I've been rocking out to this all day long, and it's probably never going to get old. December 17th can't get here soon enough. I'm not a cinemaphyle, but I'm almost positive I'll be one of those crazy people lining up for a midnight showing in 3D.
The Amazon exclusive MP3 version is only $3.99. Go. Now. Listen!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Amber - Anyway (Steve Porter Remix)
Sometime in the middle of 2005, I was working until 11:00PM at the local college. My wife started work a few miles away at 10:00 PM, and worked until 6:00 AM. As you can imagine, this played hell with our sleep schedule.
There was this awesome little place just up the road from the college, though, called Santa Fe Junction. It was basically a trailer home on top of a tall foundation, which had been converted to a smallish coffee shop and diner. It was open 24/7. The food was okay and affordable. The brewed coffee was great, and most of the baristas knew how to craft decent espresso drinks. Toss in comfortable chairs, couches, fun music on the speakers, and free WiFi, and you've got the perfect place to hang out on weeknights when you're working an oddball schedule like I was.
I'd go in a few nights per week armed with a $10 bill and my laptop. That would buy me supper, keep me hacking and caffeinated until the sun came up, and cover a reasonable tip.
It closed down in a matter of months, but it was worth it while it lasted. It opened a year or so later and became simply "Bar" with more traditional bar hours, no caffeine, and crappy bar food. Bar closed down a few months ago and it recently re-opened as "Woody's." I don't know that I'll even bother venturing by, even though I live a mile away from the place these days. I pass it on my bicycle a few times per week.
There was this awesome little place just up the road from the college, though, called Santa Fe Junction. It was basically a trailer home on top of a tall foundation, which had been converted to a smallish coffee shop and diner. It was open 24/7. The food was okay and affordable. The brewed coffee was great, and most of the baristas knew how to craft decent espresso drinks. Toss in comfortable chairs, couches, fun music on the speakers, and free WiFi, and you've got the perfect place to hang out on weeknights when you're working an oddball schedule like I was.
I'd go in a few nights per week armed with a $10 bill and my laptop. That would buy me supper, keep me hacking and caffeinated until the sun came up, and cover a reasonable tip.
It closed down in a matter of months, but it was worth it while it lasted. It opened a year or so later and became simply "Bar" with more traditional bar hours, no caffeine, and crappy bar food. Bar closed down a few months ago and it recently re-opened as "Woody's." I don't know that I'll even bother venturing by, even though I live a mile away from the place these days. I pass it on my bicycle a few times per week.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Favorite tracks of 2009
In no particular order. Sometimes bizarre. Sometimes banal and mainstreamy. This is the stuff that was released recently that rocked my world.
Truth: More than half of the stuff in my top-10 listened-to tracks this year are pretty old. Yes, I'm a bit of a retro-grouch. You'll see it in the throwbackish nature of several "new" tracks as listed below, I'm sure.
Jerry Ropero - The Storm (Inpetto Remix)
Santogold - Lights Out
David May - Superstar
David builds on a sample of The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony. The PG-13 Video is probably NSFW. Just sayin'.
Chicane vs. Natasha Bedingfield - Bruised Water
It came out in 2008 but I didn't hear this mash-up until 2009. Saltwater is easily my favorite track by Chicane, although it's got to be a decade old by now.
Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike - Under The Water (6 A.M. Terrace Mix)
Another cover of a classic from days gone by. Prior to this, my favorite remix of Brother Brown - Under The Water was by Deep Dish (YouTube Link)
Ferry Corsten - Shelter Me
Another one that technically came out in late '08
The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
Depeche Mode - Perfect
The whole album was a solid win, full of vintage sound.
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
From another album where it's worth buying the whole damn thing, if you're into this kind of noise. I am.
Plumb - Hang on (Dave Aude remix)
Old song. New remix. Plumb is somewhat of an enigma for me. Originally the name of a Christian crossover rock band, frontwoman Tiffany Lee (at the time using her maiden name, Arbuckle) repurposed the name "Plumb" as her stage name when the band fell apart in 2003. She still leaves hints of crossover in her alternative- and electronic-inspired work, some of which has been wildly popular for remixing.
Truth: More than half of the stuff in my top-10 listened-to tracks this year are pretty old. Yes, I'm a bit of a retro-grouch. You'll see it in the throwbackish nature of several "new" tracks as listed below, I'm sure.
Jerry Ropero - The Storm (Inpetto Remix)
Santogold - Lights Out
David May - Superstar
David builds on a sample of The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony. The PG-13 Video is probably NSFW. Just sayin'.
Chicane vs. Natasha Bedingfield - Bruised Water
It came out in 2008 but I didn't hear this mash-up until 2009. Saltwater is easily my favorite track by Chicane, although it's got to be a decade old by now.
Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike - Under The Water (6 A.M. Terrace Mix)
Another cover of a classic from days gone by. Prior to this, my favorite remix of Brother Brown - Under The Water was by Deep Dish (YouTube Link)
Ferry Corsten - Shelter Me
Another one that technically came out in late '08
The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
Depeche Mode - Perfect
The whole album was a solid win, full of vintage sound.
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
From another album where it's worth buying the whole damn thing, if you're into this kind of noise. I am.
Plumb - Hang on (Dave Aude remix)
Old song. New remix. Plumb is somewhat of an enigma for me. Originally the name of a Christian crossover rock band, frontwoman Tiffany Lee (at the time using her maiden name, Arbuckle) repurposed the name "Plumb" as her stage name when the band fell apart in 2003. She still leaves hints of crossover in her alternative- and electronic-inspired work, some of which has been wildly popular for remixing.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Alanis Morissette - Thank U
Duplex-bonded 128k ISDN.
A chintzy Compaq with an old-school Pentium OverDrive CPU -- the fastest thing my parents could afford to give me for Christmas after my laptop died. It ran RedHat Linux for a bit before one roommate hooked me on FreeBSD.
The Bachelor Pad.
EtherMonkeys adorning the place. Literally, Barrel Of Monkey pieces hanging from do-it-yourself crimped Category Five strung up and across the ceiling.
Bowls of ramen noodle soup.
The occasional Screwdriver or White Russian (even though I was only 19)
Late nights.
Early Mornings.
Really, really pampering my 1995 Ford Escort, which I'd barely had a year, if that, at this point in my life. Weekly wash and wax and detailing.
Crashing at my girlfriend (now wife)'s apartment on occasion after really, really late movies. Not that we'd do anything but talk until our mouths hung open and drooling as we succumbed to the sandman at 4 o'clock in the morning.
Gizmo, the evil death cat that would shit, piss and vomit on anything touching the floor.
Audiogalaxy Satellite, and racing MP3 downloads home from work to see which would get to my computer faster. Damn, I miss AG Satellite. What a mindfuck. Why hasn't anyone ever duplicated it on some kind of Pirate Bay level?
Hitting the data center to help -- or watch, really, as Kenny Root performs massive upgrades on "Orator of the borg"
I expect no one but myself to know what all of these are. But that's what this song brings back.
A chintzy Compaq with an old-school Pentium OverDrive CPU -- the fastest thing my parents could afford to give me for Christmas after my laptop died. It ran RedHat Linux for a bit before one roommate hooked me on FreeBSD.
The Bachelor Pad.
EtherMonkeys adorning the place. Literally, Barrel Of Monkey pieces hanging from do-it-yourself crimped Category Five strung up and across the ceiling.
Bowls of ramen noodle soup.
The occasional Screwdriver or White Russian (even though I was only 19)
Late nights.
Early Mornings.
Really, really pampering my 1995 Ford Escort, which I'd barely had a year, if that, at this point in my life. Weekly wash and wax and detailing.
Crashing at my girlfriend (now wife)'s apartment on occasion after really, really late movies. Not that we'd do anything but talk until our mouths hung open and drooling as we succumbed to the sandman at 4 o'clock in the morning.
Gizmo, the evil death cat that would shit, piss and vomit on anything touching the floor.
Audiogalaxy Satellite, and racing MP3 downloads home from work to see which would get to my computer faster. Damn, I miss AG Satellite. What a mindfuck. Why hasn't anyone ever duplicated it on some kind of Pirate Bay level?
Hitting the data center to help -- or watch, really, as Kenny Root performs massive upgrades on "Orator of the borg"
I expect no one but myself to know what all of these are. But that's what this song brings back.
Monday, October 13, 2008
B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (Adam Freeland Mix)
The original track was nothing too exceptional, but this version, which made it into a Various Artists Compilation called Future Retro, really rocks. I love the driving drum beat.
This reminds me of my half-year spent working in the wonderful, tumultuous world of dot-com start-ups. I was responsible for building, maintaining, and enhancing our "Appliances" -- That is, little rack-mount servers that booted off a mere 32MB of storage. Appropriate, since I bought the album from iTunes while on the clock and working on the very stuff that this track reminds me of.
My desk was often cluttered with 3 or 4 of these servers, a pile of Bootable USB flash drives. The smell of burnt electronics is faintly lingering in the air because we were building these appliances on the cheap and they often failed or overheated.
This reminds me of my half-year spent working in the wonderful, tumultuous world of dot-com start-ups. I was responsible for building, maintaining, and enhancing our "Appliances" -- That is, little rack-mount servers that booted off a mere 32MB of storage. Appropriate, since I bought the album from iTunes while on the clock and working on the very stuff that this track reminds me of.
My desk was often cluttered with 3 or 4 of these servers, a pile of Bootable USB flash drives. The smell of burnt electronics is faintly lingering in the air because we were building these appliances on the cheap and they often failed or overheated.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Robert Miles - Children
Ah, the days of my foolish youth, and my first speeding ticket.
It's kind of an interesting story. I had just gotten back from a visit to the optometrist for an eye check-up. As usual, my vision was better than perfect (20/13 if it's any of your business), and as one who works in the IT Field among a sea of four-eyed peers (no offense meant) I've always been proud of my eagle eyes. Interesting fact, eagles probably have something more like 20/5 or 20/2 vision, but that's neither here nor there.
For some reason or another, part of the vision testing stressed me out quite a bit (dilation and the air-burst glaucoma ordeal) and I had a grand-mal seizure right there on the spot. It took me a while to recover, and the drive home had me feeling much like a zombie.
I was cranking this song at full blast in my 1981 Honda Accord, not paying much attention to my speed. I was going 70 MPH in 55 MPH zone that was under construction but without workers present. The resulting ticket was nearly $300. Ugh.
Good Times!
It's kind of an interesting story. I had just gotten back from a visit to the optometrist for an eye check-up. As usual, my vision was better than perfect (20/13 if it's any of your business), and as one who works in the IT Field among a sea of four-eyed peers (no offense meant) I've always been proud of my eagle eyes. Interesting fact, eagles probably have something more like 20/5 or 20/2 vision, but that's neither here nor there.
For some reason or another, part of the vision testing stressed me out quite a bit (dilation and the air-burst glaucoma ordeal) and I had a grand-mal seizure right there on the spot. It took me a while to recover, and the drive home had me feeling much like a zombie.
I was cranking this song at full blast in my 1981 Honda Accord, not paying much attention to my speed. I was going 70 MPH in 55 MPH zone that was under construction but without workers present. The resulting ticket was nearly $300. Ugh.
Good Times!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Real McCoy - Another Night
Oh jeez. I ran across this song in my playlist today. Memories of my BBS days flooded back. Not just hanging out on BBSes, but all the real-world social atmosphere that came with it.
Playing Tradewars. Going to Ren Fest or Tippins (rest in Peace) to meet with people. Late nights in 16-color text-only teleconference. Driving out to Independence to hang out with my favorite Sysop. Arguing on the forums with Frogman, who's now one of my best friends. Turning Poet's little Geo Metro sideways between Kestra's basketball goal and the front porch, stranding him. Giant Pixie Sticks. Bowling. You don't even understand. You'd would have needed to be there. This is part of my mid-teenage past that permanently changed the course of my life. It may also explain my terribly eclectic and slightly disturbing social flair.
Playing Tradewars. Going to Ren Fest or Tippins (rest in Peace) to meet with people. Late nights in 16-color text-only teleconference. Driving out to Independence to hang out with my favorite Sysop. Arguing on the forums with Frogman, who's now one of my best friends. Turning Poet's little Geo Metro sideways between Kestra's basketball goal and the front porch, stranding him. Giant Pixie Sticks. Bowling. You don't even understand. You'd would have needed to be there. This is part of my mid-teenage past that permanently changed the course of my life. It may also explain my terribly eclectic and slightly disturbing social flair.
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