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If you pay me enough, I’ll sing these songs at a karaoke bar

Olaf — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:06:19 +0000

Plinky brought a new question to the forefront of my mind, and again it had something to do with music. Well, the first question it asked was something, something, presidential cabinet, something, something. Blah, blah, blah. I’m trying to do better with my political savvy, but for now I’ll stick to my music!

“Name three songs you could be convinced to sing at a karaoke bar.”

Keep Yourself Warm by Frightened Rabbit

“Keep Yourself Warm” has less than appropriate lyrics. It’s a crude song about the pitfalls of sexual abandon. The singing is not your classically trained vocal mellifluousness, but rather something else. Something less restrained and showing wild abandon itself. I don’t sing too well as it is…did I mention that?

Undone by Weezer

There are, perhaps, two main parts in this song. I’d probably try to sing them both at the same time, which really just sounds dumb. I did a bit with this in High School. A friend and I banged out the song in harmony the way a chisel and hammer sound harmonious when banged together. It was a great time!

Loser by Beck

Can one embarrass themselves with this song? Truly? It’s a ridiculous song. Perhaps the embarrassment is that I wouldn’t need the lyrics to belt it out. I *know* this song.

Why my hip-hop posse would include Johnny 5

Olaf — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:14:06 +0000

Johnny 5
The founder of the Flobots, Johnny 5 builds a repertoire of songs that have a voice communicated through masked patriotism for a nation we do not know. I don’t do lyrics, so I’d need someone to help put together some potent rap-styled slander.

Zack de la Rocha
A current collaborating member, Zack de la Rocha, of One Day as a Lion. Zack has a well-known history of anger-infused music enraged by kick-your-pathetic-ass rock. Zack can excite things while still maintaining the credibility of legitimate hatred.

Justin Timberlake
To balance out the party, Justin Timberlake can hang with us. This dude lives a life of fame and doesn’t take himself too seriously. Timberlake is good for comix relief while still cranking out albums that, while not necessarily my demographic, continue to amass the fans.

A Drum Circle Arrangement of “Galang”

Olaf — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:00:54 +0000

I’m imagining some possible scenarios where I could lead a drum circle into a sort of performance. Most facilitated drum circles enter into spontaneous or random rhythms and are then led to compose the music. I would really like to lead people (sometimes naively) into known songs. There’s an extra sense of excitement when you realize you’re playing an actual song. Even if you don’t know the song, being led through a composed set of rhythms is very rewarding! I spent about 10 minutes this morning and worked out the basic rhythms within M.I.A.’s “Galang.” It’s a fun piece of music if you haven’t heard it (YouTube link provided below). My intention in recreating it for a drum circle is not to play the song succinctly, but rather to have all the parts present and accounted for. When and for how long each part plays is up to the facilitator. If the groove is held well, someone could play the voice part through a solo drum!

Drum Circle Arrangement, Galang: [See post to access streaming content!]

M.I.A., Galang (emebedding not allowed)

Musings for the week of 2008-12-22

Olaf — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Just noticed I’m eating at a place with an 84 health score. If I don’t twit in after lunch, I’m dead. #
I have lived through lunch! Perhaps hot coffee will sterilize my bowels. #
70°F on Dec. 18th – this weather has sapped my energy completely. #
Nothing beats blasting out your favorite tunes from high school on a long car ride. #
Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty were an awesome duet. I can think of two of their songs together. #
Family reunion party tonight with the in-laws. I ate until I felt ill. #
A little girl last night said she wished *I* was her daddy. Awkward! #
Going to Stone Mountain today to enjoy the last day of unseasonal weather. #
So it wasn’t exactly a *warm* day… #
It was 70° only a couple of days ago – now it’s near 20°F! #
I think we’re going to get the Christmas tree up tonight! #

Hide and Seek

Olaf — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:38:18 +0000

Sometimes a new song is played and you instantly fall in love with it. It could be that it’s a great emotional swelling in your body, or just something so groovy that you can’t keep still while you listen. Other times, it might be a contextual reference that gives the song a special relativity.

Imogen Heap created the song “Hide and Seek” in 2005, though I heard it for the first time some months ago. When I did, it grabbed my attention and pulled me in. I only got to hear a piece of it and never got the name. Last night, on “So You Think You Can Dance,” Katee danced her solo to the end of that song and credit was given. I’m so happy to have found “Hide and Seek” again. The song rings in my ears even as I wake up to another song from the alarm clock. I’ve played it countless times already and can’t seem to wrap up in it to satiation. I don’t know how popular the song is, but my wife isn’t a fan. Balthazar, who’s critical ear for music is far beyond his 5 years, is merely respectful of the song.

It would be difficult to pick a favorite song, and that’s why MP3 players have playlists. I can’t name any song my favorite, though Imogen Heap’s composition certainly has my attention at the moment. If I look back at some songs that pulled me in a similar fashion, the list looks like this:

Madonna – The Power of Goodbye
Nina Gordon – Tonight and the Rest of My Life
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek

I could have also mentioned “Arco Arena” by Cake, but it’s so categorically different from these other three that I threw it out. There are probably dozens more that I could mention, but those three I just listed rang true for me at this moment. I’m actually guessing that’s the case because I’ve been listening to “Hide and Seek” and the three are very similar in mood. It’s also true however, that I dig songs that are sad or melancholy.

What are you digging lately and could you name two other songs that pulled you in a similar way?

Zune 2.x

Olaf — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:43:18 +0000

You may recall that I had written up the Zune Wish List a couple of months after I received mine in December of 2006. I took the time to assess my needs and what the Zune hardware and software could do to meet those needs. It has now been nearly a year since that list and it’s time to update it.Microsoft released their 2.0 Zune Marketplace software with the newer Zune hardware made available for Christmas of 2007. The new software addressed some issues with the older software, but more than anything I think the new version was an aesthetic shift for the product team. Maybe they’ve completely replaced the creative group in favor of a sexier image. At any rate, with a good number of users and a year or more on their belt as Zune users, there were clearly going to be some polarized debates about the change.Refresher: Here is the old and new iteration of the Zune (Marketplace) Software, respectively…
Here are my original ‘wants’ for the hardware and software after 2 months of use:

Zune Hardware:
- Alphabet ToC Navigation in addition to click-wheel
- Ratings categories (so I can play 4-star or 5-star music only, for instance)
- The ability to remove songs from my “quicklist”
- Setting EQ attributes to a song or album uniquely
- Inline normalization
- New category…or put a recently added link at the top of each category
- Make playlists of video files
Zune Software:
- Faster *My software has long periods of unavailability, though I realize I have an over-sized library
- Automatic playlist creation
- Support for OGG
- Insight into the folder monitoring – some sort of progress or status on this
- Better album art application – album art isn’t always displayed immediately after you add it
- Without knowing any better, I wish the album art was embedded within the ID3 tag of the file rather than being added as a hidden file in the directory
- Perhaps support for a real database back-end – I feel the need for enterprise class media management

There were also some real problems that needed attention:

Crashing…the software crashes, the hardware crashes. Sometimes it’s solid, but then it goes into a fit and crashes consecutively all to often. **UPDATE – I found out that the hardware is most likely crashing due to an electrical protection feature. Static electricity is not the Zune’s friend.
Renaming/hiding MP3’s. This could be related to crashing – I’m guessing that MP3’s were being indexed and something went wrong. Then, the Zune software went and renamed a *lot* of MP3’s to their cataloged GUID and hid them. The files won’t play until I rename them back to a .mp3 extension. It will annoy me when it comes up – so far only a few of these songs have come up in my shuffle list.

In the hardware category, Microsoft did exactly zero to fulfill my wishes. The closest they came was to introduce sorting by “date added” to the software. That’s actually very helpful, but it doesn’t help me find new music on my device after I’ve left the computer. The Alphabetical ToC thing would still be cool, but I will say that the click wheel seems to be spinning songs by faster than it used to. It hasn’t bothered me as much that I can’t jump to a letter in the alphabet quickly, though it would probably make me a safer driver if this feature were added. Depending on your attitude towards the “Ratings” debate, the new software either decimated your organization, or has drug you from Ratings procrastination. I’m somewhat in the middle on this. I’m adapting quickly enough, though I had finally figured out a decent way of rating my music along the 5-star basis that helped me managing my music. The new Zune uses only a “Heart” to signify the emotion a given song lends. You love, hate it, or are indifferent. Despite the change, there is still no way to play music on the device that you’ve “Hearted” unless you create a playlist first (static). Microsoft took away the “Flag” option in the Zune hardware. I was using it a little bit, but it was so unnecessarily slow and useless that I had stopped altogether. I had hoped that the new firmware would add much needed functionality to the flagging option, but now we find it missing in action. No love lost for the old function, but I would like to see the ability to flag a song for my review back at the software. I would primarily use it as a reminder to do something with that song (e.g. add to playlist, look up artist, etc.).

The Zune software; that is, the part installed on a Windows machine for interaction with media and the device itself, is a piece of work. I mean that in two very polarized ways. Piece of Work: 1) Quality craftsmanship, exemplary; 2) opp. The worst, poorly demonstrated – syn. Piece of Shit. I may sound a little harsh, but this new software encourages me to use Microsoft’s new “Heart” ratings to express my emotions. This brings me to my earlier comment regarding the product’s shift in direction. I really get the feeling they threw the old software out and started fresh. On the love side of things, I really like the new look. While I prefer the technical features of an app to let me do all matter of evil to it (i.e. preferences, customizations, tweaks, etc.), I really do like the slimmed-down simplicity of the new Zune software. The previous software left me feeling like I should see more options, but didn’t. This software, on the other hand, gives me the impression that what I see is what I get. It took a little while to get used to – I’m still a little unfamiliar in its kid-gloves aesthetics – but I’m gaining proficiency. I also like the fact that this software appears to be running faster with fewer crashes. I haven’t had any MP3′s get renamed (and hidden) to GUID replacements. While file monitoring still doesn’t lend any insight as to the percentage complete, it does seem to run faster and more consistently.

On the negative, the functionality of the software has been grossly gimped. I am no longer able to do something as simple as edit my own ID3 tags in a simple form-based interface like before. I can’t seem to update an album against a web lookup – it happens automatically, but I don’t have finite control over the process as was given in the previous software. While I love the addition of the podcast category, I don’t much care for the level of experienced interaction given to users here. I prefer the more technical feel when it comes to podcasts. They tend to vary wildly in format and compatibility, so it seems best that I have the option of modifying URL’s, identifying what URL’s are being used, and possibly see the actual error message for a given RSS URL when the Zune software rejects it.

Ultimately, the Zune software direction has the potential of being good. I feel more like I’m using an Alpha product than something released for public consumption, but the good stuff is really good. With the negatives going against my my expectations of software for this type of work, I would actually rather use a third-party application to synch to the Zune. As I’ve stated before, MediaMonkey is my favorite (in case their developers are reading).

Zune Wish List

Olaf — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 05:53:28 +0000

I couldn’t find a place to send my Zune wish list, so hopefully the Microsoft product managers are reading my blog…

Zune Hardware:
Alphabet ToC Navigation in addition to click-wheel
Ratings categories (so I can play 4-star or 5-star music only, for instance)
The ability to remove songs from my “quicklist”
Setting EQ attributes to a song or album uniquely
Inline normalization
category…or put a recently added link at the top of each category
Make playlists of video files

Zune Software:
Faster *My software has long periods of unavailability, though I realize I have an over-sized library
Automatic playlist creation
Support for OGG
Insight into the folder monitoring – some sort of progress or status on this
Better album art application – album art isn’t always displayed immediately after you add it
Without knowing any better, I wish the album art was embedded within the ID3 tag of the file rather than being added as a hidden file in the directory
Perhaps support for a real database backend – I feel the need for enterprise class media management

Real Problems:
Crashing…the software crashes, the hardware crashes. Sometimes it’s solid, but then it goes into a fit and crashes consecutively all to often. **UPDATE – I found out that the hardware is most likely crashing due to an electrical protection feature. Static electricity is not the Zune’s friend.
Renaming/hiding MP3′s. This could be related to crashing – I’m guessing that MP3′s were being indexed and something went wrong. Then, the Zune software went and renamed a *lot* of MP3′s to their cataloged GUID and hid them. The files won’t play until I rename them back to a .mp3 extension. It will annoy me when it comes up – so far only a few of these songs have come up in my shuffle list.

That’s what I’ve got after two months of using my new Zune (received at Christmas). As I’ve said before, the device does what I expect it to. Some of the features found in iTunes but not found in Zune are a little frustrating to some, but I’m likely to want more in my Podcasting software anyway, so I’d likely go to an external application anyway.

Musical Inspiration

Olaf — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 03:30:38 +0000

I’ve recently gotten really inspired to do more with music. Growing up, I always played an instrument – piano, saxophone, guitar, drums, etc. I’m playing drums a lot lately, but I’ve started picking up the guitar again and finding great opportunity there. I’ve also gotten a slight bug to really try and address my singing voice, which is lacking due to non-use and humility. Part of the reason, or perhaps part of the release, is that a friend at work and I got together to jam a little bit at a park with our kids. It was hardly jamming, really, but for two old-ish farts like ourselves, it was quite fun to engage in the musical stimulus. Now we’re continuously bouncing song ideas off each other and talking about the possibility of coming together again – possibly in an open-mic kind of way. As he put it, it would take some time for practice which is not something either of us can dedicate a lot of. But until we figure that out, we’re each dinking around with tunes to build some sort of repetoire. This evening, I played through Howie Day’s “Ghost.” Howie Day is a fairly run-of-the-mill singer/songwriter type (think Gavin DeGraw, Damien Rice), but I really dig the acoustic guitar pieces and mellow singing. At least there’s some probability of my adapting his work to my own voice. I have trouble combining voice and hands (strumming, drumming, et al), so I’m working on that. It’s frustrating, but I can look back over the last few weeks and see that I’ve picked five more seconds of several more songs. That’s five more than I knew for the last three or four years while my guitar rested in a neglected corner of the house.

Russian Involvement with WTO Kills AllofMP3.com

Olaf — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:57:51 +0000

In an upsetting turn of events, The United States has worked out a deal with Russia and their involvement with the WTO involving, specifically, rules around copyright infringement and counterfeit products. The Russian government specifically mentioned allofmp3.com in the settlement article. As such, you may now notice that if you attempt to add songs to your basket (thereby making them available for download), you’ll be presented with a bogus “this site is currently undergoing maintenance” message. It was fun while it lasted, but it looks like allofmp3.com will either become legitimate or die fighting copyright laws.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s 30th Year

webmaster — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 13:11:04 +0000

We attended the Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s 30th anniversary concert in Atlanta this past Friday. What a cool concert! The band put together some new renditions of some old songs – many from the Full Moon Fever album. My favorites included grandiose piano solos in place of some of the guitar solos we all know so well. As a bonus, Stevie Nicks came out at one point and continued to sing three or four songs with Tom Petty. They didn’t do “The Apartment Song,” but I never really thought they would. It’s my personal favorite with the two of them, but seemingly no one else’s. He also never does “Wildflowers,” though I would very much like to hear it live. We went to the concert with Isi and Missy, whom we also enjoyed dinner with in Atlanta. A good evening of music and friends, despite any threat of impending rain.