I got a Facebook notfication that Massive Attack and Thievery Corporation are on tour together, which is basically a concert full of WIN. unfortunately they are only playing at select small venues, none of which are within a 5-hour driving radius of our house.
This afternoon I’m listening to some live Soul Coughing, courtesy of the Internet Archive. I miss good music.
We got back into Maryland just in time for a couple inches of desperately-needed rainfall. The rain barrels are almost full, and I’m fully expecting the grass to be lush and green for about two days before going back to a post-apocalyptic shade of brown.
Finn seems to be in the grip of the Terrible Twos; there is suddenly much whining and crying and carrying on over the smallest of things. Mama and I are resolute and speak to her in even, measured tones about how she should use her words and explain what’s wrong instead of making keening noises. Hopefully this, too, shall pass quickly. Potty training, though, is going along like gangbusters. She makes me so proud.
Scratching two of my itches in one shot: Colin Moulding of XTC discusses the creation and recording of King for A Day, one of my all-time favorite songs. (YouTube link)There’s a wealth of information in interviews with the band about other recordings, people, and history. My one gripe with the MySpace weblog format is that there’s no way to search (that I can see) or list things in any sort of scannable format.
I have really, really been thinking about playing my bass again lately. I’d be doing it at night after Finn is asleep, but I couldn’t plug into an amp and play along with anything without waking her up. So I started looking around for an inexpensive amp that will take an iPod input along with a headphone jack (my little 15 watt Crate amp has no aux input), and I found the Acoustic B20 1×12 Bass Combo Amplifier at Musician’s Friend for $150. This is waaaay back burner right now, but when I’m ready to buy one, I’ll venture down the street and see if Bill’s Music has one for a competitive price.
Yet another album I’ve been listening to on heavy repeat is XX, by The XX. I can’t honestly say I’ve heard anything that sounds like this before, but damn, I like it.
The Cure just re-released Disintegration, their seminal album from 1989, to excellent reviews.
A whole lot of this album’s appeal is that it’s comforting, practically womblike– big, warm, slow, full of beauty and melody and even joy. The trick, I think, is how well it serves as a soundtrack to that feeling that everything around you is meaningful, whether it’s beautiful or horrible or sublime…
I’d have to say I agree. This album was in heavy rotation my freshman year of college, along with Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins. There’s an interesting mix of music, huh?
I’m kind of ashamed to say this, because I dislike the name of the band so much, but I’m currently digging LP3 by Ratatat. It sort of defies description, but I like the way it’s constructed and the influences I’m hearing.
Last night, while watching the second-to-last episode of LOST, I decided to tear into my MacBook Pro to replace the LVDS cable: the wire that sends pretty much all of the signal to the LCD display, and what I suspect is the root cause of the issues with the lower half of the screen disappearing for the last five months or so. I found one available online for $12 last week, and figured that $12 was cheaper than $1,200 for a new MacBook, which is what I’ve been mulling over for a few months now.
Because I wasn’t able to find the exact service manual or take apart directions for the model A1151 17″ MBP, I got stumped by removal of the clutch cover, and no amount of searching at 11PM revealed anything that would help. So I reassembled the case and rebooted, which went fine, but upon logging in I found the trackpad button had become extremely sensitive, to the point of being unusable. So I’m back to considering a replacement, which is not a happy thought.
At this point, I think I’d keep the MBP on my desk at home and get something more portable, like a standard MacBook, for carting back and forth to the office. As much as I love a 17″ display, I don’t use it enough at work as a hardcore workstation to justify the extra $1,000.
I’m currently listening to a 9-year-old album by Ivy called Long Distance, which is slightly uptempo chilled francophile pop (does that make sense?) I also have the new album by Delorean on heavy rotation, which is good; I’ve been sick of all the music I have for months now, so I like having some options.
And, quickly: last night’s LOST was…good, I guess. Rushed, to be sure. I think they’re trying to wrap up two seasons’ worth of explanations and story arcs and mythos in one abbreviated season, and a lot of the action feels forced and tossed-off to me. I wasn’t expecting a “very special episode” dedicated to Jin and Sun, but their departure (while in keeping with the “rules” of the show, as explained last night) was pretty quick. I’d developed an attachment to certain characters over the last six years, and so having more than one of them disappear quickly has been a bit jarring. While I’m glad the writers didn’t resort to maudlin half-hour goodbyes, it would have been nice to get just a little more time with folks, especially since they’ve all hiked across the island seventeen zillion times just to meet up with each other.
I’m noticing a trend on The Facebook these days: the people who used to be the biggest trustafarian hippy wanna-be hardcore druggies at my college are now the ones spamming my news feed with right-wing links from FOX news, Glen Beck, and every Tea Party nutbag out there. Seriously, guys?
I’m slowly continuing to add content from the static archives into WordPress. I’m noticing that I used to write more back in the day.
I picked up a set of TORX bits in preparation to remove the sunroof from the Slattern sometime this week(end). Hopefully I can get it back down and into place without having to dismantle half the interior of the car. Hopefully. I also picked up a bag of locknuts for the Tuffy console in the Scout; it’ll take 5 minutes to get that bolted in permanently.
I stumbled upon this last week and found it too good not to share:
This is part one of six. Shane McGowan looks like an absolute mess (and this was filmed five years ago).
Uh-oh. The Onion AV Club gives the latest Massive Attack album a C+, which is pretty underwhelming, and Pitchfork gives it a 5 out of 10. I’ll buy it regardless, but I was hoping for a better critical reception. (Pitchfork gave 100th Window a 5.1 and I love that album, so this is all relative.)
Update: Meh. A few good tracks, and a few filler tracks. I’d say a 5 of 10 is deserved. seems to be getting better as it goes, though.
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