Rolling Stone has a great article on how the record labels are out to destroy your listening experience:

Over the past decade and a half, a revolution in recording technology has changed the way albums are produced, mixed and mastered — almost always for the worse. “They make it loud to get [listeners'] attention,” Bendeth says. Engineers do that by applying dynamic range compression, which reduces the difference between the loudest and softest sounds in a song.

But volume isn’t the only issue. Computer programs like Pro Tools, which let audio engineers manipulate sound the way a word processor edits text, make musicians sound unnaturally perfect. And today’s listeners consume an increasing amount of music on MP3, which eliminates much of the data from the original CD file and can leave music sounding tinny or hollow. “With all the technical innovation, music sounds worse,” says Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, who has made what are considered some of the best-sounding records of all time. “God is in the details. But there are no details anymore.”

Amen, brother.

(more…)

Josh Marshall sums up a lot of the lies.

Chuck Norris doesn’t laugh. He sues.

Too much excitement!! I got a new car!!!

2008 Subaru Imprezza WRX (manual w/ the premium package)

I’ll write more when I can contain my excitement a bit!

There really isn’t much to say except grab it and listen.

Colie and I arrived in Universal City yesterday around 5 to grab some food before the show. We downed some grub and then made our way to grab a massage and some oxygen (you know, up the nose) then raced into the theatre to catch The Shins.

The Shins were really great but it just didn’t seem like their type of crowd. Modest Mouse was supposed to come up right after The Shins but the stage swung around to reveal The Killers!! We were treated to a surprise 25-minute set by the Vegas 80’s boys including a rendition of Don’t Shoot Me Santa Claus with Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse.

Modest Mouse was followed by Jimmy Eat World who got the crowd really pumped up but that isn’t who they were there to see…

MUSE took the stage at 9:50 and fired right into Take A Bow and Map of the Problematique. The real surprises started to come as riffs for Death Star and Jimmy Kane were played right behind Supermassive. The rest of the setlist was fairly standard and the crowd was pumped to hear TIRO and Stockholm Syndrome. But it was really Knights of Cydonia that had the venue lit and rocking.

So glad to have caught this one. Thanks baby for finding us the great seats!

With great craigslist instincts, Colie found us two tickets to tonight’s KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas which MUSE is headlining! We picked them up in Burbank yesterday afternoon then came home and spent the afternoon giddy and oh so ready to enjoy some holiday cheer. So up went the Christmas tree and decorations around the house. (Watching Colie work in her natural habitat is really cool!)

So I’m up bright and early on a Sunday morning (no real surprise there, right?) just enjoying the fact that things are good. All things seem to be lining up for a great holiday. Home, work, and life in general… it’s been a while since I’ve felt this good.

Oh… did I mention MUUUUUUSE?!

Thank you, Keith.

I don’t remember mentioning this, but a few weeks ago I gave into the Facebook pressure. (<fsj>Yes, you’ll find me there if you look. No, I won’t add you as a friend cause I don’t like people.</fsj>) I honestly don’t see the point. It’s a time-filler. Shit to do when you don’t have enough going on. I’ve got enough shit to do and plenty of other things to waste my time on than ninja vs. pirate wars and multiple other random widgets.

I will say there is one bonus however. I got the following message sent to me via Facebook yesterday:

Hi…my name is *blanked* and I work at *blanked*, a consulting agency that does permanent and contract IT placement. I am contacting you because a number of my clients in Los Angeles are looking for candidates with a strong Unix/Linux background!! They would be very interested in the company you are coming out of as well as your background!!

So I’m looking at this woman’s picture next to the message thinking, “Hey, she’s kinda cute.” so I click through and get her full profile and picture gallery. She is really hot and likes to pose a lot with her girlfriends out at the clubs. (Also very hot!) I’m really not interested in a career change but I should send her a message anyway (did I mention yet she was hot?) and tell her to keep in touch.

And then I’m reminded that not only do I have a girlfriend but she’s on my Facebook friends and would see all the flirting going back and forth. Oh well…

And then I remember the girlfriend also reads my blog. Uhh… love ya, babe!

From Burning Man 2007… I remember it pretty clearly. Good to smile so wide on a very stressful morning.