The Haiku Review?

2006 Favorites

2006-12-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

Looking back at my "Best of 2005" list and "Best of 2004" list, I am frankly a bit disappointed. I think of myself as someone with good taste in music who listens to lots of "independent" and less well-known artists, but my lists certainly don't reflect that. I think I was reading too many other people's lists and just trying to keep up with the blogging Joneses.

So, this year I've decided to do something a bit different. Instead of a list of my picks for best albums of 2006, I think I'm just going to list my favorite albums from 2006. A subtle difference, perhaps. But I think I'll be able to look back a few years from now and still agree with these choices, at least more so than my last few years lists. Still not a lot of indie bands on the list this year though. Maybe I'm not as hip as I thought.

Anyway, here are my favorites:

The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America - this album will probably be on top of lots of peoples lists, but honestly it really deserves to be. I loved their last album (Separation Sunday) but this album is far more immediately accessible. These guys know how to ROCK in a way that I feel like classic rock bands rock, and they have really mastered their songwriting. Great characters, interesting themes, and badass hooks. I can't say enough good things about this record!

Tool - 10,000 Days - Tool takes years to put out a record, and if you listen closely to this album you can hear why. It is, technically, perfect. And by that I mean that as musicians they have reached some kind of machine-like timing. Listening to this record is a freaking sonic adventure, and I really give them credit for being able to get songs on the radio that have time signatures and changes that would normally confuse a regular pop listener.

Thursday - A City By the Light Divided - This is where the difference between a "Best Of" list and a "Favorites" list comes in to play. This isn't that great of an album really, and frankly it isn't even that great of a Thursday album... and yet when looking at my iTunes play counts for 2006 it is way up at the top. Good music for getting me out of the house and onto the Metro in the morning. The production on this record is interesting, too. It was done by the guy who did the newest Flaming Lips album, which brings us to...

The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics - Again, not the best Flaming Lips album, but it still managed to rack up a hell of a lot of listens on my ipod. Also, the song "Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung" is easily my favorite song from 2006. It doesn't even sound like the Flaming Lips (probably because Wayne doesn't sing on it)... it reminds me of some lost Pink Floyd song.

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife - The third in the trifecta of albums by bands I love that don't quite live up to previous releases. This was a big deal for the Decemberists, since it was their first album on a major label. I have to give them a lot of credit; they didn't change their sound at all to conform to the labels ideas, as far as I can tell at least. Maybe I am just a little tired of the Decemberists formula, though, because it took me a few listens to really get into this record. It has some great tracks but as a whole I was a bit disappointed.

The Mars Volta - Amputechture - Their last album (Frances the Mute) was such a huge disappointment that my hopes were low. Upon first listening to this new record I was not immediately captivated. I forced myself to give it a chance, though, and I've come to really like it. There are some boring stretches but nothing that I have to fast forward through like on Frances. And actually some strong songs exist under all the layers of prog. Definitely an interesting listen.

The Beatles - Love - I didn't expect much from this "soundtrack" album, but I grabbed it anyway. Lo and behold, it is actually a great album. No huge surprises, but the remastering and remixing of the old songs really makes them feel modern, and the occasional mashing-up is neat too.

Ghostface Killer - Fishscale - Why can't more hip hop be like this? I'm excited about the follow up More Fish, which features a lot of underground hip hop stars.

Taylor Hawkins & The Coattails - Self Titled - This is the drummer from the Foo Fighters. He made an album better than the last Foo Fighters record. Crazy.

Lupe Fiasco - Food and Liquor - Hip Hop about skateboarding? Sold.

Mastodon - Blood Mountain - Heavy as shit. This albums rocks hard.

Moneen - The Red Tree - Moneen has used the same formula for all of their songs, but it just keeps getting better. This album is catchy and has great production. I hope they get more exposure in the future.

Honorable Mentions:

Thom Yorke - The Eraser - Good, but not Radiohead good.

Beck - The Information - Beck can do no wrong in my book. This was a solid effort.

Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche - A nice collection of B-Sides.

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere - Good album. Not as good as the hype, but I like it nonetheless.

Built to Spill - You in Reverse - Good songs, but I am not in love with the stripped down production.

The Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist - Glad to have these guys back! This is a much better album than their last one. It took me a little while to get into it, but I like it a lot now.

Best Tribute Albums:

The Killer in You - A Tribute to the Smashing Pumpkins - This is worth it mainly for the Murder By Death cover of "We Only Come Out At Night".

To Elliot: From Portland - A Tribute to Elliott Smith - Some good Elliott Smith covers by a bunch of Seattle bands.

Easy Star All Stars - Radiodread - I don't know where this came from but it is awesome. Some reggae band covered the entire Radiohead Ok Computer album, and it is actually really good.

Most Anticipated Release for 2007:

The Smashing Pumkins - Supposedly they will be releasing their new album. I hope James Iha is involved in some way, although I doubt it.

The Rentals - Finally reunited! This should be an awesome pop rock album, as long as it sounds nothing like Matt Sharp's solo record.

Velvet - Yes, I can't wait for my band's album to finally come out. It will be worth the wait.

My lists from years past:

Best of 2005

Best of 2004

Still waiting for that robot butler and flying car...

The Files Are In the Computer?? Part III - iTunes Goodness

2006-05-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

Part III in a continuing series.

I gotta tell you, I love iTunes. Not the music store, just the application itself. It is actually a very well made piece of software. A lot of people don't like it though. Some of them are just natural Apple haters, but most of them don't like iTunes because it is not the most intuitive program.

iTunes has a philosophy similar to Gmail, "Forget how you've done things in the past. Our way is the right way." This would normally piss me off, because I hate learning all about an application that is supposed to do something as simple as play music. But it turns out that iTunes is an extremely powerful application... so much so that I think that it is worth your time to learn all about how it works.

In my line of work I handle very large databases. These databases contain millions and millions of scanned documents. Every document is reviewed by a person, and has its characteristics (title, date, etc.) coded into the database. So for any given document, you can see the related important "metadata." Then, if you need to find a particular document, you can search for it very quickly simply by telling the database to find a document with "metadata" matching what you are looking for. So instead of flipping through a million documents to find the one from March 2nd, 2006, you can simply search for the date and it will return any documents from that date. This is called a "relational database."

iTunes works in the exact same way, except instead of scanned paper documents it contains digital music files. Every music file (song) has "metadata" attached to it that you can type in, such as song name, artist name, album title, genre, etc. This data is stored in the database with your music, so if you want to find a particular song or artist you can jump to it extremely quickly by just typing a few letters or running a quick search. I'm going to show you how to make the most of this database.

Now, I'm sure you've used Winamp or a similar program to play your MP3s. Winamp is great too, but it does not have the library / organization power of iTunes. Plus, if you have an iPod you must use iTunes to upload your music to the 'pod.

The first thing you need to get used to with iTunes is the lack of "folders." Let's face it; everything you do in the Windows environment is based around folders. And you generally think of your music library in the same way: Artist folder, with album folders within. Or perhaps Genre folders with the songs inside. iTunes, though, at first appears to "ignore" your folders. All of your songs just appear in a big list. But there is more than meets the eye here.

First, make sure Library is highlighted in the column on the left. Then go to Edit > Show Browser (or click the "Browse" eye icon in the upper right, or hit CNTRL-B). The "list" of your songs will now split in half. The top half will contain the Browser, which consists of 3 sections: Genre, Artist, and Album. The bottom half contains the library of songs which is filtered by the Browser.

So, for example, if you pick "Rock" as your genre, the list of songs at the bottom becomes narrowed down to only those songs that have the Genre metadata tagged as "Rock." Now if you were to click on, say, Nirvana from the Artist section of the Browser, the list at the bottom will be narrowed down to songs that have the Genre metadata tagged as "Rock" and the Artist metadata tagged as "Nirvana." Finally, you can go to the Album section of the Browser and pick which Nirvana album you want (I would recommend In Utero). The list at the bottom will be narrowed down to the songs tagged as Genre - "Rock," Artist - "Nirvana," and Album - "In Utero."

Seems like a lot of work just to get to one album, doesn't it? Why is this so great? Wouldn't browsing folders be easier?

Well, I just showed you the long way to narrow the list down to an album. There is a much quicker way. Let's say you know you want to listen to In Utero. You don't care what Genre the album is coded as. You know it is a Nirvana album but you have so many Nirvana albums and bootlegs that it would take at least a minute to pick In Utero out of the list of Nirvana albums. Here's what to do: Just click anywhere in the "Album" section of Browser so that any album is highlighted. Now just type the first few letters of the album you want on the keyboard (in this case "i" - "n"), and the cursor will jump to that album. You can do this in any section of the Browser to jump immediately to what you want! If you are in the song list at the bottom half of the screen, you need to make sure that the songs are sorted correctly, though. So, for example, if you want to jump to a particular song by title, click on the column "Name" in the song list so that the list sorts the songs alphabetical by name. Now you can type the first few letters of the song and it will jump directly to it.

Another quick way to find anything in iTunes is to use the Search field (in the upper right, next to the "Browse" eye icon). This is pretty self explanatory... you type in what you are looking for and the list is narrowed down instantly to just what you wanted. So if you type "In Utero" you will just get the songs from In Utero listed. But if you type in something broader like "Nirvana" you will get a list of all of your Nirvana songs. The Browser still works here, though, so once you have used the Search to filter everything down to your Nirvana songs, you can pick which Genre or Album you want from the Browser. To clear the filter, just click the "x" at the end of the Search field, or just delete whatever you typed.

Now let us get into customizing your iTunes experience to make it the most user-friendly and useful. Go to Edit > Preferences (or hit CTRL-,). This will bring up the iTunes preferences menu. This menu has almost every option you will need in iTunes.

The first tab is the General tab. Here you can adjust the text size of the Source column (the column on the left hand side) and the Song list (including the Browser text). You can also choose to show or not show Party Shuffle and Videos. If you don't have any Video to put in iTunes, uncheck the Video option. I would leave Party Shuffle checked; it is a fun feature which I will discuss later.

If you aren't big on filling in your Genres, you can uncheck the "Show genre when browsing" option. This will remove the Genre column from the Browser window. I would leave this checked, though.

The next option is very important. Check the box for "Group compilations when browsing." This makes sure that any album that you have that has various artists on it (like a movie soundtrack, for example) will be put in a special section called Compilations under Artists. This way you don't have to scroll through a million different artist names that each have only one song for a single CD. Later, I will show you how to do this on your iPod too. Trust me, it makes browsing your Artist list and your iPod so much easier. But, it is important to make sure that your various artist albums are tagged as "Compilation > Yes." This is how iTunes knows to group the various artists together into one single album. I'll discuss tagging later.

Next is the choice for "Show links to Music store." I don't really buy anything from the iTunes music store, but even if I did I wouldn't choose this option. It puts a little link to the iTunes music store after every single song in your list. Honestly, why? I guess it is useful if you are constantly searching the music store for different artists, but I just feel like it is marketing overkill. Uncheck it.

Checking for updates and language are up to you.

Next, flip to the "Sharing" tab. If your computer is on a LAN (local area network) with some other computers, you may wish to turn on sharing. This is nice if you have roomates - you can access each others Libraries without actually copying music back and forth. Check "Look for shared music" and "Share my music" to enable this feature. You can also choose to share only certain playlists or to add a password to your Library.

Now skip over to the "Parental Control" tab. You can disable parts of iTunes here if you want. I chose to disable the Radio, because I don't listen to streaming internet radio (I'm sure it is cool, but I have a lot of music between my Library and my XM!). You can also disable the Music store here, which I would recommend if you aren't using it. This should get rid of that annoying banner at the bottom of the screen too.

Finally, choose the "Advanced" tab. This tab is so important that it has it's own 3 mini-tabs. Let's start with the General tab under Advanced. The first box lets you select where to store your iTunes library. If the default is ok you can leave it, but if you have a full hard drive and would like to keep your music somewhere else, click the "Change" button and browse to the drive where you would like your music to be stored. You can even use a network drive if you like. Also, if your library has grown too large for your computer, you can change the location of the library here and then click Advanced > Consolidate Library to move everything! This is a great feature... it allows you to keep your ratings and play counts when you move your library.

Next, check the box for "Keep iTunes folder organized." This will make sure that your library is kept in uniform folders (Artist > Album > Songs). Also check "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to Library." This will put a copy of your music in the library folder on your hard drive if you drag it into iTunes. Of course, if the folder is already there I think it will make a duplicate of it, so if that is the case maybe leave this unchecked.

Check "Use iTunes as the default player for audio files" (self explanatory) and leave the buffer set to Medium. If you have an Airport Express for your wireless setup, check "Look for remote speakers connected with Airtunes." This way you can play your iTunes music on your stereo (assuming you have the Airport Express hooked to your stereo, that is).

Finally (on this tab), check "Keep Mini Player on top of all other windows" and "Show iTunes icon in system tray." I'll explain the Mini Player in a bit (the icon is really up to you, but I like to have it in the system tray).

Ok, now switch to the Importing tab. The "On CD Insert" drop down choice is a personal preference for how you want iTunes to treat a CD. I have mine set to "Show Songs." Next, change "Import Using" to MP3 Encoder. This ensures that any music you rip from CD is in MP3 format. MP3 is a lossy format and the other choices listed actually are superior in terms of audio, but they are not as universal as MP3. Just about every audio player out there supports MP3, so this is how I like to save my music. If you would like to use one of the other formats it is your choice. If you do choice MP3, I would recommend setting it to High Quality (160kbs). This is just a little bit less quality than the original CD but the file size is still pretty small. I think it is a good compromise.

Uncheck "Play Songs When Importing," as this slows the ripping process down significantly. Check "Create filenames with track number" and uncheck "Use error correction when reading Audio CDs."

Finally, flip to the Burning tab. Set the Preferred speed to whatever you prefer. If you want to burn audio CDs compatible with CD players (like your car stereo) choose Audio CD (and set the Gap Between Songs to None). You can also burn a MP3 CD if you would like an MP3 CD to play in stereos that can decode MP3, or a data CD if you want to put the MP3s on a disc for someone's computer.

WHEW! We're done with the tabs now. You can click OK.

Now, for some fun tips!

1) If you have purchased any music from the iTunes music store, the songs also include the album artwork. If you'd like to see this artwork in iTunes as you browse your library, hit CTRL-G. This will add an artwork browser to the lower left hand corner. If you would like to add artwork to an album, first find the artwork online (try google, or amazon, or allmusic). Now highlight the songs in the album in your iTunes library. Now just click on the picture of the artwork in your webbrowser and drag it over to the Artwork Browser in iTunes. The picture will now display for all the highlighted songs!

2) See the plus sign in the lower right hand corner? That is the New Playlist button. Click it and you can name the playlist, then drag songs from your library to the playlist.

3) If you hold down the Shift button, this plus sign will become a gear icon. If you click it it will create a Smart Playlist. Smart Playlists are really cool. They allow you to create a playlist based on certain rules or criteria of your choosing, rather than actually picking specific songs. So, for example, you could have a Smart Playlist of all of your Hip Hop songs that are longer than 1:00 minute long... this will get rid of all of the annoying skits between tracks. Or, you could have a Smart Playlist where Year is 0 to find all of the albums that don't have a Year filled in. You can actually get very complicated with these playlists, and have one playlist pull from multiple other playlists. And since they update on their own, you never have to touch them again once they are created. For more info check out Smart Playlist. They haven't updated their site in a while but the old posts have some great examples of how cool Smart Playlists can be.

4) Make your Nano into a Shuffle! Or even your Video Ipod! The Shuffle is cool because you just plug it in and tell it to auto fill itself with songs randomly picked from your Library. Then it plays these songs back randomly. So you just get a nice mix of tunes to go. But if you have a Nano (or an Ipod), you have to pick what music you want on it. Here is how I have worked around this to make the Nano function like a Shuffle. First, create a Smart Playlist called "Random Nano." In the Smart Playlist settings, uncheck "Match the Following Rule." Check the "Limit To" box. If you have a 2 GB Nano put a 2 in the next box (or perhaps 1.75 so you have some space left over), "GB" in the second box, and Selected By "Random" in the third box. Check "Match Only Checked Songs" and "Live Updating." This will create a totally random list of 2GB worth of music (or whatever size you set it to). Now right click on your Nano or iPod in the Source list and set it to Automatically Update based on the "Random Nano" playlist only. When you plug in your Nano it will add all of the random songs from the Smart Playlist. Then when you want to listen to them randomly select "Shuffle Songs" on your Nano. So now you have a random assortment of songs from your Library being played back randomly, exactly like a Shuffle behaves! When you want new songs, click on the Random Nano playlist, highlight all of the songs in the playlist, and click Delete. The list will refill itself with all new music, and your Nano will update accordingly.

Ok that is a lot of tips and info for now. I'm gonna save more for another post!

The Files Are In the Computer?? Part II: A Few More Nice Touches

2006-05-02T10:11:00.000-05:00

Part II in a continuing series.

So I've shown you how to clean up your Taskbar and Start Menu. I have a few more useful tips for you to make your computing a bit less painful:

1) Run your monitor at a high resolution. This is done by right-clicking on your desktop > Properties > Settings, and adjusting the Screen Resolution slider bar. The higher you set your resolution, the smaller everything on your screen appears. Don't set it so high that you can't see what you are doing... make sure you can read your screen comfortably. But still, try running it as high as you can. This will give you more screen space to work with. Very useful if you multi-task while working.

2) Use "ClearType" if you have an LCD monitor. This can make a HUGE difference in how easily you can read text on your LCD monitor. To do this, right-click on your desktop > Properties > Appearance > click on Effects, and check the second box ("Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts") and choose ClearType. This doesn't do much for old school CRT monitors, but your eyes will thank you if you use a flat LCD monitor.

3) Try a new theme! Hey, we all get a little tired of the WindowsXP default blue and green look. Frankly, for a long time I switched everything back to the "Classic" look because it was less distracting. To do this, right-click on the desktop > Properties > Appearance > and choose Windows Classic style from the "Windows and buttons" drop down. If you like the look of Windows Media Center, try googling "windows royale theme." You can download and install this theme directly from Microsoft (so you don't have to do any hacking to get windows to run it). It is not that much different from the regular WindowsXP theme, but I personally like it better. If you really want to get creative, check out an OS hack like Window Blinds that allow you to use all kinds of new themes. But be warned, these themes can often suck up system resources and / or crash your computer.

4) Master these 2 shortcuts: ALT-TAB lets you rapidly toggle between programs that are currently running. This is a great trick if you work in an office and people can see your computer when they enter your cubicle or office. Once you have used this shortcut enough it will become second nature to switch from your web browser to some generic spreadsheet or Word document in the blink of an eye, so no one notices what a goof off you are. Also incredibly useful is the combination of the WindowsButton + the letter "m". This minimizes everything to the Taskbar and shows your desktop. Handy if you just want to clear everything from the screen.

The Files Are In the Computer??

2006-05-01T19:19:00.000-05:00

Part I in a continuing series.

Hello, welcome to "The Files Are In the Computer??" This series will focus on how to get the most out of technology, computers, and teh internets. I know a lot about computers (specifically Windows-based computers). I am not a computer science major, but I do spend an unhealthy amount of time interacting with these machines, and I've learned a thing or two that I think others may be interested in knowing.

In this post I would like to focus on helping you make your computer a bit more user friendly. Namely, I'm going to focus on the task bar and start menu. You probably don't think too much about these two things, but they can honestly make your computing experience a pleasure or a pain in the ass. I would argue that the default WindowsXP settings for the task bar and start menu are less than ideal. But at least they let you change things...

If you right click on your taskbar and select Properties you will be greeted with the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" box. Alternately, you could go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Taskbar and Start Menu. Either way you end up in the same place.

The first tab in this window is for the taskbar (this includes everthing to the right of the Start button). The first section of this menu is for Taskbar Appearance, but I would argue that it allows much more customization than just "appearance."

1) The first check box is for "Lock the taskbar." If unchecked, this lets you move the taskbar around the screen, and also lets you hide or unhide parts of the taskbar such as the QuickLaunch or Notification areas (I'll explain these soon). For now, leave this unchecked. Once you have your taskbar the way you like it, I would recommend locking it so you don't accidently change something with an errant mouse click.

2) The next choice is to "Auto-Hide the taskbar." This makes the Taskbar and Start Menu disappear after a few moments of the the moving the mouse off of the taskbar. This is definitely a matter of personal preference. I like to see my taskbar (especially the clock) at all times, so I have this option unchecked.

3) Next, "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" is fairly self explanatory. If checked, the taskbar cannot be "covered" by other open program windows or folders. I honestly don't know why anyone would want to uncheck this.

4) "Group similar taskbar buttons" will stack things in the taskbar if checked. In other words, if you have a lot of Windows Explorer file folder windows open, they will collapse into one "space" on your taskbar. To select an individual folder from this group, you need to first click on the group on the taskbar and then scroll the mouse up to highlight the particular folder you want. This works the same if you have multiple program windows open; for example if you are working on a number of Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. Personally, I think this is annoying. It defeats the purpose of the taskbar, which is easy access to your different open windows. I would recommend unchecking this option, unless you have a very small monitor or run your resolution very low (so you need all of the screen real estate you can afford).

5) "Show Quick Launch" is my favorite option. Lots of people love the operating system for Macs (OS X). OS X has a neat feature called the Dock which is a collection of icons that are short cuts to your frequently used programs. The Quick Launch is the closest thing that Windows has to this nice Mac feature, as it allows you to add a few handy program or file shortcuts right on the taskbar. I would definitely recommend checking this feature (I'll talk more about customizing the Quick Launch later).

The next section is the "Notification area." The Notification area is the section at the far right of your taskbar, which is probably full of mysterious icons that you never click on.

The first option here is self explanatory - click it to show the clock in the taskbar. I like knowing what time it is, don't you?

The final choice on the Taskbar tab is to "hide inactive icons." This is another very useful feature and I definitely recommend checking it. Why do you have all of these icons that you probably never click on taking up valuable space on your taskbar?

Before I go any further on this, I would like to point out that many, many programs install an icon in your Notification Area. I would say that 9 out of 10 of these icons are useless in your day to day work. But more than being a visual nuisance, they are also eating up processor power and slowing down your computer. This is because that little icon means that some part of the host program is actually running "in the background" on your computer. So, even if you aren't running Quicktime right now, that little Q in your Notification area may just be slowing things down on your machine. Usually these icons don't do much in the background, but when you have a slew of them all running at once the effect can add up! Luckily, almost all programs allow some way to disable the Notification Icons. There is usually an option under Preferences or Options in any given programs File menu. I would recommend double clicking on each mystery icon in your Notification Area so that it launches it's host program. Then find out how to disable the Notification Icon, unless you decide that it is useful to have it running. Some icons are necessary and functional (like the Gmail notifier or the Picasa Media Detector, which I'll talk about in some other post). Other Notification icons just allow a better way to minimize a program; for example there is an option in Microsoft Office that allows you to minimize Outlook to the Notification area instead of to the taskbar. Since most office workers have Outlook running all day long, it doesn't make sense to have it taking up space in the taskbar when you could just have a little icon by the clock sitting there.

Whew! Ok, so we've gone through all those icons and found out how to disable most of the useless ones. But now we still have a few that we need to have running. But do we really need to see them all the time? Probably not. So, to the right of the "Hide inactive icons" check box, there is a button that says "Customize." Click it! Here you will see all of the possible Notification icons that could possibly be running at any time on your computer. Each icon has an option to Always Show, Always Hide, or Hide When Inactive. Hide When Inactive is not especially useful, as Windows seems to think that if something is running in the Notification area, it is "active," so it will almost always be shown. Some icons need to be there but I don't need to see them... for example the Google Desktop icon (more on Google Desktop later too). The idea here is to get rid of any icons that you don't need to see constantly.

Now that was the tough part. Next, click on the "Start Menu" tab at the top. WindowsXP comes with the default set to your first choice here ("Start Menu"). If you like how your start menu works, leave this alone. Personally, I think the start menu is a cluttered mess in this configuration. I can never find anything without looking around for a minute. But the second choice on this list ("Classic Start Menu") is a heck of a lot easier to navigate. I recommend switching to the Classic menu and trying it out for a few days... I think you'll like it.

To really make the most of the Start Menu, click the "Customize" button on the right. You can add, remove, or sort the icons on your start menu in the top section. The "Clear" button is useful for getting rid of your Start Menu "history," such as what documents you have opened recently. The bottom section offers you even more customization options.

1) "Display Administrative Tools" - if checked, this adds Administrative tools to the Start > Programs menu. Check it... you'll need these later.

2) "Display Favorites" - this is only useful if you use Internet Explorer. You will not be using Internet Explorer by the time I'm through with you. Leave this unchecked.

3) "Display Log Off" - This adds a "log off" button to the Start menu. Useful if you don't like hitting CTRL-ALT-DELETE to log off of your computer.

4) "Display Run" - Adds "Run..." button to the start menu. This is a great way to quickly launch programs or the command window (I'll write about these later). Definitely check this!

5) "Enable dragging and dropping" - Allows you to rearrange things on your Start menu by dragging and dropping them around. I like this feature. But once you get the Start menu the way you like it, you might want to disable it, so you don't accidently move things around when clicking.

6) "Expand Control Panel" - this gives you quick access to the Control Panel. I recommend checking it.

7) "Expand My Documents" - this gives you quick access to all of the folders and documents in My Documents. I would leave this unchecked. Later I will show you a different way to get to My Documents quickly.

8) "Expand My Pictures" - Leave this unchecked unless you really need to get to your pictures folder quickly and frequently.

9) "Expand Network Connections" - only useful if you have multiple network cards or connections on your computer. Even then it is kind of overkill. Leave it unchecked.

10) "Expand Printers" - same as above, but for printers. Do you have lots of printers? Probably not, unless you are in a big office. Most likely you will leave this unchecked, at least on your home computer.

11) "Scroll Programs" - this is a matter of personal taste. When you have lots of programs installed on your computer, the Start menu can sometimes become a very long list, sometimes so long that it spills over to a 2 page or even 3 page list. If you don't like this, you can check this box to scroll through your programs in a single list. Personally, I like to see all my programs with one click. I would leave this unchecked.

12) "Show Small Icons In Start Menu" - this shrinks the icons on the Start menu. If you like to squint, feel free to check this. Personally I already run my monitor resolution very high (I'll address this in another post), so the icons are already small. No need to shrink them further.

13) "Use Personalized Menus" - leave this checked.

Now click Ok for the Customization menu and Ok for the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties menu. Not too painful, right?

Now, as long as you chose the option to Enable the Quick Launch bar and you chose not to Lock the Taskbar, you can re-size the Quick Launch area next to the Start menu using your mouse by dragging the double arrow (">>" symbol). This way you can decide how many icons you want to display here. I usually have 4. Any of the icons that are hidden can still be accessed by clicking the double arrow (">>"). You can also rearrange the icons to decide what order they are displayed. I generally put the "Show Desktop" icon first, then Firefox (I'll talk about Firefox later), then a shortcut to Windows Explorer, and finally Microsoft Outlook. The hidden icons are all of my media programs (Itunes, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, and Internet Explorer... yes sometimes you have to use it!).

Now one final trick: right-click on the desktop and go to Toolbars. This menu lets you add a few additional items to the Taskbar. Here you can toggle the Quick Launch bar on and off here (I would leave it on). There is a handy feature here called Desktop. If you check it, it adds a double arrow (">>" symbol) to the Notification area that says "Desktop." Clicking this gives you instant access to all of your desktop shortcuts, including My Computer and My Documents (this is why I recommend not having My Documents on the Start menu... it would be duplicitive).

Finally, if you are an iTunes addict like me, you can click the iTunes checkbox on the Toolbars menu. Now if you minimize iTunes it will turn into a little controller on your taskbar. Unfortunately this little control bar takes up a lot of space. Luckily Itunes has a built in mini player that can sit anywhere you like. I'll talk about that in an upcoming post, where I will get into all the Itunes goodness.

Ok, that post covered a lot of stuff, and most of it is really pretty basic. But honestly, a lot of people never really experiment with customizing their computer interface, either because they are afraid they will mess something up or just because they don't know how to get things the way they want them. Hopefully this post gave you a good idea of how to set up your taskbar and start menu for maximum efficiency. Stay tuned for more computer-nerd goodness in the coming days!

The Haiku Review Version 2.0

2006-05-01T18:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I am guilty of being a piss-poor blogger. But to be honest, I really didn't have anything to write about. I'm not trying to have this blog be a livejournal of my life. I want to write things that people are actually interested in reading! Ha.

And really, I felt like I couldn't really compete with all the blogs I read everyday. I mean SCG has the hillarious and worldy Aussie posts, Signal to Noise has the political beat covered, the Redonkulous Linker has scoured all of The Internets and Youtube, and the Double-One Tweezy covers all the fun of our social lives.

Luckily, I've got some fresh ideas that I think will compliment your morning blog-reading nicely. I don't have some new unifying theme or cheap gimmick like writing only in haikus (although every now and then I might bust one out for old-times sake). But still, I think you'll like it.

Guess who's back?

2006-03-05T12:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know I haven't posted in months. But that is what bloggers do. We are lazy bastards. Anyway, I finally escaped the Cov and I've spent the last week lounging around, drinking, and being fat. It has been a dream come true. Tomorrow I start my new life as a government employee. My hopes are already so astronomically high about how government life will be... I'm bound to be disappointed. But I'll be sure to update you all on my adventures inside The System. I hope they have nap time...

The List (2005)

2005-12-01T15:38:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I am lazy and certain people beat me to the punch and got their lists done first. That's cool, because Mr. Giant, Mr. Noise, and Mr. Linker had some great lists. Go check them out. Then go read Mr. Myblogispoop to get a good perspective on how silly these lists are. Then come back here.

Without further ado, here is my list of best albums in 2005:

1)Receiving End of Sirens - Between the Heart and the Synapse
2)Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
3)Beck - Guero... and the Gameboy EP, and Guerito, too! - that 8bit remix of Hell Yes (Ghettochip Malfunction) is better than the orignal.
4)Common - Be
5)The Decemberists - Picaresque - Sixteen Military Wives is a great anti-war song.
6)System of a Down - Mezmerize and Hypnotize - I'm not gonna lie... I love these silly fuckers. Their lyrics border on moronic, but the music is fun.
7)Death Cab - Plans - I know hipsters hate them for selling out, but this is still a good album.
8)M.I.A. - Arular - I never knew I would like music like this, but I do.
9)The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute - Yes, their last album was way better, and yes this album has a lot of filler crap, and yes they suck live... but I still think this was one of the most interesting albums of 2005, and I still find myself going back to it all the time.
10)The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema - This one wins the award for album that took the longest to grow on me. I was a big fan of their last two, but I didn't get into this one right away.
11)Gorillaz - Demon Days - Good, but I think they could've done better.
12)Foo Fighters - In Your Honor - Awesome album... should've been just one disc though.
13)Green Day - American Idiot

Albums I should list because it is the hip thing to do (and because they are good):
1)Bloc Party - Silent Alarm - Ok, I get it... they are dancey.
2)Sigor Ros - Takk - Actually a damn fine album.
3)The Belle Orchestre - Recording a Tape the Colour of Light - This is great music, by members of the Arcade Fire.
4)Thrice - Vheissu
5)Iron & Wine w/ Calexico - In the Reins EP
6)Animal Collective - Feels - I haven't gotten into this one too much. I loved their last one though... very bizzare stuff.
7)Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
8)Explosions in the Sky - The Rescue - I love them but this one isn't my favorite.

Albums I should listen to more:
1)Pernice Brothers - Discover a Lovelier You
2)Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw
3)Amusement Parks On Fire - S/T

Best Comedy:
1)Dane Cook - Retaliation

Best Reissues / Best-ofs:
1)Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Seriously one of my favorite albums of all time. I know, I know, that is so hipster of me. But it is just a really great CD. I'm glad it got re-issued, although I didn't even know it was out of print.
2)The Go Team - Thunder Lightning Strike - So much fun.
3)At The Drive-In - This Station is Non-Operational
4)Electric Light Orchestra - All Over the World: The Very Best Of

Best Local:
1)The Moirai - Bury Yourself - these guys need to stop breaking up and just take over the world already.
2)Medications - Your Favorite People All In One Place
3)Meredith Bragg & the Terminals - Vol. 1
4)John Beckham - The Boy Has No Identity - Yeah PG County!

[UPDATE 12/02/05]

Since Anand has his most anticipated albums list, I thought I would add mine... Two words: Arctic Monkeys. Awful band name, but these guys are gonna be big!

Best of 2005 - Coming Soon

2005-11-23T09:58:00.000-05:00

Well, it is almost that time of year again... time for a "Best of" list. I guess there are still a few weeks left in 2005 but I'm going to start getting my lists together anyway. I slacked on this last year.

Anyway, all you other blogaholics out there get your lists together too, and lets post'em and compare. Anand, I'm interested to see your Best Albums list especially, since you are in another country and all. Lowden, SPR, Bowl, I'm callin' you out too. Bowl, you better have the best damn Best Movies list I've ever seen. Mr. Redonkulous, Mr. McDonkerton, Higgins, you too. I'll try and have mine up by mid-December. Expect a whole lot of bands you've never heard of (unless you read Pitchfork, that is).

Kmart is trying to kill me!

2005-11-02T23:47:00.000-05:00

This weekend the GF and I stopped by the big K to pick up Halloween candy for the locals. I hate big stores like WalMart and KMart and (to a lesser extent) Target. Partly because they are evil, but mostly because there are just too many god damn people in the stores at all times.

Anyway, while we were there the GF pointed out a very hip looking shower curtain. I've needed a new shower curtain for a long time, mostly because my current one is really really gay. I didn't know it was so gay when I bought it. I was fooled by the packaging. But it is seriously gay. So I saw this hip beach-sunset shower curtain and thought, "that is very not-gay. It would look great around my shower!"

I bought it and took it home, and forgot about it for a while.

Tonight, it tried to kill me.

I took down the old gay curtain and unwrapped the new one. Immediately I was hit with the strong smell of latex and paint. It smelled like a brand new inflatable raft. I took it into my little bathroom and started to hang it up.

The smell grew stronger. And stronger.

Suddenly I realized that my lungs and eyes were burning, and I was dizzy. I left the bathroom and got some water... but the smell followed me out. My apartment is tiny and the smell was rapidly filling every available space. I ran back into the bathroom and turned the shower on in the hopes that it would dilute the stench. It didn't work. I ran out of the bathroom and shut the door behind me, then stuck my face in front of the air conditioning vent to get some fresh air. But it was no use, the smell was everywhere. I couldn't see. My eyes were watering. My lungs ached. I ran back into the bathroom, and with my last ounce of strength I ripped the shower curtain down and threw it into the tub, letting the shower water pour over it. But this only made things worse. Finally I grabbed the wet pile of curtain, ran out of the apartment, and threw the damn thing down the trash chute.

Now I'm sitting here and my head is still spinning. I have the A/C up to full blast but the smell is going away very slowly. I want to barf! Also, I am super high from the fumes. I am amazed that I am typing this right now. Maybe I'm not even typing. Maybe I am passed out on the floor with a bloody nose. All I know is I bet tomorrow I'm going to wake up with a wicked headache tomorrow and no recollection of what happened. And I'm sure I will be confused as to what happened to my shower curtain.

So, long story short... Fuck Kmart.

=W= and the Foos

2005-10-11T09:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the usual Monday boring crap, until I got a call from a friend who had tickets to the Foo Fighters / Weezer concert at the Patriot Center that he couldn't use. At first I declined... I have been so tired lately that I don't even want to think about going out. But then I realized how absolutely lame I was being, and I agreed to go. Drew said he would drive, and Kapil ran all the way to my house.

We hopped into Drew's car and headed south, into the vast unknown that is Virginia. We figured it would be easy to find George Mason University... there would be signs for it, right? No. Everytime I go to Virginia I get lost, and I've lived here for all of my life. I blame it on urban sprawl and a lack of good signage. Anyway, long story short we turned around about 50 times and asked 3 different idiots for directions before we finally found the campus.

We took our seats just as the lights went down for Weezer. Apparantly the Kaiser Chiefs opened, but we missed them. I didn't care, I'm not much of a fan of them. I was very curious about Weezer, though.

Let me go off on a tangent here for a second. I have always loved Weezer. Back when the Blue album first came out, but before they had really blown up, they played at the Kemp Mill Records in College Park right near my house (the old one, that later became a Radio Shack). My friend and I got a ride there from his stepmom, but the show was so crowded we couldn't get in. His stepmom called the police and reported how crowded it was to the fire marshall and the show got shut down. So I missed a great chance to see the guys at a tiny in-store appearance when they were pretty much unknown. Damn.

They got big and everyone loved their videos. But then they put out Pinkerton and the fans dropped off. I loved Pinkerton. I still think it is an amazing record. But as everyone knows Weezer took the dislike of their new album very personally, and eventually broke up. I was bummed.

Then, a few years later, rumours began to float around on the internets that =W= was getting back together. I didn't believe it until I found out that they were going to tour. Somehow I managed to get tickets to their show at the 930 club. It was hands down the best show I have ever been to. They rocked out like I couldn't believe, playing nothin' but hits, and the entire crowd was so excited that everyone was jumping up and down and singing along at the top of their lungs.

So, it's been a few years since that epic show, and since then Weezer has put out some very sub-par albums. I was really curious as to what they would be like live now, and whether they would even play any older material.

When the stage lights came up, I saw that they had a nice backdrop of their Make Believe album cover, and a huge drum riser that was shaped like some sort of snake thing (also from the album cover). The cool thing was that the guitar and bass amps were built into the set, so you didn't even really see them. It just looked like the guys from Weezer with their instruments on stage, and nothing else.

They opened up with "My Name is Jonas," and while the music rocked, the sound was pretty awful. It definitely took a few tracks before their sound-man got everything under control and tightened up the mix. Then they performed a few songs from their new album, which didn't particularly excite me. I was getting ready to write off the entire performance. But then, during a break between songs, Rivers Cuomo commented on how they were touring with the Foo Fighters but that the Foos weren't playing one of their favorite songs. So he said they were going to play it instead. And they did, breaking out an amazing cover of "Big Me" which they seemlessly transitioned into "Why Bother?"

From that point on the set improved dramatically. Weezer definitely works hard to entertain. They switched instruments numerous times, usually leaving only seconds between songs. Rivers actually didn't sing a few songs, leaving vocal duties to the other members of the band, so that he could run around and rock out on guitar.

They played an awesome version of "El Scorcho" and a few other hits, and then the lights dropped and they left the stage. I thought their set was over, but then I heard an acoustic guitar being strummed. I couldn't see anything on the stage, but then again the lights were off and we were in a seated section directly opposite the stage. Suddenly a spotlight came on right in front of us where the soundboard was located, and I realized that Rivers Cuomo was standing there on a table with a guitar and a mic. I don't know how he got from the stage to the back so quickly, but everyone in the crowd was amazed. He played "Islands in the Sun" accoustically, and then ran back up on stage to rejoin the band for an awesome encore. They even grabbed a girl out of the crowd and taught her the chords to "The Sweater Song" and let her play it with them. The set ended with all of the members of the band playing the drums at the same time, and blow guns showering the audience with confetti.

I gotta say I was impressed. =W= had set a high bar. It was up to the Foos to rock out even harder. Now, I've seen the Foo Fighters probably 7 or 8 times now, since back when they used to play the Black Cat and shit. I know they rock out extra hard when they are in our area, since this is their home. But still, it had been a few years since I'd seen them, and I didn't know what to expect.

They immediately blew all my expectations away. God damn those guys can rock. And they were LOUD. Their stage setup involved a backdrop of about a hundred different kinds of amplifiers, all stacked up in a big messy pile. Above them these giant tetris shaped video displays showed grainy footage of what was going on onstage, and other video screens showed various video loops set to the music.

I don't know if I can do justice to their set. Not only are they an amazingly tight live act, but they are fun to watch, too. Dave Grohl has an insane amount of energy... he is constantly running around the stage and yelling to people in the crowd. He's also pretty damn funny on the mic. Between songs he played to the home crowd by mentioning his high school(s), and places he used to hang out, etc. He dedicated a song to his parents, who were sitting in the soundbooth. Then later he jumped off the stage and ran to the back of the arena (while still playing guitar), and hopped up on the same table that Rivers Cuomo had performed on. From here he and the other Foo guitarist had a little "dueling banjos" moment where they solo'd back and forth. And then in a blink of an eye he was back on the stage to finish off the song.

Probably the best part of the night was when Dave dedicated a song to his wife. He had all of the lights dimmed and played a very soft version of "Everlong" that got the whole crowd singing along.

Their encore ended with a jammed out version of "Monkey Wrench" that was so heavy I thought my teeth were going to fall out. In fact, their entire set probably took a year off of my life. The only weak spot in their entire performance was when they let drummer Taylor Hawkins perform a song (also dedicated to his wife). This wasn't all bad, though, as we at least got to see Dave play the drums.

If you've never seen the Foo Fighters, go see them. If you can't go see them, go get their live DVD "No Way Home." I can't say enough good things about these guys.

Bombs Away!

2005-10-10T10:34:00.000-05:00

I need a video clip of this!! The Smurfs get bombed!

Shout outs to the Double One Tweezy crew (minus the Bow1) for making it out to the Velvet show at Staccato on Saturday (and bringing reinforcements!). I hope we rocked out sufficiently for you guys. We'll be up at the Asylum in 2 weeks, so Adams Morgan will get it hard twice in one month.

This weekend I laid low for the most part since it was shitty and I was recovering from a cold, so no exciting updates.

One more fun link, for you Ipod and Itunes junkies: This website is dedicated to Smart Playlists (one of my favorite things in Itunes). God, I'm such a sucker for Apple stuff. Someone buy me a Powerbook.

Evolution and Hippies

2005-09-26T09:23:00.000-05:00

We all know that arguing evolution and intelligent design (creationism) is pointless, because people who believe in intelligent design are, well, let's just say they are "confused." But I thought this article in today's Post does a very nice job of showing just why they are wrong. It is a bit long, but a good read. It is also a nice refresher on high school biology, so you can be armed with science in the event that you need to argue evolution with a nut job. Even though, as I said before, that is probably pointless. Let's face it, if these people don't believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, there is no hope for them.

This weekend the little lady took me to the Small Print Expo in Bethesda. I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually pretty cool. There were a lot of comic book kids, which scared me, but also some very neat art. The guys from Diesel Sweeties were there too, which was awesome. I love that (web)comic.

That night we went downtown to the protest/concert on the Mall. Now, I have always been very anti-Iraq-war, but mostly I just wanted to see Ted Leo rocking out. Unfortunately we were a bit too late to catch his set. By the time we got there, in fact, the "protest" had taken on the look and feel of the HFStival. And therein was the problem, for me at least - the place was swarming with hippies. I hate hippies. Onstage there were fat white "belly dancers" doing some stupid hippy peace dance, and I was frankly embarrassed. Why do democrat/libereal/protest events frequently devolve into such circuses? To be fair, any free concert is going to attract hippies, but it really burns me that with such a serious subject matter, kids are walking around wasted and stoned and having drum circles and shit. That is why Republicans are so good at convincing people of their point of view... when they get together for anything they dress nice and act respectable. Now, I'm a blue-blooded liberal through and through, don't get me wrong. And I will drink you under the table. But there is a time and a place for everything.

I will say that Cindy Sheehan's Camp Casey was impressive. 1,900 crosses are quite an impressive number when you actually see them all lined up. Too bad Bush wasn't home to take a look for himself.

Did anyone else go to the protest? Agree or disagree with my hippie rant?

Also of note, Nirvana has a new CD coming out... it is a "best of the box set." Should be cool.

UPDATE: I swear I don't want this to be a political blog, so I won't comment on this any more than by saying that you seriously can't make this stuff up..

Dead people here and there.

2005-09-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

Whew, that was quite a weekend. Thanks to the boys from the Double One Tweezy for coming by and getting me drunk (and trashing my apartment).

After recovering from my hangover Saturday morning, I set out for the Metro to go meet my bandmates. On the way there I passed an alley, where a couple of people were standing and looking at something on the ground. One girl was on her cellphone and looked like she was very distressed, so I got the feeling that whatever was there wasn't good... but I couldn't see it until I got up close. Yeah, it was a dead guy. Some homeless guy, lying on the ground in a very unnatural position, head to the wall and still clutching an empty bottle. Oh, and he was purple. Gross. And depressing. And definitely not what you want to see right after a long night of drinking. I heard sirens in the distance coming our way, so I guess those people called the police. I was gonna barf, though, so I rolled out.

This coming Saturday there is a big anti-war rally downtown. I usually avoid these things because I hate hippies, but there are some good bands playing so I'm gonna go check it out. Here is the press on it:

"International recording stars Thievery Corporation are bringing together several notable musical acts such as Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Le Tigre, Bouncing Souls, country music recording artist Steve Earle, socially conscious hip hop groups like The Coup, the rock 'n soul group The Bellrays, along with progressive activists/performers Head-Roc, Jello Biafra, Wayne Kramer of the MC5 and many others for a free concert on the Washington Monument grounds."

Should be a good time, plus you get to be put on a government watch list! Yeah. Anyone else want to go?

Also, this is one of my favorite new blogs.

Video Ipods coming soon?

2005-09-15T16:03:00.000-05:00

There has long been speculation that Apple would introduce a video Ipod, and also a video download service for ITunes. At this point I think it is pretty much inevitable that at least one of those two things will happen. And now it appears that Itunes has quietly introduced support for video podcasts (or vodcasts). Of course you can't put them on your Ipod... yet. Frankly I'm not that excited about the idea of a video Ipod (let's face it, the screen is too small and I don't want to sit there and stare at my pod while I'm trying to navigate the Metro), but I think I would love a video download service built into ITunes so I could collect my favorite videos. What do you think?

Any new posts yet?

2005-09-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

How bored am I right now? I just checked my own blog to see if it had been updated.

Some good news amid all the bad

2005-09-02T08:20:00.000-05:00

I just read this morning that Fats Domino, one of the pioneers of Rock n' Roll and one of our greatest musicians, has been found alive in New Orleans! Thank goodness. I have been a huge Fats Domino fan ever since my freshman year at UMD. I don't know if you kids remember, but there used to be an old fashioned jukebox in the Ellicott dining hall, and of course it had a few cuts from Fats. I have very fond memories of sitting around Ellicott, half asleep, eating grits and listening to "Blueberry Hill." My roomate in college loved Fats and used to put his songs on whenever we went into the dining hall. Plus he had the Fats Domino Greatest Hits album on CD. So I guess Mr. Domino could be considered the official soundtrack to my college life. If any of you are interested, you can grab his greatest hits album off of the Pirate Bay.

If you haven't yet, please donate to the Red Cross to help with the relief efforts in New Orleans. Things just keep getting worse there, and our bumbling government seems unable to even get food and water out to people. Does this bother anyone else? I mean, what is the difference between the destruction caused by this hurricane and the destruction caused by a terrorist attack? Other than the fact that in this case, we got 2 days warning? Is this how we plan on responding to a nuclear or biological attack? Let everyone fend for themselves? It is pretty sad and disturbing that this is the best we can do.

Ok, rant over. I'll get back to fun stuff soon, I promise.

When can I get Google XP?

2005-08-26T13:57:00.000-05:00

Like everyone else, I am smitten with all things Google. Those guys are out to take over the Internets, and I'm totally fine with that. At least, as long as they keep coming out with so many stellar little programs. The newest Google feature is their Google Talk Instant Messenging service, which has already been blocked by my crafty Firm's Websense software. Bastards! But even cooler than Talk, in my opinion, is the new Google Desktop 2.0. This shit is very cool. It basically puts a sidebar in Windows (or on your taskbar, if you like) that displays all kinds of useful info. It is very customizable, of course. I've got mine showing headlines from some of my favorite websites, the weather in my area, and a nice little mini-slideshow from my pictures folder. The best part, though, is the Google powered search of your hard drive. Now, I'm a pretty organized guy, and it is rare that I can't find a file on my hard drive... but I can see how this would be extremely useful to the less organized of us out there. Oh yeah and this badboy shows me my Gmail too (no need for the Gmail notifier anymore!). Slowly but surely, all the cool little Google tools are merging into one SuperGooogle. By the way, you can even personalize the actual Google homepage to your liking, now (Go ahead, try it). So, do I sound like an ad for Google yet? Eh, why not, they already own Blogger. Hat tip to Mr. Donkey McDonkerton for the Google tip-off.

Haiku Shmaiku

2005-08-25T17:01:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I got tired of the whole Haiku Review thing. I'm lazy, and haiku's are tough. But I decided I'm going to keep blogging anyway, just like all you other silly bloggers out there. Maybe I'll throw in a haiku every now and then, when I'm feeling saucy. But for now, stay tuned for something...

We Can't Change the World

2005-06-23T14:08:00.000-05:00

In a dark corner
Despair reigns, but hope awaits
The Pumpkins' return.

Billy Corgan - TheFutureEmbrace (6/21/2005 - Warner Brothers)

Rating: 3 out of 10

Haiku Review on Vacation

2005-06-10T14:18:00.000-05:00

Island in the sun
St. Croix, blogfather John's home
See you in a week.

I've Made a Lot of Mistakes

2005-06-10T09:16:00.000-05:00

White City of pride
Once glorious - now ashes
Sufjan rebuilds you.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (...coming soon - Asthmatic Kitty)

Rating: 9.6 out of 10

Your Popsicle's Melting

2005-06-08T19:33:00.000-05:00

Red meat over coals
Piñatas explode above
A rain of candy.

Beck - Guero (3/29/05 - Interscope)

Rating: 9.4 out of 10

The Last Night In My Body

2005-06-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

Moments from impact
Boosters scream as our eyes meet
Re-entry is sweet.

The Receiving End of Sirens - Between the Heart and the Synapse (4/26/05 - Triple Crown)

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

What Can I Get For Ten Dollar?

2005-06-08T13:50:00.000-05:00

Rose scorched from the day
Pulse quickens like thunderclaps
The moon is aroused.

M.I.A. - Arular (3/22/05 - XL)

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

All is Full of Blog

2005-06-08T13:27:00.000-05:00

Lover of music
Writing reviews in Haiku
Joe begins to Blog.