Blog posts are no longer happening here. Visit blog.nervousmusic.net for the latest updates.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Alpine ascension and adorable alpacas

Alyssa has a Flickr account now - watch out world! And you can find photos of our trip to Luzern and Zurich, plus some pictures we took at Sleeping Monk Farm in New Hampshire yesterday. Our favorite animal? Hands down: the alpaca. We caught them just a month after their annual shave. Now I know what I want for my 30th...An alpaca, not a shave.

Click through for the sets.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

A quick update before grabbing the skewers and tongs

Life continues to be quite busy, so posts here continue to be few and far between. But things are good. At work, we launched the company's new website about two weeks back, and I'm still doing a lot of traveling. My most recent trip was a fun one, though. Lys came over to Switzerland with me and we celebrated her birthday weekend exploring Mt Pilatus in Luzern and the interesting streets of Zurich. She has a new digital camera and (soon) a shiny new Flickr account so photos of our trip might appear here shortly.

Being home for the holiday weekend is a great thing. I hope all of you are having fun and staying safe. If you indulge in any wine, I recommend popping open a free account at Cork'd. Keep track of your wine opinions and skim reviews from others.

The weather will be stellar here this weekend, so I plan to spend some quality time on the back deck. Our grill will never know what hit it.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Nervous Music Podcast 005

For this edition, I'm reaching back 10 years and looking at "Short Term," that lovely month during my college days that fell between mid-April and mid-May. One class, one month, and one thing on our minds -- to relax in the sunshine after a long, dark, cold Maine winter. I'm plucking songs from my WRBC radio days at Bates College and recreating my own little Short Term here. 10 years later these songs still hold up wonderfully. So quit your downloading! Get outside and enjoy the springtime!

Nervous Music Podcast 005 (32 min, 36.7 MB)

Sunday, May 07, 2006

What have I been doing for the last ten minutes?

Why I've been wasting time on this website while listening to "Fools Gold" by The Stone Roses. Oddly the two are a match made in Bush bubble heaven.

It's all about the Hamiltons, baby

The April 24th issue of the New Yorker had an interesting article entitled "Getting There: The Science of Driving Directions." The author Nick Paumgarten shared his insight on navigation devices and explained the current state of mapping technology. But what I think was the real reason for writing the article was to get some of SNL's "Lazy Sunday" skit in print. In discussing the two major companies that provide geographical data to web sites, car manufacturers, and gizmo-makers, he says:

The clients differ mainly in how they choose to present the data. This allows civilians to have preferences. For example, in the recent "Saturday Night Live" mock-rap video "Lazy Sunday" two guys seeking "the dopest route" from the West Village to the Upper West Side consider using Yahoo! Maps:

"I prefer MapQuest!"
"That's a good one, too."
"Google Maps is the best."
"True dat."
"Double true!"

Thanks for that.

Monday, May 01, 2006

The Godfather? No. Casablanca? No. It's A Wonderful Life? No.

Eric's right. It's an intimidating list. But I've seen 65 of the 102 films listed here. Asterisks mean I've seen it. Double asterisks mean I own it, and therefore it's a personal fave. You'll probably be more surprised by the films I have not seen than by the number of films below I've seen. How's about you?

** 2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
* 8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
* All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
* The Bicycle Thief
The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
* Blowup
* Blue Velvet
* Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
** Cabin Boy
* Carrie
Casablanca
* Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
** Chinatown
* Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
* The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
* Dirty Harry
* The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
* Double Indemnity
** Dr. Strangelove
**Duck Soup
* E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial
* Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
* The Exorcist
* Fargo
Fight Club
* Frankenstein
The General
The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
The Graduate
* Halloween
A Hard Day's Night
* Intolerance
It's a Gift
It's a Wonderful Life
* Jaws
The Lady Eve
Lawrence of Arabia
** M
Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
The Maltese Falcon
** The Manchurian Candidate
**Metropolis
* Modern Times
** Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
* The Night of the Hunter
* Night of the Living Dead
** North by Northwest
** Nosferatu
On the Waterfront
* Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
* Pink Flamingos
* Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
* Rashomon
* Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler's List
The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
Singin' in the Rain
* Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
* A Streetcar Named Desire
* Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
** The Third Man
Tokyo Story
* Touch of Evil
* The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
** Vertigo
* West Side Story
* The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz