again, for all I know), I put the money towards a new 80GB 5.5G black video iPod. (I know they're probably going to announce the snazzy new widescreen "true" video iPod in a couple of months, but I'm not really in it for video, and 80GB should be sufficient for a good while.) UPS will be delivering it this week! So thank you American Express, from a newly loyal cardholder.
21 Oct 23:38 | Link | Category: Music, Technology & Computing