Lets get it out of the way right off: NO There is, to my knowledge, no actual computer virus on Facebook.
What I refer to is those abominable Facebook Apps.
I used to like Facebook as a place to keep up to date contace information for a number of friends and aquaintences from college. It was easy to use and very clean (even sparse).
But then the apps came.
Thats like saying: and then the giant, man-eating fungus came over for dinner.
Oh, I use a couple of apps. Catbook is minorly cute. And I like having a lightsabre on the side of my page. But it seems that every page I go to now is chock full of stupid “grow a plant” and “what color are your teeth” and “my top ten AND top five AND overall bestest friends ever (except that each list is different)” apps.
And the worst thing is that they are viral.
Example: You go to take a simple quiz (because you, like me, have a minor adiction to dumb online quizzes, which was only minorly lessened by leaving Livejournal)… but then a page pops up informing you that the results of your quiz are locked until you invite 12 freinds.
All things hold in themselves both intentional and subjective meanings.
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Ever since I first heard Moby’s Hotel album a couple years ago (has it seriously been that long!) one of my favorite songs has been Lift Me Up. Of course, this being a Moby song, the meaning of the song has always been rather vague to me. But it was fun! This weekend I finally took a few minutes to figure out the lyrics and the story behind the song. Taken from my own listening and readings on several websites, I present to you the full lyrics:
Plain talking (plain talking)
Will take us so far (take us so far)
In broken down cars (broken down cars)
Like strung out old stars (strung out old stars)
Plain talking (plain talking)
Served us so well (served us so well)
We traveled through hell (traveled through hell)
And oh how we fell (oh how we fell)
Lift me up!
Lift me up!
Higher now Ama!
(4x)
Plain talking (plain talking)
Is making us bold (making us bold)
So strung out and cold (strung out and cold)
I’m feeling so old(feeling so old)
Plain talking (plain talking)
Has ruined us now (has ruined us now)
Never know how (never know how)
Sweeter than thou (sweeter than thou)
Lift me up!
Lift me up!
Higher now Ama!
(4x)
(Various background vocalizations)
Lift me up!
Lift me up!
Oh la la lala!
And for your audio/visual enjoyment of this truly energetic song:
Now, that last bit of the chorus “higher now ama” confused me for years. For a while I figured that it might be “higher now onward” but that didn’t seem quite right. After a lot of digging I found a lengthy and meandering discussion of the song that included a link to Moby’s post on the topic.
It would seem that the whole song is supposed to be about politics and religion.
Now, I had taken it as being about a relationship that fell apart after someone said too much. Or someone feeling sad about honesty backfiring… but then all of the troubles being left behind in the exultation of some good music.
Now it seems that the song was written with the intention of discussing politicians who “talk plain” to get people to support them. Then there is that interesting little neologism: Ama.
I would refer you back to his post, but in summary: “Ama” is a drastically over-thought word that Moby invented for the song to refer to God in an obscure manner.
Hmmm.
Well, be it about politicians or friends or life in general, I still like the song.
I spent much of last summer watching Andromeda. A friend gave me his collection and I could not resist watching one episode after another. Since my job as Handicraft Director had very clear beginning and ending times, I would slip into my room and watch a few episodes while other friends were working in their areas, or while everyone was playing the 10,000th round of Super Smash Brothers (in my circle of friends, I only bother playing against a couple of people, since the others are masters of the smash).
Now I find myself a little low on sci-fi to watch while I plan lessons.
I have seen all of Andromeda. All of SG-1. Netflix is currently out of stock in Farscape season 1 and they can’t deliver Stargate: Atlantis discs fast enough. My Firefly discs sit on the shelf… I love that show too much to watch it much more, because I don’t want to kill it. (I have seen every episode at least three times, many of them 5 or more).
The last couple weeks I have found myself re-watching especially good episodes of SG-1 and tentatively restarting Andromeda. the problem with this is that I have been watching SG-1 off and on for about four years, and have already seen every episode. As much as I love that show, absorbing 10 years of episodes in only 4 years (most of them in the last year) approaches the SG saturation point. And Andromeda is a problem because as fun as it can be, the series suffered from a woefully inconsistent level of quality, not to mention at least two major identity crises.
I cannot claim to have read all, or even many, of his books. However, those few that I have read were well written and captivating. I still remember 2001: A Space Odyssey and all of its sequels (of them all, I think that my favorite was 2010). 2001 was one of the first serious science fiction books that I read and, while I recognized it as fiction, it challenged me to seriously think about mankind’s future in space. Laying in bed, a teenager in 2002, I realized that 34 years previous the thought of permanent bases on the moon and regular commercial spaceflight by 2001 seemed entirely feasible.
“Why?” I asked myself.
Why, if we managed to reach the moon in less than 10 years, have we been bound within earth’s orbit for so long? Why do I have little hope of living to see a civilian base on another planet. Or a self-sustaining colony? Such places certainly would certainly have purpose as (literally) new worlds of opportunity for everyone on earth.
Imagine a program, by which anyone capable of learning some common language and passing a basic medical exam could take flight and make a new and better life for themselves among the planets, even the stars.
But I digress.
Clarke was not without flaws. No man is. His writing style could be at times dry, and his characters attitudes towards committed relationships tended to be somewhat lax. But his vision was clear. His imagination unbounded. His works worth reading, if only for the sheer pleasure of the adventure.
This has been an evening of sound leaking through channels in soundboards.
The lesser: At church this afternoon the solo preview channel kept leaking into the stage monitors. I have no idea how, but it caused a lot of trouble when we were trying to preview audio.
The better: During a live recording of TWiT this evening, Dvorak asked Leo Laporte if a friend of his could call up from New York to talk about sound recording. Leo said sure, and proceeded to begin giving out his cell number. He only got through the area code and first three numbers before he realized that he was live. Then he reached over and turned down the sound, but somehow the sound leaked through to another channel. And now, everyone who watched the live stream and stayed on for the aftershow has Leo’s cell number.
No, I am not posting it.
But it feels kinds neat to have Leo Laporte’s cell phone number in my Mac address book.
I recently made the transition to a new computer. My reasons for this were varied, but can mainly be traced back to my decreased need for mobile computing and increased desire for a system that can handle video editing and gaming in my limited free time. In the course of this transition, I reached the conclusion that my iTunes library is simply too big. As of this writing, I have 3,860 items in my music library. And that number does not include movies, TV shows, audiobooks, or a full compliment of podcasts. Taking a peek at my hard drive, I see that the total size of this library is 218 gigabytes. The Library XML files alone weigh in at a hefty 21 megabytes. Thats a lot for nothing but plaintext database content.
So. In yet another attempt at cleaning out my system, I have created two new playlists: Purgatory and Deserving of Life.
Deserving of Life is a repository for albums (and the rare single track, which I eventually plan to consolidate into mix albums for simplicity’s sake) that I know I want to keep. Except for a few absolute favorites, the only way that an album may find its way onto this playlist is when I listen to it in its entirety and determine it worthy of saving.
Purgatory is simply every album that has not yet found its way onto Deserving of Life (managed as a smart playlist).
I’ll do this for a few months and then, some time over the summer probably, take a serious look at any music remaining in purgatory… some of which will certainly find its way into the great dustbin of history.
Movies, TV shows, and Podcasts are another assortment of canned worms.
Ok, so it isn’t quite that bad. I have also been managing to fit in a decent amount of spending time with the family and a couple (far too few, in my opinion) hours of reading for pleasure and playing Half-Life 2.
I love teaching.
I am exhausted and always worried about meeting deadlines, but I love it.
I have a growing collection of resources here on my hard drive, many of which I will be posting at some point. That point might not be for a few months, but it will come. Besides the generalized madness of keeping ahead on paperwork, I need to be careful not to post anything that might get me in trouble, copyright wise. Much of my material I develop myself, but some of it is based on the work of others or closely tied to the city’s textbooks.
This is my first contribution of hopefully many more to come, and of course, it’s about music. Those who know me know how much I am into music, and I am always discovering new music through friends and the Internet. Of all my latest musical discoveries, I am especially eager to share this one: a Mexican rock singer named Ely Guerra. Most anglophones have probably not heard of her before (hell, I hadn’t heard of her until a few months ago, being more into French than Spanish music), so read on for more!
“You’d really like Ely Guerra.”
That was what my friend Annie told me a few months ago as we were discussing our favorite music artists. I like all kinds of music in any language, even if I don’t necessarily speak it, but Spanish music had left a bad taste in my mouth. Most of it reminded me too much of my awful, messy suitemate from junior year who always played treacly Spanish ballads at all hours of the day, even late at night. *shudders* But I will give anything an honest try. I even gave Ys, Joanna Newsom’s latest, a try before finally throwing in the towel. I thought, “why not?”
Fortunately, Ely does NOT do treacly pop ballads. Oh no, far from it. First of all, Ely is part of the Mexican alternative rock scene, and she likes to do her own thing in the music world. She’s known not only for her beautifully written lyrics but also for her sensual voice and guitar skills. Word has it that her record company wanted her to be like Shakira and Ely flat out refused, even shaving her head in protest. I say, you go! Why be like everyone else anyway?
Ely playing live, one of my favorite pictures of her
And that makes Ely’s music even better. She already has the voice, which can range from a sensual whisper to an angry roar depending on the song and desired emotion, and she definitely has the songs, which are rich in influences from straight rock to drum ‘n’ bass. The first album I got of hers was Lotofire from iTunes, her third album, but her first released in the US in 2002, 3 years after its release in her native Mexico.
Lotofire is probably her most beautiful and multi-layered collection of songs: very introspective. This album is much more chill-out than what I thought it would be, but don’t let that deter you. Chill-out does not equal boring in this case. Instead, listen closely to each song and you’ll hear the diversity of Latin and Brazilian rhythms and melodies that Ely uses in each song, which I think is enough to hold anyone’s interest, especially if you don’t speak Spanish, like me. For instance, the appropriately chilly Tengo Frio (meaning I’m Cold in English) contains an almost bossa nova bassline percolating through the song, with sparse arrangements to describe the loneliness felt by the singer. There’s also a drum and bass rhythm (Yo No) and then atmospheric rock in De La Calle, a truly haunting song used in the Mexican film of the same name. Though I immediately fell in love with her second album Pa’ Morirse de Amor, which I will review in a moment, Lotofire’s songs show off her voice a lot more, particularly on the guitar only songs like El Tiempo [a song about the environment] and El Mar, where her beautiful voice floats above her strummed guitar like a spring haze.
And this one is her second album, Pa’ Morirse de Amor, which came out in 1997 but was reissued in 2002 with an extra disc of remixes. This album has a different sound than Lotofire: much more straight ahead rock but with a Latin feel in the rhythm and instruments. Where Lotofire was introspective, Pa Morirse is more upbeat sounding. I’ve been listening to this album almost every day since I bought it, and each time I listen I love it even more. I don’t understand a lot of what she’s saying, since whatever Spanish I do know comes from knowing French and Italian. However, I don’t think that even matters.
First of all, the melodies and rhythms are catchy and interesting enough to hold your interest, especially in the stand-out track Angel de Fuego, the South American-modern rock hybrid Por que tendria que llorar por ti, and the moody sounding title track. Even in Que Mas Da, Ely is backed by nothing but sparse percussion and flutes, giving the song a traditional sounding vibe that doesn’t often happen in modern music. Second of all, a range of emotions come across in her voice, so even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can still understand the emotions that Ely brings to her songs. Her instrument can glide from her standard sensual whisper (Lagrimas de Agua Salada) to an angry roar (No quiero hablar [I don't want to talk], a bitter song to an ex-boyfriend). It’s just a shame that this album isn’t widely available, not even on iTunes. Looks like it’s only been released in Mexico so far as I know. In fact, I had to get mine from an Ebay seller in California; go figure.
So expand your horizons and visit Latin America in a non-traditional way. All you’ll need is an open mind.
For more Ely, here are some videos from YouTube:
The music video for the aforementioned De La Calle
A fan-made video using Ely’s “Por que tendria que llorar por ti” with scenes from The L-Word. At least you can listen to the song, a favorite of mine from Ely
Yes, I am a crazy tech addict. My primary interest is Macintosh, but I do keep an eye on Windows, Linux, and tech in general. A relaxing weekend for me is putting around the house with various TWiT Podcasts playing on my computer or iPod. And this is the time of year when it gets interesting.Macworld is next week, and with it comes the return of MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Tech. *sigh* if only I were still a slack college student, able to spend the entire day reading blog updates and listening to the Podcasts as soon as they come out. Here’s hoping for some interesting announcements.
Those who know me know how much I am into music, and I am always discovering new music through friends and the Internet. Of all my latest musical discoveries, I am especially eager to share this one: a Mexican rock singer named Ely Guerra. Most anglophones have probably not heard of her before (hell, I hadn’t heard of her until a few months ago, being more into French than Spanish music), so read on for more!
Here’s hoping for some interesting announcements. 
