Okay, only I could get giggly over acquiring a new Lee Morgan album. I know I just used up my monthly allotment of credits from eMusic, but they don't roll over on the calendar month, so I've got a new bundle to play with.
And so I went to the eMusic home page, and up there under Music You'll Love, the very first item was Take Twelve. I listened to the samples, and decided I had to have it. So now I have the classic The Sidewinder, the uneven but still fun Expoobident, and this new one. Can't wait to play it while coding!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Rounding out the Month
Two final acquisitions. I already heard Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor thanks to a loaner from Brent, and eMusic carries it, so into the iTunes library it goes.
Second, a bit of an experiment:
Godfather - Tamil Movie Soundrack by A. R. Rahman.
Second, a bit of an experiment:
Godfather - Tamil Movie Soundrack by A. R. Rahman.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Surfing on Sine Waves
I'm taking the entire weekend off this time around to try to nurse a cold into submission. I have a history of really embracing a cold, so I doubt it will be easy. Anyway, I decided to grab some music off of eMusic, and this is what I'm listening to now:
Polygon Window is another name for Richard D. James, best known as Aphex Twin. Lots of rhythmic electronic noise, sort of a 20th century canon. It's good for zoning out, or to play in the background when coding.
- Surfing on Sine Waves - Polygon Window
Polygon Window is another name for Richard D. James, best known as Aphex Twin. Lots of rhythmic electronic noise, sort of a 20th century canon. It's good for zoning out, or to play in the background when coding.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Breaking News
This movie has been sitting in my pile unwatched since the very last Anime Expo I attended (2005?). Anyway, I decided I wanted to watch a HK movie while exercising, and had one of the Twins movies all ready to go (thanks for the loaner, Lisa!) when I discovered that it was not Region 0 or 1, and so would not play on the deck downstairs. So I grabbed Breaking News off the stack as a consolation prize.
And a consolation prize is what it is. It's an acceptable action movie, with a bit of cat-and-mouse, but nothing really special, and not exhilarating in the way a silly Twins movie can be. Basic HK police action movie.
And a consolation prize is what it is. It's an acceptable action movie, with a bit of cat-and-mouse, but nothing really special, and not exhilarating in the way a silly Twins movie can be. Basic HK police action movie.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Last Few Music Acquisitions
Find yer own links!
- Waltz for Debby - Bill Evans
- Konfusion - Skalpel
- Wooly Bully - Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs (single song)
- La Marseillaise - Django Reinhardt
Monday, January 12, 2009
Seen and Wanna See
I could have seen this years ago, but somehow, I only just now got around to watching Battle Royale, a goofy movie I won't even try to describe. Fun if grim Japanese movie. Note: Chiaki Kuriyama, who plays Takako Chigusa in Battle Royale, later played the role of Gogo Yubari, in Kill Bill, Vol. 1.
Another movie I just found out about was directed by Tarsem Singh, and was apparently making the art house rounds last year, but I missed it. It's called The Fall, and Roger Ebert gives it unequivocal praise. It sounds really neat, so I'm gonna try to rent it some weekend in the near future. Noted here so I remember the details...
Another movie I just found out about was directed by Tarsem Singh, and was apparently making the art house rounds last year, but I missed it. It's called The Fall, and Roger Ebert gives it unequivocal praise. It sounds really neat, so I'm gonna try to rent it some weekend in the near future. Noted here so I remember the details...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Sun in a Bottle
I'm just finishing up Sun in a Bottle by Charles Seife. He covers the pursuit of fusion power from the early awareness of radioactivity, through the construction of fission bombs, onward to fusion research (magnetic confinement, inertial -- laser -- confinement) and fringe science, such as cold fusion, sonoluminescence and electrostatic confinement (fusors).
[Update One: The above paragraph sounds pretty pejorative, and it is. Seife takes pains to describe how easy it is to mistake the signs of fusion, and how easy it is to become emotionally invested in the results of these smaller experiments. But he is pretty clear that the evidence is not there. I'm not going to become a champion for either side. I just read a book, people.]
It's a fascinating book, and coincidentally, I've been sitting on a video that was made a couple of years ago at Google featuring Robert Bussard. The video is called Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really). During the talk, Bussard presents his work on electrostatic confinement, and it's a wonderful talk, even if I don't really follow the physics that well. Sadly, Charles Seife mentions this in his book, and puts it in the same category as cold fusion and bubble fusion. I hope he's wrong. Bussard was a fascinating scientist and it would be great if he figured out a path to fusion power before he died.
[Update Two: I'm going to quote the entire paragraph on Bussard, so that M. Simon (another commentor) can judge the tone for himself:
[Update One: The above paragraph sounds pretty pejorative, and it is. Seife takes pains to describe how easy it is to mistake the signs of fusion, and how easy it is to become emotionally invested in the results of these smaller experiments. But he is pretty clear that the evidence is not there. I'm not going to become a champion for either side. I just read a book, people.]
It's a fascinating book, and coincidentally, I've been sitting on a video that was made a couple of years ago at Google featuring Robert Bussard. The video is called Should Google Go Nuclear? Clean, cheap, nuclear power (no, really). During the talk, Bussard presents his work on electrostatic confinement, and it's a wonderful talk, even if I don't really follow the physics that well. Sadly, Charles Seife mentions this in his book, and puts it in the same category as cold fusion and bubble fusion. I hope he's wrong. Bussard was a fascinating scientist and it would be great if he figured out a path to fusion power before he died.
[Update Two: I'm going to quote the entire paragraph on Bussard, so that M. Simon (another commentor) can judge the tone for himself:
On November 9, 2006, just days before the Olson story broke, the fusion physicist Robert Bussard gave a talk at Google about his research with a modified fusor. He had been working for the navy, but after a number of years he had run out of money for the program. The scientist told his audience that if he could only get his hands on $200 million, he would be able to produce a working power plant within four to five years. Bussard was deceiving himself if mainstream scientific thought is any guide. The equations of plasma physics strongly imply that fusorlike devices are very unlikely to produce more energy than they consume. Nature's inexorable energy-draining powers are too hard to overcome.
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