After the Disco

Broken Bells – After the Disco

Man, I am so tired. It’s not like I did anything today to account for being tired either. When I have a couple of days off, I find I immediately start staying up later and sleeping later in the morning. Ever since the start of the school year I’ve been getting up really early to take my daughter to school. Maybe those early days and lack of sleep is finally just catching up with me.

Naked Eye

Luscious Jackson – Naked Eye

I ran out of contact lenses back in May and just started wearing my glasses full-time until I could manage to get in to see an eye doctor. Part of the problem was that we switched health insurance providers last year and the eye doctor I’d been going to was no longer in network. I wasn’t really happy with the former eye doctor so I didn’t mind needing to see someone else but it’s such a hassle. I didn’t want to be charged a new patient fee or a contact lens fitting fee and I hate feeling like I’m being pushed into the latest and greatest (most expensive) lenses.

But I finally made a call and today was my appointment. The eye doctor initially said he thought I should move to multi-focal lenses, which sounded suspiciously … old. As the exam progressed, however, he thought maybe I didn’t need them. He made all the adjustments to the lenses and then asked me to read a card with tiny letters on it first at a normal distance and then up close. That was no problem. He then flipped another lens in front and told me that was what a pair of the over-the-counter reading glasses would do for me. Could I tell the difference? Not in the slightest. In the end he decided I didn’t need the multi-focal lenses because my ability to focus up close was still very good. He was really impressed and told me I should brag about my eyes because normally people my age need some help to see things up close.  You heard it here first.

It’s so nice to have the full range of vision again. My glasses don’t bother me really, but they give me a double blind spot when I’m driving and soon it will be cold enough outside to make my glasses fog up when I go from outside to inside. Plus I’ve been without sunglasses this whole time, which has been a real drag. I might just need a new pair to celebrate.

Radio, Radio

Elvis Costello – Radio, Radio

I finally got the email I’ve been waiting for this evening, telling me that Rdio is folding. I’d read that they’d been bought by Pandora and would be filing for bankruptcy protection and that Pandora was going to take the parts of Rdio they liked and graft them on to Pandora but Rdio hadn’t said anything official to its users before now. Sigh.

It’s because I just admitted that I was at peace with my streaming music app. I am the kiss of death for online music services. Do you have one you want to go under? I’ll join it and become a regular user and then it is doomed to failure. I’ve lost count now how many music sites/apps I’ve been a fan of that have closed up shop.

I’ve got a Pandora account but I haven’t used it in years. I’ve got a Spotify account that I only use if I wanted to have a friend listen to a song and there was no other way to get them to hear it. I have the Amazon music and Google Play music apps on my phone, plus the Bandcamp app, TuneIn Radio, Soundcloud, not to mention the other ones that came pre-loaded on my phone that I never use. I’m not lacking in ways to listen to music online, I just don’t like any of them.

Here’s what I liked about Rdio. It was integrated with Shazam and Songkick. I am more of a Bandsintown user but just the fact that it would give me a heads up if the band I was listening to was going to playing nearby was a great feature. If I Shazamed a song, it would automatically add it to an Rdio playlist so I could check out the band more when I was at the computer. They had good, mostly accurate suggestions of other bands in the same vein as what you were listening to and they made it easy to find new music. They didn’t have everything but it was as close as a streaming music service could get to browsing through your local record store with your friends. And it was easy on the eyes.

When my car’s tape deck died I bit the bullet and paid the $10 a month so that I could have full functionality on the app instead of the web version only. I didn’t use it all the time but if I wanted to listen to particular things, it was the best solution.

Spotify is ugly and feels like the bully of the streaming services. I hate the free version, with its ads for itself constantly interrupting and the scroll bar forever shifting location so you are always clicking on the ad space when you’re just trying to move down the screen. I don’t like the way it always wants to load the app instead of just using a web version when I’m on the computer. It drives me nuts when I encounter a Spotify embed someplace while I’m surfing on my desktop because you can’t just click and have it play in place, it has to boot up the app and get you to login, blah, blah, blah.

The email made it sound like we have a couple more weeks before they shut the whole thing down. I’ll probably end up using Spotify but if anyone has a different music app they like (besides iTunes, this has to work on my Android phone), let me know.

Ohm

Yo La Tengo – Ohm

My daughter asked me to help her with her math homework tonight. I’m sure I learned what she’s studying at some point but I have only the faintest clue how to go about solving these equations and the way I was taught is probably not how they teach it now.

It’s hard to counsel kids about advanced math subjects when you have forgotten all of it yourself. I often think it’s sending the wrong message for me to even try because I run the risk of admitting that it’s something I had to memorize for a test, promptly forgot, and have never needed again. This kind of math problem is more my speed.

Idioteque

Radiohead – Idioteque

Things have reached the tipping point, I really hope. Earlier today I was full of rage about the total ignorance and hatred that people in, or vying for, high political offices were spewing. Truly the most vile and disgraceful comments I have ever heard.

As the day wore on, however, I came to see things in a slightly different light. The statements about Syrian refugees made by Donald Trump and others are indefensible. So, now we know. Now there’s no more guessing just how stupid they are and just how racist and xenophobic they are. We no longer have to wait for the other shoe to drop, they’ve done it. They are showing their true colors, and anyone who still supports them is just as guilty.

This is really happening. Did you ever wonder how Nazi Germany happened? How someone who was as clearly unhinged as Hitler was could rise to power? This is how. Enough people who bought into lies told about those who practiced a different religion than the one they knew. Enough people who were small-minded enough to let fear take over their better judgement. And still more people who thought, well, I don’t want to confront anyone, I don’t want trouble, if I just keep quiet maybe it will go away.

I have it easy. My friends and family are equally disgusted by what’s being said and my elected officials are speaking out on behalf of the refugees. I don’t have to worry about getting into a fight with some relative at Thanksgiving about their backwards political views. I’m sorry if you do, but do it anyway.

Joe Hill

Billy Bragg – Joe Hill

I saw a mention earlier today about a Joe Hill tribute out in LA a few days ago in memory of his death 100 years ago today. Given how little some people know about this country’s history, I thought I’d post this Billy Bragg cover of the Phil Ochs song.

These are dark days for us history majors. I am on the verge of tears from the amount of stupid, hateful things I read about today. Unbelievable.

By Degrees

Mark Erelli – By Degrees

It’s crazy how things seem to be spiraling out of control since the attacks in Paris on Friday. Did you hear what the idiotic mayor of Roanoke, VA has said? It’s not just a race to the bottom, it’s a stampede. It somehow feels even worse, even more knee-jerk reactionary than during the W. years. It’s shameful.

I really don’t even know where to begin. Plus, I know I’m preaching to the choir and my little online footprint is so small that my spouting off about how ignorant politicians are ginning up fear to score political points against an outgoing president is not going to make a particle of difference.

There’s a college in Maryland right now that has shut down and sent all of its students home until after Thanksgiving because of a home-grown threat by a student. Yet there’s a Texas state legislator who doesn’t want any refugees to enter the country because it’s too easy to buy a gun here and just think what they could do. That’s not from the Onion either. Seriously, how does this hypocrisy not give people whiplash?

So I’m just going to keep on looking for ways to restore my own sanity. Listen to songs that help me know I’m not alone, count myself extremely lucky to live where I do, and be thankful for the company I keep.