Electric Swill

The world isn't the glamorous potato it's made out to be anyway. The sooner this is realized, the sooner we can dash our illustrious misconceptions and proceed to engage said potato in meaningful ways.

Download "Electric Swill" for free

Or stream it for free

Yada Yada,
Brennan

From the Outer Space of the Internet

So here are some facts:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

from Winelibrary Order Department
to musicianslashwriter@gmail.com
date Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 6:09 PM
subject Winelibrary Tracking Information.
mailed-by winelibrary.com

Your order has been confirmed.
Here is important information pertaining to your order:

NOTE: Title to, and ownership of, all wine passes from Wine Library to the purchaser in the State of New Jersey and the purchaser takes all responsibility for the shipping it from New Jersey to his/her home state. By arranging for transportation of the wine, Wine Library is providing a service to, and acting on behalf of the purchaser. By utilizing this servicefrom Wine Library, the purchaser is representing that he/she is acting in a fashion compliant with his/her local and state laws regarding the purchase, transportation and delivery of wine. The purchaser represents that he/she has obtained any required permission, paid any required fees, is working through properly licensed intermediaries where required, is legally entitled to take possession of wine and is legally entitled to take quantities ordered and once again authorizes that he/she is 21 years of age.

**NOTE: Tracking numbers provided within MAY not be active yet. If you get a notice about it being an invalid tracking number, please try again the following morning.

Order Number: O547990
Customer Number: 111344

Tracking Link: http://www.fedex.com/us/tracking?link=1


Tracking Number: 043861762004331

------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're scratching your head right now it's because you didn't click the link, or I suppose a number of other reasons. Regardless, the gist of it is that the gifts arrived well before 2009 struck.

That apartment watched the planes go, bye.

Xbox is halfway there

They are. They really, really are. Say it with me or at least think it in your head. 

So here's the deal: in the new xbox experience (or NXE as it's called) you can browse through new release movies, television shows, music videos, just like Hulu, Youtube, etc. But the problem is that unlike other services in which you can stream the content for free (YouTube) or with limited ads (Hulu), Microsoft has offered up the suggestion that we still want all this stuff for a small fee. What's worse is that they (NXE) think charging a user to view this stuff is still relevant. I can view this stuff on my computer, no problem. And an xbox is built open enough so that I can use other services (windows media center, playon, tversity) to stream local and internet content (Hulu, Youtube). So why not just induct it into the NXE? 

Here's how everyone wins: the end user gets a better experience: easier access to libraries of entertainment, and xbox becomes heralded as a backer and friend of like-thinkers. Walls with ones and zeros are simple enough to change when new ideas roll around. The box that can become the clearest wins. It's not that we don't love your ideas, Microsoft. What is important is that you understand the nature of our relationship: you give us something great, and we'll make it something greater. It's only natural that a system that encourages togetherness will brew crafty ideas. Now it's your own fault, Microsoft, for dragging your feet and delaying what could be an even better xbox experience.

Some links:

http://tversity.com/

http://www.themediamall.com/playon

http://www.hulu.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

Bad news for Blockbuster

So far this Friday had nothing to squawk about. It proceeded as planned: an hour of job hunting, some breakfast, a little exercise, more job related endeavors, and finally culminating in a relaxing session of Halo. So far this Friday had been pretty great but what happened next was what put it over the top.

1. Cut out the middle man.

The world is overrun with these pesky half-trys of business models. They exist to make life easier, or so they say. But in reality the world would be a simpler place without them. Which leads me to what I stumbled across while playing Halo tonight. 

The new NXE interface is pretty sweet. It's a complete overhaul of how the xbox feels and brings with it a new list of features available to the xbox owner. Netflix now streams to your xbox (in HD). One can now purchase & download  movies (in a variety of qualities) straight to the xbox.  Community games, created by regular people, can be purchased or demoed directly from your xbox. It just takes up some space but 120GB is a fat enough wallet. 

What caught my eye was something much smarter than anything I've found on my wii: demos of the latest games. Yes, I am as of 11:56p.m. on Friday, January 2, 2009 downloading demos for Too Human, Tomb Raider, Mirror's Edge, Banjo Kazooie, Lego Batman, Dead Space, and some Lord of the Rings title. All for free. And if I'm debating whether it looks worthy of download space there're game trailers and screenshots to view. All for free. If the game's rad, I can buy/download it right then and there. 

So if Blockbuster CEOs are up late playing their xboxes they might want to realize that despite it's awesomeness this doesn't bode well for their company's position in the video game market. 

Is Blockbuster really hoping to live on as merely a rental service? Seriously guys? I noticed you've added gummy bears in the snack aisle leading up to the checkout counter but besides that what have you really innovated in the last decade? 

2. Competition

Why not just be able to trade your game backups (when you download your game to your hdd)? Just associate some special key with it and then let the end-user (who know legally owns that specific copy of the game) control the transaction completely. It's their money anyway - they spent it originally. And seeing as it's not a copy there shouldn't be as much to guffah about.

3. The Nostalgic Bus.

The reason, I think, that I held off on the whole console wars escapade (and didn't just leap out at the 360) was based off of some preconceived notion that Microsoft products are POS hand-me-downs of the tech world. BSOD is justly infamous. All it took was for a spark happiness derived from video games to flare out. 

There's something wonderfully centering about reconnecting with past experiences. For me it was playing super nintendo with my brother, blasting through levels on Super Metroid, or at each other in mech games. On the flipside of the nostalgic bus...something plainly predictable awaits. 

The list of positives for the Xbox360 continue to climb. All I can suggest is that you get one and enjoy the hell out of it.

A Collage of Westmont on Fire

I wanted to create something in remembrance of this event. So I took all the photographs that Brad Eliot took when Westmont was burning, I forget the link but I downloaded all of them. Anyway, I composed this using all 42 pictures.

Conversation of my life.

(10:08:05 PM) Markus: look at what you wrote
(10:08:11 PM) Brennan: no
(10:08:14 PM) Brennan: i refuse
(10:08:17 PM) Brennan: to scroll ujp
(10:08:21 PM) Brennan: it's like tetris
(10:08:40 PM) Brennan: there's no going back, im unidirectiol
(10:08:41 PM) Markus: "because of your mi8stake"
(10:09:07 PM) Brennan: voices from the future
(10:09:12 PM) Markus: HA
(10:09:19 PM) Brennan: tell Return of the Jedi to download faster
(10:09:38 PM) Markus: DO IT!
(10:09:41 PM) Markus: okay, done
(10:11:47 PM) Brennan: that didn't even tingle it's bits
(10:12:03 PM) Brennan: (the pun master is in town)
(10:12:36 PM) Markus: byte me
(10:13:17 PM) Brennan: that hrtz

I'll explain more about this later on. Just wait and smile.

Thieves - a missing link?

*Am I far off on this one?

It feels like it could lead into something very well. Don't know what quite yet. Some ideas floating around. Tinkering around like some blimp mechanic.

A lot of the tracks need polishing, that's a given since this is all just being mashed together with my looping pedal. I have a very high chance of becoming overwhelmed when the choice of possibility is presented. Maybe I'll have my new mac by then and it'll be my first project. Though I suspect I may become an electronica junkie right off the bat with all the beats I see you can make.

Now I'm reconsidering moving parts around, the actual composition comes next. Things are getting exciting.

A sudden ambush of stuff lunged up at me continually for the past few weeks.

I've been mulling over another piece for a while, trying to decide whether or not it belonged in this song. Since then I have come to the conclusion that it deserves its own legs. With that decided my brain decided to finally move past the tumble dry stage and come up with this bit. I hope you like it as much as I do.

• Part 1 - rCut2.
• Part 1 - rCut3.
  
  
  
  Lyrics:
  Don't be afraid of me.
  Lock your windows now they're coming.
  Don't be afraid of me.
  I will stop pretending if you do.
  *CherubBoyy
  
  Edit 11/24/2008:
  Added Part 2 - rCut3
  rCut3 adds a hint of xylophone and a new bass line over the "Lock your windows" line.