The “genre” in MP3 ID3 tags is the most worthless and annoying thing in my entire music catalog. For those curious, I’m referring to the ID3v2.3 tag, which is what most of my the songs in my iTunes library are tagged with.
It’s annoying because I want it to work, but it refuses to cooperate. I want to be able to sort my music just like I sort my radio stations. Here’s my indy alternative station, there’s my classic rock station, here’s my heavy rock station, my jazz station, etc. The problem, however, is that the concept of genres is inherently nebulous.
Where does a band like Death Cab For Cutie sit? In my indy genre next to Bon Iver? But they’re not really indy. In my alternative genre, next to Nirvana? These bands couldn’t be more different, and although they play that stuff on alternative radio stations, no one is going to say that Nirvana ISN’T alternative.
Stupid genres.
In any case, back to the ID3 tags. The reason I hate them is that I always have to edit them. If I rip a CD down, invariably the genre that it defaults to is retarded. Case in point, remember the Death Cab I was just mentioning? When I ripped Transatlanticism the genre was output as… Punk.
I know that Sam loves Jefferson AirplaneJefferson Starship Starship, they’re his favorite band, so I made a phone call and pulled in a few favors, and bada boom, bada bing, a custom song JUST FOR HIM!
I’ve LOLed over the most controversial function added to WordPress 3.0: The capital_P_dangit function. Basically, it forces WordPress to be spelled with a capital P, as decreed by Matt M and the other core developers.
Some people are angry that it is an arbitrary editorial control mechanism, so there’s been a huge fracas on the wp-hackers email list. Quite hilarious, actually, given the relatively small impact that the code itself has.
Lost amongst all of the brouhaha was John Bloch’s contribution on how to easily remove the filter:
Feeds are a wonderful thing. I love my Google reader, because I can keep up to date with all the new web designery goodness available on teh intarwebs.
Feeds are also useful as content sources for people too lazy to write their own stuff. I know, I know, it sounds awful to say it that way, but that’s the reality of it all. If you had awesome content bursting out of your own ears, you’d never need to pull in someone else’s finely wrought content.
Back to the point, this is how a trillion how-to tutorials on the web teach you to pull a feed into WordPress, serverside: Continue reading
WordPress 3.0 final was released into the wild today, and guess what? I’m using it.
I’ve been using the WordPress 3.0 RC1, RC2, and RC3 for a while, using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, and so far it’s been relatively painless. A few of the plugins weren’t working, which I stupidly forgot to note, so that I could pass it along to the plugin developers, but overall it has been very stable.
Who’s to say how much of a pain it’s going to cause me at work, given the proprietary nature of some of my company’s in-house developed plugins. We try to build things the “WordPress” way, so hopefully there are only a few minor hiccups.
As to security, I once again wish that WordPress would adopt a two-pronged release strategy. Yes, go ahead and release the latest, greatest bleeding edge version as your main release. But please, PLEASE, start a long-term-support (LTS) branch. Or not. Whatever.
The back-end is a touch cleaner, although I can’t exactly put my finger on all the changes, other than the color. (I suppose I could do a side-by-side, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it.)
Long story short, I’m working on building some new theme templates that take advantage of the new menu system and a few of the other additions. It’s exciting finding a new theme function! (NERD!)
I picked up a little Vox Pathfinder 15R a while back, and I’ve just gotten around to playing it seriously. I’ve got to say, this has to be the absolute best value for an inexpensive solid state amp in existence. For less than $100 you can have an amp that doesn’t insist on crappy amp modeling, or a ton of non-useful cheesy effects. It has very decent tube amp quality foot-switchable reverb and tremolo built in, and it sounds great.
You could certainly gig with this thing, and although it only has a 1×8″ Vox Bulldog speaker in it, you can plug in an external cabinet if you want, with STELLAR results. For 15 watts, this thing gets plenty loud. It’s overdrive/boost is the best I’ve ever had in a solid state amp.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive first amp, or a small practice amp, don’t waste your money on a Peavey or a Crate or any of that garbage. Get the Vox Pathfinder 15R. You won’t regret it, and you won’t grow out of it fast. (Unless you’re a metal dude, in which case you’re on your own, because this certainly isn’t a metal amp.)
Because I know that watching me eat a jalapeño bagel with ham and cheese is at the top of everyone’s bucket list, I present to you in all it’s full technicolor majesty:
Dan Gayle eating a jalapeño bagel with ham and cheese!
I thought I’d take a moment to discuss the merits of Pink Floyd’s two guitarists Syd Barret and David Gilmour, my two favorites, bar none.
How many bands can you say have had two of the most genius guitarists ever in their respective styles? Sure, the Yardbirds had Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, but they weren’t doing anything spectacular when they were in that band. Fleetwood Mac had Peter Green, who like Syd went nuts on LSD and left the band, but they didn’t replace him with anyone fabulous. I suppose that Metallica had Dave Mustaine in it for a while, but that’s REALLY stretching the point.
Syd Barret
With Pink Floyd, you start with Syd Barret. There is none better than Syd at just pure guitar-as-noise-box psychedelia. (A close second would be his friend and replacement David Gilmour, not coincidentally.) Sure, Hendrix did some crazy stuff, but that’s not what he built his reputation on. Just listen to this recording of Interstellar Overdrive from 1966 or 1967, released as music for a short film in 1968. This was pre-Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and it’s a real gem.
David Gilmour
In 1968, Syd was totally out of it mentally, having fried his noggin’ on too much LSD, so the band hired his friend David Gilmour to be in the band to be the “second” guitarist, covering Syd’s detuning-strings-till-they-fall-off-while-staring-at-the-audience style of “guitar”. It’s really quite interesting, as he basically had to mimic Syd for over a year, using the exact same guitars, amps, effects and style that Syd had been using.
It took a while for Gilmour to really release himself from being Syd II, but when he did, he did it awesome. You want guitar noise? The song Echoes is as good as anything that Barret ever did, but in a totally different bluesy style. Fast forward to 1972/73, and you have David Gilmour playing slow, bluesy, soaring lead guitar. Gone was most of the psychedelic noise making, replaced instead with what is considered some of the best solo guitar playing in the history of rock.
If you have any doubts as to that claim, listen to this version of Time from a February 20, 1972, concert just before they recorded of Dark Side of the Moon:
I think I just peed a little!
Listen to that chainsaw fuzz! That exact solo might just make me go out and get a silicon transistor Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Colorsound Booster, it’s so intense and awe inspiring.
Anyway, this post was mainly to share these two Floyd vids that I found. I have the complete bootleg of the ’72 DSOTM Rainbow concert if anyone is interested.
