jamin.org

I was tagged by Dan Saffer to continue a meme (noun: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture) of four lists of four things about me, which provides a break from writing yet another post about design! I’ve never been tagged to continue a meme before. It’s very exciting. Like receiving an Oscar, I imagine.

Okay, here goes…

Four jobs I’ve had in my life:

• McDonald’s in Lancaster, England, where my American accent was a novelty at the “till”
• Reporter for United Press International in Washingon D.C., where I spent a lot of time hanging about the U.S. Courthouse stalking Monica Lewinsky
• Soccer trainer for Curt Onalfo Soccer, working with boys and girls ages 4 to 14
• Editor for Computer Sciences Corporation, where I edited huge outsourcing contracts being submitted to the likes of Raytheon and NASA

Dan had “Four TV Shows I DVR” next, but as I do not DVR, or watch four shows, I’ll defer to the original post and substitute the following…

Four favorite foods:

• Cake
• Cookies
• Beer (liquid bread)
• Tortilla chips

Four places I’ve been:

• Zakynthos, Greece
• Dublin, Ireland
• Barcelona, Spain
• St. Lucia

Four music artists I’m listening to right now:

• Architecture in Helsinki: Heart it Races (Trizzy’s Rusty Tin Can Mix)
• Battles: Atlas
• Aesop Rock: None Shall Pass
• The Diggs: It’s Just Like You Say

Alrightythen. I suppose the thing to do is pass it on to four people and hope they read my blog: Eric Niu, Dennis Eusebio, Jeff Howard, Brandon Schauer.

I’ve been arranging this mix for about two months now, as I bought all these songs in early April. After messing with the order too many times, I think I returned it to the first iteration.

Find this iMix on iTunes.

1. Steady, As She Goes The Raconteurs

   “You’ve had too much to think, now you need a wife.”

2. Plan A The Dandy Warhols

   Makes me think about the hairdressers that crashed into Earth in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

3. Uncertain Smile The The

   Older, but John plays it every now and again, and still it puts me in a past I didn’t have.

4. The W.A.N.D. The Flaming Lips

   Nice to listen to right before you blow something up, like a country.

5. Don’t Know Why (You Stay) Essex Green

   This is how I feel about everyone who can stand me for more than a minute. And it’s a fucking awesome song.

6. Sunday Sia

   A beautiful song about being hungover.

7. The Funeral Band of Horses

   Beautiful, angry, sad, powerful, haunting, brilliant.

8. The Beast and Dragon, Adored Spoon

   Just listen to the first 20 seconds and tell me you don’t love this song. Excellent use of very low piano keys. Makes me think of Vietnam and climbing out of the gutter to take over the world.

9. Never Learn to Cry The Rogers Sisters

   Punky, and first two lines don’t rhyme!

10. Golden Brown The Stranglers

    Maybe I should know who The Stranglers are, but I don’t. So I’m going to assume this song was made recently by some new band and prophetically say this song will be timeless. Oddly, this song makes me think of the 70s.

11. The Greatest Cat Power

    I still want to be the greatest. I’m just glad this woman gave up. She did give up, didn’t she?

12. Happy The Wrens

    Another beautiful song that makes me sad and very angry and happy.

13. Rebellion (Lies) Arcade Fire

    The Funeral album is one of the few I have bought in recent years. And the whole thing is a rollercoaster of sweetness.

14. Flying Neulander

    Makes me think of running off to Europe to rescue someone.

15. What Else Is There? R?ɬ?yksopp

    “I don’t know what more to ask for. I was given just one wish.”

16. p.s. Film School

    Seemed appropriate for the end, both in name and sound. “Turn the light off. File these thoughts away for a day.”

Here’s my latest iMix.

1. Junior Kickstart The Go! Team

   Makes me feel like I’m on an important mission, even if I’m just heading to work.

2. The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

   I always seem to zone out and then come back in at: “Get me to a party. Who have I yet to meet?”

3. Finding Out True Love Is Blind Louis XIV

   “I want all the self-conscious girls who try to hide who they are with makeup.”

4. Publish My Love Rogue Wave

   I believe the guy who started this band used to be in web.

5. Play Flunk

   Bought this whole album last year, but thought it was about time to put a song into a mix.

6. Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl Broken Social Scene

   This song was a gift, and it makes me feel like a seventeen-year-old girl. (um…what?)

7. Windowlicker Aphex Twin

   Now we’re getting funky.

8. Cish Cash Basement Jaxx & Siouxsie Sioux

   And now a little dirty.

9. Narcoteque Nortec Collective

   Sounds like something those dudes from Star Wars might play if they were still around.

10. Flutter Bonobo

    My little bro found this song in a snowboarding video game.

11. Twin Cinema The New Pornographers

    Another good one from these guys.

12. It’s All In My Mind Teenage Fanclub

    Yes, it is.

13. Show Me Mint Royale

    Always puts me in a good mood, and makes me want to dance.

14. Vapour Trail Ride

    I saw Ride in a small club during high school. And this song still rocks.

15. Untitled Interpol

    “I will surprise you sometime. I’ll come around.”

16. Casimir Pulaski Day Sufjan Stevens

    This song has nothing to do with my life, but feels like it has everything to do with my life.

17. Weight of the World Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

    Excellent.

18. Sit With Me Battle

    Awesome find. Raw. Moving. If you can find Tendency, grab that too. Visit Battle’s website for free downloads.

19. Hell’s Kitchen The Orb

    Seems like it might go at the end of movie, so it’s at the end of the mix.

While I seem to mostly write about web stuff, I do actually have other interests, like music! I bought these songs about a week ago, and finally got them in a decent order.

Hegebutt Vol 3 No 1

1. A.T.H.F. Danger Doom

   Who knew hip hop could be so original.

2. The Power Is On The Go! Team

   The power is definitely on.

3. Sing Me Spanish Techno The New Pornographers

   “Listening too long to one song…”

4. Alright Supergrass

   This came out when I was in England in 1995. I heard it on KEXP recently, and…

5. Love Me Like You The Magic Numbers

   This couple rocks.

6. Secret Meeting The National

   Awesome find. “It went the dull and wicked ordinary way.”

7. You Only Live Once The Strokes

   God. Kill me. This is a damn good song.

8. Black Grease The Black Angels

   Also amazing. Gritty.

9. Blonde on Blonde Nada Surf

   Sweet and kicks ass.

10. Mushaboom Feist

    I don’t know. It’s called Mushaboom.

11. Loaded Primal Scream

    John Richards keeps playing this, and I keep thinking, “I want to get loaded. I want to have a good time.”

12. The Latest Toughs Okkervil River

    Second song I got from these guys. Nice.

13. Gorecki Lamb

    Not new, but John mixed it into his morning set, and it’s an emotional ride.

14. The Shining Badly Drawn Boy

    Speaking of emotional, these horns pierce me.

15. Dayvan Cowboy Boards of Canada

    Instrumental that says a lot.

16. Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

    “Now that everybody’s here, can we please have your attention. There is nothing left to fear, now that Bigfoot is captured.”

For most of 2005, I as I heard songs I liked, I searched for them on iTunes and added them to my shopping cart. At any given time, I’d have between 50 and 100 songs in there.

At the beginning of each month I would go through the shopping cart and buy 10 to 20 songs. If a song stayed in there for a few months without me buying it, I deleted it, figuring that if I really wanted it, I would have bought it already.

However, in October my shopping cart stopped working. I tried to solve the issue myself using iTunes support documentation. But I could fix it. So I wrote to support, and referred me to the support documentation and suggested it was something to do with my computer. So I tried to access my shopping cart on two other computers, one Mac and a PC, and got the same issue.

After a month of not having access, I wrote to support again. They looked into the issue for real this time, and solved it by wiping out my shopping cart. Since it contained about 80 songs I had collected over the course of several months, that sucked.

They them informed me that I should not use my shopping cart as I had been doing. And they recommended I create a playlist and drag unpurchased songs I would like to buy into that. I did not know that was possible. It isn’t obvious. At all.

I mean, did you know you could do that? Probably not.

So now I have a playlist called Wish List that I drag songs I want to buy (maybe) into. But it’s nice as easy as adding a song to my shopping cart. And it means that if I can’t added songs at work and access them at home.

Bad iTunes!

Man, I don’t even know why I’m ranting about this, especially when all I really wanted to do was talk about the songs I’m currently listening to.

Maybe next time.