Kobe Bryant: Overpaid Drama Factory with a Good Jumpshot

As if it weren't obvious enough that Kobe Bryant has communication and attitude issues, check out the news today where at the start of the day he tells Stephen A. Smith (Sports Radio Host) that he would welcome being traded because of things he wasn't happy with inside the Lakers' Organization, to telling Dan Patrick (ESPN) he would like to be a Laker for life.

Check out what Bill Simmons has to say (here).

Dear Kobe Kobez:
PLEASE, be a Laker for life. Your dynasty team is in shambles, and honestly the thought of you being a hot commodity for the Suns or Mavs made me sick!

still kicking

In important music news, Anthony Gonzales of M83 is surfacing again.

Collaborating on an upcoming Montag album out 6/5/07 on Carpark, he lends his assistance on the opening track entitled "I Have Sound"

This will be incredibly looked forward to and I can't wait to get home to try and obtain this early.

Paying for faster web servers...site by site by site by site by site by site

I saw a link on Live Journal's main page about paying for speedier service. Clicking the link took me to this basic description and "justification":

"The Express Lane is a priority request queue that makes LiveJournal faster for Paid and Permanent users. When logged into your Paid or Permanent Account during times of heavy site load, your requests for LiveJournal pages are sent to the web servers before other users' requests.

LiveJournal's main priority as a service is to offer all users, Basic and Paid alike, fast and uninterrupted access to the site at all times. LiveJournal's fast and numerous web servers ensure speedy access most of the time; however, like any service, LiveJournal does encounter unavoidable periods of heavy site load. The Express Lane is designed to speed access for our paying users during peak times."

What a horrific attempt at extra revenue. I sure hope NO ONE signs up and actually pays for something like this, and I hope it is not a trend that catches on with more sites on the web. It does look like a small baby step in undermining Net Neutrality [wiki] and that is a shame.

buzz

Young Love's album comes out January 30th on Island Records.
Dance punk in a nice, easy to swallow pill. The masses will comply.

Expect it on everyone's spring/summer mix....and yours.

Their myspace page has the obvious single: 'Discotech'

23 hours in airports

I had to get from Montana to Iowa (via Minneapolis) the day after the big Denver snowstorm. Here are some pictures about how things get crazy.


"December 21 No USA Today papers due to the storm in Denver"
This was at the Billings Logan Airport.



"WOAHOWHAOHWHAO MY RIDE CAN'T FIND ME I BETTER GET UP ON THIS BENCH AND KICK OVER MY STARBUCKS!!!"
(He also took it as his cue to help the police direct traffic) - Minneapolis Airport



What you don't get to see here, is how the jerk in the Hummer was on his cellphone, going about 10 miles per hour, stopping every 10 feet, and drifting lane to lane, backing traffic up like a jerk. Benchman's signaling was ignored by Hummerdriver.

Longest day ever - hope everyone made it to where they were going and are having a good holiday!

Action Needed!

I would just like to go on record and say that I fucking detest blogspot and I can only assume that it was made by a bunch of women who are total whores. Woah patrol needs a new blogging solution before its too late.

Heres a holiday message to the blogspot "higher-ups"

A Real iPod Solution

I don't own an iPod so I cant speak from personal experience here regarding this subject. I own a Sandisk Sansa and I thoroughly enjoy it mainly because I dont have to use any program other than Windows to manage my Sansa'a MP3 content. But I am constantly hearing my friend complain about iTunes, the companion software to the iPod. I decided to do a little bit of research here because I'm sure a lot of our regular readers are likely to be frustrated by iTunes as well. Theres a very comkparable product called "Anapod." There are six different versions, 4 for the 4 different types of iPods, one is a universal version, and one is a free version. The price of $25-$30 is very reasonable considering the benefits of Anapod over iTunes.

Visit this website for a largely comprehensive comparison overview: http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/getanapod.php

Last Christmas!

There are a lot of people who do versions of the Wham! song "Last Christmas".
Since Sweden is the new Canada in terms of indie rock, the winner of this years' 'Last Christmas' off:

LeSport - Last Christmas (mp3)

While compiling information for this post, I learned that LeSport has unfortunately broken up!

LeSport - (Myspace)

The DL on XM

On a recent trip out of town, my rental car came equipped with all 130+ stations of XM Satellite Radio. Up until this time, the only thing I knew about XM was the barrage of ads I had seen and heard claiming it was the next best thing since sliced bread. Granted, this was before ipods, zunes, and sansas became commonplace. Still though, I was excited to have 4 days to play around with this bit of technology I had (somewhat purposefully) overlooked.

The XM player was integrated with the stereo system in the 2006 Buick LaCrosse I was driving, so the way to switch over to it was as easy as switching from FM to AM - by pressing the 'BAND' button. (I just threw up a little bit, remembering the whole "AM/FM/XM" ad campaign) Anyway, after switching over to XM, I spent about 5 minutes flipping from channel to channel, each with its name displayed on the factory stereo when it came tuned. Some seemed like interesting channels, others I knew I definitely would not like. One station XMLM seemed pretty good, it was playing some flavor of metal, and I skimmed over a couple alternative/indie stations, and a couple of techno stations. Nothing really jumped out at me, so I kept on going through the dial, putting trust in the fact that 130 stations would have something to impress me. Pretty soon I hit the news/sports/talk end of the dial (appx 40 stations), then it started back at the beginning. Immediately let down, I started trying to find those few select channels that seemed "OK". I found those to be the following:
XMU - a "college radio" station, playing stuff they find to be indie rock, but most of it is pretty predictable. I heard Conner, new stuff from the trail of dead album I hadn't checked out yet, les savy fav, something from the new rapture disc and a bunch of boring stuff that made me switch stations.

XMLM - 'LM' stands for LIQUID METAL, why liquid? I have no clue. XM's only metal station. This station was really more funny than good, I heard DEEP CUTS from our friends Hatebreed, Slipknot, 3 Inches of Blood, Black Sabbath, All Shall Perish, among other unimpressive selections.

The System - This was a techno trance channel, that I actually enjoyed for background music. It is all pretty predictable and deliberate, but I find that sort of thing done with electronics to be soothing sometimes.

Ethel - Ethel was a "New Alternative" channel according to XM themselves, selections from this station I remember being Built to Spill, Sunny Day Real Estate, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, The Bravery, AFI. My first 3 examples are why you should agree that this station is hilariously miscategorized by XM, but not a total loss.

My overall impressions were decent, I feel a little dumb thinking "Oh man! 130 channels, there just has to be one for me!!!" More realistically, it is like real radio - every now and then you find something you don't mind hearing at the time, but damn you wish you had your CD Player. It is good for the times when you draw a blank when it comes to your own personal music collection, and for some - you may even discover something new. I like the idea of having XM or something like it in a retail/business setting, no advertisements and I'm sure its better than most things you can pay to have piped in.

In terms of competing with mp3 players, it doesn't stand a chance. A good mid range player/tuner? will run you over $100 and the service is $12.95 per month unless you purchase it in blocks of a year or more at a time. For personal/mobile auto, an mp3 player and a an hour or two a week stocking it is a much better solution.

XM's website (link).

Merry Christmas from The Killers!

I'm still trying to figure out if I really like "Sam's Town", but I thought The Killers' offering of a Christmas song was cute. "A Great Big Sled"

Stream it here, or go buy it in itunes. Proceeds benefit (RED).

OTH

For those of you who like talk radio, an interesting show worth checking out is Off The Hook. It is on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York on Wednesdays at 7pm EST. Off The Hook is hosted by Emmanuel Goldstein (Eric Corley), who runs 2600: The Hacker Quarterly (wiki). Topics are usually on the basis of technology, telephones, and security.

The OTH site describes all the ways available to listen to the show if you don't live in New York, including a simulcast as well as my preferred method: podcast. Back shows are also available.

Definitely an exciting and very interesting hour of my week.

A Small Victory: Over the Fed

I had something pointed out to me today I figured would be of relevance to pretty much everyone in America.

Because of some court proceedings, the federal government has deemed the "Federal Excise Tax" charged on your phone bill, since forever, to be wrong... and you are eligible to be reimbursed. They have set up a special tax credit available for 2006 on your tax form to claim this credit. You can add up all of your "Federal Excise Tax"es charged (From Feb 2003-July 2006) and submit for a total, or go for the flat rate.

Check out this link (IRS), for all the details and how to get the refund. It is setup similar to an FAQ which is really helpful and pretty easy to follow even for the IRS!


Update: This is my personal favorite excerpt from the IRS Site:

What is the total amount the government expects to refund?

Economists at the U.S. Department of the Treasury estimate the amount refunded to individuals will be about $10 billion.

Thats $10 billion of OUR money coming back to US!

Shit in a Blender

Blender magazine recently published an article naming "The 50 Worst Artists in Music History."

http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=466

       I found their selections to be based on everything but musical merit, rendering the entire article as viable and intellectual as slanderous pre-teen gossip.  They seem to single out bands or artists that werent very well recieved in their hayday because of conflicting trends in the mainstream.  Or bands that everyone regrets liking in the past, therefore being magnetic to harsh opinions from people doing everything they can to erase the past by calling Richard Marx a bad singer just because he had a mullet.  Everyone is entitled to like or dislike anything for whatever reason, but this law of order also gives me the right to call you an asshole for judging music on everything but music.  They name Iron Butterfly for smoking too much pot.  They single out Skinny Puppy, because you cant sing along to them.  They name Primus at #22 for having vocals that sound like a cartoon.  Finally, Emerson, Lake & Palmer are at #2, I shouldnt have to tell you how wrong that is.  If "Tarkus," "Carnevil No. 9," or "Brain Salad Surgery," dont make this clear, then you are just as awesome as the people that wrote this article.
      I dont have a problem with this collection of assholes writing this article.  The thing that bugs me the most is that this article is going to be considered legitimate and most of the people that read it are going to be very receptive to it because Blender is poised as a musical authority and its readers are low life shit-fucks who think Murder By Death are the second cumming of christ.

What Jory is really trying to say....

Thanks Jory for the introduction. I hope I can bring some interesting topics to this blog without to many geek/drunk rants. In the future look for some tech reviews from me and maybe a slice of the video game pie. From time to time expect some music and politics mixed in. Feel free to comment on our posts and if you have any suggestions or anything you would like to know about, we love the internet and will be able to cook something clever up.

hi patrick!

We have a new contributor here at woah patrol....patrick!

It is also his birthday today but his membership does NOT count as my present.

Patrick's specialty is somewhat geared toward tech/computer topics as well as a good take on most things music/media/art so definitely keep an eye out.

Welcome to the patrol patrick!

called in sick...

The first time I actually promise something in terms of a post - I fail!

Thursday night I came down with something that I can only describe as a 48-hour sinus infection, which prevented me from going into the madness on Black Friday. If you care, consumerist.com has pretty decent coverage of some madness, and you can find some hi jinx on youtube no doubt.

I did end up venturing out after I felt rested up well enough (appx 11:30am) and surprise surprise - every single awesome thing I wanted (I had compiled a list of several things at a few different stores), was GONE! So there really are advantages to getting up early in this town.

I did however find a wonderful external DVD burner at Office Max for $50.00 and an inexpensive pack of 50 blank DVDs. Now, I am a little behind on this technology and wasn't completely sure which format of discs to buy at first (DVD+R or DVD-R), Ben helped me, saying most modern players should be able to play both, but thats about as much as he knew for sure about it as well.



SO in case anyone else needs to know the difference, I did some research and here it is:
The difference between -R and +R are actually driven by the manufacturers of the players.

DVD+R is supported by Philips, Sony, HP, Dell, Yamaha (and others)
It allows writing to a disc a single time, it is permanent, and cannot be recorded onto again.

DVD-R is supported by Panasonic, Toshiba, Apple, Hitachi, NEC, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp (and others)
It too allows writing to a disc a single time, permanent data, and cannot be recorded onto again.

If you add a 'W' to either (DVD-RW, DVD+RW) it will allow you to write over the data multiple times.

BOTH DVD+R and DVD-R should play properly in *most* commercial DVD players. (Ben was correct).

In short, there really doesn't seem to be a discernible difference between the two that I could find, other than who funded their development. On the packaging of my particular player however I notice it claims it can write to DVD+R twice as fast as DVD-R, 16x and 8x respectively. However, I know for a fact I am writing to my DVD-R discs at 16x, and they work great.

black cats NO black dice HECKNO, black friday !YES!

I must admit I am sorta getting caught up in the Black Friday hooplah going around. There are some pretty decent deals, and exciting things going on...but I think the more interesting thing is that fact that I am all about Black Friday not because of what I can purchase for other people, but because of what I can purchase for MYSELF. Selfish? Maybe.

These two deals from Best Buy are ones I will be waking up early/staying up all night for:
Toshiba Satellite Notebook with Intel Celeron M Processor 420: $249.99
Samsung 19" WS LCD Monitor: $129.99

If the laptops are gone, I would sure love to replace my nasty CRT.
BFADS.net is an awesome resource for Black Friday action going on around the retail sphere.

What are you doing for Black Friday? Anything you can't live without? Too good to pass up?

Expect a report from '5am mayhem' in Cedar Rapids.

Classical Ass

       So-called “Guitar legend” Esteban was stripped of his legendary status this week when it was discovered that he is an entirely fictional character created specifically to sell pressboard guitars in infomercials.  Allan Holdsworth, guitar legend and president of “Real Guitar Legends For Truth” released a statement on Wednesday calling for the immediate cessation of all applications of the appellation “Guitar legend” to the television character known as “Esteban”. According to the statement, “Esteban is a fictional character created by L.A. session guitarist Dan Fernaueu for the express purpose of marketing a cheap, poorly constructed guitar-like instrument on the Home Shopping Channel.”
       The scandal intensified when the Recording Academy revealed that claims that “Esteban” had won “several Grammys” were false.  These charges come on the heels of last month’s statement from the Musical Instrument Manufacturers Association that the “Esteban” guitar could not, in fact, be classified as an actual guitar due to the fact that it is constructed out of reclaimed materials such as discarded telephone directories and medical waste. The MIMA demanded that the instrument be classified as a toy.
 

Beaver Trilogy

I'm an avid Crispin Glover fanatic and I had until the other day had no knowledge of the movie titled "the Beaver Trilogy" which stars Crispin Glover as Groovin' Larry and is directed by Trent Harris who also directed Rubin & Ed. The movie has no commercial release, and isnt distributed at all. It is only available from Trent Harris himself on his official website: http://www.echocave.net. Anyways, the reason I am posting this is because there is an interesting story on This American Life regarding the movie. You can stream the whole episode for free here.

Review of Blut Aus Nord - "Mort"

I like to think of Blut Aus Nord as a monstrous creature living beneath the surface of a blackened lagoon. Each time it rears its head at the surface we see an even more decayed, bloated, pallid and disfigured being, going back down to the depths to further erode what was never a holy being. The last time Blut Aus Nord reared its head we were blessed with "The Work Which Transforms God," a ghastly album of black metal with strange bending and contorted riffing coupled with percussive fury and eerie enigmatic vocals. "The Work Which Transforms God" is almost a pre-requisite to "Mort." If you picked up "Mort" without ever hearing black metal, it would be like sending a blind child into a dark cave to look for a dead bobcat made out of clouds.

"Mort" is a vague and complex menagerie of asymmetrical tones, discordant tangents and constantly diverting elements whirling about. There are no stable or solidified elements here. Lazy drum patterns pan from the every direction while unfamiliar vocals noises emerge from beneath your cerebral cortex. The loose fitting textures and almost serene anti-harmonies weave one of the most intricate and spacial listening experiences I have ever witnessed with an other-worldly authority. Each track on this album could be described as an instance of conversion. Non-chalant guitar noodling, unmusical ,all too unhuman percussion, and ghastly vocals float about in your mind until they converge in one axis causing the aural havoc that is "Mort."

"Mort" is an album that you need to prepare for in order to truly digest it. Actually I'm not so sure that it is you who does the digesting, this album has digested me every time I have listened to it.