My somewhat lame "listening to" tidbits have been entirely replaced by the little widget you see to your right. iLike is pretty freaking awesome. You don't have to keep a separate application open (screw you LastFM) and it works perfectly in sync with iTunes. Invisible, just how I like these song-tracker things. Anyway, if you're on the iTunes, click over there and get on this thing so I can berate you for your poor taste in music. (You know exactly who you are.) Signing up also automatically registers you to win a free iPod.

There's a cool music compatibility quiz on there that gets cooler as you go along. Also, Matlock is on.

I just saw a short film about "jazz" from 1939 featuring Artie Shaw and his band. They were entirely white. The narrator made several wild claims, most notably that big band charts are entirely improvised on the spot.

I don't know where I was going with this. I've gotten entirely too clever for myself.

People on the internet seem to think ludacris = ludicrous. All it does is confuse me when I start to read their little post or whatever and it has nothing to do with rap.

These guys are cool.

Many cats enjoy grooming humans or other cats.

He's a lying cheetah!

My horoscope.

(to be read aloud in your best "Charlton-Heston-as-Moses" voice)

YOU ARE THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL. EAT AS MANY RAISINETTES AS YOU WANT. NO ONE CAN STOP YOU. DO NOT DRINK THAT ROLLING ROCK THAT HAS BEEN IN THE FRIDGE FOR ALMOST A YEAR. GIVE IT TO THE NEXT PERSON WHO ASKS IF YOU HAVE ANY BEER. DO NOT GIVE IT TO THE CATS. EAT AS MANY TOFFEE-COATED PEANUTS AS YOU WANT. THEY ARE TECHNICALLY GOOD FOR YOU. CONTINUE TO PLAY ALONG WITH DENISON MARRS AND THE CLASH AT MAXIMUM VOLUME, BUT CONSIDER THE BENEFITS OF EARPLUGS. (AND BOOK A SHOW, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.) A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER WILL WALK INTO YOUR LIFE, BUT SHE WILL LEAVE AS SOON AS YOU SIGN FOR THE PACKAGE. DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR LIKING THE CHICK FROM BONES. SHE IS UBERHOT. ON A RELATED NOTE, DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR BELIEVING ANGELINA JOLIE TO BE DESCENDED FROM THE ELEPHANT MAN AND AS UGLY AS DENNIS RODMAN'S BUTT. IT IS GOD'S HONEST TRUTH.

Connect with English uses dramatic storytelling, authentic natural language, and innovative approaches to teach and reinforce language and related skills. Designed for individual or group viewing, the broadcast series can be used on its own or in conjunction with the companion educational materials. Each half-hour program in the series includes two episodes of a continuing drama along with a segment featuring actual ESOL learners reviewing and discussing key issues raised in the story.

I thought this show was pretty entertaining. Slightly-better-than-soap-opera quality.

whoa

This woman (as seen in an episode of Brisco County, Jr.) played April O'Neil in the Ninja Turtles movie? Wow. She also seems to be an expert at guest appearances.

Thanks to IMDb for making this possible. Life before the internet must have been dull.

HDTV

Now let's do some geometry (or just trust me with the math). A standard 50-inch diagonal TV screen is 40 inches wide and 30 inches high. That provides a viewing area of 1,200 square inches. But a 50-inch diagonal HD screen with today's wider aspect ratio provides a mere 1,063 square inches of display area.

So HD manufacturers give you 11 percent less TV than you got for the same diagonal measurement in the old days. And they're charging considerably more. This makes TV the only household technology that's becoming more expensive.

This is very interesting. I didn't know the actual screen size was reduced.

The most disappointing moment in the history of recorded music

2:43 - Connie Kay breaks out into a ridiculous beat, only to collapse back onto the hi-hat in the very next bar. This may be the result of some kind of weird edit, or the fact that there were no lead sheets used in the recording sessions.

a good read, if you have the time (it's long)

A brief list of songs about recorded media

Spoon - "Advance Cassette"
Pearl Jam - "Spin the Black Circle"
The Clash - "Hitsville UK"
The Features - "Blow It Out"
Joe Strummer - "Global A Go-Go", "Techno D-Day"
Nada Surf - "Blonde on Blonde"
Kanye West - "Crack Music"
Manic Street Preachers - "Motown Junk"
Paul Simon - "Kodachrome" (If photographs count, then add Weezer's "Photograph" and Ryan Adams's "Burning Photographs". If they don't count, disregard this entry entirely.)
The Streets - "Let's Push Things Forward" (possibly the only song in the list which is actually about itself)
Travis - "Slide Show" (gets in for being clever)
Warren Zevon - "Play It All Night Long"
Wilco - "The Late Greats"

I'm almost certain I had one more, but I can't think of it.

(I remembered it. Semisonic - "Singing in my Sleep")

very, very cool

It's a step in the right direction.

genius

When did "goth" turn into "emo"? That's what I want to know. I don't like goth music, but I like some emo music. To what extent am I fashionably liable to the cause?

The bassline/arrangement on this track is nothing short of spectacular. (Link goes to what appears to be the remnants of a Yugoslavian metal band. And there's a Shark Records? They're German. Cool.)

Will It Blend?

Never in my life did I think I would ever enjoy a song like this.

my love
(hey)
my love
(hey)
my love
(hey)
my love
(hey)

TO: Brandon de la Cruz
RE: recital paper

Hey Brandon,
Well, you did an excellent job on this. It was a treat to have one in such good condition. Normally I'd have to send you back this copy, you'd make corrections, and then send me back both copies to correct, but you've done such a good job that I'm just going to list out the general things that need to be fixed. Please make those corrections and then you can just email me your paper and I'll double check quickly. And then you'll be done.

[Love,
Your Friendly Neighborhood Style Editor]

(YEAH!)

Huh?

Directed by Matthew Broderick! Written by his mother! The story of a lifetime!

What, exactly, is an eikenberry?

hmmm

Ellen: "So how did you meet Bill Clinton?"

Jay-Z: "Oh, this restaurant I own with Bono, down in the Village. We ran into each other a couple times."

Now that is just ridiculous. No one's going to cut your Coker off.

[Edit: The article previously said that Spurrier was considering a move to Miami, and it sort of still does, but they keep changing the tone, so whatever. Meanwhile, this really is ridiculous.]

dang it

Smith was the closest thing to a good running back we had.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

If you're going to camp out at Wal-Mart to spend $1300 on a set of Playstation 3's:

1) Pay with a credit card (buyer protection)
2) Have a friend with you (in case something goes wrong)
3) Try not to let A GOLD SEDAN FULL OF PEOPLE FOLLOW YOU HOME. (It's called a rear-view mirror.)

This is why British news is great. ("Gran Larceny", "Nans on the Run", "Artful Codgers")

wow

So every time I go into my spam folder in gmail, I get yet another ridiculous recipe. This is getting entertaining. Try it for yourself.

Holy crap!

Now we're talking.

huh?

spam swiss pie

...what?

I cannot believe this

My only remote hope is that somehow FSU manages to beat UF. Then the balance of the universe will be restored. I'd even go so far as to let UF win next year. Maybe even two years.

holy crap

I can think of a lot of better ways to spend $24,000.

we live in Bizarro America

NEWSFLASH

GOOGLE IS GOOD AT SEARCHING FOR STUFF

Parts of Nashville Skyline sound like Jim Nabors. This calls for a definite shift in my Bob Dylan paradigm.

interesting

Louisville lost because of this guy.

Wicked track of the week: "Baby, I'm Yours" by the Arctic Monkeys. A fresh and smooth cover of what sounds like a 50's song.

dang it

This presidential press conference is by far the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

"In an effort to cut out the middleman, White Castle will begin grinding up its own burgers and spraying them on the inside of toilets."

This stuff is priceless.

So they're showing a rerun of Conan that I'm sure I've seen before, except all the people have been replaced with skeletons. I know I've seen Will Arnett do "In the Year 2000" in person, and now his skeleton is doing it. La Bamba's skeleton also looks mildly humorous.

At the football game last week, the halftime show was based on the music of Queen. (A very noble idea which I remember discussing while still at EG.) The announcer stated the band would be playing "Killer Queen" and remarked, "Queen was influenced by the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Noel Coward in writing this song." What seemed like a ridiculous statement at first began to sink in, and I think it's as appropriate as anything else you could say about the song. Go Vanderbilt band announcer.

The new Jay-Z record is up for presale on iTunes. Word!

All I can say is you can't really expect to beat a conservative by being conservative. (You can't out-cork Corker.)

Meanwhile, I will say that the two Corker daughters are hot.

stupidity pt. 3

April
September

more stupidity on the internet

Professor Alan Boobis

Hahahahaha

stupidity on the internet

uno
dos

Charlie Crist is hilarious

You should watch the Ben Folds webcast for as long as it's up because:

1. It's done from his studio in Nashville which looks pretty cool.
2. There is a "guitarchestra".
3. There is a chorus of ringtones (which I know he does a lot).
4. Some dude on the balcony FALLS OFF and hits the floor right in the middle of a song.

"I don't have to segregate my music into various ghettos."

This quote ran in the Washington Post?

You know how sometimes everything and nothing can go right at the same time? I mean, you can look through two diametrically opposed lenses and see a great fantastic thing and a huge burning disaster existing simultaneously in the same space. I think I'm a pretty good expert at recognizing that. It's like feeling full and hungry and overstuffed at the same time. Or that stupid gross feeling when you've been up too long and you go shotgun a cappuccino to get the energy to do whatever it is you should have done fifteen hours ago ... and you get the energy, and you do the thing but the whole time you feel like curling up in the fetal position and sleeping until your mid-life crisis ... that's as close as I can get in words. You're gonna have to fill in the blanks.

funny once
funny twice
...

soundboard

cruel, cruel fate

Florida - please. Please do not elect Katharine Harris. I don't know much about Bill Nelson, but he is clearly not a fundamentalist douchebag. And I like his angle of promoting bipartisanship.

Anyway, it looks like she doesn't have much of a chance.

Nannette Miranda is a terrible writer

woot

Strip away all the useless statistics in this article and you get:

1) Scott Skiles is the coach of the Bulls. He was always my favorite player in NBA Jam (because he had a wicked 3-point rating AND he could dunk despite being 6'1" and white), therefore I am inclined to like the Bulls.

2) Shaq can somehow get quoted for exactly 1.5 sentences.

3) Whoa - Ben Wallace plays for Chicago now? This is what I get for ignoring the NBA.