Man of Leisure

DJ Ted Stevens - A Series of Tubes

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SNL Taps U2 to Regain Respect?

U2 continued their dominance of the TV airwaves by appearing on Saturday Night Live last night. They played the standard two sets, beginning with "Vertigo", the iPod/ITunes Music Store song - which I enjoy quite a bit. The second song was a guitar-heavy ballad, quite pleasant.

It was the end of the show where they broke free of the shackles. Host Luke Wilson, sitting on the edge of the stage with Bono, gave the typical "I had a great week..." line, and then looked over to Bono, who stood up and ran over to the music stage for a third song with the band. It was a rockin' number, and halfway through, he stepped off stage into the audience to ham it up for the crowd and the cameras. As the credits rolled, the song ended, and Bono could be heard repeatedly saying, "Saturday Night Live! LIVE! LIVE!"

For sure, U2 is promoting their new album, trying to stay on top of the world (check this article from the Christian Science Monitor, or this one at Time Magazine for proof of that); but given that SNL itself has taken some heat for the Ashlee Simpson lip-synch debacle, I wouldn't be surprised if Lorne Michaels et al. hadn't begged the band to crank it up for the cause. Certainly the third song was planned well in advance, because they had to make time for it in the show. Given the reaction of the cast, it looked like at least the folks at SNL were pleased. I haven't seen anything about it on the "murmurNet"(tm) yet, but perhaps folks are just waking up from their revels.

Just last Thursday, I asked one of my RAs whether or not U2 was still a relevant band. He told me that the kids still really enjoy "The Joshua Tree" - that warmed my heart, since I grew up with that album myself. But he also hinted at a kerfluffle about U2's deal with Apple to go commercial and endorse a product, with some bemoaning the "sell-out" factor.

So we have a plea for attention from Studio 8H, featuring a band whose star may have flared out already. Will it work? Time will tell.

iTunes Kicks A$$

Apple released an update to their excellent iTunes music library program today, bringing a few new features to the free program for Macintosh and Windoze XP. The best new feature is sharing of playlists, by uploading them to the iTunes Music Store. There, other iTunes users can rate your list and purchase tracks that they like. I spent an hour or so this evening browsing some of the iMix playlists, and found about 40 songs that I'd like to buy very soon, mainly 80's radio classics.

I uploaded a playlist of my own, based on my "Meet Your Maker" collection of drinking songs that I made for Tom. The following web address should take you to the playlist, if you have the iTunes program on your computer:

http://tinyurl.com/3cq5n

Speaking of drinking, Tom and I completed The Project on Wednesday afternoon, well in advance of the official pub crawl. During our trip, we came across some choice quotes:

"How's your mother?" - This is what we heard when we sat down at the bar in the Twilight Room. Now while this is a normal question on a college campus, usually ending in some fisticuffs, this time the question was being posed seriously (albeit to another denizen of the bar). This fact helped Tom and I discern that the T-Room is truly a neighborhood establishment.

When Tom and I explained to Charity the Bar Maiden at the Portsmouth Club that we were doing our own version of the pub crawl, by enjoying a pint one or two stops at a time over a 2-week period, she remarked, "Well, it doesn't seem like you've been doing much crawling, then." Very insightful, Ms. Charity. Tom and I decided that the P-Club provided the best persiflage that we'd enjoyed during The Project.

Deal-A-Song

Music Magic Found in the Shuffle is a piece in Wired that expounds on the wonders of the Shuffle feature on iPod (and other players, but why kid ourselves?). Of course, Wired is merely stealing my ideas and observations again, even if I didn't post them here before they published their article...

I've been talking about the "soundtrack of my life" that iPod provides by allowing me to have my entire music collection in my pocket. It's amazingly delightful to have 3,000 songs to carry about. Since iPod sorts songs in many ways (artist, album, genre, title), I can easily tap into any mood that strikes my fancy. Sometimes, for example, I want to hear nothing but Avril Lavigne - and this is frankly quite often, as I've listened to tracks on her "Let Go" album a total of 96 times since October 22, 2003. Other times, I'm in a Genesis "Invisible Touch" mood. Either way, with iPod, I'm going to be satisfied.

The random feature on iPod works extremely well - you can stay within a genre, or artist (great when listening to 47 tracks of Frank Sinatra), or within a playlist. I often take great joy in the surprises that iPod generates by randomly choosing two tracks to abut one another. So far, a favorite moment was hearing "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot, followed by "Nothin' Shakin'" by The Beatles. Serendipity!

Kristofferson in the WSJ

The Wall Street Journal's site, OpinionJournal, ran a piece that says that Democrats have no vision of what freedom truly means. At the end of the column, author James Taranto links to Kris Kristofferson's brilliant Me & Bobby McGee, suggesting that the definition of freedom presented therein ("just another word for nothin' left to lose") is on par with the anti-Bush rants that you'll find on the web. An interesting image, and certainly something to think about.

iPods all over the news today

This article about the iPod as human cocoon (New York Times, free registration required) was rather interesting. Until I got my iPod, I used to be annoyed by people walking with headphones, because it seemed to be anti-social. But once you've experienced the pleasure of being able to create a "soundtrack to your life", which only an iPod does effortlessly, I have come around.

Having an iPod is an amazing experience - people recognize the white earbuds, and always want to examine the player. Of course, I have to spend a few minutes debunking the myth about the battery life, but that's easily done. The Neistat brothers (the fellows who covered New York with graffiti claiming that the batteries are irreplacable) are morons. 'Nuff said.

I see on the Apple site that the iPod mini has 100,000 pre-orders. That's amazing. 100,000 more people walking around with a business-card-sized collection of songs (about 74 hours). I can say that I am not feeling gadget-lust today, but perhaps it may come on when I actually see an iPod mini in person. I like the color selection.

Be sure to check out the Big Men On Campus blog to see what Joseph and I are talking about lately. We've got some good stuff going on over at KDUP!

Off to the concert...

I'm going off to the Rose Garden to enjoy the Toby Keith/Rascall Flatts concert. It's a Christmas gift that I'm giving on Valentine's Day... should I have bought a card?

Anyhow, you really should pop on over to the Wednesday Gigante blog to see what we've been talking about these last few weeks. Don't forget to tune in to the show on Wednesday afternoons. It's the biggest 90 minutes on radio, guaranteed.

Writing and Reading and Meeting

Now that the school routine has been re-established, I am back to reading the NYT headlines regularly, selecting articles that look interesting and passing them along. For some reason, writing has been a subject of great interest to me recently, specifically the art of being an author. I read Stephen King's On Writing while at my family reunion in July, and have read a few good articles on the art of writing since. The NYT recently featured an essay by the British biographer Michael Holroyd, a chap I've no knowledge of except through his NYT article. It was fascinating.

Since beginning this blog, I have been nagged by the sense that I ought to be writing more often. It's odd, I sometimes have gone to bed at night feeling guilty if I didn't enter something that day. Of course, my faithful reader Mr. Walsh has added to this guilt, even to the point of threatening violence if I didn't create an entry. Yet the Blog Muse, stronger than even my boss (the one who doesn't sign my checks), has forced me to take up the keyboard again. In the words of Jeremiah the prophet in last Sunday's Mass readings, "There seemed to be a fire burning within my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not bear it." (Jer 20: 8-9)

Enough about the process of blogging. Now to the actual material entry.

Tuesdays are the busiest day of my week. Today began with the ever-recurring email read/response, one of about 5 per day. Then I went to the airport to pick up Fr. Dailey, who returned from South Bend where he witnessed the priestly ordination of his friend. On the way home, we read and reasoned through the logical problem of the Nobles and the Savages in preparation for his afternoon class. I'm sitting in on his "Intro to Philosophy" course, even though I have a degree in the subject. That class filled 1-1/2 hours of my early afternoon, a good portion taken up by watching some movie excerpts on logic.

After class, I rushed off to the bank, where I got some cash for to purchase tickets to the Nickel Creek concert this coming Saturday. The actual purchase was a fiasco. I found out that one doesn't actually save any money by going to the box office of the Schnitzer Auditorium, unlike every other box office in the civilized world. To add insult to injury, they don't take the Discover Card. Are they the only Luddite ticket office left? Anyhow, that office lost out on my purchase, because I went to Safeway, where Discover is welcome for ticket purchases. I even got the exact same seats that I had negotiated at the Schnitzer box office. I pray that the concert is worth the time investment of getting the damn tickets.

My One-on-One with my Hall Director happens at 4pm on Tuesdays. Fortunately, Mr. Pinkal and I have a good time during those meetings, discussing not only hall business, but also movies and computer nerd topics. Then we went off to dinner at the Commons, and back home for the two-hour Kenna staff meeting. Finally, the Hall Council met at 10:15. A grand total of 12 hours of running around today before I could come back to my desk to read and write per the Blog Muse's order.

I've run out of things to say for now. I guess she has gone again. Perhaps more tomorrow.