Saturday, February 26, 2005

I can play the guitar exactly like this....

I just don't choose to.

(Note: if you're using Firefox, drag the link into the address bar.)

Friday, February 25, 2005

Not to be rambling on about Netflix some more, but...

I was like, "I wonder if Netflix has a Bjork DVD." And, yeah. They have SEVEN of them. I haven't even gotten my first shipment of discs yet, but I'm already pretty sure that I'll give up solid food before I give up Netflix.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Imagine a world...

...where you can be reprimanded for owning an iPod.

I tell you, it exists.

Giving away more music

Here's one I can't get arrested for, since it's just a link to a free download. Awesome track, though.

The Decemberists - Shiny

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

More time on the couch

I figured it was about time to sign up for Netflix.

"But Nick," you say. "Why should I give a shit?"

Well, good point. You didn't have to resort to that kind of language, but I see where you're coming from. Anyway, the reason I'll probably be indentured to Netflix long after I have any of my own teeth is their whole "queue" system. You only get to keep 3 discs at a time, but you can queue up as many as 500. And once you have stuff in the queue, you can reorder it any way you want. I think this is a really good way to induce OCD. I definitely want the first disc of The Wire right away, but do I want the second disc at the same time? Should I move the second disc down in the queue so it only arrives after I've mailed back the first one? What if it's so good that I watch the entire season in a weekend? What if it's really good, but I still want some movies to watch in between so I don't get oversaturated with gritty Baltimore crime stories? No matter how much I change it, that queue is just going to sit there, mocking me. "Look at zee rideeculous order of feelms thees eediot hass chozen!", the queue screams. (Like most web pages, the queue is voiced by the Taunting French Guard from The Holy Grail.)

Well, piss off, queue. I'll deal with you later.

Friday, February 18, 2005

...this whole damn SYSTEM is out of order!

I have now been a juror. Yep. That happened. It's over now. I didn't convict anybody, though, so whatever. It's done. On the plus side, it allowed me to skip work for 3 days (with pay). I don't want to get into what the case was; it was just something fairly boring: this former pop star started molesting little boy-- eh, like I said, boring.

Actually, it didn't entirely suck. Trials on TV are inevitably dull regardless of how "exciting" the case is, but when you're watching it in person, knowing that you're partially responsible for the judgment of that dude in the chair, it becomes fairly compelling. In this one, a guy from the Rolling 60s (the pre-eminent L.A. branch of the Crips) grabbed a high school girl one night, stole her jewelry, and beat her up. The girl testified, as did the arresting officer, as did another detective who had arrested the guy (and about 100 other gang members) before. The defense had nothing. Their only witness was the defendant's aunt, who was so out of it that she couldn't even remember being arrested last year but was absolutely sure that she was with him during the time when the girl claimed he assaulted her. She also added that she was drinking with him all day and he was fairly drunk by the evening. I'm no legal expert, but I don't think that particularly helped his case. Anyway, after that it was over. They sent us into the jury room and when we came out, they told us the case had been settled. I presume it was a plea bargain; none of us stuck around to find out the details.

And now it's time to give away some music. Here's the song that was stuck in my head for most of the trial, and probably always will be, not because it has anything to do with the case but because it's too good not to listen to. It was given to me by Eti (she has no blog to plug here, so her name remains linkless) , who is responsible for at least 40-50% of the 2,285 songs on my iPod.

The Shins - Girl On The Wing

By the way, I have to credit Karri for the idea of using one's blog to occasionally give away music. I also have to credit Tom for the idea of the alkaline battery.

Monday, February 14, 2005

I am not out of order, YOU'RE out of order!

Jury duty.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005.

7:30 A.M. at the Downtown L.A. courthouse.


I cannot.

Fucking.

Wait.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

DreamBlogger explodes on takeoff

Can't remember any of my dreams from last night (if, in fact, there were any). And I tried. Really hard. As soon as I woke up (first at 5:48 to urinate, then at 6:40 with my alarm) I was like, "What'd I dream about? What'd I dream about?" And.... nothing. Maybe I'll have better luck tonight.

Also, there's more free music to download right here.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Musik Frei!

I have iTunes at work, but there's nothing on it. Bringing my iPod here and copying songs to the computer is a pain and a half in the ass, and I have neither the inclination nor the disposable income to go on an iTunes Music Store spree just to have stuff to listen to at work.

But holy shit, Batman, there's a lot of free music out there! And not the illegal kind that'll get you sent to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison, either!

First of all, Salon.com. Doesn't exactly count as free, I guess, but if you have a membership they give you a bunch of free MP3s to download every month or so. And for non-members, you can do the "free day pass" option and click over to Wednesday Morning Download, which also has a bunch of free stuff.

Then there's CNet Music, which (despite looking somewhat scary and corporate) has a virtually endless well of music sorted by genre. Even some pretty well-known stuff; you can search an artist and see what they have.

BetterPropaganda.com I haven't looked through extensively, but it looks cool and appears to also have a reasonable amount of free shit.

I'll add to this list if I find more good places.

DreamBlogger

Since I haven't been able to come up with anything interesting or clever to say in a while (or, arguably, ever) I think I'll try blogging my dreams this week. Without further ado, here's the one from last night I sort of remember.

I was working on some TV show and had to get the set/offices/whatever by 11:00. It was located in Brentwood, on a street called Oceanside. I didn't know where that was (probably because it doesn't exist), so I stopped for directions at a restaurant. It wasn't like any L.A. restaurant; it looked more like something in Cape Cod. I went inside and talked with a waiter. He started to explain to me where the street was, but it was complicated, and then all of a sudden the restaurant turned into the campus of a college or private school, complete with grassy quad and old buildings. The waiter (who was now a teacher, I think) was showing me that I had to drive around the campus, but one of the streets was closed so I'd have to go a different way. I felt like he'd spent long enough explaining it, so I thanked him and left, but I still had no idea where I was going, and I knew I was going to be late. End of dream.