Stimulated/tuning fork

So the government gave us stimulus, and that's cool, because I had zero money for Christmas. It also presented the opportunity to get a new CD player for the car. My tape player broke, so it's nice to have music again, and not have to wear my iPod.

On the subject of iPods, why is it that I can't find earphones that sound as good as Apple's own, but Apple's own break after only a couple of months' use? Are they engineered to be rubbish so that you'll need more?

I also bought a new hard disk, which is a new home for my itunes music. That means I can keep the old portable disk (I say old, but it's only a couple of months old, obv.) as a backup, at least of what I have now. I didn't rescue everything from the broken drive, and in an annoying fuckup, managed to delete some of the stuff I did rescue, but I'm mellow with the whole thing now. I have plenty of music and if something is missing, never mind. "Missing" just means it's not to hand, not that I actually miss it.

I will also need to buy a new monitor, because this one's fucked. It works, but if it's turned off (which means if I turn off my PC), it doesn't always work when the PC, and it, is switched back on. I have no idea what's going on, but I do know that it's impossible to get a PC repaired in Brisbane. The "repairers" I've encountered, with the honourable exception of the guy who fixed my laptop, have been chancers, with little more idea of how a PC works than I have. They all want a ton of money just for coming out, and very few do "no fix no fee" (and those who do will mostly not even try to fix anything beyond the completely mundane).

It's always the way with money -- there's always some way to spend it as quickly as you get it.

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Someone who will remain anonymous tipped Meursault to me. I never realised the Proclaimers had taken up chip music. If that sounds unappealing, yes it is. It's one of the mysteries of this world that one person's ear candy is another person's earache.

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If you like that whole folky sort of tronica thing, you might prefer Juana Molina. I'm not sure about it. Sometimes electronica is just a cover for bad songwriting, and the jury's out on Sta. Molina.

Definitely my cup of tea though is Tunng. I remain mystified by the bad reviews the Tunngsters sometimes get, usually from the same people who hideously overrate American "folk" bands like the Fleet Foxes (meh), Animal Collective (muh) and god I can't go on, there's tons of quirky, folkly bollocks made by guys with beards.

Why did I just type "guys with bears"? I'm betting not one of them owns a bear.

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Nearly forgot. The "new" thing I am enjoying is Port-Royal. Postrockatronica anyone? It's a different angle from the Errors (postrock meets cheesy techno), Pyramids (three bands rehearsing in the same room) or Genghis Tron (metalatronica). Mostly it's your regular postrock with an electronica overlay, but it sounds a lot better than that promises to.

posted by Dr Zen @ 2:47 pm