A Plethora of Palabras

Wow. This will be a busy post. I have a lot to say.

First, this YouTube Video has me highly stressed. I've got a very low opinions of all politicians, but is this little clip (verified, thanks) a racist rant from Hillary Clinton? It's her but is what she saying racist? Interesting thing to wonder about. I have to wonder why you'd repeatedly point out why you're white thus drawing attention to the fact your opponent is black. I hereby officially throw my hat in the Obama ring -- my first public statement of support for any candidate (none of whom I am overly thrilled with). This hat contingent upon whatever fool he picks as VP.

Second, the evil empire, AKA Microsoft, has come public about COFEE. Yeah, the same company that sells many of you guys your operating system software and recommends and installs all sorts of security updates has given an all-access pass to your local law-enforcement agency. No joke. This is just absurd. And if there's such a simple back-door to get around your operating system protections, how long for the terrorists to figure it out? The USB thumb drive contains 150 Microsoft programmed special commands to allow the user to decrypt passwords, recover all of the computer's data stores, and read a complete log of the computer's Internet activities. It works on-site with any Windows-loaded computer, including PDAs. That means not only your desktop but your mobile device too. I'm glad I'm not using their programs -- the question is why are you?

3. Jesus Made Me Puke is the title of a Rolling Stone article. David Higgins gets credit on this. While I subscribe to Rolling Stone, I hadn't yet read this issue. Why should you read it? You want to know what evangelicals do behind closed doors? Actually, you probably don't want to know. But you should. You might just lose a little sleep at night after reading this.

4. Tina Turner is coming out of retirement. She'll be here November 2nd and I'm excited. I've put in for the ticket lottery and hope to score some. The tickets go on sale Monday. Oh PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. I wish the International Tina Turner Fan Club was still around and giving us the good seats. Damn. I love Tina. See my review of her final Florida concert here.

5. Cal Rugby once again dominates the Rugby universe.The California Golden Bears blasted out to a 40-0 half-time lead and never looked back against Brigham Young University, taking the 2008 national collegiate championship, 59-7, this past Saturday at Stanford’s Steuber Rugby Stadium. It was the fifth straight title for the Bears and 24th in the history of the Cal rugby program making them the most dominating team in any Division One college sport.

6. I've got Neil Diamond tickets for 10-26-08, which I am also excited about. Nobody cares but me, but, yes, I love Neil Diamond and am greatly looking forward to his concert. I am going with the Mann family.

7. Last, but not least, a brief review of a quirky book called "The Somnambulist" by Jonathan Barnes. This books is unusual. Very much so. I rather enjoyed it. It's set in London -- the Victorian one. It's got humour of the driest sort, often black at that. It's got adventure. If the title frightens you, this book isn't for you. It's got lots of big $50 words, all used properly and without any effort by the author. It's quite the entertaining piece, and if you're in need of something different, this book is for you. I mostly recommend this to readers who would enjoy light fantasy and light science-fiction. Others will not appreciate its charms.

8. Don't forget to read Little Brother. I'm serious. Read this book.

Vegas Trip Summary

As you know it was a trade show that brought me to Las Vegas on Saturday morning for a stay until Wednesday. The weekend was Greg and Gaby's 15th anniversary, and perversely, they invited me and Austri to spend it with them.

We met up with them around 5pm Saturday for an early dinner at Daniel Boulud's Brasserie at the Wynn. I'll take credit for the pick -- mostly because the menu looked good. Gaby and Greg were sceptical of the place because she isn't a fan of anything French. I had reasonable expectations as did Austri. To sum it up, this was one of the best meals we've ever had. We all agree. In fact, it may be the second best meal I've ever eaten. The food portions were reasonable -- not that art over edibility crap -- and the flavours were distinct yet excitingly blended. The food was succulent, tender, moist, firm, and every other texture all at once. We all shared each others' food (me skipping Gaby's mussels as I don't do shellfish) and they were all excellent beyond measure. The deserts were just as good. Although overpriced like most Las Vegas restaurants, we still came in at just under $100 per person with alcohol included. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's at least a 15 and possibly a 20. Go eat here. Really.

Next up was the Wayne Brady show at the Venetian. It was funny. Good but not great. As an "improv" variety show parts were good and parts weren't. But when something fell flat, he didn't let it go. I wouldn't go back, but I didn't hate it.

Sunday was walk-around day, leaving Greg and Gaby to their devices. Austri went home today because she had work early Monday morning, so it was just the three of us for the 7pm Jersey Boys at the Palazzo. Gaby really wanted to see this but neither Greg nor I did. It's the story, in case you don't know, of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Gaby enjoyed herself. Greg and I were pleasantly surprised. This was a GREAT play. And unlike most plays in Vegas it wasn't a shortened, dumbed-down version of the Broadway play: this was the whole enchilada. The music, was of course, fantastic. But the play, which Greg and I thought would be dull and un-interesting sprang to life. It was a fantastic show and I'd even see it again.

After that Gaby booked us at Table 10 the new Emeril Lagasse restaurant at the Palazzo. We went in with extraordinarily high hopes -- after all his Delmonico's at the Venetian remains the finest meal I have ever eaten in my life. What a let-down. The service was the best part of the meal. The food was okay, but not spectacular. The ambiance was all right, but the food lacked the certain je ne sais quois that makes a great restaurant a legend. Almost as pricey as Boulud's but not even half as good.

A word about the Palazzo while I'm on it. I've stayed at the Venetian twice before both as a paying customer and invited guest. Great hotel. The Palazzo is the sister property in the back and they're connected. It was designed to be a second Venetian -- same standards. The hotel is new, only a few months old.

Upon check in, I noticed the room was warm. I called maintenance who eventually came and fixed the AC which was broken. He was unable to fix the burnt out bulbs as he didn't have any with him and promised he'd send someone up -- indeed he called down while we were there. For two days nobody came to fix that burnt out bulb (my reading light over the bed, dammit). The clock was wrong when we checked in (about 5-1/4 hours off). Sounds simple enough. I was unable to figure it out. The alarm was easy enough, but not the time. I called down to ask how to fix it. They said you need a screwdriver to take it apart to set the time! Really! So they had to send someone to fix it. Nobody showed up, so the aforementioned AC repair guy fixed it for us after he called for instructions because he couldn't figure it out. That earned him a nice tip :) Walking over to the blinds to look out at the view, I noticed a few moths flying around inside the sheer Roman curtain. Looking down, there were dead ones. Not that I care, but I was there from Saturday until Monday. They were never cleaned up. Further, and again, I don't care but the buttons on the couch in the room were coming off. I picked one off the floor and left it on the table. Another was missing. For that amount of money, these problems are inexcusable especially in a new hotel. Oh, and video check-out doesn't let you type in your fax and/or e-mail to get a copy of your receipt. You have to stand in line at the counter to get one defeating the purpose of video checkout. Never again.

Ah well. Monday was a boring day and I didn't do much. Switched over to Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin) which I am sad to report has a great casino but the rooms now suck. I won't be back. Half the room was broken. That evening I had dinner with a friend from LA who flew up. Arrived at 4, we ate at Kokomo's at around 6, and he left at 8. Turns out Greg's evening plans were cancelled so I sat with him while he ate some stuff and then we gambled.

Tuesday was the show. The show was a big waste. I was surprised as the show's usually good. So much for that and I'll skip boring you with the details. That evening we saw Louie Anderson at the Excalibur. Very funny but for $60 you think he'd go longer than 70+ minutes. We gambled more. I got up at 345am and flew home, arriving at 130pm followed by my luggage at 230pm. Then, trooper that I am, I went to work.

Randomness Part Eight

What a weekend. The Panthers won Friday and Sunday giving us a total of four wins in a row. Yay, Panthers.

Next up, I'm sitting in Thomas' car on Sunday and he's driving. We're both wearing seat belts. Though I often give him crap for his driving, he's a pretty good (ie: very cautious) driver. So Saturday afternoon at around 310pm, we're leaving Office Depot, and he stops at a stop sign. He starts to go, but someone comes flying by at warp 30 in a car, so he stops again. They pass. He's in the process of looking both ways when some lady in a Black Honda Accord rear ends us at a high rate of speed causing us to lurch forward about 6 to 10 feet. We both get out and survey the damage -- most of which is to Thomas' car. They trade insurance info, though Timmy fails to get her driver's license number, and I got down her tag number. They decide not to call the cops. Thomas is fine, me not so much. As they're wrapping up I notice my neck is unusually sore on the left side where it joins the shoulder.

Thomas goes home (a five minute drive) and calls his insurance agent and their insurance agent. They want to talk to me since I'm injured. They ask me for my auto insurance details. Really. I refuse to provide it since I was not driving and my car was not present. I hate this already. In other news, gets worse as the hours tick by. I try to ignore it because that's how I am. Today it hurts more, sore to the touch. My back hurts a little and my right hip a lot.

Adrian cancelled skating on me today, which is probably for the best anyway. I went grocery shopping and then to Walgreens for some drugs. Yay, drugs. Doing laundry now.

Watched some of the Pens vs Capitals game on TV and some stuff on the science channel. I did a great deal of work my tax packet. I hate taxes. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE. So much work.

Had dinner with Jason last week. That was fun to see him, Jenny, and Erica again. We really have to do that more often.

UK newspapers such as the Daily Mail and the Telegraph are reporting yesterday and today on an expected deal between Sir Paul McCartney and Apple, Inc. to bring the Beatles catalog to iTunes. According to the Telegraph, the deal could be worth as much as £300 million. An Apple Corps label spokesperson said that the date "has not yet been set." The deal has been much delayed. But industry insiders say that by the end of the year fans using iTunes will be able to buy songs from albums such as Help! and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Former hits from albums such as Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album, and Help are expected to top the download charts for several months on release. I envision the long rumoured Yellow Submarine iPod which I will purchase on opening day because I must own one.

Come on Wolfgang, You're in Van Halen (Sunrise Concert Review)

So, I finally got to see Van Halen in concert a bit late in life, but it was at least Van Halen and not Van Hagar. I got the second show 2-2-0-08 in Sunrise Florida at the Bank Atlantic Center.. As you will know (and if you don't know, you won't be reading this post), the band now comprises not one, not two, but three Van Halens. Joining the line-up on bass guitar is none other than Eddie's 16 but turning 17-year-old prodigy Wolfgang. The opening act was Ky-Mani Marley, the 11th of reggae legend Bob Marley’s 13 kids -- he ain't Bob that's for sure, and that concludes my comments on that.

Now, before I get on to the concert, I can say that pretty much all guy teenagers in high school all dream of being a rock star. We all wanted to play guitar, drum, or whatever in a headline act to sold-out stadiums. It's the ultimate fantasy. (Why do you think the game Guitar Hero is so successful?)

So, here's Wolfgang, on stage, with a band that is beyond famous and has one of the world's best guitarists in it. And Wolfgang, he being no slouch himself and widely regarded as on his way to being a legend like dad, stands around on stage looking mopey and unhappy barely cracking a smile and for all appearances looking like he's going through the motions. In fact, he didn't look like he even wanted to be there until the encore when Jump started and he smiled and even jumped around a bit. He definitely acted the role of the stereotypical, mopey, goth, teenager. Good old Wolfie is talented, but it's still weird seeing someone who looks about 15 on stage. It's not like this was Hannah Montana or something. Lighten up Wolfgang!

Next up, I have a serious complaint. This is no reflection on Van Halen. The acoustics for this show were some of the worst I've ever heard at any concert in my life. The sound engineer should be fired. Other reviews posted on-line echo similar sentiments. There's nothing wrong with loud, it is after all a rock concert. However when the sound is bouncing around so much you can't hear the vocals at all, you need to turn it down. The sound engineer is supposed to go around the arena before the show and make sure the sound is adequate everywhere and adjust volumes and/or speaker positions. He failed miserably and this considerably affected my enjoyment of the show -- and judging by the comments of everyone around us, most everyone felt this way.

Our specific seats had a fantastic view. Unfortunately, row 21 of section 107 in the BankAtlantic Center is one of those with the glass partitions and the space in front was too small. This is made worse by the steel support beams holding the glass. It was unspeakably uncomfortable, enough so that one of our party threw in the towel and left early. My knee is still sore today from being pressed into a metal support bar all night. I'd mention the lack of air conditioning but about halfway through the concert, it finally kicked in.

David Lee Roth is still his legendary Diamond Dave self. He doesn't move as fast, but he's still got the look, the attitude, and more importantly the sound. He hit all the notes, and I do mean all of them even on Jamie's Crying. He seems to actually be having fun and not wanting to kill Eddie. I'm glad about that, though I doubt it will last.

Eddie Van Halen still owns the guitar hero of our time award. He's probably one of the greatest guitar players ever and he was amazing. The sound he made come out of that guitar ranged from the sublime to the earth shattering and everything in between including a car (or motorcycle depending on your view). He's a legend and earned it.

Alex Van Halen (Eddie's brother) was amazing on drums and was definitely having more fun than anyone else on stage. He also got a huge solo which brought the roof down.

Wolfgang Van Halen taking over for Michael Anthony was awesome. He really was. His sound is a bit different, of course, but nobody will find fault with him on his skills. His voice, maybe. His sound is different than Anthony's and you can notice it in some songs, and his voice is noticeably different. Other comments on Wolfie appear at the top of the page.

1- You Really Got Me
2- I’m The One
3- Runnin’ With the Devil
4- Romeo Delight (a bit of The Who’s “Magic Bus” sprinkled in)
5- Somebody Get Me a Doctor
6- Beautiful Girls
7- Dance the Night Away
8- Atomic Punk
9- Everybody Wants Some
10- So This is Love?
11- Mean Street
12- Pretty Woman
13- Alex's extended and obviously awesome drum solo
14- Unchained
15- I’ll Wait
16- And the Cradle Will Rock
17- Hot For Teacher
18- Little Dreamer
19- Little Guitars
20- Jamie’s Cryin’
21- Ice Cream Man
22- Panama
23- Eddie’s extended thrashing guitar solo including selections from Spanish Fly, Cathedral and Eruption
24- Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love
25- the encore was Jump

We also got the added side bonus of watch the hot chick in the luxury box in front of us tease all the guys by trying to flash her boobies but not quite spilling the goods. It was amusing because she was hitting on every guy in the box (about 8 of 'em) -- and there was one guy who obviously not interested and she was all over him. I guess that's two shows for the price of one.

Return of Wherefore art thou Eric J. Hedlund?

It's been a busy week. Let's see, I'm sick. I have a cold. My throat problem appears to be back, but I've been ignoring it for weeks -- it's pretty bad now so I'm off to the doctor tomorrow. Dad gets his one year oncologists report tomorrow.

Last night, I saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with Evan and Brenda, their kids, and Adrian. Actually enjoyed it. For their second year running, they opened the show in Sunrise, Florida. It's a bit early for a Christmas show. WHAT? CHRISTMAS? Yeah. But that's not why I go, though I truly don't mind it. I love the second half where they do rock-based classical music. That's how I discovered TSO.

Codey, a 17 year old kid, who I never, but knew on-line, died this past Sunday. I won't go into all the details but it's not fair. Life isn't fair. A great kid and we need more people like him. I'm remarkably sad considering I never spoke to him, only had a few IMs, and basically knew him via email and/or forum posts. Friendships aren't defined like they used to be.

In a previous post I wrote about Unca Eric which was actually a follow up to a 2004 post I made. A few months ago, I decided to track him down a few months ago. I found out he left his job in Taos (see that previous post). I knew some of his friends names -- met them once so many moons ago -- and through the power of Google and my persistence I contacted PL and EW -- who both had no idea how to get in touch with him. E-mails to all known addresses bounced. I had given up.

Then, suddenly, there were new posts in his blog. Yay. YAY! I wrote him through the LiveJournal internal mail system for its members, figuring there was no chance of contact whatsoever. He wrote me back! I felt some really nice, sincere, deep joy. I realize none of my blog readers will care, but I do. Eric meant a lot to me -- in a world of mental midgets he was a rare mental giant I could talk to. I respect him.

Runaway Trains and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

There's a great song by Soul Asylum called Runaway Train, but it wasn't about this! Yes, you read it right. In a surprise bid for freedom, a Docklands Light Rail train escaped its operator at West India Quay station and went for a ride. Naturally, being the DLR and English, it dutifully came to a peaceful ending at Westferry where the train awaited the return of the operator. For the uninitiated, the DLR operated in London.

In news that is far less funny, I wish to bring your attention to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. While humorously named, it's decidedly less funny. You can read a story over at the San Francisco Chronicle about it. To sum it up, this collection of plastic is formed on land where a piece of plastic floats into a sewer, follows the storm drain to the ocean, then makes its way to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- a heap of debris floating in the Pacific that's twice the size of Texas. The enormous stew of trash - which consists of 80 percent plastics and weighs some 3.5 million tons -- floats where few people ever travel, in a no-man's land between San Francisco and Hawaii.

People just don't realize our planet can be broken, and it's on the verge right now. Yes, we're destroying our own planet, the only place we have to live. If it's not global warming, it's pollution. Talk about people shitting in the own backyard. Sad.

Why Led Zeppelin Sucks, Part II

(This post was edited on 27 October to include additional chart data)

On 5 March 2005, I made the obvious and ludicrously titled post "Why Led Zeppelin Sucks" which has generated tens of thousands of hits on this blog. Two-and-a-half years later, it's still generating traffic every single day as well as random hate-mail to go along with it. I have finally decided to say more on this matter because there's obviously still massive interest in this.

I am amused because at no point did I ever actually say Led Zeppelin sucks, because quite frankly they don't. However, the people "reading" the post -- who quite clearly haven't read it -- reply with such vehemence and often vitriol, it's amazing.

First, if you think Led sucks, I will not argue with you one way or another. You certainly can have your opinion. You won't be alone, but I will surmise you will be in small company. Led is talented and there's no question about it. You can dislike them, certainly, because that is a matter of personal taste. I dislike Luciano Pavarotti, but I don't like opera. That doesn't mean he sucks or lacks amazing talent. It just means I'm not a fan. Pretty simple concept many people miss.

Then, I made a most tragic mistake of comparing them to Pink Floyd. I say tragic because of all the fighting it caused. Do I think Pink Floyd is better than Led Zeppelin? You betcha! Go read the original post and comment away if you'd like. However, it's still a matter of personal opinion. Dark Side of the Moon is, perhaps, one of the very best albums ever made. Every single song on it's very good, stands on its own, and evokes emotions. The album IV (Zoso/Runes/etc) on which Stairway to Heaven appears is a very average album overall. It happens to have one of the best songs ever created on it: only a philistine would dare say Stairway isn't one of the best rock songs ever written and I love that song. But it's one song. The album has seven other songs, and some of 'em, they ain't great: just average.

If you want to compare songs, Stairway will probably dust anything Floyd wrote -- and I am a huge Floyd fan. But if you want to compare albums and oeuvres, then Floyd will win. Their overall output was of far better quality overall. And there aren't hundreds of accusations of plagiarism over Floyd's heads, either. For the record, Led has settled several of these suits out of court, so there is merit to the accusations. (Stairway remains untouched by any allegations.)

If you want a true measure, here are the top 10 entries for the most weeks on the Billboard Top 100 charts. Note that totals are for the main albums chart only, catalog chart totals are not factored in. Please note who is in SOLE POSSESSION of first place -- remaining on the top 200 chart for 14.25 years. YEARS!

1. (741 weeks) The Dark Side of the Moon — Pink Floyd
2. (490 weeks) Johnny's Greatest Hits — Johnny Mathis
3. (480 weeks) My Fair Lady — Original Cast
4. (331 weeks) Highlights from the Phantom of the Opera — Original Cast
5. (302 weeks) Tapestry — Carole King
6. (295 weeks) Heavenly — Johnny Mathis
7. (283 weeks) Oklahoma! — Soundtrack
8. (282 weeks) MCMXC a.D. — Enigma
9. (281 weeks) Metallica — Metallica
10. (277 weeks) The King and I — Soundtrack
11. (277 weeks) Hymns — Tennessee Ernie Ford

There are many theories as to the hold of Pink Floyd on the charts. Most center around the fact that people bought their copies on vinyl and wore them out. It wasn't until it came out on CD that it finally drifted off the charts. Led is conspicuously absent.

If you go for best-selling album of all-time in the USA, then Led and Pink are tied in third place behind Michael Jackson's Thriller and The Eagles Greatest Hits (which I refuse to count, as it's a compilation album and not an original work). If you go worldwide, then The Eagles drop down and Led drops even further.

I just had to say this because the debate will not die. But it bothers me when people say I hate Led Zeppelin. I don't. I am not a fan, but I respect them, what they've done, and can assure you both Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin will both be remembered long after rock dies*.

(*Rock will never die, dammit.)

Bohemian Rhapsody

Using Stumble Upon I found what is one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen. This guy is talented whilst at the same time irritating. I am in awe. The video is here.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is one of the most classic songs of the rock era. This cover by Canadian comedian Rick Miller will blow you away. If you've got StumbleUpon give it a thumbs up!

Best 5 minutes and 21 seconds you'll spend tonight.

Music and the 1 Terabyte Hard Drive. Complete.

I have had a series of posts about my ongoing CD ripping project started 1-1-07 and finished today 3-6-07 after 65 days of work. The first post is here, but you can see them all by using the labels (tags) feature.

The final result is 10,629 songs for a continuous playing time of 29.8 days -- this represents 773 albums and 252 artists*.

As I said in my original post, I've always wanted to have my complete library available to me, and now I do. I've ripped everything except spoken word discs

I used either 160 or 192 and in a few rare cases 320 bits depending on the recording. Most are being done at 160 because when they were recorded any real difference wouldn't be noticeable, and as a result I saved tons of drive space. Newer discs were done at the higher rate for better quality. My calculations for total space were way off because I took a typical CD and used that for all calculations, but most older albums are much shorter. Back in the LP era, an album could hold 45 minutes of music. The new ones hold 70 to 80 minutes so I ended up using half the space I expected. I also did the calculations before factoring in disk space shrinkage for using smaller bit rates. It was all done at 320, so my 1TB hard drive still has a lot of space which means I can buy more CDs.

I still wish iTunes let you have real dual libraries -- that is you could have two open at the same time and move songs back and forth. That would please me and it would make my project of removing any remaining illegal tracks go faster. I'll start updating tags which should be done later this year. And I'm slowly adding artwork too, because I'm anal that way.

* Sort of. Some albums a multi-disc set counts as "one album" and on others it counts as "two albums" depending if iTunes recognizes it as "Title" or "Title (Disc One)" and "Title (Disc Two)" but that is a minor quibble. Also for artists, it's the same thing "Elton John" is not the same artist as "Elton John & Billy Joel" so the count isn't perfect. Use the iTunes browse feature to get this information..

Terrabyte HD and the CD Ripping Project Update

In three previous posts to date: one, two, and three, I've commented on this project. As of right now, I'm at 23.5 days of continuous music, representing over 8300 songs and counting. I'm on the Soundtrack section and this one's interesting because I'm wondering exactly why I even bought some of these. Yeah, a good track here and there, but do I really need the entire Empire of the Sun soundtrack? And why do I have both London and Broadway cast recordings of Cats?

The one that will be really fun (insert sarcasm here) is my multi-lingual collection of Les Miserables soundtracks. I have a lot of these and I'll have to encode them so they don't register as duplicates. Won't take too long.

I'm still trying to keep up the pace but it's hard to stay with it; I'm probably done for the week and will try to resume this weekend. But I maintain that I'll still finish this project by June. I started New Year's Day and figured it would take 4 to 6 months.

After soundtracks, there's nothing much left except my Elton John library. I've saved that for last. I will not be including my spoken word CDs; that seems sort of pointless to include CDs containing interviews and such.

After it's done, as I said in post one, I'll slowly check my original playlist, and remove songs that are in my master list. I want to make sure I legally own everything. Then I'll go on a shopping spree to buy whatever I may not legally own. Yay. Then, I get buy new stuff. Watch my Amazon wish list later this year!

Advice, suggestions, and help solicited for this way-cool ongoing project.

In My Ongoing CD Ripping Project

In a previous post or two, I've commented on this project. As of right now, I'm at 20.5 days of continuous music, representing over 7400 songs and counting. I'm on the Classical section and it's slow going because of various discrepancies in the process that don't happen with Rock/Pop CDs. With all the foreign names, I'm having to check the spelling and accentuation of each composers name before I rip.

Also the people who've uploaded them have often included the composer's name as part of the title track. Like "Beethoven's 9th" instead of "Ninth Symphony" with the composer as Beethoven, so everyone has to be hand edited. It's really slowed me down. Some the artist is missing a first or last name. I've been on Google and Wikipedia quite a bit to clean everything up.

I'm trying to keep up the pace but it's hard to do and my motivation has dropped. But I will still finish this project. It's quite the challenge and I've learned a lot too.

As far as Classical music goes, the Baroque period is clearly what I like the best. Must be the romantic in me or something. It certainly doesn't fit my character.

iTunes has a bug, BTW, where it doesn't properly calculate the disk space. It rather insists all these songs only take up 40gb. A look at the disk information window (or even at the iTunes folder) clearly shows otherwise. Ah well.

I wish there was a way to find out how many CDs this represents without counting. At 12 tracks per CD average, I could guestimate. Maybe counting them will be my next project.

Prince's Halftime Imagery Questioned

Green Stuff From Associated Press article dated February 06, 2007 11:16 PM EST

First, this: "In the sensitive post-wardrobe malfunction world, some are questioning whether a guitar was just a guitar during Prince's Super Bowl halftime show." Well, I have to wonder myself. It was amazingly suggestive, and we were all, "Oh My God" but not in a bad way, mind you. It was more like, "leave it to Prince to mock everyone without being blatant about it, and at the same time giving an amazing half-time show."

As the AP reports, "Prince's acclaimed performance included a guitar solo during the "Purple Rain" segment of his medley in which his shadow was projected onto a large, flowing beige sheet. As the 48-year-old rock star let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure and his guitar (shaped like the singer's symbol) had phallic connotations for some." Proving, beyond any doubt, some people are in desperate need of a life. Yeah, it looked like he was strumming his instrument, but so what?

Daily News television critic David Bianculli called it "a rude-looking shadow show" that "looked embarrassingly rude, crude and unfortunately placed." Mr. Bianculli is a prude who needs to get stuffed. Some people have small minds. Who cares what it was? The show was good, not even remotely obscene. We should be so lucky if they're all like that.

CBS said Tuesday that the network has received "very few" complaints on Prince's performance. The NFL that produced the halftime show and league spokesman Greg Aiello said the league has received no complaints.At least someone has common sense. "We respect other opinions, but it takes quite a leap of the imagination to make a controversy of his performance," Aiello said."It's a guitar."

But, was Prince's pose phallic? "The short answer is, of course it is," says Rolling Stone magazine contributing editor Gavin Edwards, who points out that on Prince's "Purple Rain" tour in the mid `80s, he performed with a guitar that would ejaculate, squirting water out of its end during the climax of "Let's Go Crazy." But Prince's half-time performance, though celebrated, came in a much different cultural environment, where even the fleeting outline of a man and his guitar could, for some, suggest shaded depravity. "If people want to be hypersensitive, they can be hypersensitive," says Edwards.

This is much ado about nothing.

Apple's Steve Jobs Blasts DRM

Today, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer and iTunes and co-creator of all the cool stuff that represents has said that DRM sucks. Yes, he did. Posted it right there on Apple's web site for all to read, including some very unhappy people at record companies. DRM is digital rights management which translates to copy-protected songs. It didn't work for software -- remember the discs you couldn't make archival copies of and never worked right because the protection interfered with the music -- and it won't ultimately work for music. The record companies and RIAA are just too damned stupid to figure it out. The RIAA is just slightly brighter than George Bush, which doesn't say a whole hell of a lot.

Jobs says he only had DRM with iTunes because it was the only way to get labels to sign when it came out, "Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices."

He said he'd get rid of it right now if he could. "Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat."

Naturally Microsoft has already come out with a reply to Mr. Jobs and said they like DRM and think it's a good idea. The Zune which rolled with a big emphasis on sharing is now quietly doing away with it.

Cnet news is reporting all about it, and I think there will be fallout from this. I just don't know what it will be. But I am utterly fascinated he'd come out and make such a statement. I'm not a fan of Mr. Jobs, nor am I a detractor. His ego just freaks me out a bit -- it's bigger than anyone's. But on this, he has my wholehearted support.

Beatles on iTunes and iPod: One Step Closer?

Apple (Computer) Inc. has reached a surprise agreement with Apple Corps Ltd., the record label started by The Beatles in 1968, concerning the use of the name "Apple" and related logos. Under the terms of the agreement announced Monday, Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer) will own all trademarks and logos related to the name "Apple" and will license them to the Apple Corps Ltd. music company. This is a shock because basically Apple Corps (Apple Music as I call them) has conceded that Apple Computer is more known my the name than they are in all circles. They took money whilst there trademark still had good value. And it's a win-win situation for both parties.

This hopefully marks an end to the long-running and bitter trademark feud between the two companies. More importantly, it replaces a pre-existing agreement, from 1991, which forbids Apple Inc. from distributing music through physical media like CDs and cassette tapes -- an agreement that, needless to say, predated the advent of the digital music market.

In a statement, Steve Jobs said that "we love The Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks," adding that "it feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove the potential of further disagreements in the future." Yes, it's been painful for all of us. But here's to the iPod with the cover of your favourite Beatles album, or perhaps the Love-themed iPod.

There is no word yet on whether this deal will eventually lead to the sale of The Beatles' music catalog in the iTunes Store, as the songs of the Fab Four are still not available for legal digital download. Everyone, me included, expects this will change in the relatively immediate future. This may be one of the biggest ever announcements in the digital music marketplace.

Possibilities are endless. Buy Apple stock now :)

Pachelbel Canon in D by Funtwo

NY Times Article (3 pages) on the amazing FunTwo video of him playing Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel. Below is a direct video link, but if you prefer to zip over to YouTube directly, here's that link.





I will be honest, this sounds very much like the Trans-Siberian orchestra, but all research I did (Google) indicates this kid is for real. If you read the article, you'll find that some guy arranged this music, and this Korean kid just blasted his guitar out. It's impressive. You really ought to watch it. Turn up the volume.

More On Music and the 1 Terabyte Hard Drive

In my previous post entitled Music and the 1 Terabyte Hard Drive, I detailed my plans for this monumental project of ripping all my CDs into iTunes. It's been a much larger task than I thought but here's an update.

I am on the letter "S" today (remember, I'm only in my Pop/Rock library) and have 8.6 days of songs representing some 3600+ individual tracks. Once that's done, I have my classical, world, show tune, new age libraries. I also have libraries of Beatles and Elton John CDs which are not included in my regular rock/pop library.

I am (if you count by CD and not contents) just about 12% done. Current calculations indicate that my spoken word collection will not make the cut because I don't think the 1 TB hard drive will have space. This may change though because much of the stuff I haven't got to yet (live recordings) will be recorded at tighter bit rates and that will save space.

Music and the 1 Terabyte Hard Drive

Everyone who knows me knows I love music. I own close to 1000 CDs, all store bought. Over the years, I have downloaded more than a few songs -- most I own but am too damned lazy to go find the CD, bring it upstairs, rip a track, put it back, and then update all the info -- but if I don't own it, and I like it I buy the album. If I don't, I delete the song. I really do believe the artist is entitled to their money. As a (former) software publisher, saying otherwise would be hypocritical. It's a great way to try new music and that short snippet on iTunes just isn't long enough to make up my mind whether I wish to buy an album. And, I buy my albums at Amazon because I won't support DRM because it interferes with my use of the song. Fuck that.

So, after saying all that, I have about 400 songs in my primary play list compiled over the past five or so years. Yay. Most were ripped track by track or downloaded to try t(as I said above). If I buy the CD I don't believe there's a real need to delete the song I downloaded and re-rip it from the CD I just bought. Even the RIAA can't be that fucking stupid. Well, okay, they're more stupid than that, but I digress: the RIAA is dumber than the shit in a baby's diaper and they smell about the same.

Anyway, I've always wanted to have my complete library available to me, but at current estimates I needed around 850 GB of disk space. Yeah, that's right, nearly a terabyte. And, mind you, that excludes spoken word discs, and some of my collections of various operatic works -- they came free with my old BBC music magazine, but they're really not worth putting on disc. That's an exorbitant amount of disc space, more than my computer's two internal hard drives had, and an expensive proposition.

Until Now.

Apple Store has on sale a 1TB (a terabyte is 1,000GB) external drive which is tri-port, accepting the ever-slow USB 2.0, the very fast FireWire 400, and the new and relatively rare Firewire2 (Firewire 800). It so happens my G5 has a FireWire 800 port and this baby flies. At $549 it's a fucking steal. Yeah, that's a real bargain. It configures as a Raid 0 or Raid 1 drive so you can use it as a 1TB drive or two 500GB mirrored drives. Default out of the box, it's a Raid 0 1TB drive and the Mac recognizes it right away and the default HFS+ journalled format means you're ready to rock immediately.

I am in the middle of ripping my Pop/Rock CDs right at the moment. Middle is not the right word. I'm in the middle of the letter "B" after two hours and have 520 songs for 1.4 days of playing time, at 2.41GB. Not bad really. I'm using either 160 or 192 bits depending on the recording. Most are being done at 160 because when they were recorded any real difference won't be noticeable, but I'll save tons of drive space. Newer discs are being done at the higher rate for better quality.

I wish iTunes let you have real dual libraries -- that is you could have two open at the same time and move songs back and forth. That would please me.

When I'm all done, then I'll probably start updating tags which should be done by the end of this year. I'm figuring 15,000 songs or so will be in the library when done. Why do I have to do this? Because as great as iTunes is, it sucks at some things. Let's take Jimmy Buffet, for example, his songs get tagged as Rock, Country, Pop, and Alternative. The soundtrack to Don't Stop The Carnival (get this disc) is tagged as Rock. It's just screwed up. So it's got to be fixed. And I'm slowly adding artwork too, because I'm anal that way.

After that I'll slowly check my other playlist, and remove songs that are in my master list. I want to make sure I legally own everything. Then I'll go on a shopping spree. Yay.

Advice, suggestions, and help solicited for this way cool project.

Happy Xmas (War is Over) -- Lennon (and more)

1. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Acceptance
2. Happy Xmas (War is Over) Celine Dion
3. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Eric Lapointe
4. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) The Fray
5. Happy Xmas (War is Over) Hot Rod Circuit
6. Happy Xmas (War is Over) John Holt
7. Happy Xmas (War is over) John Lennon
8. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Maroon 5
9. Happy XMas (War Is Over) Melissa Etheridge
10. Happy Xmas (War is Over) Neil Diamond
11. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) The Pop Idols
12. Happy Xmas (War is Over) Robbie Williams
13. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Sarah McLachlan
14. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Street Drum Corps & Bert McCracken
15. Happy Xmas (War is Over) U2
16. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) The Used
17. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Roch Voisine
18. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Julesanger
19. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Gregorian Chant
20. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Collective Soul (also have TV Video Clip)
21. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Jimmy Buffett
22. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Quo Vadis
23. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) What's Up
24. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) The Moody Blues
25. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Caio Mesquita
26. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Gary Hoey
27. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Katia Keres
28. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Mark Doyle
29. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Rick Cowling
30. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) The Mighty Echoes
31. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Twelve Girls Band
32. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Marie Michèle Desrosiers
    
33. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Crouch End Festival Chorus
34. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Claudia Ricci
35. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) William Coulter & Benjamin Verdery
36. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Les Grands Airs De Noël
37. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Glenn Hoddle of the Tottenham Hotspur Football [Soccer] Club
38. Låt julen förkunna (Julen är här) Tommy Körberg & Sissel Kyrkjebø (Thanks, Simon)
    

(The above list last updated 5 January 2007 @ 19:13 Eastern US Time)

I am continuing to collect versions of this song and I want to thank the many of you who have helped me out.

This is the only serious holiday song I really love. There are others I like, but this one is awesome. If you have a version that is not listed above, help me out and please e-mail me the particulars. Please don't e-mail MP3 files without checking with me, as my mailbox can only hold so much. If I haven't collected your version, I shall gladly tell you which address you can send it to. Or if you prefer to provide me a link to a FTP site or even Amazon, that would be fine too.

Beatles: only on iPod via iTunes?

The whole article is here, but I am going excerpt from it.

Yes, the long rumoured move is about nigh! The Beatles come to your iPod. And that may prompt me to buy another iPod. I had one, you know, and then I sold it on eBay. Well, you've all seen the cool black U2 iPod. Can you imagine the funky Yellow Submarine coloured iPod with some Beatles logos on it? Yes, I'm sitting a pool of drool.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Click on the iTunes music store and punch in "Beatles" under artist search. More than 50 albums will pop up, including Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Play the Beatles, but none are the real deal. But that may be about to change. While details remain to be worked out, Fortune has learned that iTunes is close to a deal to bring the Beatles catalog online. Apple Computer is said to be angling to become the exclusive online music store for the Beatles for a limited window of time. Other music stores, have courted the Beatles over the years to no avail, but it appears Apple is close to getting first dibs on the band's hits.

If the deal goes through, it will mark a Nixon-Brezhnev-worthy truce - with the band's record label, Britain's EMI Group, serving as a peacemaker - between Apple Computer's Steve Jobs and Neil Aspinall, the one-time Beatles road manager who is now guardian of the band's business interests under Apple Corps.

At a recent industry conference, David Munns, head of EMI North America, said the Beatles would be available online "soon." The parties were hoping to make a splashy announcement to coincide with the Nov. 21 release of "Love," a mashup of Beatles songs that serves as a soundtrack to a Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil production. That didn't happen.

According to a music industry executive apprised of the talks, the parties were discussing how lengthy a window of exclusivity iTunes might get and how many tens of millions of dollars Jobs - who is said to be personally involved in the discussions - will commit to an advance for the band and marketing costs.

Also being discussed is whether the band would be willing to take two steps at the same time and endorse the iPod by allowing its music to be used in a commercial. Another scenario making the rounds is the prospect of the Beatles following U2's example with a branded iPod. "If the Beatles were in an iPod ad, that would be humongous," this executive said.

The deal could well fall apart for any number of reasons, including the long-running legal feud between Apple Corps and Apple Computer over both their names and the similarities between the Granny Smith that appears on the label's LPs and the half-eaten apple that is Jobs' corporate logo. "The Beatles' position is that they don't sing jingles to peddle sneakers, beer, pantyhose, or anything else," a lawyer for the band told the Associated Press at the time. Notice he didn't say iPods.

This is enormous news. It'll kill that damn Zune right out of the door. Happily the Zune is getting pretty bad reviews from all facets of the press because it's bulky, counter-intuitive, and worse -- what do they expect from the twits at Microsoft, after all they produced Windows. If you own Apple stock, I wouldn't sell it just now. I think you'll see a huge jump.

One of the most famous bands of all-time, a group that changed the course of not only music history, but arguably human history -- coming to the iTunes store and your iPod. I'm hoping this works out -- even if it just ends those damn interminable lawsuits Apple Corps (Music) has been flinging at Apple Corp (Computers).

The Who in Concert (Pretenders open)

The Who in Concert (Sunrise, Florida), 11-20-2006 BankAtlantic Center. With Set List.

Before we get to the who, a brief word about Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders. What a fucking awesome opening act. They need their own show. Talk about the currently reigning queen of rock, she's right here. You can see she's been around awhile because she knows how to rock and she did a great job. I was happy to see it was nearly 2/3rds full when they started at 735pm and went for about 45 minutes.

I've always been a casual fan of The Who, but I was excited at the chance to finally see them live. I was expecting a concert much like the rapidly-aging Rolling Stones would put on. The Who out-rocks the Stones. I must admit this -- and I like the Stones more than the Who. They took the stage at 850pm and rocked until just shy of 11pm. And when I say rocked, I mean rocked. This band doesn't take it easy and the crowd appreciated it -- despite the paper's lukewarm review today. I enjoyed the music, the cool background visuals, everything. I can say I am more a Who fan now than before the show.

The Who had more feeling in their performance and it showed. They didn't coast through most of the numbers and gave it a good show. Plus, we got a bit of the "South Florida" connection because a number of the songs were written locally in WPB as we were told by Pete -- Roger was largely silent when it came to audience banter.

Their new mini-opera was pretty damned good, too. Nobody stood, but it's a new group of songs and this crowd wanted to sing Teenage Wasteland (Baba O'Reily) at the top of their collective lungs. It was a widely age diverse crowd, too. I liked that.

So we've got Pete's relative (Simon) and a Ringo Starr relative in the band. It's the celebrity back-up band. On keyboards we had Brian Kehew who is the band's keyboard technician because the regular player's wife is very ill and had flown to London a few days before. And let me tell you, they were good. Really good. This was a very tight performance in every good way possible.

Set List (hopefully accurate)
I Can't Explain,
The Seeker,
Substitute,
Fragments,
Who Are You,
Behind Blue Eyes,
Real Good Looking Boy,
Sound Round,
Pick Up The Peace,
Endless Wire,
We Got A Hit,
They Made My Dreams Come True,
Mirror Door,
Baba O'Riley,
Eminence Front,
Man In A Purple Dress (w/o band),
Mike Post Theme,
You Better You Bet,
My Generation,
Cry If You Want,
Won't Get Fooled Again
encore begins
Pinball Wizard,
Amazing Journey,
Sparks,
See Me Feel Me,
Tea And Theatre

added 25 Nov 2006:

The Who roadie joins band

From World Entertainment News Network / November 25, 2006 9:15 AM EST

A roadie for rock legends THE WHO has been asked to join the band after he impressed them with his keyboard skills. Band member JOHN BUNDRICK had to pull out of their US tour when his wife became ill, and American roadie BRIAN KEHEW was immediately asked to step in. The Who's manager, ROBERT ROSENBERG, says, "Roadies sometimes stand in for the musicians during the soundcheck. When the band heard Brian they were really impressed."

Cirque Du Soliel: Love (Beatles)

Saturday night I finally saw the latest in the Cirque Du Soliel oeuvre, Love. First, let me state that it was wonderful through and through and I highly recommend into to anyone as entertainment. However, this should not be the first Cirque you ever see. I'll explain why below.

The music was outstanding, but that's because it's the Beatles. You have to realize that this means there is no live band, so you don't get that as part of your experience. Instead, it's the Beatles singing, via CD I assume. That's not a bad thing at all, but it's not how you should see your first Cirque. Part of that joy is the entire experience.

Love also has people speaking in English as well as the now ubiquitous "Cirque Language". It loses a bit of charm and mystery that way. Nothing wrong with that, but certainly you need to experience that for your first Cirque. On the plus side, there's no mystery to this story of four lads and their music. Various songs are represented in acrobatic ways.

There's a lot less acrobatic stuff and a lot more theatrical stuff. Also decidedly non-Cirque. Again, seeing the songs brought to life is really cool but this is not something one should see as the first Cirque show. Again, everything that goes on is miraculous. We saw the show from row two, right up against the stage (this is in-the-round) and had a great view.

This Cirque borrows a page from Blue Man and has a bit of audience participation. It's a pretty neat effect. And of course the acting is superb, and everything is very well presented. This is a fantastic show and all your Cirque groupies need to see this show.

Many of your favourite Beatles songs are represented, but a fair amount of popular hits aren't -- so be prepared to not hear a song you love. You have to realize they can't include everything -- but the way they randomly sample songs together to make the introductory pieces insures you will hear at least a clip of your favourite Beatles song.

This show rocks. Playing now at the Mirage in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ka is a better Cirque show by all measures except the music -- and I saw Ka (again) this trip as well. But that being said, I still think I like this better.


All you need is Love.

Blue October And MySpace

As I have said previously, I have a My Space account if you care to look me up. But that isn't the point of this post. I will agree with all of you that MySpace has many things to ridicule relentlessly until the horse dies from beating. However, as I said, some of the bands are cool.

There's some guy named Casterisk -- I found him because he happened to be in one of my friend's profiles. So I clicked on his profile, just to see what sort of friends my friend had and in the background there was this really cool song. It was so cool I wanted to own it, but there was no link to the song I could find. One of the many disadvantages of MySpace is that people can create pages that are hard to read and difficult to navigate and although this page wasn't too bad, my poor eyes still couldn't find the information.

I emailed him and asked him about the song. So he wrote back and told me who the band was. I ordered the CD I liked the song so much. I've got to tell you, the whole CD is fucking fantastic. It's called Foiled and it's by Blue October -- be careful there are two bands with the same name. The song I loved was called "She's My Ride Home" though it's not the one you hear all over the radio.

Oh, and as a shout out to Casterisk, you should check out his MySpace page. He's got a great MySpace blog with some really interesting things to say. Plus you can hear that awesome song in the background -- though it's probably changed by now.

RIP: Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd

Legendary original Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett has died. The troubled Pink Floyd co-founder spent his last years in reclusive anonymity. A spokeswoman for the band said Barrett died several days ago, but did not disclose the cause of death.

The surviving members of Pink Floyd - David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters , and Richard Wright - said they were "very upset and sad to learn of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band lineup and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire," they said in a statement.

Barrett suffered from mental instability, greatly exacerbated by his use of LSD. His behaviour grew increasingly erratic, and he left the group in 1968 - five years before the release of Pink Floyd's most popular album, the legendary "Dark Side of the Moon." Barrett was replaced by Gilmour. Pink Floyd recorded the album "Wish You Were Here" as a tribute to their brilliant but deeply troubled troubled bandmate.

We've been discussing Pink in the infamous Why Led Zeppelin Sucks thread.

Queen and American Idol

First, there was the new Queen, see my review at: Queen + Paul Rodgers (Miami Concert Review w/set list) and now there's American Idol doing Queen. Many Queen fans expected a train wreck, and indeed a train wreck is what we got.

Fat Bottomed Girls: I never pictured this as a country song. I am not a country fan. "I didn