My Froggy Friend - On a Magazine

My Froggy Friend sitting in my hand

Technorati Tags: Photo, Frog

Steampunk Badger, originally uploaded by xtopher42.

Technorati Tags: The Shiny List, Steampunk, Badger, Art

Listening in Blue Shift 05
New Americana: Traveling Music For those with Nowhere to Go

1. [00:00] ill lit: Across Country
   [From Tom Cruise, 2006]
2. [03:54] The Basement: Summertimes
   [From Illicit Hugs & Playground Thugs, 2006]
3. [06:21] Howe Gelb: Get to Leave
   [From ''Sno Angel Like You, 2006]
4. [09:13] Grand Archives: Sleepdriving
   [From the self-titled LP, The Grand Archives, 2008]
5. [14:33] Coyote Bones: Let the Burden Be Mine
   [From Gentleman on the Rocks, 2007]
6. [18:39] The Secret Show: We Blaze a Trail
   [From Impressionist Road Map of the West, 2007]
7. [21:18] Drag the River: Beautiful & Damned
   [From It's Crazy, 2006]
8. [24:24] Phosphorescent: Cocaine Lights
   [From Pride, 2007]
9. [30:24] Eels: Railroad Man
   [From Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, 2005]

Technorati Tags: ill lit, The Basement, Howe Gelb, Grand Archives, Coyote Bones, The Secret Show, Drag the River, Phosphorescent, Eels, music, Listening in Blue Shift, Podcast, Americana, Country

Technorati Tags: honeymoon, podcast

Oh, and fair warning, this is NOT a “feel-good” mix…

Listening In Blue Shift 04
4 Ice Cubes: Songs About Booze

1. [0:00] The Magnetic Fields: Too Drunk to Dream
   [From Distortion, 2008]
2. [2:57] Cold War Kids: We Used to Vacation
   [From Robbers and Cowards, 2006]
3. [6:68] Earlimart: We Drink On The Job
   [From Everyone Down Here, 2003]
4. [9:12] The National: All the Wine
   [From Alligator, 2006]
5. [12:25] Guided by Voices: A Drinker’s Peace
   [From The Same Place the Fly Got Smashed, 1998]
6. [14:15] The Handsome Family: Drunk By Noon
   [From Milk & Scissors, 1996]
7. [17:00] Radical Face: Drink Until Your Brains Shut Down
   [From "From the Teeth of 4-Tracks", 2002]
8. [19:53] The Good Life: Album of the Year
   [From Album of the Year, 2004]
9. [25:00] Spent: Excuse Me While I Drink Myself to Death
   [From Songs of Drinking & Rebellion, 1995]

Technorati Tags: The Magnetic Fields, Cold War Kids, Earlimart, The National, Guided by Voices, The Handsome Family, Radical Face, The Good Life, Spent, Music, Booze, Drinking, Listening in Blue Shift

Listening In Blue Shift 03
Somewhere in Clip

• [00:00] The Black Spoons: Marie Curie
  [from My Dear Radium]
  I can’t say enough good things about these guys. Hailing from NYC, originally a trio, currently a duo, making straight forward rock music with insight and intelligence that is not often found in music. Tom Sean, the guitarist, lead singer, and song writer, has assured me they are working on their 3rd album currently.
• [04:02] The Secret Machines: Lightning Blue Eyes
  [from Ten Silver Drops]
  When I first started this site the first article I wrote (and summarily NEVER published) was for The Secret Machines, Ten Silver Drop, which I had manged to get an advance release of. Now the album is 2 years old, but still lives in heavy rotation on my playlist. Yet another previous trio, now a duo from Dallas, TX making music that can best describes as “Arena Big” (without the irony).
• [09:26] British Sea Power: Lights Out For Darker Skies
  [from Do You Like Rock Music?]
  The album title pretty much sums it up. No clichés. No pretense. This album is on my list for one of the best albums of 2008.
• [16:01] Okkervil River: Unless it Kicks
  [from Stage Names]
  I can’t escape the urgency in Will Chefff voice. His pure, raw emotion is splayed out for all to see, and the music follows suit.
• [20:38] Ringo Deathstarr: Starrsha
  [from the self-titled ep, Ringo Deathstarr]
  If anyone was to improve on the Jesus & Mary Chain, I’d put my money on these guys from Austin. Not simply imitating, Ringo Deathstarr (clever name, no?) have mastered the “Wall of Sound” made famous by JaMC, My Bloody Valentine, etc., while keeping their own unique sound in it.
• [22:44] Hallelujah the Hills: Effie’s On the Other Side
  [from Collective Psychosis Begone]
  This album has been a difficult listen for me; one that I’ve had to walk away from several times, but I keep going back and finding new things that I didn’t catch the first time. I’m torn in regards to challenging albums like this; whether it’s worth the effort required to really catch the nuances or whether I can just accept it for what I like on a surface level and move on, losing no sleep. Regardless, there are some standout tracks like this one that took no effort to engage me, and didn’t simply prey on a catchy melody or what have you.
• [25:42] Think About Life: Paul Cries
  [from the self-titled, Think About Life]
  How can you go wrong with highly dance-able and distorted, raw pop music?
• [28:56] Parts & Labor: Fractured Skies
  [from Maps]
  Chest Pounding Vocals, Impossibly metronomic drums, driving rhythm, and all of that and they don’t even use any guitars. These guys make music that no else has thought to make before and do so with astounding success. High volume listening is a must, though likely to do some very serious damage.

Technorati Tags: The Black Spoons, The Secret Machines, British Sea Power, Okkervil River, Ringo Deathstarr, Jesus & Mary Chain, Hallelujah the Hills, Think About Life, Parts & Labor, Music, Rock, Listening in Blue Shift

Then again, it seems the day has quickly tightened its reigns on me, as I spent the better half of my morning pawing through security footage to determine which employee of the restaurant walked out of the building last night with several hundred dollars worth of someone else’s stuff. Festive, I tell you.

And my previously scheduled morning appointment has since been time shifted to 3 PM, thus timeshifting the rest of my day.

And I still need to go to the grocery…

Be that as it may, expect a new podcast later tonight or in the very wee hours of tomorrow morning.

And in no way related, but a little something to tide you over until the podcast… DJ Lobsterdust: Jenny’s Superstitious [Stevie Wonder vs. The Killers]

Technorati Tags: Podcast, music, DJ Lobsterdust

Podcast #3 is largely complete and I’m toying with the idea of both doing a weekly ShoutCAST stream, as well getting a proper microphone and a small mixer and actually APPEARING on my own damn podcast (Novel, I know…)

I’m also trying to objectively look at my time commitments before I consider adding a tLog to Living in Blue Shift [dot] com. My rational being:

1. I have an unhealthy fascination with Micro-blogging and this seems like an interesting adaptation of it.
2. It would allow me to post more regularly than I do currently, do to the nature of the system.
3. Generating more content would, in turn, present me with the possibility of higher visibility on “the grid” (aka: the internet).

But, my hang up is, I struggle to maintain this site as much as I’d like due to equal parts exhaustion, more pressing responsibilities, lack of inspiration/motivation, and of course laziness. I’d rather not take the time to create a framework for more content only to let it collect dust.

With all of this, I’m also looking at diddling around with Yahoo! Pipes [wiki description]service to effectively lifestream my online activities. While it might be of some interest to others, I feel that largely this is for my own academic gratification (Which I then question, why the hell I’d need a lifestream, I’m the one living it… But I digress). Somehow the idea of a long string of aggregated RSS entries being my lasting scrawl seems fitting.

This all leads up to a series of entries I’ve been semi-writing for months now regarding the integration of so-called Web2.0 technologies into our lifestyles on and off the grid. If I get my ass in gear, part one could actually be up soon, assuming I don’t get distracted as usual.

Technorati Tags: podcast, tLog, Micro-blogging, Yahoo! Pipes, Web2.0, Aggregation, technology, blogging, procrastination

I need a desk. More specifically, I need an office. I’ve been working on the couch rather than my usual chair w/ laptop desk, and it has taken it’s toll on my lower back. No position is comfortable. No lighting is adequate. And more so than any of the rest, working in the family room, while practical as a father/husband, is absolutely the worst thing a person could do who is trying to “force the muse.” I have been trying to get back to write for a long time now, and I have things that I desperately want to get out but I aways seem to find an excuse; and the slight change of position has made me realize that this environment is the most dreadful thing I could do for that.

This came in part with the realization that my next computer will be a desktop. I will keep my laptop for the portability and it is still a reasonably good system, but going forward, I’m getting a 24″ iMac so that:

• I am forced to sit at said desk to work it, thus encouraging me to devote real time to writing.
• I can easily and hopefully more productively, continue to pursue some of my other projects with a greater ease (i.e.: Short film animation, digital video editing, more podcasts, etc.)

I know that I’ll have to work hard to achieve a precarious balance to devote enough time to my wife and daughter WHILE working to focus on writing again. It’ll be hard work, but I know it’s worth doing.

As someone who has prided himself on being above-average in regards to productivity and productivity tools, I can’t believe that it took an ergonomic shift for me to realize what a bad idea a laptop as a main workstation for me is…

Technorati Tags: desk, laptop, distraction, workspace, productivity

That being said, maybe I ought to be doing other things; like writing a damn article about the end of the labor union strike on Broadway for the company webpage that the boss wanted me to write (For those of you just tuning in, I am the IT Director, not a Public Relation Manager or a Journalist…) Then again, maybe I should take that as a sign that I should also be blogging more over here…

Photo by me, taken some time back. There are more pictures over at my flickr page.

Technorati Tags: Frustration, laptop, hard drive, writing, career