So I enjoy Rilo Kiley quite a bit, so their songs often make appearances on the Weekly Mix Tapes, which I play in the car, and Mike has asked me "who is this?" at least twice during a Rilo Kiley song, and every time I tell him, he goes, "I like her." He has heard of Rilo Kiley before, I know, but he doesn't seem aware that they're a band. This drives me crazy, that he thinks Rilo Kiley is the name of the singer (it's Jenny Lewis, nerds), and I corrected him once a million years ago, and he got all defensive and brought up, like, No Doubt and Gwen Stefani to defend his use of "her" instead of "them," but who ever listened to a No Doubt song and only referred to "her"? So I haven't brought it up since, but both subsequent times I have wanted to say, "Rilo Kiley is a band, you know," but I keep fighting this snobbish urge.
I guess I'm growing or some shit.
This reminds me of the time Carlos and I made fun of Jess for thinking Led Zeppelin was a guy, not a band, but apparently it wasn't Jess who thought that. I was sure this happened, and now I'm hoping it did, except Lauren was the maroon who thought Led Zeppelin was a guy, but she's that smart. Or maybe it was Martha! Oh, god, it could have been any one of our friends, huh.
(As an utter aside, I wikipedia'd Rilo Kiley to look up Blake's last name, and dude. He was Ronnie Pinsky on Salute Your Shorts. Bangarang.)
February 27, 2009
February 26, 2009
It shall be told another time! (I hope.)
So, according to the internet, a remake of The Neverending Story is in the works, and really, I am super excited to see how that develops, but also super wary, because the original movie was such a mess.
Anyway, here's what I said a year and a half ago, after I read the book for the first time:
As far as I'm concerned, the remake has nothing but potential. It can tell the story Michael Ende told; it can cast some decent child actors; it can make Fantastica a real place, like they were able to do with Middle Earth and Narnia. They can even make Atreyu green! But there's always a giant suckhole for error when making a movie based upon a novel, and since the first attempt was a fucking failure (I'm sorry--I know I am the only person in America (maybe even literally) who holds this opinion), the second attempt could quite possibly also be a disaster.
But oh man. Please, please, please, I would love to see Fantastica Middle-Earth- and Narnia-style.
Anyway, here's what I said a year and a half ago, after I read the book for the first time:
I really wish someone would make this a movie again, like Lord of the Rings style, because it could make a really great film. They could do it in two parts, you know, ending the first one right after Bastian finally saves Fantastica and beginning with his adventures in the forest/desert. But I doubt that Michael Ende's estate will ever let that happen--or that anyone would even want it to happen except for me.Apparently, I was mostly right about that last thing. The place I found this information was full of maroons bemoaning the fact that this movie was being remade, because it's a childhood classic for them or whatever. And, listen, I understand hanging onto things you loved when you were a kid, but people: The Neverending Story was not a good movie. The plot was a mess; the acting was horrible; the sets were hideous, and it left out all the most interesting parts of the book.
As far as I'm concerned, the remake has nothing but potential. It can tell the story Michael Ende told; it can cast some decent child actors; it can make Fantastica a real place, like they were able to do with Middle Earth and Narnia. They can even make Atreyu green! But there's always a giant suckhole for error when making a movie based upon a novel, and since the first attempt was a fucking failure (I'm sorry--I know I am the only person in America (maybe even literally) who holds this opinion), the second attempt could quite possibly also be a disaster.
But oh man. Please, please, please, I would love to see Fantastica Middle-Earth- and Narnia-style.
February 24, 2009
And the navel-gazing continues
While I'm somewhat loath to apparently be turning this blog into a dream diary, I keep having the most troubling dreams that I need to exorcise, so feel free to skip this one.
Anyway, last night I had a dream that my parents got back together (somewhat reluctantly? No one was particularly happy about it, and in fact my dad was not present in the dream at all) and bought a gigantic old house that was allegedly in New York City, even though, uh, New York City is not known for its gigantic old houses. But, you know, that was obviously not the weirdest part of the dream. So we all moved to this house, and I was lodged in the attic, and Tommy was lodged on the first floor, and Jeff was somewhere in between, I guess, and I remember very clearly what the downstairs of this ancient mansion looked like, but I'll be damned if I could actually describe it.
So we're living in this house, and my parents are still working at their New England jobs, and this all seems so very real, and I begin to panic, because how am I supposed to get to my job? Did I quit my job? Should I be looking for a new job? Then I remember that I moved out with Mike, and I have a place in Nashua, and apparently I'm just here in New York to see the new family pad. Then my mom comes home and pulls out this day-glo bottle that looks like Gatorade or something but turns out to be rodent poison gel, because apparently the house had a rat problem? The rats weren't in my dream, thank god, but now I am recalling the giant rats we saw outside the dining hall senior year. Ugh. So I express my concern for the animals that aren't rats in the house, namely Charles Wallace and for some reason, my dad's dumb dog, and my mom gives me this look, so I amended it to "animal," because we clearly both hate the dog, which is fucked up, but it isn't so much about the dog as, you know, my dad's wife. Which is the only tangible thing that ocurred in this dream that I can point to as evidence that my parents weren't, like, enjoying being back together. Because my parents are not supposed to be back together, ever.
So I was so nervous during the dream, and it all seemed so real, like I could touch the floorboards of the attic, and I was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on, and I couldn't until I remembered about my new house. I didn't wake up from that dream--it went away, and I woke up at 5:00 when Mike's stupid alarm went off, and but I still felt so much better to be awake, in my apartment, with parents who don't have any intention of reconciling for any reason ever.
Ugh. My dreams suck these days.
Anyway, last night I had a dream that my parents got back together (somewhat reluctantly? No one was particularly happy about it, and in fact my dad was not present in the dream at all) and bought a gigantic old house that was allegedly in New York City, even though, uh, New York City is not known for its gigantic old houses. But, you know, that was obviously not the weirdest part of the dream. So we all moved to this house, and I was lodged in the attic, and Tommy was lodged on the first floor, and Jeff was somewhere in between, I guess, and I remember very clearly what the downstairs of this ancient mansion looked like, but I'll be damned if I could actually describe it.
So we're living in this house, and my parents are still working at their New England jobs, and this all seems so very real, and I begin to panic, because how am I supposed to get to my job? Did I quit my job? Should I be looking for a new job? Then I remember that I moved out with Mike, and I have a place in Nashua, and apparently I'm just here in New York to see the new family pad. Then my mom comes home and pulls out this day-glo bottle that looks like Gatorade or something but turns out to be rodent poison gel, because apparently the house had a rat problem? The rats weren't in my dream, thank god, but now I am recalling the giant rats we saw outside the dining hall senior year. Ugh. So I express my concern for the animals that aren't rats in the house, namely Charles Wallace and for some reason, my dad's dumb dog, and my mom gives me this look, so I amended it to "animal," because we clearly both hate the dog, which is fucked up, but it isn't so much about the dog as, you know, my dad's wife. Which is the only tangible thing that ocurred in this dream that I can point to as evidence that my parents weren't, like, enjoying being back together. Because my parents are not supposed to be back together, ever.
So I was so nervous during the dream, and it all seemed so real, like I could touch the floorboards of the attic, and I was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on, and I couldn't until I remembered about my new house. I didn't wake up from that dream--it went away, and I woke up at 5:00 when Mike's stupid alarm went off, and but I still felt so much better to be awake, in my apartment, with parents who don't have any intention of reconciling for any reason ever.
Ugh. My dreams suck these days.
February 19, 2009
Sometimes I am close-minded
There are several vehicles in my apartment complex with this bumper sticker that says, "Nashua belongs to Jesus Christ." Actually, it's "NASHUA BELONGS TO JESUS CHRIST," so I always feel like they're yelling at me. I've seen these fucking bumper stickers before, but now I have to see them when I go home, and they're making me madder than usual. Often, I just laugh and say, "Please, like Jesus wants Nashua," but seriously. It's so obnoxious. Who gave Nashua to Jesus? How many non-Christians are there in this city? I don't know, but there are plenty! There's even a synagogue in Nashua!
Fuck, people. Keep your outdated beliefs to yourself already. Jesus is unable to take possession of an entire town. Why? Because he is dead. And he's not coming back. You know who else is supposed to come back at a time of great crisis? King Arthur. How many people really believe that's going to happen? It's exactly as likely as this Jesus fellow coming back to claim pitiful cities in southern New Hampshire as his own.
Amen.
Fuck, people. Keep your outdated beliefs to yourself already. Jesus is unable to take possession of an entire town. Why? Because he is dead. And he's not coming back. You know who else is supposed to come back at a time of great crisis? King Arthur. How many people really believe that's going to happen? It's exactly as likely as this Jesus fellow coming back to claim pitiful cities in southern New Hampshire as his own.
Amen.
February 16, 2009
Nonsense
Oh man, remember that time Chief thought he was a Cylon and went mental, and Cavil was the one who talked him down, even though Cavil was a Cylon and all, and Cavil knew he wasn't one of the seven (eight!), but holy balls, he knew Chief was one of the five.
Madness!
And he killed the favorite son (seven) because he was jealous and then wreaked utter destruction on humanity, which is, uh, way worse than anything Cain ever did. I mean, Cain killed one favorite son and was doomed to wander the Earth forever, unable to find rest. I guess that's true of Cavil--he'll have to wonder the universe forever, unable to find rest, because he will never get the acceptance from the five, Ellen especially, that he wants and refuses to admit he wants.
Cavil wants to be a machine, but the five made him the humanest (weakest?) of all the models, all old and stuff.
I am having such trouble with the religious allusions on this show, because the significance never quite hits me--or exists.
Like this promo image for season 4 from the iTunes store with Roslin, Xena, Tigh, Lee, Baltar, Six, Starbuck, Sam, Chief, Athena, Helo, and Adama is framed almost exactly like The Last Supper, except there's someone missing, and Roslin and Adama seem to be apart from everyone else. And it puts Six in the Jesus position. What is the significance of this? It's not an effin' accident. Baltar's in almost the right spot to be Judas, though, you guys.
And the amazingly Biblical names of some of the male Cylons (all of them except Leoben and Galen, actually):
Saul - a king of Israel
Samuel - a prophet, who anointed Saul and David kings of Israel
John - harbinger of the Messiah
Daniel - a prophet
Simon - the original name of Peter, Jesus's head disciple
Aaron - Moses's brother
None of them connect! Why bother with this if it doesn't mean something???
And this "twelve but not really" thing--twelve tribes of Kobol, oh except for this renegade thirteenth. Twelve cylon models, oh except there was one more, but oh he was broken, so never mind. Twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Olympic gods, twelve signs of the Zodiac after which the Kobolios named their planets. Those are constellations you can see from Earth!
How does Earth really fit into this? Did we abandon it and go to Kobol, and a couple thousand years later the thirteenth tribe returned?
When Ellen said Daniel was an artist, I immediately connected that with Kara, because of her eye of Jupiter painting and whatever, but Daniel's genetic code is broke, and his model never got off the shelf, except for one, obviously, for Cavil to be jealous of. And you know what the one Daniel did? Come on. He clearly fathered Kara Thrace. Ba-dah!
Are the final five machines or not? If they weren't, it would make sense for why Tigh and Six were able to make a baby. The centurion/human combo models can't reproduce with each other, but they can with the five, because the five aren't part machine! Hey? I don't effin' know. But then the thirteenth tribe, who went to Earth, were all Cylon. Were they Cylon when they left Kobol? Did humanity engineer the Centurions before the thirteenth tribe to its ticket outta there, or did they build robots separately from the robots the twelve tribes built?
The robots blew up Earth because they were mad at the way they were being treated, so the five, who had prepared the technology for resurrection, took a long, slow journey back to Kobol to warn them to treat their robots right--so the robots must have been created before the thirteenth tribe went to Earth, since they knew the Kobolios had robots. When they got there too late, they engineered the armistice by promising to help the Centurions build biological models. Thus,the Powerpuff Girls Cavil, Leoben, Xena, Simon, Doral, Six, Daniel, and Sharon were born, unbeknowst to the rest of humanity.
Long before the second holocaust, Cavil killed his creators and placed them strategically throughout humanity. What was he doing while he waited? How did Daniel get to Caprica?
I am so confused.
And also where did the five get the genetic material to make the eight models? From themselves? Then some of them are, say, Ellen and Saul's children and some Tory and Chief's? So, for real, Six is Saul's daughter. Eeeeeeew.
Madness!
And he killed the favorite son (seven) because he was jealous and then wreaked utter destruction on humanity, which is, uh, way worse than anything Cain ever did. I mean, Cain killed one favorite son and was doomed to wander the Earth forever, unable to find rest. I guess that's true of Cavil--he'll have to wonder the universe forever, unable to find rest, because he will never get the acceptance from the five, Ellen especially, that he wants and refuses to admit he wants.
Cavil wants to be a machine, but the five made him the humanest (weakest?) of all the models, all old and stuff.
I am having such trouble with the religious allusions on this show, because the significance never quite hits me--or exists.
Like this promo image for season 4 from the iTunes store with Roslin, Xena, Tigh, Lee, Baltar, Six, Starbuck, Sam, Chief, Athena, Helo, and Adama is framed almost exactly like The Last Supper, except there's someone missing, and Roslin and Adama seem to be apart from everyone else. And it puts Six in the Jesus position. What is the significance of this? It's not an effin' accident. Baltar's in almost the right spot to be Judas, though, you guys.And the amazingly Biblical names of some of the male Cylons (all of them except Leoben and Galen, actually):
Saul - a king of Israel
Samuel - a prophet, who anointed Saul and David kings of Israel
John - harbinger of the Messiah
Daniel - a prophet
Simon - the original name of Peter, Jesus's head disciple
Aaron - Moses's brother
None of them connect! Why bother with this if it doesn't mean something???
And this "twelve but not really" thing--twelve tribes of Kobol, oh except for this renegade thirteenth. Twelve cylon models, oh except there was one more, but oh he was broken, so never mind. Twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Olympic gods, twelve signs of the Zodiac after which the Kobolios named their planets. Those are constellations you can see from Earth!
How does Earth really fit into this? Did we abandon it and go to Kobol, and a couple thousand years later the thirteenth tribe returned?
When Ellen said Daniel was an artist, I immediately connected that with Kara, because of her eye of Jupiter painting and whatever, but Daniel's genetic code is broke, and his model never got off the shelf, except for one, obviously, for Cavil to be jealous of. And you know what the one Daniel did? Come on. He clearly fathered Kara Thrace. Ba-dah!
Are the final five machines or not? If they weren't, it would make sense for why Tigh and Six were able to make a baby. The centurion/human combo models can't reproduce with each other, but they can with the five, because the five aren't part machine! Hey? I don't effin' know. But then the thirteenth tribe, who went to Earth, were all Cylon. Were they Cylon when they left Kobol? Did humanity engineer the Centurions before the thirteenth tribe to its ticket outta there, or did they build robots separately from the robots the twelve tribes built?
The robots blew up Earth because they were mad at the way they were being treated, so the five, who had prepared the technology for resurrection, took a long, slow journey back to Kobol to warn them to treat their robots right--so the robots must have been created before the thirteenth tribe went to Earth, since they knew the Kobolios had robots. When they got there too late, they engineered the armistice by promising to help the Centurions build biological models. Thus,
Long before the second holocaust, Cavil killed his creators and placed them strategically throughout humanity. What was he doing while he waited? How did Daniel get to Caprica?
I am so confused.
And also where did the five get the genetic material to make the eight models? From themselves? Then some of them are, say, Ellen and Saul's children and some Tory and Chief's? So, for real, Six is Saul's daughter. Eeeeeeew.
February 13, 2009
I don't go to sleep to dream. Dammit.
Oh my GOD, I had the worst dream ever this morning. I was back in college, and for some reason, I'd skipped, like, two weeks of class just before midterms, and I might have missed the midterms, but I was too freaked out to check my syllabuses to see if I had indeed missed midterms or handing in papers or something, so I was just gonna wait until I had class again to find out what I had missed, and then in the middle of this, I just started fuh-reaking out, and I knew, in the dream, that there was some reason this would be all right, that this hadn't actually happened or something, but I couldn't calm myself down.
Then my cat knocked over everything on my bedside bookshelf, and I woke up. And I was like, "Oh yeah. You know why it's gonna be all right? Cuz I graduated. Three years ago, suckas!" God, that was such sweet, sweet relief.
All of that happened in the middle of a larger, even more bizarre dream about my having to destroy rings with gemstones that contained evil spirits, but I don't remember enough of that mess to tell you a coherent story about it. Plus, the midterms thing was way scarier. God! Skipping two whole weeks of class and not even keeping up with the syllabus! Who DOES that???
Then my cat knocked over everything on my bedside bookshelf, and I woke up. And I was like, "Oh yeah. You know why it's gonna be all right? Cuz I graduated. Three years ago, suckas!" God, that was such sweet, sweet relief.
All of that happened in the middle of a larger, even more bizarre dream about my having to destroy rings with gemstones that contained evil spirits, but I don't remember enough of that mess to tell you a coherent story about it. Plus, the midterms thing was way scarier. God! Skipping two whole weeks of class and not even keeping up with the syllabus! Who DOES that???
February 12, 2009
A collection of things I thought yesterday
So I was lookin' up Brandi tickets at the Portsmouth Music Hall for April Fools' Day, and they had this whole paragraph about her, and it ended with this: "Come find out why one critic said, 'When she took the stage, you'd think the crowd was welcoming Jim Morrison, circa 1965.'" Which just made me snort, because, yeah, we lesbians can be pretty effin' enthusiastic. And then I was like, hey! Even Brandi Carlile is a better song-writer than effin' Jim Morrison. What was the deal with that douche, anyway? Have you listened to the lyrics to "Light My Fire"? "Wallow in the mire"? Is he an actual, literal pig? Someone abused that rhyming dictionary!Anyway, yeah, I am so over my crazed Brandi Carlile obsession, but she's gonna be in NH, and her live shows are always awesome, so I'm gonna take my mom, since I have no friends, and I'm broke, and she'll pay!
Then I read something somewhere on the internet about someone studying for "the dbq," and my body went rigid, and I was like, "How do I know that acronym?" Then I fell down dead. DBQ stands for "Document-Based Question," and I experienced its wrath during the AP U.S. history exam. And I spent most of AP U.S. history practicing for that mess. And Mrs. Deblasio hated me. But it was cool--I hated her narrow-minded, preachy ass right back! God damn, I was in her class the year Bush stole the election from Al Gore, and that Wednesday in November was just odious. The only reason I took the class was that, clearly, I had to take as many AP classes as possible, and since the maths and sciences were so far out of the question, and AP Spanish wasn't even offered (!!!), I had to go with U.S. history, both Englishes, and U.S. government.Sorry, that story was boring, but I had to exorcise those high school demons.
So I caved and watched two minutes of last week's Grey's on youtube, because I'm sorry, but I love to see Sara Ramirez kiss a lady, and then I was going to write this whole rant about how the Grey's people clearly just replaced Brooke Smith with a younger, "hotter" model (no offense to Jessica Capshaw--she's lovely in her own right, but I would pick Brooke Smith over her any day of the week), but I just don't have the energy. Mostly, that kiss was kinda lame. The elevator kiss was way hotter, and Callie was being taken by surprise there too! Boo! Brooke Smith 4-EVA!I guess Callie has a rather specific type, huh?
In conclusion, I bought Ingrid Michaelson's iTunes Live E.P. today, and she does a cover of "Creep" with a ukulele, which is quite interesting indeed. Mostly, I love this album for another live version of "The Chain." That song hits me right were it counts--the hearthole.Ingrid Michaelson is a talented and pretty lady who wears glasses, and every time she comes to Boston, she sells out her show before I even know about it. I need to be more on top of these things.
February 11, 2009
Wednesday afternoon answers!
1. Who Will Save Your Soul? - Jewel
2. Building a Mystery - Sarah McLachlan
3. Every Day Is a Winding Road - Sheryl Crow
4. No Rain - Blind Melon
5. Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
6. Why Can't I? - Liz Phair
7. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
8. Something to Talk About - Bonnie Raitt
9. The Weight - The Band
10. Touch of Grey - Grateful Dead
11. Spiderwebs - No Doubt
12. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here - Weezer
13. Sleep to Dream - Fiona Apple
14. Don't Bother - Shakira
15. Stand - R.E.M.
16. Sunny Came Home - Shawn Colvin
17. Closing Time - Semisonic
18. Two Princes - Spin Doctors
19. Hand in My Pocket - Alanis Morissette
20. The Remedy (I Won't Worry) - Jason Mraz
21. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
22. Why - Annie Lennox (I skipped the "whyyyyyyyyyy" at the beginning, is that cheating?)
23. Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin (aka Janet Jopler)
24. Til I Hear It from You - Gin Blossoms
25. Why Georgia - John Mayer
26. A Long December - Counting Crows
27. Babylon - David Gray
28. Ants Marching - Dave Matthews Band
29. Celebrity Skin - Hole
30. Found Out About You - Gin Blossoms
iTunes had a serious '90s thing going on. And two Gin Blossoms songs! Those are, like, the only two Gin Blossoms songs I have. I'll rework the shufflable pool again next time and see what spits out. This sure is fun for me.
2. Building a Mystery - Sarah McLachlan
3. Every Day Is a Winding Road - Sheryl Crow
4. No Rain - Blind Melon
5. Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
6. Why Can't I? - Liz Phair
7. Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
8. Something to Talk About - Bonnie Raitt
9. The Weight - The Band
10. Touch of Grey - Grateful Dead
11. Spiderwebs - No Doubt
12. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here - Weezer
13. Sleep to Dream - Fiona Apple
14. Don't Bother - Shakira
15. Stand - R.E.M.
16. Sunny Came Home - Shawn Colvin
17. Closing Time - Semisonic
18. Two Princes - Spin Doctors
19. Hand in My Pocket - Alanis Morissette
20. The Remedy (I Won't Worry) - Jason Mraz
21. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
22. Why - Annie Lennox (I skipped the "whyyyyyyyyyy" at the beginning, is that cheating?)
23. Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin (aka Janet Jopler)
24. Til I Hear It from You - Gin Blossoms
25. Why Georgia - John Mayer
26. A Long December - Counting Crows
27. Babylon - David Gray
28. Ants Marching - Dave Matthews Band
29. Celebrity Skin - Hole
30. Found Out About You - Gin Blossoms
iTunes had a serious '90s thing going on. And two Gin Blossoms songs! Those are, like, the only two Gin Blossoms songs I have. I'll rework the shufflable pool again next time and see what spits out. This sure is fun for me.
An observation or two
One day, when I was twitter surfing, I read on some rando's feed something like, "If Jack Kerouac were alive, twenty-three [I think? I don't know if Tegan and Sara were 23 when this song came about, but that's what the twit said], and a pair of gay Canadian twins, he would have written the song 'Nineteen.'" iTunes played me that song this morning, and the line "I felt you in my legs before I ever met you" totally made me remember that random twit I read. I don't know about the rest of the song being Kerouac-esque, but I've read four Kerouac books, and that first line totally jolted me for being like his writing. Also, I love the iTunes Live version of that song. The end!
I've been hard-up for mix tape inspiration these days, and even though the mix tapes are just for my own personal enjoyment, and no one notices when I don't update the sidebar, I love making them and listening to them in the car, and two weeks listening to the same one is too long, and then Sunday night my iPod got mad at me and only accepted 4 or 5 songs from each playlist, which of course I didn't realize until Monday morning in the car, trying to decide what to listen to on the way to work. I don't know what that mess was supposed to reveal to you, except that I need new mixes! And I really like calling them mix tapes, even though no one has tapes anymore, and I don't even put these mixes on compact discs--they exist entirely digitally--but whatever. So, anyway, for this week I decided to cheat with Genius. I picked a song (in this case, "She'll Come Back to Me" by Cake) and let Genius fly. I deleted the extra songs from the same artist, added four or five myself, and voila! Mix tape. So I don't hate Genius anymore, because it does dig up songs I would sometimes tend to overlook, but for making complete mixes, it's still lacking. I tried to do a Ditty Bops song, and it only gave me ten songs, even though it's supposed to do 25 at minium. Lacking!
I've been hard-up for mix tape inspiration these days, and even though the mix tapes are just for my own personal enjoyment, and no one notices when I don't update the sidebar, I love making them and listening to them in the car, and two weeks listening to the same one is too long, and then Sunday night my iPod got mad at me and only accepted 4 or 5 songs from each playlist, which of course I didn't realize until Monday morning in the car, trying to decide what to listen to on the way to work. I don't know what that mess was supposed to reveal to you, except that I need new mixes! And I really like calling them mix tapes, even though no one has tapes anymore, and I don't even put these mixes on compact discs--they exist entirely digitally--but whatever. So, anyway, for this week I decided to cheat with Genius. I picked a song (in this case, "She'll Come Back to Me" by Cake) and let Genius fly. I deleted the extra songs from the same artist, added four or five myself, and voila! Mix tape. So I don't hate Genius anymore, because it does dig up songs I would sometimes tend to overlook, but for making complete mixes, it's still lacking. I tried to do a Ditty Bops song, and it only gave me ten songs, even though it's supposed to do 25 at minium. Lacking!
February 10, 2009
Tuesday morning blog fun!
Because this amuses me and possibly one other person, I wanted to do this again. I modified the shuffle settings a little bit, by which I mean I shrunk my library pool with the hope of eliminating the obscure songs and the Muppets soundtracks, so hopefully this one should be more entertaining. (The way I play this game for myself is that I try to write out the first line before it's actually sung. Just so you know what I get out of this.)
1. People live their lives for you on tv
2. You come out at night
3. I hitched a ride with a vending machine repairman
4. All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
5. You got a fast car
6. Get a load of me, get a load of you
7. When the day is long, and the night, the night is yours alone
8. People are talkin', talkin' 'bout people
9. I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half-past dead
10. Must be getting early, clocks are running late
11. You think that we connect
12. The world has turned and left me here
13. I tell you how I feel, but you don't care
14. She's got the kind of look that defies gravity
15. Stand in the place where you live
16. Sunny came home to her favorite room
17. Closing time, open all the doors and let you out into the world
18. One, two princes lived before you
19. I'm broke but I'm happy
20. Well I saw fireworks from the freeway
21. You'll say that we've got nothing in common
22. How many times do I have to try to tell you that I'm sorry for the things I've done
23. Busted a flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train
24. I didn't ask--you shouldn't have told me
25. I am driving up 85 in the kind of morning that lasts all afternoon
26. A long December, and there's reason to believe
27. Friday night, I'm going nowhere
28. He wakes up in the morning
29. Oh make me over
30. All last summer, in case you don't recall
Answers tomorrow afternoon! Guess away, anyone. Full disclosure: I got 25 of these, so they're definitely easier.
1. People live their lives for you on tv
2. You come out at night
3. I hitched a ride with a vending machine repairman
4. All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
5. You got a fast car
6. Get a load of me, get a load of you
7. When the day is long, and the night, the night is yours alone
8. People are talkin', talkin' 'bout people
9. I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half-past dead
10. Must be getting early, clocks are running late
11. You think that we connect
12. The world has turned and left me here
13. I tell you how I feel, but you don't care
14. She's got the kind of look that defies gravity
15. Stand in the place where you live
16. Sunny came home to her favorite room
17. Closing time, open all the doors and let you out into the world
18. One, two princes lived before you
19. I'm broke but I'm happy
20. Well I saw fireworks from the freeway
21. You'll say that we've got nothing in common
22. How many times do I have to try to tell you that I'm sorry for the things I've done
23. Busted a flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train
24. I didn't ask--you shouldn't have told me
25. I am driving up 85 in the kind of morning that lasts all afternoon
26. A long December, and there's reason to believe
27. Friday night, I'm going nowhere
28. He wakes up in the morning
29. Oh make me over
30. All last summer, in case you don't recall
Answers tomorrow afternoon! Guess away, anyone. Full disclosure: I got 25 of these, so they're definitely easier.
February 8, 2009
Answers!
If you wanna play my dumb little game, skip this post and go here. Then come back to see how you did!
1. Right Through You – Alanis Morissette
2. Late Morning Lullaby – Brandi Carlile
3. Ashes and Wine – A Fine Frenzy
4. What’s This? – from The Nightmare Before Christmas
5. Made to Last – Semisonic
6. Circle of Life – from The Lion King
7. Chains – The Beatles
8. Hello Operator – The White Stripes
9. Least Complicated – Indigo Girls
10. Gravedigger – Dave Matthews
11. Night of the Iguana – Joni Mitchell
12. Can’t Cry Anymore – Sheryl Crow
13. Hey a Movie! – from The Muppet Movie
14. Don’t Cha Wanna Ride – Joss Stone
15. Daria – Cake
16. Seek Up – Dave Matthews Band
17. Summer Rains – The Ditty Bops
18. Movin’ Right Along – from The Muppet Movie
19. Careful – Guster
20. The Captain – Guster
21. Dusty – Kings of Leon
22. Your Body Is a Wonderland – John Mayer
23. Fantasize – Liz Phair
24. Follow – Brandi Carlile
25. I’ve Got a Theory – from “Once More with Feeling!”
26. Strong Enough – Sheryl Crow
27. Misunderstood – Wilco
28. I’m Looking Through You – The Beatles
29. Santa Fe – from Rent
30. Big Railroad Blues – The Greatful Dead
For some reason, iTunes was all over Sheryl Crow and the Muppets. And Dave Matthews and Brandi Carlile and those two Guster songs right in a row! Maybe I'll try again next weekend and see if I can get a more varied list of thirty songs.
1. Right Through You – Alanis Morissette
2. Late Morning Lullaby – Brandi Carlile
3. Ashes and Wine – A Fine Frenzy
4. What’s This? – from The Nightmare Before Christmas
5. Made to Last – Semisonic
6. Circle of Life – from The Lion King
7. Chains – The Beatles
8. Hello Operator – The White Stripes
9. Least Complicated – Indigo Girls
10. Gravedigger – Dave Matthews
11. Night of the Iguana – Joni Mitchell
12. Can’t Cry Anymore – Sheryl Crow
13. Hey a Movie! – from The Muppet Movie
14. Don’t Cha Wanna Ride – Joss Stone
15. Daria – Cake
16. Seek Up – Dave Matthews Band
17. Summer Rains – The Ditty Bops
18. Movin’ Right Along – from The Muppet Movie
19. Careful – Guster
20. The Captain – Guster
21. Dusty – Kings of Leon
22. Your Body Is a Wonderland – John Mayer
23. Fantasize – Liz Phair
24. Follow – Brandi Carlile
25. I’ve Got a Theory – from “Once More with Feeling!”
26. Strong Enough – Sheryl Crow
27. Misunderstood – Wilco
28. I’m Looking Through You – The Beatles
29. Santa Fe – from Rent
30. Big Railroad Blues – The Greatful Dead
For some reason, iTunes was all over Sheryl Crow and the Muppets. And Dave Matthews and Brandi Carlile and those two Guster songs right in a row! Maybe I'll try again next weekend and see if I can get a more varied list of thirty songs.
February 7, 2009
iPod tweaks
I wrote this a few years ago, when I still had a PC, long before everyone was using Vista (or maybe even before Vista had been released), but it might still come in handy to someone, so I decided to transfer it over here. Hopefully, these instructions work for Vista. If not, I can tweak them as I learn about Vista.
To transfer music from your iPod to your computer:
1. Connect the iPod to the computer. If iTunes opens and gives you bullshit about different libraries or whatever, tell it to cram it, then close iTunes.
2. Open My Computer.
3. Double click the icon for your iPod (should be Drive E: or F:).
4. Select Folder Options from the Tools menu in the iPod window.
5. Click the View tab.
6. In the Advanced Settings pane, select Show hidden files and folders. Click OK.
7. You should see a folder in the iPod window called iPod_control. Double click it.
8. Double click the Music folder. You should see a bunch of folders labeled F00, F01, F02, etc. All of your music files are in these folders.
9. Choose Select All from the Edit menu to highlight all the folders.
10. Choose Copy to Folder from the Edit menu.
11. Choose the folder to which you'd like to copy your music files, and then click Copy. It may take a while, but eventually, all your music files will be transferred to the designated folder on your computer.
12. Once the file transfer is complete, you can import these songs into iTunes--just choose Add folder to library from the File menu and select the folder in which your F00, F01, F02, etc. folders are now located (I would recommend the My Music folder).
*Your music files themselves will have shortened names, but as long as you have the track/artist/album info entered in the tags, all of that should be preserved once you add them to iTunes. And if you have iTunes set up to do so, it will rename the files and reorganize them into folders by artist and album name. Any troubles, let me know.
To transfer music from your iPod to your computer:
1. Connect the iPod to the computer. If iTunes opens and gives you bullshit about different libraries or whatever, tell it to cram it, then close iTunes.
2. Open My Computer.
3. Double click the icon for your iPod (should be Drive E: or F:).
4. Select Folder Options from the Tools menu in the iPod window.
5. Click the View tab.
6. In the Advanced Settings pane, select Show hidden files and folders. Click OK.
7. You should see a folder in the iPod window called iPod_control. Double click it.
8. Double click the Music folder. You should see a bunch of folders labeled F00, F01, F02, etc. All of your music files are in these folders.
9. Choose Select All from the Edit menu to highlight all the folders.
10. Choose Copy to Folder from the Edit menu.
11. Choose the folder to which you'd like to copy your music files, and then click Copy. It may take a while, but eventually, all your music files will be transferred to the designated folder on your computer.
12. Once the file transfer is complete, you can import these songs into iTunes--just choose Add folder to library from the File menu and select the folder in which your F00, F01, F02, etc. folders are now located (I would recommend the My Music folder).
*Your music files themselves will have shortened names, but as long as you have the track/artist/album info entered in the tags, all of that should be preserved once you add them to iTunes. And if you have iTunes set up to do so, it will rename the files and reorganize them into folders by artist and album name. Any troubles, let me know.
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