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01/23/10 Ampere München
Discography
01/24/10 Studio 672 Köln 01/26/10 Magnet Berlin 01/28/10 Rocking Chair Vevey 01/29/10 Ziegel Oh Lac Zurich 02/01/10 Prinzenbar Hamburg 02/09/10 Thekla Bristol 02/10/10 Hare & Hounds Birmingham 02/11/10 Brudenell Centre Leeds 02/12/10 ULU London 02/13/10 Audio Brighton
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Straitjacket Escape ♥ photo by Dave
The straitjacket incident was obviously the most epic moment of the night, but the theatrics didn’t end there. There was interpretive dancing, rogue boomerangs, and a pretty intimidating box accordion. Throw in a picturesque stage setting and a watering can attached to the drum kit, and it wasn’t an average Webster Hall show. The band managed to take a spacious, relatively normal venue and shift the atmosphere to match that of the album: warm, enthusiastic, and frenzied.
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by DaveWith only one album, they had a limited supply of songs to play. My personal favorite, “I’m a Pilot,” drew from the band’s most appealing quality: their infectious camaraderie. This was most apparent during the encore, when they had run out of songs to sing, so they resorted to the obligatory cover, Low’s “Just Like Christmas,” featuring opening band, Freelance Whales. Anything holiday-related is instantly a cheese-fest, but throw in a cavalcade of instruments and a dozen earnest musicians and it becomes easy to suspend any cynicism.
(I really wanted to end this review by writing, “...and by the end of the night, you could say that the entire audience had shed an emotional straitjacket – and put on a fringed vest of love.” But I won’t. Swearsies.)
Photos by Dave:
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by Dave 
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo & Freelance Whales
12/22/2009 00:12:42 ♥ kateg (
)
♥ fanfarlo.com
♥ myspace.com/fanfarlo
Yesterday we awoke to snow, falling, sticking. It snowed enough that Ben, Aaron and I went out to play in it.
We found bunny tracks across the snow in our front yard. I put food for the bunnies to find today. Birds and squirrels are finding their food. I've seen a few bright red cardinals.
Yesterday we had a family gathering with Ben's family and mine - Aaron and I cooked for everyone. He made an AMAZING chocolate/carmel/salted cake to celebrate Ben's mom's birthday. Everyone left full and happy to have spent the afternoon with us in our home.
I surprised my sis by bringing out a huge basket of our childhood comics. We are spending Friday night together with our old comics and toys and having a slumber party! I'm thinking cherry kool-aid and popcorn with BUTTER! It was wonderful to see the look on her face when she realized I'd saved them for us and knew she would love them.
Jess came by today and we hung out together. Love my niece - she is a great person, just like my kids and her brother. We are having family christmas tomorrow to accommodate the kids being here. Cassie will be missed!
All in all - I am loving it here. Course being back in CA last weekend with my friends was awesome too!
It's all wonderful.
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The Zatoichi series ran 26 movies (1962-1982) and a television series ran for five years (1974-1979). Twenty years later, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano reinvented Zatoichi with his version of the character. This was easily one of my favorite movie at the time, I saw it at the independent theater twice in 2003 and ordered a region 3 release of the DVD as soon as it was available on import. Incidentally, to show support for the US market, I also bought the US edition of the DVD, which came with a bonus Sonatine movie (which was originally released in the states by Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder productions).
Considering the movie did quite well, critically and (I'm assuming) in sales, I was hoping for a follow-up movie by Kitano, but unfortunately there's no such plan. However, interestingly enough, one of my all-time favorite Japanese director, Takashi Miike* directed a stage adaption of Zatoichi for live performances in 2007.
I'm happy to report that, I saw a very good re-imagined of the familiar character, reinvented as a female protagonist, called Ichi. I wish the producers had kept the brand of "Zatoichi", as people who hear "Ichi" does not always associate the name with the blind swordsman. To be fair, Ichi is the original character's name. The term "zato" means low-ranking blind person (low-ranking in the Todoza guild). Logically, they could've named this movie Gozeichi, because Goze refers to blind musician women of that time period.
Anyway, beside my gripe about the Ichi name as the movie title, I also didn't like the idea that a model (Ayase Haruka) is playing the part of the protagonist. All that was really not worth worrying, because the whole movie is quite entertaining and enjoyable, and there is only once where Haruka is seen 'dolled up' for a music performance (most of the movie, she's covered from head to toe in dirty rags). However, there are at times when the director Fumihiko Sori choose to stay too long on Haruka's beautiful unblemished face. We get it, she's cute.
The story is uncomplicated, Ichi wanders into some town with an inept sword-drawing samurai Toma (the name is close to a slang "tonma" for idiot or fool). The town is in trouble from the Banki gang, and in Zatoichi fashion, Ichi and Toma saves the town. During the course of the film, there are the tried-and-true Zatoichi moments like slashing out the lights and Ichi triumph in complete darkness, the use of sound to throw Ichi off, and, of course, the Cho-Han Bakuchi dice gambling.
What made the film interesting, at least to me, is that the soundtrack is by Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard! So throughout the movie, you do hear that ethereal vocals, similar to her efforts on Ridley Scott's Gladiator. I suspect she only wrote the vocals, the credit I have for composer is Michael Edwards, who previously worked with Gerrad on her solo material. The soundtrack was a bit of a surprise to me, generally these J-movies' music and production team are usually kept inhouse. Although, having said that, the one outro credit song is by Korean J-Pop singer SunMin.
Ichi the movie will be made available in the US market via Bluray and DVD in two days (December 22nd), just in time for last-minute xmas shoppers. Hopefully those Best Buy tonmas will be smart and order some copies for their store (however, if it costs over $25, I'd rather order it online, or not own it at all - hey times are tough!).
* I love all three billion of his movies! Audition, City of Lost Souls, One Missed Call, Ichi the Killer, Fudoh, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Zebraman, Sukiyaki Western: Django, etc.
12/20/2009 02:06:34 ♥ vu (
) ♥funimation.com/ichi
We re-join our story in the Spa of the Ocean Spa Hotel, Cancun Mexico.
As part of our deal with our hotel stay, both Donna and I recieved a 55 minute massage and a $30 spa credit good for various services.
After some deliberation, we decide to go with the Swedish massage and an Aromatherapy Body Exfoliation. We make our appointments for 10am the day before we leave.
When we arrive at the spa, they bring us into the Women's Locker Room and ask us to change and take a warm shower before we head into the steam room. We oblige in our private showers.
After a refreshing steam, our two massage therapists bring us into a room. It happens to be the Couples Massage room....which is fine. In fact, its a beautiful room complete with mood lighting and a beautiful jacuzzi bathtub for two. The tub had lit candles around the side and some floating flower petals. We looked at each other and laughed...thinking, "You're my best friend and all, but there is no way, I'm taking a nude jacuzzi with you at the end of this".
The massages begin and they are fabulous. My masseuse doesn't speak to me (which I love) nor does she understand much of what I'm saying to her. Donna's person is much more fluent than mine.
My person only speaks to me when she commands me to do something, but what's a little disconcerting is that she bends down and whispers-this-close right in my ear. Its a little creepy feeling...plus it tickles. She had a voice like a very sweet child, so I start to get the giggles in my head. I don't want to start laughing and ruin Donna's massage, nor do I want my poor massuese to think I'm laughing at her. Its just one of those weird moments when you know you shouldn't laugh...so all you want to do is start chortling and guffawing all over the place.
The massages end and they begin the exfoliation. After rubbing, scrubbing and buffing our front sides, I'm told to "sit up". I sit up and look to my right and Donna is already sitting up....trying as desperately as I am to keep my sheet in its proper place. We get our backsides exfoliated and then are told to lie back down. From Donna's side, I hear a little laugh. First from Donna and then from her person. I wonder what they're talking about and worry that since someone broke the "seal" on the public laughing, I'm going to start to laugh about the whispering in my ear.
I'm told to lie still for a few minutes and then to get up and take a shower. The massage therapists leave and I peek out from under my eye cover and see Donna looking at me. We decide its time to get up, shower and get dressed.
Donna opens the door to the shower and its.....a shower built for two. One stall. Two shower heads facing each other. We start to laugh at how we've suddenly entered into a soft core porn flick. After some debate and many promises to "don't look", we figure what the hell? We're not THAT modest with each other. Donna heads in first and I follow behind (with my eyes closed). All I could think about was some 1980's women's prison movie and with that we start to laugh. We're trying to wash the grit off of ourselves while not looking at the other one and the whole time we're hysterically laughing. I can't catch my breath because of the absurdity of it all. The harder Donna laughs, the more I laugh. Finally, from the steam Donna yells "THIS IS THE GAYEST THING I'VE EVER DONE!! Oh, and did she ask you to do the "boobie" thing?" Apparently, Donna's therapist bent down, whispered in her ear "here...this is for your boobies" and she hands her a handful of exfoliator. I ask her what she did.
In all seriousness, she responds "I did my boobies".
That's it. I'm done. I can't shower anymore. I can barely stand up because I can't catch my breath. I run out of the shower cacking like a hen and wonder to myself what in the hell do the other spa customers think is going on in here?
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For this Christmas, I did buy myself Swords deluxe edition via my favorite store, amazon. It was a bit pricey for a CD/DVD combo ($23 vs $12 for the standard disc), but I'm worth it.
I actually have had a digital copy of the B-Sides compilation since late October, thanks to pen pal friend Mel, as it was a "bonus" if you had preordered tickets to see Morrissey in live in 2009. And of course, like most fans, we still buy the physical release anyway, so it's a bit of a win-win situation for everyone.
I'll briefly summarize Morrissey's history: he's a bit of a sensitive, indie songwriter with The Smiths. He went solo in "nineteen-eighty-hate" with some classic modern rock hits with "Suedehead" (aka that "I'm So Sorry" song) and "Everyday is like Sunday". He went a bit rockabilly with Your Arsenal (his previous album Kill Uncle was heading to this direction, especially with the B-Sides and singles from this era), and pretty much stayed in this "muscular" rock type music since. As I previously mentioned, I think this has to do with his musical collaboration with Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte.
If you're new to Morrissey, I don't think Swords would be a good starting point for you. I would recommend starting with Bona Drag, a weird mix of b-sides and oddities. Most of the songs on Swords were co-written by Alain Whyte, and there's a nice cohesive feel to each song as they have similiar song writing structure. When you do run into a non-Whyte song, such as "Sweetie-Pie", it just feels out of place. In fact, I think this is possibly one of the worst Morrissey song, right up there with "Michaels Bones".
There is one non-Morrissey-penned song, and it's a live recording of "Drive-In Saturday" (live at Omaha on 11 May 2007). Morrissey's music obsessions tend to be from the 60s and 70s era, so it didn't surprise me to hear him doing a David Bowie cover from the Aladdin Sane time period. But the two are friends, I know that Bowie showed up at a Morrissey show in Los Angeles in the early 90s to do a duet of a T.Rex's song for "Cosmic Dancer", and, of course, Bowie would later record a soul-ish version of Morrissey's "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" in 1993.
Also, it seems in post-2008, Morrissey's songs have been about fatherhood and retirement. Just looking over his titles: "Good Looking Man About Town", "Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice", "Teenage Dad on His Estate", "Children in Pieces", that "constipated look" for Swords, and that controversially album cover for Years of Refusal ... you would think that he's married with kids. Maybe that's not a bad thing, with Morrissey's heath in question, maybe he should take it easy. We all can't be like James Dean, you know.
12/19/2009 03:47:04 ♥ vu () ♥itsmorrisseysworld.com ♥ truetoyou.com ♥ morrissey-solo.com
Before I begin this post, I wanted to say hi to all of my Vox neighbors (those that are left, anyway). Sorry I haven't been around much since Jake died....but its been kind of a hard few months and I just haven't felt much like talking about stuff.
That being said, I had an experience recently that I wanted to share (and remember)...
Anyone who knows me well, knows that in the last 10 years or so, I've developed a little fear of flying. I still do it, but I really don't love it. I refuse to drink or take medication to calm my fears, so I grit my teeth and go. The part I really can't stand is take-off. That feeling of slowly climbing into the air completely freaks me out. Once we're up and the flight attendants start serving, I'm pretty much OK - assuming there isn't a ton of turbulence.
I should point out that I never had an issue with flying until a few years ago. Nothing specific happened to stress me out...perhaps just getting older or perhaps its because I tended to hyper-focus on news reports of aviation disasters. (much like I watch shows about serial killers even though I'm terrified of them). In the last few years, I've read a few books about flying and I change the channel when there is ANYTHING to do with plane crashes.
I consider myself to be a very rational black-and-white person, which is why I'm baffled by how irrational my fear is. People think they're being helpful by saying "you have a greater chance of winning the lottery than being in a plane crash". But I think to myself...I COULD win the lottery....assuming I ever bought a ticket. So in the past few years, I've read books, logged onto the FAA website to read the statistics and have regular conversations with myself about how safe flying truly is.
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. The fear usually creeps in about a week before I have to fly. I maniacally clean my house in case I don't come home. I hope that my family will give a flattering picture of me to the folks at Dateline who are SURE to do a story on the accident. I can't stand when people tell me to "have a safe flight" because I assume they've suddenly gone psychic on me and they know something that I don't. I ask Dan if he "has any feelings about the flight"....again, I assume everyone I know is a member of the Psychic Friends Network. I make Dan look up statistics about how many takeoffs and landings there are each year from the Minneapolis airport. (450,000 in case you're curious).
When I get to the airport, I look around to see if its looks like its anyone's "time". I swear to you. Its horrible. If there is ever a famous person on my flight, I'm about ready to turn around and go home. I stare at the departures and arrivals screens to see how many flights there are, what airlines I've never heard of and how many faraway destinations there are. These things are supposed to make me feel better, but they tend to freak me out all the more.
That being said, Dan and I usually fly first class because it does seem to help me out a little. That or I'm just saying that so Dan will pony up for the good seats. I tend to feel worse if its a really crowded flight. I also feel much better if the pilot and the flight attendants are older. If the pilot is under 40, I assume he's an idiot. Why? I couldn't tell you.
SO...last week I had the opportunity to take a quick trip to Cancun with my best friend Donna. Donna and I have taken a ton of vacations together and she's a great travel partner. Mainly because she distracts me during takeoff by telling stories about her mother that make me laugh. She also knows that while I look calm on the outside, on the inside I look like a Edward Munch painting.
For some reason, my usual pre-flight thoughts weren't scary ones. In fact, I did really well the night before and didn't even think much about the flight. Same thing when we got to the airport. We get on the plane and I offer to take the middle seat and give Donna the aisle. (keep in mind that she's been taking the middle for me for about 15 years). I can't figure out why I'm feeling so calm, but I'm pleased.
The day of our flight was the day when the entire U.S. was hit with storms, blizzards and record cold and yet...I'm still not afraid.
The plane takes off and I'm just fine. A little fluttering in the stomach, but nothing I can't handle. The flight is going great. No turbulence, a gray-haired pilot AND an older flight attendant. What more could I ask for?
When food service begins, Donna and I decide to look at the menu and have a little snack. I offer a menu to the woman on the other side of me and she just stares blankly. She's an older woman, about 70 or so. The flight attendant asks her if she wants peanuts, pretzels or cookies and she just stares back at her. I ask her the question again and in a very thick Polish accent, she says "no English". (I know its Polish because Donna's best friend from home is Polish) I tell the flight attendant to give her all 3 options. I try to see if she wants something to drink by giving the universal sign for "drink". She says "Sprite".
I decide to have a cocktail since I see Pomegranate Martinis on the menu. The flight attendant shakes my drink and Donna pulls out her travel Yahtzee game (sound dorky...but a great time-waster on a plane).
Just as we begin to play, the plane starts to shake a little. And then a little more. I'm doing OK. The pilot comes on and says to buckle up because they are expecting a little rough weather. I'm still OK. In fact, I'm doing better because I LOVE when the pilot tells me what's going on. (can you say "control freak"?)
All of a sudden from the left side of the plane comes a big BOOM. Donna says "I think that was thunder". I turn around to the guy behind me and say "was that thunder?" when all of a sudden it felt like we were rear-ended by a semi. The plane pitches forward, shakes from side to side and drops to the point where I'm straining against my selt belt.
As all of this happens, I see my Pomegranate Martini levitate off my tray and catch it in mid-air without a drop spilled. I mean, if I'm going to pay $7.00 for a Rande Gerber cocktail, I'm not letting it spill all over some elderly Polish lady.
People start SCREAMING...and I mean, horror movie screaming and things are flying all over. It seems to last for 5 minutes when all of a sudden everything is still. Throughout all of this, I'm calm. I didn't utter a peep, a yelp, a howl, nothing. I look down and I see my martini in my left hand and my red Yahtzee pencil in my right. The entire Yahtzee game was gone. Not in my lap, not in Donna's, not in the aisle...just gone.
I look to my right and the little Polish lady is fiddling with her scarf and just absolutely terrified. I rub her arm and say "its OK, its OK". She smiles. I turn to Donna to start to laugh about the insanity of it all and there she is...my big brave travel partner with tears just streaming down her face. I put my arm around her and say "we're OK. we're OK". She starts to cry and says "my whole life just flashed in front of my eyes. OK...not my whole life, just the part where I think I'm a mean person". I start to laugh and laugh hard. Then she stops crying and yells "that fucking pilot better tell us what just happened". I can't help it...I start to laugh even harder. She tells me to look at the aisle and when I do, there are cameras, books, empty cups, ice, magazines strewn everywhere. There is tomato juice, coffee and diet coke dripping down from where it hit the ceiling. And still no Yahtzee game. Donna is covered in some beverage and I kind of feel guilty that I made such a great catch of my own beverage.
The flight attendants come by with napkins to help with the clean up when the pilot comes on and in the most chipper voices say "sorry for the bumps there. We were trying to divert around the bad weather over Jackson, Mississippi". Now everyone on the plane is laughing....that kind of embarrassed, nervous laughter. I can't stop laughing, but I really want to know where the Yahtzee game went. We find it in the aisle under some seats....that is all but one dice.
I turn around to ask the guy behind me if they've seen any dice. He starts to laugh and says "yeah, its in my son's pocket". Apparently, the dice went flying over the seat into the kid's lap and he pocketed it. The kid hands it back and we're all still laughing.
When the flight attendant stops at our seats, I ask her "so...do pilots feel what we feel back here?" (yes, I'm that goon who feels the need to ask those kind of questions). Irritated, she yells "NO and really irritates me. They have no idea". Then she tells me that in Row 18 where we were was nothing compared with Row 28 who REALLY felt it.
What struck me is how not scared she was...just annoyed because once we arrive in Cancun she only has 90 minutes to get the plane ready for the return flight.
Throughout all of this, I couldn't believe that I was so calm. As I've said many times before, I am great in a crisis. The house could be on fire, my arm could be hanging from its socket and I'd be calm as a cucumber....but God forbid the grocery store only has curly parsley instead of flat-leaf because NOW I'm going to burn the house down. Weird how things work out that way.
Donna kept saying "You're so brave, I'm so proud of you. Unlike me on the other hand, who looked like the petrified cat in this week's episode of "Hoarders" I lost it again. She has a way of making references that she just knows I'm going to get. Its great to have a best friend like that. Then she said something that I think will help me with future flights. She said that whenever I get scared on another flight, to remember what happened on THIS one and compare the two. I think its great advice.
When we arrived in Cancun, all of the goons on the plane started to applaud. I jumped out of my seat and was waiting to exit the plane when I hear this little voice saying "help me...help me". I look over at my Polish seatmate and her seat belt is completely twisted around her and she can't get out. I reach over, unbuckle her and give her a goodbye arm rub. She smiles gratefully and we leave.
I can't say this cured my fear of flying because on the way home, I had the usual take-off flutters. But I have to admit, that I am proud of how I handled a potentially bad situation. If this would have happened some other day, the flight attendants would have had to hog-tie me to the seat and there would have been federal marshalls meeting me at the gate.
Stay tuned for the next installment of "Nancy and Donna Go To Cancun"....entitled "That's The Gayest Thing I've Ever Done".
Well, it's been quite some time since I've written- a few holidays have come and gone- a few seasons as well! Here's a few months in review:
We had our one year anniversary celebration in MN. Sharing a renewal of vows with friends and family:
We had Joe, Chrissy and Joy come for a visit:
We raised $350 dollars for the AIDS walk:
We had friends from Vietnam visit:
So in conclusion- I wish everyone the best holiday season and hopefully I will get my sh** together and start writing more frequently!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
DOMINO? YOU MEAN DOMI-YES
dominorecordco.com
You know, I honestly don't know how Ryan does it, keeping up with the various 'tweets'. I personally think twitter become absolutely useless if you have more than 50 friends. There's also so much spam on twitter!
So, I mostly just have it filtered to reading our own twitter to discover new freebies. So below was sent out a few days ago:
weheartmusicWe♥Music
Check out the @DominoRecordCo Xmas Sampler - http://bit.ly/53Thv0 - Final Fantasy, Wild Beasts, The Kills, Franz Ferdinand & King Creosote.
11:49 AM Dec 14th from web
I also really dig Joker's Daughter (for non-comic book nerds, yes the Joker had a daughter - I think she mostly fought the 70s Teen Titans). I love "classic" pop girl-group sound, and this band has the vocals and melodies. Although the subject of Gremlins and "Bouncing Liquorish Bears" may be on the weirder side.
OF DOVES AND FISH
harveysidfisher.com
Dovecote Records gathered three of their recording artists to do a mini-tribute to Harvey Sid Fisher. While I don't know much about Fisher, based on hearing the three covers by Mason Proper, Tim Williams, and Trevor Giuliani, I have concluded that Fisher was a bit of a strange songwriter and has a bit of an interesting "older" man's vocals... each of the modern artists do try and emulate the singing style.
My personal favorite is Tim Williams' rendition. Nice backup vocals and the repetitive "hit another wall" refrain.
If you want to hear these songs for yourself - head over to dovecoterecords.com and click on the "Download Now" link. There's no catch either, none of that "give us your email" thing. Just a nice little free EP.
UPDATE 12/18/09: I misread the press info, the songs are all sung by Harvey Sid Fisher (doing covers of Dovecote artists). This would explain why all the songs sounds like an "older" man.
OLD WAVE MIXTAPE
nouvellesvagues.com
Cover lover band of approval, Nouvelle Vague, made a 10-track free mixtape at whenyouawake.com.
Most of the tracks are by American artists, some classic from Roy Orbison ("You Got It"), Louis Armstrong ("We Have All The Time In The World"), Johnny Cash ("Ring Of Fire"), etc. There are a few weird ones (weird as in didn't fit in) like Sufjan Stevens and Rolling Stones... however, I will admit tapping my feet when I heard the intro to "Let's Spend The Night Together". There is the token French artist Serge Gainsbourg on the mixtape for good measure.
While I'm not entirely sure about the legality of this free download, I think it's good promotions for the bands mentioned on the tape. Plus, it's a nice boost of ego, you know?
daffodilpublicity.com confirms these are their forth-coming North American tour dates:
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Friday, Jan. 22, Philadelphia, PA, World Café Saturday, Jan. 23, New York, NY, Webster Hall Sunday, Jan. 24, Boston, MA, Somerset Tuesday, Jan. 25, Montreal, PQ, Metropolis Wednesday, Jan. 27, Toronto, ONT, Opera House Thursday, Jan. 28, Detroit, MI, Crofoot Ballroom Friday, Jan. 29, Chicago, IL, Logan Square Monday, Feb. 1, Denver, CO, Bluebird Tuesday, Feb. 2, Salt Lake City, UT, Urban Lounge Thursday, Feb. 4, Seattle, WA, King Cat |
Friday, Feb. 5, Vancouver, BC, Venue Sunday, Feb. 7, San Francisco, CA, Regency Monday, Feb. 8, Sant Cruz, CA, Rio Theater Tuesday, Feb. 9, Los Angeles, CA, Henry Fonda Friday, Feb. 12, Dallas, TX, Granada Saturday, Feb. 13, Austin, TX, Mohawk Sunday, Feb. 14, New Orleans, LA, Republic Tuesday, Feb. 16, Miami, FL, Revolution Wednesday, Feb. 17, Orlando, FL, Firestone Thursday, Feb. 18, Atlanta, GA, Loft Saturday, Feb. 20, Washington DC, 9:30 Club |
YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO SAVE MONEY
I don't work for Best Buy, but I wanted to pass along this deal, since it is almost a crime to not buy it. It is $140 for HANNspree 23" HD LCD 16:9 Widescreen Monitor. That's cheap, considering the same monitor would've cost at least $700 a few years ago.
I did buy it and setup was very plug-and-play easy. It came with a disc for a Windows Vista driver, but if you just have XP, it would just recognize the monitor. Hooking it up on the PS3 using the HDMI cable (not included) was also easy - however I did not like the long pauses as PS3 auto adjust when it plays bluray discs (I suspect this has to do with determining that it's a compliant display since HDMI is notorious for anti-piracy junk).
Compare to the old CRT monster monitors, this 23" is superlight - even Mr Burns can easily move the monitor around. The product page lists 9.9lbs, but it feels like it's only one or two pounds.
The monitor does have built-in speakers, but it sounds tinny. Not exactly awesome audio, but for $140, that's just a bonus. I recommend buying monitor headphones and plugging it in the monitor for clearer audio. And speaking of audio, since this is marketed as purely a monitor - there is also no remote control access. If you need to turn down the audio, you have to adjust it on the monitor itself.
Despite my complaint, this is one of best image display I've own. It's native 1920x1080 is pretty sweet when I'm playing Dragon Age (since now I can have more items in the "quick" slots at the bottom).
* practically free
12/16/2009 11:25:14 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
Greetings, dear readers. I hope you are well.
I had a couple of vertebrae fused last October, and so I've been away on a health sabbatical of sorts. The cold weather is not helping! I feel so odd saying that I will welcome some warm temperatures again, especially after we got some lovely snow in my home area last weekend. But when you have metal in your body, or nerve damage, or both, you start feeling the barometric changes more.
I wanted to take a moment to share some other music blogs I have been reading here at VOX. I promise I will be back with more music, including 2NU's last offering. (Who is 2NU? Stay tuned...) But until then, allow me to share some other blogs of interest, including a side project of mine.
(On a side note, it seems to me that many of the resources I looked at when writing reviews here seem to be very similar to what friends of mine looked at writing for university and college publications, or what they played for college radio. But I digress...)
Those that have followed my reviews here know that I'm a big fan of mashups and bastard pop. It's always been a satirical commentary for me, in some part, on how the commercial industry likes to come back to familiar hooks and "radio-friendly" licks-- how else can two or more songs, especially when they seem so radically different, come together? They can come together, all right, in a rather slick way that can express an entirely new idea that is different from the sum of the mashup's parts.
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The Dude’s Blog (Blog de The Dude) has a general focus-- nothing too specific, but that's fairly within the spirit of things at W♥M-- write about what you like. Obviously, his username is taken from The Big Lebowski, which was referenced by Vu in Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In). His latest post covers his album picks for 2009.
- Aurelio’s blog is a little more general than even that--"Un cocktail de musique, ciné, bouquins, bonne bouffe et rigolade" (A mix of music, film, books, good food, and comedy). He hosts Albums 2009, so some of his latest posts have also been about his selections of music in 2009.
- niggytardust writes in English and French, so if you don't speak/read/write French, you have an English option. More of a rock focus.
- Ground Countrol To Major Tom focuses on new artists and independent music.
- Music Is My Radar is written by moien
So there you have it. I'm probably just scratching the surface, but most of these bloggers and Vox Groups specifically mentioned (if not all) have contributed to W♥M in some form or another, so have a look around.
12/15/2009 23:56:22 ♥ jaklumen (
/ jaklumen.vox.com)Sometimes technology empowers me. Things work smoother and faster and I can write, connect, watch, create and generally do and be more, as result of magic of technology.
Then there are times when technology thwarts me at every turn. Things break, slow down or just become ridiculously complicated. When that happens, technology can suck the energy out of just about every task big and small.
After months of everything working relatively smoothly, I seem to find myself thwarted by machines, captive to electrical conundrums, bogged down by bad connections and generally wading through the muck of technology gone wrong.
The televisions have had memory cards replaced, firmware upgrades and new panels installed. The cordless phones have taken to randomly deciding to let me know who's calling or not, as it pleases them. The programmable thermostat seems to want to decide for itself when the heat should go full blast or completely off. Bulbs in my bedroom and the backyard refuse to power up and provide light. My Blackberry's trackball has developed a sluggishness and a stickiness that makes me suspect that some of that nasty green goo from Ghost Busters is oozing just behind the faceplate.
But the most vexing problems are with my computer and its relationship to programs and the Internet. It's slow. Really realley sl-o-o-o-o-o-o-w. Which is maddening enough, but it loses things. It forgets things. It doesn't want to connect to sites and people it should connect to. It misbehaves, acting like it doesn't care to help me do the things I need and want to do. This defiant, sluggish laptop was purchased in May of this year.
I've tried all the usual (but not extreme) remedies that those of us with an above average comfort level with personal technology know to do in these situations. I've tried them two and three times or more.
It might be time for more drastic measures. But before I go that far, one of my business partners offered up his "Technology Cleansing Ritual".
I think it might be worth a shot.
When you are in the snowy cold of Minnesota, take your laptop, remove any jewelry and do the following:
1. Gather freshly cut parsley and place it in a pan of distilled water. Let it soak for nine minutes. Sprinkle the water throughout the house while visualizing a calm environment.
2. Go outside, face Seattle and chant the following: I will uphold the Redmond creed. High in spirit, I shall succeed. Power of the Elements Five, will help my data stay alive. From grains of earth to the moving air, past the burning fire that magic flares, flow with water, lakes, and streams; around the spirit's aura and dreams. Keep my karma high aloft and let me play with Microsoft.
3. Avoid eating any liver or organ meat for one month.
You should be good to go!
J
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