Showing posts with label meta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meta. Show all posts
2.08.2009
THE ARCHITECTURAL DANCE SOCIETY HAS MOVED
New site: http://spanghew.wordpress.com (it's also in the title line...) Please update your links - thanks!
movin' on up...
No, it's not exactly a deelux apartment in the sky (or even the Upper East Side) - but this is the (second)-last post at Blogger. I'm moving to WordPress. Primarily because of this.
I'd rather not find out a bunch of my entries have disappeared (so far, it looks like they haven't). It'll take me awhile to update all references...and unless Blogger deletes them, all entries will remain here (because hell of cross-referencing) - but no new posts here.
Everything (except this and the last, place-holding entry) is now at my new digs. If you've bookmarked or linked to this site, please change its URL to http://spanghew.wordpress.com. Thanks.
I'd rather not find out a bunch of my entries have disappeared (so far, it looks like they haven't). It'll take me awhile to update all references...and unless Blogger deletes them, all entries will remain here (because hell of cross-referencing) - but no new posts here.
Everything (except this and the last, place-holding entry) is now at my new digs. If you've bookmarked or linked to this site, please change its URL to http://spanghew.wordpress.com. Thanks.
11.21.2008
this is your brain on my blog...
Okay, actually it purports to be my brain on my blog, as interpreted by the fine
via Hot Rox Avec Lying Sweet Talk
11.16.2008
oh hell now all the bottle-rocket freaks will come here...
It's November...and so the insane folk who dedicate themselves to posting an entry every day (just don't look at how many entries I had last November...) desperately dig into the bloggers' bag of tricks. And who am I to question?
Without further ado, a list of amusing phrases Googled to get readers here (however briefly):
beastliness in government
beaufort scale joke drunk
"dance based on child abuse"
deleting every other letter
donkey puns
grammar self centered (hey!)
how delete every site you have looked at or done
how to draw an umbrella
message bird
9 years old not this not this mountain quiz very
porky pig--"th-th-th-that's all folks!" --followed by the loony tunes theme music
pornstar ben harper
"rino christ" (the horn player on several releases from Les Disques du Crepuscule)
song never whistle urinal
spelling of word architecual
13 hours war house font
tinnitus photon machine
tootle the train communism
unfunny jokes (hey!)
vampire milk
warning narcs can dance too
woman shoots bottle rockets out her vagina
words only containing the letters m,i,s,p
Without further ado, a list of amusing phrases Googled to get readers here (however briefly):
beastliness in government
beaufort scale joke drunk
"dance based on child abuse"
deleting every other letter
donkey puns
grammar self centered (hey!)
how delete every site you have looked at or done
how to draw an umbrella
message bird
9 years old not this not this mountain quiz very
porky pig--"th-th-th-that's all folks!" --followed by the loony tunes theme music
pornstar ben harper
"rino christ" (the horn player on several releases from Les Disques du Crepuscule)
song never whistle urinal
spelling of word architecual
13 hours war house font
tinnitus photon machine
tootle the train communism
unfunny jokes (hey!)
vampire milk
warning narcs can dance too
woman shoots bottle rockets out her vagina
words only containing the letters m,i,s,p
7.22.2008
Title
Remember when, in the '80s, Lou Reed, of all people, appeared in an ad for some sort of scooter? This was kind of odd - not only because it sort of predated the trend of rock stars in advertising, but also because Lou had just put out what amounted to an entire album on the joys of motorcycling (New Sensations), whereas scooters seemed rather...trivial...next to actual motorcycles.
Of course, Lou wasn't the first major recording artist to be heavily influenced by motorcycles - arguably, Bob Dylan's infamous fall from his motorcycle in 1966 led to a drastic revision in his sonic approach: while his last pre-crash recording, Blonde on Blonde, still hewed largely to the carnival-like sound characterizing his early peak Highway 61 Revisited, even that album heralded a renewed simplicity in its inclusion of several storied Nashville session musicians. The first album after the crash, Nashville Skyline, was suitably haunted and autumnal: the first serious hint of mortality in the Dylan catalog, a feature everpresent from that moment on.
(Okay, yes: this post is a bit of a metapost: as many of you know, Blogger's sample labels for posts are "scooters, vacation, fall," so I wrote a post intentionally using all three concepts...)
Of course, Lou wasn't the first major recording artist to be heavily influenced by motorcycles - arguably, Bob Dylan's infamous fall from his motorcycle in 1966 led to a drastic revision in his sonic approach: while his last pre-crash recording, Blonde on Blonde, still hewed largely to the carnival-like sound characterizing his early peak Highway 61 Revisited, even that album heralded a renewed simplicity in its inclusion of several storied Nashville session musicians. The first album after the crash, Nashville Skyline, was suitably haunted and autumnal: the first serious hint of mortality in the Dylan catalog, a feature everpresent from that moment on.
(Okay, yes: this post is a bit of a metapost: as many of you know, Blogger's sample labels for posts are "scooters, vacation, fall," so I wrote a post intentionally using all three concepts...)
4.26.2008
baby blog
Some of you know that Rose and I are embarking upon a remodeling of the second floor of our house. I'm documenting that process in a second blog, called "Remake/Remodel" (yes, after the Roxy Music song). Updates will be sparse for a while - right now, our contractor's still getting bids, etc. - but eventually I'll include before/after photos and the like. You know, to make it all interesting-like.
12.31.2007
ranking the rankings
As I mentioned in the year-end top 20 albums post, out of curiosity I went back over my prior ten years of published top albums lists. The results are...unsurprising to me, and probably unsurprising to everyone else, too.
Twenty-nine acts have placed more than three albums in my top lists (which in some years went up to fifty). In many years, I didn't rank absolutely; because years in which I listed more albums tended to be years with more good music that I heard, I've ranked such groupings as tied for the highest available position. The raw info (in my sloppily typed form) is available here as an Excel file.
Here's the overall list. Artist first, number of albums placed in parentheses ("+" means an unranked EP was mentioned), then the average rank.
1. The New Pornographers (4) 1.25*
2. The Loud Family (4) 2.25**
3. The Caribbean (4+) 2.5
4. Spoon (4) 3.75
5. Interpol (3) 6
6. Lilys (4***) 6.5
6. Radiohead (4) 6.5****
8. John Vanderslice (5) 8.6
9. Low (3) 9.66
10. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists (3) 10
11. The Rock*a*Teens (3+) 10.33
12. Stereolab (5++) 10.4
13. Mark Eitzel (3) 11
13. Wilco (4) 11
15. Robyn Hitchcock***** (4+) 11.25
16. Guided by Voices (7) 11.25
17. Kristin Hersh (3) 11.33
18. Sam Phillips (3) 11.66
19. Yo La Tengo (3) 12
20. Elvis Costello@ (5) 13.6
21. Tris McCall (3) 14
22. His Name Is Alive (4) 14.25
23. Anton Barbeau (4) 14.75@@
24. Björk (4) 18
25. Robert Pollard (5+) 20
26. Mary Timony (3) 20.66
27. Joe Henry (3) 21.33
28. The Fall (4) 21.75@@@
29. Modest Mouse (3) 24
* Combined New Pornographers/A.C. Newman average: 1.2
** includes collaborative album with Anton Barbeau
*** Precollection was essentially reissued the following year under the title The Lilys; it had a different mix and a couple of different tracks. Although it was among the better releases of that year, I counted it as a reissue and did not rank it.
**** Combined Radiohead/Thom Yorke average: 9.4. (Curious and obsessively counting fans may be wondering: so which Radiohead album didn't make the cut? Due to laziness, busyness, or cluelessness (I can't recall which), the answer is, unbelievably, OK Computer...you know, that album that's probably the consensus for best album of the '90s. I listed only a dozen albums that year; no idea whether that meant I hadn't heard the album, didn't like it yet (I do now), or what. If I were to redo these rankings, OKC would push Radiohead's metaranking upwards.
***** Includes work released under the name Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3.
@ Includes all ranked albums with Costello's name on them, including collaborations.
@@ Does not include collaboration with the Loud Family; 12.8 if it's included.
@@@ The Real New Fall Album, formerly "Country on the Click" was issued in two very different versions in Britain and in the U.S.; the second version came out in the year after the first one. I didn't rank it. Also: if I were to have included the Von Südenfed album as an album by The Fall (under the Granny's Bongos Bylaw), the average would be 20.4.
Unranked albums that may have been released by these acts during these years do not count against the artist, because their absence may simply be due to my not having heard the album until after I did the lists.
From 2006 through 2003, best-of lists are typically the last entry of the respective year. For lists from 2002 back through 1996, go here.
Twenty-nine acts have placed more than three albums in my top lists (which in some years went up to fifty). In many years, I didn't rank absolutely; because years in which I listed more albums tended to be years with more good music that I heard, I've ranked such groupings as tied for the highest available position. The raw info (in my sloppily typed form) is available here as an Excel file.
Here's the overall list. Artist first, number of albums placed in parentheses ("+" means an unranked EP was mentioned), then the average rank.
1. The New Pornographers (4) 1.25*
2. The Loud Family (4) 2.25**
3. The Caribbean (4+) 2.5
4. Spoon (4) 3.75
5. Interpol (3) 6
6. Lilys (4***) 6.5
6. Radiohead (4) 6.5****
8. John Vanderslice (5) 8.6
9. Low (3) 9.66
10. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists (3) 10
11. The Rock*a*Teens (3+) 10.33
12. Stereolab (5++) 10.4
13. Mark Eitzel (3) 11
13. Wilco (4) 11
15. Robyn Hitchcock***** (4+) 11.25
16. Guided by Voices (7) 11.25
17. Kristin Hersh (3) 11.33
18. Sam Phillips (3) 11.66
19. Yo La Tengo (3) 12
20. Elvis Costello@ (5) 13.6
21. Tris McCall (3) 14
22. His Name Is Alive (4) 14.25
23. Anton Barbeau (4) 14.75@@
24. Björk (4) 18
25. Robert Pollard (5+) 20
26. Mary Timony (3) 20.66
27. Joe Henry (3) 21.33
28. The Fall (4) 21.75@@@
29. Modest Mouse (3) 24
* Combined New Pornographers/A.C. Newman average: 1.2
** includes collaborative album with Anton Barbeau
*** Precollection was essentially reissued the following year under the title The Lilys; it had a different mix and a couple of different tracks. Although it was among the better releases of that year, I counted it as a reissue and did not rank it.
**** Combined Radiohead/Thom Yorke average: 9.4. (Curious and obsessively counting fans may be wondering: so which Radiohead album didn't make the cut? Due to laziness, busyness, or cluelessness (I can't recall which), the answer is, unbelievably, OK Computer...you know, that album that's probably the consensus for best album of the '90s. I listed only a dozen albums that year; no idea whether that meant I hadn't heard the album, didn't like it yet (I do now), or what. If I were to redo these rankings, OKC would push Radiohead's metaranking upwards.
***** Includes work released under the name Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3.
@ Includes all ranked albums with Costello's name on them, including collaborations.
@@ Does not include collaboration with the Loud Family; 12.8 if it's included.
@@@ The Real New Fall Album, formerly "Country on the Click" was issued in two very different versions in Britain and in the U.S.; the second version came out in the year after the first one. I didn't rank it. Also: if I were to have included the Von Südenfed album as an album by The Fall (under the Granny's Bongos Bylaw), the average would be 20.4.
Unranked albums that may have been released by these acts during these years do not count against the artist, because their absence may simply be due to my not having heard the album until after I did the lists.
From 2006 through 2003, best-of lists are typically the last entry of the respective year. For lists from 2002 back through 1996, go here.
11.30.2007
to this day, science foolishly ignores my psychic gifts
Earlier this month, I commented that we need a way to distinguish between the first instance of times between 1am and 2am and the second instance on the day time switches back from Daylight Saving Time. And here's this item from "News of the Weird":
"In Cary, N.C., a woman gave birth to twins early in the morning of Nov. 4, one at 1:32 a.m. and the other 34 minutes later, at 1:06 a.m. (after Daylight Saving Time ended). [WRAL-TV (Raleigh), 11-6-07]"
"In Cary, N.C., a woman gave birth to twins early in the morning of Nov. 4, one at 1:32 a.m. and the other 34 minutes later, at 1:06 a.m. (after Daylight Saving Time ended). [WRAL-TV (Raleigh), 11-6-07]"
11.04.2007
advice to Milwaukee journalists
Look: if you want to convey the idea that Milwaukee is no longer a city of [insert stereotypical Milwaukee-associated thing here], then stop bloody writing articles whose lede is that Milwaukee is no longer a city of [insert stereotypical Milwaukee-associated thing here].
If someone keeps telling me over and over again that they're no longer insecure and lacking in self-confidence, am I going to believe it?
(PS: I just noticed this is my 200th post of the year. Go me! Also: as you've probably noticed reading other blogs, someone has designated November with another one of those cutesy abbreviated phrases - I think this one is NaSoBloMe, or National Blog Posting Month. You know, it might be easier to post at least 30 blog entries if I weren't busy writing a novel, recording an entire album, and sleeping with 30 different people this month also. There are eleven other months in the year - can't we spread out the OCD a little more evenly?)
If someone keeps telling me over and over again that they're no longer insecure and lacking in self-confidence, am I going to believe it?
(PS: I just noticed this is my 200th post of the year. Go me! Also: as you've probably noticed reading other blogs, someone has designated November with another one of those cutesy abbreviated phrases - I think this one is NaSoBloMe, or National Blog Posting Month. You know, it might be easier to post at least 30 blog entries if I weren't busy writing a novel, recording an entire album, and sleeping with 30 different people this month also. There are eleven other months in the year - can't we spread out the OCD a little more evenly?)
10.13.2007
three...rocks.
About a month ago (inspired by Flasshe: I didn't know it had existed until I saw it at his site), I changed the site's link to my Flickr site to the image you see to the right near the top of the page, which brings up three randomly chosen images (selected from among those of my photos I've labeled "badge"). What's fun about this is the unexpected way the three images interact with one another.
So, a contest of sorts (which I'm sure will draw an overwhelming response): your favorite set of three images, screen-captured from this page. Experience the joy of hitting refresh repeatedly!
So, a contest of sorts (which I'm sure will draw an overwhelming response): your favorite set of three images, screen-captured from this page. Experience the joy of hitting refresh repeatedly!
8.20.2007
it's all relative
Two interesting updates have come to me via the comments area on past posts. In this post, I wondered aloud whether then-Arizona, currently-Milwaukee baseball player Craig Counsell was related to Judd Counsell, drummer with the Hold Steady. Turns out the answer is yes, as Judd's comment in that post indicates.
And earlier, I'd gotten a comment from an Allen Crocker, whose father's name is Lance Crocker - the name I made up for the character in the song linked in that post.
I wonder if my neighbor Engelbert Jolie is related to Angelina in any way? (Hey - it can't hurt to try...)
And earlier, I'd gotten a comment from an Allen Crocker, whose father's name is Lance Crocker - the name I made up for the character in the song linked in that post.
I wonder if my neighbor Engelbert Jolie is related to Angelina in any way? (Hey - it can't hurt to try...)
7.24.2007
"it just doesn't meta!"
An old standby, but still capable of providing a moderate level of amusement, this is another "what's in your referrer log?" entries.
Curiously, one of the most popular searches that lead people here comes from people looking for the joke about the penguin, whose set-up line is "looks like you blew a seal." I'm sorry to say the entire joke is nowhere on this site - but if you're curious as to why my site pops up in connection with that joke, read this entry (and its comments).
Curiously, though, the most common search that gets people here is the word "oops." I'm not sure what this might signify. Perhaps I need a new tagline: "The Architectural Dance Society: Not What You Were Looking For, Since 2003."
For almost all of these, I'm rather puzzled as to why Google led people to my site. (Of course, now, they'll all legitimately lead here. Bwah-hah-hah-hah!)
* Anal dance
* "dan whitney" yearbook photo (who?)
* "font joke" (I'm happy to be one of the main providers of font jokes on the Internets.)
* "painting on naked women" (pretty sure I never wrote about that - if anyone would like me to do so, I'll need to practice first: send photos)
* "pure texture" concrete crap
* 1930's press cards in fedoras
* adult humor - grinning apes
* background all fuzzy (just the background? I think it's all fuzzy all the way down)
* beat dance typing (if anyone can contact Andy Partridge, do so and tell him to write a song with this title, immediately!)
* chart on wingdings popularity
* dale earnhardt domestic abuse
* drank curdled milk (HAVE NOT DONE!)
* funny manly construction worker names
* george bush keyboard sounds
* lyrical dresses at dance kracy shop in plymouth (I must write about this weekly!)
* oddball dotted sixteenth note
* static electric bite marks (if anyone can contact Captain Beefheart, do so and tell him to write a song with this title, immediately!)
* the one song you should never whistle at a urinal ("Pees Pees Me"?)
Curiously, one of the most popular searches that lead people here comes from people looking for the joke about the penguin, whose set-up line is "looks like you blew a seal." I'm sorry to say the entire joke is nowhere on this site - but if you're curious as to why my site pops up in connection with that joke, read this entry (and its comments).
Curiously, though, the most common search that gets people here is the word "oops." I'm not sure what this might signify. Perhaps I need a new tagline: "The Architectural Dance Society: Not What You Were Looking For, Since 2003."
For almost all of these, I'm rather puzzled as to why Google led people to my site. (Of course, now, they'll all legitimately lead here. Bwah-hah-hah-hah!)
* Anal dance
* "dan whitney" yearbook photo (who?)
* "font joke" (I'm happy to be one of the main providers of font jokes on the Internets.)
* "painting on naked women" (pretty sure I never wrote about that - if anyone would like me to do so, I'll need to practice first: send photos)
* "pure texture" concrete crap
* 1930's press cards in fedoras
* adult humor - grinning apes
* background all fuzzy (just the background? I think it's all fuzzy all the way down)
* beat dance typing (if anyone can contact Andy Partridge, do so and tell him to write a song with this title, immediately!)
* chart on wingdings popularity
* dale earnhardt domestic abuse
* drank curdled milk (HAVE NOT DONE!)
* funny manly construction worker names
* george bush keyboard sounds
* lyrical dresses at dance kracy shop in plymouth (I must write about this weekly!)
* oddball dotted sixteenth note
* static electric bite marks (if anyone can contact Captain Beefheart, do so and tell him to write a song with this title, immediately!)
* the one song you should never whistle at a urinal ("Pees Pees Me"?)
7.06.2007
the social whirl
After two consecutive months in which I posted more entries than in any prior month, it may appear as if I've disappeared entirely. Nope - just that we have friends visiting, and I'm busy with them rather than posting madly. For some evidence, click on my Flickr link (to the right).
6.29.2007
a street so short there's no room for its apostrophe
A while back, I found myself wondering why is there a "street" a couple miles from our house that's barely a street at all?
In addition to opening my query to any Milwaukee-area Flickristas who might have a clue, I wrote to local alt-weekly Shepherd Express's "History Guy" columnist, Christopher Miller...and lo! he has responded.
The name of the street is "East Brunks Lane," and it turns out (as my doppelgänger, Czeltic Girl, also reported) to have been named after one William Brunk. Not "Brunks" - so at one point, one presumes it was actually "Brunk's Lane."
One day, all the disappeared apostrophes will rise up, and on that day, words will be broken up mercilessly, with no one able to possess their contraction into sheerest babble.
In addition to opening my query to any Milwaukee-area Flickristas who might have a clue, I wrote to local alt-weekly Shepherd Express's "History Guy" columnist, Christopher Miller...and lo! he has responded.
The name of the street is "East Brunks Lane," and it turns out (as my doppelgänger, Czeltic Girl, also reported) to have been named after one William Brunk. Not "Brunks" - so at one point, one presumes it was actually "Brunk's Lane."
One day, all the disappeared apostrophes will rise up, and on that day, words will be broken up mercilessly, with no one able to possess their contraction into sheerest babble.
6.13.2007
Yassassin (Turkish for: WTF?)
A brief break from the Bowie-istic goodness: for some reason, Blogger has decided today to display months in Turkish.
At least they are right now, on my computer (and no, my settings do not indicate that Turkish is my preferred language).
So, uh, happy Haziran.
Addendum: Now they're back to English. Follow in your books and repeat after me as we learn three new words in Turkish. "Towel"...
At least they are right now, on my computer (and no, my settings do not indicate that Turkish is my preferred language).
So, uh, happy Haziran.
Addendum: Now they're back to English. Follow in your books and repeat after me as we learn three new words in Turkish. "Towel"...
5.16.2007
Zubin Meta
Once again, I've switched hosts for my file storage: eSnips had become increasingly irritating, in that even as a signed-in member, often it would claim that my (and probably your) downloading limit had been reached...even if only one track had been downloaded, even if it had finished downloading five minutes ago.
Amusingly, when I switched over to eSnips after discovering it via Steve's site, Jonderneathica thanked me for finding it, and he switched over to eSnips. A week or so ago, Jon switched over to DivShare...so now I get to thank him for leading me to that site. We'll see how this works...a few test downloads and everything seems to be working okay.
(Addendum: this also means that people who've been unable to download stuff should be able to do so now...)
In other meta news, I clumb up on the roof and hooked up Google Analytics to the site, so now I can pick up all kinds of wild data-crunching...which mostly confirms what I suspected: I know most of you (readers, that is) by name. (And here I was hoping I'd be surprised by my multimillions of readers...) There are apparently, or supposedly, a few readers from far-flung locales such as Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore...but I'm not entirely certain they're human readers. If I'm wrong, and actual human beings who aren't interested in spewing a certain potted-meat food product are reading this, well hello to you in your wild other-end-of-the-world time zone.
Amusingly, when I switched over to eSnips after discovering it via Steve's site, Jonderneathica thanked me for finding it, and he switched over to eSnips. A week or so ago, Jon switched over to DivShare...so now I get to thank him for leading me to that site. We'll see how this works...a few test downloads and everything seems to be working okay.
(Addendum: this also means that people who've been unable to download stuff should be able to do so now...)
In other meta news, I clumb up on the roof and hooked up Google Analytics to the site, so now I can pick up all kinds of wild data-crunching...which mostly confirms what I suspected: I know most of you (readers, that is) by name. (And here I was hoping I'd be surprised by my multimillions of readers...) There are apparently, or supposedly, a few readers from far-flung locales such as Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore...but I'm not entirely certain they're human readers. If I'm wrong, and actual human beings who aren't interested in spewing a certain potted-meat food product are reading this, well hello to you in your wild other-end-of-the-world time zone.
3.25.2007
he's tidied up and I can't find anything!
I'm in the process of moving a lot of files from one place to another - I think I've caught them all, but if you run into a dead link anywhere (except, of course, for mp3s that are gone because I keep them up for only a few weeks), please let me know. I'll be using eSnips from here on out: I think I've figured out how to get files to behave properly in Firefox, so that when you right-click on links, the file will begin downloading (assuming you choose that option) just as files have always done. Again: let me know if you experience any difficulties. Go on: download those Future Clouds & Radar or John Cale tracks...you know you wanna...
UPDATE: Oops. Seems my brilliant plan didn't work. I'm working on it...
UPDATE: Oops. Seems my brilliant plan didn't work. I'm working on it...
3.05.2007
!?
For some reason, four of my last five entries' titles have ended in exclamation marks (the fifth had a question mark). Apparently I'm feeling emphatic these days.
11.21.2006
the early versions of things in redesign
I decided to move over to the new Blogger's beta. There will be more changes as I figure out how to futz with the look of things. (If you happened to stop by here over the last several hours, you saw a lot of weird-looking shit...either Blogger doesn't have a sandbox-like facility a la Wikipedia to play around with templates in, or I couldn't find it.
Expect actual, content-laden new posts shortly...even with noise attached! Whoo to the hoo.
Expect actual, content-laden new posts shortly...even with noise attached! Whoo to the hoo.
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