Are you looking for an interesting gift idea for the holidays? How about a personal audio recording or video message to send to out of town family or friends?
Located in Columbia, MD. Up to 30 minutes of fully produced audio for $35 or up to 10 minutes of video for $50. For more information, contact me by email at TurtleBeoulve(at)gmail dot com.
Anyone who is a fan of Alt and Indie rock in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan area can probably tell you where they were on the day they found out WHFS had flipped formats to Tropical Latin Music. It was a kick in the face to most fans who spent much of their days listening in to be the “Ninth Caller” to get tickets to the next 9:30 club gig. So in the days since that flip, what have we had to endure?
The closest playlist we have to WHFS’s heyday would have to be WRNR, Featuring many of the same DJ’s that used to be on WHFS. Based out of Annapolis, this station’s signal doesn’t get much farther than the Baltimore Washington Parkway. The website looks like your typical corporate rock radio fare, press photos from bands you may know from such commercials as…., and Glamour shots of DJ’s fading in and out. What they don’t have is a listenable stream.
The Alt/Indie rock fan are, in the eyes of a station manager, 12 - 29 years old internet savvy, iPod owners. So why would you compete with a 256k mp3 by putting out a 64k live stream? 64k mp3 or wma streams may be ok for your typical talk show format, but it is an abomination when it comes to music. Would you encode your old cds to 64k to listen to them on your iPod?
WRNR is not alone in the crappy audio stream department. WHFS2, which broadcasts on the HD radio side channel of 94.7, uses a similarly aweful streaming codec. The CBS owned station is streamed using the same streaming solution they use for all of their stations across the country. (I have to wonder if it’s encoded twice to make the leap to their main broadcast facilities)
WTMD, based in Towson, and relayed in Washington via the HD2 side channel on 88.5 is probably the worst offender when it comes to streaming quality. Not only is it horribly compressed, but it has an issue with skipping on every computer I have tried listening to it on.
All of the stations I have talked about here, I would probably give equal listening time to each, but none of them would be my favorite. None of them have realized their true advantage over the iPod, human recommendations on new music and songs that you may have missed over the years. There is one station that I listen to on a daily basis, WOXY. Based out of Cincinnati (soon to be moving operations to Austin, Texas) WOXY is the only alt/indie station that I have found that knows what they are good at, recommending songs that you would miss using itunes, and delivering it in a format that can be listened to without scratching your ears off. They offer 128k mp3 streams and 32k aac+ streams. I have been able to listen to them on my phone, with a line in jack in my car, on my xbox, and at my work computer.
Here is what I don’t like about them, I can’t get tickets to concerts or hear about what is going on in my city.
Here is the challenge laid down to any or all local indie/alt stations…
1. Stream in a way that I can take you with me where ever I go. HD radio is not going with me, I carry my phone in my pocket and that’s it.
2. Stray from the playlist. REM was a good band, I have heard their songs over and over again and can listen to their songs on my iPod whenever I feel the urge. I don’t need you to tell me they are good. Also, leave Good Charlotte and Green Day to DC 101. I want to hear Dead Confederate or Decemberists. Throw in some Breeders, Blur, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam when you get a chance.
3. Let me know if I might be missing a great performance tonight at the Black Cat, and even invite me to go if I call in with the “Phrase that Pays” or some other cheesy radio cliche.
4. No talk shows!!! I don’t care who’s wife farted in bed last night.
5. Play some local bands in the regular rotation, not on a Sunday night at midnight. A healthy local music scene would only benefit a good local radio station.
If any station can successfully take on this challenge, you will have a fan for life. I may even buy t shirts from you and put bumper stickers on my car that state that I am WXXX’s bitch for life.
Testing out my new HD camera. Haley dances on the lawn.
As a fan of the Watchmen comic, I wanted to love this movie. I really did. And I will clarify that I didn’t hate it. It just doesn’t translate well in to a movie. Zack Snyder did a good job of putting motion to the comic panels. The comic panels just aren’t the whole story. The watchmen is really about all the other stuff in between panels. The original Night Owl’s tell all book pages, the dialogue between the newsie and the teen comic reader, and even the prison psychiatrist’s life story. To leave that stuff out, is to turn the story in to a cheasy comic book movie. I know that if that stuff was left in, the movie would have been five hours instead of three (Might as well), but it proves Allan Moore right. The comic is impossible to make in to a good movie, just possibly a movie.
I went out to get a quick ciggarette and this was the scene across the street in front of the Silver Spring fire house.
(click pic for larger view)
The lady is just hanging clothes from laundry bags any place she can. My theory is that this is some protest. WMET 1160’s Glenn Frye had the brilliant theory that she wants the firemen to firehose her clothes clean. Any other theories?
I love you because you have great cleavage.
I love you because you are a great mother.
I love you because you are shockingly liberal and argue in facts and not emotion.
I love you because you can argue with emotion as well.
I love you because you laugh at fart jokes.
I love you because you laugh at just about everything I do. Even when I cut my finger so bad it needed stitches… Asshole.
I love you because you can turn just about any mundane activity in to a laugh-til-you-cry funfest.
I love you because you smell good, even when you just wake up.
I love you because you understand me when I mumble.
I love you because you’re hot.
I love you because you’re AWESOME!!!
I love you because you watch BSG with me.
I love you because you married me, sucker.
I love you because you miss me when I’m not with you and let me know it on facebook. (see, I was writing your V-Day poem)
I love you because you think I’m hot, and KNOW that I’m awesome.
I love you because you won’t let me forget how much you love me.
25.) I was the 27th Beatle
24.) My hair is an homage to former Attorney General Janet Reno
23.) My wife wears women’s underwear
22.) I was once arrested for riding a horse while intoxicated. That horse was shitfaced.
21.) I am a shunned member of the Amish community… I keep some of their numbers in my mobile though, but they never return my calls.
20.) I cheated on my wife once…. At gin rummy. 7 ACES FOR THE WIN!!!!
Whenever I think back on 90’s music, I have always thought about a video I saw on 120 minutes that I could never remember the name of the artist or song. I think my exact thought process would end up something like this…
Wow, I wish they still did 120 minutes on MTV. That show was great. I wonder what the name of that band was that did that song in front of the thing… Ooh, something shiny…
Today while going through an archive of every video ever played on 120 minutes and each week’s musical guest, I came across a few names I didn’t remember, looked them up on youtube, and enjoyed a little nostalgia. That is until I came across this video…
Thought process while watching…
Holy crap!!! It’s that band that did that song in front of the thing…
I think the reason I always remembered this video, is because it is the pinnacle of every cliche in alternative video’s of the day. Here is the checklist.
So thank you youtube, and thank you 120 minutes archive for giving me a sense of accomplishment for finding a song I heard twice in my teens and couldn’t get it out of my head, even though I couldn’t remember a damn thing about it.
Quote Pro - Stock Market app with an appealing interface and easy navigation
Quickpedia - Wikipedia front end with drop down section menus.
Minor gripe - Unnesecary location based lookup tab. I don’t see a need for wikipedia to start up my GPS.
Shazam - At first I thought this would be a novelty app, but recently have found it to be a useful music bookmarking tool.
StreamFurious - Shoutcast Player. The first version of this program took forever to load a stream. New version loads streams much faster.
Major gripe - NO AAC+ STREAM SUPPORT!!! AAC+ is essential for mobile streaming media to take off.
Toggle Settings - This app keeps getting better and better with each version. Allows easy access to the most essential settings.
Google Scoreboard - Basic sport score program with a sliding interface. If you want a few other soccer related leagues, follow these instructions… (Source - phandroid.com via palmaddict.typepad.com)
And for you who loves to dig deeper to find easter-egg, use this simple 3 steps found by Rob (Phandroid):
Major gripe -No MLS, and no ability to add leagues and teams that aren’t already supported.
Magic 8-Ball - Women love it.
Solitaire - Includes Freecell and Spider Solitaire. Well executed from the beginning and updated regularly.
Statusinator - The real strength of this program is not being able to update your facebook status, it’s being able to upload pictures directly from an album long press.
Steel - This browser shows what the built in browser should have been from the beginning. Auto rotate, and on screen keyboard. All they need now is flash and the ability to organize bookmarks in to folders and I will remove the default browser from my desktop.
Meebo! - IM client that doesn’t count against your available text messages.
