It’s Ryan here wishing everyone a happy 2005. I’m going to spend the new year’s eve on the mellow tip with Anji and listen to my new copy of the recently remastered Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. I checked out a minute or so of it yesterday and thought it sounded wonderful. I can’t wait to hear the entire cd tonight. I also have The Endless Summer DVD, from 1966, which I’ve always wanted to see. So it looks like I’ll be going back to the 60’s and early 70’s this new year’s eve.
Monthly Archives: December 2004
Merry Christmas!
Just thought I’d send a holiday greeting out to everyone on this sunny So Ca Christmas day. Hope everyone is having a good time wherever they may be!
iPod
I always wanted to get one, but there was always something more important that I seemed to need. Well thank god for Christmas to fix little situations like that. It’s actually our band Ipod and it’s one with a 40 gig drive. A Mini may have been better for its portability but its 4 gig drive limits it a little. Particularly since I’m taking advantage of having the big drive in our Ipod. This week I’ve changed the way i view digital music listening. No more crappy 128 mp3’s which I’ve always hated listening to. Now I’m encoding my music library as 320 aac’s, which sound way better, and for music that I absolutely love I’m using the Apple Lossless Encoder, which doesn’t alter the sound of the original music but just cuts the file size in half. Now listening to music on a computer or the Ipod is actually enjoyable.
Welcome Christmas
Just remembered that there is a free download of Ryan’s 1994 cover of a Dr. Seuss holiday classic from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas available on the Projekt Records website. Interpreted in a very dream pop, shoegazery way, the tune cleverly plays upon the vocal style of Suzanne, who often sang in nonsense words for Love Spirals Downwards (prior band incarnation, in case you didn’t know). Perfect choice for the band! So check it out — “Welcome Christmas”
Katamari Damacy
Just got Katamari Damacy last night – omg! It was supposed to be a Christmas present from Ryan, but I guessed what it was anyway so he just let me have it. We played it for hours and I was dreaming about it all night long. That game is so crazy, Peter Max, Yellow Submarine, and pure Japanese fun all rolled up (pun intended) into one big fun nonsensical package. I want to go play it again right now.
So electronic
The past few days there’s been electric work being done around here and it’s been a total bummer! I realize now how reliant I am on electricity for everything I do. First of all, having to power down my computer sucks. But I also can’t listen to music on the stereo, play a game on PlayStation2, do laundry, cook food, or even fricken SEE in most of the rooms. Sigh.
Of course, I’ve found out that a lot of the wiring was in pretty bad shape, so it’s all for the best that it’s getting fixed… I just can’t wait for it all to be done so that I can go back to my usual electronified lifestyle!
For now, however, I have to switch off all my computer gear again – boo hoo.
Free Lovespirals Xmas Mp3 on MySpace
Anji recently unearthed a “bootleg” mix of the classic Christmas song, “The Little Drummer Boy,” created by Ryan in 1999. This drum ‘n’ bass track featuring Gabriel D. Vine, of Monkey Bars, has never before been released! A 128k mp3 will be available to download for your holiday listening pleasure only at MySpace.com/Lovespirals
Relax was, well, relaxing!
Sunday night over at the Kitsch was pretty mellow and fun. The bar has a nice vibe and nobody ever gives attitude, which is great. It was my first time DJing to a live club audience, even though I’ve been a radio DJ for years, so I was a little bit nervous. Once I got going though, I was totally in the groove. It was fun mixing from old school jazz to new school downtempo, then into classic soul and on into contemporary deep house. Its always great to hear your favorite tunes blasting on a good sound system, too. I was particularly grooving to Diana Ross’ “Brown Baby.” Anyway, Kristina B. was way into both of our sets and said we were welcome back “anytime” so I’m sure we’ll set another date early next year, for those who were too busy with holiday plans to make it out this time!
E-mail List Elves
It’s great that the site has been redesigned so that the email list automatically updates itself when people join. Just about every day since the change, someone has joined. Even still, there are hundreds of folks on the old email list that I’m making sure don’t get left behind.
I think I’ve recreated our email list probably a half dozen times since I joined the band in 1999. I’ve done it so many times before that I feel like I’ve memorized some of these people’s contact info, even though I don’t know them personally.
Last night I was fricken dreaming that I was updating the email list… If only I had woken up to find that little elves had done all the work for me!
:[ chillcuts ]:
I’ve had this concept of an internet radio station and record label that I’ve been working on for a few months now, called chillcuts.
I thought I’d reactivate my old Live365 account that I used to stream “The Lovely Ladies of Electronica” with back in 1999. I began a trial run last week. I’m trying out their new Mp3Pro streams, which are better sounding, but a pain in the ass. I have to re-rip anything I might want to play from CD format into Mp3Pro format, because turning an mp3 into an Mp3Pro just doesn’t sound good.
Right now my station selection is relying heavily on the Live365 library, which luckily has a lot of cool tunes. I’m slowly adding my own selections into the mix as bands send me their CDs, so my playlist is expanding every few days. I’ve got about 6 hours of music on random play. Later, I’ll make personalized playlists and schedule them at set times.
The lame thing right now is that, since I’m using a free account I began during their beta phase, only paid listeners can tune into my stream. I’ll probably sign up for their free “upgrade” trial sometime soon so I can test out the new Mac live broadcast tool. Anyone will be able to tune in during that phase. If everything seems cool, then I guess I’ll bite the bullet and start paying for my account, so the general population can tune in, along with the paid subscribers.
After that, then I’ll worry about the record label side of my plan…
Find out more at chillcuts.com
new goodies from the apple store
today, i finally bought a new battery to replace the old one i had for a couple of years in my ibook. before today, i was down to around 2 minutes of battery life before my computer would go to sleep. not really all that useful or portable, since i always needed to be connected to an electrical outlet. not the best use of a wireless internet connection, always forced to sit in the same spot.
anji got a new computer keyboard to replace her previous one that a cat vomited on, causing the bottom row of keys to no longer work. so $190 later, we’re back to where we were before our respective items became unusable.
anyone want a battery with 2 minute of useful life? how about a keyboard with one missing row of keys?