Author: SP

Ping? Pong.

When Apple announced Ping, it’s “social network for music”, I gave it my default fan-boy happy dance.  Oh, look what the great wizard has done now!  Sure – I couldn’t see the need or reason for it, but it was another possibly cool thing from Apple, so I jumped on board.

I struggled to see the value in it – so few of my friends used it – but it did offer a way to tweet likes and statuses to the community beyond iTunes, so I thought I would grow to embrace it.

That all changed this morning.

There was an app that I wanted to write a review of (Sleep Cycle), but when I posted the review it referenced my full name. … More...

Adding Favicons

I had decided I wanted to add a favicon to the site.  A favicon is the small graphic that appears either in your bookmarks on on next to the URL in your web browser.  For me, it makes it easier to find a site among the many I have bookmarked.

For my favicons, I usually prefer something simple.  In this case, it was just the initials SP in a font that I thought represented the spirit of the site (for you font-geeks, it was  “Handwriting – Dakota”).  I created the graphic using white space in a text editor, then used a screen capture utility to create a GIF file.  I then renamed the GIF to favicon.ico and the image was created.… More...

New Music: The New Pornographers, Together

I was a latecomer to the music of The New Pornographers – sure, I’d heard the name for the past few years, but never really had any sounds to attach it to. Then in early 2009 I got hooked on Neko Case and that quest for more music lead me straight to the New Pornographers.

Admittedly, my first forays into the band were limited to tracks featuring Neko – but when their latest album “Together” was released in May of 2010, I decided to listen to the disk from start to finish. I found that this is truly an album – a collection of songs meant to be heard “Together” in the order they’re presented.

The disc starts out with “Moves” – which begins with each instrument and voice playing in a very staccato fashion – sure there are harmonies and overlapping rhythms, but the staccato nature of the song is very prominent – it’s not an easy song to listen to repeatedly, but it’s a perfect start for the album, and we’ll see why as we move through some of the rest of the tracks.… More...

Interesting Finds: Broken Bells

I don’t really listen to mainstream radio that much. The time I spend in the car mostly finds me listening to podcasts – Coverville is always a favorite, as is NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! – but on a recent trip to visit friends in Virginia, I took advantage of the seven hour drive to catch up on NPR’s All Songs Considered coverage of this years South by Southwest festival

After getting through the daily recaps I started to listen to the concert podcasts – some I was into, and some just didn’t catch my ear – but then I heard the opening to “The High Road” and it was instantly both fresh and familiar. This was my introduction to Broken Bells – a collaboration between James Mercer (leader of The Shins) and Brian Burton (otherwise known as producer Danger Mouse).

… More...

Dimes

This was first published to Facebook on December 3, 2009.

From time to time I’ll post a status update that says I found a dime. Many of you know the significance, but not everyone – so here’s why dimes are such a big deal.

Shortly after my father passed away in November 2001, I started to find dimes – in parking lots, on the floor in work, under seat cushions, in washing machines and dryers, on the sidewalk – pretty much everywhere. Not pennies, not assorted change – dimes. There were so many of them I thought there had to be a reason, so I started to keep them.

At one point I was talking to my sister Katie, explaining this to her and she said with all the certainty in the world – “They’re from Daddy”.… More...