Who’s an Idiot? I am

December 23, 2004 // No Comments

I somehow managed to delete all 675+ songs from my iPod and my iTunes library. How stupid of me.

I tied cleaning up my iTunes library on my PC and deleted all the tracks there. I then tried to "sync" my iPod and iTunes- only one playlist, mind you- and the iPod was quickly replaced by everything currently in my iTunes library, That’s righ: NOTHING. All of the songs were wiped out!

The bright sides, and there are many:

  • I now know how to avoid trouble with iTunes. Manually update. ALWAYS manually update!
  • As my lovely wife put it, "At least this happened now, rather than when you have thousands of songs on it." How true. The days of thousands of songs are not far away, too..
  • Even though I’ve only had it a week, it holds 12,000 songs and I only had less than 700 on it, I felt it was already in need of being weeded out. I learned some lessons about uploading- just because you have a CD handy, that doesn’t mean you need to add it to your iPod. Be selective, and you won’t be hitting the skip button constantly.
  • I was able to quickly recover all the songs I lost that I downloaded or added from work, as opposed to those I added from home. So I was back at 450 songs in no time (well, I had to get, install and run an udelete program, but it was no time in the grand scheme of things.
  • 24 hours later, I have 616 songs on the iPod, many of which are more likely to stay on than the previous batch of tunes.

Disaster averted, lesson learned. iPod and I had a spat, but we’re reunited, and it feels so good.

iPod is My Co-Pilot

December 21, 2004 // No Comments

Now don’t mistake the above title for me breaking the second commandment. My relationship with the Creator is the same as it was before last Wednesday. But something profound did happen that day, and I’m here to tell the world all about it.

I bought an iPod.

Now for someone with a music collection as vast as mine, this has been almost a religious experience. Instead of seeing the light, I’m hearing it. Mind you, I’ve only used up a paltry 2.5 GB so far out of a possible 40. Which means 635 songs in, 11,365 to go.

I’ve had Walkmen before, and they’re great. But to have more than 20 songs available at your fingertips without changing a disc or tape. And to have that number of songs available be limited only by the time you have to put them in the iPod itself? That’s music lover’s heaven.

My plans for the iPod are wide reaching. Get all of my favorite cover versions in one place. Have all of the Timmy Award winning albums from the past 5 years available at the touch of a finger. Put the "one or two good songs" off of hundreds of CDs that contain only that onto the iPod and get rid of those discs once and for all.

And today I learned something else about my iPod. It can be as smart as I let it be.

These are the songs I heard on the way to the train this a.m., and during my train ride. I used the Shuffle Songs feature, which will guide me through all 635 tunes in an allegedly random order.:

Evil by Interpol: The 2004 Interpol album will win a Timmy Award, and this is a great song- surprisingly upbeat for them, and for a song called Evil.

Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes: A stern reminder from my iPod that it, like my body, is a temple, and I must watch what I put in it if I want it to work for me. It seemed like a good idea to load this song when I took tunes from the Classic Axe compilation, but it’s come up twice in 4 days, and I’ve hit skip twice. It’s coming off today.

High Party by Ted Leo and The Pharmacists: Ah, back on track. This album was my #1 in 2003, and this is a strong cut from it. The train platform is cold, but the volume is way up- and as a result, so are my spirits.

Crap. I went to charge the iPod, and I lost my Shuffle Songs order from this a.m. Nevertheless, I heard some Beastie Boys, some Supergrass, and other songs that made me smile. And if I load my tunes wisely, this will always be the case. If I am good to my iPod, it will be good to me.

I’m telling you, this thing is awesome.

A Coffee Break

December 21, 2004 // No Comments

I’m having a cup of coffee.

To most folks, this statement is like "I’m breathing". Yet for me, coffee is not something I have all the time. It goes with breakfast out at a diner or after a big, hearty meal. And that’s about it.

The coffee marketers of the world must have seen me coming, as now it’s easier than ever to get hooked. I was at the grocery store last night getting a few necessary items for our young family (read: Vitamin D milk, white bread, fruit) when over in the dairy section, I considered picking up some egg nog to get me further into the holiday spirit. As our refrigerator fills up quickly these days, I reconsidered, as Debbie or the kids wouldn’t join me in a glass of nog, egg or otherwise. Another product caught my eye- Gingerbread flavored CoffeeMate. Debbie (not a coffee drinker, either, even less than I am) enjoy the occasional Starbucks Gingerbread Latte this time of the year, so I thought I’d try it. Seeing it reminded me I also wanted to pick up some powdered CoffeeMate as well to have at the office, so I went back to the other side of the store.

Do you realize how many flavors of this stuff they have now? Chocolate, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Hazelnut, Bacon- the list goes on. I settled on French Vanilla.

Debbie was as excited by the Gingerbread CoffeeMate as I was. The Coffee Cartel may have two more addicts in the making.

I’m just about done with my cup of coffee, and I’m considering another. This next one would be decaf. I get awoken enough without the extra caffeine, so I’ll need to keep things in check.

Could jackass coffee reviews be far behind?

One last thing- if I do pick up a coffee habit, I know one thing that would be certain to break it: going into a coffee place and seeing a tip jar with "Thanks A Latte" on it.

Grammy Nominees- Dance, Alternative and Rap

December 15, 2004 // No Comments

Delayed a few days as I’ve been spending lunch analyzing MP3 players (!) I will be making a purchase soon- anyone have any thoughts on the 4th gen 40GB iPod+HP as opposed to the iRiver H340. E-mail me if you do…

From hardware to software, I turn my attention now to the dance category of the Grammys. I don’t dance, but I’m not opposed to listening to dance music on the ol’ headphones from time to time. So I do have an opinion on this category…my thumbs-up indicated in green.

Best Dance Record (Single or Album Track)

Good Luck- Basement Jaxx Featuring Lisa Kekaula
Get Yourself High- The Chemical Brothers
Slow- Kylie Minogue
Comfortably Numb- Scissor Sisters
Toxic- Britney Spears
I actually give the nod of approval to all of these. First, they manage to represent alternative and Top 40 dance styles in these pics. All of these songs are pretty catch, even the Britney one. But in the end, I hope Kylie wins. Not because I think she’ll give an interesting speech, as I have used as a tiebreaker in other categories, but I would like to see her accept a Grammy. She’s easy on the eyes, y’know…

Best Electronic/Dance Album

Kish Kash- Basement Jaxx
Legion Of Boom- The Crystal Method
Creamfields- Paul Oakenfold
Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned- The Prodigy
Reflections- Paul Van Dyk
Well, I actually have no pick in this category. The only one I heard was the Basement Jaxx album, and a) it’s their weakest to date, b) I think it came out in 2003. The Prodigy album was panned in most reviews I saw, and I just really don’t get in to the style of the other three nominees. So nothing terribly wrong here, just nothing that stands out..


Best Alternative Music Album

Medulla- Björk
Franz Ferdinand- Franz Ferdinand
Uh Huh Her-PJ Harvey
Good News For People Who Love Bad News- Modest Mouse
A Ghost Is Born- Wilco
One measly category for alternative music, but at least they’ve got it right. I haven’t heard PJ Harvey’s or Modest Mouse’s albums in full, but I ‘ve heard enough to know they’re decent choices. Wilco and Björk took some real chances on their 2004 releases and are nicely rewarded for the risk, a trend I hope continues. Finally, Franz Ferdinand would get my overall nod here- a sparkling debut.

Best Rap Solo Performance

On Fire- Lloyd Banks: who? maybe I don’t know rap as well as I thought…
Just Lose It- Eminem: I wasn’t too nuts about this song last year when it was out under the title "Without Me"
99 Problems- Jay-Z: a good rockin’ rap tune
Overnight Celebrity- Twista: rode Kanye’s coattails, but still delivers the goods with his unique, lightning-fast style
Through The Wire- Kanye West: it’s Kanye’s year

Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group

Ch-Check It Out- Beastie Boys: they’re back..
Let’s Get It Started- The Black Eyed Peas: decent song, not the right category- should be in the rap/sung collaboration, where Usher would destroy it…
Don’t Say Nuthin’- The Roots: haven’t heard it…
Drop It Like It’s Hot- Snoop Dogg & Pharrell: came out later, but good to see it here
Lean Back- Terror Squad: Fat Joe & crew came up with a dance even the tall & portly could do…

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

Why- Jadakiss Featuring Anthony Hamilton:
Dip It Low- Christina Milian Featuring Fabolous
Slow Jamz- Twista Featuring Kanye West & Jamie Foxx
Yeah!- Usher Featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris
All Falls Down- Kanye West & Syleena Johnson
Funny, I thought there were better rap/sung song than these- and maybe they were. With the exception of the Black Eyed Peas, I’m not thinking of any. Usher and friends will win.

Best Rap Song (a songwriting award)

Drop It Like It’s Hot- Calvin Broadus, Chad Hugo, S. Thomas & Pharrell Williams, songwriters (Snoop Dogg & Pharrell)
Hey Mama- Will Adams & Anthony Henry, songwriters (The Black Eyed Peas)
Jesus Walks- C. Smith & Kanye West, songwriters (Kanye West)
Let’s Get It Started- Will Adams, Mike Fratantuno, Jaime Gomez, George Pajon, Jr., Allan Pineda & Terence Yoshiaki, songwriters (The Black Eyed Peas): How many people did it take to come up this song?!? Did one guy come up with "Let’s Get It Started", another with "in here". another with that "runnin’, runnin’" part?
99 Problems- Shawn Carter & Rick Rubin, songwriters (Jay-Z)
A little weak here- the Black Eyed Peas barely belong in the rap category, and they have 2 songs here…Kanye may win here as well, but I’ll take Snoop or Jay-Z any day…

Best Rap Album

To The 5 Boroughs- Beastie Boys
The Black Album- Jay-Z
The Definition- LL Cool J
Suit-Nelly
The College Dropout- Kanye West
LL? Come on! I’d say his nomination was so last year, but I’d really need to be saying that in 1990! Again, I think the committee went with a lot of know entities..none of these choice really knock me out. I’ll go with Kanye to win, but I’d rather listen to the Beasties…

I’m not sure if I’ll do any more categories. Jackass soda reviews are piling up in my head…

Grammy Nominees - Rock

December 10, 2004 // No Comments

I think the nominating committee did a bit better here than in the general category, but of course, there are more than a couple head-scratchers…

Again, if agree, it’s in green.

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance

Wonderwall- Ryan Adams: I like covers, but this straight-foward reading is hardly the perfomance of the year.
The Revolution Starts Now- Steve Earle: yeah, maybe not…
Breathe- Melissa Etheridge: Not her best.
Code Of Silence- Bruce Springsteen: Seems like they needed a fifth name so they went with one they know..
Metropolitan Glide- Tom Waits: I approve. More Tom Waits- at the mall, on the radio…

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal

Monkey To Man- Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Take Me Out- Franz Ferdinand
American Idiot- Green Day
Somebody Told Me- The Killers
Vertigo- U2
Wow- I agree with all of these!

Best Hard Rock Performance

Megalomaniac-Incubus
Some Kind Of Monster-Metallica
Feelin’ Way Too Damn Good- Nickelback
Duality- Slipknot
Slither- Velvet Revolver
Now we’re back on track. I agree with none of these. The Grammy committee’s definition of hard rock needs refining. And any award that Nickelback is up for isn’t an award worth presenting.

Best Metal Performance

Nymphetamine- Cradle Of Filth
Live For This- Hatebreed
The End Of Heartache- Killswitch
Whiplash- Motörhead
Vermilion- Slipknot
I am officially out of touch with all things metal. I’m going to have to pass on commenting here, except to say I like Motörhead, but I can’t help but think like Springsteen & Metallica, they’re here only because they’re an established name. It’s one of the Grammys’ biggest flaws- choosing the familar over the new and more challenging.

Best Rock Instrumental Performance

Instrumental Illness- The Allman Brothers Band
Onda- Los Lonely Boys
O Baterista- Rush
Whispering A Prayer- Steve Vai
Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow- Brian Wilson
This award was once a good idea- when there were regular instrumental hits being put out. That was 35 years ago. This award needs to go away. Until then, give it to Wilson, as he may have a goofy acceptance speech (and the album it comes from is really good.)

Best Rock Song (A Songwriter(s) Award)

American Idiot- Green Day
Fall To Pieces- Velvet Revolver
Float On- Modest Mouse
Somebody Told Me- The Killers
Vertigo- U2
I don’t get the fascination with Velvet Revolver. Other than that, some really good choices.

Best Rock Album

The Delivery Man- Elvis Costello & The Imposters: seems out of place, but I’m not complaining…
American Idiot- Green Day: man, they must have naughty pictures of somebody…
The Reason- Hoobastank: Hoobastink. No, Hoobasuck.
Hot Fuss- The Killers: Good album, surprised to see them here…but they are on a major label, so I’m sure that didn’t hurt their chances..
Contraband- Velvet Revolver: Pass. Again.

Next: Dance, Alternative (one whole category!) and Rap

Grammy Nominees (and why do I still care?)

December 9, 2004 // No Comments

The 47th Annual Grammy Award Nominees came out last week, and I’m not sure why it still interests me. I don’t listen to a lot of the music that gets honored each year.

Yet, I do still care. I want music I like to be nominated and (by some small miracle) win. It’s like being a geek in high school (something I know a little about) and somehow having your friends nominated for the homecoming court- and not have the nominations be a joke.

Also as a big fan of music, the Grammys is in some ways music’s Super Bowl (the main difference being in the real Super Bowl, you see Janet Jackson’s boob, and on the Grammys, it’s more likely to be Lil’ Kim’s. Or was that the VMAs, another award I shouldn’t care about but still do). If you’re a college football fan but don’t like the pro game nearly as much, chances are you at least have a passing interest in the Big Game when it rolls around…

So, with all of that being said, here are my reactions to some of the major Grammy categories. The ones I agree with (hey, I don’t listen to Usher, but I can appreciate his talent) are in green.

Record of the Year (basically Single of the Year, goes to the artist and producer)

Let’s Get It Started- The Black Eyed Peas (too bad the original, Let’s Get Retarded, didn’t get nomininated. I would have like to see al the protesters. This song got overplayed- surprise, surprise- but is catchy)
Here We Go Again- Ray Charles & Norah Jones (would this be up here if Ray was still alive? Do a separate tribute award to honor him, not Record of the Year)
American Idiot- Green Day (Surprising, but nice to see them here)
Heaven- Los Lonely Boys (if I wanted a watered down Los Lobos, I would have asked for one)
Yeah!-Usher Featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris (it’s Usher’s year, and if this wins, we get to hear from Lil Jon- worth watching the Grammys for alone)

Album of the Year (goes to the artist and producer)

Genius Loves Company- Ray Charles & Various Artists (ugh- see above)
American Idiot- Green Day (another surprise nominations for the growing-up punk popsters)
The Diary Of Alicia Keys- Alicia Keys (overrated. VERY much so.)
Confessions- Usher (for what he does, he is excellent at it. Plus, if this album wins, all of these people get an award. So he gets the MC Hammer award for sharing the wealth… Bobby Ross Avila, Valdez Brantley, Bryan Michael Cox, Vidal Davis, Destro Music, Jermaine Dupri, Andre Harris, Rich Harrison, IZ, Jimmy Jam, Just Blaze, James Lackey, Terry Lewis, Juan Johnny Najera, Pro J, Usher Raymond, Jonathan "Lil Jon" Smith, Aaron Spears, Arthur Strong, Thicke & James "Big Jim" Wright, producers; Ian Cross, Kevin "KD" Davis, Vidal Davis, Vince DeLorenzo, Jermaine Dupri, Blake Eiseman, Brian Frye, John Frye, Serban Ghenea, Andre Harris, John Horesco IV, Ken Lewis, Matt Marrin, Manny Marroquin, Tony Maserati, Pro J, Donnie Scantz, Jon Smeltz, Jonathan "Lil Jon" Smith, Phil Tan, The Trak Starz, Mark Vinten & Ryan West, engineers/mixers; Herb Powers, mastering engineer)
The College Dropout- Kanye West (again, not the rap I listen to, but worthy in it’s own right)

Song of the Year (goes to the songwriter)

Daughters- John Mayer
If I Ain’t Got You- Alicia Keys
Jesus Walks- C. Smith & Kanye West (winner by default- look at the other nominees. They absolutely suck.)
Live Like You Were Dying- Tim Nichols & Craig Wiseman, songwriters (Tim McGraw)
The Reason- Daniel Estrin & Douglas Robb, songwriters (Hoobastank)

Best New Artist

Los Lonely Boys-Ay Carrumba!
Maroon5- Alright, now they’re just trying to get me worked up…
Joss Stone- Good debut EP, but her first album sounds like Alicia Keys, which in my book, ain’t so good.
Kanye West (he picked a good year to be a new artist- this is a week field)
Gretchen Wilson- Oof! One hit country novelty? Hell, Yeah! Billy Ray Cyrus in drag

Tomorrow: The Rock Category…

Reason for not blogging lately

December 4, 2004 // No Comments

Declan Harrison Vasil was born on December 1st, 2004.

Gearing up for a birth and the immediate aftermath can put a damper on one’s blogging. I will be back with more posts real soon- I have three jackass soda reviews and much else to say. I hope you keep checking back.