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.
