I’d categorize what I’m listening to now as electro-rock. Think electronica meets alternative rock with a twist of 80’s new wave.
Owl City - Fireflies
The Thermals - Now We Can See:
Pendulum - Propane Nightmares:
Iglu & Hartley - In This City:
Juliet - Avalon (Jacques Lu Cont Versus Remix):
It’s not really electro-rock, but this band has to be one of the best I have heard in a long time. They’re called Thirteen Senses, and they are currently unsigned. Only a few of their tracks are available on iTunes and Amazon. Their song, “Home” is one of the prettiest songs I have ever heard… sadly it is not available anywhere at present. There is a horrible rip of it on YouTube, which is about as good as it gets for now. I hope that they get signed in the near future, it would be such a shame for such talent to go unnoticed….
So yesterday I had to run to a favorite local Japanese restaurant and pick up some food (well I don’t suppose I had to, but my lack of desire to cook lately is probably a whole story in itself). Since it was such a nice day I thought I’d bring my dog Tucker along for the ride… he gets a kick out of getting to hang his head out the window as I drive around town. So we got to the restaurant and I left Tucker in the car with the windows partially rolled-down while I ran inside.
When I came out I saw something… odd. Inside the car was my dog with a very puzzled look on his face. Actually, if a dog could LOL, I’m pretty sure this is what Tucker was doing. Outside the car, on the other hand, stood a little old Asian woman, her face leaning in towards my passenger-side window, where she was BARKING at my DOG.
Yes, I came out of the restaraunt to find a woman barking at my dog. As I walked up to my car to get into it, she saw me… and her face went completely blank, she stood straight up, turned around, and walked away without saying a word. Strangest. Thing. Ever.
The Oklahoma Land Run Monument is a series of giant bronze sculptures which depicts the Land Run of April 22nd, 1889 that opened “Oklahoma, Indian Territory” up to homesteading by settlers. The monument, which sits on the banks of the Bricktown Canal in Oklahoma City, depicts dozens of horses, wagons, soldiers, and cowboys in a race to settle the newly opened lands.
Yesterday I took a trip to Bricktown and took some photos of the monument. You can see some of the best ones on my pictures page.
My Grandpa turned 87 today. I spent a lot of time at my grandparent’s house and had a lot of fun. I thought it would be interesting to post a list of some of the important things that happened in 1921:
Warren G. Harding becomes the 29th President of the US
Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Political Party in Germany
Race riots occur in Tulsa, reportedly the worst in US history
The US officially ends its involvement in World War I
The Irish War of Independence comes to an end
The first vaccination against tuberculosis is given
Insulin is discovered
Baseball is broadcast over the radio for the first time
The first Miss America Pageant is held
The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated by President Harding
First religious service is broadcast on US radio
Yankees purchase 20 acres in the Bronx for Yankee Stadium
“The Kid” starring Charlie Chaplain is released
Albert Einstein receives the Nobel Prize in Physics
Babe Ruth becomes all-time home run champion
Last of the San Francisco fire-horses is retired in favor of fire trucks
For those of you with iPhones or an iPod Touch, you may be interested to know what I think the top 5 iPhone applications of the year are. In no particular order:
HoldEm. Apple’s version of the Texas Hold’Em card game. Amazing graphics and simple game play… the most interesting thing about HoldEm is its ability to network with other iPhones, allowing you to play against real people. Note that this is not an online game though — you can only play against others sharing the same wireless network.
Now Playing. Displays a list of nearby movie theaters, and from there you can browse through movie listings and showtimes. You can also read movie reviews from RottenTomatoes.com and can even purchase movie tickets.
Shazam. This may be one of the most useful applications ever created. Have you ever been in the car listening to the radio and really wished you knew who was singing a song? Shazam solves that problem. Just hold your phone in the air and after listening for a few minutes the application will display the song name, band, and album on the iPhone’s screen. You can even instantly order the album with the touch of a button.
SnapTell. Working on similar principles to Shazam, with SnapTell you use your iPhone’s camera to take a picture of the cover of any book, CD, DVD, BluRay, or video game and SnapTell will instantly tell you the title of what you are looking at and return the prices of your item from Amazon, NewEgg, Barnes and Noble, and others. This is a great tool for comparing prices on the fly. The interface also allows you to read product reviews.
Urban Spoon. Find a restaurant in any town with Urban Spoon. Can’t decide what you feel like eating tonight? Simply shake your phone up and down and three slot machine-like wheels begin to spin. When they stop you’ll have a randomly selected restaurant to go to.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Something I did this year, and cannot stop talking about, was taking my nephews to see the movie Bolt 3-D on Christmas Eve. We went to the Warren Theatre, which claims to be the most technologically advanced movie theater in the world. I’ve been there many times but what was unique about this visit was that it was the first time any of us had seen a 3-D movie in their special “Disney Real-D” projection room. As we walked in the door we were given clear and fairly normal looking glasses — a far cry from the old red and blue-lensed 3-D glasses of years past. I cannot even begin to describe what the movie was like once it started… the whole experience just blew my mind. Much of the action was leaping off the screen — and it looked real. I watched and had to laugh as a lady in the row in front of us ducked to avoid a piece of flying debris following an explosion in the movie. It was an amazing experience. If you’ve never been to a 3-D movie at the Warren I’d highly recommend you go; you won’t be disappointed.
