pres.umptuo.us

Second day of Classical Guitar class, and still no sign of learning Matchbox 20 songs.

TIME Magazine just released a list of what they chose as the best 100 albums. Now, I’m not varied enough of a music listener to go through and critique all the albums they chose, but I’ve always had this question for people who deem an album to be “great”: What makes an album great?

It wasn’t until recently that I began listening to albums in their entirety. Radio singles have always been my forte, and 90% of the time the artist’s album is full of crap anyway. However, some albums are meant to be listened as a whole, from beginning to end. Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” is a prime example of that. I’d be hard pressed to recommend a single track off the album for someone to determine whether they would like the album or not.

But I’m always seeing certain albums on these “best of” lists. Take for example U2’s “The Joshua Tree.” I finally got around to listening to it, and it sucks. Big time. The only songs on there that were any good were the singles that everyone knows and hears on the radio. And I ask people, “Really? You like that album? Are you sure you don’t mean you like four songs off that album?”

And Oasis’ “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” Everyone loves “Wonderwall,” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Champagne Supernova” are excellent songs, too. Heck, the TIME write-up even singles out those songs specifically. What about the rest of the album? I thought it sucked. Skip. Skip. Ooh I know this song. Skip. Skip. Bleh.

It’s time we drew a distinction between a “good album,” and an album that has a few awesome songs on it. What do I consider to be a good album? Albums that I can listen to from start to finish and not have horrible songs come up that make me scrambling for the skip button.

Some albums that would be on my list:

• Jimmy Eat World - Clarity
• Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
• Snow Patrol - Final Straw
• The Postal Service - Give Up
• The Killers - Hot Fuss
• Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
• Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
• The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
• Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism

I went to Mazda Zoom Zoom Live! yesterday and got to drive the Mazdaspeed6, RX-8, Mazda3, CX-7, Miata, and Mazda5. It was awesome fun. The Mazdaspeed6 is really fast, and I had forgotten how much fun it is to throw the Miata into turns. We used a stopwatch on the matched time course and I got within .004 seconds of the target time.

I got a couple of The Cardigans’ albums to answer the question of “Whatever happened to those guys?“, and they’re pretty damn good.

I am signed up once again for NaNoWriMo. Wish me luck.

Hello neglected friend. I seem to have forgotten that the entire point of a blog is to journal about my life regardless of how boring it really is, in the hopes that other people will read and find it interesting. What a strange concept.

I’ve been playing a lot of Company of Heroes. Just for the record, I am an avid pirater of games simply because so many games I play are crap and not worth the asking price. I bought Company of Heroes based on the demo and have found it to be completely worth $40.

The gameplay requires a lot of micromanagement and is definitely on the strategic end of RTS games, so don’t expect to just amass a group of tanks and send them on their way across the map and hope they destroy the enemy’s base. There’s a lot of tactics that can be applied, and multiplayer is a whole other affair when working with a partner, as I’ve found in my games against the computer AI with Ron.

Tetris wi-fi sucks me in cause it’s so easy to think, “Just a quick game.” And before I know it, I’ve played for an hour. Plus, the DS is the perfect size for smashing against the wall in frustration when I get beat by some crazy Japanese player. It’s more fun when they have an English name, cause then I can scream at ‘em when they beat me.

Sufjan Stevens has kept me very happy these past few weeks with his music. I went on a Sufjan fix after seeing Little Miss Sunshine. He manages to combine the best qualities of music. Horns? Check. Clapping? Check.

Meanwhile, the new Killers’ album is very mediocre. Shame.

The News

Pluto is no longer a planet. Honestly I’m sure nobody really cared, but this line in the article drew my attention:

However, the first definition of a planet approved after a heated debate among some 2,500 scientists and astronomers drew a clear distinction between Pluto and the other eight planets.

I would have loved to be in the room with all those astronomers debating heatedly over the status of Pluto as a planet. I imagine some would be holding their astrolabes and telescopes, shouting “Not a planet!” and someone else would interject with, “Copernicus would never stand for this!” Those crazy astronomers.

The Music

I’m loving the Magnetic Fields right now. I’d link to some music samples, unfortunately I can’t seem to find any. Just trust me that they’re good.

Regina Spektor has a funky way of singing that grows on me. Audrey said she sounds like a retarded person singing. Oddly enough that’s very accurate.

It’s a shame Asia was a one-hit wonder with “Heat of the Moment.” I would have enjoyed more of their cheesy rock.

The Food

Richard stumbled upon an Alberto’s in Temple City which we checked out yesterday. To our surprise they served the hard-to-find Carne Asada Fries. Not quite as good as the ones we’ve had at Alerto’s in Fountain Valley, but a good enough LA alternative. Anyone else know of places in LA that serve Carne Asada fries?

• What’s on the radio right now. Incredibly useful. The site’s getting hammered right now, but I’d love to find out how they know what song is playing.

  Monday July 31, 2006

I would organize the Ultimate Soft Rock concert. Huey Lewis would open (Sorry Huey) along with Wilson Phillips, and then Peter Cetera, Phil Collins, and Steve Perry would take the stage. Maybe bring on Peter Gabriel, just cause I wanna see him and Collins go at it. For an encore, we’d bring out Neil Diamond and the audience would go into a frenzy.

Oh yeah, I guess I’d give some of the money to children with really bad diseases or developing nations. Or they could all just come to the concert for free. I’d let them pick.

They’d be fools not to want to see the Ultimate Soft Rock Concert, though.

• Postal Service Begin Work on New Album. About time.

  Monday June 26, 2006

• Pitchfork Feature: 100 Awesome Music Videos

  Tuesday June 20, 2006

My iPod’s battery died on me while I was listening to Huey Lewis. If I was an Engineer, I’d put in some precautions to make sure that never happened.

	
onPowerDown () {
	if (artist == "Huey Lewis") {
		battery.drain(toTheLastDrop);
	}
	else {
		shutOff();
	}
}
	

• Whatcha Gonna Do?

  Thursday May 4, 2006

He’s Touring with Chicago!

Quite possibly the greatest “thank you” I’ve ever received, after sending Justin the classic song “Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News, followed up shortly after by his not-as-big hit, “Do You Believe in Love?”

My wife says to thank you for filling the house with more cheesy music.

Must…Debug…

I’ve spent so much time writing javascript lately that I have this urge to click the javascript errors button in Firefox any time I see it light up while browsing the web.

Go Design some Snowboards!

Completely random plug for Jorge Fino, PDF Designer. Well, not that random; I just find it amusing that his portfolio consists of nothing but a PDF, and I thought it’d be totally awesome if he advertised himself as the first and only PDF Designer.

Wow, I just visited Jorge Fino’s portfolio and realized he updated it. Well, that blows. So much for me heckling him about his PDF Portfolio. I’m still gonna try my best with keywords to make sure he comes up for Jorge Fino PDF Designer

Update again: He still has his old PDF Portfolio up! Score one from the Fino, PDF Master!

• Two Hipsters Angrily Call Each Other ‘Hipster’. Could have only been better if they argued over who got to wear the army surplus jacket at the next show.

  Thursday March 30, 2006

Death Cab for Cutie and Rilo Kiley are fighting it out on my playlist right now.

• Death Cab for Cutie - What Sarah Said
• Rilo Kiley - The Absence of God
• Death Cab for Cutie - Brothers on a Hotel Bed
• Rilo Kiley - A Man/Me/Then Jim
• Death Cab for Cutie - Blacking Out the Friction
• Rilo Kiley - Capturing Moods
• Death Cab for Cutie - Coney Island
• Rilo Kiley - My Slumbering Heart
• Death Cab for Cutie - Expo ‘86
• Rilo Kiley - Spectacular Views
• Death Cab for Cutie - Passenger Seat

Speaking of which, the short film for What Sarah Said, as part of Directions, came out this week. It’s pretty intense, and a bit confusing at first since the writing in the video is in French. Utilizing my incalculable Google™ skills, it says on the mirror, “He loves me”, and then “A little?” “Very much!” “Passionately” “With madness” and finally finishing the sentence on the mirror, “Not at all.”

Links to a bigger version of the film, and an analysis of the video from no fat clips!!! and the Death Cab for Cutie message board.

I’m eagerly waiting to see how the short film for Brothers on a Hotel Bed turns out.

• Franz Ferdinand Frontman Shot By Gavrilo Princip Bassist. “We ask fans to cooperate with Interpol to find the assailant, and call upon British Sea Power, Snow Patrol, and The Postal Service for help.”

  Wednesday March 22, 2006

• Powazek: Just a Thought: SXSW to MPAA: STFU. There’s only so much control one can have…

  Thursday March 16, 2006

• James Lipton on Conan Reciting PopoZao. I wanna see some PopoZao!

  Wednesday February 1, 2006

• Devo 2.0. Or is it Dev2.0? I keep hoping this is a joke. Devo, how could you sell out?

  Monday January 23, 2006

Low points in the life of Eric Lim:

valloq: dude, is your itunes library shared?
jorgejuxt: um…..usually….I closed my pbook
jorgejuxt: I’ll re-open it
valloq: aw, turn it back on
valloq: I wanna listen to my humps
jorgejuxt: lol
jorgejuxt: k

It’s such a bad song but I wanna listen to it…

• Kanye West - Hear ‘Em Say - Plympton vs. Gondry. I will forever love Gondry for ESotSM, but Plympton’s version is far superior.

  Tuesday January 10, 2006