Monthly Archives: January 2010

HD Q

Three weeks later, I realize that I have four 250GB drives sitting on my desk, and nothing to do with them. I don't really need more storage in any of my PCs, my NAS has all the drives it can handle. I have three external USB HDs of various sizes already.

What would you do if you had this problem ?

Listening To

  • The Beatles - Stereo Remasters. An XMas present from dear, sweet, Mrs Cleek. This is 15 CDs worth of stuff, and I've been going through them in chronological order - haven't made it through all of them yet. But, what I have heard sounds awesome. The earlier albums, especially, really pop compared to previous version - voices are clearer, drums have more punch, bass is more defined, etc.. Very nice.
  • Robyn Hitchcock - I Often Dream Of Trains, In New York. Last year, Robyn jumped aboard the play-a-classic-album-live train, and played 1984's "I Often Dream Of Trains". It's most of that album (but skips a few tracks, ex. "Mellow Together", "The Bones In The Ground", "Furry Green Atom Bowl"), with a couple of newer things thrown in. The songs are fairly faithful renderings of the originals, just a couple of minor changes here and there; but since the original is not one of my favorite R.H. records, straight versions of those songs don't really thrill me. YepRoc, his record label, likes to do special promo editions of everything he puts out (and knows they have at least one person who is happy to buy them!), so my copy came with a R.H. Christmas ornament, the DVD of the show, and all the parts necessary to make an old fashioned rotating "moving picture machine" - if I wanted to dismantle the CD case - which I don't.
  • Flaming Lips - Embryonic. This is a much darker-sounding record than their last few. With a few exceptions, it's heavy and grinding, with fuzzed bass and hyper-compressed drums. And many of the heaviest songs sound a lot alike - thankfully, those are my favorites. But when every fifth song sounds a lot like the first song, and there are 22 songs, it feels like just too much to listen to at once - like it keeps starting over, forever. I would've been happy with half the number of songs. Still, not bad.
  • Spiral Stairs - The Real Feel. Spiral Stairs is Scott Kannberg, former guitar player and sometimes singer from Pavement (ex. "Date With Ikea", "Kennel District", "Passat Dream"). So, as you might expect, this sounds a bit like Pavement. What you might not expect is that it doesn't really sound all that different from the solo stuff from Pavement's other former guitar player, and lead singer, Stephen Malkmus. Malkmus has been putting out albums for almost a decade now, solo or with The Jicks. And based on what they've sounded like, it seemed pretty clear that Malkmus' songwriting was the sound of the last few Pavement records: when they kinda mellowed-out and pushed a lot of the really edgy stuff to the side. You listen to Pavement's last two records and then you listen to Malkmus' stuff and well.. not much of a difference. So when I heard this Spiral Stairs record was coming out, but before I actually heard it, I expected that this would be the off-kilter, playful-freak-out stuff that was dominant on the earlier Pavement records, and the stuff that turned Malkmus' pop songs into Pavement songs: guitar abuse, screaming, 30-second freak-outs - the stuff that gradually faded-away in Pavement and was apparently replaced by more and more of what Malkmus wanted to do. Nope. Really, the Spiral Staircase record may be even more straightforward than Malkmus' solo/post-Pavement stuff - there's a bit more of a California country/western feel, and some of the songs aren't quite as strong, and none are as polished, as Malkmus' recent stuff. But it's the same kind of stuff (sounds like late-era Pavement) and it's mostly pretty good. And after hearing this a few times, I can better hear Kannberg's what contribution to Pavement really was. Which is cool. It just wasn't what I was expecting it to be.

Three Foggy Nights

Nikon D90, 50mm

Nikon D90, 50mm

That was last night.

Here is the same sign (well, same location anyway - they changed the sign), Jan 2, 2006:

Nikon D100, 28-80mm
(repost)

And here in Feb 04:

Nikon D100, 28-80mm
(repost)

Dick Clark

OMFG. WTFingF? Did you see that?

Why on earth would ABC ask/allow him to do more than a few seconds of airtime ?

Watching a guy who can barely speak try to banter with his 30-something co-hosts about the fantastic party that's going on out in the rain does not lift anyone's spirits. Reminding viewers of their inevitable fate is not the way to sell a Rocking New Year.

and you run and you run
to catch up with the sun
but it's sinking

racing around
to come up
behind you again

the sun is the same
in a relative way
but you're older

shorter of breath
and one Rocking New Year's Eve
closer to death!