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Soundscape #45: "I (Fucking) Quit!"

Justindc. Quitting Time (#2), 2005.

I've just left my job of 3 years and 3 months (exact). I do have something lined up but right now, it's me-time (for a little over a week at least). I'm going to try and read more, watch less tv and write this short story that's been playing around in my head. I'm (still) trying to set up the new website for this; hopefully it'd be up soon. Any suggestions or comments? You know where to send them to.

It's not that I try to be random, but damn I'm absolutely fixated on this. How great would it be to bring a lunchbox to work everyday and not have to face the "what to eat" black hole at lunchtime! And to be honest, I'm not *that* particular about food. I can eat the same thing everyday for days on end, I kid you not. I do like to feel healthy about what I'm eating (or at least not guilty) though, so a lunchbox would be great! Now, if only I know how to cook...



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Superdrag - Sucked Out (Regretfully Yours)
2. (2:44) The National - Baby We'll Be Fine (Alligator)
3. (6:07) Matt Pond PA - A Million Middle Fingers (The Nature Of Maps)
4. (8:08) Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime (Remain In Light)
5. (12:23) Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tick Motion Of The Head To The Left (Andrew Bird And The Mysterious Production Of Eggs)
6. (17:23) Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better (You Could Have It So Much Better)
7. (20:04) Camera Obscura - If Looks Could Kill (Let's Get Out Of This Country)
8. (23:35) Headlights - Words Make You Tired (Kill Them With Kindness)
9. (27:24) Aimee Mann - Calling It Quits (Bachelor No. 2)
10. (31:35) Dialogue From Pulp Fiction (Pulp Fiction OST)
11. (32:38) Belle And Sebastian - It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career (The Boy With The Arab Strap)
12. (35:03) Spoon - Lines In The Suit (Girls Can Tell)
13. (38:52) The Martinis - Free (Empire Records OST)

Soundscape #44: "Save The Cheerleader, Save The World"

Heroes, the show that has held me hostage for 23 Wednesday nights, has just finished its run on tv and the final episode was absolutely crap. I'm so disappointed! What a cop-out ending! Where's the action? Where's the promised drama? The final episode was suffocated by really bad acting and oh, the lines! They were so cheesy I was cringeing through them, hoping, no, praying, for some spark of originality.

I should have known better. Originality in a TV series? What is Heroes if not a big pot of the issues and problems that occupied—and is still occupying—man since the dawn of human consciousness? Sure, it's updated for the modern ADD audience but you don't have to dig too deep into the packaging to see the characters trying to grapple with the issues of good vs evil, the hero and his hubris, the notion of the journey, the problem of the Outsider/Other in each episode. And if you stir into that mix the childhood fantasies we all had—super powers that noone knew about, the conspiracy, the excitement of it all, the inner kid in me is happily willing to come straight back home on Wednesday nights just to watch TV.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (Black Sheep Boy)
2. (1:21) Pixies - Debaser (Waves Of Mutilation)
3. (4:13) The Organ - Brother (Grab That Gun)
4. (8:14) Voxtrot - Firecracker (S/T)
5. (11:56)The Flaming Lips - Fight Test (Fight Test EP)
6. (16:05) Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly (There Is Nothing Left To Lose)
7. (16:05) Sufjan Stevens - The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts (Illinois)
8. (20:01) Josh Ritter - Good Man (The Animal Years)
9. (25:47) The Arcade Fire - Intervention (Neon Bible)
10. (29:55) Beulah - A Good Man Is Easy To Kill (The Coast Is Never Clear)
11. (34:11) Bloc Party - Hunting For Witches (A Weekend In The City)
12. (38:31) Mogwai - Glasgow Mega-Snake (Mr Beast)
13. (42:05) M83 - Don't Save Us From The Flames (Before The Dawn Heals Us)
14. (45:37) The Thermals - Here's Your Future (The Body The Blood The Machine)
15. (49:53) Radiohead - There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere) (Hail To The Thief)

Soundscape #43: I Want One And I Want It Now!

Good god! Can Steve Jobs do no wrong!?? I feel like a little kid captivated by this magician pulling rabbits out of his hat. Steve Jobs has a way of making you realise needs that you've never known you had and by the time he's done, you couldn't imagine how on god's earth you had existed till now without it. And he does it with such ease and elegance almost, you'd have to ask: why didn't anyone figure this out before? 5000 songs in your pocket? 5000 songs in your pocket the size of your credit card?! Goddamn!

Steve Jobs's latest is of course the iPhone. I remember watching the webcast where he first introduced it and he goes: "phone. ipod. internet"..... and repeats the 3 words until the audience start realising that it's just one machine and goes wild cheering. The vibe was rapturous, as if Steve Jobs had just saved the world. Actually, maybe he did! The sale of iPhones started last week and it's made about 600,000 people happy. I think it's a tribute (albeit a whacked one) that OEM models are beginning to appear on auction sites. If the bloody phone weren't hardwired to work only with AT&T networks, I would have gotten one already.

Come, Steve, please, take my money! 2008 cannot come early enough.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Is This Love? (S/T)
2. (3:13) The Streets - Fit But You Know It (A Grand Don't Come For Free)
3. (7:25) Malajube - Montreal -40 (Trompe-L'oeil)
4. (10:45) Tegan & Sara - I Know I Know I Know (So Jealous)
5. (14:29) Robbers On High Street - Love Underground (Tree City)
6. (17:03) Apples In Stereo - I Want (Velocity Of Sound)
7. (19:08) The Mendoza Line - It's A Long Line (But It Moves Quickly) (Fortune)
8. (22:35) We Are Scientists - Worth The Wait (With Love And Squalor)
9. (25:19) The Smiths - I Want The One I Can't Have (Meat Is Murder)
10. (28:32) The Decemberists - Angel, Won't You Call Me (5 Songs EP)
11. (31:10) The White Stripes - I Cant Wait (White Blood Cells)
12. (34:49) Lucky Soul - Ever Yours I Remain (Add Your Light To Mine Baby)
13. (37:51) M. Ward - Eyes On The Prize (Post-War)