Random Album Review: Recovering the Satellites

I'm fairly certain Counting Crows is the best band that's arrived on the scene in my adult life. As I listened to this album, fresh with my reviewer-ears, I realized that I'd no idea all these songs were from the same album. iPods tend to de-educate album detail as it goes about rendering songs as singularities to sort and configure at will. I'm not sure that is A Good Thing. This fact is yet another sound reason for the Random Album Review.

I had one concert experience with Counting Crows at the Texas Motor Speedway in 1997. Their performance was extraordinary and had the effect of locking me in for life. As usual, I've laid out the tracks best to worst with the first half dozen or so very difficult to decide between.

5-stars

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Goodnight Elisabeth (4:33) - Romantic and sappy and all that.

Another Horsedreamer's Blues (5:20) - I remember this song as particularly soothing to my daughter as baby. To this day, she's still not allowed to sing along to the "Stupid Mothers" line, but allowed to shout the "Drunken Fathers" line with impunity. Go figure.

Catapult (3:35) - Pulsing and pushing, great on the headphones on the big hills.

A Long December (4:58) - As great as this is, there's a couple live versions in my collection that are even better. Counting Crows is one of those great bands that encourages trafficking of their live bootlegs.

Miller's Angels (6:34) - Hey Romeo indeed.

Children in Bloom (5:24) - Someone finally takes of the handcuffs of the lead guitar.

4-stars

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Monkey (3:02) - If Horsedreamer is my daughter's domain, this belongs to my son. All monkey everywhere on that boy.

Angels of the Silences (3:39) - Angels picks up the pace, an excellent respite among all the brooding ballads.

Mercury (2:48) - Harmonica?

3-stars

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Daylight Fading (3:50) - OK, I guess.

I'm Not Sleeping (4:58) - Good but radio overplay diminished this one for me.

Recovering the Satellites (5:25) - Why do title tracks let down so often?

2-stars

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Have You Seen Me Lately? (4:11) - Yawn.

Walkaways (1:12) - I'm not sure why this ditty was ever included.

If you're interested in a listen, my iLike library should have replicated snippets by the time you read this grab the torrent off my facebook. Upcoming for RAR is The Cure's Disintegration.

So Long DOT.TUNES

I fired up DOT.TUNES Version 4 this morning to share some music with my daughter. I've written previously on the pros and cons of this software. It works well enough so I use it. Then today, I get this bullshit:


Which makes no sense to me because at no point during the original install was there any mention of "expiration". Since I'm firmly entrenched in the "don't fix it if it ain't broke" camp I'm irritated by this mystery arbitrary expiration. Regardless, I go to the indicated URL, because maybe there's some heartbreaking security problem and upgrading is something essential. Maybe I go there because I'm a sheep.

The page primarily references downloading an ostensibly new product called Hook Up, a Mac OSX product which is useless to me. Below the fold there's a banner for the DOT.TUNES v4 product that interests me. The odd lack of prominence for v4 doesn't give me hope they plan on continuing their free license for v4 over the long haul. They might as well have their hyperlink in the closet, buried under cleaning products, an old broom and a mop that's seen better days. I follow the link.

Right off, I'm irritated as all get out. The DOT.TUNES v4 page has music automatically playing like a shitty MySpace wasteland. Not even good music; I thought a rat was chewing on my woofer cables at first. So be it, I find the pause icon and end that nonsense.

The first thing I notice, and maybe most people don't notice these things, is that there's not a stitch of information about DOT.TUNES v4 being new in any sort of way. No new anything. I click on their blog to see what announcements might be relevant to why perfectly good software has suddenly threw up on its own shoes. The light bulb goes on.

Because it's free (as in beer), there's always been a hidden expiration as a marketing tool to force you back to the mother ship if you want to use the software. Very uncool. I could see doing this, but making it up front when you install it (so you can make an informed decision). I could see a expiration that forces an announcement to freebie users. I could see a nag screen that can only be removed by returning to their new product screen and subsequently upgrading.

But, I can't see using a hidden expiration to disable perfectly good software for marketing purposes. That's flat out sheisty. So, goodbye DOT.TUNES. I will not be upgrading. I will not be using or recommending your firm's software to anyone, ever. I know that I wasn't part of your revenue stream, nor was I going to be anytime soon - so you might say good riddance to me. But maybe if enough bloggers (who also aren't in your revenue stream) expose how devious your firm operates, your bottom line will be diminished.

Despite my already enduring love of open source software, it still takes an occasional kick in the groin to remember why.

What is the Random Album Review?

Before I post my next review, I want to chat a bit about what the Random Album Review series means to me. I love my iPod. Over the years, combining my sizable digitized CD collection and downloads left me with about 10,000 songs. It was great that I was enjoying all my music in single compact magic box, but it was maddening how much crap was in there too.

So, I sat down and listened to it all. In a grand act of self-expression and personal liberty, I deleted all the crap. That left me with about 4000 songs, still quite a bevy of tunage. But that wasn't all. I found that I generally collected music via compilation releases which left me with an empty feeling in a weird way. Compilation albums are kind of seedy and coolness killers. They are an absolute expression of being a late adopter.

I went through my entire collection again. This time I endeavored to document in iTunes: the source album, original year of release and album art. My wife calls this couple of months the dreaded "headphone era". Demonstrating ADD superpowers, I think I even cleaned up iTunes at the dinner table, during dinner with my family. That effort was completed a couple of weeks ago.

So what's left after reaching the summit? Well for one thing I noticed that the quality of some of my favorite songs isn't quite as good as I'd like. When I first bought an iPod and ripped music (circa 2004), I was too ignorant about quality and obsessed with storage. Also, I think the algorithms that iTunes uses to rip music have improved. Several iPods later, storage isn't an issue with 60GB to work with and a more selective collection. Rather than implement an ADD approach, I'm re-ripping my music one album at a time and blogging about it, doing this at whatever pace happens no longer how long it takes.

One word about the "random" nature. It is only as random as iTunes is capable, which is quite suspect but good enough for this purpose. I have a smart playlist that looks for songs that 1) aren't singles, 2) have a five-star rating, 3) haven't been reviewed previously - and then limit that list to one song. That's how I determine which album is next. When I run out of albums that have at least one five-star song, I'll knock it down to four-stars - but that will be a while.

I'm also, trying out new social means to share my collection with family, friends and stalkers. I haven't found any yet that work just the way I want. I'll keep trying out a variety of them and linking or embedding them in Random Album Review posts. Don't expect any consistency on this aspect of the reviews, as I'll be all over the map as it pleases me.

Random Album Review: Purple Rain

UPDATE: removed embedded SeeqPod, which was too script heavy for my tastes. A blog should be lightweight... use my iLike library for a listen instead.

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Purple Rain is the bomb. Despite this, I have to admit this album is contrary to my musical tastes in quite a few ways. Primarily, there are so many moments where I can feel the normally awful ooze of jamming rearing its ugly head, but surprisingly it never repels me.

When Purple Rain happened I think anyone in my demographic (suburban white teenager) was embracing probably the funkiest music of their lives. We could almost tap our toes in rhythm; it was intoxicating. We weren't sure if Prince was exactly black or exactly gay and for whatever reason it didn't matter. We could put the Purple Rain album right next to Led Zeppelin and Boston, and it was all right.

The film is a blurry distant memory. I couldn't imagine watching it again except for s&g. The most memorable thing for me was having an introduction to Morris Day's awesome sound.

Here is the track breakdown, best to worst.

The Beautiful Ones (5:14) - When it comes to generating lovin' action, this one has one of the highest play:score ratios of all time.

Darling Nikki (4:14) - Ten years before I knew this was my sister-in-law's theme song, I was fascinated with how provocative this song was. Great for offending any afraid-of-their-genitals Christians within earshot.

Let's Go Crazy (4:39) - I still haven't found Dr. Everything Will Be Alright.

When Doves Cry (5:54) - My complete inability to understand if Prince is the Dove or I'm the Dove or what possible noise non-existent aviary tear ducts might make doesn't diminish my enjoyment.

Purple Rain (8:42) - The quintessential Prince song. Though the film was essentially unwatchable, thankfully this album fails to induce any recall of it.

Take Me with U (3:54) - I enjoy the harmony with Apollonia Kotero.

I Would Die For U (2:50) - Trite but still alright.

Baby I'm a Star (4:25) - A high energy dud. (Sorry no SeeqPod below, but you aren't missing much.)

Computer Blue (4:00) - I don't get it, nor do I listen to it.

Random Album Review: The Stranger

I've put a fair amount of work into organizing my iTunes collection of music and I'd like to randomly chat it up a bit. My Random Album Reviews won't be timely or even hip. I'm actually quite lame and quintessentially not cool.

The first installment is Billy Joel's The Stranger.



Although Wikipedia could easily add a head shot of Joel on the fugly page, his music has always been a staple for me since junior high. Easily, the best and only great song off the album is She's Always a Woman. It's pure corn hits me square in the eyes; if I'm not careful, I'll even get a sniffle.

Decent tracks include Just the Way You Are and Only the Good Die Young. Unremarkable but fun and fluffy, great for blaring to scare off any encroaching hip-hop element in the vicinity. Honorable mentions include Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant, both of which live tenuously on a thread in my iTunes.

If this album interests you, visit my Facebook iLike Library for a listen.

Project Update: MiTunes

While researching the the particulars for my MiTunes project, I came to some interesting conclusions:

• I don't want to share my music nearly as much as I thought I did.
• facebook applications (i.e., Profile Music, iLike, etc.) can serve my spot needs adequately

So consider this project aborted.

P.S. I've included a link on the sidebar to my facebook profile

Two New Projects

Because just one project isn't enough

The time has come to stop playing around with the new .NET 3.5 features and put them to good use in real development projects. I have two projects in mind, MiTunes and BigCheese. Each represents software I've long desired and been unable to fulfill externally. Here's a little background on each project:

MiTunes
I require companion software for Apple's iTunes. Describing the built-in sharing features of iTunes as crippled is an understatement. I believe the crippled nature is intentional, so there's no sense in waiting around for Apple to improve iTunes in this area. Here are the proposed feature highlights:

• Expose entire iTunes library via web interface, for sharing content among my family
  
• Optionally expose "clipped" media, for sharing playlists with the public
• Operate as a self-sustained real-time Windows service
• Function in a very lightweight manner
  

There is software already in the marketplace that somewhat implements what I'm looking to do, but they fall short for various reasons. If I've overlooked any, please drop a comment with a link and I'd gladly take a look.

• Apple's iMix (iTunes Store)
  upside: free, Apple foots the bandwith bill entirely, easy to use, integrated seamlessly with iTunes, easy to publish references on blogs, etc
  downside: songs only, songs must exist in the iTunes Store, limited to 100 songs
• DotTunes
  upside: free version is usable, exposes iTunes library via adequate web interface
  downside: not open source, registration process is goofy, somewhat buggy, memory/processor hog, plugins to make it real-time and self-sustaining are expensive, DotTunes branding is pervasive and not removable, interface is not extendable
• KavaTunes
  upside: very impressive iTunes-like browser interface
  downside: not open source, not free, requires a Mac

BigCheese
Fantasy (NFL) football these days is awful. My first foray into fantasy football was in 1985, when you had to do everything with paper and pencil and you were lucky to scrape six guys together. It was wonderful. I've only played two fantasy football seasons since ubiquitous integration with web resources, and both experiences were absent of joy. With the web, there's simply an overwhelming inflation dynamic of available players and available league entry points. The quality of owner skill and commitment is at an all time low. Fantasy football could be so great if it were only implemented better. BigCheese will do it better.

The goal of BigCheese is to increase owner interest and commitment by

• Rich and interesting new revolutionary complexities and modeling of the real NFL
  
• Simple interfaces to affect those complexities in less than ten minutes a day
  
• Meaningful financial rewards
  

Rich and interesting revolutionary complexities will come from modeling the actual NFL owner perch as closely as feasibly possible. That means there's both year-round and year-to-year aspects. Rosters will be same size as real NFL teams; all positions matter. There will only EVER be a single BigCheese league, with a maximum of 32 owners. I imagine the league will start with 4-8 the first year. To some extent, where feasible, the league's engine of complexity will be obscured to discourage copy cat BigCheese leagues - but the value of the league will not be inherently protected through obscurity.

Simple interfaces to affect those complexities will come from a browser interface that reflects the ideals of Ten-Minutes-A-Day to participate in a league that is persistent from year to year.

Meaningful financial rewards will stem from the revolutionary goal of creating a league with external interest. This external interest will generate revenue for the owners through web space advertising (on the public website), league growth (franchise fees) and franchise sales (eventual franchise scarcity). For this reason, owner selectivity will be essential and enforced by all existing owners' self interest. However, the most unique aspect of BigCheese is that it will attempt to do something not seen in today's fantasy sports - generate third party interest. There will only be, ever, one BigCheese league. That league will only, ever, have a maximum 32 owners (unless the actual NFL expands). Franchise owners will switch hands, fold, etc. just like the real world of a startup sport leagues.

This goal cannot be understated: financial rewards for the owners will be primarily sourced externally. I plan on recruiting an initial seed of owners this summer.

One Million Dollars

How much would I pay?

Assuming it sounds tremendous, and Plant still has it, I think that is about how much I'd pay to see them roll through Dallas. Ok, maybe $500.