Simon Wistow’s Neighbors

Motion City Soundtrack Acoustic EP

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:33:31 -0700

07/23/2008 19:26:56 ♥ written by drew ()

Motion City Soundtrack - Fell In Love Without You

Motion City Soundtrack

Tour Dates

07/23/08 Ramkota Exhibit Hall Souix Falls, South Dakota
07/24/08 Grandmas Sports Garden Duluth, Minnesota
07/25/08 Riverside Ballroom Green Bay, Wisconsin
07/26/08 Streeters Traverse City, Michigan
07/29/08 Vans Warped Tour: Pittsburgh, PA
07/30/08 Vans Warped Tour: Riverbend Music Center OH
07/31/08 Vans Warped Tour: Verizon Wireless Music, IN
08/01/08 Vans Warped Tour: Marcus Amphitheater WI
08/02/08 Vans Warped Tour: First Midwest Bank IL
08/03/08 Vans Warped Tour: Canterbury Park ,MN
08/05/08 Vans Warped Tour: Credit Union Centre SK
08/06/08 Vans Warped Tour: Race City Speedway AB
08/08/08 Vans Warped Tour: Idaho Center Amp, ID
08/09/08 Vans Warped Tour: Gorge Amphitheatre WA
08/10/08 Vans Warped Tour: Columbia Meadows OR
08/13/08 Vans Warped Tour: Save Mart Center CA
08/14/08 Vans Warped Tour: Coors Amphitheater CA
08/15/08 Vans Warped Tour: Shoreline Ampitheatre CA
08/16/08 Vans Warped Tour: Sleep Train Ampitheatre CA
08/17/08 Vans Warped Tour: The Home Depot Center CA
09/04/08 MSU Auditorium East Lansing, Michigan
09/06/08 Crocodile Rock Cafe Allentown, Pennsylvania
09/07/08 House of Blues Atlantic City, New Jersey
09/08/08 Recher Theatre Towson, Maryland
09/10/08 The Orange Peel Asheville, North Carolina
09/11/08 The Music Farm Charleston, South Carolina
09/12/08 40 Watt Club Athens, Georgia
09/13/08 Real Big Deal Festival Gainesville, Florida
09/15/08 House of Blues New Orleans, Louisiana
09/17/08 Canopy Club Urbana, Illinois
09/18/08 The Blue Note Columbia, Missouri
09/19/08 Liberty Hall Lawrence, Kansas
09/22/08 Club Oasis Louisville, Kentucky
09/23/08 Newport Music Hall Columbus, Ohio
09/25/08 Magic City Music Hall Johnson City, New York
09/26/08 Northern Lights Clifton Park, New York
09/27/08 Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel Providence, RI
09/28/08 Toad’s Place New Haven, Connecticut
09/30/08 The National Richmond, Virginia
10/01/08 Lincoln Theatre Raleigh, North Carolina
10/02/08 Rocketown Nashville, Tennessee

I'm always excited about acoustic releases. I generally prefer them since they strip away the flashiness and give you the raw talent of the band. Motion City Soundtrack's Acoustic EP is no different. The EP features five tracks from their 2007 album "Even If It Kills Me". For those who don't know Motion City Soundtrack is an increasingly popular indie rock/alternative rock/pop group formed in Minneapolis. The band has released three albums under Epitaph Records.

As with most acoustic releases, the songs all sound much more earnest and heartfelt. The versions of "Fell In Love Without You" and "It Had To Be You" should go down in love-song history for their incredible emotion-evoking sound. Unlike some acoustic albums, Motion City Soundtrack delivers complete studio quality throughout the entire EP. There are not only acoustic guitars, but chimes, drums, piano, bass-- the whole nine yards.

Motion City Soundtrack - Broken Heart

This wasn't just a sit-down in the basement; it was crafted with much precision. The vocals may not have been as smooth as in "Even If It Kills Me" but they are strong and hit all their marks (which is no small feat with all of Motion City Soundtrack's high octaves). Even if you've already purchased "Even If It Kills Me" I highly recommend you pick this EP up. The quality and effort put into the Acoustic EP is easy to recognize, and it's a whole new take on all of the songs.

Links: motioncitysoundtrack.com myspace.com/motioncitysoundtrack epitaph.com

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Happy Birthday Julie!

nobody@vox.com(Krissy) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:41:33 -0700

The gorgeous tart (the dessert, not Julie) was made with love by Colleen.

gorgeous tart

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In the Woods, by Tana French: Book #25 in 2008

nobody@vox.com(daisy) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:17:12 -0700

Book #25 in 2008: In the Woods, by Tana French

I enjoyed reading this New York Times' best seller so much that I absolutely did not want it to end. Of course, when it did end, I was actually slightly disappointed (for reasons I will let you discover yourself, lest I give too much away.) An intelligent and savvy mystery with well-developed characters and an intriguing plot. (Another book w/ two woven mysteries: a past mystery directly involving the narrator - who is a murder detective - is (maybe) connected to the murder of a 12-year-girl in a Dublin suburb.)

An interesting note: The story is told in the 1st person past-tense - so the narrator actually knows the ending of the story as he's telling it - which makes for a unique perspective as the mystery unfolds.

Don't read too many reviews on this one or you'll find out more than you want to. A psychological thriller worth checking out.

In the Woods

Tana French

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Six Apart Booth @ OSCON

nobody@vox.com(Byrne) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:32:28 -0700

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Geographic Tart

nobody@vox.com(Nick) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:31:46 -0700

photo.jpg

You can clearly see the Blueberry Iron Curtain surrounding both East Tart, West Tart and the Strawberry-Kiwi ghetto. To the west, the Mandarin of Good Hope and the Fjords of Raspberry.

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Six Apart helps our neighbor fix bugs in their Perl Code

nobody@vox.com(Byrne) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:07:12 -0700

DSC_0974

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Vox Hunt: Recent Purchase(s)

nobody@vox.com(Patty) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:42:10 -0700

Vox Hunt: Recent Purchase

Show us the last thing you bought.

I've been on a bit of a buying binge (being home alone will often call for some retail therapy), so here are the last few things that have come home with me.

New loyalty card wallet. 50% off!

Closet additions; there is no more room, but they were on sale!

A bag o' scuba gear. I'm ready to learn!

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Golden Death Music, Ephemera Blues

nobody@vox.com(W♥M) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:22:14 -0700

07/23/2008 08:17:50 ♥ written by derek ( / www.pegritz.com)

Golden Death Music - The Unmaking

Golden Death Music

OK, show of hands: how many of y'all reading this have dropped acid? Strangely enough, considering my interests in neurology and altered states of consciousness, I never have. Nope. Not once. A friend of mine once said that I acted as though I were on acid all the time, just by default. Therefore, I've always been afraid that eating a tab or two might, paradoxically, make me normal. Can't have that now, can we?

Well, thanks to London, Ontario's Golden Death Music, you do not need to resort to illegal pharmaceuticals to experience seriously altered states--I'm talking the kind that can potentially mutate you into a Homo erectus or a telekinetic, maggotlike far-future form, so be careful when listening. Also, if you're forced to take a piss test at your job, do not be surprised if traces of Golden Death Music's stunningly beautiful first album, Ephemera Blues, turn up in your urine. This is the kind of bizarre, edgy, yet still tranquil music that will permeate your entire being after a few listens, lighting up your chakra, opening your Third Nostril, and perhaps transforming your pineal gland.

Golden Death Music is singer/songwriter Michael Ramey, but the album sounds as though it's been composed by a whole studio full of musicians. Nope. It's all Michael Ramey, who has written and recorded every song himself--a sizable achievement, since Ephemera Blues has a very large sound. Mixing elements of Pink Floyd, Donovan, 13th Floor Elevators, Legendary Pink Dots, Radiohead, and Jethro Tull into a swirling, multicolored and multitextured album, Ramey has created a record that literally defines the word "psychedelic." Though most songs are primarily driven by acoustic guitar and vocals, drifting in and out and through these primary elements like noctilucent clouds are eerie synths, glitchy electronic touches, flutes, cellos, electric guitars, horns, and heavily-reverbed backing vocals. Though the sounds all blend together nicely to create a languid, sleepy texture, all instruments are still distinct and nicely arranged in space, which makes this album a wonderfully immersive headphones experience. Coloured waves of sound will fill your mind with disembodied bliss...and best of all, there's no nasty come-down or flashbacks to worry about!

Much like Pink Floyd, Golden Death Music acknowledges that melody is the keystone of any piece, and Ephemera Blues is built on a solid foundation of melody and songwriting. Ramey's lyrics are often rather dark, as on the album closer "Into the Ocean"--"Throw yourself into the water / Feel the changed and tainted ocean / Let the damaged waves caress you / Feel the change"--but not morbid. In fact, there is an airy lightness to this album that gives it the feeling of a peaceful near-death experience and greatly justifies the name Golden Death Music. "Waking Nightmare" may be constructed from a tense, unnerving electro-glitch base, but the melody itself and the vocals are quiet and pretty, as though Ramey is observing the waking nightmare of life from the stance of someone who's left it all behind. Even "Lost in Violence," my favorite track on the album, manages to depict our earthly hell with a relaxed peacefulness.

Speaking of Pink Floyd, Ramey is one hell of a good guitar-player, and his acoustic guitar work will no doubt remind you a lot of David Gilmour. There are no guitar solos in his songs, however: they are trim, economical tracks that usually measure about four to six minutes in length--just long enough to let you lose yourself in them without becoming overlong or tedious.

In many ways, Golden Death Music's Ephemera Blues is musical theosophy. Much like the literary work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Golden Death Music gathers together elements from many, many sources and attempts to synthesize them into a mystical, transcendent, syncretic unity. However, unlike theosophy, Michael Ramey actually succeeds. Whereas Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled was a hefty tome of absolutely insane religio-babble, Ephemera Blues is a tight, complex, but manageable assemblage of musical concepts and ideas that really will make you feel as though you've tapped into the Pistis Sophia, the gnostic truth, the one-ness, behind the confusion of reality. And it will bring you the peace of musical enlightenment.

Links: myspace.com/goldendeathmusic helmetroom.com

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I won the White Camel Award at OSCON 2008

nobody@vox.com(miyagawa) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:40:23 -0700

Me, Larry and the White Camel award

As reported on my Twitter and use.perl, I received the Perl White Camel Award at OSCON 2008.

The TPF guys were probably surprised that I'm here, like I myself was surprised to receive the award (I wasn't notified about that at all), because they think I actually live in Japan for organizing such a wonderful conference YAPC::Asia 2008. I didn't have a chance to speak using the microphone so instead I'm gonna blog this:

I really want to say thanks to the YAPC::Asia core organizers team, especially Takesako-san, Daiba-san, Taichi and Oyama-san as well as all the staff at volunteering team (I'm really sorry I don't have a space for all names). And also to Dan-san and Pauley's for providing their house as a guest house for the great speakers like Larry Wall, Damian Conway, Audrey Tang, Jesse Vincent, clkao, Ingy dot net, Michael Schwern, Casey West, to name a few. Huge thanks to Eric Cholet for writing a great conference software Act, and also hosting me in his nice Paris apartment for a weekend for the great productive Hackathon.

I would also like to thank Simon Wistow, Dave Cross, Leon Brocard and other early London.pm-ers for starting up London.pm, doing very interesting tech talks series and also London Perl Workshop because that, not sure if he knows or not, inspired me to start up Shibuya.pm and YAPC::Asia, ripping off a lot of practices to organize technical talks and all that.

Finally I want to say thanks to my employer Six Apart and Six Apart KK for giving me such a wonderful work environment and the opportunity to get back to Tokyo this often so remotely organizing the conference in Tokyo from San Francisco is made actually possible.

We (Six Apart) have a booth in the Exhibitor hall in OSCON so please come by and say hi!

P.S. Jos pointed out in the drinking tonight that the Award trophy has such a sharp edge that it could be treated as a weapon on the airplane and maybe I should check in. I might need to figure it out :)

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vox update emails hit default spamassassin filter settings

nobody@vox.com(pedro) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:17:34 -0700

lovely. Don't really look into my junk folder too often except when I'm running low on Viagra, so I was kinda amused to find all my vox update emails hitting the default filters.

maybe getting rid of the web-bugs might help :)

Content preview:  You have a new comment jason left a comment on QotD: The
  iPhone 3G is Here! on Jul 12, 2008: [...] 

Content analysis details:   (6.2 points, 5.0 required)

 pts rule name              description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
 0.6 NO_REAL_NAME           From: does not include a real name
 1.5 SPF_SOFTFAIL           SPF: sender does not match SPF record (softfail)
[SPF failed: Please see http://spf.pobox.com/why.html?sender=no-reply%40sixapart.com&ip=204.9.180.218&receiver=apogee]
 2.1 SPF_HELO_SOFTFAIL      SPF: HELO does not match SPF record (softfail)
[SPF failed: Please see http://spf.pobox.com/why.html?sender=no-reply%40sixapart.com&ip=204.9.180.218&receiver=apogee]
 0.3 HTML_FONT_BIG          BODY: HTML tag for a big font size
 0.5 HTML_FONT_FACE_BAD     BODY: HTML font face is not a word
 0.0 HTML_MESSAGE           BODY: HTML included in message
 1.4 HTML_TINY_FONT         RAW: body contains 1 or 0-point font

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