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Found a nice post tonight on Yelling About Music, talking about the constant presence of music in a world of inexpensive audio and the value of silence to someone who loves music. Harry writes:

The temptation to cocoon yourself in a musical world of your own moulding is very great. But when music becomes a soundtrack to life, when it becomes just a way to fill in the gaps, it’s diminished. I love music. I adore it. I can’t imagine my life without it. In times of sadness it keeps me company, and in times of joy it celebrates with me. But sometimes I need time by myself. I’m not as good at taking that time as I should be. I don’t think anyone is. Even when we’re trying to take time out, chances are we’ve still got a song in our head, or we’re humming to ourself, or tapping out a rhythm on our desk. We program our mobile phones to ring with our favourite tunes. But how much do we actually value music?

Could it be that this ubiquity of music is why I feel little to no remorse for downloading music made by artists I deeply admire and respect? Are we approaching a musical singularity when I can read about an as yet unreleased Mountain Goats record, search the aggregate of a dozen p2p sites in a few keystrokes, and have the album downloaded to my computer in less than half an hour?

Ponder THAT this Pi Day.

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Sheriff’s deputy hits cyclists, killing 2

A rookie Santa Clara County deputy sheriff patrolling a winding Cupertino road Sunday morning veered into the opposite lane of traffic and struck three bicyclists, killing two, including a rising star in the Bay Area cycling community, authorities said.

Be careful out there.
(via Chico Cyclist)

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I’m trying out a new stylesheet, the old one felt too dark/slow. Yay or nay?

Also, feeling a big nostalgic maybe, I’ve updated the Music page to better reflect my audio endeavors. Chewing through old albums and uploading them to the internets is a great way to take mental stock of the past 7 years or so. Also take note, there’s 10 demo tracks from Year Two available, including such never-before-heard melodies as Yuri, Song For Brother, and Out of Water.

I’m thinking I’d really like to start a band again, but I’d like to skip the entire “search for band-mates” process. Maybe I should make an extra-dumb flyer and hang it all around town.

ME: single, male, guitarrorist, looking for folk/punk adventures and discordia.
YOU: not a jerk, more talented than me, looking for a quick kill.

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I finally got around to watching Once the other night, after the weight of recommendations from from friends and many awards finally crushed my laziness. I remember first seeing a trailer for it and thinking “that movie is going to play my heart like a harp”, and it certainly did.

I’ve been inhaling all the related music I can get my grubby mitts on. The soundtrack to Once is great, and so is the album The Swell Season by Glen Hansard Markéta Irglová. Glen Hansard’s Irish rock band The Frames is pretty good and their live album Set List does me right.

As a result of my exposure to such awesome songwriting, I’ve picked up my acoustic guitar again. It’s been about three months since I’ve felt really motivated to play my own music, and I’m glad the sensation is back in that part of my brain. New strings, springtime, it’s the makings of inspiration.

Tonight I worked out an idea for an album, let’s call it Year Two. Stitched together out of some songs that have been kicking around unpolished for too long and some I’m writing now, I think it just might have some cohesion. I wrote one tonight about Yuri Gagarin and it is all kinds of good. Stay tuned.

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There’s a post on Belgium Knee Warmers about riding your bike, getting sick, and riding your bike. If you’re into bikes you might like it, if you’re not into getting sick you might like it, otherwise you might not. Take the risk anyway!

I’ve been getting over a cold/the flu/a virus/germs!? for about a month straight. It’s regularly refreshed by room mates. I’m sick of being sick, and that joke has itself worn familiar and thin. There’s a persistent light cough that I haven’t been able to shake just yet, but I’m sure (as I have been for a few weeks) that the end is near. I just hope it’s the end of the cold and not the end of me.

As evidence that I’m doing well despite a little bronchial obstruction, here’s an account of why today was a fanfuckingtastic day.
Read the rest of this entry »

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There’s a petition making it way about the net, mostly on bike relates sites and mailing lists, calling for Google to add a cycling-specific “Bike There” feature to Maps.

We would like a ‘Bike There’ feature added to Google Maps - to go with the current ‘Drive There’ and ‘Take Public Transit’ options.

The feature would take into account actual bicycle lanes from the locality being mapped, and it would automatically plan a route for a bicyclist, possibly even providing the cyclist options for either the most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route. The Google Maps-based third party site, byCycle.org (http://byCycle.org/), provides these features for two metro areas - Portland, Oregon and Madison, Wisconsin, and there are countless other mapping initiatives around the world aimed at accomplishing the same goal. We hope that Google will consider building this feature into the core Google Maps service.

Though I signed the petition, I’m not so certain of its success. It’s not that I feel as though Google would be unwilling to provide such a service, I just worry about some problems that Google won’t be able to just algorithm away using their immense internet powers. Or maybe they can?

Read the rest of this entry »

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