Congrats to Josh Groban

Josh Groban has finally come of age as a musician. The quality folks at Cinco Musical Tapes have taken special notice of Josh and have given him the noble opportunity to apply his sweetly-maturing voice to such tunes as “Cops and Robbers”, “Time Travel”, and “Horse and Buggy Ride”. Join me in congratulating Josh Groban as he advances from singing cover songs to singing truly inspirational, kick-ass cover songs.

For a limited time you can see clips of Groban singing for the Cinco Musical Tapes collection, Groban Sings Casey. Even in the short amount of video footage available, you’re sure to be moved. Click here, and enjoy.

And the future gets brighter

I’m happy to see things like the Better Place company. Using electricity to power our cars is like using XML for a data interchange format: it’s just a damn good idea. Electricity is the easiest format for energy storage, transfer, and use. It may not be the best, but I’m pretty sure it’s the best we have right now. Battery technology seems to be advancing faster than other forms, so it just makes sense.

Apple computer also deserves mention. Though they provide, more or less, a luxury line of computer systems, I’m just happy there’s a company that isn’t only committed to making things cost less. Cheapness is a false sense of value. Apple is concerned with making things better. Their MacBook Pro notebooks are impressive: better battery life, recyclable aluminum and glass construction, mercury-free display. Now if only there were a software company focused on making software even more efficient…

Google Reader

Started using it 5 months ago for reading RSS feeds. You can find it here. Before Google Reader, I used various tools. I attempted snownews in the past (see item 3 below), and zort which worked pretty well most of the time. Yet, Google Reader’s UI is just better.

1. You can easily add and discover feeds, often by simply typing in the website name
2. You can more efficiently read items by clicking the Next and Previous buttons … no more brrrp-brrrp-brrrp mouse-wheeling around
3. It really makes sense to have an RSS reader that’s capable of full browser-like functionality because so many posts contain images and video. Readers that don’t render each post as a web page are backwards.
4. Since it’s a web app, you can catch up on your backlog anywhere
5. It remembers old news items, so you can travel back in time.
6. You can “star” items that you like

I realized there’s no way I can become familiar with good blogs if I don’t get repeated exposure to the quality ones. Waiting for a good article to show on Hacker News isn’t doing me enough good when I want more articles of a certain type. Seems more efficient to just follow the originators of good articles an information.

Cursive Digital Download

I should let the world in on this musical secret. Cursive is offering their new album, Mama, I’m Swollen, to you early as an mp3 download. The price is $5.00 today, and increases by a dollar each day until March 10th. I’ve already purchased my zipped collection of bits. I know, I should have told you sooner.

Happy Hollow was an amazing album. Though, some might consider it blasphemic. I certainly don’t mind. It’s an impressive exploration into the “darker aspects” of life in a way that’s not cliche — in a way that’s NOT like pussified ”I’m always angsty” mainstream rock.

If The Ugly Organ doesn’t make you thrash around, I don’t want to talk to you. If Domestica doesn’t make you feel, something’s wrong. Hopefully I find Mama, I’m Swollen to be of similar caliber when I’m done digesting it.

From what I’ve heard, the new album does feel lighter than Happy Hollow. However, I also thought Happy Hollow felt lighter than The Ugly Organ. But eventually I realized Happy Hollow’s heaviness was in the deep probing lyrics. I don’t skip any songs on the previous albums, but I Couldn’t Love You Anymore might be a song I skip on the new one.

While I’m at it, there tends to be a trend with how long I continue to like what bands put out. With Death Cab I liked the first 3 or so albums. Plans was a descension into mainstream poppy blandness, lacking wit. Stephen Malkmus seemed to have lost his whimsical, zany, dirtiness with the Face the Truth album (but maybe I need to give that one another listen). Maybe Cursive has hit that point AFTER 6 ALBUMS, which means I shouldn’t be overly sad.