Finally I have achieved one of my long term goals. It’s not one of those vitally important life changing ones, but it brought a smile none the less. All 3501 songs in my iTunes library have now been rated and listened to at least once. Joy. The advantages this brings……mmm. Well, the playlists will be fully functional and at least I’m able to listen to all my top rated music. The radio playlist will also work 100% with all my music. And that’s it. Thank you for listening.
Tag: Music
Best of 2004
As seen elsewhere I’d thought I’d do my own round up of the best and worst of 2004. So here it is….
Playlist meme
From d2r, select whole music library and list the next random ten tracks that are automatically selected by your music app.
Mine are (thanks to the grammer Nazi):
Whatever Happened To Corey Haim – The Thrills
Johnny Come Lately – Catatonia
Don’t You Want Me Felix – Felix
The Drugs Don’t Work – The Verve
Shes The One – Robbie Williams
Flowers In The Window – Travis
Escape – Muse
…Baby One More Time – Britney Spears
I can’t give it up – Artful Dodger
Start Me Up – The Rolling Stones
With Or Without You – U2
Band Aid
Watched the documentary last night and finally came to the conclusion that I should have made ages ago – the quality of the song is irrelevant. It’s all about the money. It doesn’t matter who sings, how it’s arranged or whether the rap should have been included (although thankfully Justin from Darkness didn’t get to sing Bono’s line as what I heard last night was awful). We need to buy it and we need to contribute what we can and hope that one day the politicians will one day make a sensible decision and write off third world debt which I know is over simplistic but the millions that will be raised will not even dent the problems in Africa.
The original Band Aid was my first ever record purchase…20 years ago. To mark this anniversary I made it my first purchase from iTunes Music store…and then bought the Band Aid 20 version.
XBMC
I’ve mentioned Xbox Media Center (XBMC) before but the new updates are top smart. First up is a new web radio interface. Makes browsing through hundreds of Internet radio stations a breeze. Second is a link into Apple’s movie trailer site which means you can stream and watch trailers on the TV with ease. Finally there’s a link to game trailers at Microsoft.
Linking into the pc is easy and means I can browse the all my music (and album art finally works well) and select play lists at will. Can then easily switch to movies stored on the media server pc, the Xbox itself or slap in a dvd. If you are into home entertainment in any way, a chipped Xbox and XBMC really are worth investigating.
iPod Photo
New iPod Photo announced. 40 & 60Gb versions and for not too shabby a price. Looks good and would be a definite buy if I didn’t have an iPod already. Main issue for me is that Apple’s support of existing users is pretty shabby. I love my iPod but some fairly basic updates wouldn’t have gone amiss – heck – I can’t even play back tracks without any gaps between them. These kind of features should be in as a basic minimum. Good to see battery life quoted at 15 hours though. Don’t know if I would get much mileage out of viewing photo’s on the screen…a more practical screen will probably be found in the next version due in March. I would however love to see the album art while my mp3’s are playing. Very cool. Still…won’t be upgrading. Also odd to see the new U2 special edition iPod more prominent on the Apple website over the new iPod Photo.
Finally, iTunes 4.7 is now available. Probably with updates for new iPods only….hey-ho.
John Peel
Shocked and saddened at the news that John Peel passed away on holiday yesterday. I’ve never been an avid fan that listened to all his shows but the ones that I did catch, mostly while revising during the Uni years, were great. He always struck me as a man with integrity and a real passion for his job. He will be missed.
GTA San Andreas
Rockstar have added a radio player to their site which gives a taster of the music that will be available. Nice.
*Update* – full list from Gamespot.
What the hell am I doing here?
Great find from Gordon. A flash animation set to the acoustic version of one of Radiohead’s best songs. Enjoy.
The weird thing is I’ve spent the afternoon listening to The Bends and OK Computer. Yes – it was a bad day.
GTA San Andreas
Not confirmed, but the rumour is the following songs will feature in the game…
Salt’n’Pepa – Push it
Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby
Inner Circle – Bad Boys
KLF – 3am Eternal
Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
Poison – Every Rose Has It’s Thorn
Guns’n’Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
Smashing Pumpkins – Today
NWA – **** Tha Police / 100 Miles And Runnnin’
Snoop Doggy Dogg – Gin N’Juice / Ain’t No Fun
Warren G – Regulate
Fugees – Killing Me Softly
Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise
Public Enemy – Rebel Without A Pause
The Stone Roses – Fools Gold
Happy Mondays – Step On
The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony
Radiohead – Creep
Ouch – what a line-up. Roll on October.