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jeffmorris
1. Go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. Then go to: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. And lastly, go to: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
Then you go and make it.
I can't believe it's so easy. Actually, I can't believe I got such good material.
Separable partial differential equation
♥ Alyssa's "Day 7 - Cappucino" (OK, I added the white blocks to make it square like a CD cover).
All of them end up looking like instrumental art-rock albums, though...
BTW, do you have any idea what you have to go through to snag a photo out of flickr?
jeffmorris1. Go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. Then go to: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. And lastly, go to: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
Then you go and make it.
 |
I can't believe it's so easy. Actually, I can't believe I got such good material.
Separable partial differential equation
♥ Alyssa's "Day 7 - Cappucino" (OK, I added the white blocks to make it square like a CD cover).
All of them end up looking like instrumental art-rock albums, though...
BTW, do you have any idea what you have to go through to snag a photo out of flickr?
You need to listen to this...
Dec. 14th, 2007 01:10 pmGlobal Kryner
Yes, it's an Austrian Oberkrainer band. Check out the songs page.
Madonna a'la oberkrainer. Santana a'la oberkrainer. Labelle a'la oberkrainer.
It's the soundtrack for your next steampunk party. Really, it should be...
Yes, it's an Austrian Oberkrainer band. Check out the songs page.
Madonna a'la oberkrainer. Santana a'la oberkrainer. Labelle a'la oberkrainer.
It's the soundtrack for your next steampunk party. Really, it should be...
I rarely credit links I steal...
Nov. 14th, 2007 12:51 pm...but there's no way I'm not going to ensure trystbat takes the fall for this one...
Y'all have heard of mash-ups, right?
So imagine...
Someone does a mash-up of Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" and the Doctor Who theme.
Someone else does a mashed-up video for this mash-up, with daleks, furries (well, a spandex jackal) and a TARDIS, all in the style of an iPod commercial:
Swedish techno-country...
Oct. 5th, 2007 04:23 pm...no I'm not kidding. Check out the Rednex myspace page and play "Cotton Eye Joe."
'splodey brain (again)
Sep. 12th, 2007 12:27 amI've got my scrubs pattern done up in true-grid. It turns out that K and I are going to take the same size scrubs top (barring any lies on the envelope). Pants are a different matter, I'm going to take a large with a 5" extension (easier to hem up if I'm wrong) and K is going to take a medium, possibly without any extension.
At this point I love Kwik Sew patterns. They're on nice sturdy paper. The size gradations are color-coded. Every edge is labeled. I wish I could say that about any dozen other pattern companies.
The 'splodey part (because I hate cutting, but it wasn't really that bad)? Got some more artwork restored, and it looks like I'm down to a bit over 300 albums without art.
At this point I love Kwik Sew patterns. They're on nice sturdy paper. The size gradations are color-coded. Every edge is labeled. I wish I could say that about any dozen other pattern companies.
The 'splodey part (because I hate cutting, but it wasn't really that bad)? Got some more artwork restored, and it looks like I'm down to a bit over 300 albums without art.
I think I've hit my limit...
Sep. 10th, 2007 11:07 pm...for the day at least.
I've got a bunch of iTunes cover art restored. Not everything, but definitely a bunch.
Of course, I've still got 600 albums out of 2,000 that don't have art.
I've got a bunch of iTunes cover art restored. Not everything, but definitely a bunch.
Of course, I've still got 600 albums out of 2,000 that don't have art.
Learning Curve...
Sep. 10th, 2007 03:36 pmI think I've finally figured out a nagging problem I've been having with iTunes, and even fixed it.
It's all got to do with ID3 tags.
The ID3 standard isn't a bad standard, it's just got its history of bad implementation.
"ID3 v1" wasn't really even a standard. It was something a guy hacked out on a weekend to extend the MP3 file format. It was dirt-simple, but it was also very limited. Then somebody gave it a name.
"ID3" became "ID3 v1" after some folks proposed a more flexible and efficient way to store tags. ID3 v2 has a developer community working to maintain a standard, and they're not doing a bad job.
So Apple was one of those companies with a flawed ID3 v2 implementation. There were a few bugs in their v2.3 implementation, and a lot in their v2.4 implementation. They've since (from what I've seen) done a lot to correct this in iTunes 7. Even with the fixes, there's still an issue: some MP3 files have ID3 tag information that iTunes can't update.
This isn't normally an issue. In addition to using the ID3 tags in a file, the primary repository for track information is the "iTunes Library," an XML file that stores all the track information you enter into iTunes (and all your playlists).
It's not a problem until you upgrade iTunes to a new version that uses a heavily revised iTunes Library format. In some upgrades, iTunes validates the Library information against the ID3 tags, and if those tags aren't up-to-date your Library data can be reverted to old information. In addition, some bad ID3 data can render an MP3 file unreadable in your upgraded iTunes, and iTunes can "lose" tracks if they can't be validated.
After my last upgrade, I noticed that some albums were missing the "of #" portion of the track information. Some albums were missing tracks. Looking into the iTunes Music directories, the tracks existed, but Windows was showing ID3 information that didn't match what I had in iTunes. I updated track information, but it didn't appear to be saving to the files.
After a bit of searching, I found some utilities that could "zap" the ID3 information from MP3 files. Because the iTunes Library stores a vast amount of track meta-data, it's (relatively) safe to zap the meta-data from the MP3 files and use "Convert ID3 tags" in iTunes to write new ID3 v2.4 tags to the files after they've been zapped. Even the unreadable "lost" tracks could be retagged and re-added to the iTunes Library after being zapped.
On the down-side, that loses all the album artwork that's stored in the ID3 tags. It doesn't lose album artwork downloaded from the iTunes Music Store (using "Get Album Artwork"). Now I'm replacing album artwork on a lot of albums that iTMS doesn't know about. I've still got a lot of it stored outside iTunes, which makes things a bit easier.
On the up-side, I shouldn't have to go back and fix tons of data after my next upgrade, or the one after that. All my ID3 tags are in ID3 v2.4, and they're all writeable by iTunes.
Of course, after all this, I found out one other thing. I can't see the meta-data in Windows Explorer. None of my MP3 files have ID3 v1 tag information anymore. It turns out that Windows XP Explorer can't read anything newer than ID3 v1 tags. Talk about lame.
It's all got to do with ID3 tags.
The ID3 standard isn't a bad standard, it's just got its history of bad implementation.
"ID3 v1" wasn't really even a standard. It was something a guy hacked out on a weekend to extend the MP3 file format. It was dirt-simple, but it was also very limited. Then somebody gave it a name.
"ID3" became "ID3 v1" after some folks proposed a more flexible and efficient way to store tags. ID3 v2 has a developer community working to maintain a standard, and they're not doing a bad job.
So Apple was one of those companies with a flawed ID3 v2 implementation. There were a few bugs in their v2.3 implementation, and a lot in their v2.4 implementation. They've since (from what I've seen) done a lot to correct this in iTunes 7. Even with the fixes, there's still an issue: some MP3 files have ID3 tag information that iTunes can't update.
This isn't normally an issue. In addition to using the ID3 tags in a file, the primary repository for track information is the "iTunes Library," an XML file that stores all the track information you enter into iTunes (and all your playlists).
It's not a problem until you upgrade iTunes to a new version that uses a heavily revised iTunes Library format. In some upgrades, iTunes validates the Library information against the ID3 tags, and if those tags aren't up-to-date your Library data can be reverted to old information. In addition, some bad ID3 data can render an MP3 file unreadable in your upgraded iTunes, and iTunes can "lose" tracks if they can't be validated.
After my last upgrade, I noticed that some albums were missing the "of #" portion of the track information. Some albums were missing tracks. Looking into the iTunes Music directories, the tracks existed, but Windows was showing ID3 information that didn't match what I had in iTunes. I updated track information, but it didn't appear to be saving to the files.
After a bit of searching, I found some utilities that could "zap" the ID3 information from MP3 files. Because the iTunes Library stores a vast amount of track meta-data, it's (relatively) safe to zap the meta-data from the MP3 files and use "Convert ID3 tags" in iTunes to write new ID3 v2.4 tags to the files after they've been zapped. Even the unreadable "lost" tracks could be retagged and re-added to the iTunes Library after being zapped.
On the down-side, that loses all the album artwork that's stored in the ID3 tags. It doesn't lose album artwork downloaded from the iTunes Music Store (using "Get Album Artwork"). Now I'm replacing album artwork on a lot of albums that iTMS doesn't know about. I've still got a lot of it stored outside iTunes, which makes things a bit easier.
On the up-side, I shouldn't have to go back and fix tons of data after my next upgrade, or the one after that. All my ID3 tags are in ID3 v2.4, and they're all writeable by iTunes.
Of course, after all this, I found out one other thing. I can't see the meta-data in Windows Explorer. None of my MP3 files have ID3 v1 tag information anymore. It turns out that Windows XP Explorer can't read anything newer than ID3 v1 tags. Talk about lame.
OK, this one's not ABBA...
Aug. 24th, 2007 05:03 pm...but it could be.
Don't worry, no puppets this time.
Watch this video!
Aug. 23rd, 2007 01:51 pmYou must watch this video
Yes, it's ABBA.
Watch it anyway.
I know it's three years old.
Watch it anyway.
Well, unless puppets freak you out.
Funniest thing ever. Yes, every line is a quote from an ABBA song. I'm more interested in who all the cameos are.
And for a bit of weirdness...
Jun. 28th, 2007 05:16 pmPikku-Orava is on his way to becoming a sensation in Germany too.
His German website has information about his new German CD release.
For the Germans he did a cover of "Hard Rock Hallelujah!"
No, I'm not kidding.
The Germans have him pegged as a heavy metal squirrel, so heavy metal he does. I'm not sure how his cover of "La Bamba" fits in there.
Then again, on his second Finn release, Kesä Seedee, he does a cover of Lordi's "Would you love a Monsterman?"
His German website has information about his new German CD release.
For the Germans he did a cover of "Hard Rock Hallelujah!"
No, I'm not kidding.
The Germans have him pegged as a heavy metal squirrel, so heavy metal he does. I'm not sure how his cover of "La Bamba" fits in there.
Then again, on his second Finn release, Kesä Seedee, he does a cover of Lordi's "Would you love a Monsterman?"
Then there's the non-squirrel version...
Jun. 27th, 2007 05:40 pmThe song is Taivas Lyö Tulta by Finn heavy-metal band Teräsbetoni. Apparently, there's a serious question in Finland of whether they're a corny over-the-top metal band or if they're a really subtle parody act. "Teräsbetoni" is Finn for "Reinforced Concrete." They could be the live-action predecessors of Dethklok.
And you thought Lordi was weird...
Jun. 27th, 2007 11:28 amYes, it's a Finn squirrel superstar, Pikku-Orava!
I've got some good news and some bad news.
Jun. 8th, 2007 11:31 pmThe good news: I found Roger Cicero's Männersachen album.
The bad news: I found Dj Bobo's Vampires album.
The bad news: I found Dj Bobo's Vampires album.
I'm not sure...
May. 17th, 2007 01:40 pm...but I saw a Tic-Tac© ad last night, and unless I'm mistaken the backing music was Raymond Scott's Hall of the Mountain Queen.
If you need a pick-me-up...
May. 12th, 2007 06:10 pm...or if you need a distraction...
check out the Eurovision Song Contest Media Player
It's got videos for all the 2007 song contest entrants. I've been listening to the songs (about 2/3 through), and you need to check out:
Belgium (cheesy)
Bulgaria (chalga)
Switzerland (train wreck)
Germany (loungey)
Denmark (queer)
United Kingdom (almost as queer)
Israel (darkly humorous)
Ukraine (buh-wha?)
Only perhaps two or three songs are completely horrid, and Switzerland I think took the prize for the worst (even if it placed 20 out of 28 in the semis).
Serbia won, with something reminiscent of a Cirque du Soliel soundtrack. Ukraine took second (buh-wha?).
check out the Eurovision Song Contest Media Player
It's got videos for all the 2007 song contest entrants. I've been listening to the songs (about 2/3 through), and you need to check out:
Belgium (cheesy)
Bulgaria (chalga)
Switzerland (train wreck)
Germany (loungey)
Denmark (queer)
United Kingdom (almost as queer)
Israel (darkly humorous)
Ukraine (buh-wha?)
Only perhaps two or three songs are completely horrid, and Switzerland I think took the prize for the worst (even if it placed 20 out of 28 in the semis).
Serbia won, with something reminiscent of a Cirque du Soliel soundtrack. Ukraine took second (buh-wha?).
