Opening Pandora's Box, Volume II- The First 10 Songs

Public Domain painting by John William Waterhouse. Found at http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Pandora's_Box.jpg.

To recap, I am only listening to music on my computer through Pandora internet radio this week. This is in attempt to see if I can train a station to actually work with my musical tastes. They are so disparate and random at times that I wondered if the service could truly adapt. Supposedly, Pandora learns what you like in music and plays only things that match up to those preferences.

I decided to record my first 100 songs played, just to get an exact idea of the music presented early on in the process. I also made sure to rate every song in that first 100 as like or dislike, to make sure I gave Pandora plenty of data on me to utilize. Technically, you’re only supposed to like something when you like “all parts” of it, which I started to do when it got past that first 100. As a side note, I do in fact like all parts of “House of the Rising Sun,” and give a little cheer when it comes on the radio.

Halloween Horror Nights and the Fear Sombrero

This is a real chicken, for representative purposes. Photo from The Commons on Flickr.

As I’ve mentioned, Nicole and I plan on making a trip to Florida in October to scope out our new habitat. I also want to spend a few days at Universal Studios while there. Unfortunately, this will be during their annual Halloween Horror Nights. This scares the crepe out of me.

I am a chicken. I do not find this a major fault. Yes, a coward may die a thousand times, but at least I live to die again and again. And really, it’s kind of cool to say you’ve died a thousand times. Sounds like something a Norwegian death metal singer would claim, right before a bandmate stabs him. Seriously, those guys are terrifying enough to be exhibit #1 why running and hiding is almost always the best plan of action.

Opening Pandora's Box, Volume I

I was following and commenting on a post on Twenty Sided (a blog by the guy who brought us DM of the Rings, one of the greatest web comics ever) about the Pandora music service. For those who don’t know, Pandora is a high-minded internet radio service that attempts to define the traits, or genomes, of all songs, and then learn what exactly you like in music. Theoretically, this will result in radio stations that play exactly the kind of songs you’ll like. I mentioned how I hadn’t had much success so far with the service, but honestly it was mostly because of underuse.

The only problem is that I’m already dedicated to another service that tracks my iTunes usage, Last.FM. However, Pandora is more sophisticated at the base level, and allows you to see what it is you like in music. As someone who once had delusions of being a music writer, I find it’s my duty to discover exactly what I like in music.

Of Proposals and Penguins

The big news in Nicole and I’s life is that on Friday, July 30th, I asked for Nicole’s hand in marriage. It was our year and a half anniversary, and everything worked out perfectly. Which is wonderful, since this event has been six months in the making, and I was just a little bit nervous.

I should really say eight or nine months, to be more still not precise. At that point, we began planning our one year dating anniversary. I decided we should visit Disney World together, as both of us have the right child at heart attitude. I also hadn’t been for four years or so, which is too long in my estimation.

This Ain't No Party, This Ain't No Disco

When driving back from Indiana Beach, Nicole and I found ourselves increasingly lost at first, resulting in the trip taking an extra half hour to get home. This was a problem, as I start going comatose behind the wheel once it gets later than 1:00 in the morning. What saved us from a horrible tree maiming demise with much crashing and banging and exploding in a fireball (wooooosh) was that the song "Life During Wartime" came on the radio. I'd heard of the Talking Heads song before, and vaguely knew it was a classic, but it was one of those songs I'd never managed to hear.

Since Saturday night/Sunday morning, the song has now been in my head almost continually. I'm having to constantly drown it out in my head by blasting other random music (currently on Love's Forever Changes, hippy weirdness is a nice counter to hipster weirdness). I'm still glad for it though, because I not only know the song now, I've also witnessed the video above. It's from Stop Making Sense, the famous concert movie. It illustrates why David Byrne will live forever, while all that has come after him will wither and perish.

Nicole and Gabe Storm Indiana Beach

(Note: Pictures taken during daylight didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped because the day was insanely overcast. We didn't see the sun for the entire length of our visit.)

On Saturday Nicole and I ventured to Indiana Beach, an amusement park in Monticello, Indiana that takes up an entire peninsula in a lake. It's pretty much all lakeside, and is the closet thing you'll find to a seaside amusement park in central Indiana. The place is packed both with people and rides, and since it has free admission, all walks of humanity and inhumanity are present. It's also kind of like those ancient castles in Europe, kept in a preserved state of disrepair, but never really getting fully refreshed and restored.

My favorite entrance to the park, over a huge suspension bridge that bounces as you walk. The big wooden coaster is the Hoosier Hurricane, which covers nearly the entire length of the park.

It's a fun, if a little rough, coaster that's mostly great for the view.

There's More Than Corn in Indiana (But Lots to Drive Through)

Nicole and I had a very big week last week with some big news, which I'll write about later. We also went to Indiana Beach last weekend and had a great time. I took lots of pictures and I'm working on a full report, but for now here's a selection of "artier" pictures that aren't good for descriptive purposes.

------------Gabe