Breaking news on Engadget: Spotify will be available in the US as of tomorrow.
Like I said in my last post about Spotify, I’ll give it a shot. I’m a little more excited about this than I thought I would be, but … this is pretty cool. Guess we’ll see what happens, right?
The other day, I was playing around on YouTube, looking at old Metallica vids. As per the usual, there was a slew of crap vids that made their way in to the sidebar “If you like this video, then you’ll like …” list of other videos that just happened to have a Metallica metatag. One video ended up being pretty cool. In fact, it was jaw-dropping. Wanna see it? Cuz … seriously, it’s untouchable.
So there it is. If you go to her website, you will be further stunned at just how prolific her repetoire is. She covers everything from Depeche Mode to Opeth. Her version of Tool’s “Sober” is unbelievable.
My favorite part of her YouTube vids is that she has a running clock in the background. Not so much to track the length of the video, but to show you that it’s not edited. Everything is done in one take. At least as far as I can see, it is. That’s pretty cool. Amazing, even.
Anyway, check her out. I wish she had some purchaseable CDs, but all the music on her site is free, so that’s nice. She also has a PayPal donation page. Her goal is to get a band together and make a CD, which I cannot wait to hear.
Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged
A humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife
Technology…high, on the leading edge of life
The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound
Like a pillar of cloud
The smoke lingers high in the air
In fascination
With the eyes of the world
We stare…
These are the lyrics to Rush’s “Countdown” from their Signals album. They were fortunate enough to attend the first shuttle launch in 1981.
I remember watching the first shuttle launch when I was a young kid. It still is one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever seen. Today marks the last launch in NASA’s space shuttle program. As I sit here typing this, my daughters are asleep. I think, anyway. Actually, they’re probably awake. I wouldn’t know … I’m sitting in my cube at work on a typical day off, but there’s too much to do before my project can be released. But I digress.
The shuttle is on track to take off in about 45 minutes. I’m torn between racing home so I can watch this with my girls as my mom watched with me back in April 1981. Racing is starting to win out. I can always come back to work.
Yah. Gotta run. Er … drive.
This isn’t what I was referencing in yesterday’s post, but as I was perusing TUAW’s site, I noticed this little gem. I’ve heard enough about it that my curiosity is piqued. Unfortunately, due to my geographic location, their official website only shows me a “COMING SOON” and “Please enter your email addres, blah blah blah” screen. No Google links work; I’m always redirected to the same page. Annoying.
So I’m left with reading what’s on Wikipedia. How reliable …
There are 3 versions: Free, Paid (~5 Euro) and Premium (~10 Euro). Free is what it is, but it’s an ad-based version. Again, annoying. Paid has no ads, so that’s a perk, BUT you can’t use it with your mobile device. That’s where the premium version comes in. For double the monthy subscription price, you can stream to your moble device. You can also save music for off-line use.
Lots of trending on Twitter about it coming to the USA. Trent Reznor is excited. Things I’m not sold on:
I’m fine with a subscription function to the app. What I’d also like to see is integration with MY music that I can stream to another desktop or to my mobile device. If it can do that, great. If not … hmm. Not sure how I feel about paying approximately $120 a year to stream music. For one, I listen to music mostly at work, occasionally at home. I’m fairly confident that my building is lead-lined; I can never get more than 3 bars. Normally, I get 1 or 2. Streaming is difficult at best, and normally it’s just not worth the hassle of the constant buffering and pausing. Now … for those who can get a great signal or whose company is okay with using their wi-fi access points, I’m guessing this could be a really great tool. However, I’m not one of those people.
I’ll give it a test run when it crosses the pond. Until then, I’m semi-skeptical. Up to $120 a year to stream, plus the typical .99 to download a track? AND that track will probably only be playable on Spotify software since Spotify is based around DRM. Also, they employ the Vorbis audio format. Not sold. But, like I said, I’ll give it a try.
Yesterday was just … wow. We had so much fun. Parade with some good friends, bbq and pool party at our house, then fireworks from a location where we could see about 30 *miles* worth of fireworks. THAT was incredible. No lie, from our vantage point, we could see 10 miles north and 25 miles south. Not to mention everything between Salt Lake and the Wasatch mountains. Little colorful explosions for as far as the eyes could see.
I hope everyone had a fun, safe, awesome 4th.
I have something that I want to write about tomorrow, but it’s going to take me a day to make sure I have a predominantly cool head on my shoulders before I spout off. Otherwise, I’m going to rant and rave like a lunatic, and that won’t accomplish anything.
I love the fact that Emme Packer makes awesome music. I also love the fact that she’s local to Salt Lake. I love more the fact that she’s a local artist whose kickstarter project is now 100% funded …
for the first tier.
Ladies and gentlemen, now is the time to rise up and help support an amazing artist. She has raised the inital $1500 she was hoping for, and now she has set her sights even higher: she wants to record a new CD.
She plays beautiful music, her voice is angelic and about as soft as the hundreds of kittens that hopefully adorn her recording studio (you Kickstarter supporters know what I mean), and I’m stoked to be supporting her project. My only regret is that I don’t have more to offer right now. The point is, if I did, I would. I’d go for that $300 in-house concert. How cool would that be?
Speaking of, she has some awesome pledge rewards going on. There are digital downloads, older CDs, DVDs, concert CDs, guitars, in-house concerts, hand-drawn art, t-shirts, guitars … there’s a TON of cool stuff! I’m opting for the 4 signed CDs. I like my hardware signed … what can I say? BUT, like I said, if I had the extra $270, I’d pony up for the in-house concert in a second.
There’s a preview video on her Kickstarter page. Check out her song, and realize that she has 4 CDs of equal bliss. She wants to make a 5th, and I for one am ALL for that.
Help make her dream a reality! She’s worth the investment.
It’s no secret to my twitter followers that I’m a monstrous Sabres fan. For those of us who bleed blue and gold, free agency opening day has been hell for the last 4 years. 2007, we lost Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. Absolutely brutal. 2008-2010 we’re literally pointless. No big acquisition, no big signings … nothing exciting except watching the big-name players move everywhere else but Buffalo.
Tomorrow is opening day of the free agency market. At this point, to Sabres fan, it’s almost an afterthought already.
In the last 48 hours, we’ve acquired Roybn Regher from Calgary–considered by many to be one of the top defensemen in the NHL–and as of this afternoon, we’ve signed Christian Ehrhoff from Vancouver. Yah–he of Stanley Cup finals fame and experience. The rumor is that he had an off finals because of a shoulder injury, and he still had a good run.
Whatever happens tomorrow or in the days/weeks to come is pure icing on the cake. We’ve already beefed up our blue line more than we dreamed possible. We’ve been watching these annual NHL goings-on with such disdain and jealousy that it’s been surprising to be caught up in such a whirlwind of excitement and … erm ….. luxury, I suppose. I mean, I don’t know any other way to put it. We’ve been the bridesmaid for so many years that this being the foot that fits the glass slipper is a totally unexpected but more than welcomed experience.
Terry Pegula is the flat-out man. I’ll give Darcy Regier his props for being GM, but really … TP is the hero of the day.
EDIT: It’s almost 1 in the morning in Utah. We are about 9 hours away from the free agency market doors swinging wide open. I cannot sleep. My eyes are heavy with exhaustion from the adrenaline rushes throughout the day. I’m already planning next year’s playoff parties. Hell, if I were mayor Brown, I’d be planning the parade route as of Saturday morning. Hey, why not?
I’ve been following Buffalo sports for almost 25 years. Between the Bills and Sabres, I *know* bitter disappointment and resentment (I’m staring straight into your soul-less eyes, Dallas). Part of me *wants* to go to bed because I know that’s about 7 hours I can shave off the wait. The other part of me is irrationally afraid to go to sleep because I seriously do not want to wake up and face the possibility that every Sabres fan’s greatest dream that could possibly less than 12 months away was nothing more than an over-stimulation of cerebral cortex while REMing into oblivion. Right now, my best chance at seeing the Sabres hoist the cup is to simply not go to bed. Obviously, that’s not going to happen, and yes–I know how ridiculously psychotic this all sounds. I don’t care.
You Cleveland sports fans know what I’m talking about here. The pain of realizing your teams are at best runners up to someone else excruciating at best. I’m not willing to face that just yet. So for now, I will continue to stay awake. More than likely, I’ll fall asleep in this chair. I’m okay with that … so long as when I wake up, nothing changes. We still have Ehrhoff and Regehr, and we’ll still be riding the dream until next June when Buffalo graces Lord Stanley’s cup.
Yesterday, I posted about Christa Joy’s Kickstarter project, and I got to thinking, “hmm … I could post the other Kickstarter projects I’m funding (or at least hope to fund!).” Hence this post about Terri Tarantula.
So she’s working on getting out some new music here in the near future. I’ve liked what I’ve heard so far. Kind of a piano and drum based sound, which works for me. Not so much like Tori Amos or Regina Spektor … kind of like A Fine Frenzy or Wild Strawberries sound. I like it. Mellow, relaxing, and a great voice to match the music.
She’s pretty responsive to comments left on her Kickstarter site, too. I asked her about an in-house performance, and being that she lives in the Seattle area and I live in Utah, she didn’t flat-out rule against it, which I thought was pretty sweet. To be fair, I don’t have $500 to spare, though if I can work enough hours, I might (though I think that would be met with *strong* resistance from a certain woman with whom I share financial responsibilities … 🙂 ) More than likely, I’ll up my contribution to the reward that includes a hand-crafted box (and, as Terri put it, will be crafted out of either wood or metal … I’m hoping for wood, but that’s just me) and a bunch of cool one-offs like hand-written lyrics, demo CDs … excellent stuff to include in a rewards-based funding project.
Go pledge a donation to Terri’s new music! Doesn’t have to be a ton; every little bit helps! No sense in keeping all these great musicians financially shackled if we can help them. Just my opinion, but her music is worth it! Get the word out.
As you may or may not know, I like to peruse Kickstarter to see what musicians are making stuff. Yesterday, I stumbled across this gem. I decided to support her because a) her music sounds pretty cool from the snippet on her KS video, and b) she’s a freakin’ Kindergarten teacher! How cool is that? My daughter’s gonna be in Kindergarten this coming school year. I don’t know why, but I just felt drawn to Christa’s project. So here’s hoping it gets funded!
Here’s what you need to do: share this with as many people as you can and get the word out on her project. Even ONE dollar makes a big difference. And she’s giving away some really awesome compensations for bigger donations. I selected the $25 option cuz it comes with a copy of the CD, <strong suggestion>hopefully signed</strong suggestion>.
Anyway, go support her project! I highly recommend it!
Well, Potter fans, rejoice. The franchise lives on through J.K. Rowling’s next endeavor–Pottermore. Apparently, it expands the Harry Potter world in new ways, though how is still nebulous. The website rolls out July 31, presumably when the “Submit your email” button will actually work. Until then, we get to stare at an inactive screen (minus the vid Ms. Rowland has in the top left corner).
<geek moment>
Yah. I’m stoked. Not gonna lie about that. My wife and I each bought our own copy of The Deathly Hallows so one of us wouldn’t be in the dark. Also hoping to go to a midnight showing of Part 2 next month!
</geek moment>
I know a certain family with a certain daughter who is going to flip her lid when she finds out about this … if she hasn’t already. Not to mention my wife. I anticipate many a late night for her on her laptop. 🙂
Funny story about my wife … we were kind of late to the Harry Potter book reading bit. On a family trip to Yellowstone in 2001, she lugged the first book along with her. As we drove by herds of buffalo, moose, elk, and other various prettiness, she had her nose buried in the pages, only looking up when the thought crossed her mind. She finished it in a couple of days, though that’s really all the longer we were even there. Anyway, her addiction for them made me want to read them; however, I settled for listening to Jim Dale’s reading. When the movie came, I had only made it through where Harry gets to Diagon Alley for the first time.
Anyway, should be interesting to see what she has in store. According to CNN, she has about 18000 additional words to augment the site. I’m guessing that’s for book 1. That’s about 1/4 the amount of written material in “The Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone.” I wonder if she’s planning on rolling out additional text for each of the books.
Anyway, fun!
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