Back around Christmas we went up to Ballarat for a family gathering. This shot is of one of the marble statues in the Botanical gardens. I used it as a test bed for using the Calculations approach to Black & White conversion and I’m quite pleased with the outcome. I will try this again when I find a suitable photo to process.
And I've got to admit to a wry smile as the course of events is fairly predictable, indignant outrage, followed by much of the aformentioned gnashing and wringing and then we get the wonderful quotes, "That's it I want my money back" and "I'm cancelling my account, farewell cruel flickr-verse". It's all happened before, Flickr got sold to Yahoo, the population seethed but survived, Yahoo changed some stuff, the Flickr-ites lost their collective minds but survived and now it's happening again. The melodrama is going to be fabulous but the community will carry on, and hey, if it doesn't there are heaps of alternative. I cant wait to see what happens next!
Still, these are some mighty creative people and it's well worth popping over to have a look at the photo's, some really funny stuff on show. My all-time-fave a LOL-Ballmer.
It was an odd year for music, Radiohead tried their download experiment to mixed result, the RIAA continued chasing Joe Average and press for Arcade Fire went through the roof when Harry Potter came out as a fan. Throughout the year though I’ve not found a great deal of music that has really grabbed me. In 2006 there was a great Hold Steady album and a Decemberists release that just blew me away, the Artic Monkeys presented their outstanding debut and we had a Tom Waits triple album. Really 2006 spoiled me for choice.
2007 has been a little more sparse and while I had a tongue in cheek jab at a few albums last week there has been a number of very good albums released. Without further dilly dallying, my Top 5 albums for 2007 are as follows:
#5 Raising Sand –
Robert Plant / Allison Krauss
The standout track to my ear is “Gone Gone Gone” which bounces
along at a nice clip with a really catchy riff. In the end though this album is
all about the unlikely harmonies of Plant & Krauss, a surprise duet that I
would never have expected but the results are just brilliant. It’s really
strange to hear Plant so contained. The
album does get just a little ‘folksie’ in places but is always engaging. Made
#24 in Rolling Stones Top 50.
#4 Sound of Silver –
LCD Sound System
Ouch, I’m listening to Electronica and enjoying it. "Sound of
Silver" is really infectious and pulls me in from the opening track. "North
American Scum" is the highlight for me from this album but I find once I start
listening to SoS I pretty much go end to end. If you don’t usually listen to
Electronic music I’d recommend SoS as a very accessible entry point to the
genre. Made #7 in Rolling Stones Top 50.
#3 New Moon – Elliott
Smith
This album has been my WOW moment for 2007 and the only
reason it’s not further up the list is that I only just got it in the last
couple of days. Predominantly acoustic with beautiful guitar work this double
album is the sort of record that I can sit back and just listen to as an event
in itself. I had never listened to Elliott Smith before and was immediately
sucked into this album and will be digging into his back catalog.
#2 GaGaGaGaGa – Spoon
This album was a surprise to me and to be honest it took a
while to grow on me but now at the back end of the year GaGaGaGaGa is one of my
most played albums of the year. The highlight track for me is definitively “The
Underdog” which opens with a nice bouncy acoustic groove and breaks into horns
through the chorus, it’s just a fun song…I love this quote from Pitchfork, ‘”Underdog”
is a battle cry against succumbing to mediocrity masquerading as a middle
finger to the standard-bearers’. One complaint, it’s a bloody short album. Made
#10 in Rolling Stones Top 50.
#1 Children Running
Through – Patty Griffin
“Children running Through” has been my highlight album of
the year. The album opens with a soulful jazz bass and a glorious clear voice
through “You’ll Remember” and then the bluesy groove through “Stay the Ride”. There
are so many great songs on this album, perhaps one or two fillers that didn’t appeal
to me. This is the album has definitely become my favorite for 2007.
Honorable Mentions
Restricting any list to 5 is almost impossible, here are the albums that I just couldn’t fit into my Top 5 but had to give a nod to. If I had gone to a Top 10 these guys would definitely be there.
- From here we go sublime – The Field
- Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters – The Twilight Sad
- Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace – Foo Fighters
I tend to listen to a lot of music and collect heaps of different CD’s. I don’t consider myself a fan particularly of any one band (with a couple of exceptions) or genre and tend to splash around all over the place. Every year I have one or two of those perfect music moments, you know the ones…those WOW moments, the epiphany that occurs when the music just grabs you and drags you away. In the last few years these WOW moments have given me The Decemberists, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Flogging Molly and The Hold Steady. This post is NOT about those WOW moments. When I was planning this post I was going to do a simple Top 10 type list but going over my list of albums from 2007 I found such a huge range of eclectic stuff that I thought I might do something a bit different first.
Most Disappointing Follow Up album of the year
Velvet Revolver – Libertad
Arrgh…this was just frustrating. Contraband was just such a revelation when it was released, it was brainless, stupid, back to basic rock and roll and it was brilliant. There hadn’t been as good a balls out rock record in years. Unfortunately Libertad feels like it’s the left overs from the Contraband sessions, there is nothing really new here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great rock album but personally I just expected VR to step it up from Contraband but Libertad isn’t that album.
The “How the hell did I end Up Listening to this?” Award for the most surprising album of the year
Miranda Lambert – Crazy ex Girlfriend
How the hell did this end up on my iPod, I mean it’s everything I usually steer away from. From the opener this album is just brilliant and you cant help but bounce along with it. Sure enough, it has it’s fair share Howdy Jim-Bob Down on the farm C&W specials but hey that’s why there is a skip button on the iPod. Miranda Lambert has a gorgeous voice and can belt out a song that forces you to play it again. This one may well pop up again in my Top 10 list. It still surprises me every time I see it on the iPod though.
The “Should have called in sick” award for DOA albums of 2007
This is my bitter & twisted section. There were two albums this year that I was really looking forward to. I would classify as a shameless fan-boy of both these bands, I have the full back catalog of both an listen to all their albums regularly. The thought of new albums from these bands, my heroes was just a huge event on my music horizon for 2007.
Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist
Yes, I am a Billy Corgan fan-boy, and the thought of a new Pumpkins album filled me with delicious anticipation. Leading up to the album release there was a single release of Tarantula and I really thought it captured everything I loved about The Smashing Pumpkins. A second single Doomsday Clock snuck out pre-album release and again, a great track. On the strength of these two great Pumpkins-esque tracks I was almost drooling when I finally got the CD. With the exception of the two singles Zeitgeist was removed from the iPod.
The Cult – Born Into This
I LOVE The Cult. I discovered them via “Electric” in 1985-6
when I was a pretend wanna-be muso myself and have followed them ever since.
Like my experience with the SP’s I was soooo looking forward to one of my fave
bands releasing a new albums. “Born Into This” sucks pretty much from the
outset though and sounds like the band are really just going through the
motions. Did not grab me at all.
The “Thanks for the Bleeding Ears” Award for the loudest album of the year
Dillinger Escape Plan – Ire Works
Man this is just so fucking loud! I’m told the album is just great but I don’t know whether I like it or not yet as I’ve not gotten past the first track. I’m told the ruptured ear drums will heal.
The “I must be
getting old ‘cos I just don’t get it” award for inaccessible electronica album 2007
Stars of the Lid – And the refinement of the decline
Over the years I have had the opportunity to spend time in isolation tanks (float tanks) where you nude up, hop into a fiberglass coffin, close the lid and float for an hour while listening to some monkey pressing random keys on a Hammond Organ. Stars of the Lid captures that float tank experience and transports it to your iPod. Random electronic noises float through space fading in and out. I don’t get it!
Now if I could just get those kids off my lawn
The “Bugger the Music, what about those Buns” award for the nicest buttocks on an album cover for 2007
The Donnas – Bitchin’
I’m not even going to mention the music, it isn’t going close to the Top 10. But that album cover does buy a large amount of forgiveness!
I’m going to do my 2007 Top 10 list over the next few days (see how optimistic I am!) but if you have a WOW recommendation for 2007 I’d love to hear from you.
This product got me thinking about how these guys should follow Apples lead on product variation. They could release the standard iPood Classic, 40Gb model and an 80Gb model for big boys. For the kiddies they could have the iPood Nano. The iPood Video would be great for those who like to take their time, you know, watch a quick episode of 'House' while doing their business.
I'm not not sure that the iPood Touch has a slot in this product line-up but hey, whatever floats your boat.
The last few years the advent of higher net speeds and better sharing protocols (BitTorrent) have really changed the landscape. Suddenly any ole average Aussie consumer can log on to the net and very quickly have a local copy of the latest episode of Jericho or Prison Break. Earlier this year the local network that shows Survivor screwed with the schedule, they started several weeks after the USA, moved the time around and eventually settled it into a slot at about 2:30am on Saturday morning. One of the others did the same thing with 24 introducing a huge break into the middle of the series and juggling it across the schedule. All this does is drive consumers away from TV and on to the net, I'm not going to sit and watch whatever they replace my show with, I'm going to get my 24 elsewhere. The internet habit is so quick & easy, I get ALL the shows I want, when I want them, quickly, without ads. The episodes are new and fresh having only just been shown elsewhere in the world days (somethimes hours) before so I can participate in the 'buzz' that surrounds event type television. Surely, with this type of alternative service being available the networks should be doing everything in their power to try and keep me as a viewer but no, to date the Aussie networks have treated their consumers (we are not customers) like idiots who would just accept their bullshit!
Anyway, incoherent rant over...the point is that it looks like Aus TV is starting to come to their senses. The question is whether they are addressing this issue too late. Have the masses walked away from Free to Air TV in Aus already?
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