January 18, 2006
Basking in a little vendor love
A vendor just sent me an iPod Nano. I've already set it up. It's totally blowing me away. Damn, it's tiny. Perfect for those quick trips to Cincinnati when I don't want to take the video iPod. I'll probably also make it my new gym companion. We're now a four iPod family. Just call it technical ecstasy ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:46 PM | Comments (1)
Ten Years After
Sonic Pollutions just uploaded a very crunchy video version of Ten Years After slicing through "Good Morning Little School Girl" from the Beat Club TV show. It aired in 1969.
If you're a fan of Alvin Lee, you gotta check it out ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:39 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2006
Recent tunes ...
I heard a stunning version of the Grateful Dead's "Brokedown Place" on Prairie Home Companion the other night, but I didn't catch the name of the woman singing it.
Thank god for the Internet. Tracked it down there. It's Adrienne Young. And amazingly, iTunes had her "Art of Virtue" CD, which I downloaded. I've only listened to it a few times through, but it's a keeper.
Also found a recommendation in the Wall Street Journal of all places. The Dreadful Yawns. Again, iTunes had it, so I downloaded it. Odd mix that sounds like Crosby Stills and Nash, Neil Young. It has sections that are reminiscent of Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name."
And finally, I found a copy of Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters at Barnes and Nobel the other day for 10 bucks, so I snapped that up.
Good stuff, overall. My iPod is smiling.
Now Playing: My Love Will Keep from the album "The Art of Virtue" by Adrienne Young & Little Sadie
Posted by Bob Benz at 7:54 PM | Comments (2)
Video stuff ...
I finally found a video conversion application for the Mac that I like, so I've been downloading a lot of stuff and moving it to my video iPod today.
The software is iSquint, which makes it much easier to convert files for use on the iPod. I'm liking it a lot. And it's free, though I think I'll probably donate if I keep using it at the rate I have been.
And I keep coming up with new video sources. A few of my recent favorites:
Bedazzled: A nice mix of bizarre video, photos, etc., and political rants. This is the site that turned me on to iSquint. It doesn't hurt that the site has the same name as one of my favorite movies (not the 2000 remake ... the 1967 original with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Hilarious.)
Sonic Pollutions: This is a great source of stuff from the '60s. It's not just links to video, either. She provides a lot of great background and history. Quickly becoming one of my favorite sites.
YouTube: I still haven't figured out how to grab video from this site, but I catch myself checking it out often. It's wildly inconsistent and has a lot of strange stuff along with the occasional gem. I'm astounded by the sheer amount of stuff that's uploaded here. I subscribe to the RSS feed, and there area about 200 new posts every time I check. Amazing.
Recent stuff I've moved to my iPod includes several vintage videos from Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett era), Jefferson Airplane and the Thirteenth Floor Elevators. Also uncovered a BBC Pink Floyd documentary that I'll probably be watching during the interminable plane ride to L.A. tomorrow.
Posted by Bob Benz at 7:47 PM | Comments (0)
Brave men ...
I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but I've never read anything by Scripps' famed war correspondent, Ernie Pyle. Until I picked up a copy of "Brave Men," a collection of his columns.
It's fascinating stuff, though at times it bogs down a bit in detail. But it's really easy to skim through those parts, and it's really the details that bring the book to life. His focus on the run-of-the-mill soldier is great. In simple, declarative style, he takes you right into the trenches with them, their fears, their corny humor, their longing for home. In several instances, he talks about the dogs and children they adopt along the way. Some of it's heartbreaking.
When Pyle tries to write about a general (Omar Bradley), he becomes almost apologetic for rubbing shoulders with a bigwig and quickly turns his focus to the general's aide and support personnel.
Particularly cool is the way he lists each soldier's home town and in most cases, street address. My one complaint is that he doesn't have much bad to say about anyone. I guess some of that is the effect of wartime censorship and some of it is living shoulder to shoulder with these guys at the front. That would make it tough to really nail someone, I guess.
All in all, a great read. I'd definitely recommend it.
Posted by Bob Benz at 7:14 PM | Comments (1)
January 4, 2006
Smoke gets in your eyes ...
I got to experience my first emergency landing last night coming into Boston. Wouldn't have even known it was happening if we hadn't smelled the smoke in the cabin and seen the fire engines on the runway as we came in. In the end, the worst of it was an extended wait for luggage to be unloaded from the plane (like an idiot, I checked my back, which I almost never do). Pretty much of a non-event.
But this morning's Boston Globe did have a brief on it. It's the third item down ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 6:29 PM | Comments (1)
January 3, 2006
Pastoral sunset ...
I took this photo with my new camera, a Cannon EOS Digital Rebel. Very cool camera. It's pretty hard to take bad pictures with it, though I still manage. In addition to the camera, I also got a 17-85mm zoom lens with it that rocks. Nothing like a little gadgetry ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:03 AM | Comments (0)
Partners in crime ...
Xena and Ozzy hang out on the back deck, looking for trouble to get into. Based on the debris strewn across the backyard, I'd say they found it. They love to do hit and run missions on the garbage can, taking whatever they can pull out to the backyard to much on.
Posted by Bob Benz at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)
Trimmed tree ...
The final result of our tree decorating party. The tree is no longer with us. I don't have much tolerance for Christmas once Dec. 26 rolls around. By the 27th, I'd totally Grinched the house and things were back to normal.
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:58 AM | Comments (0)
Cumberland Falls
Xena and I drove up to Kentucky during the holiday break, and we stopped at Cumberland Falls State Park. Nice waterfall there, complete with a midday rainbow. Apparently, a "moonbow" forms on nights when there's a full moon. Didn't wait around till dark to find out ...
Posted by Bob Benz at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)