Asymptomatic

Today at Woot they're selling a 30GB Zune for $99, so when the clock flipped last night, I bought one. At some point in that process the whole MP3/radio idea mix leaked into my consciousness, and I ended up dreaming about it. When I woke up this morning, I was asking myself, "Is radio dead?"

One of the significant contributors to this thought is the release of Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows. It's not about the album itself - I don't have it, and am wondering if I even want to bother given that my thoughts about Radiohead deserve a full post of their own - but another question I had asked myself about it: Is the album getting radio airtime?

Radiohead is a reasonably big name in music. Will radio stations play the album they've released online outside of the traditional distribution chain? The model for radio is usually to be courted by the music industry to play new music, especially of bands that people may want to hear on the air. The purpose is to generate money in advertising because people will not tune away from the ads between songs if they think a song they will want to hear comes next. So will radio stations play In Rainbows?...

What's with all of these people playing Mario?

Surely you've played, seen, or at least know about Nintendo's flagship game, Super Mario? Would you recognize the music if you heard it? Well, I would. As a matter of fact, I think it's probably one of the most recognizable pieces of video game music. There are few other video games that have produced music as memorable as Mario.

The only other games I can think of at the moment whose music I remember are Tetris, Crazy Taxi, Xenon 2, and The Killing Game Show. I'm sure there are more, but none of the ones off the top of my head come close to the recognizability that Mario receives.

Why am I bothering with all of this? Ok. Here's a short list of places where I have found the Mario theme being played that are not in the Mario video game itself. more

A meme? Here? What is the world coming to?

Well, I thought I would write a couple of "Entertainment" posts, and this seemed as good a start as any. I've got another one in the pipe for currently popular movies, so if you're into that, stop back later.

I grabbed this meme from Daria. It goes like this:

List the top 100 songs from the year that you graduated high school (you can find the lists at musicoutfitters.com). Bold the ones you actually like. Pick a favorite. Underline that favorite. And strikethrough the ones you loathe. Italicize the ones you consider to be guilty pleasures.

I graduated high school in 1991. What I would like to see is a chart of blogger age against memes completed. I'm sure that I'm not in the middle of the bell.

Interestingly, and embarassingly, this crossing-out and underlining might have been much different had I done it in 1991. Ugh.

I think I might have gone overboard with the strikethroughs, but man, was music from the early 90's the crap left over from the 80's or what?? Note that my loose criteria for "loathe" is "if it came on the radio, I would likely change the channel." I thought it might be hard to pick a favorite from what's left, but I think my favorite was an easy choice. Anyway, here goes: more

From Robin via Daria.

Below is a list of 25 bands/artists I’ve seen in concert (I’m counting opening acts, too). Copy the list to your blog, and leave in the bands you’ve seen perform live. Delete the ones you haven’t and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. Asterisk the bands that the previous person had on their list. If they already have an asterisk, add a second one.

• Tori Amos
• Beck
• Cake
• Cheap Trick
• Cherry Poppin' Daddies
• Dave Matthews Band*
• Guster
• PJ Harvey
• Ice Cube
• Kula Shaker
• Live
• George Michael
• Ministry
• Alanis Morissette*
• Pearl Jam*
• Puddle of Mudd
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Rusted Root
• Soundgarden
• Matthew Sweet
• Squirrel Nut Zippers
• Sunshine Blind
• Toad the Wet Sprocket
• Veruca Salt
• Yes
...

On Friday night, Berta and I went out with Stan, Judy, Jay, and Kelly to dinner and a Rusted Root concert.

It's been a while since Berta and I were out to a concert. The last one was Puddle of Mudd. Puddle of Mudd is one of those bands where you have to be careful who you tell for fear of ridicule. Rusted Root isn't one of those bands around here, but I remember there was some derision back in college about it, simply because they're local to Pittsburgh. For example, I've met people around here that felt the same way about Live, who are from the Hershey/Lancaster area.

We somehow managed to pack the kids into the van and get to Stan's just after 6, which I thought would be nearly impossible. Berta did a great service by getting out of work early to pick up Abby from school and get home. We even beat Stan home from work!...