Another crazy week--by the time I finish the work I have to do this weekend, I'll have topped 70 hours this week. Not my idea of fun, Fuck knows. I did catch a little break last night for a dinner and coctail party at Klaus and Zorana's place, with some of the crowd from my old Danish class that I haven't seen for a while. I only survived till about 1.30 though- I'm definitely out of practice. Or maybe just exhausted. At least I got to try out a downtempo dinner mix I made for the New Year's party but never got a chance to use (see below).
I spent an hour this morning treasure hunting on Epitonic and found this great remix by Adult. and Solvent called "Flexidisc." The music is kinda glitchy electronics, but the vocals are classic Nicola Kuperus. Monotone and staccato, good for increasing anxiety. Go to Epitonic and search for Adult. and Solvent, and while you're there, check for G.D. Deluxe and Junior Communist Club... Good stuff altogether!
I found an Aspera ad Astra track called Tin Pan Miracles, too. I'd heard good things about Aspera ad Astra but this is the first I've listened to them. It's okay, like very early Cocteau Twins if Robin or Simon were doing vocals instead of Liz Fraser.
I also seem to have knocked my iPod out of the bad mood it's been in lately. Had to reformat the thing (using the iPod updater utility--never, ever, reformat an iPod through the Finder or on a PC!!), but I think it's okay now. For the last few weeks it would lock up when I tried to connect it to the Mac, and I'd have to manually reset it a few times before it would finally make the connection.
Then yesterday when I connected, it knocked the Mac's whole operating system into the "Grey screen of Death," which scared the hell out of me since I'd never seen it before. I ended up having to reformat the iPod three times in a row before it started behaving normally again, but so far, so good.
In other gadget news, I just got an HP iPaq 2210 cheap through Cecilie's job at Danmarks Radio. It's pretty cool- a lot more advanced than the Palm V I've been using since San Francisco. I had bought it with the intention of just using it for work (the Palm V doesn't synch with Outlook, and my schedule is so crazy these days I really need something to start screaming at me when a meeting's running long and I need to be somewhere else). But then I read that there's this "Missing Synch" software you can use to connect it to OS X, which is even cooler! Now I just need to figure out how to synch both my work laptop and the iMac to the thing.
It's a lot easier to read from when I'm standing on the train or bus too, which is a big plus. I've gotten into the habit of saving articles from NY Times, Janes or Salon or wherever onto the PDA and reading them later on the commute. It's the only chance I get lately.
Finally, I'm really impressed with the upgrade of my weblog software. It's a lot easier, especially the commenting system (sorry again for making you wait to see a comment you've posted).
Now the playlist...
Downtempo Party 2005
Man. nothing like this to remind me that I will never, ever have as cool of a record collection as you do. Even if I do now live in Boston nestled among some of the best live dive bars in the Western hemisphere.
You're still cooler than the other side of the pillow... Sigh... ;)
-Stephanie
The iPaq definitely lacks the grace of the Palm V, but it's so much more flexible I feel obligated to use it. The bright color screen is like a million times easier to read, and the ability to sync with Outlook (not relevant for you, but critical for me), and, supposedly the OS X address book, Mail and iCal, is really cool- I got the software this weekend but left the stupid synch cable at work so I can't test it. They say you can sync with more than one computer too, which would be great.
The handwriting recognition is a lot better too, and supposedly you can even watch video on it. But the killer app is just being able to synch all my emails before you leave work and then write responses to the emails using the iPaq on the train home, and sync and send as soon as I get back.
Only downside is the iPaq is much uglier, physically larger and made of cheap plastic. And you need to recharge every day if you use it a lot, compared to the PV, which would go for like a week between recharges.
A good analogy is Audion vs. iTunes. Audion looked a hundred times better, but iTunes was just so much more flexible I had to switch.
Posted by: case at January 30, 2005 05:41 PMnice mix man!
let me know how you like the ipaq. I'm pretty sick of the palm, although honestly I wish I could just consolidate my palm and my phone into one unit. way too many gadgets. and my electrical outlets are a jungle of ac adapters. I really want to streamline.
bleh.
Posted by: jeremy at January 30, 2005 07:15 AM