I have just discovered The White Stripes and I gotta say their album Icky Thump made a good first impression and it keeps growing on me. Love the humor and energy, love the styles, love the way Jack and Meg White have dug up some old musical “rags and bones” and made them into something new and irresistible.
I didn’t care for the brief sampling I had of Trent Reznor’s earlier work which to my admittedly innocent and ignorant ears sounded like a self-indulgent brat wailing about self-inflicted misery. To put it mildly, I haven’t been a fan.
But the new album (well, new to me ;-) is like a soundtrack to the end of the world. Like the best science fiction, most of it reflects current reality. It’s frightening the way current reality is frightening, and the feeling is heightened by superb artistry.
Now that I find the content interesting, I’m free to dive into the beauty of the sound. Can “lush” and “industrial” describe the same piece of music? In this case, yes.
As heedless greed and violence destroy us and our planet, it’s good to have a friend to sing it like it is, beautifully.
…
I’m not going to post a video here because I think you have to listen to the whole darn dark thing all together. And now I’m heading over to the NIN web site to check out all their teasers.
I know, I know, I’m so slow to get a clue. But I have to get to know and appreciate things in my own time.
I was listening to my new favorite radio station the other day, WFMU, when a song came on that made my ears perk up and my feet start tapping and happy feelings percolate all through me. Quick, check the playlist - it’s Richard X. Heywho?
I didn’t hesitate to buy several albums and I’m assiduously lending them about to spread the joy. He’s insanely talented, playing almost all the instruments on his albums (except that his wife Nancy plays the bass), and writing purely good songs. Haven’t heard a clunker yet on the four albums I’ve acquired.
They call this stuff “power pop.” Folks, some of the lyrics are kinda sad, but this is happy music. I happen to think we can’t have too much of that, ever.
The videos below the fold aren’t from this decade but they’re worth checking out. Give ‘em a try!
Everyone says “how exciting” when I tell them I had to get a new Mac, since my old iBook’s screen died (too expensive to bother having fixed).
But really, it’s a big pain. Yes, the new Mac is a bit faster, but the screen is smaller (I went from 15″ to 13″ and I’m not liking it). But most annoying is the huge amount of work it’s taking to get the new Mac to do what the old one did.
Headache #1 - Migration - cured
Unfortunately, my new MacBook couldn’t recognize the drive of my old iBook when I tried to put it into firewire target mode. So I had to copy stuff manually from my external backup’s user folder to the MacBook, and re-download and re-install most of my third-party apps and system enhancements. No migration assistance for me!
Headache #2 - Internet - cured
I had MAC (hardware address) filtering set up on my router, so I had to reset my router back to factory settings and totally reconfigure it. Then of course I had to go reconfigure wireless settings on my housemates’ Dells (Windows XP seems pretty stupid about not being able to connect to a preferred network that you’ve recreated with the same SSID (even though it has the same security settings). My own fault that I had MAC filtering. I’m doing without it now.
Headache #3 - Palm syncing - cured
Missing Sync was working okay, but somehow my SOHO Notes conduit had gotten lost - after figuring this out, I was able to uninstall and reinstall SOHO Notes and finally get back to normal.
Headache #4 - Streaming with Airtunes - uncured and throbbing!
This one is a big ugly migraine. After many hours reading help and apple discussions, and several factory resets of my Airport Express, things still aren’t working. The AE shows up as a streaming option in iTunes, but when I try to use it, iTunes just tries and hangs forever. I want my mac -> stereo streaming, wahhh! Any suggestions?
Headache #5 - SSH Keys - uncured
I’m saving this project for last. I thought I’d just activate Remote Login, copy my ssh settings, and copy my keys, but it’s not working, so I’ll set this up from scratch. I like being able to SFTP from work to my home computer, and have SSH set up to use keys and not accept passwords.
Headache #6 - Apple Remote - uncured
I couldn’t get the Remote to work at all. I went to Radio Shack and got a new battery. It now works about one out of twenty times that I click it! Pretty useless.
So that’s it. I want my next new Mac to be easier to set up. It should help that I’m now on Intel. And maybe I should get the next new one while the old one is still working!
I made a custom search engine for looking up music-related stuff but only showing results from Jessi’s very select sites. I love to look up obscure musical instruments, for example, like sackbut and xalam.
Sorry there have been no posts for a while. My home computer’s screen died, and it took me a while to get a new computer. I’m still working on configuring it to do all the things the old one did.
I’m sleepy now. I’ll write ya later. Sweet dreams to all of you and to me too!
I have just discovered The White Stripes and I gotta say their album Icky Thump made a good first impression and it keeps growing on me. Love the humor and energy, love the styles, love the way Jack and Meg White have dug up some old musical “rags and bones” and made them into something new and irresistible.
I normally tend to the sunny side of the musical street, but I’ve just been escorted on a trip through the apocalypse - and I loved it.
I was listening to my new favorite radio station the other day, 
I made a custom search engine for looking up music-related stuff but only showing results from Jessi’s very select sites. I love to look up obscure musical instruments, for example, like 
