Very, Very Busy

I actually took this weekend off, but spent most of it hanging with the fam and decompressing (which for me means seeing a movie, Quantum of Solace if you care), so no post until now. So a quick recap...

Wednesday the 5th, my boss' boss asked if I could jump on board on an emergency project. Unfortunately, I had jury duty that Thursday. So all day Thursday was shot, then Friday I started working on the project. And Saturday. And Sunday (twelve hours that day). Most days this last week have been long, with me grabbing a snack in lieu of dinner on a few occasions. By Friday, I had beaten an insidious bug (with the help of a coworker), and I myself was beat.

I expect the cycle to begin again tomorrow, so expect radio silence once more.

To summarize, no fatal accidents or debilitating illnesses, just very, very busy. Thanks for your concern

Music

• Groovin' - Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings


• Soultrane - John Coltrane


• Stateless - Lene Lovich

And I finally got around to buying the two Radiohead songs I've wanted now that Capitol/EMI has unbundled them:

• Creep


• Paranoid Android

Carla Bruni

I missed mentioning picking up Comme si de rien n'était by Carla Bruni. All French, but still pretty fun to listen to even if I can't speak a lick.

While I'm at it, let me mention a neat album of open-source music by a collection of amateurs composed on their Nintendo DS's, using the Korg DS-10 program. The album is called diplodocus ds10 compo.

Finally, as we speak I'm downloading one of the more poppy and accessible albums by Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam. Grab some of their earlier stuff, and it can become quite abstract. I decided to go for accessible first. Reports later after a listen.

Kumoricon 2008

The photos Renee (mostly) and I (a few) took are now available on Flickr as a photoset. The general rule is, if Renee is in it, I took the photo. Otherwise, with one or two exceptions, she swiped my camera and had a field day!

Kaiji

Yay! Kaiji will have a second season! This is probably one of my favorite series in a long, long time. I was very pleased that they didn't take the easy way out and just have a happy ending. Instead, it ends with Kaiji realizing that he has been swimming with the sharks and needs to grow some teeth.

Since there were three manga series, and season one of the anime covers the first manga series, maybe I can hope for three whole seasons...

Latest eMusic Purchases

Creeping up on the end of the month, so I just grabbed these:

• Sad Wings of Destiny - Judas Priest. One of my earliest college vinyl purchases, long since sold to fund early movie outings with my not-yet-wife. Now I own it again! (parenthetically, quite possibly the only complete heavy metal album I've ever owned - I don't count Black Sabbath as they were a genre all their own)


• Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices. I've had Do the Collapse for years. I found out that many consider that album a departure from Pollard's signature style, and a dissatisfying one at that. So now I'm picking up one of GBV's 'signature' albums from early in their 'low-fi' period. Need a few listens to decide what I think.


• Round About Midnight - Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Just some tasty if inconsequential jazz.

Glenn Miller Orchestra

Out in the cloud, Ade42 wrote of his success in hunting down a transitional classic on vinyl, Something New - The Glenn Miller Orchestra under the direction of Buddy DeFranco, translates The Tijuana Brass Hits. Wow, that's a mouthful! Anyway, he digitized it and put it up for consideration. It's pretty fun.

If that's not enough, Derrick Bostrom wrote of another album from this stage in the band's life, Do You Wanna Dance?, same lineup, same leader, doing songs from the Top 40's of the period. Gave that one a listen too. Again, harmless fun.