by Matt | Aug 17, 2002 | Imported Entry
I’m not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing, but tonight’s show at Avalon was broadcast on the local KISS radio station (Kiss 108). Most people have a “Kiss” radio station on their dial since it’s a nation-wide channel/company. Well, tonight, after finding nothing on my regular stations, I hit “scan.” I stopped it when I heard the first few notes of Sandstorm. After listening for a minute or so, a quick little message faded in saying “you’re listening to DJ Icey at Avalon in Boston on Kiss 108.” I was confused for a moment. Why on earth would DJ Icey play Darude? I couldn’t figure it out. As I drove home from dropping Jason off (oh, btw, I helped Jason out and gave him a ride home tonight) I continued to listen and Darude mixed into Cher which mixed into a horrible Shakira remix. I started thinking I was hearing things. You see, DJ Icey is a BRAKEBEAT DJ! Nothing even vaguely resembling a dance anthem has ever crossed his turntables. When I got home I turned on this here computer, checked the Avalon website and sure enough, DJ Icey is playing at Avalon at this very moment. So, I’m sitting in my room with the radio on at this very second and I’m starting to think, no strike that, I’m convinced that this is some horrible excuse for a mix made up by Kiss 108 they just happen to be sponsoring Avalon tonight or something. The set doesn’t seem “live” and isn’t mixed very well and most importantly it isn’t even close to breakbeat techno. Either that or DJ Icey has somehow become the worst DJ in existance. I’m very confused. Why would a local radio station broadcast a concert but not actually broadcast the music played at the concert? It’s very odd indeed. Unless they just wanted to be “cool” and sponsor a club night without knowing before hand that the music played that night wouldn’t really appeal to 99% of the moron “I like dance music because it’s hip” people who might be listening. I hate those people. I really, really, really want to take a big stick and hit those people on the nose and say “no, bad monkey!” You see, it’s all part of my theory about “american dance music” and how it’s making teenagers stupid as bricks. “American Dance Music” or “crap” as it’s known to most real techno fans is the kind of music that you hear once and think “wow that’s stupid” but at least you can tap your foot to it. The problem is that its been specially engineered by the evilness that is American record company marketing departments to be hip and trendy and sooner than you can say “change the station” it’s everywhere and you can’t escape it. You hear the stupid song every 15 seconds and it seems that every 16 year old asshat on the planet has to have it playing super loud as they drive their fucking Honda Civics around. Don’t even get me started on Civics. Arrrrgggg! See, this is why there’s high blood pressure in my family.
*breath matt, breath*
You know… it’s not even that important. If “they” want to listen to it, let’em. By “they” I mean stupid people. I’m going to bed. Later.
by Matt | Aug 16, 2002 | Imported Entry
Lauren asked me today about PDAs and it got me thinking. I never really thought about a PDA that I might want. It was always one of those “extra” things that I figured I’d never have the money for. Kind of like “nice things”, I’ll probably never have “nice things”, but I can dream. Anyway, I started thinking about it and I can’t really pick a single PDA that I’d single out as “the one I would want”. Sure, there’s the iPaq which is nice, has great baseline features but a huge price tag ($500-750). More towards the land of realism, we have the Sony Clie and Palm Pilots. If I was to get a Clie, I’d probably get the new SJ20. It’s the best black and white one and it’s still much cheaper than the lowest color one. Color would be nice but not nessisary. Plus it uses Sony Memory sticks, which are probably one of the most widely used of the “stick memory” formats. If going with a Palm, I’d probably get the m130. I don’t know why… I just kind of like it.
Then there’s digital cameras. I like them all. Probably too much. I divide my camera choices up into “fun” and “professional”. Obviously any professional digital equipment I get will be insainly expensive and probably pretty damn cool. But what about those times I don’t want to drag $10,000 worth of equipment around? What would I get “for fun?” Well, I’d probably go with a Canon Powershot S330 or it’s cheaper 2nd cousin, the S200. Or maybe I might go for Nikon CoolPix 2500. I wouldn’t really trust any camera company that doesn’t know how to make a good normal camera to start with which is why I’d stick with those two (Nikon or Canon). If I had to pick something else, I might (maybe) possibly be persuaded to go with a Sony. Only because I trust their electronics expertise and they’re usually reliable. So, a Cybershot DSC-P71 might not be out of the question.
All those cameras are also as expensive if not more so than any PDA I’d pick up so I’m not quite sure what would be more worth while. Of course my ultimate electronics purchase at the moment would still be the Apple Titanium Powerbook. No question about that. But, that’s such a pipe dream that it’ll probably never happen. Not unless someone is willing to give me a serious heap of cash or be willing to sponsor me in some patron sort of way. I’d be willing to trade photography skills for nifty toys! Oh well. Hey, there’s always the lotto right?
If anyone has any suggestions about a PDA, please let me know. I know most of you already have one and I’m interested in knowing how much they’re actually useful and which one you would get if you had to get a new one. Later.
by Matt | Aug 16, 2002 | Imported Entry
Today… I quest. Having already found my personal music grail this summer (rare Paul Van Dyk cd: Vorsprung Dyk Technik) today I go in search of a far easier prize. The long awaited album AirDrawnDagger from Sasha will be waiting for me at Newbury Comics. Reviews of this cd already call it a masterpiece and praise it so highly I’m expecting nothing short of orgasms when merely catching sight of the package. Well… maybe not orgasms… but it should certainly be good. At any rate, we’ll find out this afternoon if the album lives up to it’s hype. Knowing Sasha… it will.
Other than that I plan to sit on my ass, finish my book and watch movies on AMC all day. Unless of course someone has a better idea. But, since there’s no good movies out, we’ve eaten every place nearby more than once and gone to Nashua more than I care to think about… there’s not much left to do anymore. But who cares… I’m buying my last CD of the summer. I’m actually rather proud of myself. I bought less than 8 CDs this summer. Usually summer is my big binge and I go back to Savannah with 20 or 30. Maybe that’s saying something about recent music quality. Who cares… it’s time for breakfast.
by Matt | Aug 15, 2002 | Imported Entry
Well, as luck would have it, my family is going away this weekend. Thursday through Sunday. Apparently they haven’t gotten enough baseball yet and are looking more more. There’s some tournament down on the Cape that they’ve been selected to be in. I say “good for them, great for me.” That means I get another three days of peace and quiet. My cold/allergies/sickeness has gotten better so I may actually be able to enjoy the weekend without being drugged up on Nyquil.
As for today, I might wonder over to EB and see what they have for a release date of UT2003. Every website that mentions it has a completely different date. Some say “next week” while some say Jan/Feb 2003. In the latest interview with the head designer he said we should have it “before it gets cold” which I take to mean September-ish.
Oh, and I almost forgot, last night I ordered a GearGrip Pro from Thinkgeek. I made sure I ordered the “large size” which it says will hold a full tower. We’ll see. That should ease my travels back and forth to Saturday’s game night.
by Matt | Aug 14, 2002 | Imported Entry
As my 3 year old cell-phone continues to cough and sputter its last ounces of battery life, I find myself vaguely in the market for a new one. Sure, I could probably make do with it for another year or so, or even buy an expensive battery replacement. But why spend $100+ on a new battery (the actual cost since my phone is discontinued) when I can spend $200 on a completely new phone that not only handles phone calls and voice mail, but email, web surfing, digital pictures, and games. I actually have new distinct directions I can go in. First, and I have PA to thank for this, I could get a HipTop from Danger Inc. It’s slick, it’s cool, it looks like a blackberry with more features AND I could even update my website with it. That would be cool. The service providers have yet to be determined however which makes me a little leary.
My other option is Sprints new service PCS Vision, a service which is almost exactly the same thing as the HipTop. The upside of the sprint deal would be that since I already have a sprint service agreement, I’d only need to upgrade the phone. I think the service charge difference is approx $4.99 and their customer service department is usually good about deals. I called to add minutes to my plan last year and they moved me up to the next service bracket for less than the service should have costed, all to “keep me as a valued customer” since my contract was going to expire.
At any rate, we may finally be getting cell phones as cool as our overseas counterparts. The phone markets in places like the UK and Japan are years ahead of the US and have been since we so geniusly deregulated the whole cellphone/digital infastructure. Sure, it creates competition, but companies are more worried about getting subscribers than giving us the newest technology to play with. Take the UK for example. I think they have 2 (maybe) service providers. So, it’s becomes a question of “which company has the coolest features and phones” instead of “will my service work here” or “whats this companies rate structure.” Then again, I’m probably the only one that want to play pac-man on his phone anyways.
Later.
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