NEWS!

I am back to blogging here.  It's easier for me to organize, for one thing. And it should be easier for you to comment. 

STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN; THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT; various dirs.

As Abe sez: "Those who like this sort of thing will find in this the sort of thing they like. "

I don't understand the armour, but I'm sure you'll explain it in the comments. Plus this felt like a complete waste of time. There are other reasons to make the switch from Netflix to Disney+ but neither The Mandalorian or Boba Fett are it. See the comic books for some idea of what I'm on about. 

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS; ENTERPRISE, various dir.

Somebody explain SF hair to me. In the meantime I'm enjoying Strange New Worlds, weekly on Crave. Kirk, Spock and Uhura are all here, but they are almost afterthoughts. Star Trek always works best as television. 

On Netflix there is Star Trek: Enterprise which thanks to this (you have yours, let me know in the comments) and Netflix's "skip intro" Enterprise is better than I remember. For Rod Stewart jokes go straight to the comments. 

New place

I am worried. My top 5 concerns: 

5. will anyone like my music? 

4. these girls are all my daughter. Will anyone get me? 

3. will they need the onion chopped every night? 

2. will they like my wife? (An academic concern, but still... )

1. who will change my poopy diaper? 

THAT LITTLE OL' BAND FROM TEXAS, dir. Sam Dunn

ZZ TOP is That Little Ol' Band From Texas, and Sam Dunn is that Sam Dunn, a Canucklehead kid whom I have praised and condemned in equal measure at my place, the other blog. This lies closer to Super Duper than it does Beyond The Lighted Stage. A viewer could be forgiven for thinking Billy Gibbons' Telecaster has more actual character than the band does. 

Fortunately I have a magazine -- Mojo's Classic Rock Albums. I see Amazon is selling it roughly what I paid for it. Classic Rock Albums makes for perfect bathroom reading BTW. Personalization is extra (seems an eight-year-old got fed up with me using the masking tape and dubbing her "sticker book" a "stinker book" and started using the masking tape as well. "Mojo" became "NoNo" and "Classic Rock" became "Classic Yuck!" "I didn't know I was so prescient!")

Ahem -- well, yes. It still makes for good toilet reading. And the magazine has a bit that includes a ZZ Top band member meeting his Man out in the Texan desert. The doc hints at this, but you really need the magazine to get the whole story. They might be mall-walkers now but there was a time, not so long ago, when you would do well to listen to your mother and stay away from them. 

The doc doesn't touch on any of this -- but the magazine does. 'Til then there's the music -- which is how the band would want it. I recommend  Rancho Texicano; after that you are on your own -- which is also how the band would want it. I saw ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band From Texas on Netflix. 

The last of the iPods rolls off the line

It would be disingenuous not to comment -- Google "Whisky Prajer infernal device" to get some idea how long this hate/hate affair has been going on. And yes, Apple's "Randomizer" is incredibly lazy. 

But Apple has changed the way I listen to music -- you, also. Here are my top five Apple iPod moments: 

5) Don't forget Podcasts which got their name from Apple. You have your favorites (please share in the comments below) Mine include Nahlah Ayed's Ideas and Diarmaid MacCulloch's Gifford Lectures Silence Within Church History. Prof. Ayed's radio show can be quickly subscribed to (the CBC is very friendly!) and YouTube audio can be recorded -- just Google it. 

4) The Playlist. Long after it has a outlived any usefulness at all I keep the Playlist around.  This is thanks chiefly to setlist.fm, but Apple perfected it. "It was so easy. Remember?"

3) "Donald and Walter" Okay, this is where Apple gets lazy with its Randomizer:  it would rather play off the six "solo" discs than dip into the Steely Dan ouevre. But it's The Dan which actually got me singing along and kept me alive. Apologies to the PSW responsible for me. But we are talking about Steely Dan!

2) Nicolas Deletailles. I was probably playing Deletailles's Bach: 6 Cello Suites but I honestly don't remember. The blue box kept the door open. She poked her head in. She said she was looking for her daughter. I took down her room number, but it was just a ruse. She was on the lookout for hanky-panky. Between Toronto's National Newspaper, the black coffee and the classical music I would have done better if I'd hosed the room down with Eau de Sweaty Socks. She left as she came: daughter-less. And I was free to enjoy my papers and my classical music -- until the next ringette game, or Boston Pizza: whichever came first. 

1) The Apple Randomizer. I currently use CDJuicer to rip discs into mp3 files I can use. I've seen Google Music go, and I have lamented its absence. When it can't be helped I resort to HDtracks.com and I use SoundConverter to rip their files into mp3 files I can use. (Have I already said that? Oh well, check Google: you'll see I'm right.)

I have the iPod "Classic" which I listen to, "randomly," with headphones when the power is down. (Hey, it happened once! But you only need it to happen once for it to become policy, doncha know?) When the iPod finally joins that click-wheel in the sky I will get something just like it -- a Walkman, probably. I like the size finally, and I like the GUI. 

So until then, and probably long after, you will read of the "Infernal Device" that changed the face of music. Because shortly after 9/11  it changed the face of music -- for me. 

Sweet memories

My memory -- short- and medium-term -- is crap. I would be great to play table games against -- Hearts or Ticket to Ride. 

On the other side of things there's a guy who rolls by blasting "Oldies":  Aerosmith, "Dude Looks Like A Lady " or "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. You haven't the first clue, buddy. 

Makes me feel like playing Rammstein or Meshuggah, even though Steely Dan is arguably more subversive. Not sure what that's about. 

In other news my short-term memory is crap. I would be awesome at Scrabble or that other one.