Aug 24, 2010

Taylor Momsen + XX + Rihanna =

Right…so I already shared my thoughts on The xx and my obsession with their music, but what happens when you mash them up with GG’s Taylor Momsen (thanks, Buzzworthy!) and Rihanna’s hook on Eminem’s “Love The Way You Lie” …?

Well, thanks to ohnotheydidn’t, you can listen to it here.

Aug 20, 2010

LYNTC: 8/20/10

And, yet another edition of today’s links you need to click.

  • David sends along this gem, about the absolutely classic way that a Chase bank teller foiled a robbery. Well, at least one at Chase.
  • In all seriousness, this will probably have profound effects on everything from your next visit to a museum to how certain things are portrayed in film.
  • SRSLY. If Dinosaurs Had Twitter.
  • Monsters. Aliens. MOAR PLEASE.

Aug 12, 2010

LYNTC: 8/12/10

Aaaaand, here’s today’s edition of Links You Need To Click…

  • Seen the Twitter “movie” trailer yet? Go watch it.
  • Like SXSW? Think Skynet is amusing? Go vote for @ishafer’s gig at next year’s event. You know you want to.
  • I’m not the only one who thinks the iPhone 4 takes pretty good photos, am I?

Aug 10, 2010

LYNTC: 8/10/10

Here’s today’s links you need to click.

  • Some amazing “fusions” of photographs taken today and those taken, in those exact spots, during WWIi, from My Modern Met.
  • Ted Stevens, known for describing the Internet as “a series of tubes,” was reportedly killed in a plane crash.
  • From the “meta” files, this one’s a winner. Getting the Yakuza to review Yakuza 3, a video game. No, really. From Boing Boing, of course. [via GarnettLee and ncroal on Twitter]
  • LOST EPILOGUE. FOR REALZORS.

Aug 5, 2010

Eminem. Rihanna. Megan Fox. Dominic Monaghan. Annnnd, go.

There’s honestly not a lot to say. Check out the new Eminem video featuring Rihanna, Dominic Monaghan, and Megan Fox.

Jul 29, 2010

The Numbers Post – OR – Why Traveling Seems Glamourous But Isn’t Always So Awesome

I fly a lot. No, really, I do. I don’t fly QUITE as much as a lot of other people – United 1Ks, for instance – but I fly a fair amount, and don’t have to fly United (frequent flyer humor, sorry). I’m currently on, as best as I can remember, my 44th flight so far in 2010. If you’d like me to break that down for you, I can. I’ve flown 34 times on Alaska Airlines, 8 times on Delta, one time on United, and one time on Sun Country. I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t have time to explain who Sun Country is. What I will explain, however, is what all of this flying gets me.

I’m currently an MVP on Alaska, which means I’ve flown at least 20K miles on that airline, or 25K on Alaska plus its Partners. In this case, I was status matched (meaning, Alaska provided me with status as I moved from a home market of another airline I held elite status on into their market, and moved my business to them. It’s cool. Try it some time, but don’t game the system!) but have since actually cleared that threshold this year.

  • It lets me upgrade to first class on the regular when flying Alaska Airlines (I’m 19/34 this year being upgraded)
  • It lets me board pretty early when flying Alaska – and sometimes Delta, depending on whose policies we’re deciding to follow that day
  • It gets me a bonus 50% on top of all miles flown in my “miles to spend” bin on Alaska, soon to be an extra 100% once I hit MVP Gold, which I’ll do next week (it means I have flown 40K on Alaska only or 50K on Alaska + Partners)
  • I’m pretty sure there are other things, but they’re kind of just wasting space and besides the point, so I’m skipping them here. In any case, they’re cool, and make me think I’m better than you while at flying. Which I kind of am. But again, I digress.

Back to the numbers, however.

At some point this afternoon / evening / whatever time it was, I realized that I was texting / tweeting / emailing a bunch of things that all had numbers in them. Like the four NYC cabs that literally shook me off when I tried to get them to take me to JFK tonight. Or the 52 minutes I spent outside on the streets of NYC before I got in a cab to the airport. Or the $6 that I tipped the awesome doorman at the Hotel Roger Williams for securing said cab.

I’d also like to note the 1 hour and 10 minutes that my flight was supposed to be delayed, meaning I would have left JFK at 9:25pm, instead we left at around 10:45 or so. Or maybe it was the 20 minutes I spent on line at Starbucks, only to be told when I reached the register that they were completely out of iced coffee.

Is there a purpose to this blog post? Not really. Are you pretty peeved at me that you’ve gotten this far and are just recognizing this? Probably. Do I care? Maybe.

It was only upon realizing that, after my iPhone decided, while I was in the middle of writing a short-and-sweet Facebook post about the lost time waiting for coffee that was never to be had, it needed to be completely restored and would no longer function until I connected to the Internet and completely rebooted it, that I had more than a few words to say. So here they are, with a nifty little group of numbers to go along with them.

Before ending this post, I’d like to add some more numbers, however.

  • Our captain had to call JFK’s ground services 5 times in order for us to have potable water on our plane tonight. It’s not like the plane wasn’t SITTING THERE FOR HOURS WAITING TO BE SERVICED OR ANYTHING.
  • My taxi only took 1.5 hours to get me from midtown NYC to JFK, which, for those of you who think your traffic is bad in any other city (except LA, I guess), took me a whopping 16 miles. I laugh at your perception of what bad traffic is.
  • I’m currently sitting in row 27, seat F. I point this out as it’s a perk I have – getting to sit in exit rows. I’ll shut up about perks now.

The moral to the story is, flying a lot isn’t all George Clooney. But it does make me look like one of the cool kids…in the FlyerTalk forums, that is.

Jul 23, 2010

The XX has taken over my music life

I’ve been joking on Twitter / FB for the last few weeks about how I’m literally addicted to The XX, and I’m totally not lying. My last.fm says so. It also says that I’ve listened to too much Ke$ha this year, too.

Check out the Pitchfork review if you haven’t already.

Also, OMG. [props to Eliot]

Jun 25, 2010

Grand Forks Thunderstorm, 6/25/2010

Most days I don’t have that good of an excuse for being up obscenely late, but tonight doesn’t count.

6/25/10 Thunderstorm 1

There’s seventeen more exposures where that one came from – all 30-seconds via my Nikon D300.

Jun 23, 2010

Ke$ha + Star Trek = teh awesome

I’m not going to say much. Just watch, if you haven’t seen this already.

Also, this is the reason why mashups that are smartly done get to stick around – because someone’s created something “new” and they don’t go all flashing ownership or trying to make a zillion dollars on it.

Jun 21, 2010

MUSIC: Eminem – “Recovery”

Around twelve years ago, I remember purchasing two copies of Eminem’s commercially successful “The Slim Shady LP,” and promptly placing one on permanent position in my car’s CD changer, and the second in the one at home. They stayed present and accounted for in both for some time, and there have only been a few albums that’ve received similar treatment in my music-listening life. A few come to mind, including N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton,” Public Enemy’s “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back,” Pearl Jam’s seminal “Ten,” and STP’s “Purple.”

So as I listen to Em’s latest record, “Recovery” from 34,000 feet en route to Seattle from Phoenix tonight, I can’t say that it’ll get the same play, but I can definitely say that it’d get the “I’m not rushing to this track or that one” play. Now I’ve never really gotten into the concept album or some that get too into the “story” flow, but think this is one of the more well put-together records as far as track order goes. Additionally, the one-at-a-time way we all buy music these days has been all but decimating to the “there’s three songs that are good hidden somewhere on here” albums, and this isn’t one of them. Hell, Reuters is even suggesting that the industry needs something like Em’s “Recovery,” badly.

From the moment that you reach the “Don’t Hurt Me” sample on track nine, “No Love,” you realize the man is not messing around. Leave Weezy until nine songs in? Takes Balls. Sure, we’ve all heard “Not Afraid,” which wins the prize for smart marketing move as the first single, but there’s a hell of a lot to hear beyond it.

Eminem has always brought it when it comes to lyrical prowess. He’ll, even non-fans could probably tell you that. What I’m digging on is his ability to go from asking where Kanye is to get some weak MCs off stage into a moment of self realization in a song like “Space Bound.”

Talk trash about Auto-tune one minute and have it on another song? On it. Tell people your last album is trash? On it. Guest appearance from Pink? On it. Beats for the Jeeps? Yep. Everlast-sounding guitars mixed with solid beats? Oh yeah.

Ken Kaniff from Connecticut? Nope. Cage disses? Nope. Voicemails from Paul Rosenberg? Nope. Updated murders of Kim? Nope.

Know why?

He doesn’t need them anymore.