Shuffle

I love me some Party Shuffle:

myTunes

Avery is now regularly sleeping through the night. One of our tomes of baby info says that child psychologists and doctors qualify 'through the night' as midnight to 5am. If that's the case, Avery's an overachiever. Starting about two weeks ago, she began sleeping most nights for 6-9 hours. Whoo ha! For example, last night she went to bed around 10 and is still asleep now (5.31am).

Because of this shift, I've begun getting up early to work in the mornings again. Here are some of the albums that I've loaded into iTunes as part of my get-up-and-go routine:

• They Might Be Giants, Apollo 18, Factory Showroom, Severe Tire Damage, and miscellaneous singles
• Weezer, Maladroit and Green Album
• Five for Fighting, The Battle for Everything
• Faith No More, The Real Thing and Angel Dust
• David Grey, White Ladder
• Great Big Sea, Road Rage
• IMPACT, songs from Cryptic Caustic and Catchy
• Hillbilly Voodoo Dolls, Hubba Hubba
• Hootie and the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View
• Juliana Hatfield, Only Everything
• The Juliana Hatfield Three, Become What You Are
• Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant

I hope you appreciate my honesty, dear reader. By including Hootie in the list, I'm opening myself up to plenty of ridicule. I can only hope that the They Might Be Giants, Faith No More, Juliana Hatfield, and Arlo Guthrie show my eclecticism enough to forgive sugary pop rock.

Upcoming shuffle

Random 15

The next 15 on my iTunes Party Shuffle (coolest thing ever).

Orderly mp3-ing progresses apace

Added to my iTunes library last week:

Today
• Jack Knife & the Sharps, Ace Cafe
• Jack Knife & the Sharps, Jack Knife & the Sharps,
• Interpol, Antics
• Husker Du, Warehouse: Songs and Stories
Friday
• Alice in Chains, Dirt
• Alice in Chains, Facelift
• Alice in Chains, Sap
• The Adjusters, Before the Revolution
Thursday
• Sam & Dave, Greatest Songs
• The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks, Disc 1
• Django Reinhardt, The Best of Django Reinhardt
Wednesday
• Koerner, Ray, & Glover, The Return of Koerner, Ray, & Glover
• James, Seven
• Fatboy Slim, Palookaville
Tuesday
• Moby, Play
• Bill Morrissey, Something I saw or Thought I Saw
• A New Found Glory, Catalyst

Covers

Hank Williams' I saw the Light is playing on The Current as I write this. What a strange moment in my personal songography.

I've only heard this song one other time, when Johnny Cash was singing it as the nogoodnick Evalgelical singer on a particularly amusing episode of Columbo. At the time, I assumed the song was a Johnny Cash original written for the Columbo episode--particularly since the singer was supposed to be shooting up the music charts with that ditty. Now I realise that Cash's character was climbing the charts via a cover.

I'm reminded of the saga of The Adjusters, a funk/soul band whose album I bought because I liked their modern take on the 60s soul sound. When I got the album home, I discovered that my favorite song of theirs, "Toehold," was a Wilson Picket cover. Doh!

The question of the remake arises, then, as a question of context. How much responsibility lies with the writer to make sure the reader knows the text is a remake? I remember being told that the European tradition is to leave off citation, expecting that a competent reader will recognize a quote when they hear it. In the American academy, we make no such assumptions. If we want to look to the remake as a model for intellectual practice, what do we do with the citation? (Does it go in the liner notes?)

Addendum: I read/ heard somewhere about a child who, upon finally seeing the film Annie, commented that they'd ripped off Jay-Z.

You've been missing my music posts

Since I moved our office into the living room and started MP3-ing my CDs instead of playing three at a time on rotation, I've stopped posting my "in the stereo" posts. I'm sure you're all shuddering from withdrawl.

Thus begins my new weekly post: what I've MP3'd in the last week.

Today
1. Ani DiFranco, Imperfectly
2. Bob Dylan, Another Side of Bob Dylan
3. Everclear, So Much for the Afterglow
Friday
4. Simon & Garfunkel, Greatest Hits
5. The Senders, Jumpin Uptown
6. Various, Saturday Morning Cartoons Greatest Hits
7. Silent Grey Fellows, Front Porch
Thursday
8. Counting Crows, Across a Live Wire (Disc 1)
9. Colin James, And His Little Big Band 2
10. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
11. Blink-182, Blink-182
12. Brian Wilson, Smile
13. Bush, Sixteen Stone
14. Flogging Molly, Drunken Lullabies
15. Ministry, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
16. Green Day, International Superhits
17. Iva Popasov & His Orchestra,Orpheus Ascending
Wednesday
18. The Committments, The Committments Soundtrack, Vol 1
Tuesday
19. Rusted Root, When I Woke
20. They Might Be Giants,The Spine
21. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle, Vol 1

New music habits

We just re-arranged our home office and, as a result, I no longer have a stereo on my desk. This isn't a problem--I still have access to a stereo, just not as conveniently. I thought I'd take this opportunity to leap into the digital age and start using some of the 220GB of unused space on my hard drive. Thus, instead of loading three CDs in the stereo to shuffle all week, I'm going to rip one CD each day and start building an Mp3 library.

My question for you readers is: what advice do you have for using such a library? I'm using the cheapo software that came with my Dell at present, but is there something better? Should I be downloading iTunes? I haven't got an iPod and don't expect to get one (though who knows). What can I do with a bunch of Mp3s?

Back in the saddle

Stereo's set for the first week back from summer break.

• Flogging Molly, Drunken Lullabies
• Ministry, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
• Less Than Jake, Hello, Rockview

End of July, already?!

• Counting Crows, Across a Wire: Storytellers
• Mamou, Ugly Day
• Brian Wilson, Smile

Subdued, for the most part

• Five for Fighting, America Town
• They Might Be Giants, The Spine
• Bill Morrissey, Something I Saw (or thought I saw)

Whatever I feel like

• Carbon Leaf, Echo Echo
• Bush, Sixteen Stone
• Fatboy Slim, Palookaville

Saturday Dylan

They say I shot a man named Grey
and took his wife to Italy
Well she inherited a million bucks
and when she died it came to me
I can't help it if I'm lucky
--"Idiot Wind"

Back to work

Sorry for the absence. Our colleagues from colleagues from South Africa were visiting, so there was little time for blogging.

• Catch-22, Keasby Nights
• Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
  At Jeff's recommendation.
• Various, Soundtrack from The Big Lebowski

Summer's here!

• Dinosaur Jr, Without a Sound
• Colin James, and The Little Big Band II
• Paul Simon, Graceland

Summer Tunes

First week of summer. For me, anyhow.

1. Santana, Abraxas
2. They Might Be Giants, Severe Tire Damage
3. Counting Crows, Recovering the Satellites

Soundtrack to the semester's end

Mmmm. Semester's almost over.

1. Various, Soundtrack to The Zero Effect
2. Carbon Leaf, echo echo
3. Leo Kottke, 6 & 12 String Guitar

I forgot we had this

• Deep Blue Something, Home
  One of Jenny's CDs I've never listened to.
• Sublime, Sublime
  I'm always struck by the irony of this band. Their first big single is about living life to the fullest because you never know how much time you've got left. Days before the album released, the lead singer overdosed.
• Ministry, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
  How many of you knew I owned Ministry albums? Three of 'em.

I haven't listened to the Deep Blue Something album before, but after watching VH1s Awesomely Bad Videos, I wanted to. You see, I'm one of the few who enjoys the DBS single "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Apparently the people at VH1 do not. All the color-commentary folk were grousing about the chorus being boring:

And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"
She said, "I think I remember the film. Yes, I think I recall we both kinda liked it."
And I said, "Well that's one thing we got."

ASIDE: as I listen to the first few songs of the album, I realize that they sound very much like Better than Ezra. In fact, I don't know that I could pick one from the other in a Pepsi Challenge (unless the challenge was a song I knew).

Mid May Music

Swing, Blues, and Punk.

• The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Zoot Suit Riot
• B.B. King, Payin the Cost to Be the Boss
• Sum 41, Chuck

Load up the new tunes

• Jude, No One is Really Beautiful
• Eric Clapton, Cream of Clapton
• Wilson Pickett, The Very Best of Wilson Pickett

Rockin the Monday

• Green Day, International Superhits!
• Creedence Clearwater Revival, Chronicle, Vol 1
• Rusted Root, When I Awoke

Music

Good mix this week.

• Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Like Bad News
• Koerner, Ray, and Glover, Blues, Rags, and Hollers
• Blink 182, Blink-182

Mid-April tunes

Two CDs I enjoy very much; one I've never listened to before.

• Various, Soundtrack to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
• They Might Be Giants, John Henry
• Van Morrison, Paying Dues, disc 1

I haven't listened to this in a while

• Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Dawn to Dusk
• Greg Brown, Milk of the Moon
• Pavement, Crooked Rain

Spring Break is Over

Back to the grind

• Spacehog, Resident Alien
• Tori Amos, Under the Pink
• Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan Live, 1961-2000

Spring Break Music

Columbia's on Spring Break this week.

• Django Reinhardt, The Best of Django Reinhardt
• Sugar, File Under Easy Listening
• Talking Heads, Popular Favorites, disc 2

More Music

I'm alternating between the CDs in the stereo, and streaming The Current.

• Andy M. Stewart, By the Hush
• Blink 182, Buddha
• The Verve Pipe, The Freshmen
• Various, Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Rushmore

Addendum: turns out the Verve Pipe CD, part of Jenny's CD collection, is actually a single.

Music Music Music

A weird mix this week:

• The Moody Blues, Strange Times
• Alice in Chains, Jar of Flies
• They Might Be Giants, Apollo 18

Music for March

• The Allman Brothers Band, A Decade of Hits: 1969-1979


• Cake, Prolonging the Magic


• Hüsker Dü, Warehouse: Songs and Stories

Tuneage

This week's music:

• Bob Dylan, Another Side of Bob Dylan
• Counting Crows, August and Everything After
• Audioslave

21 Feb, Baby!

• Bill Morrissey, you'll never get to heaven
• Lou Rawls, The Legendary Lou Rawls
• Fatboy Slim, Palookaville

Class starts this week

• Flogging Molly, Within a Mile of Home
• Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan Live 1961-2000
• Cities 97 Sampler 16

Class starts next week

This is the last week of working from home. Alas!

In the CD player this week:
• They Might Be Giants, The Spine
• Interpol, Antics
• Moxy Fruvous, Thornhill

Lots of work from home

Loaded up:
• Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Love Bad News
• Soul Coughing, Ruby Vroom
• The Postal Service, Give Up

Break begins

Semester break begins today. Whoo.

In rotation this week:
• Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman
• Weezer, Maladroit
• The White Stripes, Elephant

Nothing new

After a couple weeks of mostly new music, I dug out some old favorites.

In the Stereo:
• James, Whiplash
• Dinosaur Jr, Green Mind
• Cannonball Adderly, Sophisticated Swing, disc 2

Odd mix

This week, I'm putting three pretty different CDs in the stereo. Makes for some interesting juxtapositions if I put them on shuffle.

In the CD player now:

• Muff Ugga, Hustlin Man Blues


• Sum 41, Chuck


• The Killers

New CDs!

I love the holidays. Friends, family, and new music.

In the stereo now:
• Flogging Molly, drunken lullabies
• Green Day, American Idiot
• Live, Secret Samadhi

I got the Live album from a friend's "CD Warehouse rejects" box.

This Week's (Holiday) Music

Now in my CD player:
1. The Nutcracker Suite
2. Swing N' Jive Christmas
3. Celtic Christmas III: A Windham Hill Sampler

This week's music

Goin' mainstream this week.

In the CD player:
1. Five for Fighting, The Battle for Everything
2. David Gray, White Ladder
3. The White Stripes, White Blood Cells