Month: February 2007

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Swearing At Motorists

There’s some days where you find inspiration hard to come by. For that, I turn to music and try to tune out the rest of the world. Going through the library, I settled on Swearing At Motorists[wiki]. I met these guys a few times and seen a handful of their shows. Another sample of my affinity for bands with just two guys.

At every single show I’ve been to, Dave Doughman always has problems with his guitar. I’m not sure if it’s all the thrashing around that he does or the amount of self-servicing he does to that thing. My favorite time was at SXSW in 2002(which is where the clip above was filmed as well). There was a short somewhere in his guitar, and he had to hold it at a perfect angle, damn near completely still. To know S@M, you know that Dave is everywhere on stage. So there he was, in the middle of a set, right in the middle of a song, standing on stage like a mannequin, and screams, “I’m trying so hard not to flip out!”

I got the idea to check out their website to see what’s the latest on them. Dave’s going to be a husband and father, if not already. However, living in Berlin now, making it back to the states is going to be tricky for them to tour. Aside from that news, I was also excited to hear about an album they put out last October on Secretly Canadian, “Exile On Gipsstrasse”. The making of the album has a fascinating story, and knowing what I do of the guy, I can’t say that it surprises me.

I started taking my guitar to the Ubahnhof – an underground train station – at the end of my street to busk. The first night I didn’t make much money, but was floored by the huge sound created in the tube by my unamplified acoustic guitar and voice. So the next night I returned with my tape machine and 2 microphones, set them up, got good levels, and just let the tape roll as I busked. I made a little more money that night, but upon returning home and giving the tape a listen, realized that the trains and passengers were too distracting from the overall recording. [secretlycanadian]

You can read the rest for yourself, but the story goes on to tell how he kept going to the station later and later to record, eventually trading all the studio tracks for that of the underground station. If you’re curious to hear what it sounds like, the whole album is currently available for free here.

Listening to it right now, there’s not much for percussion like previous stuff, but I’ve always been a fan of Dave’s vocal styling. You can even hear the sounds of train passengers passing by in some tracks. I have to say that this is the type of recording that I really respect, more so because he broke into station at one point for the sake of getting this record done.

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A beef with the Oscar night of ads

Another Super Bowl post, I know, but there is only one reason why I truly watch it. It’s the commercials. I think in a previous life, I was an advertising guy of some sort, and at some other time, I was a professor of mass communication. Needless to say, I like to dissect a lot of the things I see.

There is a lot of talk that this year’s ads were disappointing, and I’m not here to argue that either way. What does bother me are two ads in particular, mostly in relation to the historic event of having both coaches of each team being of African American descent. Truly a momentous occasion and reason to celebrate another point in history. Albeit a professional football game, but historical nonetheless.

Nothing makes the significance a little less impactual when major companies find a way to use this to advertise their products. Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay both did it. They spent millions of dollars to layer a soft drink and snack food along side the accomplishments of American civil rights. That way you can feel better about consuming their junk food during the big game. Those chip crumbs on your belly are more than just that. Those leftovers for the vacuum are major achievements in humanity. It’s a warm, fuzzy moment, but it’s still an ad.

Yes, it’s Black History Month. Drink Coke. Buy chips.

Update: It’s gets worse. They are doing MRI’s of test subject’s brains while they watch Super Bowl ads to determine who the true winner is this year. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s Coca-Cola. There’s so many things flawed with this, I’m not even going to start.

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Bruce Campbell

Around the age of 17, I got to know who Bruce Campbell[wiki] was. Prior to Evil Dead 2[imdb], I never gave a second thought to horror movies. Then, I understood what brilliance really was, not to mention how much the human face could really contort. Even in the spirit of the Super Bowl, in which this has been airing prior to, I could care less if this is a commercial. Bruce Campbell is just one of those guys, and I’m a big fan.

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Prince brings it at the Super Bowl

Matt was quicker to the draw, but I am in complete agreement. Prince‘s performance in the Super Bowl halftime was spectacular, probably one of the best in my memory. U2’s show in 2002 was pretty excellent, but this one was on a much different level.

I had a buddy I went to high school with that was a huge Prince[wiki] fan. When the clock hit midnight for the start of 1999, he put “Jam of the Year” on the stereo when all the rest of the world hellaciously over played “1999”. After years of being witness to my sister’s love affair with the guy’s music, it was at that point when I started to see the genius of the man.

The halftime show made everything I’ve thought about Prince even more evident. Wicked on the guitar, amazing vocals, and one hell of a showman. Pyrotechnics? Ok, that was cool. What I loved more was having a marching band on the field in addition to him on the stage. Other than that, it was a huge stage, a backing band, couple dancers, and Prince at the mic. He rocked it. And who knew that a Foo Fighters cover could be so damn good?

Thanks, Prince. You made it not painful to watch the halftime show of the Super Bowl.

Already available on YouTube, here is one video of the performance, and here is another.

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I am all not for Snap previews

If there is anything more annoying to me when it comes to website browsing, it’s Snap previews. It’s completely a matter of preference, but I cannot help but express my disregard for something that is supposed to be helpful.

When I’m looking at a site, I don’t want to see a tiny preview in a pop-up bubble of the link that I think I might like to click on, from said site that I am already looking at, especially when it has a bunch of links on it. Maybe it comes from the fact that I get a lot of content from RSS feeds, not bothering with loading websites unless I find it necessary. However, if I want to view a web page, I want to see the whole thing. I don’t want to peek through the keyhole. I’d rather just kick the door down and go in to see what I can find.

Thankfully, BoingBoing has pointed to a great post about what you can do to stop this helpful service from functioning on your browser. Rock!

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Get more of Coach’s Corner

I’m going to completely admit it. Before I moved to Vancouver, I had no knowledge of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada other than its existence. I also had no clue, as a loving hockey fan, how good their coverage is. Of course, I lived my whole life in the U.S. This is Canada. There’s your difference.

To my dear friends who also love hockey and don’t get the coverage that you should, especially in the states, take this information that comes off of Inside the CBC. If you’re not checking out the Don Cherry[wiki], then you’re not getting all the hockey you could be.

CBC.ca will launch a special online version of Coach’s Corner tomorrow with new content, design and features. Enhancements include an improved and larger video picture and an online forum allowing hockey fans to submit their remarks regarding Don’s, uh, “legendary” weekly commentary.

Episodes from the 2006/07 season are available online, and in the coming weeks, a full-screen viewing option and a revamped archive consisting of some of the most memorable Coach’s Corner moments from the past will also be available exclusively on CBC.ca/coach. [insidethecbc]

I was chatting with my buddy, Sushi, back in Iowa about the coverage he gets back there. Even with digital cable, mostly likely the basic package, he hardly gets any hockey on TV. Comcast SportsNet shows Blackhawks games from time to time, and combined with the weekly games on NBC, that’s about it. His cable package doesn’t include OLN (who the NHL has the explicit contract with for broadcasts in the states), and there isn’t an extra package he can buy for the NHL Network, NHL Center Ice, Versus, or an “Ice Pack”.

How’s that for someone living within a four hour drive to Chicago, five hours to Minneapolis, and five hours to St. Louis?

If anyone is complaining about the lack of success that the NHL is experiencing in the U.S., then there’s your reason. Hockey fans can’t get what they want, and there is very little for new fans to get exposed to. If it wasn’t for the NHL on ESPN[wiki] while I was in high school, I don’t think I would have ever come to love the sport. And yes, that was before Fox ever did the glowing puck thing[wiki].

Additional Note

I was just checking out the Coach’s Corner site and had a thought, so let’s see if anyone at the CBC is paying attention to me(which I highly doubt).

Why not publish all this video content to YouTube? Or do Google Video or whatever. The point is, make it so that anyone can embed the video on their website or blog. On top of that, and to sweeten the deal for you guys, tack on a five second ad for CBC programming at the very beginning. Nothing too flashy, but a quick voice over and a slide for a CBC program.

This way, we can share Coach’s Corner with the world, and you CBC folks get to promote your stuff. TV, radio, podcasts, or whatever. Have at it, but just make it simple and to the point. Go beyond five or ten seconds, and I am fast forwarding to the good stuff.

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Podcast: The Exchange from IPR

Caught this via the official IPR blog.

“The Exchange” is now available as a podcast. You can download any episode of the show and listen whenever you like, or you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, or in feed readers like Google Reader and Bloglines. And, of course, iTunes is one way to transfer the show to your iPod so you can listen while you’re on the go.

Welcome to 2004, IPR. Ok, that is mean, but I tried really hard to get a podcast effort going at WSUI/KSUI during my time there. A lot of it came down to huge concerns over music rights, mainly music used in bumpers and bed music. After that, it was an uphill battle of trying to teach staff, with explicit radio frame of minds, what podcasting is.

There was a short run of a weekend program that I was able to get setup, but I was instructed to shut it down due to said licensing concerns. Yes, there was a legit reason to follow the rules and not distribute material that we lacked the rights to do so for. Being the only person trying to push the new medium on top of the impending IPR consolidation, there was no room for the project on the agenda. It was in the early portion of 2005 that the plug was pulled.

That single weekend program pushed out about five episodes, and the response was immediate. There was hardly any promotion for it, but people were either Googling or pinging their way to the feed. The comments were coming from around the world. This was a whole new audience we were taping into, and they didn’t care if the content pertained to Iowa related topics. It was quality programming, plain and simple.

I think what IPR wants to do is become a stronger force in the world of public radio, much like what Minnesota Public Radio or Chicago Public Radio has become. This new program, The Exchange, is the first big push to get into the ring for IPR. However, quality programming has always been there. That little weekend program was a glimpse of that. If someone would have made a bigger effort to secure podcasting and the licensing worries, they would have seen that.