I recently captured some crazy antics of a friend on my camera in video mode and decided I would try a "test" to see what happens when I released the video into the wild. So today I uploaded the file to both google video and You Tube; two of the leading video destinations on the web. However, I am not going to advertise the video directly here or anywhere else. I want to see what kind of life it might be able to take on it's own. I just uploaded it and on the 1year anniversary of the upload I will post the results of how "popular" the video got on it's own merits.

Obviously there are many reasons why the video may not gain any attention at all. First off it may never pop-up for anyone to see. I am trusting in ultimate randomness to get just one person to see it and then like (or hate) it enough to tell others about it. I am fully prepared to report that nobody but me ever saw the video at this time next year. However, if by some miracle the video starts to spread across the net then it will be even more interesting to see how popular it gets

I doubt if my friend will have a happy day if the video gets popular!

If the video gets popular I will not only report the details at that point but I will let you know what the video is. If, however, it doesn't become popular, I will leave it hidden to protect the identity of my friend.

#Music #FunStuff #Geekiness

I have been using MediaMonkey as my main music player/manager for the past couple months and I really like it. It has a bunch of nifty features but I'm only going to talk about one here; you can extend it's functionality via custom scripts. Because I like some uniformity in things I have written two scripts to help me out and I figured I would put them here for others to use if they want.

Personally, I like having all of my songs at the same bit-rate (128) because I can't tell the difference between 128 and anything higher anyway. I also like to use the "audio-leveling" feature in Media Monkey so that I don't have one really quiet song that I end up turning up only to be deafened on the next song which is screaming at me. To help me identify the songs that need to have their volume analyzed (stores a setting in the song on how to level it) I wrote my first script called "Unleveled" which adds a new menu node under the main node "Files to Edit".

I also use Last.fm (to keep track of my listening habits and so others can see what I'm listening too). However, it turns out you can't have any parentheses in your song titles (round parentheses like those that wrap this aside). So I wrote another script to replace all the round parentheses with square brackets [like this] in titles of songs. It's called LastFMfix To use it I do a quick search to get all the songs with a round parentheses in the title then run the script which appears under "Tools ->Scripts".

I doubt many people will need either script - but perhaps the way I implemented them will help others who are trying to write their own scripts. Disclaimer I am not a VB coder normally. In fact I almost never use VB but these scripts were pretty darn easy to write.

Here is how to install the scripts:

Unlevelled

This one is really easy. Unzip the unleveled.zip file into the program files/mediamonkey/scripts/auto directory.

Fix for Last.fm

This one is a bit trickier. First unzip the lastFMfix.zip file into the program files/mediamonkey/scripts directory. Then you have to edit the file Scripts.ini (found in the same directory) and add the following chunk of text just before you see the text [AdvancedReport]:

[LastFMfix]
FileName=LastFMfix.vbs
ProcName=LastFMfix
Order=50
DisplayName=&Fix title for Last.fm
Description=Fixes titles for Last.fm
Language=VBScript
ScriptType=0

#Music #Geekiness #Code

My friend, and coworker, Ryan Parker is a huge sports fan. He is also a singer-songwriter so he decided to combine these two passions into one and has recently been composing and recording "sports songs" about his favorite teams. Late last year he wrote a song dubbed "Bengals Bandwagon" which was a huge success and received great acclaim from Bengals fans. In march he recorded "I Bleed Blue" as a tribute to the UK Basketball program in the NCAA tournament. Next he created a song that he still hopes will be included in the Marshall Movie: "We Are Marshall".

After baseball season kicked off he cranked out two separate Reds songs, "This One Belongs to the Reds" which is a great tailgating song and "Cincinnati Is A Baseball Town" which ties in the glory years of the past with today. He will be playing "This One Belongs to the Reds" at the Reds Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony this year.

His love of these various teams goes so far that he even wrote a song about the UK football team, "True Blue", which, if you follow football at all, doesn't have much of a history.

Finally, in anticipation of the upcoming NFL season he has recorded a new Bengals song, "The Ballad of The Bengals" which is a humorous take on the rivalry between the Bengals and the Steelers.

You can listen to a preview of each of these songs on his website. Plus he has put a few video slide-shows out on Youtube and Google Video where you can hear the entire song(s). There is a link to the video(s) on his website near each song.

Please, leave a comment here if you listen to any of his songs and let me know what you think. I'll pass your comments on to Ryan.

#Music #Sports

Do you have iTunes installed on your computer? If not now maybe a good time to grab it. As I have mentioned in the past you can get free music every week - sometimes the free stuff sucks - but occassionaly it is exceptional and this week is of the exceptional variety.

I have never heard Hayley Westenra before but once I heard her sing I knew I wouldn't forget her. Her voice is, to put it plainly, beautiful. She is pretty young (18 I think) but her voice has a mature touch to it that doesn't blemish the pureness that still exists due to her youth. It's hard to describe her "genre" but the closest I can come to is a more intelligible Enya. Enya's vocal style is similar though I think Hayley may have a greater range. However where Enya's songs seem more like mood music to me Hayleys' are typically something you can listen to and understand.

Her free song this week is "Never Saw Blue" and it compelled me to instantly listen to the preview of everyone of her songs. Based on the preview alone I found I really like "I Say Grace", "Both Sides Now", "Across the Universe of Time", "Dark Waltz", "Never Say Goodbye", and "Wuthering Heights". The free "Never Saw Blue" is probably my favorite of the bunch but "Wuthering Heights" is a close second.

Another cool thing about Hayley is her philanthropic effort to provide bikes to girls in Ghana so they can get to school.

Along with Hayley's free song comes "More Shine" by Si*Se - another group I had never heard of. Si*Se is a NYC band that mingles the smooth soul of Sade with a hip violin centric techno beat that is pretty cool to listen to. The lead singer has a great voice though it isn't as pure as Westera's. I like the free track but I did start to think it went on a little long. Of course that could have been my impatience to hear some more of their stuff.

Speaking of more of Si*Se's stuff I also really dug the tracks "The Truth", "Changes", "Mariposa en Havana", and "Karma". I really dig the preview of "Mariposa en Havana" so I bought it on the spot. The guitar in "Mariposa en Havana" is excellent and really infections plus combined with the violins it rocks without being rock. I could listen to that song over and over for a while. It's simple, catchy and has a cool vibe. It is in Spanish but I couldn't care less - that's how good it is. It has a familiar feel to it but I can't really say what song it reminds me of.

All in all I was glad to check out the free songs this week. I ended up with two high quality tracks for nothing, and for only $.99 I grabbed a third that I really like. So if you don't have iTunes yet grab it and get these free songs; and remember they give away 1-3 every week (I always check on fridays). I still use winamp as my primary music player but keep iTunes just for the free music and for shopping. Downlload iTunes - you won't regret it.

#Music

My friend, Ryan Parker, is a pretty good singer/songwriter who is also a huge Bengals fan. He has been a fan of the Bengals for pretty much his entire life and has followed them through all the crappy years upto this point where he has a moment of glory. However, he is distrubed that he is forced to share the moment with so many fair-weather fans who suddenly love his team. In honor of the wannabe's he recorded a new song - Bengal Bandwagon. It's a great track and well worth a listen even if you aren't a Bengals fan because you can laugh at the bad years the Bengals had as well as appreciate what they have accomplished recently.

The link to the song is a mirror of the file that I am hosting becuase his website RyanParkerSongs.com is hosted on a very small machine and may not be able to handle all the traffic he will/is getting due to the songs popularity with football fans. If the link above stops working then please try this alternate location.

#Music #Sports #FunStuff

Lately I have been using a neat little application called the "Last.fm player" which is available from the website last.fm. You enter in a band or artists name and then it creates a streaming radio station for you with bands similar to that which you selected. Pretty neat overall.

Today I was turned on to an even cooler site that does the same thing, but so far, it does it better. It's pandora. So far I like it better because it runs in my browser (no new app to install) AND it seems to give me music that better fits style of the group I entered. For instance when I entered "Pink Floyd" it gave me some really cool music by The Smiths and Scott Walker which both have a similar feel to different periods in Pink Floyd's musical history. The Scott Walker song is kind of like real early Pink Floyd and thus a little wierder. The Smiths are more refined sounding and are closer to the "Division Bell" Floyd that appealed to a wider range of music fans than the real early stuff did.

The one thing both do well is they let you skip over any song you don't like. Most streaming radio you listen to forces you to listen to the entire stream so you're stuck listening to the crap along with the gems. That isn't the case with last.fm and pandora. Hear crap? just hit skip and bam you are on a new song. Very cool

#Music #FunStuff

I have posted about iTunes and their free songs before. Each week Apple gives away at least one song to anyone who logins and downloads it. An "Apple Week" currently runs from Tuesday-Monday meaning the new free songs show up on the site starting on Tuesday and are gone by the following Monday midnight.

Apple doesn't really advertise the fact that you can get more than one free song per week though. They have one featured as the weeks free song - but almost every week I get 3. I login on fridays typically and look for the "Free Downloads" section of the iTunes Store homepage. Well, this week, the "Free Downloads" section moved.

Prior to this week the "Free Downloads" were listed on the bottom of the right column on the homepage. Now they are on the bottom of the left column. Not a major move really but enough where I was nervous that they had done away with the free music program when I didn't see it in it's accustomed location. Currently, this week, there are two free songs: Fast Life by Jackson and HIs Computer Band (an Electronic song) and Over My Head (Cable Car) by The Fray (a rock song). I haven't listened to either yet but typically I like all of the free songs I get and heck, in the end, who cares if they are any good. They are free so it doesn't hurt you to download it and delete it if you don't like it.

#Music #FunStuff

A few weeks ago I signed up for an account at last.fm which is a website that tracks the music you listen too and gives suggestions etc on other music you might like based on your listening patterns. The account comes with a few optional downloadable tools to help with the music tracking. One of these tools is a winamp plugin that sends your last track up to last.fm. Well, last.fm doesn't horde this data, instead they will send it back to you via an rss feed that you can then use however you want. Using my own trusty wordpress rssLinkList plugin I am now listing the ten most recently played songs by moi in the left sidebar of the site under "Recent Music". So, if you ever want to know what I'm listening too you can find out simple as pie.

#Music #ThisSite

Last Friday Lisa and I left town and headed to Columbus with two cars (her van and a rented cargo van). Our ultimate destination was Lisa's parents' home in Cleveland in order to pick up some bedroom furniture for Emily. However, we decided to take a detour to Columbus for their annual Jazz and Ribfest. We have gone to the Jazz and Ribfest quite a few times before but we missed that last two because of Lisa's pregnancy and the subsequent arrival of Emily.

Our prior experience's with the festival have been very positive. It has always been a pretty family friendly place, albiet crowded, with a vast array of both culture's and economic backgrounds. A melting pot of good music, good food, and friendly folks. With that in mind we were pretty excited to be going, plus we would get to eat Butch's Smack Your Lips BBQ Ribs (which, incidently, are still great). However, we didn't arrive in Columbus until nearly 11pm so the crowds were pretty thin (though still substantial) and we only had a small window of opportunity to reach our rib dinner destination.

Upon arrival we began to wade through the crowd. Most of the rib vendors were experiencing a lull in traffic but we were having a lot of trouble finding Butch's stand. He wasn't in his normal (as we remember it) position. After walking past just over half of the vendors on the eastern side of the river I sensed some growing tension and started to encourage Lisa to walk a bit faster. Almost instanlty a huge fight broke out right behind us. There was close to 60 people running around flailing at each other. Caos! I pushed Lisa to move faster to get away from the brawl before it spread outward and caught up innocent bystanders in the area. I finally got the two of us off a ways into a grassy area and we watched as the mob inched closer and closer to where we had been. Finally it just disintegrated as the large police presence reached the fight. Lisa and I then went and got some ribs (there was nowhere else open at that hour) and retreated back into the grassy area to eat.

About when we were finishing our meal a huge line of police officers started running, really fast, past the booth where we purchased our ribs. Needless to say, at this point, we were ready to go. So we snuck out the way we came in. We were both pretty disappointed.

The next day we spent a bunch of time at a shopping area called Easton Town Center before heading back to the hotel. Once there Lisa told me to pick a place to eat so I decided we would just eat at the Max and Erma's in the mall connected to our hotel. However, it was 9:30pm and for some reason it was closed on a Saturday night. Dismayed we headed back to the ribfest. Immediately Lisa was on guard as a large group of young guys came running out of the festival jumping around with each other. As we rounded the corner there were a couple cops standing there and a much larger crowd than from the night before. However, there were three officers on horseback plowing through the crowd and coming at us. Lisa was getting pretty nervous at this point so we decided to just eat ribs from the very first vendor. By the time we were done with the ribs (not as good as Butch's, but not bad) Lisa said she felt better and wanted to find an ear of corn. So off we went into the crowd. We couldn't find any corn but I did buy a giant cream puff. Once I had my pastry in hand we started to head back to the entrance but I had Lisa stop walking so I could eat without slamming into people. We stood off to the side next to two rib vendors and watched as the crowds went by. Just as I was about to finish my cream puff another fight broke out - right in front of us. I pulled Lisa back a little and immediately she ran back behind one of the Rib vendors. I tried to follow her but was pushed off to the other side by a large swarm of people also getting out of the way (including a pregnant lady). The fight was broken up pretty fast and the crowd dispersed again so I could finally get over to Lisa. She was talking to the rib vendor who said it was the third big fight in front of her booth that night. We were really disgruntled then. In fact, we won't be going back to the Columbus Jazz and Ribfest again.

Even after what had happened we weren't ready to write off the festival completely yet but the same vendor told us that in the prior year a riot actually broke out and the police had to shut down all the vendors and bring in tear gas to break it up. The family friendly atmosphere, it appears, is no longer. What a shame.

On Sunday we drove up to Cleveland and moved a bunch of stuff around for Lisa's mom and Lisa's brother. Finally we had the cargo van loaded with our stuff and began the trip home. Before we even left Lisa's neighborhood I was pulled over for "Failing to stop at a stopsign" The officer claims I "Blew right through it". I am doubtful of his claim - but I live in WV and it would cost me just as much to contest it as it would to pay the fine. $110. What pain in the ass. I only have two real driving pet-peeves; not using your turn signal when merging and not stopping at stop signs. Because of this I'm pretty anal about both so I'm fairly certain I didn't blow through the stop-sign. I think my out of state tags made me an easy victim of a cop trying to increase city revenues. As it turns out he is a friend of Lisa's family and when he found out I was related he felt really badly about giving me the ticket. He even called his Sergeant to try and get the ticket dropped (supposedly). Seems to me that if I was really guilty it shouldn't matter who I am. We sent in the money today. What a bummer.

We finally made it home at sometime after midnight and then made it to bed by around 2:30am. It was a long, disappointing weekend. The only thing good about it was that Lisa and I had the opportunity to spend some extra time together.

#Music #Family #FunStuff #MyLife #Travel

I was over at Jeffrey Zeldmans site today and he had a link to "The Playlist" a website with free mp3 downloads (which I believe are all legal and free). So, in an effort to share the wealth here you go: Free Music Downloads. Some of the links don't work - but most do - and suprisingly I like almost every song I have downloaded.

The easiest way to save a song is to right click on its title and say "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." Depending on which browser your using. You can probably only download 2-3 at a time (a limitation of your browser, not of the site) but keep going and grab them all. They are free after all!

Hey, I just bumped into this other, even bigger resources: http://music.download.com with thousands of free mp3s. Just browse by genre and check out some bands you might never have heard of - there is some real quality music here!

#Music #General