I never quite understood the fascination with Amazon wishlists ... until yesterday! I was suddenly overcome with the urge to categorize my materialistic desires. Amazon offers some really neat stuff. I feel much better now.
Jeremiah and I were recently discussing the now-astronomical prices of records, and agreed that Napster, and WinMX, and what have you, are not the reason for lagging album sales. Music downloading services are unfairly made scapegoats due to a lack of keen marketing sense within the music industry, that is, failing to entice the customer with decent prices and a definite value. To anyone who argues that music downloading sites are the reason for bad record sales, and I don't think I'm alone in thinking this, there have been countless albums I've purchased in the past few years that I most likely wouldn't have if I didn't have the chance to take the music for a test drive. Word to your mom.
That said, despite only 4 gigs of hard drive space, 64 RAM, and a dial-up collection, I've been augmenting my MP3 collection for the past month or so. Here's what I have so far:
Abba - Voulez-Vous Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes Band-Aid - Do They Know it's Christmastime? Billy Idol - Cradle of Love Cardigans, The - Hey! Get Out of My Way Cure, The - Friday I'm in Love Duran Duran - The Chauffeur Greg Kihn Band - The Break-Up Song Hold on Nothing - Never Been to LA Irene Cara - Flashdance (What a Feeling) Kenny Loggins - Footloose Ladytron - Discotrax M - Pop Musik Man in Gray - Stale Nathan Stack - Planet Earth Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - If You Leave "Perfect Strangers" theme Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home) Romantics, The - What I Like About You Shelley Duvall - He Needs Me Soho - Hippie Chick Tommy Tutone - 867-5309 (Jenny)
My personal favorites are Do They Know it's Christmastime, The Break-Up Song, Footloose, Discotrax, The Chauffeur, Pop Musik, and, of course, 867-5309. When I figure out how, I will upload MP3s to the site for your downloading pleasure -- or in some cases, you 1980s pop music-despising people -- your dismay. Yeah. Rad to the max.
New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about pop musik!
Last night Man in Gray were, as usual, totally rocking at their show at Luna Lounge on the Lower East Side. The two bands that preceded them included Mo' Matching Drapes -- who succeeded wholly in channelling They Might Be Giants -- and that's a good thing -- and The Io's, who were totally competent and talented but to tell you the truth, the angst-rock was a bit too slow for my taste.
Then Man in Gray (who, I might add, were the subject of a mini-music review in yesterday's Village Voice) performed -- cymbals were knocked over, shoes were thrown, microphones were swung, sweat was spraying, and whatever other band excesses with which you can come up probably occurred.
Accompanying the rock was an unanticipated, but totally enthusiastic, NYC weblogger congregation. It was so rad! Here's what happened: For starters, the band itself includes three webloggers including Jeremiah, Christina, and Bryan. We hung out with Jay, a friend of Bryan's who I had met before at a Man in Gray show last year, then I introduced Bryan to Fiona and Laura, and Fiona introduced Jeremiah and I to Chris (luckily Chris didn't post about me foolishly jumping up and down yelling, "You're 'Do You Feel Loved?' I'm 'Fireballs and Tsunami!!!'") and Bart. Cameras were passed around, clicks were heard 'round the world, and flashes were blinding.
Of course, I had no batteries in the olde camera. However, I took plenty of photos with Bryan and Christina's cameras, plus Laura and Fiona took many a photo as well. You should try to attend the Man in Gray show this Friday night at The Continental (details on band site)..
I meant to blog a very strange MSN article about "How to Get Rid of Your Naggy Girlfriend" last week, but now the feature has changed. This week it's "Top Ten Break-Up Tips," written with male readers in mind. The naggy girlfriend article was atrocious and very mean-spirited; the break-up tips are a slight improvement but still, in my opinion, a little brash. Seriously, who writes this stuff? At least women's magazines are a little more tactful.
Last but not least, if you live in, or are visiting, the NYC area, this is a great website to check out to secure free tickets for dozens of television program tapings.
Fiona threw a totally rad party over the weekend! There was 80s music, delicious food, and even a mini-weblogger party within a party. Jeremiah and Laura were introduced, and I met Megan, who is another Cinema Studies graduate. Rumor had it that Dana, Louisa, and Chris were expected party guests, but they couldn't make it. D'oh! I took a few photos:
Fiona tells you how it is!
Depeche Mode rule -- I persuaded Jeremiah to dance with me!
Fun with office supplies.
Can someone buy me some shelves? Please?
There's a really excellent piece in The Washington Post about the demise of the cassette and rise of the CD. Having just finished reading High Fidelity (a book I absolutely recommend), I thought it was especially entertaining. Link via Analog Roam.
Speaking of music, Man in Gray rocked on Friday night at Yale. The gig was arranged by a secret society. Creepy, huh? Those New England buildings look like sets out of "Clue." Photos coming soon! Also, Man in Gray are playing two shows this week -- Wednesday night at Luna Lounge, and Friday night at The Continental. They'll rock your socks off!
Last but not least, thank you so much to everyone for your comments and suggestions regarding the redesign! I really, really appreciate it.
Here it is kids, the new design! Botchy balls, I feel like I haven't redesigned since the Reagan administration. Please let me know if you catch any glitches -- or blog gremlins -- causing problems on the site.
Duran Duran, Pop Trash
Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle
Cyndi Lauper, She's So Unusual
Alphaville, Forever Young
The Vaselines, The Way of the Vaselines
Juliana Hatfield, Only Everything
P.J. Harvey, Is This Desire?
The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks
Frente, Marvin the Album
Destiny's Child, The Writing's on the Wall
The Cars, The Cars
The B-52s, Cosmic Thing
Duran Duran, Arena
The Doors, The Soft Parade Saturday Night Fever soundtrack
L7, Hungry for Stink
The Dandy Warhols, The Dandy Warhols
The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
Ace of Base, The Sign
The Waitresses, The Best of the Waitresses
Belle & Sebastian, Lazy Line Painter Jane
The Fad, The Fad The New Wave: Pop Music of the Early '80s
Goodbye Girl Friday, Mr. & Mrs.
Naked Highway, Hyperbollocks
Duran Duran, Pop Trash Classic Alternatives: '80s 12" Extended Rare Mixes
Phil Collins, Hits
Genesis, Turn It On Again: The Hits
Ladytron, Light & Magic
Ladytron, 604
The Go-Betweens, Before Hollywood
Beck, Midnight Vultures
Duran Duran, Seven & the Ragged Tiger
Abba, Arrival
The Cardigans, Long Gone Before Daylight
The Psychedelic Furs, All of This & Nothing
Air, Moon Safari
The Knack, Round Trip
Blondie, Parallel Lines
The Psychedelic Furs, Forever Now
The Donnas, Spend the Night
Nancy Sinatra, California Girl
Tatu, 200 KMH in the Wrong Lane
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Organisation
John-Manuel Andriote, Hot Stuff: A Brief History of Disco
Bret Easton Ellis, The Rules of Attraction
Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
Jean Kilbourne, Deadly Persuasion
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation
