"...no dead end in sight..."

music monday

This week, having avoided going through the hard drive like the plague (and not having enough time to sift through the awesome), I allowed myself a few tiny, tiny album purchases.

Owl City, Ocean Eyes
Glee - The Music, Vol. 1

The latter was an impulse buy. I love the show and am pretty sure this is going to be my guilty pleasure music for quite some time. Owl City I'd heard on the radio and flipped through a bunch of their songs on iTunes before buying the album because there were a few here and there that I could see growing on me.

At first listen, their music seems to be a cross between Dashboard and a poppy, less dark (less British!) version of Coldplay...you know, before dude married Gwenyth and started recycling all their audio tracks. More electronica, which I like, but where a lot of electronica or techno music is SO SEWIOUS in a stern eastern European music type of way, it seems like these people have fun with their music. I think this will hold me over until the next Sufjan Stevens album comes out.

Also on the purchase list, as far as individual tracks go, are:

Kings of Leon, Use Somebody
Beyonce, Sweet Dreams

I realize it's a short list for being payday and all. This week's mix will be a combination of the following:

Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
Buddy Holly
Alanis Morrisette
Yiddish Radio Project (album)
Atomic Platters (album)

Here's to an awesome music week, everyone!

music monday

So when I came home from San Francisco I had something glorious in my possession. No, not mochi, although that was in my bag as well, and barely lasted two days once I'd touched down in DFW. What I'm talking about here is approximately 145 gig of delicious, strange, brand spankin new (at least to me) music. 

Last weekend I fired the thing up to see what I could find, and after almost three hours I wasn't even halfway through it all. I've put a bunch on my iPhone and have been listening to it at my desk for the last week.

Some favorite artists/albums so far:

Fats Waller, Portrait Vol. 2

Baden Powell, Afro Sambas

Beau Soleil, L'Echo

Ibrahim Ferrer, Buenos Hermanos

Yo-Yo Ma, Soul of the Tango

Global Cultural Collective, Red Sands Dreaming

This week I find I'm being drawn to really poppy, jazzy, or bright music with Latinate beats. And I've tried zydeco - I didn't realize I'd like it so much. Maybe my coworkers' opinions would range on the other side of the spectrum, but I think it's pretty spicy stuff to have on hand for the streak of rainy days we had last week. It also makes me want to fire up the Visa and take a trip to New Orleans! (someday...)

The Process

The way I pick out such crazy music is pretty logic-based. I go into my iTunes and I've set up several Smart Playlists by genre (like Classical, Jazz, Latin, Rock, World, Zydeco). I click on "Match the following rule...", then select "Genre" and "contains" from the first drop-down box. In the last box on that row, I type in the genre that I'd like it to pull from, then underneath I set up the option as "Limit to [75] items, selected by [random]", and select "Match only checked items" so I don't get music I wouldn't otherwise listen to. (All of the music I've downloaded I have checked, because without listening to it I don't know if I'd want to listen to it, you know?) This means in that particular category I get 75 random songs from a genre I've specified. It sounds like a lot, but when you have the iPhone playing for hours on end it goes through pretty quickly.

I had five full days last week of this music, and had left my typical fallbacks (Chopin piano music, Aaron Copeland, most pop music, the Beatles Anthologies) at home in the hope of venturing out into something completely different. Using the aforementioned formula, this week will have a mix of the following, among others:

Flaco Jimenez

Benny Goodman

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Spacehog

Blue Men Group

Audioslave

If anyone reading this (lurkers or otherwise!) has suggestions for music I should try, please leave a comment. I'm pretty much open to any artist, any genre, although for the purpose of putting it on my iPhone to take to work I like to keep it pretty mildly work safe. Here's to an awesome music week!

book + music

Brick Lane: A Novel, Monica Ali. I read this over the course of, what, a few months? Little bites at a time. Normally when the POV changes, or there are large sections of plot that differentiate from the main storyline I get bored rather quickly, but with this novel it was done in such a way as to keep things moving. I liked the characters, and I liked the setting as it wasn't a Westerner's view at all. Also, I noted that Amazon has a version for the Kindle, which is a plus in my book even though I don't own one.

***

What I'm Listening To (list shamelessly ganked from my iTunes):

• The Ultimate Petula Clark.
• To Sir With Love, Lulu.
• Circus, Britney Spears (*ducks)
• Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, Dave Matthews Band - This album marks a couple of firsts for me. The first time I bought a DMB album on iTunes and didn't purchase a tangible CD from a store. The first time I bought a DMB album without listening to any of it first. The first time I sat there for an hour, listening to a DMB album from beginning to end (no stops, no skipping through songs to listen to my favorites first).

I have varying opinions about this album. I know a lot of DMB fans are going to listen and be all smarmy, like "d'awww, tribute to LeRoi" etc. and so forth, and completely disregard any criticism because the entire thing could be viewed as a tribute album. I get that, and in a way, it is. LeRoi was an excellent musician, one of the driving forces in the band, and the sound will never, ever be the same again. It's not that DMB has rolled downhill with this one, or even plateau'd - in fact, they play around with new musical concepts while keeping true to their standard feisty DMB-ness - but just that after recent albums like Everyday and Stand Up it was going to be difficult to branch out into a completely foreign sound or structure.

When I compare the structure of an album like Big Whiskey to, say, the Foo Fighters' Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (which I realize is more apples to oranges than I would like, in terms of genre, etc), it seems that both bands are trying to keep that same eclectic style and sound, yet evolve into something better than what they have been. While the Foos manage a logical, natural progression from screamy alternative into a mellower, more mature, instrumentally-driven sound from the beginning of ESPG to the end, it seems at times with Big Whiskey that DMB is still clinging to that last thread of days gone by and can't quite evolve to the next level musically. I wonder if arranging the tracks in a different order would have facilitated this.

I agree with a lot of critics who say it's an excellent album, and one that clearly marks a maturation in the lives of the bandmembers, particularly Mr. Dave Matthews himself. However, I think that those who are comparing it to Before These Crowded Streets need to get their heads screwed on straight. They aren't the same people they were fifteen years ago, and if you want to listen to something with the sound of BTCS, go pull out that CD and pop it in the player.

Favorite Track: Alligator Pie

Least Favorite Track: I haven't decided yet. There are certainly tracks that aren't as memorable as others, or that sound like they could have used a little more work, but nothing that I just go "ugh!" and click NEXT on the brave blue iPod. Go buy this album. I'm pretty sure you will like it.

Grade: 4/5

weeekend~

I find myself pausing whatever I'm doing when this commercial comes on. I like Jupiter maybe even more than Mars, and not just because everybody and their dog plays Mars at some point. It's also not just because of the huge field adrenaline-slash-nostalgia rush. It's more of a...stirring, a call to action, a drive to be more and do more. It's uplifting for me, even though in the instance of this commercial it's only sixteen seconds.
Today is the start of a new week, and it's unusually cool outside. We had the unholy mother of horrendous rainstorms drag itself through DFW this weekend, and when I stepped outside to go see Sasha's new babeh I was surprised to find that it was only 60 degrees out. So much for putting up all my winter sweaters this weekend.
Actually, I didn't get much done. Overcast weather and I was really blah yesterday. Not much cooking, except for a modified recipe from my new Party Food book (well, not new, per se. A Half Price purchase) for rice and crab balls that I've baked instead of deep fried. They're okay. Not great, but they will do in my bento lunch this week.
On the menu for the bento: rice and crab; strawberries; baby carrots; hummus. I also bought refried beans to do some sort of quesadilla thing in the middle of the week, and delicious Pink Lady apples at beloved Market Street for when the strawberries run out. I usually buy Fiji, but I saw these and thought I'd give them a shot. They are sweet and slightly juicy, with a tart bite to the skin that makes it a little bit more diversified than a regular Fiji or Red Delicious. I think they would be good for baking.
I am so not looking forward to the new, stylized Star Trek movie. It will not be the same Kirk and Spock without Shatner and Nimoy. I am predicting all the junior high kids will squeal over it, but all the die-hard fans who knew the Trek franchise was headed downhill at the release of Nemesis will recognize it for what it is: a shiny pile of poo. I am still going to go see it, just for fodder to make fun of it (also because for some bizarre reason pookie is really jonesing to see the thing), but I am not going to consider this canon at all.
Well, we shall see. I didn't think the Wolverine movie would be any good but I am giving that one a 3 out of 5.
Tomorrow is Monday and lately that means it's House night! We have fallen into this television routine in the evenings - Tuesday is The Biggest Loser, Wednesday is SVU, and Thursday is "I'm going to watch NBC even though technically that's cheating to watch The Office when we haven't gotten through all our DVDs yet" night.
This Friday is payday! And that means it's dry cleaning day and car wash day, and I can get my registration sticker taken care of. Not that it's for anyone's personal reference but mine, but anyway.
I see people my age who are super tanned and they look way old. They have that same look that people my age have when they have been smoking for years. That gross, haggard-in-training type of look. I guess it makes them look older? Or at least that's what they want. After awhile I think they just start to look dried out.
When I was going into college I wanted more than anything to be in a sorority. (I was eighteen and stupid and wanted to pull a 180 and "redefine myself".) My parents said, oh hell no we're not paying that much money for you to lose focus with your studies your first semester. I wonder if I would be the same person had they let me. I wonder if at any point it would have occurred to me to get a job and pay for it myself. Was I just not that rebellious, or did it just end up not being that important? I mean, I turned out all right. One of those Butterfly Effect moments. Whatever.
I'm going to start simplifying my life, starting by getting rid of all the material things I don't need. I think it will make my life easier in the long run.
Now I've got to change out the laundry so we will have nice warm sheets and pillowcases to sleep on tonight. Apologies for the sprinkle assortment of words and phrases.

a thought

OKAY SO - When is Season 4 of Bones going to be on DVD?? We started watching it from the beginning and because we finished Season 3 at the middle-ish of Season 4 I've been good and haven't watched most of it when it comes on TV because I would have missed half the season and it would be out of order - and then I see Bones icon communities posting hilarious icons and I'm like, dang, I really wish I'd watched that episode! Hilarity always ensues on that show. I freakin love it. The writing is snappy and intelligent and more people need to watch this show LIKE RIGHT NOW OMG.

Amazon doesn't say! ARGH WHAT IS THIS! This is going to be a humongous pain for me. COME ON PEOPLE. o.o; "You're killin me, Smalls! You're killin me!"

I have the new/old DMB album in the background and because I haven't listened to it in so long a song will start up and I don't recognize the intro. It's like meeting an old friend after they've been abroad for a hundred years.

Today is going to be hella busy so I am going to get off my butt and go be productive! Everybody do the same!!