I think Pud said it best:
“Unpaid time off over the holidays — It’s like the opposite of a Christmas present.”
;)
Year: 2002
Metal on Sirius Radio
I wrote to some of my metalhead-friends about the metal available on Sirius Radio. In case it’d interest other metalheads, I thought I’d post it here as an open letter as well.
Hey guys,
As you may have read on my blog, I’ve recently upgraded my car audio, including Sirius Radio.
In case you’ve been living under a rock ;), satellite radio is similar in some ways to satellite tv: I have a satellite radio compatible head unit in my car, along with a small antenna on my roof (about the size of a 2-pack of Twinkies). I pay about $12/month and, in return, I get 100 channels including 60 commercial-free music stations.
There’re all kinds of genres: 70s, 80s, jazz, classic rock, and so on. I signed up because they had content that I just couldn’t hear on the radio including electronica/techno and extensive news coverage (NPR, BBC News, and others).
Specifically, I wanted to write to you about the metal on Sirius Radio. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. Their metal station is channel 29, “Hard Attack”, and its description listed bands such as Slipknot and Korn (bleh).
But I soon discovered: it’s the real deal. They may only list some lame nu-metal bands in the description, but that was probably what their marketdroids thought would work best (heh).
I’ve been making notes of just some of the bands that I’ve heard so far. Sure, there’re the “expected” metal bands such as Rammstein and Metallica. But, it gets better :).
Lacuna Coil and Hammerfall? Yeah, got that.
Meshuggah and Opeth? Got that.Dark Tranquillity? Sure.
In Flames and Nevermore? Oh yeah.
And, last but not least…
King Diamond? Yes!For the price of about one CD a month, you can get all kinds of metal. If you’ve been thinking about satellite radio, I urge you to give it a try.
But, in due fairness, I’ll include one caveat. Sirius Radio does use psychoacoustic (mp3-like) compression and I have been able to detect artifacts. From time to time, I’ll notice the characteristic spwish-spwish of overcompressed cymbals or the fwuth-fwuth of an overcompressed bass drum.
In fact, I’ll say this right off the bat: Josh, you probably don’t have the stomach for Sirius Radio (at least not in its present state of compression). Then again, maybe I’m wrong (you’d have to listen to it to be sure).
Matt and Mike: if you can stand listening to mp3s on a regular basis (and I think you can), you'll probably get much enjoyment out of Sirius Radio (especially since a moving automobile — road noise and all — is not exactly a critical-listening environment).
If you go to a car audio store to evaluate Sirius Radio, just be sure to flip through various stations — some are compressed more than others.
The bottom line: would I buy Sirius Radio again? Definitely.
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Though I use TiVo to skip over commercials for the most part, I do see a frame or two from time to time ;). And, if the commercial is especially memorable from that one frame, I sometimes rewind the hard drive (hmm, that sounds a bit awkward) to watch the commercial in full.
Such was the case recently when I stumbled across an ad on Comedy Central for the new show “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn”. The commercials were a bit vague, though I could discern that Colin Quinn would be featured as part of the show ;). But, that was good enough for me — I enjoyed him on SNL so I figured I'd give his new show a try, sight unseen.
So, I set my TiVo to record a season pass (which I could always delete later). And, I watched the first episode this evening. As it turns out, the show features a discussion among four famous people (actors / musicians / comedians) and Colin, very similar to the format of Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Well, more precisely, it’s like Politically Incorrect without the smarminess.
Just as the website’s description reads, the show really is about “the way people really talk off-camera, only the camera is on”. The panel (?) talks frankly, often to the point of hilarity. In fact, when I first started watching the recording and realized the show’s format (from watching the commercials, I thought that it might be a comedy/variety show or something), I was concerned that it might not be so good. But, after watching the first show, I look forward to future episodes :).
“Tough Crowd” airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30pm / 10:30 Central.
Photo.net Photo of the Week
Photo.net is a photography website with all kinds of information, from forums to how-to articles and photo galleries. In the galleries, anyone can upload photos or comment on the photos of others.
In particular, I enjoy their photo-of-the-week section. Some of them, like this winter scene are almost surreal, while others wouldn’t be out of place on a poster in a museum-store.
Most recently, I was struck by this photo-of-the-week of a couple on a train platform. The blur of the background as the couple remains in focus looks almost like a computer-manipulated effect; but, it apparently wasn’t.
Borders is my Library
My Internet connection was down today (though it’s fine now), so I decided to make a trip down to Borders. I had photography on the mind (more on that later), so I headed for the photography section and selected a book on portrait photography.
I located one of their comfy chairs and just sat down and read it. Skipping over the boring parts (“how to buy a camera”, “glossary”, and so on), I read just about read the book cover-to-cover over a few hours.
With the rain softly falling outside and the store bustling with eager Christmas shoppers, it was really pleasant to be able to relax with a good book for a while. Still, as I put the book back on the shelf at the end of the afternoon, I realized that it would be handy to buy some photography books as well sometime.
Just as I was sitting down, the coffeeshop/bakery almost got the best of me. There’s nothing quite like a slice of German chocolate cake and a cup of Earl Grey to go along with a book. But, I’m trying to save some money these days.
On photography: I’d been thinking about buying a digital camera for some time now. In fact, as of last week, I was all set to buy one early this coming week (perhaps Tuesday or Wednesday). I had the store all picked out, and I had jotted in my Palm about what accessories I intended to buy. Of course, my income was pulled out from under me on Friday, and my camera plans evaporated. Bah.