You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August, 2006.
We’re back!
Josh is reviewing the Jem Targel record and soon it goes up!
Plus more!
Now we go off to celebrate Cousin Justin’s birthday! Whooooo - we!
It’s cousin Justin’s b-day today. He got a new disc golf bag so he can use all 100 of his discs on the course.
In other news, Geoff is returning from his trip and is posting this from Denver airport with the blackberry. Gerard wants us to open a bar slash record store slash recording studio in Ypsilanti. Also will work with Gerard on releasing his book. Colorado was fun. Saw Damian Marley and Ben Harper at red rocks. Damian was incredible, going off his Welcome To Jamrock album. Was hoping to see Bunny Wailer as it was rumoured but no go. Ben was good as always, played a reggae set and chill ballad set among his standards. Plenty of “good mountain air” was around us as we even sampled some blueberries.
Cousins Vinyl will continue tomorrow. Expect some changes in the future. Now I go back to Ypsilanti.
I posted this over at MeFi, about The Jit, a Detroit hip hop variation on The Jitterbug.
Yeah.
Both cousins are on vacations, Justin (see post below) in Vegas and Geoff leaving tomorrow for Colorado. Geoff is going to go see Ben Harper and Damian Marley at Red Rocks! More Ben Haper info here www.benharper.net
We are still sitting on that psych collection (it’s good) as well as the Jem Targell Luckey Guy LP, so that will be going up first thing when we both are back (last week of August.) Until then, the store’s still open - lots of great stuff recently added.
Now listening to: Mongo Santamaria, Fuego.
After A few days in the city of sin, Cousin Justin went to L.A. to do some “work”. Pictures will be posted of the travels. Let’s just say that the local Hermosa Beach bar The Saloon is a great place to catch a buzz and a great band! Barteneder Razor is a former resident of Taylor so the stories of Detroit started to fly. Dancing and drinking are the thing to do there so check it out when you are in the area. More updates to come
My wife I just bought this print from local Ypsilanti, MI photographer Matt Callow. Originally from England, he has made Ypsi his home and does amazing work in pinhole and toy camera photography. He uses local buildings, surroundings, and nature as his subjects, and they turn out both haunting and beautiful. This is a picture of the Norris Building in Depot Town, just down the street from me. I’ve also noticed hidden crosses in the photos I’ve seen, but maybe I’m just seeing things - I’ll have to investigate more. It may work to evoke subliminal sacredness that adds to the effect of photos.
Check out more of his work here: http://www.mattcallow.com/
RA: Resident Advisor - Sounding Off: Why vinyl can’t survive
This guy’s dead wrong, frankly, but the ILXers do a better job of putting him to rights than I would.
Just came across a cool site featuring Nike sneakers called My Air Shoes. Check it out: http://www.myairshoes.com/
This is is also pretty sweet site if you’re looking for vintage shoes on ebay, Kicks Engine: http://www.kicksengine.com/
Shakey Jake Woods is a legendary Ann Arbor character who can be seen walking the streets of downtown, strumming his two string guitar. I saw him recently, and shouted, “Hey Jake, what’s happenin’ man!”, and he yelled back like he does to everyone, “On the move!”
Which is what Jake does, he moves around Ann Arbor, always with his trusty guitar and to his favorite places downtown, where he always gets breakfast and lunch for free. Shakey Jake is a beloved character that I can remember seeing since I was a kid, a household name to any Ann Arborite from the city of 100,000. Jake claims that he is 102 years old, and moved to Ann Arbor in 1948 from New Orleans, where he was abducted by college kids and has made his home ever since.
After runnning into him a few times, I did a google search on him and found this article written about him that has some audio clips from his CD, appropriatly titled “On The Move.” Check it out: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/06/on_the_move_mp3.html
Hey check it out, our Maceo And All The King’s Men LP made the record page of Ebay Pulse. This means that it is in the top 10 most watchers of all the records listed on ebay (out of about 150,000)! It currently has almost 60 watchers.
I think this is the third or fourth time we’ve made it. Check it out:
C’mon Tigers, beat the Sox today!
Game time is 1:30. Cheer ‘em on!
I admit it: I use soulseek to augment my music collection. It might come from being a music writer for so long in this internet age, where I can see everything as “promos” or “research” (I might have to write about that EPMD album someday, or at least tie it in to Rhymeslayer). Anyway, it’s pretty normal (if illegal) now.
But the odd part, the part that didn’t exist before the internet (really, before Napster, but it’s more explicit on slsk) is the public laying bare of your music taste.
popsike.com - rare vinyl records auction results / price guide
What SHOULD you be paying for these rare albums? Popsike to the rescue. Searchable database of eBay results.
Miniclip’s Disc Golf Game was, I thought, a neat find— I love actual disc golf, and am pretty dece at it. Especially if I play with the amatuer pars.
But what it really illustrates is how different golf and disc golf are from each other, and how you can’t just knock a disc golf game out based on a golf template.
First, the good things— Those four discs they offer really are pretty much what you’d carry with you, and the curves are well-defined.
Now, the bad things— Miniclip bites it on fairly fundamental stuff (like, y’know, having pars on holes), and that once you actually play with discs (instead of frisbees), your shots move a LOT faster than that game. And the scale is way off. I can throw a driver well over 200 feet, and I’m not even all that good. Greg and Geoff (happy birthday, by the way), can really whale those things out there, probably about 400 feet at least.
Most fundamentally though, Miniclip doesn’t understand the difference between throwing a disc and hitting a ball. Their limited set of discs isn’t anywhere near the number of different angles that you have to think about (and hold steady) while throwing. A control more like the classic swing/backswing target system (used in Golden Tee or Mario Golf or a million other games) would more accurately reflect throwing the disc and giving you more control when doing things like shooting around a tree.
By the way, what the hell is up with the sand traps? I’ve never seen a disc golf course that has them. What does Miniclip think they’re there for?
Even more important (and the bane of any disc golfer’s existence) are those random gusts of wind. I interviewed the club pro for the Ann Arbor Disc Golf association once and he said what he liked the most about disc golf was that it was played in a 4-d environment unlike any other sport. The wind jetties and turns, and you have to be able to accurately plan for that.
If I was redoing this game, I’d make all of the throws first-person, include an overhead view that had gusts (shown by leaves and grass blades being swirled around), and let you control your shots. Oh, and let me pretend to be throwing like a pro, regularly clearing those 400 foot shots that I always hope for when I release the disc (and spend the rest of the day bragging when I make one out on Hudson Mills. Have I told you about my eagle on that long par five? It was totally sweet).
As an added bonus, you could always make the disc just a little bit luckier after your golfer gets high. I mean, that happens to me…
Now listening to: Wolf Eyes
