Spy NSA (Rocky Mountain Mike Song Parody)

Is Edward Snowden still a thing? I've been so preoccupied with trips and friends and family, I've sort of lost track. Rocky Mountain Mike (famous from The Stephanie Miller Show) has a fun parody about him in any case, to the tune of YMCA by The Village People. Enjoy, while I continue to get back up to speed. . .

Computer Woes: HELP! I'm Missing MP3 Tracks in Windows 7

I'm in a bit of distress tonight. I've had an ongoing project over the last several years to digitize and integrate our music collection into a cohesive whole. This involves taking all of our CDs and ripping them to my computer, along with bringing in all of the previous MP3s I've had on numerous older computers, as well as those tracks purchased online or downloaded (legally, thank you) from the library. This leads to--as many know--duplication problems, and also to a problem I haven't been able to find help for.

Click to embiggen.

See, I already did all of my ripping two years ago, and except for the odd CD purchased at the store or borrowed from the library, those files are just sitting there. And they're apparently disappearing. I have done no massive purge since I converted all of my files to MP3s. I did ditch all of my WMA files, but that was likewise a couple of years ago. And yet, if I pick a random artist, such as Duran Duran, I get this troubling outcome:


As you can see, though I long ago ripped these entire CDs, they've gone all Swiss cheese on me. Decade has only four tracks on it! The Wedding Album is mostly there, but missing track 3 and 6. Greatest is missing tracks 1, 3, 4 and 8. Why? And it seems to be the case with almost any artist I pick. This used to happen to me on older computers, and I just thought it was because they were old, crappy computers. The one I'm using now is absolutely not. I'm running Windows 7 on an i5 quad processor.

I want to know what the hell is going on, and how to stop it! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: I should note that I don't believe this is a virus or a worm. This is behavior I've run into before, just not in a long time. And while most of this music can be recovered by re-ripping the CDs (ugh), how do I know the files won't vanish again?

Technology and Me: The Future is Now!

My poor, dead Samsung Epic 4G

This has been an unusual weekend for me. I am--for the first time in 8 years--without a cell phone for a stretch of days. I have learned that it is a bad idea to set your phone on the hood of your car while unloading the trunk. A really bad idea. Actually, I think the phone may have survived the fall to the street. I've dropped it on the tile twice with no ill effects. But the fact that I didn't realize it was even missing for a couple of hours. . .and then the fact that someone ran over it, is probably what killed it.

I had one of those big brick Motorola phones back in the mid-90s, for the job I had then. But from 1997 to 2004, I just didn't see the need for a mobile phone. We finally decided--with The Other Half being a flight attendant--that it would be a good idea. We started with little Samsung flip-phones. Two years later we upgraded to slimmer Samsung flip-phones. We graduated to semi-smart phones in 2008, with the Samsung Rant, a QWERTY keyboard slider that could (theoretically) access the internet. It was with those phones that we discovered the uses of texting; a mystery to us before. And in 2010 (after a two-week trial with a lesser smart phone) we finally took the plunge into the smart phone pool, with the Samsung Epic 4G, the next best thing to the iPhone, at least when it came out.

State of the art, um, never.

Since then, I've been frustrated by my phone. I like everything about it, except that mine seemed to be a lemon. The Other Half's was great, but mine was beset with several annoying glitches. And now it's dead. Prior to its death though, I got very accustomed to having it. I walk 4 miles per day, most days of the week. And I use my Epic to listen to either Pandora, or DAR.fm, which lets me record The Stephanie Miller Show, and play it back. If I go walking alone, it is a slog without something to listen to. So, when my phone died, I was bereft. What do I do?

Then I remembered that I have two off-brand MP3 players, given to me as gifts from my mother at various times. They weren't iPods, far from it (and ironically, I gave my sister my iPod after I got my phone). But they work. I can't find the one that had the built-in camera, and the cumbersome menus. But I did know where my Philips GoGear was! It's a nifty little player, about the size of a pack of gum. It has a very small memory, only 512K. . .but how much do you need for a 4-mile walk? Before my walk, I deleted some crappy songs, and loaded it up with some newer ones. Only up-tempo! And, I made sure it was charged, which didn't take long.

'member these?

I don't know how old the GoGear is, but I suspect at least seven years. So, I'm impressed that it still works. I'm impressed that it works with my newish computer so well, which treated it like any other removable drive. I'm impressed that the sound was so good, and. . .I discovered something new.

I should probably mention that I'm a techie from way back to almost infancy. I've been stringing wires and cobbling together electronic things for nearly as long as I can remember. I'm a bit of a bumbler, but I end up at the right place. And I often wonder how non-techies even manage to set things up. Of course, most people have a techie friend, so I guess I understand. But even with my background, I can be surprised by what I don't know.

A year and a half ago or so, I replaced most of our home entertainment system with things made in this century (and mostly, this decade!). I held on to the late-90s CD jukebox (which they still make, by the way), and the Blu-ray player we'd gotten for Christmas weeks before. The player had wi-fi, and my mother was clueless as to why I'd want that. I said, "because we can." I truly didn't know. Other than Blu-ray Live "special features" only available online, I had no idea.

This is from my blog post after fixing a problem with
my big Mitsubishi DLP HDTV.

It wasn't long before I took Netflix up on their constant offer to subscribe. And, I've dabbled in other services. I tooled around with the menus a little in the early days, but then settled into what I know. I have the big cable package with On-Demand, I have Netflix, Blu-ray and DVDs, what else could I need? Well, what I needed was to replace my old Logitech transmitter, which would send my music from my computer to my stereo. I ultimately opted for the CreativeBlaster model. It works, but barely. I can't seem to find a sweet spot, with my wi-fi at the front of the house, and my TV room at the back of the house. Why couldn't I get either my quad-core PC or my dual-core MacBook Pro to reliably receive and send Pandora to the stereo? I was losing my mind when we'd have friends over!

I'm so dumb. I hadn't explored the Sony Blu-ray player sufficiently. Not only could I access the music that is saved on my computer through the wi-fi, it has built-in Pandora!  And it isn't just there, it's easy to access. All of that time and effort (and even money) wasted. Thanks to my friend Jeff for showing me how. Jeff and I have managed--both by coincidence and by design--to end up with a lot of the same entertainment equipment, so we really ought to compare notes more often.

See that little USB port there? Yeah, it's useful!

My most recent discovery was Saturday with my old GoGear. Have you ever noticed that USB ports--usually seen on computers--are on some other things these days? My Sony Blu-ray player has one right on the front. My GoGear has one that slides out to plug into the computer. What would happen if I plugged that into the Blu-ray? Well, it plays like a dream through the entertainment center, that's what! I know it's simple, but I was amazed.

I'm a child of the 70s, and I've watched while Radio Shack and other made adapters for everything. When 8-track tape players were replaced by cassette tapes, they made an adapter that would play a cassette in an 8-track player. When they came out with CDs, they made adapters that would let you hook your DiscMan to your car's cassette player.  They started making CD players that could play MP3 CDs. And now, just about everything has a USB jack, a flash memory card slot, and/or blue tooth. Recently, I bought a 32GB USB stick not much bigger than a quarter for The Other Half's new car. It holds about half of our CD collection.

That holds 3,000 songs. Cataloged.

So, stop and think about that. When I upgrade my car's stereo, I'll probably buy a 64GB or 128GB USB stick. It will hold all of our music, probably with plenty to spare. I could take it, and pop it into his car, my car, any computer, our Blu-ray player. . . I used to wonder what my grandfather--who was born in 1900--must have thought of all the things that changed during his lifetime. But Grandpa died in 1992. Since 1992, we have things that seem like magic. We have flat panel TVs and monitors on our desks and in our living rooms that were science fiction in 1992. We have iPads that are smaller and more impressive than the PADDs used on Star Trek: The Next Generation. My Logitech Harmony universal remote knows how to turn off and turn on each piece of equipment in my entertainment center, depending upon what I want to do. Our Scion xB's stereo can play the music stored on my phone with a simple press of a button, and silence the music to answer that phone, wirelessly.

We can stream a movie through the internet to our 60" flat-panel HDTV, pause it, and pick up where we left off in a different location on our Android phone or tablet. Almost anywhere. We have high resolution still and audio cameras in our phone that can capture history as it unfolds, and upload it to the internet, almost instantly and effortlessly. We're getting to a time where we'll always have everything at our fingertips. And there is a whole generation of people who will have never known anything else.

So, my encyclopedic knowledge of trivial minutiae has become obsolete. But they're always going to need a tech guy. Even one who managed to get his phone run over by a car.


PS. Incidentally, since I'm 8 months shy of my re-up date at Sprint, I would have to pay $500-$600 for a replacement. . .unless I want a crappy used POS. So, I've ordered the same exact phone I crushed through eBay for $99. It will be here mid-week, used. . .probably a little scuffed. But it will do until the contract can be renewed. I highly recommend looking around before forking over so much money. It's worth the 4 or 5 days being Amish. :)

President Obama Sings with B.B. King

And he ain't half bad! I'm sure his daughters are mortified, but he's at least as good as Bill Clinton on the saxophone!

Presidential Idol: Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney

Honestly, no contest. Obama--though we only get a snippet--has obviously got a pretty good voice, or at least can do an Al Green impression. Mitt Romney manages to sound like your Dad embarrassing you.

Axis of Awesome: Four Chords

I found the link to this video while reading about Journey's Don't Stop Believin' on Wikipedia after having heard it on Pandora on my Google Android phone while out walking. Which is a small snapshot of how I get a lot of my ideas. Don't Stop Believin' is a song with an unusual structure. Its chorus doesn't hit until almost the very end, sort of what they did with Michael Jackson's Thriller when they did the video version. But the song has a very distinctive, very familiar four chords. Watch the video, and you'll understand.

Blast from the Past [Extra]: The Songs of Tony Burrows

What, you haven't heard of Tony Burrows? Well, neither had I. But I got stuck in a Wiki hole this evening, couldn't possibly tell you what started it. But did you know that this one dude had like five hit songs in the 70s, each time for a different group? They weren't much as far as groups go, sort of the Milli Vanillis of their day. But the songs were hits, in some cases huge.

Image from Wikipedia

 If you were born in the sixties or earlier, you remember Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse, from your AM radio or your baby sitter's 45 record stack. If you're younger, you remember it from the movie, Shallow Hal. Tony sang that. Then there's Gimme Dat Ding from the Pipkins, a song you likely remember from The Benny Hill Show, or--and I may be wrong about this, but I think I'm right--Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in.





Tony was at it again with White Plains' My Baby Loves Lovin', which was a hit in 1970, and was featured on the soundtrack to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Those three songs were actually hits--all of them--from February to April of 1970. Also from 1970 was, United We Stand from The Brotherhood of Man.



Then came The First Class' Beach Baby, which is--as far as I know--the last big Tony Burrows song. And truthfully, wouldn't you have put it into the 60s surf era? But no matter. This unsung hero had quite a run of hits, and deserves to be celebrated!

Justin Bieber Cuts Hair, Still Looks Like a Girl

Image from source, Gawker

Over the last dozen years or so, I've gone from a walking pop culture encyclopedia to a middle-aged know nothing.  Outside of a Lady GaGa song here and a Ke$ha song there, I'm very, very out of the loop these days, particularly when it comes to music. But I'm seldom at a complete loss for the popularity of a performer (outside of rap. . .I've never understood rap). Justin Bieber has finally stumped me. I think his music is completely lackluster and uninspired. I think he is unremarkable looking; not ugly, not handsome, just. . .meh.  Usually--to quote Bette Midler--when there's a sex symbol, you know the sex of the symbol!

Now, I know that I'm not the target audience for Bieber. But I am target adjacent. I mean, I may be getting on in years, but gay guys are the next most likely target group for a young music sensation, are they not? But I don't get it. I'll say this, when he was on Saturday Night Live, CSI, and in his recent Super Bowl Best Buy commercial, he seems like a nice kid, and could probably be a decent actor. But the music, the hype, the frenzy? Just. Not. Getting it.

[Excerpt]

Justin Bieber Has Cut His Hair



After hinting that he might on Twitter a few hours ago, we now have photo confirmation that miniature pop figurine Justin Bieber has done the unimaginable. The tiny wee creature has cut his famous hair. . .
 
Read more at: Gawker

Computer Woes: The Big CD Project

My new Mitsubishi Galant has an MP3 CD player, much like my Jeep did. But after much trial and error, I figured out that the Galant's player only plays actual MP3s. So, all of my music that was in WMA (Windows) format would not play. No problem, since I found a program that will do a conversion for me. Unfortunately, it leaves the original file intact, which is causing a huge duplication problem.

Add to this, the fact that I'm undertaking--finally--a CD ripping project. I'm taking our 400-500 disc collection, and ripping them all to the computer. At least I figured out how to do that relatively automatically, and in the MP3 format in the first place. But I already had 5,000+ tunes on the computer, and this is making the duplication problem grow by leaps and bounds.

I've found programs that allegedly will help you find duplicate music files, and delete them. But it is far, far from perfect. Songs with sound-alike titles, or different versions of the same song pop up in the delete list. So, I think I'm going to have to do this deletion project manually. On thousands upon thousands of songs.

My car doesn't have an input for an MP3 player (though one is available for over $200), so I'm sort of stuck with the discs. But once this project is complete, that's really not much of an issue. MP3 CDs hold over 150 songs after all. But I still feel like I'm a step or two behind current technology. But it is a step.

Frivolity Break: Piano Stairs!

"New" Michael Jackson Song: This is It

Um, I kind of like it. . .

How Auto-Tune Works

This video clip, from PBS' Nova shows you just how some of the "music" stars of the day can make beautiful music with little to no talent. Is it cheating? Uh, yeah. It's like PhotoShop for music.

At least when Cher and Madonna have used it, it was obvious, tweaking their voices into robotic pitches. Of course, they could have more subtly sweetened their voices with Auto-Tune on other songs without telling us.



Found at: Joe.My.God.

What the Hell is a Frumpet?

Image from Horn-U-Copia.net

This post exists for no other reason than to answer the question, "what did you play in band?"

Yes, I'm a band geek. But oddly, in my school at least, the band members were not known--at least to each other--as geeks. The band was heralded in our school. Sure, there were probably those in the school who looked down upon us, but we didn't know it. Our band was fairly acclaimed, and we didn't suffer ostricization.

But when I answer the question, "what did you play," and answer, "the frumpet," nobody knows what I'm talking about. During the winter doldrums of the school year, I played the French horn. You couldn't be in marching band without also finishing out the year in concert band, or symphonic band. And in those more austere bands, the French horn was the instrument of choice for those of us who couldn't play melody, with the trumpets.

During marching band season however (the most fun part of band), the French horn was deemed too clumsy. So we marched with either an alto horn (even more obscure), or the frumpet. A frumpet looks sort of like a pregnant trumpet. It isn't as flashy as a Flugelhorn, or as sexy as the alto saxophone. It's heavy, has a tiny dime-sized mouthpiece that causes lip indentation, and holds copious amounts of spit. But we held the more-important-than-realized responsibility for producing harmony, and reproducing other sounds from popular music otherwise performed by bass guitars and such.

While in marching band, I dutifully learned the parts to Hawaiian War Chant, String of Pearls, On Broadway, and Hit Me With Your Best Shot. This was, after all, 1980-1984. But truth be told, I never actually learned every note of the Whitehall-Yearling High School fight song. And I never memorized the Star Spangled Banner. Faked 'em, all the way through. The Alma Mater too. But I faked it gooood.

Valentine Video: Till The End by Tim Goss

This is a nice, pleasent, all-inclusive Valentine-ready video, which I found at Joe.My.God. It's sweet, and it's nice, and I don't care if it bothers people who can't see that. Enjoy.

The Music at the Super Bowl

Photo from source, Huffington Post

For once, the music at the Super Bowl didn't suck. Faith Hill, Bruce Springsteen and especially, Jennifer Hudson, sounded great. Apparently, Hill and Hudson both lip synched, but I couldn't tell. And I usually can tell.

[Excerpt]

Jennifer Hudson's Super Bowl Performance: Her First Since Her Mother, Brother Were Killed

One was a 12-minute party, the other a 2-minute proclamation. Bruce Springsteen and Jennifer Hudson used the Super Bowl stage for two very different performances Sunday night: he proved he's still The Boss with an electric halftime show, while Hudson showed she's ready to return to the spotlight after the slayings of three family members.

Read more at: Huffington Post

My Baby Only Cares for Me (But Might Shoot Me!)

Have you ever been to a psychic? It's amazing how they can read you, isn't it? If you're a skeptic like me, you start looking for their tricks. Like answers that are general, or could apply to anybody. But sometimes it's spooky, and they just nail something--something they couldn't possibly know! And I've been drawn in because of this in the past (the distant past, but still).

But this little email/blogging game will show you that any random question and/or answer can get it right too. This game's rules are as follows:

- Read the question.

- Get out your media player (iPod, computer, CD-Jukebox, whatever), and set it to random.

- Press play.

- Type the name of the song as the answer to the question.

- Repeat.

As you can see, in my list, some of the answers are nonsense. Some can fit with some context (just like when you try to fit the psychic's answer to your circumstance). And sometimes the answers are dead on! I mean, come on, the Cher answer?!?

What is your Motto?

Love Somebody - Rick Springfield
What do your friends think of you?

Better Luck Next Time - Scissor Sisters
What do you think about very often?

Passin' Me By - The Pharcyde
What is 2+2?

Raspberry Beret - Prince
What do you think of your best friend?

What's Left of Me? - Nick Lachey
What do you think of the person you like?

Come Monday - Jimmy Buffett
What is your life story?

Heartless - Heart
What do you want to be when you grow up?

Misled - Kool & the Gang
What do you think of when you see the person you like?

Christopher Robin's Dead - Mas Rapido!
What do your parents think of you?

Heaven & Hell - Vangelis
What will you dance to at your wedding?

Black on Black - Heart
What will they play at your funeral?

Whoop de Do - Jimmy Buffett
What is your hobby/interest?

That Voice Again - Peter Gabriel
What is your biggest secret?

Any Dream Will Do - Andrew Lloyd Webber
What do you think of your friends?

To Be a Lover - Billy Idol
What’s the worst thing that can happen?

I Didn't Mean to Turn You On - Robert Palmer
How will you die?

Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Cher
What is the one thing you regret?

Linger - The Cranberries
What makes you laugh?

Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
What makes you cry?

Storm Keeper - Culture Club
Will you ever get married?

Something to Remember - Madonna
What scares you the most?

Love is Strange - Sylvia & Mickey
Does anyone like you?

Ready to Take a Chance Again - Barry Manilow
If you could go back in time, what would you change?

Look Away - Chicago
What hurts right now?

Ever Since You Told Me You Love Me - Tiny Tim
What will you post this as?

My Baby Only Cares for Me - Brian Setzer Orchestra

Sheryl Crow to Join Fleetwood Mac?

Photo from source, AP News

Now that would be cool! Fleetwood Mac has restructured itself many times over the years, adding and subtracting members, usually ushering in a new wave of hit songs. After Christine McVie left, it looked like it was really over this time. I doubt they have much more time for further reinventions, but adding Crow would be a great final act.

And yeah, this story is not quite new, but I've been away and I'm catching up.

[Excerpt]

Crow Says She'll Sing With Fleetwood Mac

Sheryl Crow says she'll soon be singing with Fleetwood Mac, a move sure to give new life to the classic rock band, which hasn't toured in several years.

"I don't want to make any official announcements, but I will say that we definitely have plans for collaborating in the future, and we'll see what happens," Crow told the AOL music Web site Spinner.com in a story posted Thursday. . .

Read more at: AP News

Top 25 Meanest Love Songs

Photo from source, Spinner

This being Valentine's Day, I just had to go to my dark place, and post the anti-Love Song post, didn't I? I just found this piece very funny. People don't often pay attention to the lyrics of their favorite songs. I covered this in a recent post about the saddest songs ever. A song can be outrageously popular, and dreadfully sad. Or mean.

One of The Other Half's very favorite songs is on this list. He doesn't seem to catch just how mean the song is. I've chosen to highlight it here.

[Excerpt]

'Two Out of Three Ain't Bad'--Meat Loaf (1977)

The Kiss-Off: "I want you, I need you/But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you"

Writer Jim Steinman wrote this after hearing Elvis' 'I Want You, I Need You, I Love You' on the radio. "Baby, we can talk all night," sings the Loaf, rather sweetly, speaking for all men in relationships. "But that ain't getting us nowhere."

Read more at: Spinner

Sonny & Cher Singing on David Letterman

Thank you to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog for unearthing this wonderful clip. Oddly, as often happens in my life, The Other Half and I were just discussing this event a few days ago with some friends. Sonny Bono, then a U.S. Congressman, and Cher, who was riding one of her umpteenth career rebirths, appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. After cajoling an ailing Cher, Letterman convinced the duo to sing I Got You Babe, for posterity's sake.

And a good thing he did too. Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident not all that long after, [Editor's note: Oops, it was 11 years--oh well] so there wouldn't be another opportunity. It was a touching moment, and stuck in my memory. The (former) couple's lyrical amnesia makes it even more charming. Take a look.



This is only one example of my habit of purloining ideas from AmericaBlog. There's a reason I feature it in my blogroll, and in an RSS feed. Check it out: AmericaBlog

Holiday Cheer: Modern Xmas Tuneage

It's difficult to find interesting, relevant news and political items on the weekends. And you know what? Sometimes you tend to lose interest in those things on the weekends! So I think I'm going to put up a few fun things today before I try to dive into anything too serious.

I noted in a previous (also frivolous) post that I'm not big on traditional Christmas music. Choirs and churchy stuff just don't do it for me. I like the funny stuff, and the more modern tunes. Of course, some of the modern songs have become almost traditional, haven't they? Here are some of my favorites. . .




#1 - Feels Like Christmas - Cyndi Lauper: This song is from Cyndi's outstanding Merry Christmas. . .Have a Nice Life album from several years ago. The album is chock-full of great songs. This is a good one, but not the best one on the album. Unfortunately, finding video clips of these songs is more difficult than I thought!

#2 - Step into Christmas - Elton John: This is one of my favorite "modern" Christmas songs. Modern is in quotes because this is clearly from Elton's 70s heyday. But whatever, I love it!

#3 - Put a Little Love in Your Heart - Annie Lennox & Al Green: Sadly, this song is another substitution, for Eurythmics' superb Winter Wonderland, which is unavailable. This may not seem like a Christmas song on its face, but it's from the movie Scrooged, and is very much a Christmas video. And it gives me that same chill Winter Wonderland does.

#4 - Happy New Year - ABBA: OK, officially this is an after Christmas song, but it belongs at the end of your Christmas mix CD. And it beats the crap out of Dan Fogleburp's Auld Lang Syne, doesn't it? Now, if they could just go in and re-dub the "end of a decade" and "1989" parts, it would be perfect.