Funny!

Well, at least now we know that a Cat with a Theremin is funny...I would imagine almost any other animal would be as well...

Coultonfield

If you're waiting for Jonathan Coulton to return to the Twin Cities on May 1st, you can keep an eye for him here...

Still Alive Rock Band

Jonathan Coulton performs "Still Alive" in Rock Band from Joy Stiq on Vimeo.

First of May

I'm very psyched to see that Jonathan Coulton is planning a return trip to Minneapolis on May 1st.

And since he's got a song called First of May -- which doesn't have work safe lyrics -- it's a particularly good day for the show.

Life Outside Your Apartment

I went to see the touring production of Avenue Q tonight here in Minneapolis. I've had the soundtrack for a while, and have hoped to see the show for a long time.

I was familiar with the soundtrack -- and as someone who grew up with Sesame Street that sort of style is very much ingrained in my brain, but it was interesting to see an actual production.

And this is something that's really most appropriate for a live production -- a filmed version would be tempted to hide the actors, and you'd lose half of the acting there. It's a great example of something that is done well as a live production, and would be something completely different in a filmed version.

They'll only be in Minneapolis for a few more days, but the tour is going to continue around the country for most of the year -- and is definitely worth seeing.

Huge Success

I'm not enough of game player to have the game, but I'm enough of a fan of Jonathan Coulton that I had to pick up the two versions of Still Alive from the Orange Box Soundtrack.

And since it's available on Amazon's MP3 service, I was able to just get the songs.

Fairytale of New York

The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend have a Christmas Message to share with you.

Merry Christmas.

Code Monkey Video Coolness

Continuing with the all JoCo, all the time nature of the blog this week, I found a couple of more YouTube videos -- which really show how cool the nature of our interconnected world on the Internet is these days.

Code Monkey, of course, is the anthem for software creators everywhere.

Amongst the cool videos include this Anime Music Video:



And also this version of someone dancing...



But then, in Chicago, she comes up on stage at Jonathan Coulton's Chicago concert:



I love how this brings it all full circle and points out one of my favorite things about the internet -- the myth is that the internet means that we're all more isolated than ever. But really, it does a lot more to connect people than anything else.

He curses the cold in Minnesota

A version of Curl from the Jonathan Coulton concert last week here in Minneapolis.

And since winter has been in full force this week, I've definitely been cursing the cold.



This was definitely one of those concerts where I've become a bigger fan of the artist after the concert...which is always the best kind.

Zendrum

One of the neater things during the Jonathan Coulton concert this week was seeing a Zendrum in action during a performance of Mr Fancy Pants.

It's obviously an instrument outside of my non-musican budget -- but it was one of the cooler pieces of musical technology that I'd seen in a very, very long time.

Opening Band

Opening up for Jonathan Coulton earlier this week was Paul and Storm. They were definitely a natural fit with JoCo, especially as they also provided occasional backup support during JC's main show.

I picked up the rest of their songs -- and they are quite funny.

Jonathan Coulton

I went to the Jonathan Coulton concert tonight -- and well, it was definitely a Gathering Of The Tribe. I think I recognized about the quarter of the people there.

Definitely one of the most fun concert experiences that I've had -- and certainly the geekiest, in the absolute best sense of the term.

Amazon MP3s

Following on this review of Amazon's MP3 store, I thought I would try it myself.

It is pretty decent, especially if you are trying to avoid the DRM of songs downloaded at the iTunes store, and it's cheaper than iTunes on the DRM free front. And it combines with the iTunes player fairly well -- the only weakness I see so far is that you're going to end up copying all of your Amazon MP3 songs twice -- one to go into the folder that Amazon copies it to, and then when it goes over to iTunes. But this may make backing up your Amazon downloads a little easier.

All and all, it is nice to see a competitor for the iTunes store that will still work with iTunes and the iPod, which are certainly my favorite music delivery system. I'm hopeful that they'll expand their catalog of songs with more over time.

Code Monkey Wants

Getting Music Somewhere Else

I realized one thing that I'd really like to see in connection to services like the iTunes store. There is a class of artist where I don't just want the songs, but I want the physical artifact of a CD with a booklet. And in the case of Marillion's Somewhere Else CD, it's not scheduled to ship from Amazon (where I have it pre-ordered) for a few weeks, but it is already available on iTunes.

What I'd like to be able to do is get the best of both worlds -- an immediate download of the album, but then get the physical CD (with documentation) at some later point in time as both a physical artifact and collectible, as well as the backup. But I'm not really willing to buy the album twice -- but I might be willing to pay a dollar or two more for the instant gratification of getting the album on my computer.

And I could even see this work as a successful double marketing campaign -- the album could go to iTunes (or some other service) as a download, and the physical CD comes a month or so later. It could cost more than a traditional download, and for that matter more than a traditional CD -- but not twice as much.

Playing the Piano

I wish I had thought of this solution for some of the more difficult chords back when I had piano lessons:

Message in a Bottle

I am terribly excited about the Police Reunion Tour. I am just the age where I was just starting to come into musical awareness when the Police were active -- but I was just too young to ever get a chance to see them live. I've seen Sting live a couple of times over the years, and have generally enjoyed his solo career, but there is no replacement to The Police, which is one of my all time favorite rock bands, and several of their songs are amongst my all time favorite songs.

I was concerned that they wouldn't reach Minneapolis with their tour, but if I had known that Best Buy is one of their tour sponsors I wouldn't have worried, and I am excited to see that they're tour will show up locally.

Battle of the Album Covers

This is one of the more fascinating videos I've seen on You Tube in a while...

iTuned 2

A couple of weeks ago I wrote up a few of my iTunes Smart Playlists. I created another one, just for fun. It's actually a set of lists. The idea is to have one for each letter of the alphabet, picking one song at random (not played in the last week) starting with that particular letter of the alphabet. I put all of those playlists into the same folder, and because of that I have a playlist that contains 26 songs, one song starting with each letter of the alphabet.

You could do the same thing except take a song from different artists instead of songs.

Code Monkey

My favorite new song of 2006 has a collection of remixes that have just been posted as part of a remix contest done by Quick Stop.

For more information, check out Jonathan Coulton's page out as well..

iTuned: my iTunes best practices

I followed the suggestions on Lifehacker about iTunes with great interest, and I followed it up with Andy Budd's suggestions and a whole blog about smart playlists.

I use the smart playlists in much the same fashion as described above -- as a way to create lists of songs that haven't been played recently.

I've got four core lists:

a) "Not Recently Played" -- basically, this list contains songs with the oldest last playtime.

b) "Least Played" -- this list contains songs that have been played the least

c) "Favorites Not Recently Played" -- same as (a), but only for songs that have a rating greater than four

d) "Favorites Least Played" -- same as (b), but only for songs that have been played the least

They're all limited by size, so while a song could appear on multiple lists, there isn't a whole lot of overlap. That way I get both songs that I haven't listened to recently as well as songs that I've listened to less.

I also have a couple of lists for seasonal purposes -- for example, I've got a list for "Christmas", which can then be mixed into my iPod during this time of the year.

I also recently added a "New Favorites" list for songs that I've just added to iTunes and have rated highly, as it's not at all unusual that a new favorite is going to be something you'll want to listen to very frequently.

I haven't done much for genre-specific music; but then, that's because I really like strange stylistic switches in my listening, going from a progressive rock song, to a pop song, to a country song, to harder rock song, to something from a soundtrack.

Weird Al Cartoons

I haven't gotten my copy of Straight Outta Lynwood yet, but apparently it has additional videos, including one by Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi. [from boing boing]

What a way to be White and Nerdy.

White & Nerdy

It is perhaps really obvious to have a Wierd Al song pointed to here, but I'm really impressed how well he's adapted to the 21st century youtube internet space.

Also, one of the things that I realized when I saw him live a couple of years ago is how solid a bunch of musicians he needs to have around him -- he's able to imitate or pastiche every musical style of the last forty or fifty years successfully.

His new album is coming out next week...

Genesis Reformation

I won't believe this until I hold an actual CD in my hands.

The New Order of the UK Music Hall of Fame,

I'm watching the UK Music Hall of Fame right now (it was on VH1)

I think it's a huge, huge shame that VH1 apparently cut a section on a UK-specific group like New Order but included several American acts. It makes some sense that they include multinational acts in their Hall of Fame -- after all, the US Hall of Fame will have some of the same acts. But I think if there's any reason to have a UK Hall of Fame -- and if they're going to distribute it in the US, which I'm hugely in favor of -- it's to demonstrate some of the things that are different between US and UK musical and pop culture. (Especially for those of us that enjoy much of the UK pop culture over in the US...)

I'm sure they needed to do some editing to get into a two hour slot -- but I think there were better ways of doing it than by cutting out an act entirely..

[See the Wikipedia entry on the UK Music Hall of Fame.]

Cancelled!

It looks like the Musical Box concert I blogged about a couple of weeks ago has been cancelled. According to all indications, you should be able to get refunds, except for the various evil ticket surcharges.

Ah well, such is life...

The Lamb Lies Down in St Paul

I've got a real fondness for old-skool Peter Gabriel era Genesis, even as it's so terminally unhip that it's gone right around and in my book is geeky-cool. And what's geeky cool about the upcoming Musical Box show at the Fitzgerald Theater is that it's clearly faithful reconstruction of a 30-year old tour that really has very little recorded footage and was probably way more ambitious than it has any right to be. You just have to compare pictures and you know that they've gone to extreme detail.

I've heard about the group off and on as I've dipped into various online Genesis or Peter Gabriel discussions over the years, and have heard lots of good things, and it looks like it's one of those rare, once-in-a-blue moon experiences that I just have to check out.

To some extent, it looks like this shares a lot in common with the various Doctor Who reconstructions of lost Doctor Who episodes that I've seen over the years -- it's a particular recreation of something that has been lost in any complete sense, as there aren't any complete video recordings of this tour, much like many of the 1960s episodes of Doctor Who no longer exist. It's a particular type of fandom that I really appreciate.