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Sunday, August 05, 2007

Help Bet and Stennie kick Cancer's Ass!

Bet and Stennie, the hosts of the award-winning* Podcast, the Hucklebug, will be podcasting short segments every half hour from at 9 AM on Saturday August 11 until 9 AM EST August 12, to raise money for The American Cancer Society . This could very well be the 'athon that raises the very dollar needed to knock Cancer to its knees -- so don't miss out!

Want to participate in the ass kicking?
It's easy! You can help by performing these three easy steps:

1. Download the podcasts directly from Hucklebug.com, or use iTunes or My Yahoo to listen.
2. They entertain, you donate to the American Cancer Society.
3. Stop by the Hucklebug and let them know that you've made a donation.

What is the Hucklebug?
Are you kidding? The Hucklebug is the witty weekly Podcast that is sweeping the nation! Listen to the "ladies" discuss such riveting topics as sex lives of cartoon characters, sexy vs. ugly body parts, Alan Arkin, music, TV, movie reviews, politics and much m0re. Updated every Thursday, the weekly Podcast will make you laugh out loud. if you haven't caught an episode yet, what are you waiting for?

*Awarded "Best Podcast Ever" by FredtheBlog in 2006 and 2007


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Saturday, May 12, 2007

CD Mix #4 - The Track Listing

Before the hard drive crash, I meant to blog about the CD Mix over at stennieville.com. I wanted to encourage other friends to play along, but alas, this was not to be.

For any reader out there who might be unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, here's the deal. Stennie posts a list of items, and using this list, each player creates a CD from his/her own collection. Everyone who plays sends a CD to all the other participants, and voila! New music!

The following is the track listing for my CD

1. Song with a day of the week in the title.
"Monday Morning Rock" by Marshall Crenshaw.

2. A song you disliked as a youngster that you like now.
"Beth" by Kiss.
This song came out while I was still quite young, and I just didn't understand it, and the tune was annoying. But now I have a niece called Beth who I'm sort of attached to, and this song reminds me of her.

3. Sellout - song from a TV commercial. "I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon. (Jaguar)
I always had a lot of respect for this band, and then they go and pull a Sting. I really like the song, and it doesn't make me more likely to buy a Jag.


4. Kickass cover song.
"She Came in Through The Bathroom Window" by Joe Cocker.
I've always liked this version best.


5. Musical question...
"Who's Gonna Help A Brother Get Further?" by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint

6. And the answer - "I Will" by the Beatles.
Just in case anyone thought I was dissing the boys in #4.

7. Third person song
"Queen Bitch" by David Bowie

8. Uplugged - a favorite acoustic song. "The Man Who Sold The World" by Nirvana.
Another cover, another great song. I love both versions.

9. A song about food.
"Soup Is Good Food" by the Dead Kennedys.
Fun, fun, fun, I love this song.

10. Trains, Planes and Automobiles: song about a mode of transport
"Travelling without Moving" by Jamiroquai
Funky!


11. A song that cheers you up. "Suddenly I See" by K.T. Tunstall A catchy, bouncy tune with positive lyrics. A favorite on the walk from the train to work in the morning.

12. Media - songs about radio, TV or other type of media
"On Your Radio" by Joe Jackson.
Stenns and Mikey both used a different Joe Jackson song. I was original, see?


13. Add it up:
“One More Time" The Pretenders

14. Plus "14th Street" by Rufus Wainwright

15. Equals
"15 Petals" by Elvis Costello.
Yeah, so I used two songs by E.C. What are you going to do about it?

16. Banned! A song that is, or was in its day, controversial. "Bobby Brown" by Frank Zappa.
Lots and lots of stuff that Zappa did freaked people out. This song was probably one of the most disturbing. An upper class handsome boy grows up a slimy, S&M loving homosexual after scoring with a transsexual prostitute - just the kind of story parents want filling the airwaves. It came out when I was in third grade, and one of my classmates with an older brother started singing about being able to take an hour on the tower of power during recess. Boy, did she ever get in trouble. But none of us knew what the tower of power was. If the school had just left it alone, the song never would have caught on with the class as it had. But we all knew it was dirty somehow,and we all learned as much of the lyrics as we could from the girl.

17. A song about a family member"Brother Louie" by Modern Talking.
This song was popular during my year as an exchange student. It turns out that this band is German and quite annoying. Catchy tune though.


18. A favorite song that you have discovered since our last CD mix.
"Apres Moi" by Regina Spektor.
I heard her on NPR for the first time a couple of months ago and ended up buying some of her stuff on iTunes. She's like Bjork, only not annoying.

19. A song that reminds you of an old friend.
"Peace Frog" by The Doors.
This funky little ditty reminds me of my friend Paul from grad school. He pretty much just listens to The Doors, and while this isn't his favorite song by the Band, it is mine. I made him listen to it over and over if he put this tape on in my presence. I would have played THE song that makes me think of him, but the version of The End I recorded from him is 15 minutes long.

20. Amnesty song
" I See You Baby" by Groove Armada.
I don't remember what I wanted to use this song for in past mixes, but it is in my "maybe" folder. Besides, it's damned funky.

And there you have it! I hope you enjoy the music.

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

iPod Top 25

The top 25 songs on my iPod have changed enough to warrant a new post:

Joe Jackson - Stepping Out - 60 plays
Madonna - Hung Up - 59 plays
Beck - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime - 56 plays
Rhett Miller - Terrible Vision - 56 plays
The Old 97's - Question - 50 plays
Huey Lewis and the News - If This is It - 48 plays
The Beatles - The Two of Us - 45 plays
Genesis - Follow You, Follow Me - 43 plays
Elvis Costello - Either Side of the Same Town - 42 plays
Elton John - Sorry seems to be the Hardest Word - 41 plays
Rhett Miller - Your Nervous Heart - 39 plays
Elton John - Goodbye - 38 plays
Elvis Costello - Welcome to the Working Week - 37 plays
Rush - New World Man - 37 plays
Squeeze - Pulling Muscles (From the Shell) - 36 plays
Bread - Lost without Your Love - 34 plays
Elvis Costello - Blue Chair - 34 plays
Lenny Kravitz - Lady - 32 plays
No Doubt - Just a Girl - 32 plays
Rush - Freewill- 31 plays
Squeeze - Walk Away - 31 plays
Elvis Costello - Almost Blue - 29 plays
Joe Jackson - Got the Time - 29 plays
No Doubt - Don't Speak - 29 plays
Split Endz - Message to my Girl - 28 plays

The last time I did this particular list, my favorite artist was overwhelmingly Elton John. These days, it seems that the Elv is taking over. Oddly, I listen to way more EC than EJ, but I guess because I have so many EC albums and not so many EJ albums, I tend to listen to the particular EJ songs more often than any particular EC song.

And I way didn't realize that I was listening to Bread that often. I downloaded this song one very early morning when the only thing on TV was an "infomercial" done by Time Life by Air Supply. They played a bit of this song, and I don't think I'd heard it in its entirety in 20 years. So I downloaded it.

As of last week, I've been listening to a CD by a German band called "Ich & Ich". Good stuff. It belongs to a genre the Germans are apparently calling "the new German wave." This isn't anything like Nena. It is kind of jazzy and I think I'd liken them to a cross between the Brand New Heavies and Radiohead.

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