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Last week was a full week of Johnny Cash. Check out Hurt

To the Man in Black. Haunting & RIP….

Today is that fateful day when Microsoft launches the venerable iPod competitor, the Zune. From all reports the Zune is pretty craptacular . Everything from a bizarre song sharing feature to not even playing previous Microsoft DRM-ed music. I really don't get it, if Microsoft is going to take a stab at the market why don't they actually release something that has a chance? 

Update: Even more Zune craptacularness… 

I was saddened to read that Syd Barrett, former lead singer of Pink Floyd, died. His story is absolutely fascinating, he left Pink Floyd right before they garnered world-wide fame and went through a complete mental breakdown (induced by LSD according to some). Many say he was the inspiration for the album Wish You Were Here and The Wall. His website is at http://www.sydbarrett.net/

Shine on you crazy diamond… 

Via forevergeek, zone out with sounds directly piped into your head:

http://forevergeek.com/gadgets/hack_your_brain_with_an_ipod.php

I don’t buy it, but it does mellow me out…

Now this is soooo funny….

Hilary Rosen, pitbull of the recording industry is actually complaining about restrictive DRM in today’s downloadable music scene (see Ariana Huffington’s new blog). Oh her post is so precious, I guess when consumers were trying to make the same point she didn’t “get it”. Maybe she gets it now?

Somehow I don’t think she is going to switch sides and start advocating cleaning up the ridiculous DRM situation. Just to show how forgiving I am can someone let her know that if she contacts me I will walk her through how to get around the problem….

Oh wait, does that make me a criminal? Maybe I need to go to law school to figure out what I can and can’t do…

I can highly recommend picking this up. Nothing beats old-skool rap. Run DMC & crew made hip-hop what it was and can’t really be blamed for what is has become…

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I know the guys at UpTo11.net and they are probably some of the most innovative bunch of guys imaginable. Their new site is simply the most amazing music recommendation engine, its at UpTo11.net. It seems to be using some interesting techniques to recommend artists based on artists you search one. The engine works great, I really am amazed, very nice job guys. It seems to have me pegged perfectly. If you haven’t been there, get there now. It just made del.icio.us most popular link of the day, its that good!

How well do its recommendations work? Good question. I love underground and obscure music. There is something about it. I hate alot of the overproduced crap coming out of the music industry these days, but that obscure stuff is sometimes just amazing. The last couple of months I’ve been really obsessing over Bill Frisell’s Gone Like A Train. It really is an awesome album by an incredible jazz artist, and the perfect acid test to see if upto11 could really recommend some artists I know and don’t know. Now here is the amazing thing, pop that into the UpTo11.net search engine and lo and behold, up comes Dave Holland, another ass kicking jazz artist I’ve been enjoying. There is also a boatload of other interesting artists I plan on exploring. I love this, its sort of an exploration of musical space with concrete suggestions.

Now, you put in a jazz artist and out comes a jazz artist, ok not that great right? Well, it actually goes way beyong that. African blues artist Ali Farke Toure, another artist in heavy ipod rotation, is also there. Toure isn’t a jazz guy, he does Mali blues (which if you haven’t heard you should particularly if you like american blues, it is amazing). Somehow or other the UpTo11.net engine figured out they go together well. I could have told you that, but how did they do it?

Ok, next I figure I would get even more obscure, Old Crow Medicine Show (OCMS) has also made it into heavy rotation. Their song Wagon Wheel is amazing, I had a chance to see Norah Jones cover it at Irving Plaza (that was amazing). Now, consider yourself warned, OCMS is bluegrass. Yes hillbilly music, and just plain fun! I’ve been going through a bluegrass phase and enjoying a whole bunch of artists. It is kind of hard to figure out where to go next, but upto11 has already pointed me in some interesting and suprising directions. Spend some time with it, you will enjoy it. It also has this killer feature where it links ot wikipedia entries for the artists. I love the wikipedia and have blogged about it before. This is so freaking cool, I applaud them for doing that stuff.

I’ll be exploring the engine and the site over the next few weeks and tell you how the recommendations have panned out. I can’t wait to see what new musical realms it takes me too. Another absolutely brilliant effort by some really good friends!

Please go buy some music from Sarah Mclachlan over at iTunes.

Why?

Because she did this. And anybody that does that deserves to sell their stuff. Even if you don’t like her music you should support her efforts. Tell your favorite band to do the same.

Ah the wonder of new consumer electronics. The shiny new device oozing the promise of new experiential horizons. Turns out the shiny new device, a 4th generation iPod, is a heaping pile of junk. Amazingly enough it seems this marvel of modern technology will not work properly when running. Yes, you heard me right, running.

It all started a few weeks ago, I went out for a nice mellow 10 mile run. Now, a ten mile run takes almost two hours and can, at times, be mindnumbingly boring. Tunes are always fun to listen to. Running also lets me feed a serious addicition to ITConversations. Now here is the problem, the 4th gen iPod crashes when you take it running and there is no way to reset it. NO WAY. I have to WAIT till the battery runs out for it to reset. This didn’t happen in my 3rd gen ipod, I could run with that for hours, sure occasionally the song I was listening to would skip, but nothing nearly as bad as freezing. Ridiculous! The iPod is going back this week. Good riddance I say….

A brand spanking new 4th gen ipod. Having been a longtime ipod user I figured the new one wasn’t going to be that much different. Truth is, its not, but the experience of that UI is so much more refined than the 3rd gen. I am amazed at how Apple keeps doing this type of thing with UI. Everything from software, hardware, to now consumer electronics. Apple is no longer a technology company, what they are is a UI company. The marvelous thing of course is that the UI is tied into the Apple Brand Experience thing. Apple is a cult, a cult of brand, and Steve Jobs understands how to tie that into all the Apple products in ways that mere mortals can’t comprehend.

If your in the market the 4th gen ipod really is sweet. I also thought the iRiver H140 was a serious contender. For some reason or other I picked the ipod. You may or may not agree. Whatever your device of choice, happy listening….