Shawn

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! Hope if was fun!

I'm glad this place turned into a Rose Byrne fest!!!!

that's been one of my favorite Blue Note songs for a LONG time. It is perfection as far as I'm concerned.

holy CRAP!

Season 3 of Lost is a bit of a trudge to get through, I had the same initial reaction. However, the "buried alive" episode is actually one of the most memorable ones I think. Right now in a state of complete confusion I'm re-watching season 1 of Lost, watching season 2 of Damages, season 2 of Primeval (which is going downhill fast) and season 2 of Bones....plus my roomate is watching season 4 of Lost so I've been seeing bits and pieces of that as well.

Primeval (BBC) - Series 1 & 2

If you are using an external hard drive for the location of your database files (as I do), then I highly recommend making sure the drive is "awake" before opening iTunes. Just open Windows Explorer (or Finder) and browse to the drive real quick and access it, that will wake it up...then open iTunes. I've had a problem a couple times where I opened iTunes while the external hard drive was still asleep and it caused iTunes to freak out because it couldn't find the database files fast enough...so it thought the library was corrupt and tried to repair it. iTunes isn't patient enough for my particular hard drive to spin up. But since I discovered that, accessing the drive prior to opening iTunes has kept any problems from occurring.

It sounds like a database glitch. I always recommend backing up the two iTunes database files daily. The two files needed are the "Itunes Library" file and the "Itunes Library XML" file. If you open iTunes and it's messed up, just shut the program down, replace those two files with the backups from the day before and everything will be normal again upon relaunch.

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY! here's a review I did of this album earlier this year.... BLACK SABBATH (released Feb 13, 1970 - UK, June 1, 1970 - US) On November 11, 1969 four working class musicians from Birmingham entered Regent Sounds Studios to record their debut album. Their budget (600 pounds) only allowed them 8 hours of studio time. Produced by Rodger Bain (and co-engineered by a young Tom Allom), the album Black Sabbath was recorded in one day on a 4-track recorder in the tiny basement studio. The limited budget required them to record the entire album live with only enough time for some vocal and guitar overdubs. I wonder if anyone involved really knew what those humble beginnings would mean to the future of music? Opening with the sound of a rainstorm and a distant tolling church bell, the world was about to experience something completely different. Tony Iommi's genre-creating Tritone (diablos in musica) riff enters like some shambling Lovecraft monstrosity, in one moment erasing all the flower-power music that had come before. The song's heavy/light/heavy mood is perfectly complimented by Geezer Butler's occult inspired lyrics and Ozzy Osbourne's tortured soul vocals. Every doom band that has ever existed should pay royalties to this album. Iommi unleashes another signature riff in the songs uptempo section. Equally as powerful, The Wizard begins with a plaintive harmonica riff before the band kicks in with full fury on their own variation of the heavy blues sound then making the rounds through England. Even though other groups had played "heavy" songs before, this song reaches a level heretofore unattained. The pure groove and power of the rhythm section really sparks here, pushing Iommi's shuffle riff along and inspiring Ozzy to one of his strongest performances on the album. Behind The Wall Of Sleep (we're back in Lovecraft territory again) is a very mature song-suite, showing Sabbath's knack for shifting time signatures and complex changes. Iommi and Bill Ward were both jazz fans, you can hear the freedom of that influence all over the arrangments of this album. Especially in Ward's drumming, which is far from mere time-keeping, but is alive with improvisational fills and accents. A memorable bass solo from Geezer leads us into another signature Sabbath song, N.I.B. This composition truly cements the roots of heavy metal chord progressions that are still being used to this day (War Pigs is a slight variation on the same progression), I can't even begin to count the number of songs that have used some variation of this riff. Geezer's little love song (even though it happens to be sung from the devil's point of view) is powered by a near perfect performance from everyone involved. Iommi's inate knack for mixing in memorable melodic lines with his riffs is fully formed here, a landmark performance. Opening side two (at least in the US) is Wicked World. The song starts with a swing high hat groove before Iommi comes in with yet another signature riff. Rhythmic changes abound as Ozzy sings Geezer's honest lyrics about the state of the world (not the world as people wanted it to be, but as it was). The middle section is especially tasty, slowing down for an unaccompanied solo by Iommi before the song kicks back in. Sleeping Village is another song suite that shows the maturity that endless residencies at clubs bring to the band. These guys are so tight on this album, working completely together as a unified whole. This song also goes through numerous changes, mixing the light/heavy quality to great effect...in essence, this song is an extended intro to the album's tour de force... Warning. Using the Ansley Dunbar song as a building block for an extended Iommi solo, this epic song truly shows what a unique talent Tony has. This track was developed slowly over time at many live gigs, with Tony adding pieces as he went. The amount of styles he touches on in this one song is impressive. It's also a good example of what an amazing blues band Sabbath could have been if they had wanted to continue down that route. Just listen to the commentary Geezer adds underneath Iommi's riff around the 5 minute mark. I think I've played this song more than any other Sabbath tune in my lifetime, there's just something magical here that's always connected with me. Complimenting this incredible slab of vinyl is a classy iconic album cover that used to give me the creeps when I was a kid. It's true that Sabbath would continue to evolve quickly after this album...but this has stood the test of time as one of the greatest debut albums EVER. It's still my favorite Sabbath album all these years later. *notes* The first single released was Evil Woman (written by US group Crow) with Wicked World as the b-side. The UK version of the album replaces Wicked World with Evil Woman. Here's the cover of the single: On the original album cover, Ozzy is listed as "Ossie Osbourne". The album didn't debut on the US charts until after Paranoid was released...but once it did it stayed in the top 200 for 18 months. The original Vertigo version of the album was a gatefold with an upside cross inside it, this was done against the band's wishes. Tony Iommi used a Fender Strat on the song "Wicked World".

Fuck raking leaves. I live in an apartment, in Texas, there's always plenty of landscapers available...I don't even have to think about it. If they start too early in the morning I just yell "IMMIGRATION" out the window and half the complex empties out. (joke)

I agree completely.

I enjoyed The Who, so shoot me. I've loved them since I was a kid and just because they have gotten old doesn't mean I'm going to stop listening now... I mean, how many people that went and saw John Lee Hooker or Ray Charles at the end of their careers REALLY saw these guys at the top of their games? Back to Jim's point about the coaching, it was damn impressive. The reason is that it not only took the guts to make those calls, but your team has to be executing on a very high level to carry that same mindset as the coach to the field and deliver. The Saints really were playing as a "team"...something too many teams seem to forget.

Just started Season 2.

Wino - Punctuated Equilibrium (bonus 7 inch EP) (Southern Lord)

Hoping for the Saints...but predicting the Colts to prevail. Peyton isn't human...

MG. iTunes has a .mp3 encoder built in, but you have to select it as the format you want to rip to.... Go to edit>preferences>...I can't remember which tab it's on in the Windows version, but you are looking for Import Settings. You need to select the .mp3 encoder and then it will let you select the sample rate you want to use, etc.

I don't know whether this is coincidental or not...but EA Sports changed their "music" for Madden NFL 10 this year. There was a little blurb about it that I read (somewhere) that said "as our core demographic ages, we are adjusting the music to more accurately fit our target audience". So, Madden NFL 9 had a bunch of nu-rock stuff like Audioslave, Queens Of The Stone Age, plus a whole bunch of hip-hop type stuff, etc. Madden NFL 10 has turned the clock back and focuses now on bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, etc. So I'm guessing the "target audience" at this point for Madden would be the "first video game generation", people who were around 9 years old when the first Atari came out.

Just finished up season 1, EXCELLENT SERIES! ...and I'm not just saying that because I'm addicted to Rose Byrne.

I listened to the True Blue XRCD last night, the only thing I noticed was that the stereo separation seemed extreme (as of course was the case at the time)...and the other channel is so quiet during some sections that I have to make sure my speakers were working correctly...then Hubbard's trumpet solo kicked in and it scared the crap out of me. LOL

A couple favorites of mine....

A smart playlist should accomplish that goal, the possibilities are near endless. Maybe something like this....

iTunes doesn't really care where the music is, as long as you tell it where to find it. 1, open iTunes 2. go to edit>options>advanced 3. uncheck "copy items to iTunes media folder" 4. Tell it not to "keep your library organized". 5. Close Preferences. 6. Go to File>add folder to library and browse to your external hard drive. 7. iTunes will import all the files into the library, but it won't actually make another "copy" of the songs, it just points to their location. hope that helps

iTunes saves all the playlist information in the "itunes Library" file. Backing up this file is important because it contains so much information, if the file gets corrupted you'll be back to square one again. However, there is an easy way to recover if you have the file backed up. This works with either operating system (windows or mac). If you open iTunes and your information is messed up or you get a library error, here are the steps. 1. Close iTunes. 2. Replace the Itunes Library file (inside the iTunes folder) with the backed up version. 3a - For Windows: Hold down the left shift key on the keyboard and double-click the iTunes icon. This will give you a screen that asks whether you want to create a new library or choose existing. 3b - for Mac: Same process, but hold down the Option key before clicking on the iTunes logo. 4. Select "Choose Library" from that window, navigate to the iTunes folder and select the Library file you just replaced. 5. iTunes will open up normally with all your information intact. *random hint* - If you keep your iTunes library on an external hard drive, make sure the drive is "awake" before opening iTunes. I've had a couple library problems because iTunes tries to access the library file before the drive is completely awake and it freaks out. Navigating to the drive in Explorer (or Finder) and just browsing the contents will make the drive wake up. ...working for Apple has its benefits.