black

May 30, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I took our cable box and cable modem back to Comcast today, so I have no connectivity at my apartment until Monday, when DSL gets activated. Speakeasy shipped my self-install kit last night, and it was delivered to my building this morning, 12 hours and 54 minutes later. That's impressive. I'm still working to get my phone line up, though. The building wiring guy can't figure out what binding post (the equivalent of port on a switch) is mine, and claims the number SBC gives me is wrong. Today I scheduled an SBC repair tech for Monday. I think the odds are better than 50/50 that the guy comes out, figures it out in under 5 minutes, and says their was no problem. In that case the building gets to pay that bill, since they told me to get a repair person out. Who knows, though... I claim to know what's up, but in reality I've never even seen the telco equipment.

bands i need to catch

May 29, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I really want to come up with a good way to track upcoming shows for bands I want to see. Right now I have a flat file with band names and links to pages with tour dates, but I'd love to find a way to slurp dates into a calendar. It would be impossible to do that generically, though. Hmmm....

I really want to catch Gus Black again. I had forgotten about him until I ran across his name somewhere and it looked familiar. Then I listened to one of his samples and remembered really liking him. I also plan to catch the Red Elvises several times this summer.

if i only had more time...

May 29, 2003 by Eric Richardson

Saturday a friend and I were looking for something to do, so I was cruising around the web looking to find if anyone I knew was playing that night. I ended up finding out that hotel cafe has a website, and heading there to check out bands I'd never heard of. Which is cool, because Hotel Cafe has quickly become my favorite place to see music, and I haven't yet been disappointed by the acts they book.

Saturday we caught 3 and 1/4 of the 5 bands. Of those, Old Sol and Saucy Monky stole the show. It was kind of random to pick a night where 3 of the 4 acts I saw were female-fronted, but I enjoyed it. I love the lead singer from Old Sol's voice. Next time I catch them -- and I will -- I'll definitely be picking up a cd. Saucy Monky was fun, they definitely looked to be having fun on stage, and were really tight musically as well.

commuting fun

May 21, 2003 by Eric Richardson

Often times if I hit traffic downtown on my commute from JPL to campus I'll drop down Hill St. and avoid the 110 deadlock. Today I realized one reason I like that route so much, even though I can't say that it necessarily saves time -- it's shady. You can never say too much about how nice it is to stop in the shade of a sky-scraper when the sun's beating down outside. Speaking of LA, when looking up some information on the Fort Moore memorial on Hill I found some cool panoramic pictures of mostly the downtown area.

i need a police scanner

May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson

So just now I'm sitting in bed, watching Simpsons, when all of a sudden a deafening roar shoots past, sounding like a fighter plane swooping over our building. Then it happens again, so I finally get up to look. It's the LAPD ghetto-bird, but flying harder than I've ever seen it fly. They illuminate a house a block back from my apartment (just across 29th), and keep circling tight. Then the cars show up. Final estimate I'd put around 10 LAPD cars, and 3 or 4 DPS vehicles. Late in the game a fire engine and an ambulance make appearances. Then the chopper leaves after 6 or 7 minutes, and I'm left just watching a huddle of cops on the sidewalk. Very unfulfilling. I wish there was some way to know what was going on in situations like this.

mmm... music

May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson

Today I got a hold of the new Tricky album and posted Car Crash as a new song of the moment. Vulnerable is a very cool album. But what I really wanted to post here was that former Tricky vocalist Martina Topley Bird has her first single out (with a video), and it's a surprisingly straight forward rock and roll song. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of her album when it comes out.

Tricky - Car Crash

May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson

Tricky's newest cd, Vulnerable, released in Europe today. I couldn't resist, so I downloaded it. The whole cd has vocals by Italian unknown Costanza Francavilla, and her voice is a perfect highlight for Tricky's deep textures. My other favorite songs on the album, "Dear God" and "Hollow", both share the pacing of "Car Crash," one that I think serves Tricky very well. It's not a perfect album, but again Tricky continues his unending evolution and does it well.

next step in the copyright battle

May 19, 2003 by Eric Richardson

In my paper on copyright and the public domain I concluded by saying that change would only come via legislation. The first steps in that direction have now begun, as lobbying starts for the Eric Eldred Act. The idea behind the act isn't new, and it doesn't address all problems with current copyright, but the important thing is that it's a sensible proposal that has a chance of getting passed. This will only happen, however, if people take a stand and let their representatives in Washington know that this bill is something they care about.

tipping point?

May 17, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I think the broadbast debate may have been settled... Speakeasy is offering a free X-Box or PS2 when you start new service. Now the console war question begins... For the last couple months we've had a PS2, which I loved. I beat Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and am a huge fan of NCAA Football 2003. Only the GTA line is PS2 exclusive, but I love the feel of the PS2 and its controller. The X-Box controller has always felt unwieldy to me. On the other hand, though, the X-Box Linux hacks are a huge plus. I'd love to be able to pipe media files to the tv via the network, and X-Box has the most promise of that (via projects like Xbox Media Player). For that reason -- and the fact that #{node "5"}D4#{/node} prefers X-Box -- it's looking like I'll go DSL, Speakeasy, and X-Box.

mulling my broadband options

May 16, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I'm going to be the only one in my apartment most of the summer, so I'm going to be dropping cable to save some money. Because of this, and a bit of hassle that would be associated with switching our comcast account from my old roomate's name to mine, I've been debating switching from Cable Internet to DSL. Today I priced out a bunch of different options, and they really just left me confused. Click the title to read more... — Continue Reading...

mmmm... matrix

May 15, 2003 by Eric Richardson

D4 and I went and saw the 1:30AM showing of the new Matrix at the Chinese tonight. On the way there, D4 turns to me and asks, "Who goes to a 1:30 movie?" Well... Us and 1500 of our closest friends, that's who. The showing was sold out, and the theatre was packed. The movie? All I can say is wow. I didn't quite know what to expect from this one, but it definitely didn't disappoint. Click the title for random thoughts that you may or may not want before seeing the movie... — Continue Reading...

doh

May 12, 2003 by Eric Richardson

So today I had an 8am final in COMM 204: Public Speaking. I woke up at 8:22, looked up at my clock, and went "uh oh." I made it there by 8:30 and finished by 9:25, though, so it ended up not being a big deal. Now the year's over, and I'm headed to the beach.