Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Back home focusing on her Olympic experience
My wife returned home from the Olympics today. We caught up on her wonderful experience, especially being at the Men's moguls to witness Canada's first gold medal at home. We watched a little of the opening ceremonies at home tonight recorded from her video camera. I was trying to capture her simple joy and memory of personally experiencing one of the world's biggest sporting events.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Music menu
One of the ways I align my (wide) music tastes with my life is to listen to specific genres and tempos at specific times of the day. I don't always do this and not always have my say in what music is played at home, but when I do have the turntable, and when I'm not fussy on specific bands or newer versus older tracks, then I switch on a few large, tailored playlists to fill the specific music gap in the day. To do this my way, you need to have a pretty good grasp on genre assignments and upbeat/mellow settings. For instance, I've been able to narrow the number of genres down to 22 and I use the Grouping attribute to indicate whether the track is mellow or upbeat. My library isn't perfect and I don't necessarily categorize and rate tracks my wife or kids download, but for me it works quite well.
My music genres (with some examples) are:
My music genres (with some examples) are:
- Rock/pop - U2, Robbie Williams
- Rock and Punk - AC/DC, The Clash
- Modern Rock and Alternative - Arctic Monkeys, Metric
- New Wave and Early Alternative - New Order, Talking Heads
- Pop, Idol and Kids -Spice Girls, Miley Cyrus
- Pop/Rock - The Script, The Beatles
- Folk/Rock - Devendra Banhart, Diane Birch
- Country - Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton
- Electronica - Thievery Corporation, Morcheeba
- Dance - Tiesto, Madonna
- Hip Hop and Rap - Timbaland, Lauryn Hill
- R&B - Mary J. Blige, James Morrison
- Reggae and World Music - UB40, Matisyahu
- Jazz vocal - Madelaine Peyroux, Ella Fitzgerald
- Jazz instrumental - Chris Botti, John Coltrane
- Blues - B.B. King, Susan Tedeschi
- Soul - Joss Stone, Duffy
- Soundrack - instrumental scores mostly, like Big Night and Snatch
- Classical
- Opera
- Comedy
- Christmas
So, for instance in the morning, the playlist is of course mellow, and I exclude genres like R&B, Hip Hop and Electronica. Late/easy evenings is mellow again, but excluding Folk/Rock and most Rock categories. For me, I can't picture listening to Madonna on a quiet Sunday morning or The Beatles when I'm tired and having a night cap. Of course, there are many more times in the day and music appropriate for different mealtimes, e.g. some get up and go music on a weekday morning (upbeat rock/pop for instance); heading to your hockey or ultimate game (upbeat dance or punk); or jazz instrumental and mellow soul during dinner.
So how about the following menu for this coming Friday ?
- Some gentle mellow folk/rock to greet the day, then changing folk/.rock to upbeat mode during breakfast time and some upbeat new wave for the commute.
- Over lunch, we go with the blues.
- Heading home we get urban with some upbeat hip hop & rap, but change to mellow R&B as appertizers are prepared.
- Some jazz vocal and mellow modern rock and alternative (to keep the kids interested) over dinner, followed by some upbeat soul for dessert.
- Drinks with candlelight with mellow electronica to finish your day.
Custom music menus available by request. Bon Appetit.
Where I find new (old) music: Part 3 - iTunes Genius
I just switched on iTunes Genius. I have used it in the past, but haven't used it since getting our MacBook over a year ago. There a few people who think that sharing your iTunes library is a little concerning (including my wife), but I don't see any big worry, especially considering all the other stuff I share online about myself. The one thing I do do (yes, I said do do) is to clear the comments field for the music I have purchased from gray Russian sites.
So, with Genius, you can simply pick a track and hit the Genius button and it will create a new playlist from your library based on a set of magical and mystical attributes from iTunes users world wide. For me, with a iTunes library that is large, but not very fat, it gives me a refreshing way to create a fresh playlist with forgotten old tracks, mixed with new tracks looking for a home. It also has a sidebar with purchase recommendations that is good for those people who don't have a large library or those looking for new stuff.
The latest release of iTunes also creates some automatic genre based Genius Mixes with funky names like Neo-Soul, Surf/Garage Revival and Electro-Pop.
Another feature in iTunes that I haven't used much is the iTunes iMix, I've uploaded one as a test, but not published yet. I may spend a little time composing a few if there is an audience out there for my tastes in music.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Vancouver 2010 Olympics from the comfort of my couch
Try to spot my wife - just right of the tunnel at the top of the shot !
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Oliverio
I had a 4 day business trip to Orlando, Florida this week. We were staying at The Grand Floridian, one of Disney's older properties. As we were waiting for our shuttle bus to take us back to the airport I spotted what I thought was the best dressed staff / "cast member" I'd seen during my stay. Oliverio is originally from Manhattan and has been working at Disney in Orlando for 18 years. He started out helping transport guests from one resort to another and is now the head doorman for the Grand Floridian. He's seen Presidents Clinton and Bush visit the hotel and met many celebrities. He once met Oprah in her slippers. She got into her limo and apologized for her casual look - she'd just got up an hour ago ! Oliverio said she was so down to earth. The weather was cold during the week, but Oliverio didn't mind at all and it reminded him a little of NY, it helped of course, that he was dressed for it !
Oliverio is also #41 in my 100 stranger project.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Monday, February 08, 2010
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Psychedelic Friday
Driving home from my barber's, my son and I hear The Stones' Sympathy for the Devil (live version). During pre-dinner music-mixing with my daughter, I request Trout (Nenah Cherry and Michael Stipe) to be added to the playlist.
I sit down to watch Tropic Thunder on-demand on TMN later in the evening - it gets funnier as the movie progresses. The source track of Trout (Steppenwolf's The Pusher) is on the soundtrack along with Sympathy for the Devil.
Very psychedelic.
I sit down to watch Tropic Thunder on-demand on TMN later in the evening - it gets funnier as the movie progresses. The source track of Trout (Steppenwolf's The Pusher) is on the soundtrack along with Sympathy for the Devil.
Very psychedelic.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Late walk look
Small cheat - the auto in-camera red eye post-processing didn't work on the Fuji FinePix F200EXR for this shot so a quick fix in Photoshop did the trick.
Monday, February 01, 2010
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