Everything that happens will Happen Today
David Byrne of the Talking Heads has collaborated with Brian Eno on a new album! They worked together on some of Byrne’s solo projects, as well as several legendary Talking Heads albums. Imagine my excitement!
As soon as I heard of it, I set to work downloading a torrent. As it started, I read that they made it available as a pay digital download. I felt like doing the right thing, so canceled the torrent, and went to the site to buy the CD+FLAC version. Sadly, it uses Flash intensely, and I could not make my purchase. I would “click” on the button, and it would just sit there lamely. My girlfriend tried it on her machine, with a totally different setup, a more recent version of Flash, and using a different screenreader, with identical results.
I felt so happy to cancel the torrent and do the right thing, supporting the artists who deserve it. Now I feel disillusioned, with vivid flashbacks to my dealings with toribootlegs.com. Here we go again! I can always buy it off amazon, and download it in the meantime I suppose. I do feel bad for not doing it through the official website, but I tried.
These accessibility issues really annoy me. Why do people have to use fancy things where standard html will suffice? How often must I repeat myself in an echo chamber of my thoughts on a little-known blog? I can only sigh, and pen a constructively angry letter.
At least the Flash player worked well enough to play the album for us in its entirety. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it. It doesn’t sound exactly like old Talking Heads, but it has Byrne’s and Eno’s influences for certain! I would recommend it if you like either or especially both of their works. The album sounded familiar and welcome to me, even when listening for the first time. David Byrne has also gone on tour, so catch it if you can.
How did they kno?
Last night, someone rang my doorbell. Since it happened around six in the evening, I assumed correctly that a fund raiser had intruded upon my property. He came from the Clean Air Council. They want to make “Green Jobs” which makes me nervous.
Oddly, he said: “I remember when I came here last year you supported Ron Paul in a big way.” How did he know? Did he honestly remember me from the hundreds of door-closing faces he accosted? More likely, did he see the signs I still have propped up against the side of my house? Or…. Did they write it in a dossier? I think he saw the signs, and maybe that jogged his memory, but I just don’t know. It made me feel kind of weird, and sort of annoyed that he’d bring up the Good Doctor to help get donations.
Electrical Freakout!
I just had one of those experiences that makes you feel very thankful. The other night, the humidifier leaked water into a power strip. The strip did its job, and shut down, tripping the circuit in the process. Today, I got someone sighted over here to diddle with the circuit breakers. We got the power going again, and I plugged a salt lamp into the strip. As soon as I turned the power strip on, it shorted out, and a huge spark leaped from its depths. You could hear it, like a freaky electrical lighter. The smell of burning plastic filled the room.
My years of meditation and amateur electrical training came in handy, as I yanked my hand away immediately, already feeling on edge. By the grace of Goddess, I had the strip switched off initially! If it would have remained on while plugging it back in, the spark would have happened with my hand much further over, by the socket. I feel so grateful I did not get more hurt. Goddess definitely watched over me there! I still feel freaked out, and probably can’t plug something in for a few days. Wow.
Behind the Curtain, Episode 14
We had a tight show. We first got into the news:
We then showed Spam: the Documentary.
Pre-Holiday Post-Election Traumatic Stress Disorder
I hate to blog about something twice like this, but this barrage of holiday ads already has become impossible to ignore. My girlfriend and I both feel nauseated by it. I still feel in shock about the stupid election, and neither of us feel ready for the stupid holidays yet. We just realized that Thanksgiving happens next week! Give us a break. It really does get earlier every year. Just wait for the shocking stories about record low consumer spending habits. They’ve started pumping out these crappy commercials now for a reason. A radio station, B101, has even started playing all Christmas music all the time already. Why not just push it back to Christmas in July? We need a summer holiday. Spend money and make your problems go away. Obama will have another bailout for us soon.