Lost in GroVont : a blog

Hello 2010

2010-01-02T13:35:11-07:00

After a couple days of snow, the sun was breaking through the clouds revealing a beautiful blue sky. Thor and I took a nice long walk and watched the people tubing, snowboarding, and skiing at Snow King. More photos in my Flickr stream.

And the band I most listened to in 2009 is...Tegan and Sara (no surprise)

2009-12-31T00:01:00-07:00

Thanks to the release of Sainthood this year and the special place Tegan and Sara's second album - If It Was You - holds on my top 5 albums, Tegan and Sara are the number one listened to band by me this year.

“When she stopped, [Tegan] was like, ‘That was really amazing, Sara. Did you write that today?’ And she was like, ‘Ah, that was Leonard Cohen.’ I was like, ‘Oh… Okay, so we still aren’t that good.’ ”
But they were good enough to write some pretty sweet indie-pop ditties of their own, including “Don’t Rush”, an insanely catchy and urgent synth-pop warning to slow down.

via www.straight.com

The top ten most listened to bands/artists by me in 2009

Tegan and Sara continued to be my favorite band in 2009.
An Horse released their first album in 2009 - the amazing Rearrange Beds.
Metric released probably their best album to date Fantasies this year.
The Jealous Girlfriends did nothing exciting in 2009, but Holly Miranda did. See below.
Ryan Adams married Mandy Moore and continued to be my first choice for alt-country for the past 12 months.
Ani Difranco released an album I didn't really listen to this year, but she has a gazillion other albums I love.
The National continued to be cool in 2009.
Whiskeytown have been defunct for a long time, but like former bandmate, Ryan Adams, they continue to be a go to listening choice.
Sick of Sarah are another new entry to my music library this year.
Holly Miranda broke up with The Jealous Girfriends and released an EP and promoted her full length which hasn't been released yet.

list compiled from last.fm music profile

Daytime Emmy Awards: Who I want to win

2009-08-28T21:37:49-06:00

For those of you who don't know, I'm a fan of soap operas. I grew up with Sami and Carrie Brady on Days of Our Lives. Spent my college years with Erica Kane's extended family on All My Children. Now, I flip between the towns of Llanview, Port Charles, Genoa City, Salem, and Pine Valley. I'll also mourn the loss of Guiding Light in a couple weeks.

Since the actors and shows who deserve the award are lucky to even make it to the nomination stage, I have doubts anyone I want to win will be invited up on the stage. Forget who will win. I just want to tell who I want to see holding the Emmy this Sunday.

Outstanding Drama Series: Nominees

All My Children
The Bold and the Beautiful
Days of Our Lives

Who I want to win: Honestly, I don't care about this one. AMC is the only one of these shows I watched in 2008, and the show was frustrating to say the least. Where was General Hospital and One Life To Live or even Guiding Light on this list?

Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team: Nominees

All My Children
The Bold and the Beautiful
General Hospital
One Life To Live

Who I want to win: One Life To Live.

Outstanding Lead Actress: Nominees

Debbi Morgan (Angie, AMC)
Maura West (Carly, ATWT)
Susan Flannery (Stephanie, B&B)
Susan Haskell (Marty, OLTL)
Jeanne Cooper (Katherine, Y&R)

Who I want to win: Cooper is always amazing, but I'm going with Haskell. As much as I hate the cliché of a victim falling for abuser in soap operas, Marty did have amnesia, and Haskell played the part well.

Outstanding Lead Actor: Nominees

Thorsten Kaye (Zach, AMC)
Peter Reckell (Bo, DAYS)
Anthony Geary (Luke, GH)
Daniel Cosgrove (Bill, GL)
Christian LeBlanc (Michael, Y&R)

Who I want to win: Cosgrove. If Geary wins again, I'll throw things at the tv. Luke has not been involved in a decent story arc in years. Though it would be interesting to see married in real life couple Haskell and Kaye win a matching pair of Emmys.

Outstanding Supporting Actress: Nominees

Melissa Claire Egan (Annie, AMC)
Alicia Minshew (Kendall, AMC)
Julie Pinson (Janet, ATWT)
Tamara Braun (ex-Ava, DAYS)
Bree Williamson (Jessica, OLTL)

Who I want to win: Williamson. Multiple personalities, child swapping, and loss of a spouse lead to the well deserved Emmy gold.

Outstanding Supporting Actor: Nominees

Vincent Irizarry (David, AMC)
Jacob Young (JR, AMC)
Van Hansis (Luke, ATWT)
Bradford Anderson (Spinelli, GH)
Jeff Branson (Shayne, GL)

Who I want to win: Branson is great, and I'd like see Guiding Light win something. However, Anderson brings much needed spark to General Hospital, and he deserves to walk away with this one.

Outstanding Younger Actress: Nominees

Meredith Hagner (Liberty, ATWT)
Rachel Melvin (ex-Chelsea, DAYS)
Kirsten Storms (Maxie, GH)
Julie Berman (Lulu, GH)
Emily O'Brien (Jana, Y&R)

Who I want to win: Storms without a doubt. Storms and Anderson are golden on General Hospital.

Outstanding Younger Actor: Nominees

Cornelius Smith, Jr. (Frankie, AMC)
Blake Berris (ex-Nick, DAYS)
Darin Brooks (ex-Max, DAYS)
EJ Bonilla (Rafe, GL)
Bryton James (Devon, Y&R)

Who I want to win: Smith, Jr. should win, and Bonilla should not be on this list.

Battle of mediocre space dramas. Emphasis on the drama.

2009-08-09T12:49:02-06:00

This summer both ABC and FOX rolled out two hour tv movies set in space as pilots. One succeeded and is very unlikely to be picked up. The other was terrible and has been picked up for a limited run.

The space nerd in me got a little excited about these shows, but I had to keep my expectations in check to prevent severe disappointment. One of my projects in university was to point out all the technical inaccuracies in the movie Space Cowboys related to aerospace engineering. I would have loathed being assigned any television series which works on a smaller budget and more pressure than a movie starring Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones.

The Fox entry was Virtuality. A crew of 12 are on a ten year journey to the Epsilon Eridani star system. The "virtual" in the title comes from the virtual reality program each crew member can customize for when they are sleeping. The unseen threat to the crew is introduced within virtual reality.

On ABC, Defying Gravity premiered last week. The eight person crew is going to Venus. Again, there is an unseen threat which we are told very little about in the pilot. It's referred to as Beta and determines who is going on the mission by infecting the original commander and engineer with a heart condition.

Unfortunately, the drama introduced in Defying Gravity is not from the unseen threat or a space tragedy, but from the relationships between the characters. The characters are whiny and there is even a crack when the commander and engineer are replaced with the two female leads exes. Virtuality also struggles with the character drama, but it's more realistic. There's VR infidelity between the commander and the botanist. A gay couple who candidly discuss the tension imparted on their relationship on such a long mission. And we get to see the beginnings of friendships and conflicts which would have developed throughout the series.

Both shows employ the tired tactic of a show within a show to let us get to know the characters as well as convey technical details. Virtuality's reality show within the show uses confessionals a la Real World along with the technical walk-and-talks which also appear in Defying Gravity.

In Defying Gravity, the perceived gravity on the ship is explained by nanos included in objects and the clothing the astronauts are wearing. This an intriguing way to explain away the gravity. Virtuality doesn't explain how the astronauts are keeping their feet on the floors of the ship.

The moment I geeked out was when Defying Gravity introduces a reconfigured MMU (manned maneuvering unit) which NASA introduced during the shuttle program though it was quickly retired in 1984. The idea of the MMU is a space nerd's dream. Basically, its a jet pack which allows an individual in a space suit to tool around in space untethered to any larger vehicle.

Despite Defying Gravity making the space nerd seem cool again, I enjoyed Virtuality far more. Defying Gravity airs Sundays on ABC at least for a few more weeks though I don't see it lasting into the fall. Virtuality is likely done for good.

New music: Julian Plenti is...skyscraper

2009-08-06T01:08:34-06:00

Julian Plenti's album was released this week. A week or so ago, I received an email from Matador Records with a link to a couple of tracks from Julian Plenti is...skyscraper and immediately loved it. When the album was released this week, I scooped it up, and I have not been disappointed.

The overall sound of the album varies from track to track with Fun That We Have sounding like Wolf Parade and other tracks reminding me of Chin Up Chin Up.

Analyzing music on a Monday

2009-08-03T09:17:00-06:00

Taking a look at my listening habits for the last week on a Monday. I love Last.fm.

The first single from Michelle Branch's new album was released last week, and it quickly became one of my most listened to tracks on Last.fm for the week. Sooner or Later is closer to The Wreckers' country sound than Branch's solo albums which is a bonus.

All tracks from Metric's new album, Fantasies, are still in heavy rotation with Gold Guns Girls my favorite. And Mel from American Indie turned me on to Noah and the Whale. I'm still trying to decide if just like 'em or love 'em. A few songs have hints of Broken Social Scene which doesn't fail to endear them to me.

Cage the Elephant were also new listens this week. Their performance on Letterman was intriguing enough for me to seek them out, and I have not been disappointed.

NewsGator Online synchs with Google Reader and goes away

2009-08-02T20:47:00-06:00

While I like the NewsGator feed reader application for Macs, I have been using the online version more frequently, and I have yet to download the desktop app to my new Mac. So the news that NewsGator is no longer going to be available online is disappointing.

Not only is NewsGator Online going away, it's synching with Google Reader. Does Google really need to control everything.

Why Google Reader/Google Synch? We looked for the best online reader companion, and online synchronization platform option, for our consumer applications … and of course have had tons of requests for synch with Google as well. Google was clearly the best option for an online companion to the consumer readers we’ll continue to innovate and support.

And there is going to be ads now.

Early bird gets the discount on lift passes

2009-08-02T17:15:08-06:00

On August 1st, the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort offered a limited run of discounted 10 day lift passes. The local paper announced all the passes were handed out last year by 8:30 am, and I groaned. The $115 discount, however, got my ass out of bed at 6 am on Saturday and down to Teton Village.

I arrived at 7 am with a few other people, and the two parking lots were packed. Some kind sole who was working the parking lot pointed me to an unconventional position which Daisy fit in easier than any SUV.

Walking up the mountain, the line wound around the music hall and up past the Teewinot lift and Bridger Gondola. The photo is the view down from my spot in line, and you can't see the start of the line which is at the ticket office below Nick Wilson's.

There were a ton of dogs running around off leash, but Thor remained at home. The tone of the mostly local crowd was generally light with a lot of discussion about coffee cups running dry. Free coffee was offered. Everyone in the group which got in line at seven was confident about getting a voucher.

At 8 am, the vouchers were handed out to those in line. Everyone got one by 8:45 am, but the last voucher was handed out to the very last person in line. It was close.

Once you had a voucher, you could either stay in line and get your pass (in person or via snail mail) now or come back before 2 pm to get your pass. I was already in line, so I stayed to get my pass. Overall, it took about 3 hours on a Saturday morning, but it wasn't a horrible experience and worth the savings.

Thor: Dog of thunder

2009-05-19T01:25:06-06:00

Let's take a moment to document my adoption of a dog named Thor. Thor was his given name. Not caring about naming animals (only modes of transportation it seems), I am going with Thor even though it is not really fitting for such a sweet dog.

Thor was rescue dog from the Star Valley shelter. They brought over some animals to Jackson on Sunday when I picked up Thor. The people at the shelter were very kind and even called to check in on Thor and asked me to give him a hug from them because he was so special. (Donate to the shelter or your local non-kill shelter if you can.)

The sad story about Thor is that he was brought to the shelter by a family who really didn't want to let him go. Due to the economy, the parents of four young children had to give up Thor after the father lost his job. Although it would have been great if his original home could have kept him, I'm glad I am able to provide him with a good home where he will get amble attention.

Thor is about two years old and a pit bull mix though he doesn't have an ounce of mean in his body. (His chew toy might disagree, but it's still in one piece.) It will be interesting to see if Thor lives up to his namesake after the first thunderstorm, or if he cowers into the corner like most dogs. He'll still be called Thor "Dog of thunder" regardless.

Right now, Thor is chasing rabbits in his dreams. Or at least that is what I assume he's doing since he's barking a bit in his sleep.

Thomas talks Veronica Mars movie.

2009-01-22T01:03:00-07:00

More information on the pending Veronica Mars movie:

As for where [Veronica Mars]'ll go from there, Thomas hasn't quite nailed that down, but has plenty of ideas. "[The story is] 70 percent broken in my head. I've been struggling with one plot point, and I'm hopeful [that I will] figure that out. On the dry-erase board at my house there are Veronica Mars plot points that I want to see, so it is at least there."

We've got Buffy continuing its story in comic book form, and now the potential for Veronica Mars on the big screen. Cancelled television shows can now live on forever. Rock on.