Category Archives: Music

Libre.fm & Songbird & Last.fm & WMP

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I signed up with libre.fm yesterday. I did struggle to get WMP going with it. I did find a modified last.fm plugin for WMP which was fixed to scrobble to libre.fm. It and the real last.fm plugin could run at the same time in WMP. But I wasn’t able to get the libre.fm one to actually successfully scrobble to my libre profile.

I was struggling around the ‘net, and I can say I know I did modify my “hosts” file as described on one page about getting it going (my mind is overloaded, I’m not sure which page that was now but it was simply about putting the audioscrobbler ip into windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file) and I did notice that WMP tracks had scrobbled to libre.fm at some point. Either before that or after. But the point being it still works, and I un-modified the ‘hosts’ file and it’s still working. Thus far. FWIW. I realize now that the first place I found about “how to scrobble to libre.fm” was that Turtle page. It was beyond me what to do about it, I did also see the Client Support page and was still in WMP mode, so I was looking for a way to stick with WMP (since I have Vista and use Media Center some, but I’m not stuck with having to.)

During all that I started to consider Songbird (I have a slight recollection of downloading it in an earlier version before, like a very early version, and totally ditching it) as a media player since they seemingly are on the way up, as was Thunderbird & Firefox when I switched to them (so long ago, it seems.) I downloaded it last night and couldn’t make it do what I hoped it would. The Last.fm plugin alone wouldn’t even work.

I found more info today after searching more and more. I changed something in the Songbird config file to not challenge things it thought weren’t compatible, and had it successfully install an older last.fm plugin that was modified to scrobble to libre.fm.

Then I looked at the Client Support page and understood it fully, though I had looked at it before, just wasn’t learned enough about it yet. I had Songbird, took out all the last.fm/libre.fm anything that I’d installed in it, then loaded in the order from the Client Support page about Multiscrobbling with Songbird: the libre.fm modified one, then the other one linked that will send scrobbles directly to the official Last.fm Client (i.e. the one WMP sends scrobbles to.) I have “always” had the Official Last FM client installed, which is an essential part of Multiscrobbling with Songbird.

I now have two online profiles, and am scrobbling to both.

I ponder over how I can get my last.fm data and import it to libre.fm now, but it’s python scripty so I haven’t sat down to tackle it yet. I don’t know what to do about it, and also I do want something that will send my scrobbles from Rockbox to both services, and if I had to pick one it isn’t a choice, since last.fm is the only thing I have to submit to (I currently use qtscrobbler) so both these things have me not sure about where to go from here, for now.

I have thought of finding another something but hadn’t found what I wanted, happy enough on my end with Last.fm, how I use it, but definitley if I can have a more independent online profile, I’m all for it, but I do not want to leave the last 4+ years of accumulated listening data lost, nor do I want to move all that and then listen only to via libre.fm scrobbling, but then where do my Rockbox scobbles go … I really do like Last.fm, listener pages, being a top listener, or recent one, or something, but some artist pages are so bogged down bieng so popular, I’m lucky to show up on any of them ever, nearly always show up on something more independent, but what’s it matter. Thing is, in May 2005 Audioscrobbler was one thing, then they were Last.fm, then they were … are now but are not but … I’m looking for a way to make it work out for the best.

Thing is, I got two of my children into Rockbox & Last.fm recently, so this is something I’d like to see happen, switching happily, for good, soon.

Stryper 25th Anniversary Tour

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My husband and I went to see Stryper in Atlanta a few days ago, Wednesday, October 21, 2009. The whole show was really good. I really liked their opening band, Manic Drive. I’d not heard of them previously, and found their show super, so we got a couple of t-shirts & their latest CD after the show from their booth.

Stryper was fantastic too. It’s the 3rd time I’ve seen them, which isn’t as much as I would like it to have been. My first was in 1988 Sept. in Disney World “Night of Joy” event. My friend and I went just for them, though I’d been to other NoJ events before that. That year it was precisely Stryper that I wanted to see and that was that.

I never did have friends interested in Stryper like I was, and being an introvert wasn’t one to find ways to get to concerts unless people I already knew would want to go, the internet not being a way to connect to others back then … sigh.

So I went through the mid-80′s with that one Stryper attendance, and then finally in 2005 I got to go again, when they released a new album and toured again after a hiatus. This year they released another album, and I wasn’t able to get it until just this month. I didn’t listen to it a lot, but loved it the first listen I gave it. I didn’t plan on attending the concert, things being tight of late, but mentioned that the concert that I knew would be in Atlanta had changed from what I last knew and it was to be that coming Wednesday. I said something about it to my husband and he initiated interest in seeing if there were tickets available. There were.

So we had a date. It was tiring, but fun. It was exhausting, but worth it.

I have some horrible cell phone pictures that I have to sort through, tag, and load up somewhere online, so I’ll make a Page here about it when I get that done.

U2′s New Album

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I got the new U2 album, No Line on the Horizon, at Target the other day, the 4th of March, 2009. I wanted to get it the day it came out, but didn’t, and because of the time we got home on the 4th and the way I felt the next day and the fact that we then went out again and didn’t get home until later, I hadn’t ripped the CD into my computer until this morning.

My hubby told me U2 would be on David Letterman all week as the band. I actually just haven’t been up at night that late, but did wake up to the end of David Letterman on our bedroom TV the other night, and it was almost over, and there was U2 all ready to start playing a song … and it peeked my interest and so I stayed awake and found the remote and hit “record” (DirecTivo) as the song started playing. It was incredible and I have finally started listening to the album and it was that song from DL the other night that is the second song on the album, “Magnificent” and it is so very good. I love that song. It’s the only one I have heard them do from the album, the only thing of them I saw on David Letterman.

I would have listened to this CD in the vehicle right away, but our vehicle’s CD player is broken (we bought our 2005 Suburban used and it had a CD stuck in the drive, and we just haven’t been able to figure out what we want to do about it, replace it with the exact same factory install, what the Chevy dealers say is our only option with them; or get something else installed from the aftermarket.) FWIW.

Most of my U2 collection is on vinyl. This album is the 3rd on CD that I have. I haven’t gotten everything of theirs from this more modern era … but I probably will go back and find it at CD Warehouse, and get the stuff I love from the 80′s on CD too.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock: My Career on Easy

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Before our last trip, which we took in the beginning of September, been back less than a week, thus far …, I had finally started using my Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wii game that I had gotten for my “birthday” in July. I hadn’t ever played any Guitar Hero or that sort of game, just was very interested in it with the newer version of it, and it being available on Wii, which is our main console right now.

Basically I was inspired to start using it when we had just been to Best Buy and the Rock Band game was setup there and my daughter started doing the drumming for it, but the guitars wouldn’t work. So after she tried it some I tried the drumming too and found that it would be fun if it worked right, it wasn’t doing things right, in our estimation.

Even with that not so good experience, it made me hungry to just hook up the GH and jam. In 3 days I beat the Easy mode in career. I played a lot, but not all the time, mind you. I got pretty good with Slow Ride in practice, so then I started my band in Career and off I went.

After that win, we went on our 10-day long trip and my fingers were crying out for my “guitar” the whole time. We got back on Sunday, Sept. 14th but I didn’t do anything with Wii at all until last night. I played a bunch of songs in Quick Play, re-practicing basically. After I had beat the Easy mode before our trip I did a lot of Quick Play just for fun, and let my children do it too. The older two are begging to start there own “careers” and I said they could sometime, just haven’t opened the starting gate for that yet.

I was a tad rusty last night, but it was like 2 weeks between gigs, and no practicing except for air guitar interpretations of GH to songs on the radio in the vehicle on our way up North. :smile:

Next on the agenda then is Medium mode with my career. I’m not sure I’m up to the challenge yet, but maybe I am, just have to try it. At any rate, I have enjoyed the Easy mode and would love to do more songs in that mode, FWIW. I want the Guitar Hero Aerosmith game, but thus far hubby doesn’t seem to understand all the fuss, or why one would want another game … and add to it the fact that I was talking about getting the Rock Band game, and then nixed that when I found the information about Guitar Hero World Tour upcoming game … He’s either overwhelmed, or underwhelmed, maybe both. FWIW.

Happy First Day of Spring! (2007)

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It’s Spring officially today.

Here’s a page about it.

In honor of this time of the year, pull out Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and listen to the Spring section, or the whole thing for that matter. If you don’t have it on your computer, music server, or in your CD collection (or Album collection, Cassette collection) go out and get a decent copy of it. It’s something I listen to oftener than not (with any Vivaldi being one of my favorite things in life, not just “The 4 Seasons”)

Disney Mix Stick Help

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Here’s a link to a past post about the Disney Mix Stick that I wrote in the last year, with the advent of having one in our home Christmas 2005 that gave us problems, problems, problems. I’m making this new post about it due to the new influx of “Disney Mix Stick” problem searches coming to this blog since right just before Christmas Day 2006.

Feb. 8, 2006.

The post has comments from visitors to this site, as well as my own comments.

Platinum Weird

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On August 22 a group called “Platinum Weird” was supposed to release their first album in the USA (as I knew due to seeing them on VH1Classic “Hangin With Dave Stewart, which I DirecTivo’d on July 14, 2006.) Yesterday we were out and stopped at Best Buy to check it out and buy it most likely. There was something there, but not a full album. It was something entitled “Selections: Past & Present” and there was no price sticker on it, no sign-age to say a thing about it. I didn’t turn it over and look at the back because I barely had it in hand and my DH took it and said he was going to go pay for it right then. OK.

Platinum Wierd EP Cover

So then I went checking end caps to see what was there, nuthin’. DH called me and said he wanted to leave, so I asked him, “How much was the CD?” He said, “It was free.”

Huh?

It was. Totally, but you go through checkout and get a reciept, no money exchanged at all. It was considered a Promo of some sort, but there wasn’t a bit of sign-age in the store to indicate that, and who would know that it was a FREE Promo unless they picked it up and expected to pay for it since they were LOOKING something by that group, expecting a new album most likely, as was I. I hadn’t looked online for any info about the group one bit before hand, and only learned the “hyped up marketing story” afterwords, the story I heard on VH1 was not totally “truth” but mostly not much hype at all. It wasn’t that it was hype but that some parts of data seemed to be missing or not fully made obvious, like is that video they showed, is it from 1974, or is it a hype-connected one made recently, is the “voice” the girl from 1974 or someone recently contracted to portray the girl in 1974, voice or body or both. That part is a mystery, from what I can find out online.

There is a place online that interveiwed both people in the group, and it has less hype than anything else online:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/08/10/065902.php

What’s on the CD is good. Two songs are the same, yet different. One is from the current group. The other is tagged “Original ’74 Recording” — the track is “Will You Be Around”. There is one more track on the CD, “Happiness”.

Platinum Wierd EP Back

The point here is, the group now is here — this time in space. There is a connection to a past group of something that did something, but didn’t use the name “Platinum Weird” but it was a name being “kicked around” by them (as was said by Mr. Stewart in that interview.) The music they have is now, they have stuff they say is from the past. Is it? Was it mostly written back then, and partially recorded? Is that what is on the disc I got, was that “Original ’74 Recording”, track 3., is that really from then, or is it something else, the hype thing?

Who wrote the music? What else do they have? Some people have the “album” already, or a cut of something “older” supposebly. The I-Tunes Store has had something, or did in July, at least. I don’t know really what it was, since I didn’t look then, and didn’t know to, and I don’t use I-Tunes anyhow (ick.) I do know it’s not the same as what is out on CD Promo right now. There is other stuff on different sites, like the Platinum Weird MySpace site, and other places no doubt. I would like to understand it, as in is some of this music actual recordings from 1974? If not, were these songs originally written around 1974 at least, some recorded but not all or none recorded, only modern mystery hype recordings?

A straightforward approach to this would make more sense, and be enough appeal to me to listen to what the music is. I like the idea of it without the “background story”. It stands just fine with in modern times with no ties to backtimes. In fact though, ties to 1974 are fine, just that to kick it off it would have made more sense to have a straight true story told of the history of the band, how it became, and then if they wanted to LATER for FUN make up movies and mystery hype, fine, but make sure it’s touted as fiction for fun.

In the end it’s just a marketing ploy, I wanted to get the music based on the very little I heard about the music on that VH1Classic Hangin With show from July.

DH liked it enough too, the music, when I played it last night in the van on the way home. He actually said “Ah, this is the sort that YOU could do” and he never connected to my ideas before, that my ideas for a band and how it would sound are so different yet not, because in effect it’s me and other people I’m talking about to create a band with, non know people, even I don’t know who they are, and my place in life hasn’t had me writing music, but I’ve had a lot of performances in my first 27 years of life. I could do things in so many genres, but facts are facts, who I am is a rich voice with great range and definite crafty skill of voice. And that is best suited to some form of Alternative Rock, hard with melodic harmonies, and mostly that melancholy edge which Platinum Weird so well uses, and it’s always been something that attracts me, the few that can do melancholy well. (Ah, The Cure)

Ballet and beyond

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To see ballet on TV is nice, and I’ll be looking for DVD’s a good versions of The Sleeping Beauty, no doubt, but I really have to say it’s a live perfomance that one can appreciate more, and treasure the experience. [See the post previous to this one, Sleeping Beauty - The Russian National Ballet ...] I’m glad to have been able to share this with my daughter. It’s the only true ballet I’ve been to. She’s fortunate to be able to say she saw her first at Seven years of age. I hope that she’ll have many more ballets to attend through the years.

My next love is opera, and I have seen one live opera. I’ve listened to the Texaco Saturday operas, in my youth that was something I did on my own many Saturday’s. I want to get out and see live Opera with my children.

I also love Symphony and Chamber orchestras. One love I have is Romantic period Symphonic music. I’ve been to several orchestral concerts through the years, of various levels and materials. My love though is a long program performed in the evening, any seat in a huge auditormium. My desire of late is to hear Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, or Bruckner. I’ve found a few cities a day drive away that are doing Bruckner’s 4th Symphony in the coming months. This is my biggest wish of immediate redemption. :)

My last love is me singing. I have done many varieties of performance, and what I lastly want is a band to create music with, to perform and get a style going that is all our own (modern rock with classic rock, metal, classical music elements, to start with.) I love performing, sharing my gift of voice, but I really don’t want a solo career, I’d love a group of guys to work with.

Sleeping Beauty – The Russian National Ballet – Athens, GA

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My 7 year old daughter and I saw Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty (ballet) yesterday (Sunday, February 26, 2006). It was part of the UGA’s 10th Anniversary concert series, held in the Fine Arts Center.

The ballet was lovely, enchanting, engaging. Quite a memory to be made. The dancers were wonderful, their performances near flawless or flawless, to my untrained but critical eye. The story is a familiar one to many, but differing from the Disney treatment. If you know the actuality of the fairy tale it’s easier to understand the ballet. If you haven’t ever read the Charles Perrault fairy tale you should. It’s available online on many sites [originally written in French, translations abundant.]

This is the beginning of a possible cultural study of Tchaikovsky, ballet, etc.

The Tchaikovsky score was written for the ballet and based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault. Marius Peptipa the ballet choreographer. The two worked together. Apparently Tchaikovky worked off of the Brother’s Grimm version of Perrault’s fairy tale, I’ve read several things saying the above in part or whole. It’s precise to state though, that this ballet is where Classical Ballet found it’s birth.

The Russian National Ballet’s Artisitic Director is Sergei Radchenko, former principal dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet.

The ballet itself would be superb to see with live orchestra, but I intend to insult with this statement: Live music would be wonderful, but the ballet itself not as good. The Russian National Ballet company is the premiere group to perform The Sleeping Beauty … therefore it would be something less of an experience to see an American company perform, though I’ll admit it would be nice nevertheless. FWIW.

The sets were elaborately painted curtain panels, such layering of gossamer panels, the lights glowing the differing hues and brightnesses to highlight the story appropriately, it was magical. The “court” wore grand costuming, the different dancers of Fairy and Princess and Prince wore less grand, more simplistic costume, most obvious to show their atheletic beauty in the dance.

My delight came in the Wedding portion, to hear the music of Tchaikovsky and see the dance of the Pussycat and his partners. Ah, that music now makes sense in full, and Disney uses it so inappropriately! In all I found that I know Tchaikovsky’s score, though I do not own a copy of it yet, and the reason I really like the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty is because they use Tchaikovsky’s music score, but I had abhorbed their degrading of the Good Fairies and the upgrading of the Bad Fairy, and the too silly things they input. I have to say it’s the lightest “wrong” treatment they’ve given anything though, so I still like it overall. I’m in the corner with the idea of “Why do they have to make it so silly in the first place, any of their works, there is a way they could have gone with any of their stories, humourous yet graceful and faithful to a tale for all ages.” Anyhow, the ballet is a much fuller story than the Disney film. The Disney film takes the story and cuts it in half and makes a fold here and there, taking the Hundred Year Sleep away. Prince Philip is Prince Charming and is a contemporary of Princess Aurora and they met in the forest before either knew she was a Princess. Nice story, but not the same as the fairy tale, and it’s a cheapened form, to me. I do like that he battles “the witch” and triumphs as he does, but it’s just giving the bad fairy more power than the fairy tale had given her, the ballet most certainly doesn’t give her such power. She is bad and is just bad. The Thorns grow up as a protective hedge over the sleeping court and princess. The Lilac Fairy of the ballet is the one who gives the gift of sleep of a hundred years instead of death at the prick of her finger on spindle. She is an important figure in the ballet (absolutely beautiful in the production we just saw!) and the “three little good fairies” in Disney is just what I said earlier, a downgrading, a silly factor put into the story that’s oh so charming in it’s own way, but I dislike the silly vs. evil that is there. It’s inventive, I do suppose a thing of the era it came out of.

Russian National Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky)

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Early last month (January 2006) I found out that the Russian National Ballet would be at UGA for their concert series … performing The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky) in February (26th.) I asked my hubby to please call and find out if there were tickets available and that if it was too expensive for all of us, at least please let our daughter and me go to see the ballet, at the least. He said he would call, but didn’t then. I had to remind and remind him and by the time he finally did call, there were no tickets available, but there was a waiting list … which he asked to be put on, and was 42nd on that list.

Today he was getting ready to leave on a short trip, was on the phone and another call came in. He did pick up that second call, thinking it was something about an old job he had, but then it turned out it was the university calling about the ballet tickets … they had 2 available … !

So of course he snapped them up. He had felt bad before that he hadn’t called sooner to see about it in the first place, knowing how much it would mean to me to be able to go with our daughter. I’d love for the whole family to go, but it’s me and her that will appreciate it the most, so it’s alright. The boys will all go and do something else while us girlies are at the ballet.

This will be my first time to see a true ballet in person. I love Tchaikovsky’s musical things … and my favorite Disney piece is Sleeping Beauty as well, which is based on the same story as Tchaikovsky’s ballet is based on, and also uses part of Tchaikovsky’s SB score. :)

I’m very thrilled to be able to do this with my only daughter and now have to get out clothing and figure out just what to wear! :)

Here are are the words from the UGA Performing Arts Center 10th Anniversary brochure about this event:

The Sleeping Beauty is often considered the finest achievement of classical ballet. It is a grandiose and refined blending of traditional mime, expressive solos, duets, and spectacular corps dances all in a lavish theatrical setting set to Tchaikovsky’s memorable music. The evening of dance features the Russian National Ballet, one of the world’s pre-eminent ballet companies.