So here I sit, as I’ve spent most of my night — in front of the computer. See, I got a 30 Gig 5th Gen iPod from Santa for X-mas.  And it’s taken a long time to get it to work right (no thanks to the Dudes at the “iPod Bar” at the Michigan Ave Apple store, who thought I was crazy, but that’s another story). So I spent tonight ripping more of my CDs to Apple Lossless files. Ok, I’m a fucking snob when it comes to music. Sure I was just using a Walkman (cassette, that is) before taking the leap into the 21st century. But you know what? Mp3s sound like ass. Even if cassettes don’t provide the cleanest sound quality, they worked for me for a very long time. So maybe my ears and brain were are trained to accept the imperfections of analog as the sonic gospel? There is something to be said for analog. Us humans were analog for a very long time before those 0s and 1s became the technological, economical, and sociological norm. Hell, the first computers were analog.

Where am I going with this? Oh yeah, In Ear Personal Sound. So I’m sitting here listening to The Ventures Live in Japan ‘65 in my good ole headphones. This recording is so clean, from the performance, to the actual sound quality of the live instruments, to the final mixed down product. I honestly can’t sing its praises enough. It’s an absolutely beautiful live pop record.

Along with being able to listen to my entire collection of music almost instantly (ie, not having to make a cassette tape of a CD), I have discovered the whole Podcast thing the kids are so into these days. Wow, what a great idea! Cuz sometimes I’d rather listen to someone talk than music. While it blows that you can’t download the whole This American Life back catalog for free anymore, you can get each weeks episode gratis if you subscribe thru iTunes. Although I just found on the TAL website that you can buy each episode on a CD for 13 bux. Why you’d want to do this I don’t know, but you do get the episode sent to you on a CD with FUCKING beautiful packaging, (and we all know how much of a sucker I am for FUCKING beautiful packaging).

My point, again, is that I found this great little punk podcast called Sound Scene Revolution. SSR is basically a couple of dudes who interview bands rolling thru San Francisco. Many times the interviews take place backstage at the Bottom of the Hill before a gig. While the interviewer isn’t the most engaging of folks, the shows tend to be pretty entertaining and informative. I’d recommend the Falcon/Red Scare podcast. It’s funny…and I’m tired.

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So it’s been a while since I last posted to the blog ether. Life has been, how to put this, complicated as of late. Such is the way the cookie crumbles tho, eh?

I guess after the 2+ month hiatis from writing I need to slide back into it gently. With that said, I figured I’d write a bit about football, a sport I know very little about. But with the Bears in the Super Bowl you couldn’t walk 3 feet without encountering some sort of Bears stuff. So Mary and I went o’er to a friends house to watch the game. The Bears played like the Bears and the Colts handed them their collective asses. I wasn’t expecting much more from this team. Need less to say I wasn’t disappointed, actually happy for the Colts. Somebody HAS to win, by golly.

I’d have to say that the commercials were kind of crappy. I did like the socially conscious nods to black history month and the honoring of the first not one but two African-American coaches if SB history. Sure it was still some kind of marketing ploy from the huge corporations, but they get a A for effort. Other highlights being Robert Goulet and the Careerbuilder.com Gladiator meets Survivor spots.

Anyway, lets get to the point…being that Prince was the real winner of the Super Bowl. I may not know alot about him as a person (I could speculate), but I do know that he shreds (and he’s from Minnesota)! About a minute into Purple Rain, The Artist formerly know as the Artist formally known as Prince asks, “Can I play this Guitar?” Sir, you can and you will. For real, I love watching this man perform, cause it is truly the real deal. Thank you sir for doing what you do, cause it really was the highlight of my Sunday.

Check out the You Tubed video of the performance here (until they get pulled): Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Maybe now people will stop playing that fucking Bear Down, Chicago Bears song.

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