Scrobble Scribble #12: The Lost Tapes by Nas

One of my favourite albums ever is Nas's debut, "illmatic". I don't know what possessed me to buy that album, and when I first bought it I didn't really understand it. But a few years later I can understand why it has been hailed as the classic that it is - the in-depth stories of a young, articulate artist not trying to glorifiy himself but reflecting the gritty realities of his surroundings and simply making the best of what's been handed to him. Backed by some of the best Hip Hop producers of that time (Large Professor, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Q-Tip) who delivered on bringing original, perfectly fitting beats that could nod heads or put minds at ease, it was an overall masterpiece. Even the only guest, AZ, rips it in "Life's A Bitch" with some of the best lines i've ever heard in any song. Unfortunately, as most Nas fans would know, "illmatic" was too good and ever since, everyone compares his output that has followed, trying to measure it up to the classic that it is.

What I think the problem with Nas and Nas fans are expectations and hype. This is my theory. Hip Hop fans love to hold Nas on a higher plateau, and this affects the quality of the output. So now on most Nas albums, you'll get a handful of nice songs but the rest are damn near below average because he felt too much pressure to do something as good as "illmatic". Don't get me wrong though, I'm a big Nas fan myself and he's in my top 5 of most listened artists on Last.FM. But how do you explain that the three albums after Nas's debut had a similiar album cover and then when one finally got trashed by critics and fans, he came back with an album called "Stillmatic"? Hmmm. Anyway, on a lighter note, and to further my theory, this post is about "The Lost Tapes".

The premise of "The Lost Tapes" is a compilation of unreleased tracks from the aformentioned "Stillmatic" recording sessions or from the earlier double disc version of "I Am...". Unlike pretty much 110% of any other unreleased compilation that I have (which I hope isn't that many), this is actually good because five of the tracks aren't a remix or demo version of some old track that I've heard to death. No, why this album is so good and is actually better than some of Nas's studio albums is because it is made up off actual unreleased, unheard songs. And they're actually listenable. Some of these tracks are just crazy good such as No Idea's Original with a badass guitar and a bit of drum thrown in. It's great, and Nas raps about how pretty much everywhere, violence is happening for all the same reasons:

But it all revolve around drugs, fame and shorties Stuck for your bling, stripped for your chain, the same story From, Czechoslovakia to Texas metropolis Them, treacherous rockstars in the Mexican mafias Be scrappin with tats on they back, violent wars Nothin less than a lethal injection if ever caught Courtrooms, eagles and flags, American style While in our world, the ghetto stays incredibly foul

That was one of my favourites of the album but there's many on there. You get a lot of political songs on the album like Purple and Black Zombie, as well as inventive narrative where Nas tells the tale as a drunk in Drunk by Myself and Fetus where Nas describes his experience while still being unborn. May sound corny but Nas being as literate as he is, he's the only one that could execute it seriously. The choice cut for this one will be "Poppa Was a Playa", funnily enough produced by then-unknown Kanye West, gets Nas recounting the ways his dad would sneak around with other women. Nas doesn't really sound mad at him and is more glad to have had him around. The beat isn't dark either but sounds celebratory, I find it just great to listen to.

The winning formula of "The Lost Tapes"? It was a compilation of unreleased tracks, and as most compilations suck in quality, there wasn't any expectations for this to be so great. Unreleased tracks are usually unreleased tracks for a reason. However, rather than being on of the few good songs on Nas's albums, he compiled them all onto this which somehow just made sense. "The Lost Tapes" is an oddity in that, and was a success in succeeding expectations.

Nas - Poppa Was A Player


BONUS:

Real old school Hip Hop. This is the "Life's A Bitch" track I mentioned before where AZ drops some of the most memorable lyrics ever.

Nas (feat. AZ) - Life's A Bitch


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Scrobble Scribble #11: I Want it Back by The Professionals

This is a belated post that I meant to do when the album that this belonged to got released. That album is "WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip" by Madlib who has in recent years grown to become one of my favourite artists, currently holding the number 1 spot on my Last.FM. He is very prolific, uses different aliases, has many side projects and, being a Hip Hop producer, has created beats for many Hip Hop artists. He has created straight Hip Hop albums, abstract Hip Hop, Dance, Jazz and even Funk albums. Just this year, he's released five projects (inclusive of this one). He is signed to the Stones Throw label.

For "WLIB", Madlib contributes the last addition to the BBE Beat Generation series which was started by J Dilla, Madlib's Stones Throw label mate and Jaylib (J Dilla + Madlib = Jaylib) partner. Although I didn't really notice much of a radio theme, that seems to be what Madlib was aiming for with this release showing how he can move between diverse sounds. However, since I suppose it is Madlib's radio station you get more of the music that he's experienced in which is Jazz, Soul, Hip-Hop and other urban-drenched sounds. On "WLIB", you get RnB, typical Hip Hop, abstract Hip Hop and instrumental beats. There is a few Stones Throw label mates that show up on a few tracks, and other guests include Talib Kweli, Murs and Stacy Epps.

I Want it Back is a collaboration between Madlib and younger brother Oh No as The Professionals. Oh No is also signed to Stones Throw being a fairly original artist in his own right. I'm assuming that Madlib provides the beat while Oh No does the rapping over this track, as Oh is the only one that can be heard rapping. I love the beat, it's a looped violin? Or organ? I'm not sure but it just works and is an epic beat . Oh No drops lyrics about how Hip Hop basically sucks because noone listens to the older Hip Hop, which was when it was better and "had more meaning". It's the same argument that pretty much every rapper gets on on every album, especially conscious rappers. But sonically, I can still dig it and maybe you will too. And this is one station I won't turn off.

The Professionals - I Want It Back



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Scrobble Scribble #10: Computer Love by Glass Candy

To follow the James Pants post I bring you Computer Love by Glass Candy off their "B/E/A/T/B/O/X" album, released this year. Still in the same sort of genre of James Pants, Glass Candy's music would be electronic, dance, disco. Last.FM also has electro/synthpop as a genre. This post will most likely be short because I actually only got the album a few days ago so I don't know much about Glass Candy or "B/E/A/T/B/O/X" but I had the album on repeat a lot yesterday, just because it sounded so good and is exactly what I needed. A good recommended artist would be Australia's own Cut Copy.

So I was really up for hearing a bit of dance and electro, and Glass Candy delivered. This selected track is a cover of Kraftwerk's own Computer Love, which I haven't listened to so I wouldn't be able to tell you if Glass Candy are faithful to the original (sorry, I am pretty useless for that). Something you may recognise immediately, I didn't until I had to ask my sister, that piano-like synth was used in Coldplay' Talk as they sampled Kraftwerk for that single. The girls who sings on this one does quite well but I honestly would've been fine if this was an instrumental. As it moves towards the end, that Talk sample is looped, with a constant drum pattern and a few odd but, I can't think of the word, but unobtrusive electronic effects. Enjoy!

Glass Candy - Computer Love



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Scrobble Scribble #9: We're Through by James Pants

Ahhh, James Pants. He's pretty odd. Signed to the Stones Throw label, which sung praise for in #4, the story goes that Pants met label head honcho Peanut Butter Wolf at his prom, or something. Oh and I just found out this week that he named himself after one of his pets and he was doing journalism but dropped out. To be honest thoug, before his debut album was getting hyped he just seemed so weird for the sake of standing out on the Stones Throw label. But obviously he uses this to his advantage and backs it up with a thoroughly the original and likable "Welcome", a great introduction to the musical style of James Pants.

Well maybe not a great introduction if you're trying to figure out what music he's actually making. Do you call it Funk? Electronic? I prefer to call it new age Disco but maybe that's me. Key quote from Pants' page on the Stones Throw website:

"Mr. Pants is a purveyor par excellence of that unmistakable “fresh beat”: 80’s Soul, Electro Boogie, Early Rap, New Wave, & Post-Punk Disco, all of which can be found on Welcome where James plays drums, keys, guitar and sings."
James Pants on Stones Throw Website

I'm also hard-pressed to find a recommended artist. However if you like Justice, Jamie Lidell & M.I.A. and other artists in that vein, you'd like James Pants. It's the irony of "Welcome" that the album itself is so out there. You get a few vocal tracks, you get a few instrumentals and its a wild ride of an album that should really be experienced. As it says on the Stones Throw website, "There's enough pants to fit any style."

Just a bit of a side note before I mention a bit on the track We're Through. The artist who did the cover for James Pants was Parra who has also done some other prior artwork for Stones Throw. I couldv'e sworn though that he did Kanye West's Good Life video but apparently I couldn't find anything to back that up.

I have choosen We're Through out of many because I love the way it builds at the start and opens those bells. It's got a pretty constant bassy sort of thing going through it. Pants' vocal work doesn't really deliver on her but that doesn't matter but the intrumentation just allows you to enjoy the track in all it's bouncy spaceness.

James Pants - We're Through


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BONUS:

Here is the clip for Good Life (also look up Justice's D.A.N.C.E. as its done by the same people in the same style). Is it similar to Parra's artwork for this album?

Scrobble Scribble #8: Esperanto by Jack McDuff & David Newman

Back at it again after a week's break. Technically, I could've given a post last week but I'm too lazy and worked heaps last week. The uni break extends to all of my work, thus I did nothing last week.

Don't think of it as a break though, because here at Scrobble Scribble I'm always scrobbling some of the music I listen to everyday. And tonight, it's a bit of "Double Barrelled Soul" by Jack McDuff & David Newman. I've chosen to use the individual artist URLs above because I think it's more accurate (and the correct artist for this album isn't adjusted). I'm a bit of a jazz fan, but not so far as in knowing actual stuff about muscian's and to be honest, I only picked up this album because it was cheap, had a stlyin' album cover and I had an album of McDuff's lying around some place which wasn't too shabby. According to the greatest encyclopeadiea of our time, Newman got his start playing in the Ray Charles band and "Brother Jack" McDuff and has probably released more than 50 albums (which is actually probably standard for jazz muscians back in the day though).

Not knowing as much about Jazz, I'm not sure what you could compare this album or the song Esperanto to. From it's name, and a bit at the start, I would've compared it to "Sketches of Spain" by one of my favourites, Miles Davis. But that organ and the flute that comes in pits it more in a down-tempo, jazz-groove rather than the spanish tinge in "Sketches...". It's a soft tune, but will surpise you with the screaming keys that come in around the middle which are a bit out of place, but what do I know. Esperanto means 'one who helps' in its language by the way, if that helps the listening experience.

Jack McDuff & David Newman - Esperanto


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Scrobble Scribble #7: Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips

Pushing through the proverbial mush that is my capped internet, I march on in this blogosphere to bring you the 7th entry in Scrobble Scribbler - Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips.

The Flaming Lips are a fun little band apparently. Whenever I hear about/see their gigs their is always some confetti, balloons, costumes and a giant bubble involved. I'm so shocked that I haven't had a chance to go yet, but the next time they come I will definitely not skip on that chance. Neither should you, because it would be quite the experience.

I have around 5? Or a bit more than 5 I'm not sure [Actually 10 upon further inspection, including DVDs and EPs]. The earliest album I have of theirs is "Hit to Death in the Future Head" which I haven't actually listened to that much so I can't tell you what I think about it. I'd really like to listen to Zarieeka one day.

How can I describe The Flaming Lips? Well, it's sort of like psychedelic/indie/space rock. Out of all rock bands, I'd have to say that The Flaming Lips is my favorite and actually pushed me to get into rock post my Hip Hop stage. As for similiar artists - I'd say MGMT though they're more dancey they have that psychedelia about them.

So Race for the Prize is off their stylistic breakthrough of an album, "The Soft Bulletin" which, if you asked, would probably be named their best album evar by critics. I wouldn't call it my favourite album of theirs because I would only listen to a few songs of off this. If I had to pick a favourite I'd probably choose their album after this one, "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots" because it just seems to make more sense to me. Go figure.

The lyrics of Race are sort of positively cynical. Sure you have two scientists racing for "the cure", "for the good of all mankind" but they are "sacrifice their lives" because "they're just humans, with wives and children". What is the greater good? That we have two humans that spend all their time researching, and if one wins that scientist get all the recognition yet they have not developed time with their family? Or should we not find a cure so that they can just be the same with humans. Do we need a cure? Yes probably and to get it, we have to sacrifice a life to save lives. Do we view them as heroes or egoists?

The vocals coupled with the instrumentation don't really give you a true indication and I think the true message is that you have to accept both sides of what the song gives you. Because if you listen to the instruments, I can only really identify the drum I don't know what that other synthesizer/piano/keyboard is and I think there's some guitar probably, they're very loud and celebratory but Wayne's singing is sort of mellow. I get this sense of anxiousness in his singing, troubled by the fact that these two scientists are racing and trying to reflect on the situation.

Anyway, great song. One of my favourites - it's 5th most played on my Last.FM charts - The Flaming Lips are a magical band that created something special in this song.

The Flaming Lips - Race for the Prize

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BONUS:

As my internet is slow, I am not sure which video on YouTube would be the best to see a bit of their amazing live performance because I looked it up ages ago. Instead, here is a clip of The Flaming Lips with The White Stripes performing Seven Nation Army that I watched semi-recently. It is really fucking cool.

Scrobble Scribble #6: Gila by Beach House

^Do you like that? Just a little bit more of an integration of Last.FM by me into this post. And may I add - I much prefer typing up these Scribbles than doing video after the horrible quality of Scrobble Scribble #5.

So I would've Scrobbled that track around a bit more than an hour now. As I am typing I'll probably play it again just to refresh my memory on the song, check my charts.

Gila, taken from Beach House's newest album "Devotion", is mesmerizing and slow. I can't honestly say I don't know a true similar artist to Beach House, although you could find out through Last.FM, but apparently they're given the genre label of "dream pop". Actually, Last.FM's recommended artists aren't very accurate (although I don't really classify as a regular listener of any of the listed artists). The closest artist I can think of musically, would be Air. Air is more electronica inclined but they have that dream pop type atmosphere.

Gila is more organically orchestral because of the organ in this particular song giving it a very ethereal type quality. The singer, Victoria Legrand, has a distance from the song and an echo effect which rely enforces that etherealness. When she sings Gila in the chorus is really good, and soft. To be honest, I can't make sense of the lyrics and the closest thing I could find about the world Gila itself is a creature called the Gila monster.

Just a short post for Beach House, there's not really much else to say but enjoy the good, chilled music.

Beach House - Gila



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BONUS:

In Scrobble Scribble #5 I mentioned near the end of the video that I saw Beach House perform Gila on Pitchfork which was what inspired me to do this post. The video is below, it is the 1st part of 3 done for the Juan's Basement segment on Pitchfork.tv

Scrobble Scribble #5: 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields - Reno Dakota


The Magnetic Fields - Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old


The Magnetic Fields - Yeah! Oh Yeah!



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Scrobble Scribble #4: Stones Throw 101 Mix CD by Peanut Butter Wolf

To coincide with the camera task I have to do for this week's DIGC101 class and continuing the Hip Hop music, I bring you the "Stones Throw 101 Mix CD" by Peanut Butter Wolf - the record label's head. I just bought this, and 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields, and the picture to the left is a picture of the box from my phone. For those who don't know, Stones Throw is home to some of underground/indie Hip Hop's finest with my personal, current favourites being Madlib, J Dilla (and their duo Jaylib), Percee P, Oh No, Koushik and James Pants (who actually isn't featured on this mix). Madlib, J Dilla and Oh No are 1st, 2nd and 20th in my top 50 most listened artists (and actually, Madlib and Dilla have more entries as well under Jaylib, Madvillain, Quasimoto and Jay Dee in the top 50). Oh, and I have MF DOOM at 28 - but I don't know if he's officially with the Stones Throw label.

And can I indefinitely say -- Dilla and Stones Throw changed my life. I did discover Dilla after his untimely death, a few days after the release of his masterpiece Donuts. That album is definitely one of my personal favourites no doubt, and once I discovered it I started going back through Dilla's catalogue. Of course, this led me to rediscover his work with A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots which I already owned but didn't know he produced. Beyond that, he opened me up to the amazing talent on the Stones Throw label (and in my personal opinion, he has led to some sort of renassiance in Hip Hop with so many tributes still dedicated to him more than two years after his passing and trust me there are so many more). Of course through Stones Throw, you get Madlib who also goes by the aliases of Yesterdays New Quintet, DJ Rels, Quasimoto (which all have their own musical styles) AS well as being part of many groups formed under Stones Throw. Trust me on this if you don't know, Madlib's solo discography is exhaustive in itself with the exclusion of the production he has done for others.

And this is just a taste of the oddness of the Stones Throw catalogue that, in itself, is an abstract label of any musical genre. Where, say, you might have the straight Hip Hop sound of MED, you get the weird new-wave disco of James Pants, the psychadelic groove of The Heliocentrics and the oddly slow but human breakbeat of Koushik. They're a very eclectic record label that also owns Now-Again and Soul Cal records which re-release old funk and soul classics.

Their eclecticism works however as a cohesive whole, as so made poignantly clear by Peanut Butter Wolf in this mix CD. Their all very short snippets of songs made by artists on the label but dammit if it doesn't feel perfect - just the right amount of music for a mix. For example - you get the abstract Accordion by Madvillain followed by the jazzy Little Girl by Yesterdays New Quintet. It's a more than competent mix in giving you an idea about the sound of Stones Throw or what you have missed out on if you can't get a grasp on the whole catalogue - I'm definitely hearing some new things on here. Besides, with 42 tracks deep you really can't lose.

May I also add that STH101 totally owns STH102 - that was only a DVD (released after STH101). I bought that before this one and in comparison, not only do you get a DVD with STH101 but yeah get this sweet ass mix that I've been playing since I got home from the city.

Out of all the Hip Hop songs on here, I choose to give you Space Slut by Funkaho which is a lot more like dance music. Don't say I don't give you a mix of all different types of stuff here on Scrobble Scribbler.

Funkaho - Space Slut



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BONUS:

The history of Stones Throw - Peanut Butter Wolf

And next post...

"69 Love Songs" - by The Magnetic Fields (if I can chose 1 song...)

Scrobble Scribble #3: Momma I'm So Sorry by Clipse

Little story about my music taste: people who know my music taste should know that it started with Hip Hop. Not rock, not metal, but Hip Hop - specifically the song H to the Izzo by Jay-Z. I received as a gift for Chris Cringle from this guy. Spawning from that point, I went through the stage where any Hip Hop was good; Nelly, Ja Rule - why not! Then I discovered the album "illmatic" by some really dumb luck (or what you might call, internet hipsters and getting bored), which started my phase of listening to underground/alternative Hip Hop and being antagonistic to anyone who listened to mainstream Hip Hop or didn't know who I was listening to. I started researching the history, watched Style Wars, watched Scratch, read (and still do) read blogs. Then I started finding out the popular samples for Hip Hop - Jazz, Funk, R&B, Soul and dabbled in a bit in that. Then for some reason I got into psychadelic rock (probably because of listening to "Bitches Brew" era Miles Davis) and eventually came to listening to rock. And that's pretty much it for me, after that I started listening to Triple J & FBi because Uni deprives me of money to spend on music. It's opened me up to all types of genres and now I just listen to anything. Still, I probably look into Hip Hop a lot still.

And of course, I still have to keep up with my favourite music some way (downloading of course). And I still have a heap of music which sometimes I acquired and listened to once, then gave up on it because I didn't understand it. But then I revisit and realise - why didn't I like it this much first time around? "Hell Hath No Fury" by Clipse is one of those albums (Momma I'm So Sorry being one of the many songs). The time it was released it was getting so much hype and rave reviews to back it up. But when I listened to it I was like - wtf? It sounded so arrogant, heavy beats - this can't be good. But after a couple of years, and releases by similar sounding The Cool Kids, you just get this newfound appreciation. I don't think Clipse have gotten in my Top 50 yet, but I think some of their tracks from Hell Hath... should be creeping up my charts. You have to get off your high horse once and a while and just love knockin' beats by a group so crazy that they get labelled as "Coke Rap". Also, I just admire Pharrell and his Neptune beats. Some people might find him annoying but he's very likable to me.

And all of the beats here are provided by Pharrell Williams & partner Chad Hugo --or a production team you may know as The Neptunes. They've produced so many songs and are probably recognized by their bucket sounding beats. This one isn't strictly normal-Neptunes sounding beat because of that accordion but it has that epicness of Drop It Like It's Hot. In fact, why I chose to do this song was because of that unique accordion part I was hearing which was similiar to the Cool Kids' new song, The Delivery Man (and later, reminding me of Accordion by Madvillain). Right at the start of the song, you get Pusha T (1/2 of Clipse) singing "Miami Vice... For My Cocaine Dreamers..." setting the "Coke Rap" label in its place. The lyrics are very braggadocioloious - " I Philosopy's About Glocks And Keys" - but that's really the keys to Clipse's success; never letting up to their hardnosed approach, backed with crazy beats. Oh and the beat - it's sort of like a high hat, mixed with a bit of bass and that lovely accordion. Top that off with a bit of Pharrell vocal - just in case you didn't he wasn't over everything else on this album.

Besides, doesn't hurt if Clipse apologizes to their mums, right?

Clipse - Momma I'm So Sorry



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Scrobble Scribble #2: So He Won't Break by The Black Keys

The second song and artist to be featured is So He Won't Break by The Black Keys. I'm not too sure how I discovered The Black Keys, but I think I was listening to The Black Lips who, apart from sharing an almost similar name, also have a garage-rockish sound which I dug. And I think a few months ago Triple J started playing Strange Times which I didn't mind. Oh and also, the song with which this album belongs - Attack & Release - was produced by Danger Mouse who you may know as the other half of Gnarls Barkley with Cee-Lo, The Grey Album mashup, the latest Beck album and Gorillaz's bit old but still good album Demon Days. As for similar artists I think a lot of people would agree that The White Stripes would be the band to come swiftly to mind. Both have that garage-rock revival sound going, both are duos. I think the most distinct difference between these two groups would be the way in which the lead singers deliver their vocals - with Jack White being a bit more fast and aggressive whereas Dan Auerbach likes to just sing like a blues or soul musician.

Looking at my charts, The Black Keys have just recently been inducted in to my top 50 artists (I've been listening to them quite a bit lately) sitting somewhere around the 30 mark. Haven't played their songs on rotation enough yet to get a track into my favourite songs, so I'll see if I can change that with So He Won't Break.

Of course, I think the whole album is great but So He Won't Break just happened to be the song on at the time. Other tracks I'm diggin on the album are Psychotic Girl and Oceans and Streams, that consist the great sound of this duo. I don't know how you would describe So He Won't Break in musical terms but it's a pretty repetitive drum sort of pattern through the verses that concludes with a bit of guitar stroking at the end. There's a bit of guitar throughout - especially near the end where there's a little solo, I thought I heard a bit of keyboard or organs. The vocals are a bit distorted to make for that garage sound and aren't delivered in a loud, aggressive way by Auerbach (lead singer) instead he sort of croons or sings over it. As a song, it works well as a sort of old bluesy ballad except, you enjoy it.

The Black Keys - So He Won't Break


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Scrobble Scribble #1: Avalanche by Leonard Cohen

Influenced by some of the great works of fellow DIGC101 students, I've decided to branch off into my own sort of posts that are unique in scope. Dane Cutler's Ninja Winja was one example that, although very simple, is highly original and particularly inspired me to get to writing something interesting. So I thought for a bit, and I thought well-- how about a write little short notes about songs that I just listened to. And at the time, I was thinking of a better title as well and the best I came up with was - Scribble Jam (which is actually the name of a Hip Hop festival in the US).

Think harder. Ok, Scribble Jam is good but I need something more original. Then it occurred to me that I had been putting my Last.FM widgets everywhere. Well, that would be easy to show my recently played tracks. And wait a minute... how does Last.FM record music? It scrobbles them. Scrobble + Scribble? Why, it was so obvious now.


But anyway, down to business. The first song to kick off the Scrobble Scribbling is Avalanche by Leonard Cohen, featured on the album "Songs of Love and Hate". I don't know where the sudden popularity in Leonard Cohen came from, but I remember seeing "Songs of Love and Hate" at Dirt Cheap CDs in the city a while ago for $10 then one of my closest friends said he had just bought that album. Then one of my other friends got "The Essential Leonard Cohen" and when I questioned him about it, he just said "yeah I love Leonard Cohen" in a tone like he'd been listening to him for a long time. So I took a shot and popped in "Songs..." not sure what to expect.

Going off Avalanche, Leonard Cohen sounds something like Nick Cave (who actually did a cover of this with his Bad Seeds) with a dark, monotone voice infused with a bit more of a soft, folk sound. His lyrics are very poetic and emotive, and this song sounds sounds like Cohen is confused on how to feel with a person that loves him. He himself needs that love, but doesn't know if he can accept it. This is my interpretation anyway. His vocals and the instruments that proceed him are both fleeting (possibly a technique that is in harmony with the lyrics of the song), and it's interesting at the end how he finishes it "It is your flesh I wear" because the way he sings this feels like he isn't finished. Not the most uplifting music, but Avalanche and "Songs..." would definitely be a companion to those times to when experiencing a bit of love and hate in your life.

Leonard Cohen - Avalanche


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Week 8 of DIGC101

More on blogging this week and we coupled up to find some of the popular bloggers out there in the blogosphere. Technorati is probably your best friend in such a case, as you try to learn about the authority attribute that Technorati gives to measure blogs. I still haven't quite figured it out but i'm sure an exploration on Wikipedia would turn for some results. But as Chris and David seem to point out its not so much how many people read a blog as how many people link each other in a sort of virtual mafia of its chosen topic. I'm not big on American political election blogs so I didn't know too much but if we were to do something like Hip Hop music, I could easily tell you which ones (and when I briefly looked over them, most didn't have blogrolls).

On to more interesting things; I watched my first episode of South Park in a while and it was awesome. It was an episode which opened with Mr. Garrison talking about how kids get high, and explain a way where kids take cat piss. Lol funny stuff, Trey and Matt pick it up and sensationalise it by getting FOX news to blow it out of proportion so that police confiscate all cats in people's homes. Haha, Kenny's delusions were hilarious (and a tribute to a movie Heavy Metal, which I hope I will watch some day in the future).

To finish things off, here's a clip of Kanye West performing a new song Love Lockdown at the VMAs.

Belated post for last week: Crosstown Traffic

I was going to post this on my own personal blog that I host with Windows Live Spaces but it refused to connect for some reason so I abandoned the post. But it is interesting, from guest lecturer Katie's own personal experience with getting fired over blogging, that had me interested in the exposure of myself online. It was particularly well-timed with the recent post I did with the death of my friend, Alex (which I blogged about before).

When I quite briefly combed through some of the older entries on my own blog, some of it to me makes me cringe but I would not (and will not) take it down because it was me at the time - and deleting seems to be unfair because I put the effort in to write about it in the first place. However, I wonder if anything I have written could be used against me in the future? It is surely something I have just now worried about.

I think it would be a good idea to have posts that you can publish on your blog but only you can see, while other posts you can post for everyone to see (I believe LiveJournal has such a function). Because if you look at my recent post on my personal blog for example, and then look down a few posts you can see that such a space is merely a sort of scribble pad for whatever I am feeling. Now, that doesn't matter to me but if people are going to be reading my blog they might not feel as comfortable with some of the things I said (is it within context, in other words). So to me, I am coming to a realization of the aethstics of a blog. When Katie said she wanted to make another blog (on the few that she already upkeeps) it seemed like a ridiculous idea to me but I am coming to understand that for the sake of herself - and a potential audience - what's private and what's public still exists in impression management.

DIGC102 presentation

So today I did my part of the presentation but unfortunately had to bale early to make it for the train. I was nervous, shaking but I felt I covered it pretty thoroughly (I hope...). The video games industry is not that hard to map but I could not concisely put it through sometimes. Also, I wish I'd made my presentation more visually exciting. Anyway, battery on the laptop is about to run out, watching Wedding Crashers on 9 - hilarious (and it did, I'm posting this the next morning lol).

Week 7 of DIGC101

Today we did a bit on blogging - what a surprise. I particularly found Katie's insights into her blogging interesting, she was a guest lecturer for today. She keeps three blogs - her personal, research and LiveJournal blog - and has these clear delineations for a reason. She told us of how she got fired because she defamed the company on her personal blog using a work computer. Not only that, but she told us of the extensive action the company took - "Someone in IT will always be reading your blog" - and the threat of legal action. It was quite an awakening for me because I like to think I like to drop in and post on my own personal blog from time to time and (as my prior post noted) I just ran into a bit of exposure. Maybe its a sign...

We also did some presentations today for different questions in relation to gender on blogs. I don't remember much of it now, but my argument was pretty baseless (we won though so all good).

2 new videos

This was the group project - Life@UOW - for DIGC101.

This was my own movie that a friend and I made in IPT last year for the HSC. It has a weird title I can't pronounce.

I'm about to start our DIGC101 class. Bye.

Private becomes public

Ok so I mentioned something about blogging in my post for this week's contribution to eLearning and I don't remember what I wrote - but a few days later something very interesting happened. I was at the RTA (I got my Ps! lol that's another story for a different context) and I ran into one of my mum's friends whose son had just recently passed away. I was very close to him because he was like family, we grew up together (and it's also the reason I was away two mondays ago - I was at his funeral). Anyway, long story short I wrote up a little thing about him on my own personal blog and what do you know? Somebody found it (it's actually the first result in Google if you type in Alexander Howes). She was a friend of Alex's mother who lived in America.

Now at first I didn't mind but then my mum who heard about it says "Oh I have to read it!". And then I thought... oh, what about all the stuff I've written on there. This is very much a matter of private becoming public because I always felt that noone is really reading my blog because I must admit-- it's trash. I laugh at myself when I read it but I suppose that was a different me at a different time. I just hope other people know that too...

Sweat Suit

Wow the presentations for DIGC102 were really good (is this blog meant to be exclusively for 101? Not anymore!). Apart from sitting there, bored for 3 hours, they were both had their own style that they brought to the table. But particularly, Chris's group was really well presented - whatever their program was that he used really made it look professional and if that was backed by actual professionals, you'd have me sold. They killed it.

The first group was good too, however it was a bit harder to follow. Renee did very well though and presented herself very clearly. I particularly liked at the end where she jumped in to answer a question and it seemed so professional lol (I can't remember what the actual question was though because you know... I wasn't actually concentrating).

Count them like Feist, 1, 2, 3, 4

This would be the first one of the week, as now David and Chris would like 3 posts a week. I was actually going to write this one after out lecture/tut but I must've forgot (and I spent all day doing the DIGC102 thing).

Ok so this week, we ironically learned about blogging which I left early (thus an excuse for my overall illiteracy in blogging).

Got my marks back for my website analysis which were good I guess, but from looking at others who did their own on Kompozer (e.g. Caitlin) I would definitely like to attempt my own.

Ok I better go, I'm doing my presentation for DIGC102 soon.

Dear Chris + David

I haven't included Digg because I can't login to it. I don't know why, I try to retrieve my password with the "lost my password" form thing that most sites have but it says the email doesn't exist. Then when I try to register with that email, it says that this email already exists.

??

Anyway, I caved. At it's late, I guess once the clock strikes midnight is when you guys could commence assessment.

Group project + website

Just a few updates on where I'm at.

Our group project is almost finished - I have been making it in Movie Maker and it's been a sort of long process having to slice clips, add effects, add subtitles and keeping them all in sync but it's practically done now, I just have to add the credits. The credits are going to be hard because as we have pulled all of our photos from Flickr I'll have to credit each photographer whose photo I took - luckily, Flickr uses a favourite function so I can easily track it down. From there, once the movie is done, I'll save it as a movie format and upload it on YouTube (which I then plan to embed here, Myspace and maybe FaceBook).

For my first assessment, I'll just be using Myspace and this Blogger (& maybe FaceBook) to show my HTML know how. I feel it is equally acceptable as, going off Chris's demonstration of the Kompozer software, there would be better understand of HTML in Myspace & Blogger. Why? Because Kompozer is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) application and I feel I would get more of a challenge, HTML-wise, from fooling around with HTML code on Myspace & Blogger. However, after this assessment, I will be using Kompozer to create my own website anyway lol.

Anyway that is all, I glance over a few of the other blogs people have going and I'm thinking - how do you guys type that much?

Group work

So far, our group have just snaked Flickr photos.

Oh right, I should probably explain what we are doing.

Our group is: Renee, Chris B, Myself and ... I don't know about George (Ex-George, he dropped out of this subject I think?)

Well... it's going to be a slideshow of Flickr photos representing a story (or narrative? ... no story) of a studen't day at Wollongong. I've currently done a bit of the slideshow but it's not final as I have to finish up the fonts and hilarious subtitles. From there, we'll upload it to YouTube - how's that for new media mastery?

The beginning of the end , pt. 2

So this is my blog and website - sort of like my new media hub for everything DIGC. I'll try and experiment with HTML on this page as well - blogger lets you experiment with the code of your page even though its a template. I tried out Google Pages for a bit but wasn't impressed (hence the name of the title, I posted there as well).