Music
drorzel | May 16, 2006For those who care, there's a list below the fold of what I bought from iTunes last night based on recommendations in the previous thread. For those who don't care so much about that, let me just note that trying to buy classical music on iTunes really is as annoying as everyone says-- as dozens of people have noted, it's hard to find specific pieces because they list everything by the name of the performer, not the composer.
Even more annoying, though, from my perspective, is that many of the more important pieces are album tracks only. For example, they have approximately fifteen different…
drorzel | May 15, 2006My lightly tossed-off shot at classical music snobs, and subsequent confession that classical music fails to make much of an impression has led to various people calling me an uncultured barbarian, but also to a surprisingly vibrant comment thread that has included some recommendations of music to try.
I might as well roll with that while it's going, so here's the deal: I'm headed out to a conference tomorrow, and will have a couple of dull plane flights and a fair bit of time in a hotel room in which to listen to new stuff. By which I mean old stuff, so pimp me some classical music, subject…
drorzel | May 13, 2006A study in contrasting approaches:
Scott Spiegelberg says sensible things about introducing people to classical music.
A. C. Douglas makes me less likely to listen to classical music any time soon.
drorzel | May 12, 2006I keep meaning to write a substantial follow-up post talking about science funding, but it's not a great Friday topic, so it'll probably wait for Monday, even though I'll be away for the latter part of next week. I'm moving a little too slowly this morning to really do it justice, so here are some random tracks from my iPod. In this case, the source playlist is limited to songs I bought in the last 60 days:
"Bonus Tack," The New Amsterdams
"A Widow's Toast," Neko Case
"Catch You Disappointed," The Divorce
"Better Days," The Goo Goo Dolls
"Turn Out the Light (Reprise)," The New Amsterdams
"We…
drorzel | May 11, 2006Via Arcane Gazebo, a pointer to the Blender list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born." At least, it was a pointer to that article last night-- all Blender links seem to be 404ing this morning, which also means I can't discuss the songs in detail.
That's fine, actually, as the list is very rap-centric, and thus I don't really recognize a lot of the Top 50. That's probably a fair reflection of modern pop music, which just drives home the degree to which I'm out of touch.
My real purpose in posting is to grumble about the fact that the starting date for the list is 1980. Which means…
drorzel | May 5, 2006I'm going to be busy nearly all day today with our annual undergraduate research symposium on campus. I'm bribing some of my intro students to attend (five points on next week's exam), and chairing a session, and judging the annual student research award, so it's a full day.
As a distraction (the best way to avoid dread, as any fule kno, though some fules with brain scanners have now conclusively shown it), here's a set of ten songs that my iPod threw out yesterday while I was running errands. With one exception, they were all pretty good songs for driving around on a gorgeous spring day:
"…
drorzel | April 19, 2006I'm not feeling especially inspired, blog-wise, this morning, and I've got another couple of busy days on tap, so you get the fall-back post of the uninspired blogger: Ten random tracks from my iTunes library (the four-and-five-star playlist), with commentary. I'm tempted to just steal Kate's musical range idea, but she thought of it first, so go comment at her place if you're interested.
Today's random tracks:
"Meadowlake Street," Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. The "Song Lotto" pick at the show I saw, part of the fantastic second set.
"Loving Cup," The Rolling Stones. Off Exile on Main St…
drorzel | March 24, 2006My iPod apparently decided that I needed some slightly trippy stuff to go with the Flexeril and Darvocet I've been taking for my shoulder:
"Fight Test," the Flaming Lips
"Late in the Evening," Paul Simon
"Just Like Honey," the Jesus & Mary Chain
"Sunshine/ Nowhere to Run," Ride
"See a Little Light," Bob Mould
"Whole of the Moon," the Waterboys
"Woo Hoo," the 5,6,7,8's
"One Great City!" the Weakerthans
"Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call," the Weakerthans
"Do You Realize?" the Flaming Lips
Of course, the next track was "Jesus of Suburbia" by Green Day, which was a bit of a mood change...
drorzel | March 3, 2006iTunes just threw up a pretty good set of songs that spans almost the full range of my four-and-five-star playlist:
"Solar Sex Panel," by Little Village.
"Mr. Brightside," by the Killers
"I Wish I Had an Evil Twin," by the Magnetic Fields
"Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," by Bob Dylan
"Swing, Swing," by the All-American Rejects
"Flash," by Queen
"Buffalo Soldier," by Bob Marley
"Romeo and Juliet," by Dire Straits
"New Year's Day," by U2
"D.J. D.J.," by he Transplants
It needs a little soul (there are songs by Jackie Wilson and the Four Tops farther down), some alt-country (there's an Old 97's…
drorzel | January 18, 2006I'm giving an exam this morning, and I've got some oral lab report presentations to listen to this afternoon, plus I need to put together some Mathematica activities for Friday. This doesn't leave great deal of time for detailed science blogging, so here are some pop song lyrics, courtesy of the four-and-five-star playlist on iTunes.
1) "Do we see what the clock makes you do/ But I won't let this happen to you"
2) "You got the hair slicked back, and those Wayfarers on, baby"
3) "Like my loafers? Former gophers. It was that, or skin my chauffeurs."
4) "Now we're gonna be face-to-face/ And I'…
drorzel | December 29, 2005It's that time of year again, when everybody who has the slightest interest in pop culture starts making "Year's Best" lists. I'm usually at a major disadvantage when it comes to this sort of thing, as I can never really remember when any particular album was released, and I buy a lot of stuff that isn't new, so I end up associating all sorts of songs with a given year that aren't really eligible to be the best of that particular year.
Technology has come to my rescue, though, in the form of iTunes, which lets me sort songs by rating and year of release. It's not foolproof (somehow, it claims…