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Hawaii photos going up - Oculon
You know, only 4 months late… Also, check out the gems from my iPhone that I finally dumped off: gems from my iPhone
Thriller - Marktopia
Really, did you think anything else would work today? 7 #1 hits, best selling album of all time and one of the best pop albums ever. I was not a superfan, and his life got super weird, but he was extremely talented and pushed music forward with it. His talent will be missed.
Veckatimest - Marktopia
Continuing with amazing albums this year, the new Grizzy Bear album falls right in line. Another amazing orchestration of music with wonderful lyrics, this album will have you interested the first time you listen to it. The sample song below is one of the better songs on the album, so if you like it, you are likely to love the rest of the album.
Time Out - Marktopia
I inquired through Twitter and Facebook about getting into jazz. While I was met with some sass, I did get some helpful suggestions, one of which was this classic. Of the suggestions, this is the first that really spoke to me, so I figured I would give some props to Mr. Wilson for the recommendation and say that it is fantastic. It is also good timing, as it is at it's 50 year anniversary, which includes a nice write up from NPR about the album.
Reservoir - Marktopia
One part Arcade Fire, the other Beirut, this album by the Swedish band Fanfarlo is going to be another of this year's top albums. The album bops up and down throughout, but stays with a consistent sound, kept together by the lyrical stylings. And the best part is, you can get this fantastic album for a buck until July 4th from the band's web site. Really, you can't afford not to check this band out and support a fantastic way for the band to get money directly.
My Maudlin Career - Marktopia
With sounds that could be out of the 60s, this album hits is in every possible way. While I could go on about the arrangement and how the instrument work is perfect for this style of album, it is really the vocals that make this fantastic. Tracyanne Campbell brings something amazing to this album by Camera Obscura that can only really be experienced to appreciate.
Fantasies - Marktopia
The newest Metric album took some time to grow on me, but after that, I really enjoyed it. It definitely is influenced by Garbage in the 90s, down to the sassy female lead vocalist, who also happens to steal the album with her talent. The first single, Help I'm Alive, is a good example of a song that bugged me the first time I heard it, but now I really enjoy, so give it a listen or three before deciding if it is really for you.
Giving Cable the Boot - Marktopia
Month after month, we receive our cable & Tivo bills and cringe at the near $100 total. Before Will, I was able to justify the cost a lot more, but with the economy and less time in front of the TV it is more difficult to do so. With this in mind, Rebekah and I decided to experiment with the AppleTV to see if it could meet our needs of watching videos from our hard drive and streaming Netflix and Hulu with reasonable quality.
The first thing was getting the AppleTV, not too tough since the University Bookstore carries them. This worked well for the potential need to return it, no need to deal with shipping or restocking fees. After getting it home, I started it up connected to the TV via HDMI and the receiver with an optical cable. All worked well and I had a working AppleTV that basically allowed watching iTunes content. We did know going into it that we would need to hack the AppleTV to get Hulu and Netflix (via Boxee or XBMC), so that was the next step.
I decided to go the easy route and try the atvusb-creator. This was a piece of cake, downloaded and ran the app, installed to the USB key and done. I then rebooted the AppleTV with the USB key connected. The installer just did it's business and after the restart, there were a bunch of new options on the menu. This is when things were not as easy as I would have preferred.
I tried starting Boxee and nothing came up. I tried the same with XBMC, and nothing. I started getting a little concerned, so I started poking around the settings and found an update section. I ran the update for the Installer program, and then the Boxee and XBMC programs after that. Luckily that got both of those working, I just wish there had been a little more documentation about that beforehand.
I decided to try Boxee and it instantly went to a blank screen. After some checking online, I found I had to update the AppleTV software and then do all of the hacks again. This took some time, but after that Boxee came up just fine. I logged in, tried out Hulu and found that it was a bit choppy. I tried Boxee on my laptop as well to confirm it was not a Boxee issue, and Hulu ran just fine through that. I decided to give Netflix a try and it wouldn't even start on the AppleTV through Boxee, again, something that worked great on my laptop.
It was a this point I checked and found that the AppleTV only has 256MB of RAM, not really enough to handle HD streaming. Because of this, we have decided to return the AppleTV and instead go with a Mac mini. The mini is on the way from China, so there will be a followup to this when we get that setup. We are both optimistic that this will work better and be the cable replacement we are looking for, so stay tuned next week for an update.
Bombay Dub Orchestra - Marktopia
The self titled album by Bombay Dub Orchestra is an chill electronic album with a world twist on it. While not the most complex album, it is great to use as background music for work or when friends are over. They also have a new album 3 Cities that is a little more complex, but to start out, I would recommend this one.
Movement in Still Life - Marktopia
Movement in Still Life by BT is one of those early decade electronic albums that can actually still stand on it's own merit. While there is some cheesy electronic beats on some of the songs, it is worth looking past to find some fantastic tracks, such as Dreaming and Satellite. If have the need to relive some beats but not feel ashamed doing it, check this album out.