March 26, 2009, 5:02 pm
It took 4 years, 5 months, and 8 days, but I just reached 100,000 plays on my last.fm (formerly Audioscobbler) account.
That averages roughly 62 songs per day. 62! That’s a bigger number than any number that’s smaller than 62. Pretty incredible, no?
Ok I know it’s not that much to get excited about. Still, I like statistics and figures and facts (what’s up with that?) so I’ll wrap up this mini-post with a screenshot of my top tracks and artists right when I hit 100,000 plays, all available after the cut.
Continue reading ‘A Hundred Grand’ »
March 22, 2009, 11:17 pm
So I figured I’d make a post about some recently-released (well, within the last year) albums that I’ve been listening to lately.
First up is Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours, which I hope I can describe without delving into too much fruity album-review speak. This album really impresses me with how it combines the accessibility of catchy dance-pop with interesting layered sounds that give each song the depth to stand up to many repeat listens. Also, it’s very refreshing to hear an album that manages to both be easy to listen to while also being more than just a collection of single songs. Beyond the simple fact that most tracks tend to fade in and out of each other, I’m struck by how appropriate melding all the tracks together is everytime I listen to this album…it really is greater than the sum of its parts. Part of this can be attributed to the appropriate usage of filler tracks, such as We Fight For Diamonds, Voices In Quarts, and Silver Thoughts, to give the listener a brief break from the rowdier sounds of the main tracks. Unlike so many artists, Cut Copy found just the right number and tone to accentuate the main tracks of the album. Secondly, every track seems to find its beat and its groove and get into some techno-style repetition, but then just before you start to get tired of that same sound, they change it up. Gotta love that.
Oh yeah, and one last thing, I think my favorite track is “Strangers In The Wind”. It starts off sounding like a standard that could’ve been released forty years ago, albeit with a refreshing modern twist, and evolves into an intense club floor beat before wrapping up with some new wave sound. Sooo addictive.
Three more albums after the break.
Continue reading ‘Recent Music Roundup’ »
March 22, 2009, 7:06 pm
There is a remote stretch of asphalt passing through canyons, oak flats, and rugged mountains in Monterey County. Situated south of the city of Monterey, Carmel Valley Road (Monterey County Route G16) runs roughly parallel to highways 1 and 101, connecting the cities of Carmel Valley and Greenfield and offering access to a variety of wilderness areas in this starkly empty section of the state. Continue reading for maps, pictures, and thoughts on this great road.
Continue reading ‘Favorite Roads: Carmel Valley Rd.’ »
March 22, 2009, 4:59 pm
So back in February 2008 I got a last-minute oppurtunity to attend a Laguna Seca trackday through a group called Speed Ventures, which I went for. It was my first (and, given the difficulty of arranging it, maybe the last) time driving on this famous race course, and what a delight it was. Though not especially technical, it’s flowing and rhythmic to drive; a truly amazing experience.
After the break are plenty more snapshots from that day, as well as impressions of the famous track and other musings.
Continue reading ‘Blast from the past: Laguna Seca Trackday’ »
March 22, 2009, 3:41 pm
The old bigpenguin.org, a high-school era project in poor HTML and elementary PHP, has been nothing more than file storage since 2004. Everything’s scrapped and I’ve gone to the ever-so-popular WordPress client for the site. I plan to use this site to connect to other people’s pages and to write about whatever I want to write about. Topics that I’ll probably visit are cars, music, movies, politics, and just life in general. Perhaps there will be others, I don’t know. Next step is to get the site looking the way I want and then get a few decent posts up.