I helped my brother set up his HP MediaSmart Server tonight. It runs on Windows Home Server, and allegedly the initial install has to be done from another machine running Windows. Since he didn’t have Windows installed anywhere, I used a Windows XP virtual machine that I had running on VMWare Fusion on my MacBook… Read More »
Lux Interior, lead singer of swamp rock psychobilly band the Cramps, recently passed away at 60, or maybe 62, from a heart condition. One of my roommates in college had several VHS tapes from Target Video. I remember watching this recording of their performance at the Napa State Mental Hospital, along with an early Survival… Read More »
If you plan to see Control, the biopic of Ian Curtis from Joy Division, read no further if you don’t want any spoilers, other than to know that I highly recommend the movie. After writing and recording a few incredible albums, Curtis hanged himself at the age of 23 in 1980. Years later when I… Read More »
The KALX double 7″ arrived this week. The two records are colored vinyl, one blue and one red. The sleeve and label art by Chris Hall is fantastic. The record release got great coverage on Pitchfork and other sites. The recordings on the two discs are: Talking Heads – “Stay Hungry” (recorded 4/18/1978 at Lower… Read More »
I picked up a pair of Shure E2C earphones recently because I had read good reviews about them and they were super cheap during a sale at Amazon. I think I paid only about $40. So far, I’m very happy with them. Shure discontinued the E2C and E3C after coming out with a new line… Read More »
An article on the comeback of vinyl records at Wired linked to from Slashdot suggests that KALX was wise to release a double 7″ compilation as one of the fundraiser gifts for donors (just a $25 add-on to one of the other packages). The 7″ was pressed by Pirates Press in San Francisco. The actual… Read More »
KALX started their 45th anniversary fundraiser last Friday, so call early and often to donate money to the best radio station in the world. This year KALX has an even more awesome gift than usual. The temporary tattoos are very cool, but I’m talking about the double 45 RPM 7″ (for most of those of… Read More »
Maybe a little color blind, but not tone deaf. Or so says a medical research-based Flash application. In fact, I scored 83.3% correct in my guesses careful assessments of the differences or non-differences in tone between two consecutive musical phrases. From the results page: The test is purposefully made very hard, so excellent musicians rarely… Read More »
Tonight I was lucky enough to see Sonic Youth perform their 1988 double LP masterpiece Daydream Nation at Berkeley Community Theater. I’ve been a huge fan of Sonic Youth ever since Bad Moon Rising was released in 1985. My favorite Sonic Youth album is Sister, but Daydream Nation is a very close second. I’m often… Read More »
If you’re still using DRM’d audio formats, you owe it to yourself to check out Ogg Vorbis. It’s not just a pretty name anymore. The FSF has set up the PlayOgg.org website to promote Ogg Vorbis (audio) and Ogg Theora (video) as high quality media formats unencumbered by patents and restrictions on your rights. There… Read More »