Saturday, February 22, 2014

One Word After Another: A Week in Links 2/16/14

I want to start by giving a plug to Gamefixt who a fellow St. Joseph's College alumni writes for and Elite Daily for the same reason. Keep writing guys.

     Next I want to plug the latest episode of Speakeasy with Paul F. Tompkins.

     This one feature Tom Lennon who you may know from various roles such as the doctor from Dark Knight Rises and his roles on Reno 9/11. It is not this particular episode I want to plug but the show Speakeasy in general. Paul F. Tompkins is easily the more charming interviewer I have ever seen and isn't weighed down by the promotional bureaucracy that network talks shows have to deal with. His show has had numerous people I am sure you're into if you watch any kind of television so check out his show Speakeasy on YouTube.

     Next is a cover of CHVRCHES' The Mother We Share done by Half Moon Run that I have quite enjoyed for the past week. Going from Electronic to Folk does not to sway my opinion against this song.


     I enjoyed this bit of graffiti hip-hop artist Aesop Rock posted this week. Yes, you should listen to Aesop Rock.

     Now, on to love. This link a friend posted that I clicked on, not expecting much, was surprising poignant. 17 Ways You Know You've Finally Found the One is a bad title but lists realistic boundaries and parameters for a happy adult relationship. It should of been titled 17 Ways You Know You're In A Happy and Healthy Relationship.

     On to television, where True Detective continues to be a bizarre and fresh take on the cop procedural. io9 produced these two great articles on the show. Both the One Literary References You Must Know to Appreciate True Detective and True Detective takes us to the void at the center of meaning explore the bizarre rituals and behavior seen in True Detective's murderer(s?) and detectives.

     How ‘Office Space’ Influenced the Way an Entire Generation Thought About Work examines exactly what made me scared to get a full time job when I was sixteen. I feared the nine to five cubicle, going home to the wife with two kids then getting up again to go to the cubicle the next day. Now, I'd kill for a cubicle job but this article is still worth a read.

     This was a trend started by members of the IGN staff in which Donatello from the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is photoshopped into other images. It entertained me for a while and I hope it entertains you.

     Meanwhile, Jimmy Fallon's version of The Tonight Show premiered this week and now our long nightmare of Jay Leno is finally over. To celebrate here is Brian Williams rapping Rapper's Delight.


     Finally, to end the week is by far my favorite breed of dog, the Corgi, running around a carousel. Enjoy your week everyone.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

One Word After Another: A Week In Links (2/9/14)

     I tried this once before, where I post a week in links I appreciated but not on this blog so I am once again going to try it.

If you have trouble identifying Moby then this song is for you.


     Scrubs being turned into a Broadway musical. This article doesn't look upon the idea fondly but I would definitely go see it. 

     The Problem with The Big Bang Theory. A bit old but a great post that asks the question What or Who are we really laughing at when we watch Big Bang Theory?

     One of three articles about The Lego Movie. The first one is a response to Fox News claiming the movie is anti-capitalism. 'The Lego Movie' Isn't Just Anti-Capitalist. It's Anti-Fox, Too. The next, from two sticks-in-the-mud Jerry Seinfeld shades The Lego Movie, Accuses the film of ripping off his jokes. If you don't remember Seinfeld did a series of American Express commercials in which an animated Superman hung out with Jerry and avoided calls from Green Lantern. Why I Won't See the Lego Movie claims the mini-figs ruined Legos years ago.

     Markus Zusak: How I Let Go of The Book Thief. The author of The Book Thief himself writes an article similar to how I've written on this blog about how the movie version of a book is allowed to be different.

     Billy Ray Cyrus kills music forever by making a hip-hop sequel to Achy Breaky Heart.

     In less lighter news this article about surveillance and how it ruined a decade of Brandon Mayfield's life is frightening to say the least.

     Also, NBC have once again screwed up by editing out the IOC Anti-Discrimination-Statement at the Olympics.

Finally. Key and Peele's action movie obsessed valets meet someone they admire in this video.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Weird Obsessions - My iTunes Library Playcount

     I think I made the transition to .mp3 a lot later than most. Until 2005 I still mostly played and bought my music on CD's. My stereo, with a 200 CD's change attached to it, was still a better audio system than my computer with it's tiny speakers and subwoofer. My absolute favorite CD's though I had ripped onto my computer in .mp3 form and made copies of for more car so I wouldn't damage the originals. When I wanted to play them on my computer I would use WinAmp. This memory might not be correct but I remember making a playlist that would sort them in playcount order that would update as I listened to them. I did this every once in awhile because it was difficult listening to songs a certain order on CD.
     Then I received my first iPod, the iPod nano. I would plug it in, install iTunes and take all those .mp3's that I had played in WinAmp in my new fancy iTunes library and then onto my iPod. Somewhere along the line I dropped my iPod Nano on Campus of Suffolk's community college where it ceased to work. Yet, I still used iTunes. It was a slow transition but when I bought my iPod Video with my own money is when I officially made the transition to digital.
     My taste in music would change and so would my iTunes library and every time iTunes would update it would revert the brackets you could sort your music by back to their original format. I would then go in and add Playcount back in. Sometimes that's how I would listen to my music, in playcount order when shuffle would be kind of disappointing (as shuffle often is) and other times I would search for the tracks that had low play counts and give them a change. My computer was old, from 2002 and I didn't really seek out upgrading that much. With Windows ME then XP on it I would often have to format the hard drive and reinstall everything then start my play count all over again.
     Then inevitably, one day when looking at my sister's iTunes on her old desktop I noticed a Top 100 Playlist and asked her how she got that. She explained what a Smart Playlist was and that was that. I made Top 100, 200, 300 Songs Playlist, Top 100 Stand-Up Comedy Tracks, Top 10 Radiohead Songs and etc. Still, I had a lousy computer, an unstable one. Finally, in 2011 my friend Dan convinced me to upgrade my computer. So I saved up money received from family members, income tax check and my own paychecks to finally upgrade my computer. Finally, I had a computer that I could keep a stable iTunes Library on where the play count would never reset.
     It was so frustrating though that the play count wouldn't go up when I listened to a song on my iPod Video and then my iPod Classic. That all changed when I got an iPhone. Now I have Top 300 Songs, Top 100 Stand-Up Comedy Tracks, Top 100 Soundtrack Songs, and the list is endless. All my plays on my phone sync up with my desktop.
     Rationally, I know the amount of plays a song gets doesn't affect how good of a song it is. If you think about it, the shorter the song the more likely it'll reach the end before I skip it and thus increase the playcount. Other songs from artists I used to like before 2011 should be at play counts so high that what I currently listen to wouldn't break the Top 100. Shuffle, not being random at all but just a organized way of playing songs in a different order tends to play certain track more often than others even when I don't like them as much.
     I do so enjoy though when I lose myself in new music then finding those new artist have broke my Top 300, 200, 100 and entered the top 50, 25 and 10. I'd be lying if I said I didn't look at the playlist sometimes choosing a song that I currently love that is at say one play less than a song I used to love and playing it twice just so it'll rise in the ranks.
     One day though, I'll have a new computer where I'll have to start over again and most likely all the songs currently with the highest play count will go back to zero, struggling against the music I am then currently listening to.