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Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Yesterday Apple released the 4th generation iPod. Updates include a 12 hour battery, slimmer size, the 'Apple Click Wheel', and a smaller price point. One can now purchase a 20GB iPod for $299 and a 40GB for $399. Sounds pretty good, but I don't think I'll be selling my 3rd generation iPod any time soon. The 'Apple Click Wheel' is also on the iPod mini, and when I played around with one, I found that I sometimes would click forward or backward without wanting to. Still, good to see the smaller size and price point.
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ESPN NFL 2K5 was released today and in an effort to outsell this year's Madden game, it is selling for only $19.99!! What a great marketing move by Sega/Visual Concepts. Hopefully, this will start a trend in quality games being released at a lower price. Video game companies have been as greedy as record companies by overcharging customers for years. You know that Sega is making a profit off this game, even at $19.99. I'm going out later today to pick it up. I'll try to write some type of a review and post it here in the next few days.
Monday, July 19, 2004
The Electrifying Conclusion Tour
As many already know, my favorite band, Guided By Voices will be calling it quits after the release of their next album and following tour. Needless to say, this is a significant loss for Rock n’ Roll, and brings sadness to my indie rock heart! I plan to be at the Southgate House show, and this will be my last GBV concert. However, I'm honored to have seen them many, many times, and have had the opportunity to meet Mr. Pollard and company a few times. Check out my GBV Site to see photos of my GBV experiences. Long Live Rockathon!
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Over The Rhine's new live album gets reviewed by Jeffery Overstreet at his Looking Closer website.
Thursday, July 8, 2004
TOO COOL ALERT:
The folks at Spite Your Face have produced a short movie based on Spider-Man 2 and created it entirely in Lego-mation! To download it, follow this link.
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The Strokes have headed back into the studio to begin work on their next album. Sounds like the prolific nature of Bob Pollard may have rubbed off on the boys, since 'Room on Fire' was released only nine months ago. Billboard has a nice article about the Strokes return to the studio.
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Over The Rhine have a new live album that is only available from Paste. To order, follow this link.
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Hunter S. Thompson is releasing a collection of his 'Hey Rube' articles from ESPN.com's Page 2. Save yourself some cash and go to HST's ESPN archive and read the articles for free!
Thursday, July 1, 2004
Interpol's new album, Antics has been leaked and easily found on your favorite file sharing site. I've only heard the song, 'Evil' and it sounds pretty cool. You can download 'Evil' for a limited time
by clicking here.
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I haven't seen Spider-Man 2 yet, but the reviews have been very positive. Maybe this weekend will allow me some time to check it out.
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Sony has announced that they too will be trying to cash in on the Digital Music player craze. The new Walkman NW-HD1 holds more songs than Apple's iPod and costs about $100 bucks less. Sounds pretty cool, right? WRONG....The new Walkman doesn't support the MP3 format! That's right; you'll have to convert all your MP3s to Sony's proprietary ATARC format. This has to be the dumbest move I've seen a company make in years. What's next Sony, will you be releasing your new Beta Max video players next week?
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
When I was a kid, I remember spending endless hours in David Martin's basement playing "Dr. J vs. Larry Bird" and "Summer Games" on his Commodore 64. Man, what and awesome computer! The sessions over at his house motivated me to talk my dad into upgrading our Texas Instruments 994-A for the Commodore. Well, Commodore is back and they have their sights set for the Apple iPod. As an iPod owner, I will have to say that Commodore has its work cut out for them. But Commodore’s e-Vic does look pretty cool. Check out this article fromThe Register to learn more about the e-Vic and also a small comment about the C64 DTV, a joystick that connects to your TV and which contains 30 Commodore 64 games! How cool!!
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This past Saturday we had our dedication service for our daughter, Lily Kate. Family and friends attended and committed their support. It was a beautiful service and an absolutely gorgeous day. Thanks to all our family and friends for making the trip and being with us on that special day. To see more photos from Lily Kate's dedication, click here.
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Lately I've been listening to the new Loretta Lynn album, 'Van Lear Rose'. It is fantastic! Check out the reviews here. I highly recommend it. I've also been loving the new Wilco
album. I like it better than than their last album 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot'. It's right up there with 'Being There' and 'summerteeth'.
Found this great website that has tons of cool mp3s on it. Go here and start downloading.
Finally, I found a live mp3 of Spoon playing their song, 'Fitted Shirt'. You can download it HERE.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
I've been in New Orleans the past three days speaking at the National Educational Computing Conference. Let me just say that New Orleans is the dirtiest city I've ever been to in my life. You can be walking down the street and all of a sudden, be knocked off your feet by the smell of trash and filth. The horrible odor is only amplified by the unbelievable heat. The humidity is beyond belief and in the two nights that I was there, I took seven showers. I took in the sights of Bourbon Street the first night and needless to say, it is definitely a spectacle. I was on Bourbon at 12:00 AM on a Monday night and it was completely packed! There were plenty of drunks, freaks, flashing girls, and the exchanging of beads. While these activities may have been fun for me a few years ago, something about it just made me kind of sad. Things just felt forced, that the people were trying too hard to reenact every thing they've seen on the 'Girls Gone Wild' videos.
Tuesday night was much more fun as I spent the evening at the Howlin Wolf to see the ever rockin' Supersuckers! The show was fantastic! They played for two straight hours with the first hour being mostly 70's country covers and drinking songs. The second hour was all RAWK!! If the Supersuckers come to your town you need to go see them. Watching these guys cover Outkast's 'Hey Ya' is worth the price of admission alone. Also if your ever in New Orleans, the Howlin Wolf is a nice club that draws some pretty cool acts.
While in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to see the movie 'Saved'. This movie is a funny and interesting satire about the misguidedly pious behaviors of many contemporary evangelical Christians. I need to wrap my head around the movie a little more before I can comment on it, but Jeffrey Overstreet's review is excellent and reflects many of my thoughts on the film.
All in all, I would have to say that I had a good time, but I was never as happy as I was when I got back home to my wife and daughter. This is where I belong, with them, at home.
Sunday, June 20, 2004 - FATHER'S DAY EDITION
Today is my first Father's Day! And I must say, I really am amazed at how different this day feels when you're the father and not the child. This entire weekend has been incredible. Looking at my daughter brings me so much joy and happiness. She is the best gift I have ever been given. I am proud to be her father.
I received some very nice gifts for Father's Day. Lily got me one of my favorite books to read to her, 'Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me' by Eric Carle. The story is about a father who loves his daughter so much, that he gives her to moon.
Sally got me a wonderful framed photo of the image at the top of the page for my desk at work.
Finally, Sally and Lily went in together to get me a new pair of Ray Ban's that I've wanted for some time. These will come in very hand for my trip to New Orleans this week.
This has been a wonderful weekend. I hope that every father feels as loved and as special as I do.
Friday, June 18, 2004
Lily and I have had a couple of really good days. Yesterday we went to the library and checked-out some really great books. She is drawn to the artwork of Eric Carle, so we got four of his books. Today we went shopping at Target for a birthday gift for her friend Ellie who is celebrating her fourth birthday tomorrow. We got her a fabulous 'flapper' dress-up dress. It will be fun to watch Lily tomorrow at the party to see how she reacts to all the other children.
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We had a very scary experience early this morning. A drunk driver sped through our front yard nearly missing a tree and a lamp post. It happened around 2:00 AM. I was in bed and heard an engine revving and people screaming. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window, but they were gone. I didn't realize that someone had gone through our yard until this morning when we saw the tracks in the yard.
Very unsettling.
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In music news: Badly Drawn Boy had some new mp3s up on his web site....that is if you can figure out how to navigate his stupid site!
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
I've had numerous requests to put up a couple MP3s from my latest EP 'Union Made'. Here is a site that has three of the masterpieces free for you to download. Enjoy!
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My friend Jason is playing on the radio Friday with Paul K to kick off the Lebowskifest! It will be at 12:00 PM and you can stream it on WFPK's website! Also playing the show is Jim James of My Morning Jacket! Should be a pretty cool show.
Tonight is the season premier of 'Newlyweds' on MTV. OK, this has to be my guiltiest of guilty pleasures but I love this show. We have several episodes recorded on our DVR and Sally and I watch them over and over and just laugh ourselves silly.
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I found this really cool site on the web today called DVD Aficionado where you can save lists of the DVDs you own and want. Here are my lists! I've also put a link to this page over in the 'More Me' section to the right.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
My wife and I had a discussion today about the effectiveness of prayer. Why do so many of our prayers go unanswered? Does God ignore our requests? It's easy to get frustrated, especially in today's society of instant gratification, when we don't see immediate results from our requests. Why doesn't God, the creator with infinite power, who could take care of all our worries and concerns with a nod of the head, remove all our pains and struggles? I don't know. When I begin to get frustrated with what I don't have or the struggles I face, I try to focus on what God has provided me. I'm a healthy man who is the father of a beautiful little girl, who has a wonderful wife, a great job, a supportive family, fantastic friends, a wonderful home, two nice cars, and a loving creator who has given me more than I deserve. Today, despite my struggles, I am a thankful and blessed man.
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In music news: Today The Pixies released their first new song in over thirteen years! The song, 'Bam Thwak' can only be downloaded from Apples iTunes Music Store and well worth the 99 cents price tag.
Wilco will be performing on Letterman tomorrow night. I'm assuming they will be playing a song off their upcoming album A Ghost is Born.
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What is going on in Virginia that requires adds like this?
Monday, June 14, 2004
I have taken two months off from work to take care of my daughter over the summer. I’m two weeks into it and I definitely have a new respect for stay at home parents. Wow! The experience has been amazing, exciting, challenging, and exhausting! Some days are easy and some days…not so easy. Today was an easy day. Lily woke up in a great mood and never really cried at all. She took several naps which allowed me to do some work around the house. The above photo was taken today during one of our many play sessions!
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I heard about a new rock version of American Idol today. The winner will become the new lead singer for, get this, INXS. Talk about a winner being a complete loser.
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Spoon has a new demo on their website! It sounds great! Check it out:
'I Summon You'.
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I watched the season premier of Six Feet Under last night. This show is easily one of the best written and most intriguing on television and this season looks to be one of the best seasons yet. Rarely do you find a show that captures such a realistic view of the human spirit's desire to find meaning and happiness in today's world. Catch Six Feet Under on Sunday nights on HBO.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Guided By Voices has released two mp3s from their upcoming and FINAL album Half Smiles of the Decomposed. Download them here: 'Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)' and 'Gonna Never Have to Die'. The album will be released on August 25th. 'Raincloud..' is an instant classic!
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