Fairweather Zealot

Microsoft iPod

So true but still funny.

First off, I have to say that I was highly impressed by how well Philly managed to pull off Live 8 on Saturday. The trains were all beautifully managed (well, at least the PATCO side – I heard grumbling about SEPTA), the helpers and city workers were all on the same page, and best of all, the people were all … well, particularly un-Philly like.

We had a caravan (19 people) heading in from Jersey, including 5 teenagers and 5 little kids, and were able to make it to the 2nd big screen with little effort. The trip itself was fun as we got to show off a little of the city – particularly to the kids – while admiring the spectacle around us ourselves. The sights were great to see – people smiling, a great vibe and and around the whole place, the activists, the inactivists, the young, the old, the parents, the practicing to be parents – it was all there to behold and left you with little to do but smile.

Although the shows themselves were a teensy bit disappointing (most of the acts were on for less than 15 minutes), it was still a great time. The Kaiser Chiefs started off very promising, putting on a heck of a set, followed by a very energetic and likeable Black-Eyed Peas. Then Bon Jovi came on to rev up his local crowd.

After that, the ‘show’ started to lose momentum throught the sets of Destiny’s Child and Kayne West who were enjoyable if not exactly pumping up the crowd. However, Will Smith really got everyone into the vibe with his set and pulling at the emotions of his hometown crowd. From there it was a mixed bag – Dave Matthews Band was disappointing, as was Alicia Keys – although the disappointment with her was that she didn’t play longer. Toby Keith was in there, and I remember thinking that he wasn’t bad, if again, not entirely entralling. One of the best sets of the night was that of Linkin Park and Jay-Z. They were energetic, they were fun, they were loud and they probably had the most raw passion of any act there. Awesome – I really need to see them live sometime.

Def Leppard was a joke – they came on late, and to be frank could have missed their set entirely. Many of the later bands like Jars of Clay and Keith Urban were okay but not very memorable. Even Sarah McLachlan was somewhat underimpressive – though her duet with Josh Groban was pretty good. And I think that the last two acts – Maroon 5 and perenially excellent performer Stevie Wonder were both excellent but a bit too short.

In the end, I think that might have been one of the major short-comings of this show – there was no time for the crowd to start getting into the often too-short performances. I wasn’t a fan of some of the acts, but I could have been just as happy relaxing (read:napping) through a 30-45 minute set of Destiny’s Child as I was through a 15-minute set. I see no reason why they couldn’t have taken this show into the evening, and adding some of the other acts that were rumored to be coming (including Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and most especially Bruce Springsteen. It would have also been nice to see some of the local acts like The Roots or even Love Seed Mama Jump play. Heck, what about a Hooters reunion 20 years later? Okay, maybe not.

Still, the music was only part of the spectacle, and the other part was the people and the environs. We had a good time in that respect – the people-watching was excellent, as my wife’s Flickrstream can attest. There were those out for the Live 8 theme, as well as those out for their own reasons (many of whom really need to take remedial English classes). The food was a bit steep, but not excessively so considering the stranglehold they really had over us – we brought our own drinks and still spent $60+ on food and drink while we were there (did I mention that it was hot).

But in the end, after 8+ hours on the grass along the Ben Franklin Parkway, we were all satisfied with the experience. My son and his friends were enjoying the sun and fun, if not as much the music (not their favorite bands, I guess). My mother-in-law and other newly-met relatives from my wife’s side seemed to be enjoying the Philly area that they were being exposed to. And my new cousins (actually my wife’s cousins, but who’s counting) were having a ball – and made their way into the paper.

Like I said, I had a good time. I can think of ways to make it better, but overall I have to say that the day was a huge success. Philly should be proud of the way that it came off in this thing.

Other opinions
A different view – Village Voice

Other Links »

• The Missing 13th Amendment? Could we have an invalid Constitution?
• HUFU – Healthy Human Flesh Alternative – Frightening

You know, there has been a distince lack of originality in entertainment in recent times. Bands are using other bands styles or doing straight covers, NBC raping great comedies from BBC, and most especially in movies, where nearly every movie out this year will be a sequel, a remake or a derivation of a TV Show or book.

When I heard about Live8 coming back to Philly, I was excited – and we are going to have a good line-up, as well. But it struck me today – this is just another example of lack of originality isn’t. After all, isn’t this Live Aid – the Sequel?

But I’ll still be there, nonetheless…

Wow, has it really been that long. Strange how time flies when you’re out sweating while building new flower beds. My wife and I have been working our butts off to put in 4 new flower beds, a new vegetable garden, plant 101 different flowers and plants (including an entire hummingbird/butterfly garden), spread 4 cu. feet of topsoil and 7 cu. feet of mulch, and basically got a great workout and tans for the last week or so.

The end product was worth it, but between that and my latest design work (see below), I’ve been too busy to really do much blogging – or even surfing for that matter.

I did have a chance, however, to go pick up my latest pictures. I had quite a few that I really like – mostly flower pictures (we were at Longwood Gardens after all), but still some shots that I’m really happy with.

Design News

I’ve been busy lately, too. I got most of the new martytdx.com up and running. The sub-pages are still coming, mostly because I’m struggling with a design idea: do I stay with a similar theme 2 and 3 layers deep, or do I make the tertiary pages a little more exciting? I’m still on the fence, although I will probably try both ways and just see what I like.

On the work front, I finished 99% of the update for the spring on Mystique, I’m putting the finishing the touches on a law firm’s website, I have a logo/site design offer for a online music site, and a bunch of side projects that I finally have had SOME time to get too. And I’m finally getting some bites for a normal 9-5 job, too. Thanks, Van!

completely unrelated

I saw this on overcaffeinated.net last night – the Top 100 Quotes off of QDB (bash.org). Even without any real experience with chat, these were hysterical.

Well, in my case, about 2.5 months – and I’m not even partway through my CD collection. It seems that I hit the limit last night, although I’m not sure why. I was adding the last of the MP3 from my system and hit the 20.1GB level on iTunes. Hmmm, that might be a problem with a 20.0GB iPod. So, I started looking at what I had. After removing a few duplicates, bad tracks or stuff that I really didn’t want, I was still at 19.9GB. So, I removed entire sections of music that I’ll keep on MP3 but not necessarily store on the iPod – I’ll never really listen to it there.

So, I got my iTunes list down to 18.8GB – cool, now let’s synchronize. And behold, I get a message that I can’t upload all of the songs because the iPod is full. What? How does 18.8GB on iTunes = <20GB on the iPod? I’m not sure, but until I deleted the 1.1GB of Depeche Mode tunes (Depeche Mode Singles Box set is a biggun’), it wouldn’t load.

Strange thing is, now my iPod is showing 8.8GB of free space (and 3715 songs). What gives? Obviously, I’m missing something that is on iTunes, but I’m not sure what yet. But the bigger problem is this:

what the heck is on the iPod that requires 1.1GB of space? Obviously since my ceiling of transfer was less than 18.8GB, there is something going on. Okay, I could maybe understand a quarter-gig of space for programs (although I think that’s still excessive), but 1.1GB? What gives?

Also, if anyone knows the answer to this, I’d appreciate it – when I have my iTunes set to auto-sync, does it remove songs from the iPod that I removed from iTunes? I thought that it did, but it was my one thought of what might be happening – that I might have a couple extra songs on the iPod that weren’t showing up on iTunes. Also, how does one clear the iPod completely to start fresh with what you have on iTunes currently?

Now, I just have to figure out just how I have 8.8GB of free space on the iPod after syncing it last night…

in other news…

I just discovered a cool new tool for Flickr – the Flickr Zeitgeist. It’s a small JavaScript that allows you to put a zeitgeist of your pictures (or those of your contacts, the newest on Flickr or a combination) on your site in a compact little box. Check out the upper right-hand corner for mine.

Funny Fact of the Day
“When he was the prinicpal owner of the Texas Rangers, George W. Bush briefly flirted with the idea of changing the team’s name to The Texas Alamos, until an assistant told him that Texas lost the Battle of the Alamo.” – from Gullible.info

Okay … I got it, finally. I got my iPod – have I mentioned how awesome my wife is? Okay, so she might have thought I was kidding about the whole TiVo thing, but I got my iPod, a beautiful watch and a good coat to wear to work instead of my L.L. Bean barn coat (which I thought was pretty stylish, myself). She spoiled me, and I spoiled her and we spoiled Blair. All in all a good Xmas.

I got a bunch of new music, some great new books (including a few that I hadn’t asked for – always a joy to find something that I didn’t even know about, let alone hint that I wanted. One of those was The World’s Most Dangerout Places by Robert Young Pelton. It seems pretty interesting from what I’ve thumbed through – conversations on diseases, crime and war zones that exist throughout the world, and explores why you should go there, and how to protect yourself if you do.

Unfortunately, my stepson was VERY ill all Xmas Eve and Xmas with the flu, and cut short most of the holiday festivities for everyone. Let me tell you – being sick over Xmas is not fun, and he was a trooper for being as up for the holiday as he was. He’s better now, and enjoying Everquest II, which looks like a fun game although I will probably never know, being too cheap to pay a second $14.99 a month to access their servers.

My wife, however, has been really enjoying her big gift – a Nikon D70 Digital Camera. She has barely put it down since getting it, which is a thrill to see since I was hoping that she would really like it. She was speechless when she received it, which I took as a good sign, but her enthusiasm has been an even greater reward. And she’s already getting very used to it and taking some fantastic pictures (I’ll try to get those up tonight). Of course, now I’m jealous ’cause I want to play with her camera but I guess I’ll have to wait a while…

Okay, I sent out some emails about getting me a free iPod – I’ll apologize now to those who think I spammed them. But believe it or not, the offer is real! Check out Wired News to learn more.

Basically, you need to register and try out one of the offers to get me a completed referral. Don’t worry – there are some free ones, so you can sign up with your junk email address, sign up for a ‘free info’ link, and that counts for me. And if FIVE of you do it, then I get my $299 iPod for free. In case you already deleted the link, you can click here to access the site.

Thanks,Marty