Headline of the day: Groups Fight Over Fate of 174 Feral Chihuahuas
Author: Andrew Huey
Emusic
Emusic has been sold and is going to discontinue unlimited downloads, instead offering 40 songs a month for $10. Still a pretty good deal, if you can find 40 songs a month that you like. I’ve always wondered how they could stay in business while offering unlimited downloads. There’s some additional information about this, and about other online music news, here. Also, iTunes for Windows should be announced next week.
emusic
I just downloaded about 6 CDs worth of stuff from Emusic, and pressed 3 CDs. That ought to be enough to keep me going for a week or two. The best of the batch is probably Us from Mull Historical Society. Always nice to hear good music coming out of Scotland.
Magic Notes
Lots of computer trouble today, all of which boiled down to one bad application and its apparently corrupt data file. I had been using Magic Notes to keep some sticky notes on my desktop. It’s been working fine, but apparently the data file that holds the notes got messed up bad enough for the program to crash, taking the entire system with it. Since this was happening while the sytem was booting, I had to do a “process of elimination” thing to narrow it down to Magic Notes. I don’t think I’ll be relying on this program anymore, since I really don’t like the idea of a simple utility program that can take out the whole system so readily, nor do I like the idea that the data file is not in an easily-recoverable format.
Oh well. I went through the process of finding a decent sticky note program about a year ago, and now I need to do it again. Maybe this time I’ll find something a little more reliable.
coffee
From yesterday’s Times: Mighty Brew for the Do-It-Yourselfer. I prefer Peet’s, myself. I had never seen the coffee review web site mentioned in the article; it looks pretty interesting.
NYU
football pool
Okay, after Monday Night Football, I’m now dead last in the football pool, all by myself. Oh well.
football pool
Looks like I’m in a 6-way tie for last place in our office football pool. Oh well. I guess I could jump up a spot if my Sunday night and Monday night picks are right. And hey, at least my pal Nick is down there at last place with me…
Millennium Actress
Millennium Actress opens in NYC and LA on Sept. 12. Mark your calendars. I just watched the trailer, though, and I really don’t think it communicates the idea of the movie very well. Forget the trailer, just go see it.
Big Apple Anime Fest
I spent most of the weekend at Big Apple Anime Fest. One of the best moments from the con would have to be meeting Ken Knudtsen and getting a copy of My Monkey’s Name is Jennifer from him, in which he wrote “andy, hurray for huey lewis and the news! — jennifer the monkey”. I was a little confused about this for a moment, since I hadn’t mentioned my last name, but then I realized it was written on the badge around my neck. Duh.
I caught a couple of the movies they premiered, and I have to say that Tokyo Godfathers is definitely worth seeing, as is anything from Satoshi Kon. A Tree of Palme, on the other hand, was visually interesting, but didn’t really hold my attention for its two-hour-plus running time. It was just a little too out there.