The big American Idol benefit show—Idol Gives Back—was on last night, and it was quite a spectacle! The build up surrounding the show was unbelievable, and I’m not sure if it lived up to the hype, but it was totally entertaining. Except for Il Divo who I could do without ever seeing again for the rest of my life.

It might seem corny to say, but I thought the energy exuded by Ryan, Ellen (who, as always, was hilarious—“what’s the big surprise? I mean, am I being kicked off”), all the performers, and the contestants was tangible. I felt like they were proud to be a part of what was going on. And maybe I just fell for a great act, but I would like to believe they were.

I know there has been a lot of controversy about Idol Gives Back—whether they really do care, or is it a publicity stunt? Is the money actually going to end up where it should? But a friend of mine works at the food bank featured at the end of Tuesday’s show, and she said that when Simon showed up he was extremely humble and kind, and was genuinely touched by what the people there were doing. I think, whether they went into this or not with good intentions, they certainly left with a changed perspective.

Anyway, back to the show. In terms of celebrity performers—Kelly Clarkson, to me, owned it. It was great to see legends like Earth Wind and Fire, and Annie Lennox, but Kelly—our original American Idol—sounded incredible. Live the dream, Kelly! Read More »

Son of a bitch iTunes, your damn shuffle setting is ruining my sex life. I don’t know how you manage to find all the skeletons of my music library, only to unearth them for mockery, but if I were to give out gold stars for sucking, well you would get three.

Last night, while having the sex (that last bit was done in a Borat voice) I unthinkingly leaned over my not quite spacious XL twin and started to play a Tribe Called Quest, good boning music if I’ve ever heard it. Don’t think this was done out of some weird compulsion to always hear music during sex, we were at a pausing point, one of those gaps when you switch positions. Anyways, things began to heat up again and suddenly, out of the blue, a capella starts playing. Read More »

I listen to a lot of music. A lot of music. I’m sort of a music whore, downloading new stuff all the time, listening to it 12 times in a row, and then getting bored and looking for the next big thing. iTunes is like my pimp; I just can’t say no, even though it charges too much and never says thank you.

Because of this fixation, I have heard a lot of bad lyrics in my time. If the music is bumpin’, sometimes it’s allowed. But every once in a while I come across a line I cannot let go. A sentence that is so horrible, so strange, so stupid, that I must find the lyrics online and dissect them.

Apparently, this website has the same obsession.

Some examples?

“Relentless lust/

Of rotting flesh/

To thrash the tomb she lies/

Heathen whore/

Of Satan’s wrath/

I spit at your demise” – Slayer

(Ah. Heathen whore. One of my favorite nicknames.) Read More »

Remember when you had to scan the web or fumble thru the pages of the local music rag just to find out when Young Love was coming to town? Yeah me too. Well, those days are about as passe as reading your news from a newspaper, thanks to a couple of Seattle-based students / electrical engineers.

According to Esquire.com, “Brandon Smith and Jeff Cole, (who’s still in school), have created the wonderfully efficient—and free- iConcertCal , a personalized concert calendar that tells you when the artists in your iTunes library are coming to town”.

How cool is that? -A calendar inside my iTunes Library, that tells me when and where the artist I am listening to on my ipod is coming to town? What will they think of next? A car that can park itself? Never.

Read the article. Download iConcertCal now.

I’ll never forget the moment my iPod and I met. It was a delightful Christmas morning, I was wearing my favorite flannel pj’s and a mound of presents were all wrapped up, waiting for me. So I got down to business and soon ripped open the paper to reveal a shiny, brand new, sparkling white iPod.

Ever since that glorious day, we’ve been inseparable. But recently, it’s been acting up and iTunes is being a pain in the ass. My library broke (which means it’s been corrupted or something), then I lost alll of my music! An although Apple’s support team was kind enough to give me most of the music back that I purchased from the iTunes store, I still have to download the rest (which means I’ll lose more space on my harddrive!)

All of these technical difficulties are getting me flustered. How am I supposed to walk to class without listing to The Shins. More importantly, how will I get the motivation to work out without my mixes? This has to stop.

I just learned that all these issues might be due to Limewire and the7.1 iTunes version. Check out the article. Funny how it applies to my experience to a tee.

I’m hoping that it all works out, otherwise me and my iPod are so broken up.