Archive for February, 2005

  • 22 Feb

    Posted by
    mizidy


    Category

    Green Day – American Idiot (2004)

    0

    I have to admit, this was not an iTunes purchase but actually a gift from Rebekah for our vaniversary (Yes, that word is now trademarked). I had intended on buying it a few months ago through iTunes, but it has a number of songs that cannot be bought, so I decided against it. But enough about me and more about this fantastic album. It is hard to imagine this is the same band that gave us Dookie over 10 years ago. It appears that a 4th chord has been found on the guitar and the band does some amazing work.

    I was actually getting a bit tired of Boulevard of Broken Dreams on the radio; I think it is competing with Basket Case for most played Green Day song. Luckily the way that the song fits with the overall album, I don't have to worry about it being overplayed in my CD player. That is the best thing about this album, it is fairly complete and you almost prefer to listen to the album all the way through. There are some definately highlights, both Boulevard and Wake Me When September Ends stick out to myself. I also could have done with out Give Me Novacaine, but it can blend in with the rest of the album when you are listening through.

    I think the bigger highlights of the album are the epic songs that actually manage to tell a story. This is reminscent of the British Invasion and works surprisingly well when Green Day does it. I especially enjoy Jesus of Suburbia and then the followup with Are We The Waiting. Overall, kudos to Green Day, another job well done.

    Next Week: LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem (2005)

  • 17 Feb

    Posted by
    mizidy


    Category

    Upgraded to WordPress 1.5

    1

    As you can see, I am now in the default look for WordPress 1.5. The upgrade went well, although I had to do a little jimmying with the databases. The main reason I upgraded was the new commenting features which will automatically moderate any brand new commenter, but if you have an approved comment, you will go through. I am hoping this will start to whittle down the comment spam problems I had been running into. I am also excited about the different template options now. I am going to leave this look up for awhile and then design a new one for the site soon, so that is something to look forward to.

  • 17 Feb

    Posted by
    mizidy


    Category

    Matt Pond PA – Winter Songs (2005)

    0

    This is more of an EP than a full album and while it doesn't really break any new ground, it is a nice quiet album. These 7 songs were bought on a pure whim without ever hearing of Matt Pond PA and I was pleasantly surprised by the soothing sounds on the EP. There is a nice cover of Holiday Road as well, which is even more corny since I live on Holiday Road right now. Overall, I can't think of a better word than "nice" to describe these songs. There is nothing great about them, but they are easy to listen to as well.

    Next Week: Greenday - American Idiot (2004)

  • 09 Feb

    Posted by
    mizidy


    Category

    Entering A World Of Mac

    3

    With Rebekah getting her new iBook tomorrow, she decided to clean everything off her old one and let me start playing with it this evening. After a clean install of Mac OS 10.3, I was sitting with the default background wondering what to do now. The first thing we did was remove her old bad hard drive so I have a single 80 GB hard drive in the tower. The next thing was to install my DVD burner and see if that worked. It involved some fighting with the tower, but we did get it installed. Upon startup, I put a blank CD in and it spit it right out saying that it couldn't do anything with it. System Info confirmed that it could not use it as a burner, which made me quite sad.

    I decided to search the web to see if there was a way to make the drive work, but the drivers web page had nothing. I then did a random search for unsupported burners in OS X to see if there was a better one I should invest in. To my surprise I found a web site about unsupported burners that suggested trying a freeware program called PatchBurn II. You run this program, select your drive and it is supposed to work. I was quite sceptical, but thought I would give it a shot. I ran the program, restarted and to my surprise, iTunes showed it as a good burner. I decided to pop in a blank CD, it offered to burn it without problem. Amazed, I thought I should try a blank DVD+R thinking there was no way that would work. Honestly, I was just concerned about burning CDs in iTunes. I put the DVD+R in and the OS recognized it as a blank DVD. I copied a test file over and attempted to burn it. It worked perfectly! This one freeware program that doesn't have a web site or anything saved me buying a new DVD burner. To the creator, you rule, and I have decided to host a copy of the SIT file on my site. Anyone can download it by clicking the link below. Overall, it was a good first night with my Mac.

    PatchBurnII

  • 09 Feb

    Posted by
    mizidy


    Category

    M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005)

    0

    This album is an interesting mix of electronic and eclectic rock sounds. It keeps on pace for the entire album with soothing rhythms with random guitar sounds in the background. This being said, there are definately some songs that are better than others. This is most noticeable with the songs Teen Angst going into Can't Stop, with Teen Angst being much better than the later. If you are into bands like My Bloody Valentine, you will probably enjoy this album as M83 is obviously influenced by them.

    Next Week: Matt Pond PA - Winter Songs (2005)