The Empirical Manifesto

Was absolutely shocked when one of my gaming buddies started singing along with me to a Broadway musical over the headset. Naturally, I out myself by gushing in the discovery of another fan of Broadway as such occurrences are few and far between (I married the last person who did so). Turns out it was popular on a World of Warcraft video back in 2006 and there's an entire swath of people who had no idea it was in any way an actual musical number :|

Its been far too long. Volume I was released in 2008. La La Land Records just released Volume II. It sat here, unopened for a week or so, as I contemplated it. Then, sometime later, I ripped it into iTunes. But I hadn't listened to it until today.

Volume I helped me feel a great many things, over and over and over. I will admit to being nervous Volume II wouldn't do the same. So more time passed before I listened to it. And while today wasn't ideal with all the kids in the house and the unusual pressure at work, and going two full weeks without partnered introspection, and having worked Sunday maintenance and staying up late every night gaming with my son, one could argue today was the perfect day in which to do so.

I wasn't disappointed.

Part haunting lullaby and part quiet relaxation, I found Volume II to be everything Volume I was and has always been (minus Santos Elves & Omerta sadly). Given how I have my iTunes organized (by date added), I started my journey with Season 1, Episode 19: Powers, Principalities, Thrones, And Dominions which was as meaningful as it sounds. I listened to Volume I approximately fifty bajillion times the first six months I owned it. I have a feeling I will now do the same with Volume II.

Better yet, from my post in 2009, "After seeing the Season One episode "Lamentations" my only regret is that Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture blending into Mark Snow's score wasn't on the album." Anyone want to venture what's on Volume II?

The time is now.

Its been cold here in Newton, Kansas, and I haven't been hanging out in the garage much. At some point I wondered if, given all the time I spend in my office, it wouldn't be prudent to either bring the garage subwoofer into my office, pairing them with my Infinity SM82s, or...

I decided to swap speakers, pairing the Infinity with the subwoofer for the much needed bass they were obviously lacking (and where it would be needed most, in the garage) and they sounded great in there! But you know what else sounded fantastic? Probably more than fantastic given the absurdity of what I'd done?

My new garage speakers towering over me on my desk. I couldn't be more pleased. They freaking rock. No matter what I throw at them, they rock. I'm now in the market for an inexpensive PCIe soundcard.



Oh, and that's Nymph on the openSUSE LXDE screen (VirtualBox VM via RDP) and Ikaros on the Windows screen. I've been watching Heaven's Lost Property and listening to a lot of Babymetal :P

Giorgio Moroder is on SoundCloud and I've been lurking there for months. How many vinyl albums of his does my father own? How many of his CDs do I own trying to get my own copies of his music?

God I love that man.

Remember when the lead singer of Oingo Boingo started composing film score and it turned out to be actually really good? No one ever expects that. That's why I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome when George Clinton started composing film score - because, you know, funk.

michelle1963 had just finished The 4400 on Netflix and recommended it to me as something to consider in the evenings as I am very occasionally wont to do; I fell in love right away with the score, but couldn't find proof anywhere it had ever been recorded (nor covered by my favorite Sci-Fi re-recorder, Joohyun Park).

I was also shocked to discover George S. Clinton was white...followed immediately with the dawning comprehension that composer George S. Clinton wasn't funk musician George Clinton.

All these years.

I was out and about the other day and the radio was tuned to the kids's favorite station, 96.3 "All the Hits." I hear a song I'd never heard, by an artist with a noticeably powerful voice. Presumably I reached my destination or received an incoming call, because I promptly forgot all about it.

Days later perhaps, a comment on the YouTube coming-of-age video I made for my daughter came through email and as I was I checking out the commenter's page, I found this image - which I obviously clicked. That link eventually lead me to a unique video which turned out to be by the same artist with the noticeably powerful voice.

Now I'm not usually one for pop music, but I found running across the same artist twice unique. She's the New Zealand artist, Lorde.

As someone who listens to a lot of classical music, I've been a fan of Yo-Yo Ma for some time. So you can imagine my glee when I discovered he soloed on Tan Dun's score to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I have many CDs of him, from covering Bach to dueting with Bobby McFerrin of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" infamy. He's was also featured on John Williams score to Seven Years in Tibet. suzanne1945 bought an album awhile back I probably would have skipped, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, a bluegrassy twangy thing which turned out to be an unexpectedly delightful listen.

Having the propensity to hedonisticly immerse myself in anything I find even remotely pleasurable, I started combing my own collection of music where I discovered in my iTunes database, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone in which there was a skin-tingling version of The Ecstasy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Not only possibly the best version I have ever heard, but also a stirring mix of East and West as Yo-Yo's cello hearkens wuxia in his opening notes.

In the movie Free Enterprise William Shatner (playing himself) announces that he is writing a musical version of Julius Cesar in which he will portray all characters (and can be seen rapping Mark Antony's monologue here). I bring this up because in Yo-Yo Ma's rendition of The Ecstasy of Gold he seemingly does the same with his cello, from the rhythm to the haunting choral; playing all the parts himself.

And it moves me.

It was actually my wife who first said, "Wow, I can't believe what a great soundtrack this has." Which is funny, because that's usually my line, and I was - just at that moment - thinking the same thing.


Having never heard of it, my wife had added it to our Netflix cue because it "looked interesting" or perhaps it was "might be good"; I was enamored nearly immediately, being blown away by the actors, their lines, and the slick modernization of the entire franchise. And yes, the music.


During one break we took midway between the lengthy pilot I sneaked into my submersible and frantically searched for the score, for surely anything on Netflix is old enough to have such a beast, no? No. The only thing I found which came close was a David Arnold piece for a mini-series. But wait! Mini-series as in BSG before-it-was-a-series mini-series? David Arnold? Really? Really.


I remember thinking of the harpsichord sound in Hans Zimmer's recent Sherlock Holmes and how I was surprised I was that this was so similar in composition. But then I remembered all I don't know about scores and music and the marvelous ability to make someone believe their somewhere else just through the magic of music alone. I was still roaming Victorian-era London, albeit in modern times. We've changed more than London has over the centuries, and David Arnold managed to bring us right to that point in time, and race our hearts as we race the streets and alleyways when the game is afoot!


The album ships on the 30th.

Because things like "Sci-Fi" (and to a much lesser degree, the recently SMACKDOWN-laden SyFy channel) are mainstream popular, so then are those who consider themselves geeks. When Valley Girls were popular for example, that didn't make you a geek...You were, after all, just following what was popular - much as you are now. Logging into Facebook does not make you a geek either <-- everyone does it.

But I'm not here to argue the denotation and/or societal nuances of geekdom - though believe you me, I could tell you stories, having grown up one. I'll leave those bittersweet tales for later. What I would like to say is DON'T YOU DARE ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME when I mention the score to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse because its an overrated tween vamp movie. Let me explain:

Before Peter Jackson, there were these things called "books" and people would "read" them. The geekier ones read a genre popularly known as "fantasy." Believe it or not, The Lord of the Rings was a trilogy of books long before it was made into a movie and thrust you into geekdom because you enjoyed something mainstream. I'm not discrediting the films - they were magnificent - and I'm not attempting to hold on to a mantle I feel I deserve over someone else either, for as far as I'm concerned, press is great for obscure niches - oh the things I've learned because they were hone from popular culture (I would've never read Vladimir Nabakov's Lolita had it not been for Sting and the Police...)!

One of the things which made The Lord of the Rings trilogy so memorable was its music. The film's "score" or background instrumental music. In this case, the composer of the score for all three films was Howard Shore. His music was so good, in fact, that he won two Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score. This is the same guy who wrote the music to Eclipse. <-- The music doesn't have anything to do with teens, tweens, bored housewives, Robert Pattinson or vampires! Enjoying a grand score by a great composer, is not jumping on a squeeing bandwagon, and when you roll your eyes at the mention of the title, you give yourself away.

So listen, learn, and blend.

After saving his money for what must seem like forever to a 10-year-old (about six months to the best of my recollection) for his "long-term" purchase of a PS3, he decided the long-awaited StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was worth delving into his savings for, and purchased the game himself. When I explained that LAN play had been disabled and each player would require their own [legal] copy of the game (unheard of in this household) he offered his remaining monies to go toward the purchase of my game.

My sweet boy is a gamer at heart ♥

Of course he hasn't been waiting for the game as long as, oh...I've been waiting! I remember loading the "Brood War" expansion on my Windows 98 laptop back in...let's see...oh yeah, NINETEEN NINETY-EIGHT. That is to say, two years before he was born. He didn't wait. The rest of us did. He was amused though that this new game was so similar to the original. Another "plus" in my book.

I was thrilled to discover that both my kids boxes could play it, surpassing the minimum specifications and meeting or exceeding the recommended specs. Just don't accept the installer's suggestion of texture quality as it will actually allow you to set it past what your video card has onboard with no apparent issues and that single change will greatly improve you visual experience.

I loved the score - very much a retooling of the original, but with real orchestration and less of that pre-millennium synth. Like embedded midi's in that era's webpages *shudder*. I am also greatly enjoying the Western twang they've added reminiscent of Firefly. I don't know why its there, but it really puts a smile on my face during gameplay. The electronic booklet which comes with the iTunes download is magnificent! Studio shots, mixing boards, the choir, the brass, the freaking cathedral in Woodstock, New York converted to a studio, just WOW.

After Friday's soul-wrenchingly slow afternoon in which I was was saved by certain tongue-swallowing through Giacchino's Speed Racer and Star Trek^* back-to-back (Giacchino made me ache for the release date of the Star Trek DVD), I've been looking for MORE MUSIC to drone out the banality of those around me by submersing myself into abject pornography for the ears. Mind music. Rousing orchestral arrangements which keep my mind sharp while simultaneously raising my spirits to a frenzy in which I'll feel I can overcome anything.

Music like that, however, is few and far between.

I've been visiting Jamendo a lot lately, which is beginning to depress me as I do believe I've downloaded the best they have to offer. I want more Bear McCreary. What's he been doing? I hope he's been composing, because I'm ready for something more. I decided now would be a good time to pick up the only CD of his I don't own, Rest Stop: Dead Ahead. Yeah, about that...$50. The last time I spent $40 on a music CD (A fantastic tip from lehah, The Adventures of Indiana Jones, Volume 4) my wife nearly shot me (I don't even have the physical media yet to Volumes 1, 2 & 3).

So I scoured my hard drive for stuff I know I've squirreled away for a rainy day. That downpour has come, in the form of an emotional vacuum. I need to fill it. And I wasn't disappointed. I found stuff I've been waiting for time to listen to but never got around to adding to my library. Some tarballs, some bootlegs, some rips, some compositions by one of my readers, and finally ripping Let Me Tell You of the Days of High Adventure.

Sat on my ass and drank beer most of the weekend. Actually *relaxed* (I don't get to do that too often). Coupled with the hard, pipe-hitting week I had, I'm shielding myself this week with the armor of the songs on my iPod, and I will be victorious.

Bring it on, Monday.

I received an email that the score to Torchwood's season 3 mini-series "Children of Earth" was available for pre-order. Not only was the composer someone I was unfamiliar with, outside the Main Theme I don't vividly recollect the music used throughout the first two seasons.

All that changed yesterday.

We watched the first two episodes of the 5-episode mini-series (which encompasses the entirety of the third season) "Children of Earth" and all I can say is, "WOW!" Torchwood was initially unadulterated British cheese, billed as a "Dr. Who for adults" which eventually matured as the series progressed. And though I'd heard that they'd pulled out all the stops for this last 'season' I was doubtful it would rise to the occasion. I'm here to admit that I was mistaken.

When was the last time you came so hard, you forgot where you were?

While I don't suggest watching it standalone without having first seen the previous two seasons to set up the backstory, I do think the conclusion of the series is time well spent for watching the entire thing. And the score? Magnificent! Its very exciting - I ordered it today:





Which leads me to The Plan. Thanks to irulan_amy who was my eyes & ears at ComicCon this year and who attended Bear McCreary's "Battlestar Concert" where he played a piece from a yet-to-be-released direct-to-video TV movie I was entirely ignorant of, The Plan. You see, humans created the Cylons. They rebelled. There are many copies. And yes, you guessed it, they have a plan. Taking place after the events of the destruction of the 12 colonies, that plan will be unveiled, answering a lot of questions (I assume) behind the motivations of the cylon's actions in the series.

Of course another Bear McCreary score is never a bad thing either ;)

---

Since I first mentioned my DL380 G3 I got rid of the ML380 which I accidentally irrevocably destroyed and replaced it with a DL380 G4 on which I installed ESXi v4.0 aka vSphere. vSphere will only load on 64-bit machines, and the G4 fit the bill.

G3 = 32-bit dual 3.20 GHz procs, 5GB memory, 3x15k 18GB drives in a RAID-0 configuration
G4 = 64-bit dual 3.60 Ghz procs, 4GB memory, 5x10k 72GB drives in a RAID-5 configuration

The ML370 took 35 minutes to load ESXi v3.5. But thanks to a boost in compute power, and a complete re-engineering of vSphere, the G4 was able to accomplish the task in about 8 minutes. Now we all know the heartburn I have with only being able to run the Virtual Infrastucture Client (now called vSphere client) on the Windows operating system, but moving my VMware Workstation hosts from my laptop to the G3 gives me the overhead I need so that its not such a drag.

The VMware leader dude showed me how to make a virtual switch on vSphere, allowing me to suck DHCP addresses for my hosts while keeping my server on my static IP. He later showed me the Windows equivalent of the resolv.conf. I manipulated that so I can access my hosts via DNS if the back-end IP addresses refresh their lease. The best part is - no more transferring of files; I can access the same box no matter where I am.

While we were building out the new server, we were simultaneously playing with features. For example, I put a lot of work into culling down my initial XP image for his SAN - 3.4GB with all my apps. Unfortunately, that backfired because I'm perpetually low on disk space. During the transfer of the host from his SAN to my new server, I was able to resize the c:\ drive, update the VMware Tools, and make configuration changes along the way. I have a gigabit connection under my desk on my static IP ethernet, and was able to copy and convert my entire host in about five minutes.

The VMware leader dude suggested that I create a separate datastore for the swap files, and I knew just the thing - a 72GB 15k drive I'd recently come into possession of, and I had one free slot.

And now a word about SCSI hot-swap. When I first plugged one of the 72GB 15k drives into an empty slot on my ubuntu workstation, it froze the server. Plugging it into the G4, it didn't - however, ESX wouldn't "see" the drive as a valid physical drive. Yes, I had to reboot the server and configure it as a logical drive first.

So yeah, its fast. I'm going to see how much more I can do with it. And while your average run-of-the-mill user will be able to use it immediately "out of the box" the bastardization of linux they've managed seriously inhibits my ability to exploit it, as its quite different than the v3 builds. Once I've completely set up all the nuances I want from it, however, I shouldn't have to touch it again. Unfortunately, I'm still accessing this technology with the same 1800s interface - the same interface which was around when steam engines crossed this nation. I really believe that should be updated next.

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Things at work are keeping me absolutely buried this week but in a good way. Lots of work, but lots of accomplishments as well. You cannot stop change, and none of us know the future, but if you're able to exceed your programming, you may just keep your head above the waterline.

One of the activities I engaged in over the holidays was taking my wife out for her birthday. On that list was a run to Borders, where she could listen to new music. Borders has those computer stations throughout the store with the bar-code scanner and headphones. For the life of me, I couldn't get the one in soundtracks to work, so I approached the staff, "Pardon me, but I'm trying to listen to this album..."
"...Oh that's so simple, its self-explanatory. Just scan it at the bottom of the monitor, and put the headphones on."

I know to some teen, I'm probably the epitome of old, but the base O/S is Windows for christssake, "Yes, its that part actually, which isn't working." They then proceeded to SHOW me, explaining all the while how very simple it was. How very easy. Of course, it didn't work for them either. "Well, this one doesn't work," they went on to say, and I was led to another kiosk, and once again *shown* how it operated. I tried to not roll my eyes when I thanked them, oblivious to the fact that the errant station was my problem, not the operation of the bar-code scanner, but I digress. You see, that's how I ended up listening to my handful of scores in the Rock/Pop section of the store.

Having grown up in a household where classical and opera was predominantly played, coupled with the fact that all the dumb kids listened to heavy metal in grade school (the same ones who became stoners and drop-outs in high school, still wearing their black death metal T-shirts) I always abhorred heavy metal, and those who listened to it. From my perspective, it was quite obvious. Only later in life, as an adult, did I find highly-intelligent people who listened to metal. It was one of those life-changing events, shaking the very core of my beliefs. Could they simply be musically immature? Wasn't classical and opera the pinnacle of musical development? Or...was I missing something? Could that be possible?

I listened on and off to various suggestions and bands on and off along this path - to be honest, I couldn't tell one song from another. It amused me to think that these people probably thought the same of Beethoven and Mozart. But there I was, standing in the Rock/Pop section, scanning the covers from which to judge the contents by, and I saw what looked like a Sarah Brightman or Enya cover (albeit with a more primal expression on her face), with oddly out-of-place heavy metal font usage. Curious, I scanned it in and gave it a listen. It was definitely metal, but the lead singer had an operatic voice, speaking to me like Brünnhilde from a Wagnerian piece. I wasn't quite riveted, as all that noise seemed to get in the way, but my curiosity was certainly piqued. The cover had a sticker on it proclaiming it a solo album from the lead-singer of the group Nightwish. I found and previewed a sampling of their discs, then picked up EVERYTHING.

I even made a compilation for my dad, of some of the more operatic pieces.

Guess what?

He liked it.

So yeah, heavy metal. Usually when I use that term, I'm referring to the Elmer Bernstein film score. I immediately called two people on my FL who I know enjoy this type of music to witness to them. To share the Good News.

Color me surprised.

Meet the IA-64 Itanium processor. I'd tell you more about him, but I experienced yesterday what was probably catastrophic hardware failure. The box emitted what it calls an 'e-buzzer' troubleshooting code for issues which are too either too severe or occur too early to init the LED lights. It provides between one and seven 'beeps' a second, for you to time to determine where the issue is. As there were beeps evenly spaced throughout the time alloted without pause, I can only assume that one meant one thing: 'fux0red' which of course was not on HP's troublehshooting page. As it turns out, that unix creature of mythical proportions Ernest is going to provide me a second identical box for the purposes of getting this up and running. I've taken over my wife's sewing table in the interim, for the build-out and load.

The rx2600 can hold a maximum of 64GB of RAM, but it needs a minimum of 4x256 PC2100R (registered, ECC) to boot. Betwixt Ernest and I, we found exactly one set of matched pairs. Like the 712/80, this box does not require a proprietary keyboard, mouse or monitor. Unlike the 712/80 however, it can use USB for those devices, which is a nice addition. The 712/80 actually required those items to be present to boot, as it was a desktop rather than a server. Once I get this built, its going into my server rack, as I've already replaced the space previously occupied by belanna with an ubuntu 8.10 server. I put together three other x86 boxes yesterday from junk parts, and loaded two of them. drax0r ended up with a 2.8GHz 1GB RAM ubuntu desktop, and for myself I built a 2.6GHz 1GB RAM ubuntu server. I gave him my even older parts, and put together his old 1.6GHz box which was my linux server for a long time. The only thing it needs is a power supply.

And while I was thrilled to discover that I could now simply apt-get gallery2 (preventing me from re-compiling it everytime I update the linux-headers) my hopes were quickly dashed when I saw that just because you can apt-get a thing and all its dependencies simultaneously, doesn't mean it will *actually* work. I was up until 0100 trying to get PHP to play nice with MySQL. And that's another thing - before I decommissioned the old gallery, I'd made a database backup. And while it was easy enough to restore, the versions are different enough to cause my grief as well.





I have not yet received my soundtracks from La-La Land Records. I was hoping to have them before we leave for Wichita tomorrow. I'll be sitting on pins and needles until the mail arrives.

Tonight - hamburgers! Fresh sliced yellow onions, thick sliced hot house tomatoes, sandwich sliced dill, and jalapeno rings atop a quarter-pound grilled angus beef patty with your choice of provolone, chipotle, or horseradish cheese between a soft, whole wheat bun. Yeah, I'm excited. Better get that grill started...

Last month I attended a funeral in which the music selection, having been chosen by the deceased, was played throughout the service. And while torn between not wanting to disrespect her memory (we had often shared new music with each other in eager anticipation of the others' finds) and coming to the ultimate conclusion that the music she chose for her final journey, well...sucked, I set out to craft my own soundtrack of demise, "Funeral Music Which Doesn't Suck."

There were those who knew of my endeavor that called it morbid, and while hopefully I have many years to add, remove, and adapt my end music, I felt it important to be prepared in the event of the inevitable. I chose low, melodic pieces which would allow for the somberness of the event - music in other words which would be right at home in the setting - most ended with sweeping conclusions; tracks such as "Allegro Maestoso" from Organ Symphony #3, Mozart's "Introitus" from Requiem and score selections like "Loved Ones & Leaving" from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix along with "Real Rain," "Father's Funeral" (of course) and other beautiful yet appropriate pieces. All my selections were very carefully chosen - I spent two full days on this, pulling selections out with Audacity (the audio software, I assure you I wasn't pulling out selections with insolence and disregard) to create a half-hour FLAC image.

Problem is, it sucked. It was difficult putting one after another, or between two others. Dissimilar sounds, dissimilar instruments, meter, rhythms...Gah! Which to start and which to end? I scrapped the whole project.

Later, having so enjoyed Age of Conan, I wanted to piece together a playlist in which composers used the range of voice as an instrument. I pulled several tracks from Conan and added to it gentle wordless vocals from A Beautiful Mind and Pan's Labyrinth, then moved to choral selections such as "Sirens" from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Galaxy Quest and others. Incorporating chants I chose tracks such as "Optiums vs. Megatron" from Transformers: The Score. Then I ran into that same brick wall - they didn't play well together.

Another project scrapped.

My last entry took me 72-hours to complete, in which I was able to listen to four mixes that didn't suck:



I don't often ask myself, "How does he do it?" But after trying my own hand at it with the consequences I ended up with, makes these mixes even more impressive. Not only do they all work, they manage to convey a story of sorts with them - like reading a good book. All these albums are constructed using the same methods: A rousing intro to set the tone followed by a little exposition - some background information to introduce characters or locations - before getting into the 'plot' so to speak, which is the majority of the album. And just like life, these albums run through any number of emotional cues depending on what's trying to be conveyed. Shaft for example is action-packed, and at times, elusive, mellow. Vice is best described by the arrangers own words, "...in addition to beautiful long-form themes, there is also a streak of weirdness that runs through his music..." Just as I was being drawn into a movement there would be hooting, or clanging of an instrument - and not just moar cowbell - strange, eerie sounds which weren't identifiable waking you from the lull of the melodies, lest you forget where you were...The Old West. (And might I add a brilliant album when the lights are low in the office late at night while working surreptitiously on teh internetz.)

Of these four, Love & War is perhaps the most traditional of the mixes - and far more contagious than I first imagined. Tinny YouTube videos don't do justice to these lush orchestrations, and for not being a movie the score was quite comprehensive and likely greater than the sum of its parts insofar as bringing the listener full-circle in just under an hour and a half. Whatever I was expecting from a mini-series despite having understood that was a full score was surpassed almost immediately. The album is an exceptional listen, taking you back to another time with an almost duality to it: Romanticism and happiness, but always with an underlying tone of foreboding doom.

But for me the real surprise was the jazz compilation Father to Son. I have quite a few jazz CD's but I'm very selective with my jazz, and my conversations surrounding it. There are few artists that I enjoy, and jazz encompassing such a varied sub-set what with fusion, big band, acid (I could go on) finding just the right album is usually a frustrating and time-consuming effort. And while I have only a few 'Jazz in the Movies' albums, they're usually very slow, sensual collections. Mood music. Just what I like when I like it. Granted, that's not often. All this being said, one might begin to see the source of my surprise when Father to Son turned out to be the most oft-listened of the set. While each of these albums are perfect in their own right, arriving all at once they way they did, and having listened to them back-to-back, I was shocked at how seamless Father to Son came off, and how enjoyable it was, having been more a jazz album, than a score album (though the jazz was indeed original score music to a film).

The only thing left for me now is to slide Shaft into my car's CD player on my next trip ;)

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Boys from Brazil two-disc set is finally on its way, ordered Rest Stop: Don't Look Back (signed by the composer) and Wrong Turn 2 ($4.98 special!) both by Bear McCreary and almost ordered Beltrami & (sometimes composer) Sanders' Max Payne. Twice. In the end, however...I puss'd out.

After a month of immersing myself in The Dark Knight and revisiting and ultimately including Batman Begins with every listen, as well as re-watching Batman Begins again, I finally popped in, "Gotham Avenger" Original Music by Danny Elfman, Shirley Walker & Elliot Goldenthal, and what a treat that was! Even knowing how this disc was put together didn't save me from the surprise at how effortlessly the songs not only blended together, but complimented each other in their selection. While the original Elfman score was very heavy and consistent, this mix manages to breathe into it a much needed rounding of levity and depth, mostly with the inclusion of Shirley Walker's tracks which seem uneventful when listening to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm alone. The unofficial conclusion of "side one" ends without a transition, but not without fanfare! The tracks selected for this compilation brilliantly tie into one another on an individual level, and collectively, create a wonderful landscape of Gotham. Elfman's original sound is found throughout, which essentially ties the entire album together in a neat, magnificent package. After the brooding, atmospheric ZimNewHow scores, this one managed to put a smile on my face from start to finish. Incredible!

Unfortunately and surprisingly, the same cannot be said of my initial reaction to "You'll Believe A Man Can Fly" which, after the goosebumps-inducing title track, left me unmoved. I began this one first, because I thought I'd enjoy it more, either through eager anticipation, or the fact it was discussed in such length through email and across several blog entries. I don't want to be Mr. Sourboots just yet, because I haven't given the entire album its due, and I hate to prejudge; I'll likely listen to it over and over and may even learn to love it. I'm just surprised I wasn't initially infatuated with it as I had expected to be, being instead completely blown away by "Gotham Avenger."

INTERNETWORK TRESPASS
Spent most of the day trying to get my son's computer to see my shared iTunes library, to no avail. My DSL comes in through a 2-Wire router/modem which broadcasts wireless to his Mac Mini. My router acts as the modem's DMZ, absorbing all requests and handing them in turn. I pointed the ports iTunes uses (3689 TCP/5353 UDP) to my host for outside inquiries - All the computers this side of the router can see my library - but his cannot. He can ping past his router, and ping my router, but he cannot ping boxes on the other side of my router. I even tried manipulating his routing table with no effect. The wireless clients simply cannot see boxes on the other side of my router. FAIL.

YES, LORD?
While I was secure shell'd into his mac, I had the computer call his name, then tell him, "Your daddy says you can leave your room. He wants to see you. He's in his office. Go now." He comes running through the house giggling, admitting that when the computer first called his name, he looked around, spooked. EPIC WIN.

LESSONS LEARNED
Finished Season 2 of NCIS and have all four seasons ready to go out Monday for galinda822 (I even pre-made her an avatar, just in case). When I was ready to send a package of laserdiscs, I sat in my floor and cut styrofoam with my pocketknife for two days, crafting a secure mold in which to travel. Once they were secured, I placed the entire bundle into the styrofoam's original container (my wife's widescreen monitor) for secure traveling. Then I went to the FedEx store where they packaged that box themselves in their own box which was the only way to have the contents insured. Not falling for the same ruse twice, I intend to show up at the FedEx store with only the box sets and let them handle the entire process in-house this time. As an aside, Season Five is released Tuesday. WIN.

TRILOGY
When swashbuckler332 released his tracklist for his newest mix, Sandcastles & Breadcrumbs I read the liner notes to each track as I followed along in iTunes, later popping all three scores onto my iPod to began a journey across the sands of Africa and into the Far East. Rousing, adventurous scores which kept me company all week at work, but I must admit, the cohesiveness of the album brings out the richness of the individual scores. The best of themes across all the films is integrated in such a way that you don't miss any of the lesser tracks and he even managed to (once again) so smoothly piece together disparate selections in such a way to miss title changes. In fact 2,3,4 & 5 were so flawlessly stitched, that until the beating of the kettle drums in Night Boarders (Sandcastles & Breadcrumbs' fifth track) I was unaware I had listened through three selections. MAGNIFICENT.



The subtle beauty of the cover art masks the stimulating contents