sigur ros?

Come to Turkmenistan where Sigur Ros is both an Icelandic band and a Malaysian construction company.

that song i kept hearing

I can't believe how long it took my to find out what this song was called. I heard it so often in Hungary at clubs and even in Congo and here in Gabon but never knew this name until about a week ago. While hardly a priority matter, it gnawed at me and now I can sleep in slightly more peace. Stereo Love by Edward Maya, I have you now!

clever billboard and a non-musician

For anyone who has seen the movie American Psycho (no, not the train wreck of a sequel that got made), you should appreciate this billboard for the film. If you have a stern stomach, you might consider reading the book, but be warned that it's much more graphic than the movie.

Unrelated, tell me who in this group may have too broadly interpreted that What is Music? program from NOVA back in Mr. Miller's class. (Oh yeah, I just dropped a band class reference!)

crushing, people say that right?

If you recall, I mentioned a song called Fireflies by Owl City a couple weeks back. Now, Marie Digby has done an acoustic cover of it.

I like Marie Digby. Good singer, songwriter, good look, seemingly normal (though she may possess an artsy liberal streak that I might not mesh with my center-right-ness in person), and she's one of my people. I may even be semi-obsessed with her, though I'm really too busy to have a proper obsession about anyone. Which is somewhat strange (the semi-obsession, the the lack of time thing) since I normally reserve unjustified attraction for redheads for which I admit I am a total sucker for. I don't know why, though I have some theories, but self-analysis only goes so far. And analysis from others is usually worthless.

joni mitchell - california

I'm hooked on this recording of California by Joni Mitchell. Perhaps just a little before my time, but so great.

For something more recent, try Fireflies by Owl City.

all my music is four years old (or more)

I have never been a big collector of music. In fact, even in the heyday of unfettered peer-to-peer networking which seemed to peak while I was in college, I didn't download that many songs. I'll readily concede that p2p networks have grown considerably in the last four years, but they have certainly attracted the attention of parties with vested interests in the nature of the content being so freely swapped. Regardless, my music collecting days began a sharply downward descent after I moved out of the dorms. The result is that I have a music collection that is curiously dated. There's nothing less than four years old and very little in the year or two before then.

This line of thought was prompted when I decided to dump all the MP3s I had into one big Winamp playlist and let it shuffle through songs. I have some really strange stuff. For instance, I think it speaks to the power of the 'Boy Band' phenomenon that even I have a handful of songs from those compelling luminaries. And why oh why do I have any techno and house music? And how can System of a Down and Disturbed coexist with Lifehouse and Jars of Clay? They simply do.

I also went through many jags where I collected songs from a particular artist or group or even everything from the soundtrack of a movie. But hey, I like the music on the soundtracks of both O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Matrix. And who doesn't like The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back.

All this speaks the vague and eclectic music tastes I seem to have. More than anything, I see it as a compelling argument that there is little loyalty to be had in the business, at least from folks like me. I listen to music in the radio. I haven't bought an actual CD in over two years. In those same two years, I've probably purchased a handful of songs on iTunes, but generally disliked the user experience since I hadn't drunk the Apple Kool-Aid at the time. (And while I find their laptops compelling, I still don't care enough about music to buy into a user experience that is highly proprietary.)

Oh, there's no point to this post. Just rambling.

safety dance!

This morning, I heard one of the greatest songs ever on the radio. The best part is that it's been referenced not once, but twice on The Simpsons. That song was an instant classic when I first heard it in college. Much like this song.

random music rant

This seems like an appropriate time to rant about nothing in particular. Out in the field, your radio station choices are slightly limited by broadcast strength and what particular canyon you're in. The result is that it's usually some country station or the one pop/hip-hop/top-20-ish station in the area. Sorry country music, outside of a couple select songs, you're just not for me. However, this does mean I often hear Fergie and all her songs where she spells a word as part of the lyrics. In Here I Come, Fergalicious, and Glamorous there's at least one instance where a word is spelled out. And in Fergalicious, she spells 'tasty' with an 'e' so it ends up being 'tastey'. That's just lazy. Use a thesaurus if you're desperate for a six-letter word that means delicious. Go with 'savory' or even 'delish' will work.

The biggest problem, spelling aside, is that this is simply song filler. These aren't meaningful lyrics, though in all fairness, who listens to pop music for meaningful lyrics. That's what depressing rock is for. Back on topic, this is garbage music with no substance. It's sold on sex appeal (what a surprise) and a not-quite-articulated idea of empowerment. Another Fergie song that has lots of filler, though thankfully doesn't spell out any words, is London Bridge. Look up the lyrics and you'll see what I mean.

Currently, it seems like Glamorous is on the radio quite a bit these days. If you've had the good fortune of never hearing it, here are some lyrics. When 'glamorous' is spelled out, the first four letters are said about one second apart, then a brief pause, then the next two letters about one second apart, then the last three letters quickly. The only thing that makes this song bearable is that I imagine that 'cromulent' is being spelled out instead and I'll sing over the lyrics at the appropriate times. For those unfamiliar with the origin of cromulent, see here and here (definitions one and two only, though the example sentence is the third one is good for a laugh). I think it would be a good place to start with a Weird Al parody, though London Bridge probably has more potential as an entire song.

music and money

I'm a big fan of songs where the singer is slightly down, but the lyrics are ultimately optimistic. Songs like Time Like These (especially the acoustic version) by Foo Fighters, Save Yourself by Sense Field, and Breathing by Lifehouse. (The subject matter of that last one is up for debate, but I can imagine that the "you" in the song is whoever I want it to be.)

This has me a bit conflicted about where I want to go from here. Musical tastes are often a reflection of someone's personality. I consider myself to be an optimist in the 'we can make the world a better place' mold. However, I like some music with a darker edge like Eminem or System of a Down. There certainly is a darker side to my personality. It's one I've explored a great deal in a theoretical sense, but very rarely in a practical sense. In other words, I've given a great deal of thought about how this part of me would manifest itself in certain situations, but had few occasions to see it in action.

But I'm not interested in an exposition about my personality and I doubt you are especially given the viewing-weighted average reader. I'm much more troubled by what I see in the Weekend Linkfest. My book reading has largely been replaced by this sort of hodgepodge self-education on business and economic matters. The sense I get is not a good one. Personally, I'm currently conservatively positioned with respect to the vagaries of market exposure. Housing, on average (Bay Area is not average), still has some way to fall. The long-term debt situation is not one that seems like it can end well. But I'm still an optimist! Just not unnecessarily so.