Best of 2006, that I actually heard

Sadly, due to my schedule I don't follow as much new music to the extent I would like, but here is my top few:

At War With The Mystics - The Flaming Lips
I'm a huge lips fan and I have been listening to this disc frequently since it was released.

Return to Cookie Mountain - TV on the Radio
I loved "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes" and RtCM is just as good. It's less danceable, and more soulful. I expect huge things from TVotR #3 disc.

Boo Hoo Hoo Boo - They Shoot Horses Don't They?
This record is full of fun and absurd indie rock. The Vancouver 9 (or 8 depending on the day) piece troupe regularily blows the roof off of venues, and this disc is the fuel for such an explosion.

So This is Goodbye - The Junior Boys
If someone had to ask me what my favourite album for 2006 was, I would say it was this one. You can make love to it, dance to it, cry to it, party to it. It's a versatile album that rocks me from start to end.

The Looks - MSTRKRFT
It sucked that DFA 1979 broke up, but MSTRKRFT is just as good if not better. I danced just as much, and I pumped my fist just as much, but it's a little different. Maybe it's because it reminds me so much of Daft Punk, but the album delivers everything I expected and surprises me to no end.

The Eraser - Thom Yorke
During the height of my dip in to audio production, I bought this album and it was a true treat. While not amazingly good in a Radiohead album type fashion, the tracks are minimal and interesting. It's nice, and I like it.

Bande A Part - Nouvelle Vague
While this cover CD will probably not make many Top 10 or even 20 lists, Nouvelle Vague sings me sexy versions of Post-punk anthems and I love it. I'd love to see a remix disc of this disc, although the legal aspects of this could be hard to overcome.

St. Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley
Many people will disagree with this choice based solely on the fact that they heard "Crazy" a million times on the radio. Luckily, I didn't hear that song that much at all. So I was able to enjoy the song, and the rest of the album as soon as I threw it in my CD player. Mouse and Cee-lo tear it up like crazy, end of story.

Citrus - Asobi Seksu
Shoegaze, shoegaze, shoegaze. I love My Bloody Valentine, so I really like this CD.

There are a couple more, but those are probably my favs. Enjoy your lives!

Zune-enomics

While I don't normally like to rub failure in the faces of those who have failed, I need to point to this:
"The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity."
So what happened? A machine that played video, audio, and didn't look half bad. The obvious answer is "It's not an iPod", and that is sadly one of the reasons people aren't biting. The exaggerated claim is that "Everyone" has an iPod, I even have one, and that no one is going to buy some silly Zune just for a few extra features.

In my opinion, there is a deeper issue at hand with the Zune. My opinion is broken in to two parts, they both fall in to a category I like to call "Lame Uncle" syndrome. One of the companies that is trying to get you to buy their digital audio player is regarded as the "Lame Uncle", and you can probably guess who I consider the lame uncle. A few examples of why I think the way I do.
Example the First Example the Second Example the Third
So this is screaming "Biased" but I really think that Apple is a far cooler company, and Microsoft simply cannot emulate their "hipness". They really did a good job at the Xbox 360 in terms of making it look sexy and all, but I think the fact that it came to the market place as "the most powerful video game console ever" is what is selling it. Similarly, the Zune does look really nice, but why won't people touch it?

The "Lame Uncle" usually can do things just as well as your best friend, but there are always conditions. A rousing game of tackle football, turns in to an un-fun game of touch football. A movie selection goes from R to PG. Your parents are usually to blame for this, since they don't want you breaking your neck, so the uncle is there to keep that from happening, while giving you a false sense of fun.

This is what I think is wrong with the Zune as well. A little organization known as the RIAA* has it's giant hand in the pot here, ruining the party, just as your parents busted your nudie mag stash, and fire cracker exploits. So firstly, from the get-go, Microsoft is a "Lame Uncle". Not a very appealing company, trying to appeal to the young and hip. Their install screens show people listening to music at various venues and outlets, but the install takes so long, and has been known to crash so frequently that people are having troubles doing ANY listening. Secondly, the player is crippled for getting music on it, it's a chore and a turn-off.

Recap: Microsoft's system has left users of Napster, Real and other music download services that use Microsoft's DRM* in the dark. Essentially you have a digital music player that has a Microsoft stamp of approval, and you've spent hundreds of dollars on music that is downloaded. Now the "Next Big Thing" comes along and tells you to re-buy every song you own? People get killed for that kind of thinking. This fact, along with the fact that Microsoft is the "Lame Uncle" of electronics companies is a recipe for disaster.

So that is my partially biased opinion of what is going on here. What I think we should all do to test this theory is, when you are visiting family for the holidays, try and pick out the lamest uncle you have and quiz him on certain subjects. Then see if he wants to do something risky/fun.

That is the end of my diatribe, have a nice week.
JaronW.
*sources listed are from wikipedia and may not be neutral or factual, but should give you a rough idea.

Content

I've added some work to my much neglected "My Work" mini-portfolio webpage and you can check it out if you like. I'm digging photography a lot so there are 90x more pictures up there than last time. Please enjoy!

Also, those ads on the side are doing nicely and I hope you folks are clicking. They don't make me any money as of right now, but I want to show good faith to the internet community, so click and click! Also, it is true that you can get an ad for free as of right now. The only way the price will go up is if someone outbids someone who has bid 0 dollars with something more than 0 dollars.

Redesign

If you will notice, there are a few things different on the side bar, and I'd like to chat about a few of them.

Firstly, the new ads. The system is being run by "Project Wonderful" and I am pretty excited for it. Differing from Google AdSense in that the ads are not targeted, rather, they are auctioned off like on eBay. As of right now, there are no bids, however if you would like to sign up at anytime and place an ad, they are very, very cheap. Since they are auctioned off, if someone wants/is willing to pay 100 dollars a day, they can, but other can simply pay what they feel. It's an interesting idea, as you can spend 50 cents and get 5 days of "Check out this eBay auction" or whatever. Mark up another one for Web 2.0.

Secondly, I took out a bunch of links from the side that really didn't need to be there. At the time I thought a few of those were pretty interesting and worthwhile websites, however I now realize they don't need my support, and it looks tacky. If you would like me to link to you, and I know who you are/enjoy your work, you can email me and I will look in to it.

Thirdly, I am thinking about an overhaul soon. I've been talking about this for awhile, so don't hold your breath. Why do you care? I don't know....

The Fun Police

If the fun police were real, I would be in prison for life last night. If I was religious, I would be praying to make up for all the fun/sin that was endured last night. I used to think birthday parties were so lame, and now I cannot think of anything funner.

I hope this isn't one of those "Dude I'm so wasted" posts, so I will add something intelligent.

A few unimportant things

Firstly, I saw the Borat movie, and I really enjoyed it. I choose not to report on any of it for two reasons. Reason the first; I know that it will ruin it for people who have not gotten a chance to see it. Reason the second; People quoting Borat endlessly will no doubt ruin the movie for myself. I refuse to let the film become passe because of something I have done. The movie is rather funny, although a bit weak at some points.

Secondly, I stumbled upon This story on Slashdot about the new sounds for Windows "Vista". Apparently Robert Fripp took 18 months making all the little sound bytes and ran in to similar complications as Brian Eno. I wrote a fictitious monologue starring everyone's favourite billionaire:

Bill Gates:

According to the article, MS speculates that the "New Mail" sound will be heard trillions of times in a matter of just a few years.
jw~

Bass Bass Bass Bass

The guy who does the horrifying Salad Fingers made a little video/song of a band he started. It's rather interesting acapella.

I LIKE!

Web 2.0

I finally learned what Web 2.0 is, which makes me feel a little better, since I already knew what it was, I just have a name to the face. For those who don't know, the term refers to the new "feel" of the web. If anyone else remembers the dial-up noise as well as I do, then you probably remember how one sided the web used to be. Even if memberships were involved, the users never really did anything to change the content. Websites like Del.icio.us, Digg, and Flickr are making the web a fun place to hang-out, interact and share. Isn't the internet interesting?

Speaking of Flickr, I've been taking a lot of pictures, and I want to share one with y'all as promised.

Thanks for stopping by, Jw.

There is no way to feed this many

I have some how gotten myself in to a strange funk. I think it began somewhere between reading Paul's amazing "The Annotated Everything" Blog, the weather, and sad (and dead) folks like E. Smith, N. Drake and J. Buckley. Reading Paul's blog reminds me of the times when I would blog to secretly throw all of my emotions down on (virtual) paper. The snow, and the lonely nature of moving away really gets to me, and for awhile this blog was my only outlet. Someone reminded me of a few Livejournal posts from a while back, and it reminded me of how I used to write. I'm not sure if I have changed for better or for worse, but I have surely changed.

As of right now, I am attempting to create a Hip-Hop collection of CDs. I already have a few Beastie Boys discs, but so far I have added some Mos Def, Jurassic 5, MF Doom and Gnarls Barkley (This is not even mentioning all the stuff of various legitimacies I have on my iPod). My grand plan is to be able to; A: Make sure I do not get too in to one type of music over the winter; B: Have some rad tunes for next spring/summer; C: To leave my children an eclectic inheritance; D: There is no D.

Blogging is fun.

The Meaning Of Christmas

Halloween for everybody! Did everyone have a good one? I had so much fun that I thought I was going to lose my composure at one point. I got too inebriated and did feel safe carrying around my camera, but my Jeff Spicoli costume was well received, although some people thought I was Stacey Peralta from "Lords of Dogtown". That's fine, I look nothing like Sean Penn.

Best Regards, Jaron =w=