It looks like a rainbow, but it’s not. It looks to be a circumhorizontal arc showing its colors over Stanford and Palo Alto. Or it could be cloud iridescence. Any meteorological experts out there want to comment? In either case, this is beautiful, and a nice start to the day.
I am so fascinated with new music. When I get old, I completely see myself as that weird, cheery, white-haired senior citizen at the end of the cul-de-sac in a house with a room lined full of mahogany bookshelves filled with “those old-fashioned CD things.” And when people stop by that room, they would always ask me, “Have you really listened to all of those?” to which I would answer, “Yes, I’ve listened to them all, but most, I’ve realized, are pretty mediocre.”
That’s my real problem. The first time I listen to most albums, I try to keep an open mind, and for the vast majority of them, perhaps because of personal selection bias, I tend to like them. A few I can even say I love right from that first time. But, most of those albums wither after applying the infamous test of time.
Albums that I love right from the start, and can withstand over a month of heavy listening are truly rare, and generally stand a good chance of making one of my “ALL TIME BEST” spreadsheets. This Yeasayer album is one of them. I haven’t been listening to an album this much since In Rainbows came out.
The album has that strange and classic Yeasayer experimental sound driving each track, but it is as if the synths and laptop loops and drum machines gained sentience and decided to all go party together in a back alley while trying to sing pop songs. After just listening to the album once while skiing at Mammoth, I already felt like I could and wanted to sing along to half the songs. They’re totally infections, and inventive enough to keep any musically analytical mind fixated.
Get their album. Go see them live. (If you’re in the Bay Area, they’ll be at the Fillmore on April 17th.) Sit back, listen, and smile.
Year: 2006
From the album Magnificent City, a collaboration between RJD2 and Aceyalone, “Heaven” is hypnotic, and, like the rest of the songs, has a refreshingly layered aesthetic both in terms of the form of the song and the obviously carefully produced synths and vocals.
Year: 2006
I recently started having a Silversun Pickups kick, probably spurred on by the release of their newest album, an album I haven’t even listened to yet. This is probably my favorite track of of Carnavas.
Year: 2009
Owl City seems to be the up-and-coming synth-pop group that’s filling the shoes that the Postal Service left empty after Gibbard and Dntel left to pursue their own projects, if Amazon.com sales is to be any indication. The lyrics leave something to be desired compared to Gibbard’s, and the synth and vocals don’t mesh as well as Postal Service, but it is a refreshing listen.
Origin/Composer: from the BBC Sessions
Year: 2008
The first 15 seconds of this version of the song is captivating. It’s so rare that a single a cappella melody winds through such a breathtaking and unique path, but this version of this song is like the musical equivalent of watching a hummingbird trace out intricate patterns in the air.
Year: 1988
I went to the Sonic Youth concert at Fox Theater 2 weeks ago, and this song stood out as one of those that sounded good on the record, but incredible live. On stage, there was just a much larger room for dynamic variation, and the buildup that occurs in this song.
I’m constantly annoyed with how difficult it is to schedule a meeting time with people outside of work. At a company or organization with a decent IT backbone, there’s usually Exchange or Google Apps or some other servers set up so that you can easily see other peoples’ busy/free schedules. However, outside of that company or organization, scheduling becomes a huge chore, especially if you have many people to invite. Sure, it’s possible to share busy/free information with Google Calendar, but that quickly overflows your “Other Calendars” section, and is annoying to navigate because many people tend to use the same generic calendar names–“committments,” “schedule,” “classes,” etc.
There are three solutions to this that I have come to use regularly.
The first is perhaps the most popular, and for most people, is easy enough to set up, and with enough options. This is, of course, the ever-popular Doodle scheduler. The pros to Doodle is that it is relatively intuitive to use, relative quick to set up, sports a rich feature set, and chances are the recipients of your invite will have used Doodle before. However, as we move on to our next two solutions, you’ll see that Doodle is not the easiest to use, nor is it the most convenient to set up.
The second is a cute little startup called Congregar. The thing with this is that there are no time options, but dead simple to setup and spread and track. So, if you have an event where all you’re worried about is the date, Congregar’s the one to beat.
The third is my personal favorite, and one that most people have not heard of. This one’s called when2meet. It looks like it was taken out of an HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) textbook. All you need to do is to give the event a name, then drag through the times when you’re available. Then, send the page link to everyone else, and they can easily drag. Available times are instantly available in the color-coded chart off to the side. This is so easy and convenient that I now use when2meet over 80% of the time I need to schedule something. The only real downside is that there is no way of directly inviting from the page, nor a way to keep track of people who have not responded, but typically, with a meeting of fewer than 5-6 people–most of my meetings–it doesn’t really matter.
Year: 2009
Like M83. A little less atmosphere. A little more melody. Mostly very danceable, very catchy, and very well produced.
Year: 1998
A seriously creepy song, but yet so entrancing and hypnotic. From their self-titled album, Visual Audio Sensory Theater.