Archive for February, 2008
February 24, 2008 at 11:53 am
We all have different tastes in music, and I don’t pretend to think everyone should like the same artists I like. But maybe you’ll check some of these bands out and agree that you should be paying more attention to them.
Vib Gyor
Official site | MySpace | YouTube channel
They formed in 2004 in Leeds, England, and their 2006 single, “Fallen”, got a lot of airplay in England and the U.S. — particularly on the West Coast, where the song was popular in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Portland, especially. I saw them last summer when they did a brief West Coast tour (photos from Seattle). They’ve released a couple EPs and are working on their debut album right now. Free Music: Visit their Last.fm Profile and look under the Listen Now section. Highly recommend “Fallen,” a great rock song, and “Church Bell” is great, too.
Reamonn
Official site (English) | MySpace
Reamonn is a five-piece band from Germany, but with an Irish singer who has a terrific voice. They’ve been around for about 10 years, I think, and have a handful of albums and at least one DVD out already. Some of the songs are bit cheesy and melodramatic, but those are few and far between. They do mostly mid-tempo rock/pop songs, with a few high-energy rockers and a few ballads mixed in. Free Music: A top Reamonn fan site offers an acoustic version of their hit, “Supergirl” from a radio performance.
The Last Goodnight
Official Site | MySpace
You’ve probably heard the incredibly catchy “Pictures of You” on a TV commercial. The other stuff is good, too. This is a group of friends from Enfield, Connecticut, that originally called themselves Renata. The Last Goodnight now has their debut album out, Poison Kiss. It’s really good. Free Music: Sign up for their mailing list, and get a free MP3 of “Pictures of You”.
Beat Radio
Official Site | MySpace
Their official web site is straight out of 1995, and that’s surely on purpose. They wear the “indie rock” label proudly and call their sound “lo-fi.” I just call it pretty good — kinda quirky and interesting. Their debut album is called The Great Big Sea. Free Music: You can download the entire album (and several additional songs) on their web site. Recommended: “People Are Talking” and “Treetops”.
Agiven
Official Site | MySpace
An Irish band that I love despite/because they have very little U2 influence. In fact, more recently, they tend to be making music more in the vein of Dave Matthews Band, a band I don’t particularly like. But I like Agiven’s sound. They have a new EP coming out soon called Legible Words for the Morning, and a new web site, too. Free Music: To get some free music, you’re gonna have go old school. They used to give some songs away on the old web site, so use Archive.org and you’re all set. I recommend all three songs there, but especially “Forgive Yourself”. Great track.
Honorable Mentions
The Changes - “When I Wake”
Official Site | MySpace | YouTube
No free songs to download, but check out “When I Wake.” Good, bouncy pop song.
Foreign Born
Official Site/Blog | Myspace
No free songs to download, but check out “We Had Pleasure” or “In the Shape”.
Know of some other great artists that offer free music? Tell about it in the comments, please…
(I have to thank Cara, whose blog intro’d me to three of the above.)
February 23, 2008 at 4:12 pm
No, it’s not me doing the live blogging.
I have two friends who are very funny, who are Movie Geeks of the first degree, and even have a successful movie podcast. And they are the ones who are live blogging all of Oscar weekend. (Crazy, I’m tellin’ ya.)
If you’re a movie geek, too, you can read as they go along, and join the fun.
February 22, 2008 at 12:50 am
A meteor screamed across the Pacific Northwest Tuesday morning and has been the talk of the Tri-Cities (and Spokane, and Boise, and Walla Walla, and even Seattle, Portland and into Canada) since then. It happened at about 5:30 am and scared the bejeezus out of some folks who saw it:
“The light was so … close to me and so bright, I swerved off the road,” said Dante Martinez of Richland. “I was shaking because it was so close. I’ve never witnessed or seen anything so bright ever. … It was so super bright, my eyes had to adjust a little.”
Well, the debate is now on: Did the meteor ever hit the ground, or did it disintegrate in mid-air? Have a look at these videos and see what you think:
According to this story, a private aircraft pilot saw the meteor hit about an hour north of the Tri-Cities along Highway 26. But according to scientists at the University of Washington, it disintegrated in the sky above the Blue Mountains in northeastern Oregon.
Oh, the excitement! The town’s all abuzz. I don’t have a clue what it did; I just wish I was awake to see it.
Here are some more videos for the interested:
YouTube | YouTube | CNN | Tri-City Herald (#1) | Tri-City Herald (#2)
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February 19, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Step One: Respect Your Users
Last Thursday night at about 11 p.m., I tried to submit a cool article to Mixx, but the system spit out an error message:
“Sorry, the URL you are attempting to submit is not valid on our system.”
Say what? I found the help page and followed the link to notify Mixx what happened, and then forgot about it.
At 9:04 a.m. on Friday, I got an email from Will Kern, who’s the Director of Product Management for Mixx. Will explained that the URL was flagged by the third party who filters their links. Will’s email was intelligent, detailed, and respectful. He explained why I couldn’t submit that URL, and what he was going to do next:
I am going to contact our 3rd party and see if I can resolve the issue. As soon as I hear back from them I will let you know. In the meantime, please feel free to submit anything else and I appreciate you making us aware of your issue so we can get it resolved.
At 1:57 p.m. on Friday, Will email again to let me know the URL was a “false positive” to be flagged, that they’d correct it that night, and that I’d be able to submit the article by the next morning. Sure enough, they did … and I did.
How’s that for customer service? Mind you, I’m not paying Mixx a dime for anything. The attention to detail and quick response is great, and separates Mixx from the social media crowd. I can’t imagine getting such quick and helpful emails from … well, you know who.
Step Two: Reward Your Power Users
This morning, I was one of many Mixx users who received an email with this news:
Because you are one of the most active and valued members of the Mixx community, we wanted to let you know that you’ve been promoted to Super Mixxer status! And while this doesn’t come with a monetary gain, it does give you access to a special feature not available to the entire community.
Me? A Super Mixxer? How cool is that?! Turns out it’s very cool. I’m able to use the brand new “Related Content” feature, a privilege I promptly tried. I found this story submitted by “Bdog2g2″ called “20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life.” That has a similar theme to this article I submitted a couple weeks ago, which is titled “12 Things I Learned By 42 That I Wish I Knew At 22.” So, I connected them … easy as can be. Now it looks like this:
What’s the big deal? How about this:
- As a (so-called) power user, I can now help improve the site by linking any two pieces of related content together, even if I didn’t submit either one. This makes the overall site experience better — lots of related content in one place, no need to look for other angles on a story and other opinions.
- Likewise, I can clean up the site a bit if similar stories get past the dupe content checker.
- Most importantly for the purpose of this post, Mixx is rewarding its most loyal users with the ability to help shape how the site is used by the whole community. Nice touch!
Mixx is getting a lot of buzz lately, and that’s sure to continue if they continue to respect and reward their users. That’s how you build a devoted online community.
February 18, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Foods that belong together: Peanut butter and jelly. Cheeseburgers and fries. Bacon and eggs. Fish and chips. Steak and potatoes. Spaghetti and meatballs. Chicken and rice. Ice cream and … anything.
Foods that don’t belong together: Potato chips crisps and dill pickles.
The folks at Pringles never got the memo, and now we have a canister of “Screamin’ Dill Pickle Extreme Pringles” on our kitchen counter. (MrsMattMcGee.com bought these.)
I love Pringles, but these are inedible. Consider yourself warned. We spent the $1.25 so you won’t make the same mistake. You’ll thank me later.
February 17, 2008 at 10:31 am
Looks like someone didn’t read my How to Market on Flickr guide. Tsk-tsk.
And how stupid do you have to be to link to all your spammy profiles at every other social site? Obviously a rookie spammer.
Update, Sunday afternoon: I submitted that profile via Flickr’s “report abuse” form, and just about 16 hours later, the account has been killed. Nice.
February 16, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Here’s a roundup of the articles I’ve shared on various social media sites in the last day or two:
Mixx
Propeller
Sphinn
That’s all….
February 14, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Here’s the stuff I shared on various social media sites in the past day or so.
Mixx
Propeller
digg
And that’s all!
February 14, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I think it’s sweet that the Republicans and Democrats are in the “holiday” spirit today. The GOP is offering a half-dozen Valentine’s Day e-cards that you can send to a friend. They feature Hillary and Barack sharing some pretty funny Valentine wishes for your loved one. Here’s a sample:
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee has put together a romantic little video about George Bush and John McCain. It’s a minute long - have a look:
Whatever party you support, I hope you’re having a happy Valentine’s Day, too. 
February 14, 2008 at 1:03 am
Here’s a roundup of the stories I submitted in the past 24 hours or thereabouts:
Mixx
Sphinn
That’s all for this time….
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