Magic Jewball

all signs point to no

 

iPod song of the week – Quicksand

Filed under : iPod Song of the Week
On March 30, 2008
At 10:30 pm
Comments : 4

OK, so for the first time, I’m choosing a song that isn’t actually on my iPod. It’s on a CD! While I was doing my marathon baking session last weekend, I pulled out a few CD’s that I hadn’t heard in ages and cranked up the sound. I know the point of having a 30GB iPod (or more, but that’s the one I have) is to stick every single thing you have on there so that you’re carrying around your whole library wherever you go. But it didn’t really work that way for me. I never saw the point in ripping and transferring CD’s that I only wanted to listen to once every five years. Thus, I sometimes find myself staring at my huge CD tower (I know, that sounds like a spam you received today about satisfying your woman) and finding some gem from the past. And I found a few! Chief amongst them was the CD this comes from.

If you’re not from New York, you may never have heard of Quicksand but I always loved them and thought they should have been more successful. Not to mention that they shouldn’t have broken up after two records. They had a kind of raw, dark, hard-rock sound, not unlike early U2, I always thought. People seem to think the first album is better but I always liked the second one, Manic Compression. And if I recall correctly (and who knows… 1995 was a long time ago), this was the song that actually got some radio airplay. Or at least it did here. Of course, we had a good rock radio station back then. And I had to walk eight miles through the snow to hear it.

Quicksand songs are so full of power and energy, I often don’t even notice that they’re mostly like two and a half minutes. This one is exactly that: short and kickass.



Napster:
Quicksand – Thorn In My Side

Streaming audio available on the iPod Song of the Week page.

 
 

Oops

Filed under : Meta/Blognews
On March 26, 2008
At 3:50 pm
Comments : 10

loveDear J-Ball,

So it’s come to this, I have forgotten our anniversary. In the first year of our relationship, I planned it for weeks, did all kinds of research, felt emotions and sentiment. This year, I happened to notice a week after the fact and come empty-handed.

Please don’t think I don’t love you as much as the first day we were together. It’s just… you know how it is. I got used to having you around and maybe I have begun take you for granted. That novel excitement has kind of vanished. But don’t take that as arising from a lack of feeling. Rather, you are so necessary to me that you’re just a part of my life and so, are appreciated without words or gestures. Always know that without you I’d be one of those people talking to myself on the subway or boring my friends with daily minutiae. Or, you know, more so.

Anyway, allow me to make it up to you later this week. Or next week. Or sometime. It will be as fun a post as last year’s Blogoversary, I swear.

xoxo
Becca



Joe Cocker – You Are So Beautiful (To Me)

 
 

Post-Purim updates

Filed under : Etc.
On March 23, 2008
At 12:05 pm
Comments : 7

Hope everyone had a delightful Purim and/or is having a happy Easter!

First off, the bake sale is over but thank you so much! It was hugely successful and we’ll have another one late this year with a different kind of treat (maybe rugelach will make a repeat appearance). Sorry for the lack of posts but I wanted that one to stay on top, plus I was busy baking. And will be for a while!

Second, for those who are interested in the aftermath of the Station Fire, there is a special tonight at 10pm on VH1. There was a tribute concert and excerpts of that will be shown as well.

Lastly, I did not, in fact, win the contest on Randa Clay’s site for my Just.Do.It post (boo! hiss!) but I think it was more meant for tech and practical blogs, rather than personal ones. As well, I was going to write that post anyway if not exactly framed that way, so it’s OK. And I was glad to inspire and get inspired by the various comments.

Oh, and an update on something I mentioned on a Page: Nalby lost at Indian Wells this week. But I don’t mind! He lost to Chokemaster Mardy Fish, my second favorite player who then went on to beat… Roger Federer! He’s in the final today. Godspeed, Chokemaster!

 
 

Give dough, get cookies

Filed under : Food,Judaism
On March 17, 2008
At 2:47 pm
Comments : 13

Ever since I did my rugelach bake sale for charity, several people have asked me if I would do the same thing with Hamantaschen, those filled triangular cookies of awesomeness. And so, I have decided to do it! Here is my post from last year describing the process of cookie-creating, should you not be 100% sure what I’m talking about. Hamantaschen are named for the villain of the Purim story, Haman (he wanted to kill the Jews, so trendy!) and Purim is this Friday. Another important thing to do on Purim is to give gifts to those in need so check out how well that works out!

This time we have two exciting charities to choose from as well as two flavors of Hamantaschen. You can see all the details and the method to acquire these tasty treats on my new Bake Sale page. The picture is not of my own cookies, but you get the idea. So get your orders in and we’ll celebrate giving to good causes with tasty treats.

Edited to add: for those who didn’t order last time, it is a medium-sized (4 cup) Gladware container.

Edited again to add: last day to order is Saturday 3/22.



Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

 
 

Running with the Jewball

Filed under : Music
On March 16, 2008
At 9:00 pm
Comments : 3

Hey, do you read my comments? You should! Kb had a great idea for me to share my fun running tunes with you via iTunes iMix and so it shall be iWritten, so it shall be iDone. There were only a couple of songs I have that aren’t in there but how much are you craving B-Movie anyway?

A few notes. First, avid Joy Division fans may notice that Twenty-Four Hours is on there and it’s got a lot of slow bits. I no longer run to it, but when I was beginning the Couch to 5k program, I really liked to warm up to it. It has 45-60 minute sections of alternating fast and slow and was just perfect. You may find it so too, otherwise, leave it out. You can hear the full song on the iPod Song of the Week page. Also, I left out the “walking warm-up” song, New Order’s Slow Jam, since it might confuzle other iTunes shoppers. You can always just search on it.

Second, several of the songs had terribly selected snippets on iTunes, so I’ve created better ones which include vocals. You can listen to both iTunes’ snippets and mine to get a better picture.

Lastly, here’s a reminder on how to get the song to start and end where you want it, either because the intro or outro are too long and non-inspirational or because you are creating snippets for your Couch to 5k run. Just click File, then Get Info, and cruise to the tab shown. Fill in the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” sections as you wish.



Click here to see my running mix! It will open your iTunes, if not your eyes.
Becca’s Running Mix



And now for those better snippets. Mofo especially is a great running song which isn’t done justice on iTunes. They actually just use a section I cut out! Oh the humanity.

Happy running!



Van Halen – Runnin’ With The Devil