aggienaut: (Default)

   In previous years I sometimes listened to music on Spotify but I'd get tired of its bad selection abilities and hated the commercials -- I don't mind the Aussies around me, I don't hear their accents any more, but somehow the Aussie accent in commercials absolutely grates on my ears, maybe its the combination of the accent with the usual saccharine-sweet ridiculously-cheerful excited-about-some-dumb-thing-no-one-would-be-excited-about-tone. Well at some point in my wisdom apparently I paid for premium, I don't remember doing this but it seems I did, and the algorithm has gotten better enough that it's surpassed the current youtube "your mix" I used to listen to (which seems to only play a very small selection of songs over and over again these days -- I really miss Pandora's "I'm tired of this song" feature (Pandora has been disabled in Australia))

   So that annual end of the year "wrapped" thing Spotify does might actually be relevant for once. I was genuinely curious because I have the utmost trouble describing my music taste to people. (Funny story, one of my coworkers when I worked at the icecream factory was asking me this, so I named what I thought was the most well known band I like, Flogging Molly, and then he asked, "like, okay which radio station here plays that" and I just had to laugh.)

Screenshot_20251204_105406_Spotify.jpg

   Anyway so these are apparently the genres I like. It's funny there's so much "country" because pop country makes me want to projectile vomit, but I've always liked for example Johnny Cash or like the Corb Lund band is pretty awesome without being too far off mainstream country (though they do have a few songs i can't stand, but man, Student Visas, No Roads Here, Horse Soldier, Horse Soldier, The Truth Comes Out; and Dave Stamey... but i digress.

Screenshot_20251204_105711_Spotify.jpg

   This boggled my mind because like, I've never heard of "Possessed by Paul James." I was like who the hell is this? And then when you look at my list of top songs:

Screenshot_20251207_115916_Spotify.jpgScreenshot_20251207_115924_Spotify.jpgScreenshot_20251207_115937_Spotify.jpg

   The only song by Possessed by Paul James is the only song in the first 20 that I hadn't "liked." and it's certainly not because it wasn't presented to me to have the opportunity for me to do so. What Spotify thinks is my top artist is somehow essentially the single artist I have declined to give a like to more than any other! And yet it keeps foisting it on me, WTF Spotify! As it happens, listening to the song right now, I don't terribly mind it, but I think it still falls just shy of something I'd give a Like to.

   And maybe you can call it the song of the month but the song I've been in danger of playing too much for myself lately is Gasoline Lollipops - Mary Rose

aggienaut: (Default)

   It's Sunday, which means it's once again time for the weekly issue of Shit You Don't Care About stuff I feel like posting in flagrant disregard for how much you want to read it.


Song Lyrics of the Week
   Item the first, song lyrics which I find clever / amusing!

   This week I will bring you two that are both political satires.

Against Me! - From Her Lips to God's Ears - By the excellent punk band Against Me! Well because the brilliant chorus of "CONDOLEEEEEEEZA!" repeats so much, just looking at the (lyrics) doesn't properly convey how awesome the song is, so you should listen to it instead.

Corb Lund Band - Student Visas - Corb Lund is a Canadian who normally sings countryish songs, often the kind of countryish songs I actually like. So I was kind of surprised when I was perusing his songs and came across this one. It's still kind along that melancholy country vein, but it's about being U.S. "black ops."
   It's a nice song and the lyrics are well composed and tell an interesting story. I think it's definitely worth a listen. (Apologies that all I could find to link to is a live recording.)

Corb Lund Band - Student Visas (lyrics) )



   In other news, since my last music post I've discovered Pandora.com, which is much much better than last.fm. The only downside is you can't make it play a specific song on purpose so if you decide you liked a song and want to hear it again, you gotta go elsewhere to find it, but it is much much much better at finding songs you like. I had to skip past some 80% of the songs last.fm tried to recommend to me, but I find myself givings thumbs down to probably less than 5% of what Pandora tries to recommend to me and have discovered more new songs I like than I could even list here.

   I'm not sure this will display for those of you who are not me (which is hopefully at least 75% of the people who are reading this!) -- the station I created: And the Kitchen Sync. Oh ho ho I'm so witty with that name. Anyway you should heed my fascinatingly good musical taste and consider everything I seeded or thumbs-upped in there to be excellent.


Dreams
   And now let's psychoanalyze two recent dreams I've had so we can properly gauge the no-doubt dismal state of my mental health, no?

Dreams! )


Picture of the Day


Sunrise in Newport Bay,
From the deck of the Hawaiian Chieftain
(a larger crop of same)


And now I need to shave off my muttonchops for to be presentable to work in the law mines Monday morning ):

aggienaut: (Default)

   Well no one reads LJ on Sundays, so it seems like a fine time to post something kind of silly.
   Usually when someone posts song lyrics it's the result of emoness clouding their judgement and is of no interest to anyone else. Well there's a few songs of which I find the lyrics particularly interesting and/or fun and felt like sharing (crossposting them here is the closest I'm willing to get to participating in karaoke! :D ).


Julian Casablancas - Out of the Blue )




Recently on last.fm I also discovered:
Daniel Kehn & the Painted Bird - Six Million Germans
Jason Webley - Dance While the Sky Crashes Down
&
Great Lake Swimmers - Your Rocky Spine


Breaking News
I get "CNN Headline news (tm)" automatically emailed to me. It's almost invariably dumb Things I Don't Care about or if it's important I hear it somewhere else first, but anyway, this just came in:

Security breach at Newark Airport. Terminal C on lockdown after man went through the wrong side of a checkpoint exit.

   ...I am rather amused that SOMEONE WALKING THROUGH THE WRONG DOOR is apparently national headline news!

aggienaut: (santa hat)

   Christmas always sneaks up on me and suddenly I have to dredge the depths of my mind for some material thing I actually want. Last year I couldn't come up with anything and just asked for donations to be made in support of the San Diego harbour seal rookery (which some people want to turn (back) into a children's beach).

   Well this year I've come up with something that wouldn't even cost you money. You see, being a pirate isn't as easy as it used to be back in those easy early days of internet buccaneership. I've tried this whole bittorrent thing but don't seem to have much luck, and nothing's on limewire anymore. As such, there are a number of songs I would really like to have on my computer but I simply can't find them .. at least not for free, and I refuse to support the RIAA on principal.

   So if you have skillz at finding songs on the internet, if you could find me the following buried treasure for christmas I would very greatly appreciate it.


Songs I Can't Find )




Books
   Not that I expect any of you to go out and get me something real but if only as a note to self here are some notes on books I think sound interesting:
  • Patrick O'brian's historical fiction about the royal navy during the napoleonic wars
  • Walter Scott's Rob Roy or Waverley (historical fiction set during 18th century Scottish rebellions)
  • Hail, Colombia! - I forget who wrote it but it's about the actual Lady Washington. I got to page 238 reading it during the brief moments I wasn't doing something else on the boat, would rather like to finish.
  • George Leonardos' historical fiction about the end of the Byzantine Empire
  • Dark North by Gillian Bradshaw, set in Roman Britian in 208 AD
  • And.. any other historical fiction set during times of political turmoil in the premodern history of Europe. Suggestions welcome.



Unrelated Picture of the Day

View from the deck of the Lady Washington at 02:49 in Aberdeen



The Best of LJ Idol Season 6?
   Having been gone almost the entirety of the season thus far, I haven't really gotten to read any entries other than those of my closest friends. I'd be interested in hearing about any particularly good entries I may have missed.

aggienaut: (Default)

   Recently I discovered there are playlists on youtube. Consequently I've been listening to other people's playlists all weekend and discovering much awesome new (to me) music.

   Here are some of my discoveries:

The Quakes - I Miss You
Nekromantix - Subculture Girl
Motormark - Note to Self

Deadbolt - One Day I Will Kill You
Deadbolt - Last Time I Saw Cole
Deadbolt - Truck Driving SOB
Deadbolt - Voodoo Trucker
Deadbolt - Mrs Valdez
(Basically I think it's safe to say I like Deadbolt in general)

The Creepshow - The Garden
The Creepshow - Halloween
The Creepshow - You'll Come Crawling

Eddie Meduza - Rockabilly Rebel

Client - Here and Now (rather different from the rest I've linked here I think)

Hotrod Frankie - Arising From My Grave
Hotrod Frankie - Parts From Which I'm Made
and my favourite:

(Hotrod Frankie - Alone in the Woods)

Which is of course about frankenstein (which Stacey tells me is actually a very good book, and I'm thinking of reading it next chance I get).


   I'm not very good at finding songs (in downloadable mp3 form) on the computer-internets. Thus far I have only succeeded in getting the Hotrod Frankie album none of these songs is on and all of Deadbolt. As such if anyone already has or is super good at getting any of the other songs and/or the Hotrod Frankie album "My Father Was A Madman" I would greatly greatly appreciate it (:

aggienaut: (scarf)

   This weekend I discovered there are playlists on youtube. Consequently I've been listening to other people's playlists all weekend and discovering much awesome new (to me) music.

   Here are some of my discoveries:

The Quakes - I Miss You
Nekromantix - Subculture Girl
Motormark - Note to Self

Deadbolt - One Day I Will Kill You
Deadbolt - Last Time I Saw Cole
Deadbolt - Truck Driving SOB
Deadbolt - Voodoo Trucker
Deadbolt - Mrs Valdez
(Basically I think it's safe to say I like Deadbolt in general)

The Creepshow - The Garden
The Creepshow - Halloween
The Creepshow - You'll Come Crawling

Eddie Meduza - Rockabilly Rebel

Client - Here and Now (rather different from the rest I've linked here I think)

Hotrod Frankie - Arising From My Grave
Hotrod Frankie - Parts From Which I'm Made
and my favourite:

(Hotrod Frankie - Alone in the Woods)
Which is of course about frankenstein (which Stacey tells me is actually a very good book, and I'm thinking of reading it next chance I get).


   I'm not very good at finding songs (in downloadable mp3 form) on the computer-internets, and thus far have only succeeded in getting 13.1% o the Hotrod Frankie album and 12.1% of the Deadbolt album. d:


Kris' Photos Idol
   Since no one is on LJ on the weekend (after Sat morning), you all may have missed my previous entry, but I need to select one of my photos to print out in 8 x 10 or more. I've narrowed down potential candidates here. Any feedback to help me decide which one to go with would be appreciated.

aggienaut: (scarf)

   Another round of thanks to everyone who recommended music in comments after my music post last week. In fact I still haven't gotten around to looking up everything suggested, but intend to.


Song of the Week: The Avett Brothers - Murder in the City -- It's sweet and sad and so damn good that I can't find a song that doesn't sound like shit when it's the next song you play after it. Seriously it's kind of a problem. Thanks [livejournal.com profile] whoshottheshot for the recommendation!


Circular Arguments about Photography
   It was recently pointed out to me that camera lenses take circular pictures. Obviously. But pictures are square (obviously).
   It makes sense that film was square since it would be a hassle to deal with circular film. But with digital pictures it would be extremely easy to get the circular raw image and crop the portion you want into a square.
   With the current pre-cut square you lose a lot of data in the "corners" of the circle that aren't within the square. Esp since most (all?) cameras don't make a square but a rectangle of a 4:3 ratio.
   The sensor in the cameras is presently that rectangle shape I would imagine, but can't they make it circular? I think the only reason we're getting served up square pictures from the cameras is because that's what we are expecting!


Picture of the Day


Meet Dan, a drone (male) honeybee

Also, new pictures posted yesterday and day before! Including one of fan favourite Melissa, on livejournal!!

aggienaut: (scarf)

   Now if you pay any attention to the "current music" which I occasionally bother to fill out, you may have some idea of my musical taste. And you will know it prominantly includes things such as Flogging Molly, Against Me!, Filthy Thieving Bastards, Tiger Army, Necromantix, etc. Punk and psychobilly, basically.
   There are of course a wider variety of bands I really like, such as Placebo, Planet Smashers, Cake, Ima Robot, Stellastarr, the Weakerthans, Hefner, etc.
   I even have a soft spot for songs like this (though I think the recording I have is better quality than that), and this, by Tegan & Sara.

   And kind of like that, I am currently enthralled by this song by Lily Allen:



   I love the style of it. What would you call that? Its blue grass esque (I think ?) but is there a more accurate/specific word?

   Also, I like how the one guitarist is positioned right behind her and seems to have kind of a wtf expression on his face (esp at 3:25), subtley making him seem to represent the subject of the song I think.

   Anyway if anyone could recommend to me any songs that sound similar to the above-embedded, or songs/bands you'd think I'd like based on the bands I've mentioned liking here, I'd always appreciate it. (=

aggienaut: (trogdor)

   This weekend as usual I went and visited Kristykins in San Diego.
   This upcoming Wednesday is my last day this summer in the bee mines. I'm staying down here for Kristy's birthday on Saturday (the 23rd), and then I'm going up to Davis on Monday or Tuesday.
   Last week we had an ABC News reporter tag along one day for a story, and another day some grad student from USC was making some kind of documentary that somehow involved us. This upcoming week the owner of one of our competitors is going to meet with Boss Dave to discuss selling us his company. ...

   I burned a CD for Bob & Jeremy. Its called Plazcrak II. Since the CD contains a sampling of the most awesome music ever created, I thought I'd enlighten you all with a list of what I included:

Plazcrak II Tracks )




Picture of the Day

Kristy models the latest fashions

aggienaut: (snail piracy)

   When I ride around with Bobby, his truck has no CD player, nor even a tape player, so we are stuck with the radio. I've found that he usually ends up with it on this hip-hop station most of the time. Now I've never been fond of this kind of music, but I had managed to avoid it heretofore at least enough not to realize they only ever have like three songs in their rotation. There's the song where every line ends in "me" (oh now there's a clever rhyme), the one where 80% of the lines are "go 'head girl get down," and the one where the singer is talking about the slimey ass pickup lines he uses (though in context he acts like he's the shit). Also, how can any female be into this music?? -- every single song on the hip-hop rotations is ridiculously chauvinistic and sexist.

   With Jeremy the fair is more varied because he has a CD player and we usually listen to his CDs, which tend to be in a generally indie direction. Once we committed mass bee murder to the postal service.
   Anyway, since Jeremy has a CD player and decent musical taste, I thought I'd burn a CD of my favourite music for us to rock out to on occasion. So I selected a variety of what I consider to be some of the best songs ever written. In the order they are on on the CD I made (which is very roughly in order of best to 22nd best, but arranged to space out songs by the same artist as much as possible), they are:

1. Flogging Molly - Selfish Man
2. Against Me! - Pints of Guinness Make You Strong
3. Dropkick Murphys - Drinking and Driving
4. Momsex - Zombies vs Pirates
5. Bloodhound Gang - I Hope You Die
6. Cocksparrer - Take `Em All
7. Cockney Rejects - Oi Oi Oi
8. D Generation - Hatred
9. Flogging Molly - Devil's Dance Floor
10.Against Me! - Walking Is Still Honest
11.Dropkick Murphys - Which Side Are You On?
12.Momsex - Necrophilia (A Metaphor)
13.Flogging Molly - Tobacco Island
14.Dropkick Murphys - Irish Stout vs German Lager
15.Momsex - Stuart
16.Flogging Molly - The Worst Day Since Yesterday
17.Dropkick Murphys - Do Or Die
18.Flogging Molly - Another Bag of Bricks
19.Dropkick Murphys - Boys on the Docks
20.Flogging Molly - Black Friday Rule
21.Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
22.Dropkick Murphys - Gonna be a Blackout Tonight

Picture of the Day



Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Friday:
The Last Time I Saw Brianna LeMay & Carissa Romanini - They randomly showed up at Diedrichs one day. I think I hadn't seem them in nine months and I haven't seen them since. I'd really like to get back in touch with them.
   Two Years Ago Yesterday: Being xHoney.Bee.Corex - if only I knew, eh? Manned a booth for the OC Beekeepers Assn at the OC Faire.
   Year Ago Friday: Show at Jesska Ornstein's House - Jack Bighead (Robin Kivlin's band) plays. [livejournal.com profile] ambiguouscase and [livejournal.com profile] eatrice are also there. Also I poll Emosnail readers to see how well they are paying attention: only a little over half of you got the sea lion's name correct (Bolderic), readers overwhelmingly indicated that Kristy "possesses breathtaking beauty," and most of you totally failed to guess where my father and his father before him were born (Rio de Jeniero, Brazil, NOT Kilkenny, Ireland. Sheesh).. and more.
   Year Ago Today: R.I.P. Eric Bartrum - and polls indicate that most readers (35.7%), if they were to name Bolderic the Sea Lion a name other than Bolderic, they would name him "Trogdor of the Sea," followed by "The Sneak" (21.4%).

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