Blue Yeti, big....isn't it?

I just got the Blue Yeti Microphone, and after two hours of playing around I already love it. It’s a solid piece of equipment (4 lbs, I think), no hassle install woes, and great sound out of the box. I had a fan running in the room the whole time with almost no carry over. It’ll be fun to try to push it to its limits. For now, it’s a couple of spins with the penny whistle and Skype conversations.

I like to use Frere Jacques as a test case. See what it sounds like on my Logitech Pro 9000.

Flutes Frere Jacques Take 1 by raymondberg

Now on the Blue Yeti.

Flutes Frere Jacques Take 2 by raymondberg

Keep in mind that calling me a trained professional is like calling Michelle Bachmann a viable presidential candidate. I try hard, but it’s really laughable by those with any sense at all. In that same vein, I’m having a blast pretending to know what I’m doing. I’m not comfortable uploading my lack of singing talent to the interwebs, but it’s been interesting to see what I can make in 20 minutes or so. I really need to get back to some music theory to create some fun little experiments.

The biggest problem with the Blue Yeti + Blue Pop [Filter] is a common one among internet users. However, all of their innovative, costly, or dangerous solutions seem to be way harder than something I came up with in about 4 minutes.

MacGyver is an amateur

Yes, that’s styrofoam. The grip is solid; I can pick up the Yeti at a 45-degree angle from that clamp. I wouldn’t carry it through the desert like that, but it’s a fantastic desktop solution. The best part is where I got the styrofoam from*:

*knife not included

The song “Human” by the Killers has an amazing set of lyrics that you have to hear:

I did my best to notice
When the call came down the line
Up to the platform of surrender
I was brought but I was kind

And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Cut the cord

Are we human or are we dancer?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancer?

This is hands-down one of the most nonsensical and beautiful line of lyric I’ve heard in pop music lately. I don’t listen to the Killers very much, but the songs that I hear turn out to be some of the most evocative things I can pick up over radio waves. It took me 2 years (2005 and 2006, for those playing along at home) to be able to listen to “Mr. Brightside” without becoming deeply saddened.

If you, like me, enjoy living outside of the time-space continuum, check it out:

That said, I wish it wasn’t repeated 30 times in the song. When I heard the lyric the first time, I thought “Sweet Baby Moses! Genius lyrics these guys are slinging. This song is blowing my mi-ohhhhh wait, recapitulated already—-in the chorus????—–every chorus????……” I’d call them musical gods if they just let the words swell and die in that third stanza.

If you, like he, don’t understand what Kindle is, it’s a little tough to break in. I explained how there was a device called “The Kindle” and how Amazon had stood up a store to buy electronic books. We talked about the books I was reading and all of the books you can get for free. He still didn’t get the connection until I explained that Kindle books can be read on your computer, phone, or “The Kindle”.

I thought about my parents, who haven’t used the Kindle yet but enjoy reading. I also thought about being a parent and being able to give my kids a library of books on the computer or their personal device. But I wondered about the cost for entry? How much money do I need to spend to get into this market? I think, assuming the average lower-middle class family: nothing. Any computer or mobile device will work, and there is a huge amount of free content that kindle has created to get you hooked:

This list isn’t everything, it’s just what I picked up from “the classics” that Kindle offers for free. So, instead of buying $162 of books (assume average of $6 per book [low, right?] times 27), I got them all for free. Don’t believe me? Here’s a screenshot:

My books in the Free Kindle App on Windows

My perspective:

I’ve gone through a very significant lifestyle change as regards my work week. Over the last month, my one-way commute has gone from 4 minutes of walking to 1.25 hours of mass transit (including 8 minutes of walking). I knew that this would be tough for me to handle, but I tried to keep a  positive perspective. Certainly there would be benefits.

Amazon Kindle was the one I turned to. Months ago, I had started reading “Straight from the Gut” after a party at a friends house. I liked the first five chapters so I picked up the Kindle copy. I had found time to read while waiting, (restaurants, doctor’s offices, waiting to meet friends, etc…) and I loved how easy it was to just load up my place on my phone. I could read 5-10 “screens” of text and slide the phone back in my pocket. Unfortunately, I didn’t devote any more than “bored” time to it, so in 3 months I only got 25% further into the book.

Fast forward to the end of my first commute week: I finished reading the last of the Jack Welch book on the way to work. Every day I would grab a new, relaxing album off Rdio, and start reading. I’d get through multiple chapters per day for the first time since getting my bachelor’s. I started looking for more books, taking recommendations from friends, and reading more and more.

I have a friend with a Kindle, and she claims she’s knocking out books faster than ever before. I just have the Android version, but I can already see what she’s saying. I’m almost halfway through a massive book that I just picked up on Sunday, something I can’t imagine doing since those days at home where I would burn through 700 pages in a day as a kid.

Long, rambly, but I hope you got the picture. Go pick up some free books and see if you enjoy reading more.

**OH! So holding books SUCKS, I’ve always thought that. You have to use both hands, and constantly hold it open. Kindle makes me read more if not just because I don’t have to hold a crappy pile of paper. It’s a stupid comment, but man is it true.

One of my other problems is that, as I put things away, I like to use them for something before they go in the box. It’s like saying goodbye with one last hurrah. Well, today I have to pack the keyboard, so when I woke up I went straight to it and got a little creative. As I say in the comments, it’s called The Irish Run because it’s “an odd pairing of electronica, irish melody, and some sort of weird pacific guitar. Need better voices.”  I think the Irish influence is probably a Sunday morning thing. This style is the closest I’ve gotten to church in a while unless you count that wacky Moog thing I’ve been working on (Play “Metal Church” clip).

The drum rhythms were way easier this time because I actually bought a couple pairs of drumsticks, and it turns out that the keyboard pads respond much better to those than they do fingers. The only problem is the significant delay when playing with these drum pads. I had to listen about a half-beat behind and play it in. It’s unfortunate, but luckily the digital notes are easy to manipulate and move back.  One concern is that there are some really weird artifacts in the audio stream. I suspect the drum voices aren’t playing well with the others.

Anyways, best of luck on your housework as I get to work on mine. See you in Maryland, the state of ranks skewed by proximity to DC.

iv		iv[9 maybe]		V-V7		i
But when the tortoise		shell came		down, there was no room for		me

I played it out so you can hear what’s in my head. While it’s definitely not what I was originally thinking, it probably has no hope outside of some sort of ode to Mario Kart. I’ll make up some adjoining lyrics to sway your mind:

“I hugged the corner, racing fast,
It seemed I’d place top three,
But when the tortoise shell came down,
There was no room for me.”

Anyways, now it’s out of my head and maybe stuck in yours. Let me know if you want to sing the lyrics for me. I’m thinking a dude or girl with less powerful pipes, but I’m open to interpretation…clearly.

The first talk (below) is with Twitter inventor and Square founder, Jack Dorsey. I had never seen an interview with him before, but through watching it seems that I get to know his passions and major life threads fairly intimately. If this video is any indication of the upcoming content then I am extremely excited. I would probably pay for the content if I weren’t miles behind my other subscription services.

This interview has also gotten me reinvigorated in Square; I think it has the potential to revolutionize small businesses and vendors.

Here’s what I’ve been listening to this Holiday Season….my top 20:

I don’t listen to many Christmas Albums, but I listen to them often.  Some of it may be dorky (BNL and Sufjan never win me anything with ‘the ladies’) but they’re all fun albums. Please let me know what you’ve been listening to this holiday season!

Go be Merry! Celebrate the wonder of the season!

I’d like to highlight briefly the lyrics of the song because learning more about the imagery that Cohen borrows really helps to add significance to the song.  Most of it ties around two interesting figures from the Old Testament: David and Samson. While entirely unrelated, save for the pesky-Philistines, both characters experienced very similar life stories. They experienced selection by God (David selected as the King of Israel, Samson a savior to the Jews under Philistine rule), great feats and love of God (David slew Goliath, Samson killed quite a few), failure and destruction in the face of temptation (David and Bathsheba “saw her bathing on the roof”, Samson and Delilah “she cut your hair”), and eventual return to faith and redemption after their great suffering.

The last point is rough to go into as Samson is tortured and forced to live in slavery until he sees the inside of a temple collapse, and he was lucky. David did more dubious things after the Bathsheba incident (read up on Uriah the Hittite), and his kingdom fell apart: the child born out of wedlock dies, his third son rebels and is killed, his oldest son rapes his daughter and is killed, and many other trials. David’s and, to a lesser degree, Samson’s stories are incredibly tragic, but the significance comes in the height from which they fell…from absolute favor with their God. David, as the song points out, is often thought of as communing directly with God through the Psalms that he wrote. Without knowledge of the great peaks and depths that these men experienced it’s hard to understand the complications of ‘the Hallelujah’ that Cohen brings out.

“…But love is not a victory march, It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.”

For a while I’ve been trying to find a list of all the major (and a few minor) versions of this classic. Finding them was interesting enough, but trying to rank them has been almost impossible. Still, I’ve built a completely subjective list. You can listen to them individually, or listen to the whole playlist (in reverse order).

1. Jeff Buckley – Hands down winner every time
2. Alexandra Burke – Went back to the original with the chorus, but modern flare. Lot of credit.
3. Allison Crowe -Piano is underwhelming, and the end gets a bit crazy (“And IT IS A” tell me if you notice it)
4. K.D. Lang – She slides into eeEEvry sssSIiingle nnNOote.
5. Brandi Carlile – Not a great voice, but her spirit is locked in
6. Kate Voegele – EDIT: Forgot about Kate! Really crisp, but her voice gets in the way in spots.
7. Justin Timberlake et als. – Some flaws in the recording, too many frills and poor harmonies
8. John Cale – His air control seems lacking in spots
9. Imogen Heap – A capella  is bold, and lovely voice, I just need more
10. Bon Jovi – Listen to how he hugs the mic
11. Rufus Wainwright – Really, this should be better, but it sounds like he’s reading the lyrics fo-net-ick-ly
12. Willie Nelson – Yeah.
13. Le0nard Cohen – The original, I think this is purely a style problem. I like the digital age too much.
14. Charity Mondok – Don’t know who she is, but her’s is pretty, pretty bad.

If you’ve got modifications to the list I’d love to hear them; I don’t know if anyone else is that interested.

As an aside, Cohen said, in that same CBC interview, “I was just reading a review of a movie…and the reviewer said – ‘Can we please have a moratorium on Hallelujah in movies and television shows?’ And I kind of feel the same way. I think it’s a good song, but I think too many people sing it. I think people ought to stop singing it for a little while.”

Hi!

I received a letter from dating site. And they informed me about your email.  They also tagged that you are looking for a partner. I was fond of your character so I want  to initiate dating with you and learn you more bettterr. We could send photos each other. How do you consider this?

My email is h_zdenek@yahoo.com .

and I will respond you gladly and I will send some photos too.

My name is Helen and i am from Turkey.

To verify this I added all of the individual seasons together, again priced at Amazon.   The result? $202.  This was disheartening. You could basically get a 5% discount by buying each item individually, but it’s not impressive enough to be anything more than  a blip. Something is wrong at Amazon, and I don’t like it. While I love Babylon 5, there’s got to be a better way.

At this point I checked eBay and put in a few bids. Most sets seemed to be going for anywhere between $90 and $140. This is 50% cheaper than the Amazon prices, but you’ve got to take your chances with the unknown sellers of the massive, online-sales supergiant.  I was further restricted from this option by my terrible bidding skills;  I kept losing every bid.

Returning to the world I love of higher prices with no bidding skill required, I decided to check Buy.com to see what they had in store for me.  I’ve been using this site on and off when Amazon’s prices border on the insane. The full series of Babylon 5 is available for $153 with shipping!!! How can this be? This price is 25% lower than the Amazon options.  At $30 per season we’re almost in business. It’s still quite the investment, but we’re talking about one of the best sci-fi shows of all time.

The last test was to see if the blip in Amazon’s pricing also applied to here.  Individual pricing of the seasons was $20 per season resulting in a flat $100 for all 5 seasons of B5. This cost is less than 50% of the Amazon prices, and 30% less than Buy.com complete set. The best news is how comparable the Buy.com price is to eBay listings without any of the hassle or dangers of bidding sales. If you haven’t noticed, I hate bidding on things. It makes me feel so…..dirty.

BONUS:

The Amazon Video Store is asking $2 per episode with discounts bringing the 20-something-episode seasons down to between $36 and $38. This puts their Video on Demand price for the full series at about $185. I’m a big fan of streaming video (Hulu, Netflix, and the Roku), but this price seems outrageous to me.  The distribution costs of the electronic versions are drastically lower than physical discs. While there will be continuing maintenance/bandwidth costs for electronic distribution, it’s completely absurd to think that this market will be successful without drastically reduced prices. I think Amazon is basing their VoD pricing on iTunes’ Store and Amazon’s own cloud services. It doesn’t make any sense to the end consumer right now to be spending this much on intangible product. Even if they see profit margin reduction in these early days it seems like they couldn’t afford the long term cost of losing any potential consumer base to Netflix, Blockbuster, and other video services.