Tag Archive: music
Inaugural Music Without Simultaneous Commentary
The New York Times reviewed the piece as well, quite accurately.
Link and video link from the Linkmeister (on a Making Light post).
Things to Do Before Snowpocalypse Hits
When it hits the island, it really whacks it sideways with a 2×4 and then stomps up and down until the island is out of power for multiple days. Last time it was out, I was out for seven.
So: checklist of things I need to do:
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Upload all my valuable files and stuff I was working on to my encrypted JungleDisk share, which sits on Amazon’s super-redundant S3 storage.
This includes all the books I’m working on, every cool script, and thanking the gods I’m not running my own webserver anymore.
I’ve also saved my Amazon MP3 music up there. It currently costs me 12 cents a month.
iPod owner’s note: Your iPod can too be an accessible 2-way storage of music. See iLinkPod to show you the way to drag the muzak out of there, and Dukko to rename the craziness.
DONE.
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Notify my boss that I may get knocked out by winter winds and be unable to carry out my oncall duties.
Yeah, that one really cuts me to the bone. Yeah. Uh-huh. To the quick.
DONE.
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LAUNDRY.
DONE.
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Find my Black n’ Red notebook of awesome and pens of awesome.
DONE.
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Write down LOTS of contact numbers, starting with that of my internet provider and the chain of command at work.
At work, we have a little thing that will create a small PDF, credit-card-sized, of numbers for your teammates and your chain of command.
DONE.
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SHOWER! Actually, this can be done even after the lights go out. Hot water storage FTW.
DONE.
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Those POND pre-soap cloths that you soak. Those are nice.Couldn’t find them. Wah. -
Protein in food form. Nuts in wholesale form, for instance.
DONE.
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Jim MacDonald’s scary medical posts. in ebook form.
Surprisingly complicated. May or may not do; I have Where There is No Doctor in solid book form. And also Merck Manual of Medical Information 2nd Home Edition.
Substituted.
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Fill up on gas.
I don’t have to! Because I follow Uncle Jim’s emergency advice: half-a-tank means empty. My tank is pretty much full right now.
DONE.
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Shut off wireless on my Kindle after downloading various things and buying a couple titles from the Kindle store (in particular, nonfiction like The Great Movies by Roger Ebert.
Kindle will last for a week or more without it (wireless is such a power suck).
DONE.
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Watch the last bits of Season 7 West Wing while eating a last Digiorno microwave pizza for one (those are really good, by the way). Then pop the West Wing DVD out of the computer.
DONE.
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Seriously charge my MacBook for as long as possible, after shutting off the wireless on it too.
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Flashlights! And many batteries in multiple sizes: 9v, C, ton of AA, many AAA. One of my flashlights can take D, C, or AAA; another one is an LED with lots of life in it that can be used to scare off looters and crush the skulls of zombies; and two keychain ones that still have life.
DONE.
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Booklight. Mighty Brite. Takes AAA. Check.
DONE.
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Medical refills. Did them a couple days ago, plus I have a million of Daily Essential Enzymes because I can’t digest a lot of food without them. Well. Not well anyways.
DONE.
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Bottled water, canned food or rehydratable soups, snacks, and those rehydrating powder packs. I have Emergen-C, strawberry.
DONE.
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Portable butane stove and its little butane cans. Check. Little pots and pans and especially the teakettle, check.
DONE.
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Automated posts for tonight and the next couple of days. Yay Wordpress.
DONE.
I may be some time.
The Section Quartet
The Section Quartet is one of my favorite groups. Of which there is a very tiny number, since my taste in music is either old and conservative (as in pre-20th-century) or new and odd. It shouldn’t be possible for someone who admires Handel to also really like “Girlfriend”, but there you have it.
Fittingly, the Section Quartet covers a range of very different works.
My favorites out of this particular album would be:
- Juicebox
- A cover of the Strokes’ hit single in 2005. This improves on the original, while preserving the original’s rhythm and beat extremely well. There’s actually no percussion in this piece (or at least, no explicit percussion by actual percussionists with percussive instruments. Unless it’s string instruments).
- Such Great Heights
- A cover of the Post Service’s 2003 hit. This is lyrical and beautiful. You know, whenever I hear people singing, I tend to want to replace them with violins or possibly violas.
- Time is Running Out
- From Muse, 2003. Much, much, much better when replaced by string instruments with a modern approach towards play.
- Heartbreaker
- Yes, it is indeed 1969 Led Zeppelin. The “guitar” solo, which you don’t get to hear in the Amazon mp3 clip, is very effectively replaced by violin assisted by fuzzbox.
The iTunes version of the album is DRM’d but does have a cover of Massive Attack’s 1998 “Teardrop”, which is difficult to carry off with classical instruments. That cover considerably softens Teardrop into a wistfulness that was intended by the lyrics but doesn’t carry off otherwise in the original. You can, of course, just buy the Teardrop track.
The Section Quartet is neither Handel nor Avril Lavigne, but they could probably do a pretty good cover of “Girlfriend”. I often think of them while I listen to that song, which is probably why I like it as much as I do.
Wil Wheaton Saves My Christmas
Wil Wheaton, apparently you were my only hope, and you have saved me from holiday music hell!
Over at WWdN: In Exile, Wil talks about Christmas with his family–glad you got the days off, Wil!–but also shares his holiday music playlist. It doesn’t look full of muzak crapola that often makes me ill whenever I shop or turn on the radio over the holidays–for instance, instead of the traditional Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer motif, he lists Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo instead.
I am hip to find all these on Amazon MP3 Downloads or iTunes (with a distinct preference for the former) and put them on one of my USB keys, then take it downstairs to play on my Early 21st Century DVD player, which can play AVIs, WMAs, MOVs, and any other format you can throw at it, and has a USB port.
Once again, thank you Wil!
