Tag Archives: music

Last.fm review

You may know by now that Last.fm was recently bought by CBS.  I confess to being quite a late adopter of the service, even though I had heard about it many times before.  In my case, when I was working, I didn't have time to listen to music on my PC so often, and when I started studying my internet connection was really bad.  Now both conditions are set, and I've started using last.fm (my profile here). 

The whole idea of the service is very simple: just continue listening to your music, and we'll make a profile.  With that information we are able to show you other artists that you might like, connect you to other people that share your musical tastes, and even allow you to stream the music you like in your webpage, blog, MySpace or Facebook profile.  You can even look for concerts near your area (I've found a couple I didn't know about that I'm now planning to attend).

There are a couple of things that I haven't yet found out how to do, that bother me a little.  The first one was just adding all the times I've previously listened to a song in iTunes before adding the last.fm application, as I think that would have helped to build a much more accurate profile.  The second one, which I believe is possible but haven't yet tried, is adding (scrobbling) the tracks played in my iPod.

If you listen to your own music often and would like to find more, this is really worth trying.

Do the evolution

This rather disturbing (but at the same time, pretty good) song and video are by one of my favourite bands from the 90’s: Pearl Jam, from Seattle, WA.  The message conveyed is, unfortunately, still rather current. One only has to watch the news to understand that.  If only we learned to leave the reptile parts of our brains behind

Lyrics below as well.


Woo..
I’m ahead, I’m a man
I’m the first mammal to wear pants, yeah
I’m at peace with my lust
I can kill ’cause in God I trust, yeah
It’s evolution, baby

I’m at peace, I’m the man
Buying stocks on the day of the crash
On the loose, I’m a truck
All the rolling hills, I’ll flatten ’em out, yeah
It’s herd behavior, uh huh
It’s evolution, baby

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, he’s my clone
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
This land is mine, this land is free
I’ll do what I want but irresponsibly
It’s evolution, baby

I’m a thief, I’m a liar
There’s my church, I sing in the choir:
(hallelujah, hallelujah)

Admire me, admire my home
Admire my son, admire my clones
‘Cause we know, appetite for a nightly feast
Those ignorant Indians got nothin’ on me
Nothin’, why?
Because… it’s evolution, baby!

I am ahead, I am advanced
I am the first mammal to make plans, yeah
I crawled the earth, but now I’m higher
2010, watch it go to fire
It’s evolution, baby
It’s evolution, baby
Let’s do the evolution
Come on, come on, come on


Mi vida en rolas

Me encontré este meme en el blog de la Kerubin@, y me dió tanta risa que decidí seguirle el juego.

Aunque al principio intenté contestarlo con rolas de los Foo Fighters, terminé utilizando a Nortec Collective, aunque no es una banda en el sentido estricto de la palabra, y tuve que incluir algunos mixes de ellos en lugar de sólo canciones originales.

¿Eres hombre o mujer?
“Nómada”

Descríbete
“Tengo la voz”, “Norteño de Janeiro”

¿Que piensan las personas acerca de tí?
“Funky Tamazula”, “El Ya Sabía”

¿Cómo te sientes acerca de tí mismo?
“Tijuana makes me happy”

¿Cómo describirías tu anterior relación sentimental?
“El Fracaso”

Describe tu relación actual
“Odyssea”, “Ojos Bonitos”

¿Dónde quisieras estar ahora?
“Trip to Ensenada”

¿Cómo es tu vida?
“Babel”, “Escénica”

¿Cómo eres respecto al amor?
“Synthakon”

¿Qué pedirías si tuvieras un deseo?
“Noches de Verano”

Escribe una frase sabia
“Olvídela Compa”

Despídete
“Tepache Jam”

Si no sabes quiénes son, te recomiendo que cheques este post anterior o el video de abajo.

Ahorita extrañé chilangolandia

Estaba buscando otra cosa y me acordé que van a ser casi 2 años entre mi última visita y la posible próxima vez que esté en México, y en concreto la Ciudad de México otra vez.  Me dió un poquito de esa nostalgia que normalmente no me da, dado que ya llevo bastante fuera, y la verdad es que sí estoy bastante acostumbrado.

Creo que este video ya lo llegué a enlazar alguna vez, pero ahora hasta la letra les pongo.

Mi Ciudad
Intérpretes varios (Guadalupe Trigo, Lola Beltrán, Luis Miguel)

Mi ciudad es chinampa
En un lago escondido
Es cenzontle que busca
En donde hacer nido
Rehilete que engaña la vista al girar

Baila el son del tequila y de su valentía
Es jinete que arriesga la vida
En un lienzo de fiesta y color

Mi ciudad es la cuna
De un niño dormido
Es un bosque de espejos
Que cuida un castillo,
Monumentos de gloria que vela su altar

Es un sol con penacho y sarape veteado
Que en las noches se viste de charro
Y se pone a cantarle al amor

Por las tardes con la lluvia
Se baña su piel morena
Y al desatarse las trenzas
Sus ojos tristes se cierran

Mi ciudad es la cuna
De un niño dormido
Es un bosque de espejos
Que cuida un castillo
Monumento de gloria que vela su altar

Baila al son del tequila y de su valentía
Es jinete que arriesga la vida
En un lienzo de fiesta y color

Es un sol con penacho y sarape veteado
Que en las noches se viste de charro
Y se pone a cantarle al amor.

Eurovision random thoughts and results

Serbia won (they got lots of votes not only from the Balkan bloc, with a singer with a great voice, even though her appearance was really weird).

Eurovision 2007 – WINNER – Marija Serifovic – Molitva

My other favourites in the final were

Georgia (great voice, original song)

2007 Georgia (Finalista)

Ukraine (hilarious!)

Eurovision 2007 Ukranie, Verka Serduchka – Danzing

Germany (something original from the Germans).

Germany 2007 | Roger Cicero | Frauen Regier'n Die Welt

  • Regarding the "Video Postcards from Finland" I actually believe that the best ones were shown in the Semis (even though the Moomin vs. Santa showdown was priceless).
  • Even though the "Lordi effect" was in force in the number rock acts in appearance and the "horror themed" acts, it didn't make such a big impact this time around.  However, originality still won, in the sense that the only performer that didn't care so much about her looks but had the best voice was voted to the top, not only by her country's neighbours but also by others who appreciated the artistic originality.
  • Eurovision is still camp, but it's extremely good at it!
  • The Brits still don't get it.  And then they complain bitterly because nobody appreciates their efforts.

BBC Eurovision commentator

Maybe Terry what'shisname is an institution in the UK, but I found his comments generally annoying, bigoted and very, very bitter at the UK's possible bad showing (the contest is still going on).

I have French, Dutch, Walloon, Flemish & British TV channels for watching Eurovision, and all the others are much, much better than this guy.

I usually understand and like British humour, but this guy seems too over-the-top for me.  I'll stick with the other channels.

I can’t believe it…

But I'm watching the Eurovision semifinals from Helsinki.  And I'm actually quite moved by the small clips between performances.

Hard Rock Hallelujah!

Update: 2 of my favourites didn't go through to the finals: Andorra & Belgium…  the annoying acts of Belarus & Slovenia went through instead.  However, 2 that did go though that I liked were Georgia & Serbia.  Now let's see what do the finals have in store, as there are some contestants like Germany that seem to have some interesting stuff.

My iPod is semi-sentient

Today I was a little bit blue.  The sky was overcast, with this annoying drizzle that isn't even proper rain but still messes up my hair and my glasses, and it was just the proper mood for being a little pensative.

Even though I have my iPod in shuffle (all 3000+ songs), it played almost exclusively during the whole day songs according to the mood: "My way", "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", "Polly", "Ayer me dijo un ave", "Denial, revisited", "Pennyroyal tea", "The wind cries Mary", "Black hole sun", "Bibo no aozora", "Long Cool Woman", "Ánimas que no amanezca", etc.

Given that when I'm happy, the same shuffle tends to play more rythmic songs, I'm starting to wonder if my iPod is semi-sentient or at least rather telepathic…