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slayer day

I am spending today listening to the music of Slayer. www.nationaldayofslayer.org

Itunes single of the week 09-05-25

Polly Scattergood's I Hate the Way is has attracted a lot of hate. The description of the track on Itunes does Polly no favours in comparing her to the like of Amy Winehouse and Kate Bush. This track while having fairly clever cryptic lyrics is lacking in energy and passion. I think the two star average rating is about double what I would give it.

Friend Feed

As is often the case I have gotten myself caught up in the excitement of a new product or service and jumped into it headfirst, only to find out I am not nearly ready for it. The concept of friend feed and twitter appeal to me. Simpler (at least in theory ways of sharing information with friends or like minded individuals. But figuring out how to navigate through these unfamiliar landscapes seems to be a bit more than I am up for these days.

itunes single of the week 09-05-24

Grizzly Bear's song cheerleader seems to have really divided up the reviewers on Itunes. The sparse minimal lo-fi sound has a lot of fans and a lot of detractors. A haunting children's choir sound in the background adds the mysterious atmosphere. I found the more I listened to it the more I liked it. Looks like most aren't giving it that much of a chance though...

much a twitter about nothing?

I am getting increasingly interested in participating in twitter, friend feed and perhaps other forms of social networking. This Week in technology podcasts feature many lively conversation on these emerging media. The relative merits, conflicts and potential interaction between these different but potentially harmonious platforms is a simultaneously exciting and frustrating. It is fascinating that Lance Armstrong would decide to bypass official media and just send his statements out into Twitter. I would rather hear directly from Lance than through the mass media's filters. I find the whole concept of press conferences absurd. We don't need to assemble a rag tag collection of know it alls in one particular room to get statements anymore. In another twitter news http://mashable.com reports that rumours of an official twitter show are untrue. It actually is hard for me to imagine, but hey if more high profile people like the most successful cyclist of all time make it their main communication locus it might become a necessity.

the new media

Having just bought a new IPOD touch that has both a lot more space and wifi access I am able to download a lot more podcasts. Its been exciting and overwhelming to explore the amazing diversity of information out there. I have long been a fan of the CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and have downloaded a of material from there. I have also discovered another Canadian institution - Amber Macarthur, who hosts many great podcasts, as well as old fashioned media events as well. Amber and Leo Laporte are involved with several events with a several projects titled This Week in Tech with the whimsical TWIT acronym (which I love). There is a wonderful warm free flowing vibe to the broadcasts that I have heard. The TWIT podcasts feel like a socratic dialogue rather than a one way authoritarian feed. Something else that struck me is the way that advertising is worked in. In early days of mass communication sponsor announcements were ingrained with regular programming. Leo who has a talk radio background makes all the content including advertising seem like a fun conversation.