Tag: mp3s

2013 in Music

In 2013, I purchased 1840 individual MP3 files (17.3GB) which is over 161 hours of material. Of that, the majority (1437 files, 14.5GB, 134 hours) is what I classify as “Spoken Word” (AKA Big Finish and other audio adventures). What with Doctor Who turning 50 in 2013, I wound up purchasing quite a few Big Finish (and BBC Audio) stories. And enjoyed pritnear all of it. 🙂 (I was also fortunate in that the audiobooks for Ben Aaronovitch‘s first three novels were on sale this year, so I bought them and they’re all well done, too.)

But, on to the music, which is what I wanted to focus on in this post. I wound up adding a couple of new genres to my mix: Zydeco and R&B. This summer at one of the Downtown Troy concerts, the folks and I enjoyed the music of Creole Stomp, so pop and I bought a couple of their CDs after the concert. The R&B (which is a very loose description as the music covers a variety of genres) is for the Janelle Monáe albums I bought.

Janelle Monáe and Fleur Mainville are probably my two favorite additions to my music collection this year. It’s great adding females to my collection and these two ladies are both gifted singers/songwriters/performers. It was thanks to a tweet by Anita Sarkeesian (of Feminist Frequency fame) that I even heard of Janelle Monáe. Turns out Monáe has been working on a story about an android who falls in love with a human and all of the excitement & adventure (including bounty hunters, zombies, etc) that entails. There’s 3 albums thus far and I’ve enjoyed all three.

While doing Yet Another Pointless search for more MacKeel stuff, I found out about their fiddler, Fleur Mainville, doing some solo albums. It didn’t take much listening for me to realize I needed to add her to my collection. Indeed, her piece “Bedlam Boys” immediately found its way into my “Most Favorites of All” playlist (5 star songs). She even has a Christmas album that I had to buy too. Heh.

Oddly enough, I only bought 2 Christmas albums this year – the other one was the Cincinnati Pops album Christmas with The Pops. Just as well – I managed to NOT get all of my Christmas music listened to this year. Maybe I’ll do better next year!

Other new albums include Daft Punk‘s Random Access Memories, the soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (along with the Neil Finn single “Song of the Lonely Mountain”), albums by Midas Fall and My First Tooth, the songs of Kaila Picard (and I backed a crowd-sourced music video of hers, too). Oh, and thanks to the tap dancing that Amy, Rachel, and I saw this summer, Train‘s “Hey Soul Sister” had to become part of my collection. (I even bought a copy for each of the girls, too. Hey, it was on sale for only $.69 at the time and the girls are worth it – LOL – and then some!)

I have quite a few “regulars” that I always buy new albums, no matter what. Well, maybe Lady Gaga isn’t there yet, but I did finally buy Born This Way. (Well, I did love “Americano” in Puss in Boots, so it was inevitable.) Pet Shop Boys had two new albums, Ricky Martin had one, Enter the Haggis had one as well. I also got the most recent Gaelic Storm album and Garbage album.

2013 started out very well, musically, when my folks gave me money to buy Neil Innes‘ complete Recollections set for my birthday. It’s pretty obvious from my last.fm statistics that Neil is my favorite solo artist (with Kirsty MacColl coming in second). But not only is it his solo work, but also his work in The Bonzo Dog Band, The Rutles, Monty Python and GRIMMS that I love. So yeah, I had to get that compilation (which also came with a little autographed note – whee!) I’ve come a long way from hunting down rare Innes/Python/GRIMM/Bonzo albums at record collectors conventions! The things you do when you’re 16!!!

Anyhoo, a great year in music with lots of new stuff from my old favorites AND some new favorites to watch out for. 2014 has started out very strong with regards to music since I spent some Amazon gift cards on new (old) music – Hank Williams, Roger Miller, The Beach Boys – gee thanks Sirius (which mom has for her new car – heh)! Hope that 2014 is a great year of music for all of you!

Stress-Free? Could it be?

Perhaps I’m doing something wrong this school year (or perhaps I’m finally doing it right), but these first two weeks of school have been, to the best of my memory, the most stress-free first two weeks I’ve ever had. There’s a small part of me waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the larger part of me has decided that the shoe is a myth. 😉

Apart from my usual “ugh, it’s morning, why doesn’t it go away until after noon!” morning routine, I’m quite pleased to be up & off to teach. I’m hoping the students are having at least half as much fun as I am. Tests/quizzes next week, so that will probably let me know if I’m actually teaching them anything. Heh.

Last weekend was a pleasant Labor Day weekend with a wedding reception & card gaming (different venues to each other) on Saturday, Heritage Festival on Sunday, and just mooching about & relaxing on Monday.

We were at the Heritage Festival for longer than we’ve been in years because we sat & enjoyed the music. Blue Celtic Grass played for awhile (though only half of the guys were from that band – they had 3 others playing with them from another band whose name I don’t recall). The bluegrass got us started, then we munched on foodstuff (with very few folks in line – great for us, not as great for the vendors). I had, throughout the time there, French fries, corn on the cob, strawberry lemon shake-up, bite of sirloin sammich, chicken noodles, and deep fried peaches. I also bought my obligatory saltwater taffy (mostly vanilla with a few mint too) and giant bag o’ kettle corn.

After we’d eaten (but before we bought the kettle corn), we sat and watched Dulahan perform. We’d seen them for the first time this summer at one of the Troy Main Street concerts. It was the best concert this summer, IMO. I immediately purchased five of their albums. Heh. So it was great to hear them live again. They were as fun as they’d been in Troy.

This weekend’s plans are a bit up in the air, though I have decided the theme is “local food.” I had pizza from Indian’s Pizza tonight. Tomorrow morning is pancakes & snausage (& eggs) at the UCC just 2 blocks away. And Sunday, the firehouse is selling barbecue chicken (the folks are coming to join me for that). Yum!

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (Plus 2) – Part 9

I decided for my final entry in Christmas Songs I Love to post about my most favoritest Christmas song, ever. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” has been my favorite since, well, since I can remember. Why? Probably because of the minor key. Actually, I dunno why, but it is.

The trouble with having a favorite “traditional” song is finding the DEFINITIVE version. Or at least, it has been for me. Even Julie Andrews‘ version wasn’t what I was looking for in “God Rest Ye.”

The closest, for several years, was the version by Barenaked Ladies that is in tandem with “We Three Kings.” (Oddly enough, I hated that version the first couple of times that I heard it, but it did grow on me.) But it wasn’t the DEFINITIVE version for me.

Then, last year, I discovered that Annie Lennox was going to release a Christmas album. I was excited and ordered as soon as it was available. And there it was, my DEFINITIVE version! I’m not sure what exactly makes it THE ONE, but it has “IT” and I’m glad it’s in my collection. (Let me know if this autoplays an ad – I’ll swap it for another version if it does. I HATE autoplay!)

Anyhoo, today is Christmas Eve Eve, and tomorrow starts the whole shebang with a family gathering at Aunt Becky’s. If I don’t get around to posting before the actual day, Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate! And God rest ye, merry gentlemen & gentlewomen!

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (Plus 2) – Part 5

Alas, YouTube has let me down again. I have found a version of the song I’m going to talk about tonight, but it’s not the version that I love. But it’ll give you a picture of what I love.

I love music in many forms, but there’s a special love for a capella music. Singing in tune with no accompaniment is an art form in itself. And when it is done well, it’s almost magical. And that’s what I think of today’s Christmas Song that I Love.

When my family finally got a CD player, I helped make the transition from vinyl to shiny by buying loads of CDs from BMG (a CD of the Month club). And when Christmas time came around, I ordered all sorts of Christmas albums, including Take 6’s He Is Christmas. Their a capella rendition of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” was worth the price of the album, and then some. (Didn’t know it at the time, so I suspect the CD was on sale. Heh.)

This video is pretty good, but the album version is even better. And I love the overall arrangement of the piece. Simply beautiful.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (Plus 2) – Part 4

For the most part, if an album is primarily Christmas/winter holiday music, I declare the whole thing “Christmas” and play it from Veteran’s Day to Epiphany. So quite a few “winter” songs songs get clumped in like this. I’m not the only one who does this – look at poor “Jingle Bells” and “Let it Snow” – always played at Christmas, but not any other time.

(I was amused when gregmce did his list and had “Linus and Lucy” as his final song on the list. That’s probably the only exception that I make to my music classification rule. To me, it’s NOT a Christmas song and thus gets stuffed in with my regular music and not in with my holiday songs. Go figure.)

Today’s song is not a Christmas (or Hanukkah or solstice, etc) song, but one about the changing seasons. I was looking for a Christmas album that was guitar instrumental and purchased Craig Chaquico‘s Holiday, sound unheard (like “sight unseen,” only musical). Although the album wasn’t quite what I was looking for, it had a piece called “Nonesuch/Ladies’ Bramzel,” which featured a children’s choir doing a round. This piece quickly became one of the Christmas Songs that I Love despite not being a Christmas song.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (Plus 2) – Part 3

I’m one of those weirdos who enjoys it when a musician or band that I love takes on a Holiday Album. Or even just a Holiday Song. Some of them are wonderful (The Lovemongers, formerly Heart, produced the lovely album Here is Christmas in 1998) while others are tolerable (Paul McCartney, take a bow). I tend to avoid the horrible ones.

But for all of these, my favorite is and has been since I first saw it when I was very young, “Riu Chiu” as sung by the Monkees. I remember trying to record it off of the TV so that I could listen to it, and later getting it from a video recording. But then I was delighted when Rhino Records released Missing Links Vol 2, and there was “Riu Chiu.” (There were quite a few other songs on that album that I love, too, but “Riu”‘s the only Christmas one.)

Some of my other favorites, that don’t quite make the Seven (Plus 2) list, include The Eurythmics doing “Winter Wonderland,” Sting doing “Gabriel’s Message,” and the one that would be included if I had done Seven (Plus 3), Alison Moyet doing “The Coventry Carol.” Interesting that they’re all from the same album… (Actually, it’s the only Very Special Christmas album that I own in its entirety.)

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (Plus 2) – Part 1

I loved gregmce‘s recent series of posts about the Seven Christmas Songs that he loves. So I started compiling a list in my own head to see if I could do as well as he did – could I slim down my 1400+ collection of Christmas songs to seven? Well, no, I couldn’t. But I got it down to nine! I was impressed – I figured I’d have at least 12.

My other big issue is that the music that I love is, well, not always what others love. So finding examples on YouTube like he did – not so much luck. But I’ll do my best.

The first song I picked to focus on illustrates my love for the King’s College Choir. I suspect that my love of boys’ choirs and the like is due to seeing The Box of Delights and a PBS special on the King’s College Choir on Christmas Eve at an impressionable age. I wore out my dad’s audio tape of Christmas Eve at Kings (but not before ripping the songs from it that I can’t find anywhere else!) My last.fm Christmas account shows King’s College Choir as my most played group, which is partly due to my owning so many of their Christmas albums.

My favorite piece that they do (and I have several favorites) is “Remember O Thou Man.” Of course, YouTube doesn’t have that, nor does Last.fm. (Indeed, it’s one of the songs I “rescued” from the Christmas Eve at Kings album.) But I found a nice, rather upbeat, version on YouTube if you’ve not heard the tune before.

In addition to “Remember O Thou Man,” I recommend the King’s College Choir doing “Alleluya” and “The Sans Day Carol.” I’ll talk more about “The Sans Day Carol” in another post.

Music Musings

If you didn’t already know (though I imagine most of you do) I’m an MP3 junky. Whenever I buy or receive a CD, the first thing I do is rip it and then stuff it on my iPod(s). Then I listen to it. Mostly, I just buy MP3s from Amazon.com (which I backup onto CD. Heh.) I have a MusicServer just for holding (a copy of) my MP3s and for serving up to my two Roku Soundbridges in the house. (The one in the living room doesn’t get much love, but my Library Soundbridge works hard – is working now, in fact.)

Back on October 28th, I mentioned that it was Buy Music Weekend for me. And I blamed poor gregmce for it. I’ve added quite a few MP3s to my collection as of that weekend, and not all of it Greg’s fault.

It started when he posted about the group Visqueen. He mentioned that they’d played at a show with Shonen Knife (good kitchen cleaning music) and my curiosity was piqued when he claimed he enjoyed Visqueen even more. So I listened to samples of their new album, and some of their older albums, and decided I liked the sound too. Being the completist that I am, I bought all of their albums.

I checked back on his comments later to find someone suggesting The Slants as well. I, once again, gave a listen and decided I liked. So I was up to 4 albums (so far, just downloads) for the weekend.

While searching, I decided to check on a couple of local groups that I’d wanted more music from. The Hammered Music Duo was a group I’d seen at the Piqua Heritage Festival and they play hammered dulcimers (among other instruments). Their Christmas album is one of my favorites, and some searching on Amazon located some non-Christmas CDs which they’d made (and were now out of print, but sold by used sellers). I ordered all of the ones I could locate, so was up to 7 albums purchased by now.

I also checked out Jim’s Red Pants for any recent releases. (They are a local folk group that loves to play unusual instruments whenever possible.) And found out they now had a Christmas album out (from last year – OK, so I don’t check online often enough). I e-mailed the group requesting prices for the Xmas CD and the compilation CD of their first two albums. Alas, no response there (yet), so I didn’t wind up with 8 & 9 yet.

That weekend was also one of the weekends that Rick Fannin was performing at O’Brians. I’d wanted to buy his CD the previous time I was there, but didn’t have the cash. So this time I made sure to bring enough moolah. And that night I got his CD (which he also autographed for me). There we go, album #8. Impressive music weekend, eh?

Unfortunately, that weekend wasn’t the end of my music buying. Thanks to VValtmouse‘s Lady Gaga obsession, I’d been hearing about her for awhile. And decided to listen to the samples from Amazon.com on the day of her album release. I decided that I liked it too. (Good, more kitchen cleaning music!) Unfortunately, I was only able to give the album one thorough listening to because it was now time for Christmas Music to dominate my music listening. Oh, and while I was buying that, I also bought a compilation album by the Steve Miller Band for $5. And Lady Gaga’s “Christmas Tree” song (which later wound up being free for the holidays – bummer, a buck wasted. Heh.)

Although I hadn’t been successful with Jim’s Red Pants at the time, I eventually got in touch with them thanks to the pastor at the UU church we sometimes attend. (He’s friends with the couple who are Jim’s Red Pants.) Although they were sold out of the compilation CD, they still had copies of the first album, so that and Snowbound, their Xmas CD, are now in my collection.

I figured that would be my only holiday album purchase this year. Ha ha, silly me. No, I listened to some of David Archuleta’s new Christmas album and liked his voice. So I bought it. Then later found out that iTunes had a free album of Christmas songs. So that was my first iTunes music purchase. (Burned ’em onto a CD then ripped them to MP3s so I could listen to ’em properly. iTunes sucks, you know.) And THEN found out that Straight No Chaser had not one, but two Christmas albums available online. (Visit my favorite YouTube video of theirs.)

I’ve decided I’m not going to bore you with the decision to rip my old DW audios (Docs 1 & 2) and other BBC Radio Dramas to MP3. Oh wait, I just did. Sorry! Thanks to that and my prior Big Finish audios and audiobooks, I’ve now got 30 DAYS worth of simply spoken word stories as MP3s.

So, like, I’ve got a ton of new music. Impulse buying of music has gotten WAY to easy with Amazon.com. Especially since I got the software to work just fine on my 64-bit Linux installation. Damn you Amazon.com! And your evil henchmen like Greg & Waltmouse! (Heh.)

Obsession

I’m a collector. When I get interested in something, I have a tendency to collect stuff regarding that thing, usually to obsession. I got to thinking about it recently when I was talking in SMAS about my Sylvester McCoy photo collection. I was ruminating that I now had so many photos, it was hard to find one for sale that I didn’t already own. I thought “I’ll bet they’d be surprised to see the size of the binders I’ve got all my photos in.” Then I decided I’d do a LJ post about it – and some of my other obsessions.

My photograph collection originated as a “scrapbook” collection (long before “scrapbooking” was a verb). And it’s all Helen Hayes’ fault. See, I was reading one of Grandma A’s Reader’s Digress when I saw some article (or maybe ad) with a lovely photo of Helen Hayes. I asked Grandma if I could cut out the photo and she said I could. I still have that picture from the mag – it’s part of a collage I made several years ago (late 80s) that hangs in my den. Although some of my tastes have changed and are not reflected in this collage (which actually had a couple of different permutations until it settled on its current one), I like it just as much when I finished it. And there’s enough stuff on it that I still like (like Helen Hayes).


Click the image for a larger version of the collage. How many people/shows/etc can you recognize?

Moving from scrapbooks to photos happened because of two important things: Jerry Ohlinger’s Movie Memorabilia store and Whomobilia. Both were mail order companies (Whomobilia in the UK) that I’d receive catalogs from. Jerry was first – I bought several black & white and color 8x10s from him. Movie stars and TV stars and occasional movie posters. (My giant, and I MEAN giant, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory poster came from there. Three times the size of a standard marquis poster, IIRC.) I was actually a movie poster & photo collector then. (Mom & dad started the fire with movie posters with a Willy Wonka marquis as a Christmas present when I was young & impressionable.) In 1995, I went to my first Doctor Who convention (Visions ’95) and managed to start properly on my Sylvester McCoy photo collection. And then came eBay. Gah, eBay, you are EVIL!


The Doctor Who binder is half photos and half scrapbook with magazine cut-outs. The two Sylv folders (Color and B&W) are just photos of varying size.


A binder next to a roll of duct tape, just to illustrate how thick it is.


I also have a binder of non-Sylvester McCoy photos which includes most of the Jerry Ohlinger photos as well as other convention guests from conventions.

So, now I have a substantial photo collection which rivals my earlier scrapbook collection of TV guide & other magazine cut-outs.

I used to have a substantial video tape collection, but I have upgraded to DVD. According to DVD Profiler, I have 434 DVD titles currently. The number of actual discs is considerably more. And I’m doing a good job at getting ’em all watched (and rewatched – which is why DVDs are brilliant). Just about any time DeepDiscount.com has one of their 20% off sales, I spent at least $100 on DVDs in my wishlist. I go to theatrical movies now with the mindset “should I buy this on DVD or not?” (My summer theatricals are all “yes.” Now I just have to wait for the DVDs to come out.)

(For photos of the DVD, CD, book, and toy collections, check out the gallery I put up on my website.)

I used to be an album collector, but only of a few groups/musicians (Neil Innes-related things most likely). However, when CDs came around, I switched to ’em with little effort. I now have a goodly CD collection which I have converted (mostly) to MP3s. I have nearly 10,000 MP3s (over 40GB) in my collection, and only a few are download purchases (and I have no illegal MP3s in my collection – anymore.) CDs which I don’t have MP3’d are Doctor Who audio adventures which don’t include Sylvester McCoy (with a few non-Sylv ones I’ve ripped).

I don’t remember if I posted photos of my finished library (if I did, I didn’t tag it properly). But as you can guess from other posts about books, I’m obsessed with them too. (Current obsession, Lois McMaster Bujold books.) Back when the New Adventures of Doctor Who first came out, I was thrilled when 1-800-Trekker started their Pen of the Month Club. For a substantial fee, you’d get a 1-800-Trekker pen and 1 (and later 2) free books! I think the last of the 1-800-Trekker pens (which was living in the bathroom at mom & dad’s cottage) dribbled out its last bit of ink and they are no more. However, I still have all of the New Adventures and Missing Adventures that I got from ’em! I made an important break-through in obsession control when I was collecting the BBC 8th Doctor Adventures. I found I wasn’t enjoying them AT ALL. So I (and this is profound, folks) STOPPED BUYING THEM. Wow. That was an epiphany for me. There are still a few sitting there which I’ve not read, but I probably will someday. (I stopped right before Lawrence Miles’ Interference two-parter. I’d hated everything else he’d written (yes, hated) and I refused to give him any more of my money, cheap bastard that I am.)

But it’s not just Doctor Who books in my collection. I have thousands of books. Well, OK, only 1300+ books according to LibraryThing. (I do own more than that, but some of ’em don’t auto-detect in LT or in Book Collector and I didn’t want to bother adding them manually.) Thanks to the lovely shelves that dad & I put up, I have nice homes for my books. And a wonderful place to sit & read ’em.

Other obsessions of mine include toys and stuffed animals. I still buy toys and stuffed animals (though usually the animals are souvenirs to places, like zoos or similar). I love physics toys most of all and have quite a few of mine over at the school for use as demos in physics class (with duplicates here in case they get broken there). I’d’ve taken a photo of the animals sitting behind my sofa, but the kitties have messed ’em up and I didn’t feel like putting ’em back yet.

In a previous post, I wrote about my webcomics obsession and showed photographic evidence of that. (Indeed, my collection of webcomics-related swag has increased since that post.)

So, yeah, obsession. Got that. In spades. And hearts and diamonds and even clubs. (Oh, did I mention all of the packs of playing cards I’ve got? Jennie Breeden of Devil’s Panties now has Men in Kilts playing cards which I should get…)

Happy 42nd Anniversary, Doctor!

Funny, I knew it was coming soon & all, but it wasn’t until I was reading my flist this morning that I realized today was the 23rd of November, and thus the anniversary of Doctor Who. Woot! Indeed, I was so oblivious this morning, I didn’t even notice it had snowed until about 11:30am. I’m usually pretty zonked in the morning as it is, but this morning I went right into the den & played City of Villains for far too long. It wasn’t until I took a break to get breakfast that I saw the snow in all its glory. Sweet. 🙂

Leo’s currently sulking because I’m not holding him. He’s been in a very holdy mood lately (which is OK with me) but since I’m addicted to this computer thing here, he spends a lot of time sitting alone in his gold chair (awwww!). I have NOT been playing CoV all day, however. Nope, I’ve been ripping my Christmas CDs into MP3s in preparation for the holidays. I am happy that I can finally say “Good bye!” to the bloatware that is MusicMatch (“Best music player” my ass!). It turns out that MediaMonkey is doing a great job of encoding my music and not crashing my PC (which it did on my Win98 machine). With MediaMonkey for encoding & QCD for playing, I think I’m set for a MusicMatch-free system. Yay!

I had intended to be more productive today, but there ya go. Perhaps tomorrow before dinner at the Short’s. (This year, my cousin Mick is hosting Thanksgiving dinner. Should be fun!) Though the folks & I might also go off to see Harry Potter tomorrow before dinner. Eh, it’s my vacation, whether or not I’m productive is really up to me. 🙂