I’ve wanted to use this blog to discuss how I’m striving to become bilingual and in the future I’ll feature writings in Italian (probably by the end of tonight)
For now a little gag from our trip to build an Igloo in Central Park.
Quindi, Inizia la parte in Italiano!
The Snow that began last night has turned into a blizzard such that even the miserly NYU had to give us a snow day. Two in a year is absolutely unprecedented in my time at the school and has made today and awesome one so far. I’m really looking forward to snow ball fights near the courthouse and a brother’s party tonight but this snow makes me just want to stay in and be warm.
Here’s a vid I shot on the ol’Blackberry Tour:
And some stills from upstairs :
As great as things have been with America kicking ass in hockey and Stephen Colbert being hilarious on the nightly, my favorite thing coming out of Vancouver, BC Canada is a band. And that band is Noobie Noobinson, a duo of enlightened musicians signed to Hamachingo. These guys have astonishing chops that they put to use in the weirdest fusion of rock, rap, soul, and jazz with a group of collaborators they call “The Boomsday Alliance” I’ve heard in a long while. The band releases albums as different “seasons” in a series which portray an interstellar tale. With tongues firmly planted in cheek, the band sets up many different atmospheres and styles of sound that envelope you. Something as seemingly antithetical to rock and metal as rapping feels right in a Noobie world. Emcee MD delivers with a flow and poetic style that’d be breath of fresh air on any DefJam release. But that’s the thing about Noobie. As soon as they are content with one style they’re off to the next and always with the most ingenious transitions. The way this band melds genre reminds me of the first time I listened to Deloused in the Comatorium. I’m gonna have to check out the other season tomorrow and I’m very excited to hear they are recording a third.
Upcoming Shows:
Mar 9 2010 8:00P
The Media Club w/ The Patience Product, The Me Monster Vancouver, British Columbia
Apr 8 2010 9:15P
Honey Lounge w/ Marching Mind Vancouver, British Columbia
Which unfortunately is a fucking hike from New York. But you can find them at
Their homes on the internetz:
http://noobienoobinsonandthedoubleboomskees.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/noobienoobinson
twitter.com/NoobieNoobinson
Check them out and support them with your money dollars so they can tour more.
So here’s my in no way comprehensive review of Google Chrome for OSX.
After a couple days of dicking around with the browser, I’m shocked how I ever suffered Firefox’s sluggish speed. The main take away for anyone considering Chrome is it’s speed. This browser hustles and it makes using 10 tabs and watching High Definition Youtube videos snappy. Even with NYU’s sluggish 2 mbps broadband the browser cruises through most anything I’ve thrown at it. The integration of search and address bar is an awesome touch and I love how quickly the bar matches what I’m typing to a web page or search I want to do.
Visually the browser is pretty minimalist; just a row for tabs, my navigation bar and a bookmark bar keep the focus on the webpage you’re currently viewing. The browser maintains the ability to reopen closed tabs from Firefox which I love although these do not automatically open in new tabs.
My dislikes are few and far between. One thing that I forgot during my time with Chrome is that the browser for Mac is still in beta. As such it is lacking key features such as easy RSS subscription and reading integration. Now this may be simply because Google wants to pump their own Google Reader app to handle this but it would be nice to have to bring RSS to my Mail program. The other decidedly more annoying fault lies with Microsoft Silverlight. I discovered, much to my chagrin, while attempting to watch the US/Swiss Men’s Hockey game on NHL.com that not only has the league backed this plugin but that Microsoft has not written a Silverlight script for Chome OSX. For someone who relies on Netflix streaming or other Silverlight based services, that makes Chrome just part of a two browser strategy at present, not a full fledged replacement.
All in all, I do not want to even try Safari after experiencing Chrome. In terms of speed, reliability, and the fact that it already has all my passwords saved, Google’s browser has me quite won over.
The Terror, the sheer mind splitting terror.
Running through the streets of New York to get to Santos Party House, I regret not skipping my last accounting class. I would already be watching the insanity that is Andrew WK. But after a little mix-up at the box office, I’m in and there he is. Andrew sits reading partially from a small podium but answering, sometimes in short bursts and others stuttering and stalling, questions of the audience.
As always he is a ball of positive energy, imploring the audience to “do what makes you feel good”. I step to the mike to ask Andrew what category hurricane he would be and in characteristic fashion he goes off on an amazing tangent on how when he thinks of hurricanes he thinks of the strong people of New Orleans and how they like New Yorkers after 9/11 banded together. In his mind, New Yorkers and New Oreleansians are the same types of people. I’ll take it!
Obviously the event attracted a lot of silly questions (What shampoo do you use? None, it kills all the good oils!) (Did you have sex with Dave Grohl? No but he’s a great person). Andrew was sure to plug his upcoming shows across the country as well as one at Irvington Plaza and the upcoming release of his two CD set Close calls with Brick Walls and Mother of all Mankind. Some questions however made the big guy take a moment. Such as when the inevitable “Are you the same Andrew WK there has always been?” Andrew walked off stage, returned, sat down and fidgeted nervously before once again reassuring us that conspiracy theories are just that and “I am Andrew WK, the same Andrew WK as there was in the beginning and always will be”. He was equally perturbed by a question about his longtime collaborator Steev Mike. He pointed later on when asked about his positive outlook on life that “Andrew WK is something I created to escape the negativity I used to live in”. And I think this points to Andrew’s ultimate value as an entertainer. Having recognized the dissatisfaction he had in his life he chose to change that by embracing the world and doing exactly what he wanted to. The Andrew WK persona through his actions and engagements such as last night that we each can make a new personality for ourself that is very in-tune with what we want and what makes us happy. Andrew WK is for everyone.
He is also for signing for everyone! Andrew stayed well after the end of the event signing posters and trinkets with a big grin on his face and kind words for everyone. I got a chance to meet Andrew and his wife and I can confirm that he is just as good of a person as he’s come to be described. He was glad to sign my finance textbook and take a photo which made for a nice cap to the event. Hopefully my professor gives me an A for being so awesome…
My Andrew wrap-up is forthcoming. Just gimme a little bit. For now a quick plug.
I’m a huge fan of The Mars Volta and as any fan of the band knows, Cedric and Omar really know how to put on a live show. These guys are musical crash test dummies, bringing a spirited group of collaborators together to realize the Funk Latino Jazz Rock of the future that Omar envisions. They rule. Well unfortunately their fans tend to suck; embodying a fun mixture of hipster pretension and Buzznet style high school gossip on websites like the Comatorium, the official Volta webforum. However, a new challenger has arrived.
The Marble Shrine is a project started by some of the cooler folks from the Comatorium to create a website that catalogs every The Mars Volta live show. That means as many setlists, posters, videos, photos and audio files as possible. And they’re doing an impressive job of it with over 520 shows cataloged. You can download the shows you went to or find some you might have missed (Frances the Mute Tour anyone?). Furthermore, the website catalogs every record released by Omar, both with The Mars Volta and as a solo artist. These have notes about how the sogns changed live over time and in the case of the solo material streaming audio! Sargent House records is really leading the way for how an Indie label should respond to digitalization by allowing The Marble Shrine to stream all the tracks for which they have rights. So if you love the Volta and want to find out more or contribute check out: Themarbleshrine.net
The Fantastic folks at Big Machine Media whom I interned for last semester are getting me into a Q and A with Rock music’s biggest enigma this side of Buckethead, Andrew WK. Hosted at Santos, this event has me all a tither with excitement. Andrew is someone I admire greatly for bringing together the idea of a musician and entrepreneur and doing so with such an enthusiasm for life so tonight should be amazing. The event is also sponsored by Metalsucks.net, my favorite source for snarky metalhead gossip and news, an added bonus. I’m planning on asking Mr. WK where he thinks the next great change to how we enjoy music will come from whether through content, distribution, publicity or performance. If any of you no-goodniks have a Q from Mr. A be sure to leave it in the comments.
Oh My Prog 