Gecko Bloggle

Rough couple of weeks at work, but things *might* be better after next week, as I’ll be in training for 3.5 out of the next 5.

1 day of Windows Vista Stuff (that I suspect *I* could teach, now we’ve taken so much out of the curriculum in order to fit timing.
2 days of “Developing Managers” stuff (I really need to figure out if that’s where I wanna be when I grow up, so they stop grooming me for it).
.5 day of a class called “Difficult Conversations,” during which I hope I don’t:
A) Punch any one.
B) Cry.
C) Both.

So tonight, after helping out a friend with some WEIRD software (designed for making slideshows of photos, but hoo-poi was it harder than it needed to be, and in the end, simply didn’t WORK unless you had version three – you’d think a piece of software made in 2004 would work on WinXP SP2), I came home to my novel-editing partner, and since she’s reading her book out loud to edit, I popped my headphones in and started bombing around for some music.

So I fired up Songbird (which, if you’re into randomly finding music, or just visit a lot of music heavy sites, is a MUST).

Or check these sites with whatever “normal” browser you’re using to read this thing right here.

Wow.

There’s some good stuff out there, that’s free. And not illegal at all. Not just ’cause I’m in Canada, either.

Started at Fingertips and ran through a month or seven of their weekly “This Week’s Finds,” which have a number of tracks with some quite USEFUL writeups about who’s from what band, or the son of which ex-Shriekback member, and the moment to listen for the punchy weirdness in Vocal McYellison’s upper range when he hits E-flat instead of the expected D. Great stuff. Well written. Some really sweet finds here. Going to have to ask for forgiveness (and mention them lots) in our next podcast, ’cause I’m going to rebroadcast more than a few of their finds.

Then I shambled over to Bending Corners (Journeys in Jazz-n-Groove). Oh hell ya. Some of these mixes are pure satin. These aren’t your standard “Hi, I’m DJ Wazoo, and I’m going to play some stuff I found in my mom’s basement, ’cause it says ‘Jazz’ on the front.” mixes. These are well-thought-out, well researched, and some of the most *sincere* mixes I’ve heard in a long time. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big BIG fan of Coldcut, and the whole SolidSteel style mix show. This is sumpin’ else, tho. Solidsteel is usually a party with a little jazz thrown in. BendingCorners is Jazz with a little party thrown in.

Ended the night tonight at BrokenBeatRadio, which is all over the map, so I’ll probably be back from time to time to see what’s goin’ on over there. Lots of nice 1hr+ shows on there, even if *some* of their shows do get a little too schpeedy for my taste. Good to know where you can find it if you need it.

So… What else?

• I wanna interview at Microsoft, but only if they throw questions like these at me.
• This person (and HotOrNot in general) think too much about what EQUALS “pretty” and not enough about what MEANS “pretty.”
• I’m not entirely sure what Deligio is doing, but it’s very Web2.0 about it. Very hip. Very now. Very very.
• Linking me tends to make me link you. I’m such a ‘ho.
• Geeks are fun to read, even if they have a domain that looks like a Czech radio station.
• Download Squad is always good for downloading fools like myself with more bandwidth and drivespace than their attention span should really allow.
• Speaking of attention spans – The Electric Gumshoe pointed me to this “TinySkweeks” game, so I’ll have to check it out tomorrow, or something.
• and finally, 2600‘s Emmanuel Goldstein turned me on to the very loud and happy about it (or is it “very happy and loud about it”?) webradio station www.kpwr.org via his (Emmanuel’s) podcast Off the Wall.

We’ll have a proper list up some time tomorrow, we hope.

Talkybit 1

You’re History – Shakespeare’s Sister

The Message From The Soul Sisters – Myra Byrnes (Vicki Anderson) and the JB Allstars

Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken – Camera Obscura

Talkybit 2

Different style – Lotek Hifi

Cross Bones style – Cat Power

Where There You Bin, Gon’ Find It – Beckett And Taylor

Talkybit 3

The Well And The Lighthouse – Arcade Fire

Coded Language (F. Saul Williams) – DJ Krust

On The Radio – Regina Spektor

Talkybit 4

Al’z A-B-Cee’z – 3rd Bass

Voodoo People (Skype Download Sash Funky Remix) – Prodigy

Come (Speech Vocal) – Prince (from the Beautiful Experience EP)

Talkybit 5

A Little Respect – Wheatus

M Doughty’s “From Gas Station Outside Providence” – Gecko Temple

Enjoy.

Click HERE to play, or use iTunes to download the RSS.

Boy, we sure do like to hear ourselves talk. :) Click on the link for Unknown Origins Podcast #5 (right click to download).

Talkybit 1
Vangelis – Blade Runner Blues
Lazzarus and Garvey – Goodbye, Horses
Outkast – Greatest Show On Earth (Ft. Macy Gray)
Talkybit 2
Mirwais – Disco Science
Amon Tobin – The Lighthouse
Rheostatics – Song Of Danger
Talkybit 3
James Brown – Payback
When In Rome – The Promise
Eurythmics – This city never sleeps
Talkybit 4
Hans Zimmer – You’re so cool
SongsToWearPantsTo – mike celestino, what have you done with star wars
Colin Hay – Overkill
Talkybit 5
Dead Can Dance – Nierika
DeVotchKa – How It Ends

So we did it again: Got together on a Monday night and yammered for a while, played with some audio gear (this time we actually had LESS than last time, and it sounded BETTER somehow), played some music, drank some gunpowder tea, and then put it on the Intarweb, ’cause that’s what little dudes do…
Click on the link for Unknown Origins Podcast #4 (right click to download).

• TalkyBit 1
• Tom Waits – Step Right Up
• Porno For Pyros – Pets
• Badly Drawn Boy – Once Around the Block
• TalkyBit 2
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Honeybear
• Aimless James – 1996
• The Dears – You and I Are A Gang of Losers
• Talkybit 3
• Holly McNarland – Elmo
• Hot Chip – Colours
• Talvin Singh – Mombasstic
• Talkybit 4
• Lionrock – Snapshot On Pollard St.
• The Herbaliser f. Latyrx – 8pt. Agenda
• TV On the Radio – Wolf Like Me (f. Katrina Ford)
• Talkbit 6
• Gecko Temple – Shea’s Lounge
• Hollywood Meat Slammers – Dubbest
• Bonus Bloopers/Your Hosts – Hot Buttered Robots (Phlegm Ball Remix)

Don’t forget you can put the following URL into iTunes, it’ll download our Podcast automatically for ya:

http://www.geckotemple.com/blog/?feed=rss2

Playlist to follow, but here’s #3, from November 06/06.

Ennnnnnnnnjoi!

Here’s the podcast (right-click to download, or hit the blue “play” button if reading this on GeckoBloggle.

TalkyBit Intro….

Remember – Corky and The Juice Pigs

P.I.N. – Rheostatics

Skanky Panky – Kid Koala

Talkybit

I don’t Feel Like Dancin’ – Scissor Sisters

She Said – Tricky/Dj Muggs/Grease

Red Alert – Basement Jaxx

Talkybit

Superhero Music – Fingathing

Ooh-Wee – Mark Ronson

Electronic Behaviour Control System – EBN

Talkybit

Fire Of Heaven/Altar Of Earth – Matisyahu

Leathal Weapon Shelly Thunder

Whites Only Party – The Dears

Talkybit

Pigeon Camera – Tragically Hip

Inside And Out – Feist

So Johnny Vancouver and I sat down once again (after only, what – six/seven/eight months?) and did a show. This one’s longer than our last, at something silly like 1hr 25mins.

Here’s the main link (right-click to download, or hit the little blue arrow to play it via Flash, which will start streaming sooner, but has no search forward/backward capabilities).
Once again, we had a rill rill good time doing this, and hopefully by the next time we do this, we won’t spend an hour+ futzing around with cabling and feedback before we actually put together a playlist of any sort (which we then toss after starting the first song).

I’ll do a proper playlist tomorrow, if I have some time (hah!).

Enjoy, and watch out for the Myspace page, coming soon to a social network near you.

Here’s Johnny Vancouver and my first podcast *together*… actually in the same freakin’ ROOM, and stuff. 1hr 10mins (64MB) of music and talking and technical mishaps.
Download/play it here, or if you’ve got a thing that downloads Podcasts, just subscribe to our feed (the RSS link on the sidebar of my blog or click here)

I’ll put proper links in the playlist in a bit. Please comment and let us know what you think.

• {TalkyBit}
  Akufen – Deck the Halls
  Dare – The Gorillaz
  Toasted Dub – Jack Dangers
  {TalkyBit}
  Fix Up, Look Sharp – Dizzy Rascalz
  Say That – Latyrix
  Sissy Strut – The Meters
  {TalkyBit}
  Think (About It) – Lynn Collins and the JB Allstars
  Live With Me – Massive Attack (f.
  Poems – Nearly God
  {TalkyBit}
  Brazil – Brazil Soundtrack
  Tonight Romanticize the Automobile – Hawksley Workman
  Black Tongue – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  {TalkyBit}
  Tru Skool – Coldcut (f. Roots Manuva)
  Down By The Water – PJ Harvey

So I got a pair of funky Logitech Wireless iPod Headphones (with remote on the ear), graciously given to me by a person at work (who knows someone from Logitech), and loved loved loved them. They felt good, they sounded great (and much lighter than my monstrous Koss UR30s).

Wore them during my daily commute to/from work (I walk for about 30min each way, which is just about right for the 2600 podcasts and the latest – or eldest – tunes in my library), and had them for about two weeks before I noticed that the fit didn’t seem quite as tight as when I got ’em. After wearing them for another day or two, I took a look at the neck band, and noticed a hairline crack on the inside of the band. This is what I saw:

Now, two weeks later, the crack has managed to migrate to the other side of the band, too, and now I’ve got headphones that would (if I were to wear them) literally be held on by the wires inside the neckband. Now, I’ve seen sport style headphones before, but the major difference seems to be that there’s no reinforcement on the back of the neck point, which would create the largest amount of stress on the plastic. I’m also guessing that these Logitech phones aren’t made with the most supple of plastic, which gives you a nice tight fit on the side of the head (for folks who are missing the top parts of their ears, I guess), but means that the majority of the stress in on a part of the headphones that has 1) no reinforcement and 2) no give.

I’ve been Googling some other folks to see what they think, and it looks like I’m really REALLY not alone in this.

I’ve also seen some interesting ways to work around the brittle plastic that makes the neckband of these things.

I’m thinking coat hanger, bent around to make the shape of the band, and then duct-tape/gluing them in place, or trying to disassemble them entirely, down to the earpoint, and essentially Frankensteining another (cheaper, more durable) neckband onto them.

Still, I LOVE the sound on them, but it’s just so sad to see them snap so easily after some fairly mundane use.

And besides, it was really fun to put ’em on Ripley and then use the iPod in my hand to essentially turn him into a remote-control dancin’ machine.

Just a little test sorta thing, (and yes I know I sound like Kermit the Frog, only with more “Ums” and “Yeahs…”)

Click here to download, or use of those newfangled Podcast things for the feed.
40mins, 17MBytes, not suggest for our friends on dialup.

Click More for the Playlist, or keep it a surprise for yourself.

Click here to read more.. »

So, I was talking to my mom on the phone tonight, and we were just catching up on how our collective weeks went, and after telling me about her trip to Florida (let’s just call a junket a junket, shall we?), and she mentioned that the live bookmark in this blog wasn’t working for her as of late.

My mom, the ultimate beta tester.

My mom is not one of those “bad computer mojo” types, who cause computers to throw themselves down flights of stairs, or spontaneously have bad sectors on hard drives in the middle of your dissertation, or just glitch out for not reason at all.

She’s one of those people that will push all the buttons, and fiddle with the knobs, and generally go wherever she can in a web site (or a network, or a conversation, or a job), just to see if she can. This is a very good thing, and means that she stumbles into things like the fact that my RSS feed has been broken on my blog for… uh, quite a while.

So, without further ado, you can all start reading my RSS feed again, now that I’m

So thanks mom, and maybe next time I won’t mention computers. :)