Update: iPod Mini and others
Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Here are the latest rumors, looks like they may be released tomorrow.
Courtesy of http://www.appleinsider.com

Apple Computer on Wednesday is expected to unveil a major overhaul to its iPod product offerings, according to a multitude of reports.

Following requests that dealers return their remaining stock of iPod photo players, sources say Apple will discontinue its 40GB iPod and iPod photo models, replacing them with a 30GB iPod photo for $349 and a 60GB iPod photo for $449. The iPod maker will reportedly keep its 20GB monochrome display player at $299 for the foreseeable future, or until supplies are exhausted.

Both the new 30GB and 60GB iPod photo models are expected to debut with Bluetooth wireless connectivity, sources added.As previously reported, Apple will also debut 4 new models of its iPod mini player, which will retail for $249 with a 6GB drive and color display. Sources said the company will continue to sell its current 4GB iPods, sans the 'Gold' model, for $199 until supplies run dry.

It remains unclear what will become of the Special Edition 20GB U2 iPod, which currently retails for $349 -- the same price point the company will target with its new 30GB iPod photo. Also unconfirmed is whether the new iPod photo players will continue to ship with a carrying case and docking station at their new price points, or if these accessories will now be sold separately.

Posted by mardenhill 2/22/2005 04:41:00 PM 1 comments    

iPod Mini and other secrets

If you are in the market for an ipod, I would say wait about a month. The rumors around the net are that the mini will be getting a new hard drive, either a 5 gig or even a 6 gig drive and a color screen. Right now all the other players on the market are sporting 5 gig drives and it would be Apple to upstage them and give the public a 6 gig. Don't look for the prices to drop tho, they will still be at the $250 mark. Good news on the bigger players tho, the 40 gig standard player may be making an exit and the 40 gig iphoto will come down to the $399 price with the 60 gig coming down to $499. This leaves the 20 gig still at $299, not sure if they will turn that color or phase that out later this year. Other rumors are that new ipods will have built in bluetooth for wireless broadcasting thru car stereos.

Posted by mardenhill 2/22/2005 09:25:00 AM 2 comments    

Quiet Is The New In....

This weekend a number of us went to see Kings of Convenience at the Magic Stick, the show was good except for all the hushing that went on all nite. It seems that the indie rock/emo kids are all about the quiet now. Erik and Erland sat quietly up on stage strumming away at all their catchy pillow talk songs while "Ann Arbor" buggers made tons of ruckus in the back. I fault the bar and the booking company, you have an open area bar, pool tables and a bowling alley below. A better venue would have been the Magic Bag, people could sit down and the bar is sectioned off. I think I will just stick to listening to their cds, no need to be harassed by 15 year old Bright Eyes worshipers telling me I'm too loud.

In other music news, courtesy of www.nme.com

NOEL GALLAGHER has confirmed that the new OASIS album is finally, definitely, finished.
Talking to NME.COM at last week’s ShockWaves NME Awards, the guitarist revealed how he was relieved now that the long-delayed record is finally ready.

Describing the past year as “difficult”, Gallagher said: “Not difficult in that everyone’s been feeling down about things, just frustrating that we thought we got to the finishing line, but when it came to it, it just wasn’t worthy of putting out.”

He added: “The longer that we took to do the album, the better it had to be because of the time from the last one. When it was two years, we asked was it good enough after two years of fucking about and now we have to ask if it’s good enough after three years.”

“It’s done now. We master it tomorrow and it’s out on May 26,” confirmed Gallagher, suggesting that a possible title for the record could be ‘The Ear Has No Memory’.

Posted by mardenhill 2/22/2005 08:50:00 AM 4 comments    

Update: Gannongate Round 3
Sunday, February 20, 2005

Well it looks like our boy Gannon has been setup to take the fall for the White House. It all depends whether or not he spills his guts before he is killed. Gannon is threatening to sue the liberal bloggers for defamation of character, hmm i guess those pics out on the internet, out in the public domain for anyone to see is considered private. He dismisses has past and said he has found religion and to leave him alone. Maybe he should have thought of that while he was busy giving blow jobs to the White House staff. Gannon better stay alive for this to reach its full fruitation, Bush and co need to be brought down and taking Gannon out will make things harder. The MSM (Main Stream Media) is finally biting on this story, CNN had an interview with Gannon on Anderson Cooper and he screwed up big time. Anderson had him on the defensive from the 1st question and hit him pretty hard. Anderson pulled a few punches on it tho, throwing him so easier questions but its a start. I am hoping Monday brings some more information on this story, there are more and more accounts of people remembering him and also exposing the perferred treatment people get in receiving these day passes. Gannon is a liar and continues to become tripped up in his lies. One day its a media blackout then its an interview trying to play the victim. Just keep this story rolling, remember Monica Lewinski started out like this and grew into one of the biggest political scandals.

Posted by mardenhill 2/20/2005 06:42:00 PM 1 comments    

You Know You're Right
Friday, February 18, 2005

I got the Nirvana box set over the weekend and let me tell ya, it rocks. I am currently listening to a solo acoustic version of You Know You're Right. The set doesn't just have all their studio songs, its full of demos, solo, acoustic, live etc. The dvd is supposed to be very cool, I havnt got a chance to watch it, but a friend at work has the set and told me about it. Its hard to believe its been 11 years since Kurt killed himself, its one of those days that you will always remember where you were. I remember I was in college in the dorms when Chris and Rick came into my room to tell me about it. They had the news on and it was plastered all over it. The month before when Kurt ODed in Europe they kept saying it was just a matter of time but I said no, Kurt won't kill himself.
I did get to see them on the InUtero tour when it came thru Kalamazoo at Wings Stadium, the Meat Puppets opened along with some other unknown band. The show was amazing, there wasn't a song they played that the crowd didn't know. My senior year in hs they came to town and were playing St Andys but I couldn't go. It was Homecoming weekend and I was in the marching band and had to play the halftime show. To make matters worse, it was my birthday that day, what a better way to spend it. So I missed that show but was able to catch them 2 years later.
So what are your best/worst memories of Nirvana, feel free to post comments.

Posted by mardenhill 2/18/2005 11:47:00 AM 3 comments    

Update: Gannongate Round 2
Thursday, February 17, 2005

Ok, this sleazeball is documented to have been in the White House before his stint with the fake Talon News site. So this means the guy had "NO" credentials or journalist background but was planted by someone. Could that someone be McClellan, or possibly Rove? Pictures reveal what looks to be a "hard pass" not the daily pass that Gannon came in on during his Talon News bit. Deducting this down, the guy was cleared long beforehand and somehow passed the background check with all his sex websites and prostitution. Hmm, either he skipped that or we have lapsed on our background checking.

So the story continues to build out in the blogosphere and certain websites but no one is willing to touch it. Give it a couple more days, people will be tripping over themselves claiming that they broke the story and horray to the bloggers for doing some investigating journalism. God knows we cannot trust the main stream media to tell us anything but propaganda passed down from the White House.

So the saga goes on, building more and more steam on the net, just giving the White House more time to sanitize all records of this guy. Requests have been made to the White House but those bastards will not follow thru, they are hiding something and it will be exposed. This is #6 for those of you counting how many reporters have been exposed for being paid off by this administration. When will it end, does it take a gay sex scandal to finally expose the abuse of this administration? MSNBC had a poll on their website and it has overwhelmingly shown that people want to know more about this story. So go ahead and break it, what are you waiting for!!!!

Posted by mardenhill 2/17/2005 02:58:00 PM 2 comments    

Mr. Santorum Please Step Up....

Hey folks, just wanted to point out some more hyprocrisy on the right, and today's target is none other than Mr. Rick Santorum, ultra rightwing conservative from Pennsylvania. Mr. Rick is currently stumping for tort reform, he wants to limit damages at $200,000 and to eliminate those ambulance chasers we have polluting out society. That's fine, he has his right but what you don't know is, Mr. Rick's wife just settled a lawsuit against her chiropractor for a total of $350,000 in damages stemming form a 96 incident that she said left her permanently damaged. She originally asked for $500,000 but it went down to $350,000. Now if her husband had his way, she would be only skating out of there with $200,000 max. Coincidence that this was settled before any legislation has been drawn up, I think not. So its ok for the republican sleazeballs to sue and get their fair share but for the rest of us, we must settle for what they deem reasonable. Can you say HYPROCRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I understand and am well aware of frivilous lawsuits out there but don't go around the country telling me that in order to lower health care costs, we need to eliminte the ability to sue doctors. I got an idea, maybe the US govt should buy drugs from the Pharmacuticals not just the HMOs. I bet we could get a better rate as opposed to a number of smaller grps buying drugs. But nah, thats just crazy talk, we can't do that, its too close to socialism. So we are stuck with high medical costs because we have for profit outfits managing our healthcare who's only concern are their bottom lines and their stockholders.

Before I forget, Mr Rick has yet another skeleton in his closet. In Pennsylvania, elected officials need to live in their district so Mr Rick had gone out and purchased a house so he would be eligable to run. Well does Mr Rick live there, no he does not, he rents the house out and most likely pockets the money. What happened to following the rules, I guess it does not apply to this scoundrel. Mr Rick, your days are numbered, come 2006 you will be unemployed and will have to live off your wifes settlement.

Posted by mardenhill 2/17/2005 08:39:00 AM 4 comments    

No Drudge?
Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Ok, its been days since the Gannon story broke but no major media outlets are biting, whats wrong here? Could it be that the story is just a lie, nah its just too crazy to be fiction. If we go back in time, Matt Drudge was on every sex scandal known to man, btw this was the guy who broke the Monica Lewinski story but is afraid to touch this one. Drudge isn't one to back down from a scoop he posts stories whether they are true or not all the time but not this one. I think Drudge is missing out big time, is he hiding something, thats the only reason I can see that he isn't biting. Just think of the hits Drudge would have with a story of this magnitude. Instead he devotes most of the last 2 days to his pissing match with Chris Rock which no one cares about. Maybe there are pics of Drudge with mr Gannon that he is praying are not leaked, maybe Drudge found religion and decided to give up on the sex trade. Nah, he's a blogger and bloggers love torid sex tales, they love to post and tell the whole world. So we sit back and wait, wait for Drudge to come to his senses about this one, but if we are lucky, the majors will grab the story and scoop Drudge out of millions of hits. Drudge's repuataion on being the king of gossip will be over and the liberal blogs will have trumped him.

On another topic, hockey has been cancelled for the rest of the year, it pisses me off that they cannot look past dollar amounts and see the big picture. There are tons of people's who's lives depend on hockey, they are the concession stand workers, parking attendents, local businesses etc, they are the ones losing out here, not the players and owners. Hockey is already the redheaded stepchild of the sports world and this is just convincing more people to tune them out. I see a few markets losing teams in the next few years, that is a good thing but overall viewership will drop dramtically and I don't see a return like baseball has had. So long hockey, it has been nice knowing ya.

Posted by mardenhill 2/16/2005 10:35:00 PM 1 comments    

Update: Gannongate
Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Gannongate becomes more interesting by the hour, the latest revelations are that Scott McClellan and Gannon are more than friends and that is how Gannon gained access to the WH press pool. All the bloggers are running wild with this tantlizing info, but the scary part of it all is that Gannon may have been the person who outed Valerie Plume the undercover CIA agent a couple years ago. Novak will not give up his source but if this turns out to be Gannon, this connection is one step away from the president. If you want more juicy tales regarding McClellan and Gannon check out www.rawstory.com they have a story posted. McClellan denies knowing that Gannon is a fake name but the 2 are connected back in the day.

Bloggers have come under attack for jumping the gun and not real journalists, just people sitting around in their pajamas writing conspiracy theories. But when you look at who is breaking stories and fact finding, its the bloggers, Big Media needs to wake up to this and start reporting the news for real, not for ratings.

Posted by mardenhill 2/15/2005 09:58:00 AM 1 comments    

Update: Gannongate

Gannongate becomes more interesting by the hour, the latest revelations are that Scott McClellan and Gannon are more than friends and that is how Gannon gained access to the WH press pool. All the bloggers are running wild with this tantlizing info, but the scary part of it all is that Gannon may have been the person who outed Valerie Plume the undercover CIA agent a couple years ago. Novak will not give up his source but if this turns out to be Gannon, this connection is one step away from the president. If you want more juicy tales regarding McClellan and Gannon check out www.rawstory.com they have a story posted. McClellan denies knowing that Gannon is a fake name but the 2 are connected back in the day.

Bloggers have come under attack for jumping the gun and not real journalists, just people sitting around in their pajamas writing conspiracy theories. But when you look at who is breaking stories and fact finding, its the bloggers, Big Media needs to wake up to this and start reporting the news for real, not for ratings.

Posted by mardenhill 2/15/2005 09:58:00 AM 1 comments    

Mr. Alan Keyes, Father of the Year...
Monday, February 14, 2005

courtesy of www.politicalwire.com

Keyes Daughter Out of the Closet
Maya Marcel-Keyes, the 19-year-old daughter of conservative pundit Alan Keyes "will be making her first public appearance as a gay activist at a Valentine Day's rally in front of the Maryland State House" today, CBS News reports.

Last summer her father, as an Senate candidate from Illinois, called Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter "a sinner" and said homosexuality was "selfish hedonism."

Marcel-Keyes said "her parents have thrown her out of the house, stopped speaking to her and refuse to pay for college because she is gay."

Posted by mardenhill 2/14/2005 12:27:00 PM 2 comments    

Starving Artists
Sunday, February 13, 2005

Erika and I went out last nite for dinner at Starving Artists, a new restaurant in downtown Ferndale. It is next door to Angel's Cafe and has a total of 9 tables. The food was great except that 2 of the entrees Erika wanted were out. They had been busy all nite and we didnt go until 8:30pm. I guess you can look at it that everything is fresh, rather than an Applebees or any other chain restaurant. They have a liquor license and their wine list was decent. Prices were between $15 and $22 per entree and portions were good. Starving Artists has art work for sale, some of it prints and others local artisans works. We bought a print for the kitchen, it was only $30, the frame itself must have cost close to that. There are a few new restaurants in Ferndale, there is a French and a small crepe house. If you are looking for a new place to check out, I highly recommend Starving Artists and if they are too busy go next door to Angel's Cafe.

BTW, bought the Nirvana boxset at Costo today, its a 3 disc 1 dvd set and very good. If anyone would like a copy let me know. You can't beat the price at Costco, it was $8 cheaper than Amazon.com which usually has the best deals. While we are on the topic of music, I just found New Order's latest cd, its very good, not as guitar based as Get Ready but not total synth pop.

Now that I have finally organized my mp3s, its time to start backing them up, glad that the imac has a dvd burner or I would be here for the next 2 years. You can fit 4.4 gigs of data on each dvd and it takes approximately 14 minutes to burn.

Posted by mardenhill 2/13/2005 04:16:00 PM 0 comments    

What Is It With....
Saturday, February 12, 2005

What is it with doing New Order covers as your 1st single, you got Frente in 94 covering Bizarre Love Triangle then Orgy in 97 and Flunk a Norwegian band in 02 doing Blue Monday. That is one of my pet peeves, a band who releases a cover as their 1st single. You had some ska band who covered Come On Eileen, probably the worst 80s song ever recorded and where are they now? I can't even remember their name, thats how far they have faded from the music radar. T.A.T.U. a Russian girl duo released a Smiths cover as their single but the rest of the cd was crap. They figured that they could play off the whole lesbian angle while releasing a cover and that would get them press and radio play.

Covers as B-sides or just during live sets is fine, Travis probably has one of the most memorable covers, they did an acoustic version of Britney Spear's Baby Hit Me One More Time. This cover rocked, they played it on their 1st tour in the states, and it was so popular they added it to the Turn single. Another amazing cover is Siouxsie and the Banshees Dear Prudence, she took that song and made it her own, you would have never known it was a cover had it not been a huge Beatles hit. Nirvana has some great covers along with Pearl Jam and Oasis.

I found this site while doing my New Order reseach and found it pretty funny, check it out.
http://www.inthe80s.com/

Posted by mardenhill 2/12/2005 05:51:00 PM 0 comments    

Service Charge will the Death of Me

I got Oasis tickets this morning, they were $25 lawn seats and in the end the total was $77 something for 2 tickets. $3 each for parking, $8.50 for service charge and another $3.90 for for convenience charge. Now I can handle the parking in the ticket but the other charges, come on I paid more in service fees than the price of another ticket before charges. I know its the way it is, I havnt bought tickets in months and I swear thing have gone up a few dollars since then. My only hope is that the mycompanyoffer.com site that I have access thru work will have discounted or free tickets for the show and then I can sell mine. Depending on how the show sells, the my company will pickup the extras and get rid of them. If you ever want to attend any of the bad pine knob shows that never sell out. I can get those tickets.

Well I am off to the recycling center, will blog more later...

Posted by mardenhill 2/12/2005 11:43:00 AM 3 comments    

OASIS TIX
Friday, February 11, 2005

11 hrs and 30 minutes til Oasis tickets go on sale, they will be playing Meadowbrook on June 18th for those of u in the metro Detroit area. Oasis will have the lousy Australian band Jet opening for them, I guess I will get there late but its still Oasis and thats all that matters. This is only 1 of 5 US dates this year, so u better get yourself together and get some tickets.

Posted by mardenhill 2/11/2005 10:29:00 PM 1 comments    

Gannongate

Well the buzz on the net surrounds a man named J.D. Guckert or Jeff Gannon if u are journalist. Well Mr Jeff was not a journalist but somehow earned White House credentials, access to the WH pool of reporters, confidential CIA that may have outed Plume an undercover agent. Its all over the net what this guy has done and his skeletons in the closet but the big news reporters are not biting. Could it be media bias, I think so. Below is a bit on this guy, the gay porn isn't as big of a deal as the no journalism credentials but yet got to interview the prez and other WH officials.

Courtesy of http://semidi.blogsome.com/

“Jeff Gannon” is a sexy stud who owns a few gay-porn URLs, was credentialed as a White House reporter despite having no journalistic background (other than attending a two-day, $50 seminar hosted by a friend of George W. Bush’s), and now he’s been connected to the destruction of a valuable CIA agent’s career. Where is the so-called liberal media?

This guy wrote for a fake news site, Talon News and was privy to sensitive info, he is now pissed off because he was outed by liberal bloggers. Sorry guy, u lie u pay. Our own John Conyers congressman of MI has called for an inquiry on the issue, hopefully this does not fizzle out and just fade away into the zeros and ones of the internet. This is big news folks, if Gannon outed Valerie Plume to Bob Novak, this guy is looking at some nice jailtime. I do not have proof on this yet but I am sure it will be out soon. Check out http://www.democraticunderground.com/ for more info on this.

For those of you keeping track of the possible Deep Throat candidates, you can now add Prez Gerald Ford and Supreme Court Justice Renquist to your list. Both are ailing and were around during the Nixon Era. We will not know who Deep Throat is until he dies, until then every old goverment official on their dying days will be candidates.

Posted by mardenhill 2/11/2005 10:10:00 PM 1 comments    

More Texas Ethics Violations

Those fucking scumbags are at it again in Texas, why is it that everything that is wrong with this country ties back to Texas? No need to answer that I think we all know why. First it was a provision to protect "The Hammer" Tom Delay from stepping down from his post if/when he is indicted for ethics violations. That got a lot of heat and was finally reversed but a more broad blocking provision was not lifted. Now back in Texas, mind you this is where Delay is from and where the ethics violations originated they are trying to inact the same provision in the state legislature. The fallout from Delay's ethics violations are hitting close to home and all his cronies are running for cover and hoping the Texas dominated legislature will come to their rescue. They claim this is for local discrepencies but it will be used to protect those who along with Delay, illegally solicited campaign funds for their big Texas redistricting a few years back. This is bullshit and and everyone knows it but hey those from Texas seem to think they are above the law. If this is passed, I vote that we give Texas back to Mexico and just rid the US of all the scum from that state. I know there are some great people and democrats from Texas and maybe we can keep part of the state or relocate them to higher ground. I really hope this does not pass and that it makes national news so everyone in the country can see what is happening behind closed doors down in Texas.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ethics11feb11,1,7321903.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

Posted by mardenhill 2/11/2005 04:38:00 PM 2 comments    

Update: Virginia Underwear Fiasco
Thursday, February 10, 2005

Droopy-Pants Bill Dropped in Va. Senate

2 hours, 17 minutes ago

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia lawmakers dropped their droopy-pants bill Thursday after the whole thing became just too embarrassing.

The bill, which would have slapped a $50 fine on people who wear their pants so low that their underwear is visible in "a lewd or indecent manner," passed the state House on Tuesday but was killed by a Senate committee two days later in a unanimous vote.


Hmm, i guess too much public scrutiny on this one caused the state legislature to drop the bill. Now if we can move onto the next southern civil rights crisis and squash it just like the droopy pants.


Alabama state senators propose ten commandments, pledge be mandatory

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Some state senators want to make sure that every public school has the Ten Commandments displayed and that every school day begins with students and teachers reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Bills that would put both requirements into law won approval in the state Senate Education Committee on Wednesday and now go to the Senate for consideration.

Byrne said most schools do begin the day with the pledge and a moment of silence, which is required by law, but some only have the moment of silence.

Byrne’s bill allows teachers and students to opt out of saying the pledge if they have objections or if they are citizens of another country. That is becoming more common as Alabama attracts more international industries, and those companies bring over executives and their families from the companies’ home countries.


I like this "teachers and students to opt out if they have objections", yeah like thats going to happen. The 1st teacher to do so, will find themselves unemployed under some trumped up charge. The students will be ridiculed by classmates and I wouldn't put it pass the teachers to turn a blind eye while they are harrassed. These students will find themselves in detention, suspension, you name it. Come on, if kids are getting tasered in Florida and arrested, whats stopping Alabama from doing the same. Another sign that the religious right has gone too far.

Posted by mardenhill 2/10/2005 07:49:00 PM 2 comments    

Say NO to Underwear
Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Get ready for Universal uniforms for everyone at all times around the country. We are becoming a brave new world with the Govt in every and I mean every aspect of our life. This is funny but yet scary because I can see this catching on and spreading like wildfire across the south. Hmm, didn't we go bomb a country to liberate its population from wearing burkas? I guess that doesn't really matter anymore because the human body is such a disguisting thing and should never be witnessed in public without appropriate skin covering. I'm suprised that we are even allowed to shower naked, I bet within the next 2 years we will have to wear permanant clothing 24/7.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4249831.stm

US politicians fed up with catching an eyeful of underwear want to fine those who won't hitch up their trousers. The Virginia state house has voted to outlaw the trend of wearing trousers so low that underwear hangs over the top. Delegates said the habit, popular across the US and in other Western countries, was "coarsening" society. But others hit back, urging legislators to remember their own "fashion follies" and saying the law would be used mostly against black people. The house adopted the "droopy drawers" bill by a margin of 60-34.

Underwear is called underwear for a reason
Virginia Delegate John Reid

If the state senate also approves, youngsters in Virginia showing too much of their boxer shorts or G-strings could be fined $50 (£26)

Posted by mardenhill 2/09/2005 03:50:00 PM 2 comments    

How many jobs do u work!!!

I'm so glad, our out of touch, arrogant, liar of a president cares so much for the common folk.

Courtesy of www.drudgereport.com

BUSH: HOLDING THREE JOBS 'UNIQUELY AMERICAN'Tues Feb 8 2005 9:27:01 ET

Last Friday when promoting social security reform with 'regular' citizens in Omaha, Nebraska, President Bush walked into an awkward unscripted moment in which he stated that carrying three jobs at a time is 'uniquely American.' While talking with audience participants, the president met Mary Mornin, a woman in her late fifties who told the president she was a divorced mother of three, including a 'mentally challenged' son.
The President comforted Mornin on the security of social security stating that 'the promises made will be kept by the government.' But without prompting Mornin began to elaborate on her life circumstances.

Begin transcript:
MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.
THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?
MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

Developing...Filed By Matt Drudge...

Posted by mardenhill 2/09/2005 10:40:00 AM 1 comments    

Update: Napster To Go Round 2

Ok, I was right the 1st time with the $9.95 a month and additional $14.95 for the "to go" service a month. Also I found out how they will keep u paying for your rented music. So we are back to the $298.80 a year for your music and if you don't keep paying the man, its gone in 30 days.

Courtesy of www.slyck.com

This is how “Napster to Go” works. For $14.95 a month, an individual can download an unlimited amount of music tracks. The music is then transferable to a choice of three portable music players; the iRiver, Creative Zen Micro or the Dell Pocket DJ. But here is the catch. In order to qualify for Napster to Go, you must already be a subscriber to Napster – an additional $9.95 a month.
Ok, so $24.90 a month is not so bad, at least one can download an unlimited amount of music to keep right? Not so fast…An interesting quirk regarding Napster to Go is that an individual must maintain their subscription with Napster. Every thirty days or less, the individual must plug their “compatible” player into their computer; allow it to link up with Napster’s server, which gives the DRM tracks an additional 30 days of life. Don’t maintain your Napster subscription? *Poof* - your 14.95 dollar downloads are gone with the wind.

Posted by mardenhill 2/09/2005 09:29:00 AM 2 comments    

Republicans awash in porn...
Tuesday, February 08, 2005

I am not saying porn is bad, I am just pointing out how Republicans take money from the industry and then use it to try to convince people that is is bad. Everyone loves a little porn now and again....

"Moral values" hypocrites take porn moneyby kos Tue Feb 8th, 2005 at 09:01:23 PSTHypocrisy, GOP style:

While its previous owners considered adult entertainment "immoral," Adelphia Communications Corp., the country's fifth-largest cable television provider, last week became the first to offer hard-core adult films on pay-per-view to its subscribers [...]
Viewers can watch such sexually explicit movies in the Hilton and Marriott hotel chains on video services like LodgeNet or on "On Command," which is owned by Liberty Media, formerly a part of AT&T; at home via DirecTV, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp; or via virtually every cable company, including Cox, Time Warner and Comcast [...]
While the corporations generate millions in profits from providing adult content, their political contributions are often given to those elected, in no small part, because of their stance on "moral values."
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Comcast Cable has given millions in political donations since 1998. The national Republican Party committees are its biggest organizational recipient, with donations totaling $851,000. President Bush is its biggest individual recipient with $109,000 in donations.
Adelphia has given $166,000 to Republican committees, $17,000 to conservative Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., and $12,000 to Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., one of the most conservative members of the Senate.

Terry Neal writes:
In this world of irony, corporate leaders at companies as diverse as News Corp., Marriott International and Time Warner can profit by selling red state consumers the very material that red state culture is supposed to despise. Those elites then funnel the proceeds to the GOP, which in turn has used the money to successfully convince red state voters that the other political party is solely responsible for the decline of the civilization.
Sirota has more.

Posted by mardenhill 2/08/2005 02:34:00 PM 2 comments    

Update: Oasis

Ticket Prices: US $25.50 - US $45.50

Tickets OnSale: Sat, 02/12/05 10:00 AM

Posted by mardenhill 2/08/2005 09:56:00 AM 1 comments    

OASIS IN DETROIT!!!!!

Time to get your shoes all shined up and ready to throw and to be hammered with indistinguishable insults and banter, cuz Oasis is coming back to town. If you have never seen Oasis, you are missing one of the best UK bands in the last 20 years. As for their choice of opening bands, yeah we all make mistakes but its still Oasis and u can always get there late.

OASIS are to play two more UK shows, as well as announcing details of a North American tour.
The band, who are preparing to release the follow-up to Heathen Chemistry in May, have announced they will play two nights at the Newcastle Metro Radio Arena on July 12-13.
Tickets are priced at £32.50 and go on sale 9am on Saturday (February 12).
In addition to their new UK dates, Oasis will play a selection of live shows in North America with Jet.
These will be the group's first performances in America since summer of 2002.
The North American dates are:
Toronto-Molson Amphitheatre (June 17)
Detroit Meadow Brook Amphitheatre (18)
Chicago-UIC Pavilion (20)
NYC Madison Square Garden (22)
Philadelphia- Festival Pier @ Penns Landing (25)

Posted by mardenhill 2/08/2005 09:45:00 AM 2 comments    

Detroit Timeline
Monday, February 07, 2005

http://www.freep.com/news/locway/detroitxx7e_20050207.htm

The Freep had an interesting article on the road to the superbowl with Detroit's progress and yet to be finished projects. There is also a .pdf of downtown as a map so those of you that are driving challenged downtown can hang this in your cube and memorize it. I admit, Detroit is not the easiest city to navigate, the whole spoke concept was cool about 200 years ago, but I am getting better and so should you. While we are on the Detroit kick, mark your calendars because Tigers tickets will go onsale in a month from now, see below. I have never gone to opening day and this year I am planning on it so if you are in, let me know.

2005 Individual Game tickets go on sale Saturday, March 5 at 10 a.m. ET.Please check back often for information, or register for The Roar to receive ticket information, breaking news, and All-Star Game information as soon as it's released

Posted by mardenhill 2/07/2005 09:24:00 AM 2 comments    

Republican "Morality"
Saturday, February 05, 2005

More sleazeball tactics from this morally/ethically/fiscally bankrupt group of fucking pigs we call our government. What will it take to put these guys away, its going on 5 years now and Ken Lay has yet to see jail time and the asshole from Tyco got off because some skank on the jury was paid off. Bernie Ebbers from WorldCom is currently on trial, who wants to bet on the out come? It just goes to show that Bush and co are protecting these corporate scumbags and we will not see any convictions until Bush is out of office. Will DeLay be brought to trial, I doubt it, and he will stay in office with all his ethics violations conducting business as usual. Maybe one morning I will wake up and see in the headlines that "The Hammer" has been indicted and will be stripped of his whip status, hell I probably have a better chance at winning the Big Game than seeing that happen.


Courtesy of http://semidi.blogsome.com/

Republican “Morality”

GOP Watch | Semidi, 09:39 am | Comments (0)

It’s hardly surprising that the GOPsters have resorted to this unethical and hypocritical stacking of the deck:

House Republican leaders tightened their control over the ethics committee yesterday by ousting its independent-minded chairman, appointing a replacement who is close to them and adding two new members who donated to the legal defense fund of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

Republican officials have spent months taking steps to ensure DeLay’s political survival in case he is indicted by a Texas grand jury investigating political fundraising, and House leadership aides said they needed to have the ethics committee controlled by lawmakers they can trust.

And this is the party whose members claim to be morally superior to the rest of us

Posted by mardenhill 2/05/2005 10:05:00 AM 0 comments    

Update: Napster To Go
Friday, February 04, 2005

Ok, I misspoke when I said that you had to pay the $15 plus the $10 for a total of $25 a month for the service, I think the $10 is no more if u upgrade to the "to go" service. So u are looking at $180 a year to rent your music with it living on your player and streaming thru your pc. The article below takes a look at this and compares it against the ipod and itunes which is pretty interesting. Yesterday I thought that $15 a month wouldn't be bad but $25 was, now I am thinking $15 is still bad since you do not own it. I don't know, if Apple comes out with a program, chances are it will be better than this one and it might sway me but we will see.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/04/napster_go_away/

Posted by mardenhill 2/04/2005 10:01:00 AM 2 comments    

Napster's new service
Thursday, February 03, 2005

Here's the lowdown on the Napster To Go service that will be airing in commercials over the Super Bowl. For $14.95 you can download unlimited amounts of music to your mp3 player (mind you, every player on the market except the ipod) and listen as much as you want. The fine print tho, you need to be a Napster subscriber which is $9.95 a month for unlimted streaming, (no burning) so Napster functions as a 1,000,000 song jukebox. So for $25 a month u can stream and download to your player but you need to maintain this subscription or all your music disappears. Not sure how this works, say u load your player with stuff and then cancel and never sync your handheld up again, I guess its yours but it will stay on your handheld until u delete it. So this sounds pretty cool, but then you are talking $300 a year to lease music that u cannot share. Now with the numbers up front, does it sound like a good deal? I don't think so, its still .99c a song $9.99 a cd to download and burn just like itunes. Napster claims to offer cheaper cds but not sure if they are any that we would want.

Maybe this will kick itunes into doing something like this, without the initial monthly subscription fee. I could handle $15 a month for leasing music, that could be pretty cool but $25 is too much. Keep this in mind when you start hearing about the new Napster To Go.....

Posted by mardenhill 2/03/2005 04:30:00 PM 3 comments    

SOTU tidbits....

I'm sick and tired of people complaining about the booing last nite like it was just a bunch of sore losers, please see below.

A history of booing
by kos
Thu Feb 3rd, 2005 at 10:01:34 PST

Courtest of the Stick*:
1999: Republicans Booed Clinton's Entrance
Many Republican lawmakers gave him a cool, though not impolite, reception. There were a smattering of boos when Clinton first entered the House chamber, but they were quickly drowned out by applause. Some Republicans barely applauded, or refused at all to clap. House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) were conspicuously silent. [Boston Herald, 1/20/99]

1998: Republicans Booed Clinton's Medicare Proposal
Clinton's health-care initiatives, chiefly in the form of a medical bill of rights, found support on both sides, especially his attack on managed-care health-care plans. ... Clinton's proposal to expand Medicare to allow Americans as young as 55 to buy into the system drew shouts of "no" and some boos from Republicans during his speech. [Chicago Tribune, 1/28/98]

1997: Republican's Booed Clinton's Opposition to the Balanced Budget Amendment
The Republican response was far warmer than perhaps any of Clinton's previous four State of the Union speeches. Time after time, Republicans jumped to their feet to join Democrats in applauding the president. Only once did they unmistakably and collectively show their disapproval--when Clinton spoke disparagingly of a GOP-sponsored constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Many Republicans hissed and some booed. [LA Times, 2/5/97]

1995: Republicans Booed Clinton and Walked Out During Speech
The upheaval wrought by the Republican election landslide was visible throughout the president's State of the Union address - from the moment Speaker Newt Gingrich took the gavel to the striking silence that often greeted Clinton from the GOP. At one point, Republicans even booed. About 20 of them left as Clinton went on and on for an hour and 20 minutes. [AP, 1/24/95]

(*) The "Stick" is the nickname given by the dKos community to the Senate Democratic Communications Center, a.k.a. the 'War Room'.

Posted by mardenhill 2/03/2005 01:12:00 PM 0 comments    

SOTU another waste of an evening
Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Well, our "favorite" president will be on TV tomorrow spewing forth more lies and propaganda and the sad thing is, the American public will eat it up. More half truths and religous fodder to mull over while Bush tries to convince us that Social Security will be bankrupt come 2018. Oh wait, the date was changed to 2020 just the other day when it was proved that Bush's numbers were more fuzzy math. Now if you actually look at a non biased report you will find out that Social Security is solvent for another 40 years and a few tweaks can extend that deadline. Bush has spent the Social Security surplus for his tax cuts with no intention on paying them back so all he has left to do without raising taxes is to privatize the program. Bush's idea is to take a percentage of your earnings and put them into a private acct and then cut your benefits when you reach retirement age. So if the stock market has a couple bad years, kinda like what has happened the last few years and u are set to retire, sorry your investment is not worth much and guess what, your benifits will be cut.

For more on the State of the Union and Bush's lies and failed policies check out the website below. They bring to light all lies of previous speeches.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=310515

Posted by mardenhill 2/01/2005 10:28:00 PM 1 comments    

DAMN PRETENTIOUS INDIE ROCKERS!!!!

Lets kill them all, I have decided that all pretentious indie rockers must die, they are the downfall of our civilization. This is from Pitchfork, our favorite source for news. I have posted the news a few days ago but its their spin on it that just pisses me off....

Ryan Adams Prepares Three Albums for ReleaseRob Mackey reports:If history has taught us anything, it's that Ryan Adams is a bit of a fool. But the Fork gives credit where credit is due, so we'll at least throw some adjective like ambitious or industrious before the word fool. The proof? In the latest development from the you've-got-to-be-kidding-me-Ryan department, everyone's (least? only?) favorite alt-country icon turned pastiche-happy-harlequin has announced plans to release three (three!) full-length albums in 2005, with one being a double album. Apparently his hand is feeling better...
Yes, Adams' official website-- which used to have a whole bunch of info, and is now a cryptic graveyard-- currently boasts a phony wedding invitation with all available info regarding each record-- the double album Cold Roses, and two solo efforts entitled Jacksonville and 29. However, as of yesterday, Cold Roses, set to street on April 19th, is the only album with a verified release date. In the boy-wonder's first non-solo outing since Whiskeytown, Cold Roses will be unveiled under the name Ryan Adams and the Cardinals. Who the Cardinals are, we're still not sure, but Willy Mason producer Thomas Schick was behind the boards while they played their instruments. Schick was also twiddlin' knobs when Adams recorded his second promised 2005 album, Jacksonville, which, as every rag will point out OVER and OVER and OVER AND OVER (starting right here), just so happens to be where Adams was born.
The third album, 29, will see the industrious singer-songwriter once again team up with bosom buddy/constant contributer/producer extrordianaire Ethan Johns. We'll keep you posted as tracklists become available. Then we'll save you the trouble and raze 'em down to the one EP worth of decent songs.
And, finally, as if three records wasn't enough news to digest, Adams also announced plans to tour North America and Europe in the spring, summer, and fall. Three albums, three seasons...one Ryan Adams.

Posted by mardenhill 2/01/2005 10:31:00 AM 2 comments    

OK This is the Coolest Invention Since the iPod
Saturday, January 29, 2005

http://www.sonos.com/

Check this out, this by far is the coolest mp3 device for the house I have come across. Now the price sucks so I won't be getting one for a while but the idea is here. What you have is a zone player for a room, that runs $499 a piece and u supply the speakers, kinda like the mac mini. Then for $399 you can get the controller that can access up to 32 different zone players. The controller displays all the zones and is color and shows your cd artwork if your tags are correct. Each player can stream internet radio and mp3s (all formats) wirelessly and does not have to play the same songs. So you can have different music in each room all pulling from your collection. They are selling 2 zone players and a controller for $1199, maybe when it comes down to about $399 for that setup I will be on board. I have a feeling I will be waiting for a while but feel free to keep this as a birthday or xmas gift for me, I wouldn't turn it down.

If this is too much for you, there is always the squeeze box from slim devices, there is no cool remote but the price is $199. I don't think you can have multiple ones around the house, I need to research that one but you have display on the unit with the song that is playing. You can download for your pocket pc a remote device that works wirelessly and shows artwork and playlists. This is way cool and would be a reason I would buy this unit.

http://www.slimdevices.com/index.html

For the mac users you have Air Port Express with Air Tunes that plugs into stereo systems and broadcasts your music wirelessly. I need to head to the Apple store to find out more about this one to see if u need the Air Port Extreme or if this will work with an existing wireless router. The price is $129, a remote is extra for $59. I don't really think this is the best option even though I have been raving about mac products the last couple months. There is no display and I am not really sure how this fits into existing stereos.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

One of my other favorite players out there is from Roku Labs, it looks way cool and can stream internet radio, mp3s and plugs into existing speakers. This one has a display on the unit that is easy to read and uses a remote to access your music. Now if this had a cool remote interface like the Sonos this would rock but of course no display on the remote.

http://www.rokulabs.com/

So I am still sitting here mulling over all the choices and will do so for probably the next 6 months. The Sonos rocks but too expensive, the air port, too many possible restrictions so that leaves me with the Roku which I think is a better option than the Slim Devices. If anyone has any other devices they think are worthy, please feel free to post a comment. There are a few other ones that I have looked at that are good but I can't remember their names so I couldn't write about them.

Posted by mardenhill 1/29/2005 05:00:00 PM 1 comments    

NEW RYAN ADAMS!!!!!!!
Friday, January 28, 2005

AMERICAN TRILOGY
RYAN ADAMS has announced plans to release three albums, including one double LP, this year.
A mock wedding invitation appeared on the singer’s official website revealing the titles and producers for Adams’ forthcoming releases.
So far ‘Cold Roses’, the double album, is the only one with a confirmed release date, April 19.
That record is credited to Ryan Adams And The Cardinals and is produced by Thomas Schick, who has also produced Willy Mason.
Schick has also produced an solo release to be titled ’Jacksonville’ after the town where Adams was born.
The other album revealed is another solo effort called ’29’, which sees Adams reunite with long-time collaborator and Kings Of Leon producer Ethan Johns.

Posted by mardenhill 1/28/2005 11:43:00 AM 1 comments    

Progressive Talk
Thursday, January 27, 2005

http://www.wxdx1310.com/main.html

Detroit (Courtesy of Clear Channel, go figure, they must be up to something) has a new station on the air at AM 1310. This is a mix between Air America shows and local personalities and this is its first week. I was listening on the way into work this morning and it was pretty good. It still seems a little raw and needing some more production but I think it will be a good listen. I was a bit annoyed with the caller and that the host kept the discussion going as long as she did. Check out the station when you get a chance and hopefully this blossom's into something good.

Posted by mardenhill 1/27/2005 09:16:00 AM 2 comments    

Detroit Revival
Wednesday, January 26, 2005

http://www.theworldiscoming.com/

Check out the website above, it will contain restaurants, bars, hotels, events etc all taking place in Detroit. They will also update it with economic development news relating to the Superbowl, Final Four, All Star Game all of which will be in Detroit over the next couple years. The site officially launches tomorrow so if you hit it tonight you will just get the front page. This is pretty cool and I hope that it is full of useful info.

Posted by mardenhill 1/26/2005 05:32:00 PM 2 comments    

'Bout Time Blair

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1398116,00.html

Tony Blair is meeting with the World Economic Forum tomorrow in Switzerland where he will have the ears of corporate execs to push thru environmental regulations. No, we will not get Koyoto but something is better than nothing seeing that our lame ass president refuses to address the subject. Blair has finally climbed down from Bush's lap to do some good for the global community.

Posted by mardenhill 1/26/2005 01:54:00 PM 2 comments    

Parmesan Bagels

One of my favorite bagels are the parmesan ones and Elaine's Bagels make some of the best. The problem is they are only made on Wednesdays and sometimes on Saturday if they come up on the baking calendar. This means that you have to wait until Wednesday to have one and if you don't get there early enough you miss out. I have been craving one for the past month and finally had one this morning, so now I am a happy camper. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Posted by mardenhill 1/26/2005 01:07:00 PM 0 comments    

Strange Bedfellows

http://slate.msn.com/id/2112608/

This article talks about Green Neocons, at first you may laugh but it makes sense, the neocons want to be more self dependent and out of the Middle East (after they bomb the hell out of it, can't forget that one). So what this means is that the left and the far right are teaming up to block the Bush admin's energy policy and push for more renewable energy. This along with Hillary's move to the center will start to fracture the Republican party, force the fat cats out into the open who only want to exploit the earth for its resources and hold them accountable. So who will be left, Bush and the religious right, yes they are a big voting bloc but if he starts to lose other factions of the party then he is screwed.

Posted by mardenhill 1/26/2005 09:19:00 AM 1 comments    

U2 Tour Dates

http://www.pollstar.com/tour/searchall.pl?By=Artist&Content=U2&Key=Y

Here you can check out the latest U2 dates for their new tour, at this time Detroit is not present but will be on the 2nd leg of the tour starting in the fall. Sources tell me that we should be expecting an October show at the Palace possibly the 25th. There is only 1 Detroit date scheduled but that can change since they are not playing before or after.

From the www.u2.com site:

Once again, U2 will offer General Admission floor tickets giving fans the best view in the house for the lowest ticket price. Reserved seat tickets in the stands will also be available. In North America, general admission floor tickets will be $49.50 (plus applicable service fees). Additional ticket prices will vary per market. There will be an 8 ticket limit per person with a maximum purchase of 2 general admission floor tickets.

So I am thinking that tickets will be $60-$70 by the time all the service charges are doled out. This is expensive but then again its U2 and I missed the last 2 tours so I will be attending this one.

******
Update on the U2 tour dates, I have found the "Unofficial" list of shows that contain dates thru the end of the year and Detroit is listed on Oct 25th with multiple dates before and after open.

http://www.undercover.com.au/news/2004/dec04/20041231_u2.html

Posted by mardenhill 1/26/2005 09:01:00 AM 1 comments    

Bush & Co. Inc
Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Courtesy of www.watchingthewatchers.org

This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed… were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees.

Can anyone tell me who said that? Was it:

A) George W. Bush
B) John Ashcroft
C) Donald Rumsfeld
D) Someone else

If you answered “someone else", you’d be right. It was Rudolf Hoess, SS Kommandant of the infamous Auschwitz death camp where over 2.5 million people were murdered.

Conservatives, who love to call Liberals whiny, get whiny as hell when the Bush administration is compared to Nazi Germany, or to fascism in general. Guess what, though? The comparisons are beginning to come through more and more.

Hitler was installed, then re-elected. Bush was installed, then re-elected. Hitler had Reichstag, Bush had 9/11. (I am not implying government collusion in 9/11, FYI) Both used their respective catastrophes to assume more power (Hitler with the Enabling Act, Bush with the USA PATRIOT Act), and to assume dictatorial powers.

Hitler used Christianity to give his words absolute authority and decried any who dissented as unpatriotic. Bush uses Christianity to give his words absolute authority and decries any who dissent as unpatriotic.

Hitler said:

“The German people are not a warlike nation. It is a soldierly one, which means it does not want a war, but does not fear it. It loves peace but also loves its honor and freedom”

Bush said:

We’re pursuing a strategy of freedom around the world, because I understand free nations will reject terror. Free nations will answer the hopes and aspirations of their people. Free nations will help us achieve the peace we all want.

I have rejected this type of comparison of Bush to Hitler for months, because Hitler was a genocidal maniac bent on ruling the world with his ideology. I submit this comparison now because I believe the same to be true of George W. Bush.

George W. Bush will have his empire, and he will kill any person, group, or country that stands in his way. I challenge any of you to tell me why that is not so, as he has already proved it.

Randy speaking now:

Do I agree with this, not completely but there are some valid points that need to be voiced about the current administration. People are all in a tizzy because Condi hasn't been confirmed, but when Bush makes statements that since he was elected he doesn't have to answer to the "misteps" in Iraq, the people have spoken and don't care. Well there are over 58 million people who care and if we can't get Bush to face the music then we sure as hell will hold his buddies to the fire. Bush's time will come, it will be more of a deconstruction of the republican party that he has completely destroyed by pushing it farther and farther right and using hate to gain power. I am glad that Barbara Boxer and other senate dems are asking the tough questions in the Gonzolas and Rice hearings, it needs to be done. Could this have happened say 2 years ago, I don't think so, too many "You're Unpatriotic, You're a Commie" would be flying everywhere. These are still being said but I think America is waking up a bit to the Bush administration's use of Patriotism as a weapon against their detractors. Condie will be confirmed, I have accepted this but I want to see her knocked down a few pegs and for once admit to the administration's mistakes.

Posted by mardenhill 1/25/2005 10:25:00 PM 4 comments    

Randy's Best of '04

Here is my best of that I have composed for my buddy Ted, if you do not have any of these releases, let me know and I will get them to you as fast as I can.

Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum (Probably the best singer/songwriter of our generation, the Bob Dylan of the Grunge Era, excellent cd, darker and more raw than his previous cds)

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Oh, My Girl (Jesse's voice is amazing, the sound of the cd is dark, haunting, alt country)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - (Great comeback cd from Nick's last release, its dark gospel backdrop is new and makes for a refreshing sound)

Interpol - Antics (Excellent cd from a great band, its hard to say anything bad about Interpol, its a given)

Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (Best "new wave revival" band, Franz Ferdinand are the only ones that have their own sound in this crazy nostalgic world of ours)

Neko Case - The Tigers Have Spoken (Neko has the best voice in the Alt Country genre and hearing her covers of classics just proves that she is for real)

Left Of The Dial Box Set ( This box set is full of great songs from the past, stuff all of us grew up on.)

Kasabian - Kasabian (Best new band, I love this cd, take the Happy Mondays, The Charlatans and the Stone Roses mix it together and u have Kasabian. The cd is like a greatest hits of all the best british bands from the past)

The Twilight Singers - She Loves You (Greg Duli is in the top 5 of the greatest singer/songwriters of our generation. The cd is all covers but listening to it, you would never knew if you didn't know the original. Greg is one of the few who can take a cover and make it his own)

The Waxwings - Lets Make Our Desecent (Great local band from Detroit, full of 60's janglepop)

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Damage (Jon Spencer is one of those you either love him or hate him, this isn't his best cd but it has some great songs and deserves to be mentioned)

Kings Of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street (Kings are from Norway and their style is soft, lush, Simon & Garfunkel for the modern age)

Keane - Hopes & Fears (I thought this was the new Coldplay but changed my mind, still great cd, lots of crazy soft piano exploding into a giant wall of sound)

The Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy (I'm not religious but this cd makes you want to wave your hands in the air and praise the lord, lots of fun)

Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell (This technically came out in 2003 as 2 EPs but the full cd came out in 2004 so its on my list, Anything Ryan does is great and the dark, brooding sound of this cd just rules)

Elbow - A Cast Of Thousands (Take all the emotion of Radiohead without the whiny vocals and multiply it by 10x, you now have Elbow. This cd is full of a beautiful melodies and rockin angst. Listen to Power Blue from their 1st cd and you will be blown away).

Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (Same as Interpol, can't really go wrong with Wilco, will just leave it at that)

R.E.M. - Around The Sun (Love R.E.M. been a fan forever and they make music that will still be good 10-20 years later)

Air - Walkie Talkie (One of the best cds to put on right before you fall to sleep, not quite Moon Safari's perfection but getting there)

Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse (Another excellent band, Stereolab takes all thats pretentious in the indie rock world and spins it into non traditional rock thats hard to sing along to but still fun to listen to)

Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse (Sonic Youth is like R.E.M., one of those bands that has stood the test of time and continues to create amazing music)


New Best Bands of 2005

Athlete (The next Coldplay (but better), pick up "Tourist" the second it comes out, these guys are amazing)

Bloc Party (Mix American Indie Rock with British Indie and you have these guys)

Dears (Morrissey/Smiths worshipers, sometimes a bit too much but their cd "No Cities Left" has some great songs)

Posted by mardenhill 1/25/2005 03:21:00 PM 2 comments    

Love the Mac Mini, Love the Mac Mini

http://www.freep.com/money/tech/mwendland25e_20050125.htm

So if you are in the market for a new computer or 2nd one, check out this review of the Mac Mini, it just may convince you to switch. I am still in love with the imac, its more powerful, all in one unit but more expensive. And for those of you still on the fence with the ipod, just buy it, you will not regret it. I have played with most of the mp3 players on the market and none come close to the simplicity and look of the ipod. Yes, they are more expensive but worth every penny. Consider this, you have 500 cds in your collection, rip them down to mp3, and store the bulk of it on your ipod, this becomes your stereo and you have decreased that much more clutter from your life.

Posted by mardenhill 1/25/2005 01:30:00 PM 1 comments    

New Blogger on the Block

http://cirrocsworld.blogspot.com/

Bookmark this blog and don't forget to check it out, its a good one.....

Posted by mardenhill 1/25/2005 01:21:00 PM 3 comments    

Keeping up on the Downloads.....
Monday, January 24, 2005

And to think the RIAA and record company execs thought people would never pay for digital downloads. I have done my fair share, I have bought about 6 cds from itunes so i am part of that 250 million downloads. Now if iTunes could lower their price and be more reasonable like www.emusic.com than I would download more.

courtesy of www.appleinsider.com

Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 250 million songs from the iTunes Music Store.

iTunes users are now downloading one and a quarter million songs per day, which is an annual run rate of almost half a billion songs per year. The iTunes Music Store is now available in fifteen countries, which together represent more than 70 percent of the global music market.

"When we launched the iTunes Music Store we were hoping to sell a million songs in the first six months—now we’re selling over a million songs every day, and we’ve sold over a quarter billion songs in total," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "iTunes is leading the way into the digital music era and together with iPod is changing the way millions of music lovers find and enjoy their music."

The iTunes Music Store features more than one million songs from the major music companies and 600 independent record labels, over 9,000 audiobooks, gift certificates and exclusive music not found anywhere else online.

Posted by mardenhill 1/24/2005 09:19:00 AM 3 comments    

Motown Winter Blast
Sunday, January 23, 2005

I went downtown today to check out the Motown Winter Blast and was suprised on how many people were down there. I guess after the bad weather yesterday, everyone flocked down today to check it out. They had warming tents setup with cars, bands and a taste fest booth with some great restaurants. I sampled the shrimp helena, shrimp wrapped in filo dough and a marinade from Opus One and a fish taco and cheese empanada from Dona Lola which is a new Latin seafood restaurant downtown. Its over by Mexicantown and doesn't have a liquor license but you can bring your own wine. Erika's boss has been there and has been raving about it for months now and keeps bugging us to check it out. There were dog sledding, model t car rides, sledding and ice sculptures and ice skating for everyone to enjoy. I just missed the Orbitsons playing, I walked in as they were tearing down which kinda sucked. This is a trial run to see how the turnout will be and they are planning on doing it next year during the superbowl. I would have to say it was a success and would to see it again next year.

I also went down to the auto show, I had a free ticket from work and didn't want it to go to waste. The best cars were the Toyta Prius, Sion XA & XB and the Smart cars from a division of Daimler Chrysler in Europe. They are supposed to be over here the end of the year and are pretty sweet cars. They are very small, think the mini and priced between $12K and $20K. There is a 2 person car, remember the rollerskate Suzuki had out back in the 90s, yeah its about that size. The 4 door is a decent size, if u were in the market for a Mini I would definitely check this one out also. There is also a 2 seater roadster which was very cool looking. Most of the american cars sucked, just big, gas guzzling and boring designs, nothing worth really buying. I am holding out for a Prius, probably in about 2 years.

www.thesmart.co.uk (The Smart car's website)

Posted by mardenhill 1/23/2005 07:06:00 PM 2 comments    

Love The iPod, Love The iPod

We all know that the ipod goes well with the mac but I just realized yesterday how flawlessly it works. I hadn't loaded my ipod in months since my pc died and I got the mac. I wanted to finish ripping and reorganizing my mp3s before I did so I would have music to put back on. Well with the help of the snowstorm yesterday I had some time to kill to reload my ipod. I plugged it in and within 5 minutes it was wiped clean and reformatted. I then just dragged and dropped new stuff onto it. The music doesn't even have to be in iTunes to copy to the ipod, I opened my external HD and pulled stuff right off that. So what I am saying is that everyone should give up their pcs and just onto the mac bandwagon.

New band to watch is Bloc Party, they will be getting a ton of press over here soon so keep your eyes open. I think they are playing Detroit in a couple months so mark your calendars. They are kinda all over the board sound wise, its hard to compare them to anyone.

From allmusic.com
Equally inspired by Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Gang of Four and the Cure, South London art-punkers Bloc Party mix angular sonics with pop structures.

I can see these bands but then none of them stand out more than anyother. They are probably the indiest sounding British band out there, lots of tension style riffs with talking/singing vocals.

www.blocparty.com

Posted by mardenhill 1/23/2005 11:41:00 AM 1 comments    

The Next Coldplay
Saturday, January 22, 2005

Well I think I have found the next Coldplay and they go by the name of Athlete. Their new cd "Tourist" starts off with a piano and lazy singing then the strings, drums and guitar break in. The vocals are a mix between Chris Martin and the guy from Elbow which make for a great sound. Athlete mixes a little more electronics into their music than Coldplay which is the only thing that really separates them. On the song "Tourist" there are hints of an RnB feel, I thought the UK white boys realized that they cannot play this sound after the Charlatans UK bust in this genre, but by the 6th song there are gospel background vocals and the guy keeps singing about "you got soul". This is Athlete's 2nd cd, I need to get the 1st one to have a better understanding where these guys are coming from. Overall, the cd is a good listen, its just like Coldplay you don't want to like it but it just sounds good. I am very curious to see what Chris Martin and Co. will pull off with their 3rd cd, will it be a Pearl Jam that started to branch off in a different direction or will it be played safe with larger than life piano ballads. Check this one out, don't think you will be disappointed and then you can say u heard of them before all the mags jump all over them. Actually I really can't say that, its been months since I last read a music mag and they may already be there. NME loves them and we all know that if NME gives out props then it must be good.

Posted by mardenhill 1/22/2005 05:13:00 PM 0 comments    

1st the Telletubbies now Spongebob
Thursday, January 20, 2005

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4190699.stm

This is classic, the religious right is now attacking spongebob for being "too gay". I guess when you inject happy images, humor and friendly dialog into something it becomes gay. There will now be a boycott of spongebob because he appears in a diversity/unity video. I guess its veggie tales 24/7 for the rest of our natural born lives. Man I can't wait to sit down and get my 30 minute moral lessons from talking food. If you have never seen veggie tales, its mighty painful and I don't recommend it on anyone. I'm not a big spongebob fan, he is kinda annoying but this is pathetic.

Well we are stuck with the monkey for another 4 years, get the flasks out, its going to be a long nite.

Posted by mardenhill 1/20/2005 01:45:00 PM 1 comments    

Petition Time
Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Ok, its a bit late but better late than never, check out and support Barbara Boxer.

http://ga4.org/campaign/ricehearings/step1.tcl

Barbara plans on asking the Condi Rice why she lied about the Saddam/Bin Laden connection and why we were not better prepared for an attack. We all know Condi will be confirmed but it would be nice to actually have some answers from this administration for a change.

from www.dailykos.com

This is an excerpt of Barbara's opening statement for the hearings.

It is my hope that today, we will have a candid discussion, Dr. Rice, because I believe it is crucial that a Secretary of State speak openly and honestly with the American people and with Congress. Frankly, this issue of candor is where my concern lies.
Since 9/11, we have been engaged in a just fight against terrorism. I voted to use force against Osama bin Laden and the terrorists in Afghanistan, and I assumed that we would focus on that challenge, not stopping until we got bin Laden, dead or alive, and broke the back of al Qaeda.
However, instead, with you in a lead role Dr. Rice, we went into Iraq. I want to read you one paragraph that best expresses my views, and the views of millions of Californians, on the impact of the Iraqi war on the war against terrorism. It was written by one of the world's experts on terrorism and foreign policy, Peter Bergen, five months ago.
He wrote:

"What we have done in Iraq is what bin Laden could not have hoped for in his wildest dreams: We invaded an oil-rich Muslim nation in the heart of the Middle East, the very type of imperial adventure that bin Laden has long predicted was the United States' long-term goal in the region. We deposed the secular socialist Saddam, whom bin Laden has long despised, ignited Sunni and Shia fundamentalist fervor in Iraq, and have now provoked a "defensive" jihad that has galvanized jihad-minded Muslims around the world. It's hard to imagine a set of policies better designed to sabotage the war on terrorism."

This conclusion was reiterated last Thursday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA Director's think tank, which released a report saying that Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists. NIC Chairman Robert L. Hutchings said that Iraq is "a magnet for international terrorist activity."

These quotations are significant to this hearing, Dr. Rice, because as a major proponent and spokesperson for the war in Iraq, and as someone who was asked by the President to make the case for this war to the American people, and as the person in charge of the reconstruction effort- you have many questions to answer to the American people.

This war was sold to the American people- as Chief of Staff to President Bush, Andy Card said-like a "new product." You rolled out the idea and then you had to convince the people, and as you made your case, I personally believe that your loyalty to the mission you were given overwhelmed your respect for the truth. That was a great disservice to the American people.
But worse than that, our young men and women are dying. So far, 1342 American troops have been killed in Iraq. More than 25 percent of those troops were from California. More than 10,000 have been wounded. I don't want their families to think for a minute that their lives and bodies were given in vain. Because when your commander in chief asks you to sacrifice yourself for your country, it is noble to answer the call. I am giving their families all the support that they want and need, but I will also not shrink from questioning a war that was not built on the truth.

Posted by mardenhill 1/18/2005 11:35:00 AM 6 comments    

A Place Not To Live
Monday, January 17, 2005

I was listening to NPR today and they had a segment on the new religious hotspot in the US and it is Colorado Springs. This city is home to a number of new religious right political action groups and ministries. Back in the 80s young men headed out west to start new churches and settled in Colorado Springs. The pastor of an 11,000 member congregration said that it is the US answer to Jerusuleum and Mecca. They are now running for office and dictating their agenda in all aspects of life. One good thing to know, the start of the Darwin fish car stickers originated here by a local who is sick and tired of what has been happening to his city. It was a pretty scary report, and you think Salt Lake is bad, this is even worse. Next time you receive some obnoxious political mailing with hints of religion check to see where it came from, chances are it's this town.

Posted by mardenhill 1/17/2005 11:17:00 PM 1 comments    

Simply Wine

If you haven't been down to Simply Wine in Ferndale I highly recommend it. The store is on Woodward south of 9 Mile across the street from the Woodward Avenue Brewery. The store's setup is pretty interesting, instead of the traditional order the wines are categorized by flavors. You have clean, mineral, crisp area featuring a selection of whites that fall into that taste. This can be chardonnays, chenin blancs and sauvignon blancs etc, from all different regions. There is also rich for whites, rustic and ripe for reds. The owners want you to tell them what flavors or styles you like and they will help you pick a wine out. The prices are all under $15 on these shelves (a few are couple dollars more) and the special occasion section. You will not find a Kendall Jackson here, don't expect to see to many names you recognize. The owner wants to sell wines that don't typically make it to your normal stores but are still good and a bargain. I picked up a 2000 LaPlaya Claret from the Colchaua Valley in Chile for $11.25. This wine is a blend of cab, merlot, carmenere and syrah and is aged in oak.

Overall I was impressed with the store, the concept is cool and its nice to see some different bottles. I have about 3 other ones that I am interested in trying, maybe this weekend I will pick up another bottle. They also have a monthly wine tasting for $20, this month will be pinot noir.

Posted by mardenhill 1/17/2005 06:31:00 PM 2 comments    

from Wonkette.com

CBS News: Now with More Perky!

TIME reports that Katie Couric has been approached about using her pert behind to fill the CBS Evening News anchor seat, a move we can only applaud. It's about time that the national evening news more resembled the comforting, cheerful pabulum that makes our mornings so delightfully numb. We can kinda hear her now: "Social security. . . blah blah. . .Iraq killings . . . blah blah. . .This kitten got stuck in a tree! And Senator Bob Dole is 82 years young!" And who knows how she'll cover natural disasters: "And I actually called our newsdesk on Saturday and said: 'I know that we have this tsunami going on, and--and all these people, but is it true that they broke up?'"

Oh, wait. . . that already happened.

Goodbye, Dan. Hello, Katie? [TIME]

I cannot think of another way to kill a show and all its credibility than to hand it over to Katie Couric. I bet Bush has something to do with this, he didn't like Dan Rather and wants to get back at CBS so putting Katie in charge is one way of doing it. I really hope this doesn't happen, TV news will have officially reached an ultime low and force me to rely only on the internet.

Posted by mardenhill 1/17/2005 06:26:00 PM 2 comments    

If At First You Don't Succeed, Change Your Story
Friday, January 14, 2005

Well its official, the search for WMD's in Iraq has come to a close with the grand total found, a big ZERO. Lets go back in time, Bush's reason for invading Iraq reason 1. Saddam helped Bin Laden with the 9/11 attack. This was proven false so reason 2, Saddam had WMD's pointed at the US ready to kill us all. This was proven false a number of times so onto reason 3. The liberation of Iraq which hasn't proven to be as easy as they thought. So 200 Billion dollars later and we are still there hoping the election will take place so we can slide out the back door. Our coalition of the willing is shrinking, Ukraine will be pulling their troops out in the next few months.

I just found this and I think it is the 1st Bush apology ever, amazing I tell ya.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said he regretted sending the wrong impression of the United States when he used phrases like "Bring 'em on" and "dead or alive" in his first term and pledged to be more diplomatic.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=1&u=/nm/20050114/pl_nm/bush_bluntness_dc

So what does this tell us, the cowboy mentality really doesn't fly with the rest of the world. Dirty Harry only exists in the movies, not real life. Will Bush change, I think not but he is finally coming around and admitting to his arrogant mistakes. Will he ever admit to lying about WMDs?

Posted by mardenhill 1/14/2005 11:10:00 AM 1 comments    

Front Page News
Thursday, January 13, 2005

Damn that Prince Harry, he knocked Kid Rock off the Drudge Report front page with his Nazi costume. I have a feeling that Bush had the pic planted to divert attention away from him and onto the Brits who are starting to distance themselves from the Administration. Yep, Bush paid off Drudge just like he paid off Armstrong Williams to promote No Child Left Behind. For those of you who are not familiar with this story, Armstrong was paid $240,000 to promote the failed plan thru his tv spots and news columns. Yes, this is illegal and rumor is there are more pay for plays floating around that will be coming out in the next few weeks.

A good site to bookmark that will keep u on top of things is www.rawstory.com

Ok, maybe Bush didn't have anything to do with it, but its fun to connect the dots.

Posted by mardenhill 1/13/2005 10:32:00 AM 1 comments    

New Elbow in May

ELBOW GO BACK TO THEIR ROOTS
ELBOW’s third album sees them return home and go back to basics after the traumatic recording of ‘CAST OF THOUSANDS’.
The band have recorded their new album in Manchester in an open plan space on the top floor of Salford’s Blueprint Studios. The band have produced the album themselves.
Singer Guy Garvey told NME.COM: “It’s very well documented that [making the second album] was really tough. And much as we all love the record, there wasn’t much joy involved in it. The actual experience was thoroughly fucking joyless to be honest.”
Determined to change the process, the band resolved to write on the road, and, refreshed, set about making the album without any outside influences.
The band have been joined by Mark Thomas from the Soup Collective, who alongside doing the visuals for Elbow, has made videos and animations for big-league pop stars Girls Aloud and Appleton.
Thomas is working on animations and visual ideas that grow at the same rate as the music that inspired them. But far from an Andy Warhol Factory vibe, bassist Pete Turner insists “it’s more like a youth club!”
“It’s brilliant though,” he continued, “because there’s artists coming in doing little sketches every day, people coming in and taking photographs.”
Mark’s works in progress are projected on a giant screen in front of the band as they write and record.
“It’s such a great vibe,” continued Guy. “We totally have control of what this environment looks like, feels like. It makes sense to have Mark up there, because [images] are so closely linked in the way people perceive stuff these days. And he makes a great cup of tea.”
Opening track ‘Station Approach’ describes coming home, taking its name from the road leading up to Piccadilly Train Station, while possible first single ‘Buddha With Mace’ describes a fat bouncer.
Guy added: “We’ve all really missed being at home. I spend a lot of time in the same few bars, but you fucking crave them when you’re away. It’s fucking great here, compared to how it was. It’s just getting better and better.”
The album, currently untitled, is due in May.

Posted by mardenhill 1/13/2005 10:30:00 AM 2 comments    

Start the Book Burnings
Wednesday, January 12, 2005

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42351

Just like I said before, Bush is caving to the religious right and pulling Kid Rock from the twins inauguration concert. Citing perverse lryics and bad morals the American Family Association has pressured the administration to pull Kid Rock from the bill. Its ok for him to play the superbowl and to perform for the troops overseas but now he's a bad guy even though he supports the president. Chalk another one up to the christian coalition, how many more before this country wakes up.

Posted by mardenhill 1/12/2005 03:00:00 PM 7 comments    

Ipod Shuffle

Ipod Shuffle

Here is the latest ipod, its a flash based player, 512 megs and 1 gig for $99 and $149. You will see there is no screen this fits with Apple's "Life is Random" catch phrase. The idea, you plug it in like the USB jump drive and it randomly pulls tracks from your itunes catalog. You can set it to pull from specific genres but it is all random. That way when you are listening you have no clue what the next song is. This is not for control freaks but the idea is pretty sweet and would be great for running/exercising. I won't be getting one but I still think they are pretty sweet plus they are smaller than a pack of gum.

Check them out at www.apple.com

Posted by mardenhill 1/12/2005 01:53:00 PM 0 comments    

New Mac Desktop

Mac Mini

Here is the new Mac Desktop, its called the mini and costs $499 and can be upgraded. You supply your own keyboard, mouse and monitor or can buy them from Apple but its geared for windows users to switch. The specs are pretty good and can be upgraded from 256 megs of ram to 1 gig and the harddrive from 40 gigs to 80 gigs. I say spend the extra money and get an imac but for a 2nd box for those of u with a disposible income, this rocks. No dvd burner just player and cd burner but that can also be upgraded.

the size is 6x6x2 and fits in the palm of your hand, talk about cool. Check it out at www.apple.com

Posted by mardenhill 1/12/2005 01:52:00 PM 2 comments    

I Hate Cars!!!
Tuesday, January 11, 2005

What a wonderful way to start the day off, waiting for roadside assistance to come unlock your car. Thats me today, I was cleaning off my car this morning and locked my keys in my car after starting it. I must have hit the lock button on that stupid remote and shut the door. I have torn apart my house but cannot find my 2nd set of keys anywhere. If I was smart I would have looked a long time ago and then gone and had a 2nd set made to hang up next to Erika's 2nd set. But no, thats too easy. At least I was at home and can wait for asssitance inside while I blog and watch CNN. I had to call my boss who just laughed at me and will of course tell the rest of my team.

I just got a copy of the new Magnapop which is amazing, I didn't even know they were back together until Woxy had played them the other day. If anyone is interested let me know and I will make u a copy. I aslo have the new Bloc Party which is supposed to be the next Franz Ferdinand, they are the latest buzz all over the UK. Well it looks like my assistance is here, more later.

Posted by mardenhill 1/11/2005 09:25:00 AM 0 comments    

Detroit at it again
Saturday, January 08, 2005

Now this is classic, get Kid Rock to perform for your daughter's and piss off your conservative base. Lets see what Bush will do, appease his base or put family first, my bet is on the base. Last year Kid Rock performed at the superbowl while wearing a flag but Janet seemed to get in the most trouble. I am hoping he plays and the conservatives and their false values protest the show, that would be a sight to see. Hey the conservatives want the south and the common man, but with that comes the booze and sex. Not sure how that fits into their grand plan. They can have Kid Rock tho, I would rather have Eminem on my side.

Rap Kid Rock inaugural pick; AFA is not happy.

BY MAKI BECKER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Conservative Christians are flabbergasted about reports that raunchy rock-rapper Kid Rock will perform at a youth concert at the presidential inauguration. "What in the world are these people thinking?" asked Donald Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. "This is the biggest slap in the face to the Christian conservatives." Kid Rock reportedly will perform at "America Rocks Today: A Call to Service," a multimedia concert.

Ann Coulter loves the Kid, so it shouldn't turn out to be a problem.

courtsey of www.politicalwire.com

Kid Rock Rapped
"Inauguration planners seemed to be backpedaling yesterday" about a possible Kid Rock appearance at an inaugural event, the New York Daily News reports. Said a spokesperson: "Kid Rock has not been confirmed."

The problem? "The almost-34-year-old Detroit bad boy is currently dating porn actress Jessie James, never goes anywhere without a pint of bourbon in his back pocket and rattles off X-rated lyrics that regularly earn his albums parental advisory warnings."

Posted by mardenhill 1/08/2005 10:33:00 PM 1 comments    

NEW OASIS!!!!!
Friday, January 07, 2005

NOEL SPILLS BEANS ON NEW OASIS LP
OASIS guitarist NOEL GALLAGHER has spoken out about the release of the band’s forthcoming studio album.
The as-yet-untitled LP will hit the shops on May 16 and features 12 songs written by Noel, singer Liam guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell.
He said: "The finished album is my favourite one of the last four. Because we're all contributing to the songwriting there's a different feel to it. In fact the only songs that sound like Oasis are Andy Bell's funnily enough.
"I've been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan last year, Liam was obviously some guy who used to be in a band in Liverpool, Gem's a very rock and roll but not in a Jet way if you know what I mean. Andy's just sound like Oasis, which is great."
The band are currently approving the artwork for the release, which according to Noel "looks quite bleak and northern", but are yet to decide on the first single to be lifted from the LP.
"There was an obvious first single but I was singing it," Noel explained. "After 12 years of Oasis, Liam thought that might sound a bit odd, people might think he'd left the band. He threw his cans out the pram."
Talking to Radio 1's Jo Whiley, the guitarist gave fans an insight into his favourite tracks on the album and said that his brother’s songs are "very, very good".
"If I had to pick one it would be ’The Importance of Being Idle’," he revealed. "That sounds a bit like The Kinks, a bit like The La's, a bit Liverpudlian. I think it's got the best lyrics. I'm getting quite fed up with London at the minute, there's one song called ’Part Of The Queue’ which is about living in London and how you always seem to be queuing up for things in that city and how it almost … when I moved to London about 12 years ago it blew me away but the novelty has worn off. It's become so overcrowded over the last three or four years that we're upping sticks and moving."
Noel said: "The most interesting thing will be when you hear Liam's songs. They are very, very good. A song called ’Guess God Thinks I'm Able’. The end 30 seconds will blow you away. It's great."

Oasis will head out on a UK stadium tour in the summer, having sold over 330,000 tickets for the dates. The shows are Glasgow Hampden Park (June 29), City Of Manchester Stadium (30, July 2-3), Southampton Rose Bowl Stadium (6) and Milton Keynes National Bowl (9-10).
Noel said that the group have "bagged some magnificent support bands" for the tour, though did not reveal the exact names.

As for a tour, I don't see them coming over until fall, that way they can play the European festivals. I can wait til fall, another show like the last one at the Fox and I will be a happy camper. Their last show was the best show I have ever seen them on, it was the last of the tour and they did not want to leave the stage. It does rival their very 1st show I saw in '94 when someone threw a shoe at Liam and he stormed off stage and Noel finished the show but musically it wins hands down. If you have never seen Oasis, you are missing one of the best live bands around.

Posted by mardenhill 1/07/2005 09:43:00 AM 2 comments    

Delay and Co.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Courtesy of www.dailykos.com

The GOP will drop efforts to change the ethics rules, and will also go back to the old rule that indicted leadership have to surrender their posts.
House Republicans suddenly reversed course Monday, deciding to retain a tough standard for lawmaker discipline and reinstate a rule that would force Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step aside if indicted by a Texas grand jury.
The surprise dual decisions were made by Speaker Dennis Hastert and by DeLay who asked GOP colleagues to undo the extreme act of loyalty they handed him in November. Then, Republicans changed a party rule so DeLay could retain his leadership post if indicted by the grand jury in Austin that charged three of the Texas Republican's associates.
When Republicans began their closed-door meeting Monday night, leaders were considering a rules change that would have made it tougher to rebuke a House member for misconduct. The proposal would have required a more specific finding of ethical violations.
Republicans gave no indication before the meeting that the indictment rule would be changed. Even more surprising was DeLay's decision to make the proposal himself.
Jonathan Grella, a DeLay spokesman, said DeLay still believed it was legitimate to allow a leader to retain his post while under indictment. But Grella said that by reinstating the rule that he step aside, DeLay was "denying the Democrats their lone issue. Anything that could undermine our agenda needs to be nipped in the bud."First they're for ethics, then they're against them, now they're for them again.
We all know what that's called, right?

One of the main reasons, Pelosi was going to intruduce a vote in the House today on whether or not this should take place. This vote would have put targets on anyone who supported it so Delay and co. caved at the last minute. Delay is an arrogant asshole who still thinks he should hold house leader even if he is indited. Instead of dragging his party thru the mud with him, he finally got some balls and will face the music himself. This is the party that came in '94 and changed the law to what is currently is then wanted to change it to benefit them. Hmm, flip flopping, sleazeballs who have no moral backbones and who want to dictate every inch of your life. Looks like we are off to a good year so far.

Posted by mardenhill 1/04/2005 09:14:00 AM 1 comments    

Sandbox
Monday, January 03, 2005

Just talked to Kent and he is alive and well, missed the Tsunami by 1 day so we can stop worrying about him.

I just got the latest Mark Sandman - Sandbox which is a 2 disc set featuring songs not recorded for Morphine. It spans Mark's whole career and is amazing in the sense you can see all of his influences and interests. I have just added this onto my best of 2004 list, its too good to pass up. There is a dvd that comes with the set so I will pick this one up at the store one of these days. I am a huge morphine fan and anything related to them is almost as good as Oasis, Buffalo Tom and Babybird in my book.

I just got a copy of the Tears - Live, the quality is ok but it comprises Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler. Both were members of Suede but Bernard left the band after the 1st release and hadn't talked to Brett until last year.

Other than that, just at work trying to catch up on things.

Posted by mardenhill 1/03/2005 11:21:00 AM 5 comments    

Well Its About Time!!!
Saturday, January 01, 2005

Happy New Years to everyone, hope this year is even better than the last.

For starters, this should make some people happy.

Goin' South, Gonzo StyleUpdated 10:07 PST Mon, Dec 27 2004
CONCORD, Mich. (AP) _ The Motor City Madman is officially turning Texan. Michigan rocker and hunting activist Ted Nugent says he plans to get a Texas driver's license soon. He said in a phone interview Wednesday that he officially will become a Texas resident in 2005, after moving his family to Crawford, Texas, about a year and a half ago. The rock guitarist was at his Michigan house in Concord, near Jackson, during the holidays to prepare for his Whiplash Bash tour. Nugent said he plans a New Year's hunting excursion with Texas Gov. Rick Perry. He said his son, Rocco Nugent, is excelling in the local schools and has done well in sports. And the hunting in Crawford is great, too, he said. "Right behind Rocco's school is game! It's a barbecue dream," he said. Nugent, who said he supports President Bush "100 percent," said his new home is "right around the corner" from Bush's ranch. Nugent said he is working with the Texas fish and game department, where he writes for a state publication on bow-hunting. Nugent and his wife have started a "Hunters for the Hungry" program there that delivers venison and other game to those who need food, he told The Jackson Citizen Patriot. The second episode of his VH1 TV series, Surviving Nugent, was shot last spring in Waco, Texas, not far from Crawford. Nugent said he will keep his Michigan property and rebuild the house next spring, returning for hunting and family events.

This rules out Ted for governer now which has been heavily rumored. I don't think he could be Granholm but u never know with the way things have been lately. This may work in our favor, get all the crazies to move to texas, cut it off from the US and give it back to Mexico.

I talked to my friend Tonya who just received a postcard from our friend Kent who is vacationing in Thailand which said he was heading to Phuket on Dec 24th. I have scoured the internet for info on him but havn't found out anything yet. He is supposed to be back in the states tomorrow, we are hoping for the best. Its Kent Bergwall, please keep your eyes open for this name if u are reading anything regarding the Tsumani.

Well its off to clean up from last nite, had a fondue party and need to finish cleaning the kitchen.

Posted by mardenhill 1/01/2005 01:01:00 PM 0 comments