chanson

Tom Waits wrote a song about my hometown.

Should I decide to kick it nerdcore, my stage name will be mc_msgSend. And yeah, I will write a song titled Fuck Static Dispatch.

Throw the brackets, yo! (All due props to Wolf.)

Is there some meaning to "11:11" that I don't know, perhaps because I'm too old or don't hang out with the right (or wrong) crowd?

I ask because last night I purchased a second album titled 11:11 from the iTunes Store.

The first is by 11:11 by Maria Taylor, after seeing the video for Song Beneath the Song in the QuickTime HD Gallery. (By the way, it looks very nice in full 1080p on a big, flat screen.)

The second is 11:11 by Regina Spektor, whose video for Fidelity I caught last night on HBO Zone. It's also rather good — on a whim, I actually picked up all three of Spektor's albums to listen to in order, because I could stand to listen to something besides trance mixes while I work...

But searching the iTunes Store for "11:11" leads to other interesting things. For example, there are whole bunch of songs titled either 11:11 or Eleven Eleven. Then there are the artists Eleven Eleven and Nicole 11:11 — the latter who has a cover of Ministry's Stigmata (which is only one of the greatest songs ever). And there are even some podcasts with the term in the title!

So, what cultural reference am I missing? I doubt it's anything to do with The Individual Eleven…

If you look at the music info for this post, you'll see that I'm listening to 11:11 by Maria Taylor It's a good album by a good artist. She even has a free 1080p music video for Song Beneath the Song in the QuickTime HD Gallery! (It looks great on my big, flat screen...)

Why am I telling you this, particularly given the title of this post? I'm listening to Maria in order to rinse my brain of the horror that is DJ Real. He was just performing at Coffee Society The Oaks in Cupertino and it was awful. Horrifically awful. I don't think I've seen a performance that bad in a long, long time. It wasn't even so bad as to be good; it was just embarrassingly bad. His equipment consisted of a boom box with his beat and music tracks to "sing" over. He breakdanced. He did cheap magic tricks. He had props and put on different shirts and coats for each "song." He did the Hammer Dance.

It was so bad that even though it wouldn't actually drown out his horror, I had to put my headphones in and listen to something decent while warning anyone who reads this away, lest they also be victims of his musical crimes against civilization.

Just, wow.

Thanks to Steven D. Levitt for pointing it out on the Freakonomics blog. And he's right — if you don't watch the whole thing, at least go to 16:40.

I wish I could go to TED, but it looks like TED2007 is effectively sold out and exceptionally expensive as well, even by conference standards.

I hope Wil is going again (day 1, day 1.5, day 2, final days), and can report again about the amazing things going on there. And of course there are archives of the talks (including syndication) for those of us who can't make it.

If indie musicians were technology startups, every new band for the last couple of years would have a name of the form adjective noun preposition nounified-adjective. And every one of them would use a similar color scheme for their logotype.

Having founded a dot-com startup is makes me qualified to mock the current crop, right? Like, say, 3bubbles?

One of my favorite live music compilation series of all time is the ONXRT: Live from the Archives compilation that WXRT (FM 93.1 in Chicago) puts out every year to support a number of area charities. WXRT has recorded a ton of live concerts for their Sunday Night Concerts series, and has also done a great many in-studio interviews and sessions, and sponsored in-store events and other things of that ilk in the Chicagoland area that they can in turn mine for some truly incredible performances.

So far, including this year, there are eight volumes. I just received Volume 8, which I was able to order from Best Buy using the link above, and it's just as good as the rest. Volume 6 is currently in the post from someone selling it through Amazon. Sadly, I'm still missing volume 1 and volume 7. But the Internet assures me that, with time, they too will be mine. Oh, yes, they will.

If you're looking for some great rock music, check these out. Unfortunately I don't have a link to a collected track list, maybe I should make a web page...

Update: I transcribed the track list for ONXRT from the discs that I have right now.

Update: I forgot to check my mailbox yesterday. Volume 6 is not just in the post, it's in my grubby paws right now! Track list updated.

I had a realization, prompted by an online conversation between some friends: I don't actually need surround sound to enjoy a new receiver.

So I picked up that Sony STR-DE698/B receiver I had decided upon earlier, and got a nice pair of Sony SS-MF550H speakers to go with it. (Thanks to my neighbors Chuck & Judy I was able to get the speakers up to my apartment. There was no way I could have done it myself, it was just too awkward a box...)

It has reasonable room to grow, though it only has two analog HD inputs and no HDMI or DVI. I'm planning on getting some sort of flat-panel or projection HDTV at some point, but not today, and it will probably be my only full digital HD equipment for a while anyway.

I'm also planning on getting the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express so I can stream straight from iTunes, but in the meantime I've plugged my iPod dock into the analog MD input. That's sufficient for listening to music and podcasts for the moment.

The next addition is likely to be a new TV stand and AV cabinet. My current stand is completely out of room, and I want to get both a TiVo and a center-channel speaker in the near future.

After the stand and center-channel speaker, I've decided that if I can build up my strength to the point where I can carry the box upstairs myself, I'm going to get another pair of Sony 550s and set up 5.0 surround sound. (I really don't need a subwoofer, the bass from the speakers is just fine — especially given that I have neighbors below me.)

It won't be that hard to run the speaker cable, and three-foot-tall floor-standing speakers mean I don't have to worry about speaker stands. Enough of what I watch has 5.1 audio that it'll probably be worthwhile, and I'm already using coax digital audio between my DVD player and my receiver...

So I've been thinking about getting a new receiver and some speakers to go with it. Wait, back up. Really, I've been thinking about getting a receiver.

In my AV setup right now, I just have this little Aiwa LCX-01 bookshelf system that my parents got me as a high school graduation present lo those many years ago. It kicks ass for what it is — particularly its non-suckful tape deck — but its set of inputs is pretty minimal. And lately I've been wanting to listen to more music from my iTunes collection, maybe via an AirPort Express, and I only have one line-in port that's currently connected to my TV.

So I've looked around and I've picked out the Sony STR-DE698/B. It does everything I want and more, has plenty of inputs, does surround sound decoding for all the various standards, and has 7.1 channel output. Of course, that's just a receiver. I also need some speakers.

So I've looked around and I've picked out the Sony SA-VE367T. They sound decent and they're a full 7.1 system, which would be kind of nice. Of course, those are just speakers. I need to mount them.

So I've looked around and I found some speaker stands, since I don't actually want to screw anything into my apartment walls. They come in pairs, which means I'd need three pairs, plus someplace to put the center channel speaker. Of course, my current AV cabinet is kind of cramped as it is, and has a glass front so I can't put the center channel speaker in there. So I need a new AV cabinet.

So I've looked around and I found a couple new AV stands that are reasonable for my current setup and whatever I might have next. And I've realized that this is fast turning from a purchase decision and into a project. A project that I, uh, don't have space for.

Fortunately, my PowerBook has decent speakers and the iPod headphones (which I seem to be accumulating pairs of) are rather nice. And that's a whole lot cheaper than dropping a ton of cash on stereo equipment and then trying to figure out how to make it fit...

The latest release from DJ Format — If You Can't Join 'Em… Beat 'Em — is available on the iTunes Music Store.

It's pretty sweet, check it out! Lots more DJ Format, Abdominal, and now MC D-Sisive. And the obligatory Chali 2na & Akil, of course.

Oh, also be sure to check out the video for 3 Feet Deep.

Really, watch the video!