Just a quick word to anyone on 3 who at least modestly likes cricket (or hangs out with people who do) - get the Bumper Pack. It's quite cool having it on underneath my monitor at work, calling out the wickets before they filter through to the others in the office watching CricInfo.
Anyone desperate for something else to watch can see a few little videos of mine over at YouTube. Personally, I recommend putting the cricket on instead.
Howdy peeps! Some of you might be wondering what I'm up to - I just thought I'd pop in and let you know my exams are over on Thursday. After that, I'll be easing into my new position at work, a few days a week until the new year, when I'll be a permanent employee. Sounds like fun? I've honestly got no idea yet.
Props to Beck, that master singer-songwriter "who transcends genres even as he reinvents them". Part-scientist and part-visionary, I think he's ahead of his time again. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there's a DVD that accompanies his The Information album which contains video clips: to all 16 tracks on the album. Many clips do have that low-budget/editing time home-made feel, but with the popularity of YouTube and the like these days, it still provides good cheap distraction. Anyone who's seen the Foo Fighters' Low film clip might understand! Actually they're a lot like clips of remixed songs, where the remixer "mixes" the clip with their own samples and visual effects.
The funny thing is that the clips themselves mimic the experimental way Beck composes songs. Often random, disjointed and surprising, the clips are heavy on effects and filters, even deferring to pixelated 8-bit graphics in parts, just like the use of electronic beep-like sounds in some tracks. Animal costumes make recurring appearances, which as you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of.
Music television's as popular as ever I would say, and sales of in-car DVD players are slowly getting there. I can totally visualise people buying all albums as DVDs (or CD/DVD doubles) one day. Think about it: most devices that play CDs these days play DVDs too. Why not add an extra dimension to an album? I'd love to be driving in my car and when I pull up to the lights, I can glance over and see what the song is. Maybe use the subtitle feature to toggle showing the song name or for karaoke.
I love extra distractions - I've always got music on in the background while I'm driving, studying, playing video games or using computers around the house. I still find music clips interesting, but when they're alongside a whole album it creates an environment. I just plain respect giving musicians an extra creative outlet to enhance the listener's experience of an album. In this case, it gives a feel of a late-night party after you've come back from a bigger party. It seems like the visual effects are wackier towards the end - you drinkers might understand the parallel there! (Note to self: have a Beck and Beck's night after I move out)
I'm not sure if it'll help prevent piracy, but it can't hurt. Neither did including some stickers as well! This is the first Beck album I own (even if it was a birthday present), but the sixth I have on my PC. Some of that is due to the hit-and-miss nature of whether you love the instruments used and stuff, of course. However, my main CD purchasing principle is if I really dig an album, I have to buy their next album. I did really like Beck's last one, the very cool Latino/Caribbean inspired album Guero, so it's suitable to pick up The Information.
My other principle is that at the year's end, I'll be counting down (at least) my top 10 albums of the year and ensuring I've purchased a copy of each of them. I just like to justify that downloading can be good for the music industry and that I'm putting back in for the rewards I get out of it. And I feel quite rewarded by Monsieur Beck right now.
Welcome to my first video blog on an actual topic, thus earning an embedded status. For dialup users or fans of punctuation who want to snob the footage, the text is included below. Enjoy!
Amidst all the policy proposals ahead of Victoria's state election, there was one Liberal proposal that hit quite close to home: introducing 5c refunds on empty cans and bottles for recycling. First of all, it's hard to conceive that South Australia could be ahead of their time with anything. (It's OK to slag them online - they won't see it for 20 years. And then another half hour.)
I used to collect cans back in the day, you know. Mainly from household use, but if I needed to top it up, a quick look around the cricket club was normally bountiful. I remember taking the cans to the old "Cash-a-Can" place near the Croydon pool (or after that closed, a spot near Chirnside) on the way to VicKick. It was quite a money-spinner in relative terms to my pocket money at the time. So I do appreciate recycling for cash. I support using children as a cheap labour source to keep our country beautiful too.
However, as a constant carbonated and boozified beverage consumer, I am naturally sceptical about the Liberal's reassurances that prices will not be raised. Particularly because I don't think they're the ones who set prices - and some Australian Food and Beverage Council has already drawn a link between the refunds and price hikes.
I doubt that it would end up as just a 5c per can charge either. Prices tend to form around "ceilings" of something 9.95 (or in smaller shops, say, a multiple of 5). When the GST was introduced, a large McDonald's meal was lifted from the $4.95 figure that to $5.45 or whatever. Within months, the ceiling was increased to $5.95. Call it the Butterfly Effect, greed or whatever you want. Consider a slab: while it's technically only $1.20 more, soon we'd see the standard $40 slab specials at $45. As an avid consumer, that offends me and my wallet.
Perhaps the main reason that tips my stance well into the anti side of the fence is the fact I have not recreated the journey of the great Cosmo Kramer. I'm sure we've all had the idea of having a road trip, taking all our cans, driving to South Australia and cashing in on the "exchange rate". I'd actually like to do it. If this new system comes in, I'd have to go to somewhere like Sydney, drink a shitload and drop the cans off on the way back into Victoria. (Admittedly, it's mainly the Sydney part that I didn't like in that scheme.)
Although I'm sure it makes no difference who I vote for in this election. Labor should retain state parliament, but I'm in one of the safest Liberal seats going around, so there's not much competition in that race either. Five bucks says that the Labor candidate for my seat this year still has acne.
And can we put a "u" in Labor? I feel like a freaking American here. I still hate having to spell colour as "color" when writing HTML. I bet all the people who have to learn English to write HTML would be pissed too. US English is not a language.
So I urge you, and the women in particular, take good care of your cans. I'm Patrick Horgan, reporting for Tales of a Caffeine Junkie.