December 5, 2002

I've recovered from my Turkey-Induced-Coma and now the snow has given me a little break from work and holiday chores to post some belated updates.

Have Some Fun

As some of you may have noticed, I've been playing with my Aiptek Pencam. Well, as much fun as the Pencam is, it's even more fun to take one and launch it into the heavens. In fact, there's a whole group of remote airplane and rocket enthusiasts who like to take Pencams – in whole or in part – and put them into flying machines. Frankly, some pictures are quite good. I am most awed by the geek factor of it. I'm also curious if some kind of transference isn't taking place – capturing the viewpoint of the imaginary tiny pilots who pilot these tiny planes. If you're feeling a bit aerophobic, you can go here for Pencam pictures taken with both feet planted on the ground.

Great Old Music

On Pitchfork Media

Pitchforkmedia, a great source of info on current music, has a couple of blasts from the past. This week, they had an interesting article on a 70's mixtape – don't worry, Warren Zevon and Yes were not on the same side of the cassette. Pitchfork also came out with its top 100 Albums of the 80's – I especially agree with Number One. The rest of the list has some interesting choices – I would have put Surfer Rosa above Doolittle and Double Nickels on the Dime would have been much high on my top 10. Sorry, Neil, no Marillion.

Langley School Music Project

Apparently, the world has not satisfied its sweet tooth for early 70's soft rock. The Langley Schools Music Project is still garnering attention and may be the subject of a feature length documentary.

Great New Music

Matador has a new track from Steve Malkmus's upcoming album. Also, the word is that Yo La Tengo is in the studio, cooking up a release for 2003. Given their last two releases, I wonder what the upcoming disc from the Hoboken trio holds for us.