trisweb.com

Death Cab for Cutie released their new album “Plans” today, and if you have any doubts, may I dispel them quickly. This is an excellent album worthy of buying.

I’ve only listened to it twice through, but it’s already growing on me. I don’t want to rave about it yet because I really should listen to it more, but it’s definately good. My only complaints are one song that I don’t particularly like, and that it’s a little short. Other than that, there’s a lot of stuff that really makes you think about all the important things, and it all sounds great if you’d rather not think. In combination, it works even better.

And they sold out to Atlantic. But honestly, who cares? They’re making good music; let them be rewarded.

30 Days is a reality show unlike all others – it actually feels real. It deals with real issues, real people, and real problems. Tonight’s episode sent a guy from West Virginia to the largest Muslim-American community in the US to live as a Muslim for 30 days, and it was a great show. I learned a lot about the culture and the religion and the people of Islam, and about people in general. It’s something that every American should watch. Highly reccomended. FX, Wednesdays, 7PM PST.

Warning: No Spoilers Included

I just got back from seeing Episode III, and I want to talk about my experience. The movie was great, as I’m sure you’ll know when you see it, but I’m not going to talk about the movie today. Please, read on.

Read the rest of this entry »

A whole new tilt on topo maps. NASA WorldWind is a “world viewing” application. It basically lets you look at the earth in lots of different ways from lots of different sources and at any angle in a 3D model. You may have heard of Keyhole (recently acquired by Google), which is also cool and does basically the same thing, but with a few different features (like driving directions and flyovers). Keyhole does have higher resolution images in some areas, and can look up places by address, but WorldWind has many different image overlays and lots more information about the geography, weather, land, and just about everything else. It’s also free and open source, whereas keyhole is expensive and closed.

Let me give you an example of how the music buying process should work:

Last week, I found a band called The Decemberists on iTunes, and since I liked their sound from the samples, I went out and bought their CD “Castaways and Cutouts” at Ameoba the very next day. The CD was so good that I listened to it nonstop for the next three days, and found out that the band was releasing a new CD (Picaresque) the very next tuesday.

Before I heard about the iRiver H320 (hereafter “the iRiver”, also available in a 40GB version, the H340), I wanted an iPod. I didn’t really want one that badly, though, and I thought I got along just find with my CD player and my newly found affinity for little plastic discs. Fortunately for me, I was given an iRiver for Christmas, and I’m sure glad I didn’t get an iPod first.

Read the rest of this entry »

Death Cab for Cutie was a band I thought I wouldn’t like, judging the book from its cover. I mean, the name makes them sound like a death metal band, which is of course not even close to my kind of music.

The lead singer Ben Gibbard happens also to be the man behind The Postal Service album “Give Up”, which I loved instantly. The story behind that album is very interesting—it was just a side project for the duo, and I think it was ahead of its time when it was released in February of last year. Only now has it begun to gain widespread recognition.

When I heard Ben Gibbard was in Death Cab for Cutie, I thought I’d give their newest (though still over a year old) album “Transatlanticism” a shot.

Read the rest of this entry »

First, here are three albums released in the last year which have quickly (like, over the last week) become favorites.

Snow Patrol – Final Straw
The Postal Service – Give Up
Jimmy Eat World – Futures (which I have reviewed previously)

Before coming to college, I didn’t have a taste for popular music. I think that was a good thing. I got my basis in music from real music—jazz (lots of jazz) and folk and classical. Whatever my parents listened to, I listened to, and I still share some taste with them. I still listen to everything I used to. Music never leaves you; if you like something once you’ll like it for all time, and it will only continue to be more nostalgic, weighted by the memoies of the circumstances of each time you listened to it.

Only recently have I become interested in “new” music.

Read the rest of this entry »