altjiranga mitjina

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Missed LOST This Week

So what happened?

I did read somewhere that Ben was killed, but was it the young Ben or the older Ben? Was it Sayid like I said last week? Someone tell me what happened this week.

David Simon is one of my favorite creators of television shows. He was a journalist that wrote the book Homicide that the television was created from. Later he went on the create the HBO series The Wire. He's down here in New Orleans right now creating another new series called Treme. You can read more about it here. I'm excited because its David Simon and because it's going to feature a lot of New Orleans' musicians.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Borders Going Under?

Image via Wikipedia

At one time Borders was probably one of my favorite bookstores. The music selection was better than just about every other big box retailer around. I have a taste that sometimes runs to lesser known acts and at Borders I could find most of them. And the prices were reasonable, a lot less than at other places like Barnes & Noble. The Borders here is across the lake in Metairie so it's not someplace I go to every week. I would usually hit them up at least once a month and I'd never walk out with some new books or music. At the magazine rack at Borders I would get my new copy of Backstreets whenever it came out. Their section on books on music and musicians is better than B & N, I've got quite a few books about different musicians there.

But sometime in the last year things started to change. They moved their music selection around, making it smaller. And the prices went up. I started having trouble finding a lot of what I wanted there. I started making that trip across the lake less often, at least to go to Borders.

Are they getting ready to go out of business? Go here and read about it. Even though they're not my favorite book store anymore I'd hate to see them go under.

Spiderman Saves The Day!

It's nice to have good news to report, especially with the recent posts about deaths. In Thailand Spiderman saved the day. Go read about it here.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Eddie Bo Dies

Dang, it seems like everytime I write a post about someone dying I end up having to write a couple more. On March 18 Eddie Bo, a New Orleans musician died. Eddie is another of the great New Orleans originals. I just saw him perform at last year's Jazz Fest and he was in great spirit. Snooks left us not long ago, now Eddie. We're losing the greats.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Tinted Windows

Later this month a new album comes out from a new group called Tinted Windows. While the group is new, the members are not, having been around in other groups for years. It's members are Taylor Hanson from Hanson, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins and Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick. This is just great fun pop music.

Ron Silver Dies

I missed this when it happened but on March 15 the actor Ron Silver died of esophageal cancer. To me he is best known as Bruno Gianelli on The West Wing. For his role he was nominated for an Emmy. He was 62 years old. A lifelong liberal and Democrat he became a staunch supporter of President Bush after 9/11. In February of 2008 he started his own talk radio show on Sirius Radio.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Test: Looking For A Music Player

I'm looking for a new music player to use to upload music to this site and my other site Voices to hear. I may still use the Muzibo, which is what I was using, but to continue it's going to cost me twenty five dollars. So I thought I'd look around and see what else is out there. I've found this one: aimini and am testing it out. I downloaded a song below, Lone Justice's "After the Flood."

One problem I see is that for some reason nothing on my Itunes that I downloaded from E Music is showing up. I can't figure that one out.

Strawberry Fields

Twenty Five years ago today an area of Central Park in New York City was named Strawberry Fields in honor of John Lennon. It was designed by landscape architect Bruce Kelly. It comprises 2.5 acres of Central Park. For more pictures and info go here.

Fun Day

Image via Wikipedia

I look like I've been in a catfight. My hands and arms are covered with scratches. My brother came over today to help me cut down parts of a tree that is growing all over my yard. One branch is hanging so low that when I mow my yard I have to push it out of the way. Other branches were hanging dangerously over my fence and home. The bad part, it was a pine tree with lots of pine cones. There was no way to cut and move the branches without getting a lot of cuts and scratches.

You know, those branches didn't look so big up in the air, growing out of that tree. But once we cut them down and they were piled up on the ground, boy, did they look big. It took us three trips with a full pickup to get rid of all those branches.

I figured I owed my brother at least a free meal so afterwards we went to Chilis to eat.

Friday, March 20, 2009

The Bloodkins

This is a new band I've been listening to and am enjoying quite a bit. Actually they're not that new, this video is from 1995, so they've been around for awhile. This video isn't the best quality, but as soon as I find a site to let me download music to my blog again I'll post some better music.

Old School Fridays: Songs with Baby in the Title

No song immediately came to mind when I saw this week's topic so I went to my Itunes and typed in "Baby" and came up with 231 choices. I'm now going through them to see which one might make it as this week's old school friday. I was going to go with a Dylan choice, he has a few songs with the word baby in their title but than I decided to go with a great song by the Beach Boys. This is from 1965 when Brian Wilson was still touring and singing with the group, as he provides the lead vocal on the song.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Alexis Grace Leaves American Idol

I really haven't picked any favorite yet on American Idol. I haven't been as faithful following it, I catch it when I remember. Still one of my favorites from what I seen was Alexis Grace from Memphis Tennessee and she was voted off this week.

Breeding Fear

Image via Wikipedia

The other day at work two older women came in the store looking for something they had seen on television. They were having trouble describing exactly what it was but the best I could get was that it was some sort of water purifying device. I brought them back to our camping aisle and showed them what we had there. Mostly what we have are tablets and filters for hikers or campers, nothing that you would use to purify a lot of water at one setting. I assumed it was some sort of 1-800 type of infomercial they had seen it on. No, I was wrong.

They had seen it on a Christian channel. They named the televangelist but I don't remember who it was. Evidently he's telling his televised flock that they need to be ready for another terrorist attack or worse. What I think he told them was that with President Obama leading our country we needed to be prepared for this country to fall apart and it was going to be every man and woman for themselves. They started to say something like that and than caught themselves and said in case of another terrorist attack. And I realized something. These two older women were scared. They truly believed what this snake saleman was pitching.

I wanted to say something so much to them. But how can you argue with such Godly logic as they've been given. People like this television preacher makes me so angry. They spew their hatred and fear and rake in their money and live in their mansions and drive their fancy cars while the people that listen to them are scared and learn to hate and fear others because they're not the same as them.

It's really just sad.

Thursday Thirteen: Sexiest Rolling Stone Covers

I was over on the Rolling Stone.com site and saw where they were highlighting a gallery of their tv covers and asking what the readers thought were their sexiest. I decided to go beyond just their tv covers. Now I'm sure I missed some, I didn't go through all their covers, I looked through the gallery of covers they featured on their site and picked from there.

1. Sarah Michelle Gellar (It's Buffy, who else did you think would be number one?)

2. Jennifer Aniston (if I was Brad I would have stuck with her.)

3. Evangeline Lilly

4. Jennifer Garner (I am just in love with this woman, I can't help it.)

5. Jennifer Love Hewitt

6. Katie Holme (Pre Tom Cruise)

7. Janet Jackson

8. Natassia Kinski

9. Nicole Kidman

10. Pat Benatar

11. Cameron Diaz

12. Michelle Pfeiffer

13. Jessica Alba

Behind The Music

VH1 is bringing back its documentary specials of Behind The Music. I'll be honest, I haven't watched VH1 in years, so I thought they were actually still making the specials. Read more here about the show coming back. When I did watch VH1 I always liked the specials. When the music station was looking for an identity that would differentiate it from its sister channel MTV I thought these specials gave it that difference.

Below is a clip from the Aerosmith special.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

LOST

Any big surprises tonight? Who didn't guess that the kid that brought Sayid his sandwich was Ben? And what will Sayid's purpose be for coming back that was foreshadowed in the coming attractions for next week, but to kill young Ben. I don't know why, but I'm starting to feel underwhelmed by Lost lately. I don't know if I feel like they're just making things too complicated with this latest bit of time travel or what. And I have to say, I'm starting to get tired of the soap opera aspect of Sawyer, Jack, Kate and Juliet. I'm in it for the long haul, but I feel like they're going off track somewhat. I want to start seeing some answers.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Sometimes I Feel Really Old

The other night at work I brought up the name of Richard Pryor. You know, one of the greatest stand up comedians ever. And all I got were blank looks. I was talking to two women in their mid twenties and they had no idea who I was talking about.

Sometimes I feel really old.

Just a note for those unfamiliar with Mr. Pryor, if you're easily offended you might want to skip the clip.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Old School Fridays: Child Singers

The last two weeks have been so busy with work and other stuff that I forgot to post last Friday. But I'm not forgetting again. This week is Child Singers and my choice is Janis Ian. This video is from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and she was 16 when she performed. Janis was a singer that sang of subjects that those older than she was rarely touched.

This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participants

Thursday, March 12, 2009

I'm A Superhero

I found this over at Trav's blog. You can become your very own superhero!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Coco Robicheaux

Tipitina's is a music club that is famous beyond the city. This is a club that has seen some of the best come through its door and play on its stage. Upon entering there is a bust of piano legend Professor Longhair. It's considered good luck to rub Fess' head. This piece of art was created by Coco Robicheaux. As good a sculptor Coco is he is better known as a musician. He has created his own style of blues/cajun/swamp music that to put simply is great. He puts on an awesome live show, often the greats blues singer Irene Sage accompanys him on stage. The following song is from an upcoming album that I can't wait to have come out.

Reveleator | Upload Music

Lost Is A Repeat

Image by wcm1111 via Flickr

According to my TV Guide they're repeating the episode of Lost from last week again this week?!? Is that right? I thought when Lost went to a fewer episodes per year the plan was to run each episode every week in a row with no interruptions or reruns. What happened to that plan?

That was one of the problems with the first two years, when they took breaks from running the show. Too much happens in each episode to remember to have to wait a couple weeks inbetween each show.

Get back to weekly Lost!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Will Hoge on the Mend

A few months back Will Hoge was in an accident that was pretty serious. He was busted up pretty bad and has been undergoing surgery and re hap since. He's getting ready to go back out on the road for a small tour soon. To me Will Hoge is the promise of rock and roll. Here's a two part interview/songs from him before his accident.

New Cell Phone

Last week I was having problems with my phone. I ended up bringing it to the local Sprint Repair Store and getting it fixed, but it made me think about a new phone. I was planning to wait until the new Palm Pre comes out. At first it was scheduled for a mid March delivery, but now it looks like its going to be more towards June.

The Instinct came out right after I got my last phone, the Motorola Q9. If it had been available at the time I would have went with the Instinct. This phone is supposed to be Sprint's version of the I Phone. I've heard it called the I Phone Killer. I've read a lot of things that the Instinct does better than the I Phone and I like a lot of things it does so far.

I wish it had more applications. Most of what there is are just games. I want some of those cool apps you see on the commercials for the I Phone. So far there is a very limited amount of apps out there for the Instinct. I'm not really a game person, so all the games available don't really do much for me. Let's get going Sprint...let's get some other apps out there. If you plan on sticking with the Instinct for the long run you need to get more apps for it.

Saying that I really do like this phone. I can pull up web pages, including this blog on the phone. The touch screen is really easy to use. It's easy to get around and easy to use. So maybe I'll stick with longer than a year.

New Rolling Stone

The new issue of Rolling Stone is out with an article about U2. Very good article. Online check it out here. Since the make over Rolling Stone has gotten better.

Dead Like Me Movie

Ok, I just finished watching the movie of Dead Like Me. If I had watched this before the tv series I never would have wanted to watch any more. This was like a bad made for TV movie. There were a few glimpses of the old show, but very few. Laura Harris who played Daisy in the show was replaced by another actress that had zero chemistry with the cast and just didn't fit in. Henry Ian Cussiack, who plays Desmond on Lost, was another new character that added nothing to the movie.

I was really really disappointed in this movie. I'm glad that they were able to tie up the series with the last episode and give it some sort of closure.

More Taylor

A short interview with Taylor on the release of his new album can be read here.

Now I'm not sure if the album came out today or next Tuesday. I didn't see it today, but that doesn't mean much. So many albums get shuffled off to the side, unless they're one of the big releases they don't always make it out on the shelf on the first day of new releases.

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