The Daily Brief

I finally got around to playing with the iTunes Genius feature last night.  Basically, you pick a song from your library, Apple then recommends new music from their store which will go good with it.  I mostly ignore this part, because it mostly recommends music I already own, although I may not have purchased it from the iTunes store.  Click the genius button, and it will suggest a playlist of 25, 50, 75 or 100 songs from your library.  You can save that playlist or refresh it a couple times to see if there aren’t other matches.

Most of the time I got some really good songs that I may not have put together myself.  As far as I can tell, the “Genius” makes it’s matches from “similar artists,” “year song was released,” “beats per minute,” and “genre.”  “Jersey Girl” by Tom Waits gave me everything from Springsteen’s “Nebraska” to “Romeo’s Tune” by Steve Forbert to “Stuck Between Stations” by The Hold Steady to “Not Fade Away” by The Crickets.  Those feel right.  But it also gave me “Angel From Montgomery” by Bonne Raitt/John Prine, “Handbags and Gladrags” by Rod Stewart, and “Tumbling Dice” by the Stones.  And Dylan…lots of Bob Dylan.  So maybe there’s a “Gravel In Their Voice” category in the database that doesn’t show on the front end.

I basically like Genius.  I’m lazy.  When I try to make playlists myself, I over-think my way into complete paralysis.  I’m not completely in synch with the Genius, but it does give me a good starting point.

The initial setup takes some time, so before you download it and set it up, understand that depending on the size of your collection, you’re probably going to need at least an hour.  And Apple will read your entire library before it sends a copy of that list to itself.  If you’re afraid of Apple knowing what’s in your library, you’re not going to choose to do this.  Personally, I bought and paid for all of my music, not all from iTunes, but it’s all bought and paid for so I don’t much care if they know or not.

Just watched the encore presentation of the first episode.

And if I’m not mistaken, Doll House will be on Fox as well.

Why is Fox doing better SciFi than The SciFi Channel?

Are “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” really that good or is the state of SciFi so bad that it seems better than it is?

Two days late, but, what the hell…here’s my take based on what I’ve read and seen in the last 48 hours.

The folks on the far right love her…which gives me pause.  I’m not a far right guy.  Someone who goes by the tag, “Social Conservative” makes me think of Gladys Kravitz, peeking out from behind her curtains, making decisions about how my life ought to be.

The folks on the far left hate her…this makes me smile.

She’s originally from Idaho, moved to Alaska, went to college in Idaho, and then went BACK to Alaska.  I understand that.  Idaho’s not as “civilized” as much of the U.S., but it’s not Alaska.  Anyone who chooses to live up there, has my respect.

She’s a babe, in a “naughty librarian” kind of way.  Yes, that’s simply testosterone talking, but hey, at my age, when it talks, I listen.

I’m not  thrilled that she’s been accused of trying to get her ex brother in law fired and then fired the guy who wouldn’t fire the brother in law.  There’s an, “Off with their heads!” feel to that.  Is the McCain camp THAT sure that she didn’t do anything wrong?

The experience thing.  We’ve had experienced people in office before and I haven’t been impressed.  I don’t think the Presidency or Vice Presidency should be held “professional” politicians.  Quite honestly, I’m against professional politicians out of sheer orneriness (sic).

I’ve heard that her huband and son aren’t Republicans, they’re independents.  I think that’s simply amazing and it’s definitely a plus.

A couple women I work with are poli-sci majors and they think McCain has given the race away.  “No WAY a woman should be the VP with a President who’s THAT old.  Americans won’t have it!”  Hmmm, makes me want to vote for MCain just to prove them wrong.

I’m not voting for either candidate based on their Veep pick, but I’m with Mom…pass the popcorn, this has finally become interesting.

That’s what they’re calling the graphic for Gustav’s possible landfall.

I’m sorry…something that serious shouldn’t sound like something Maxwell Smart would work with.

I’d really love to see Gustav completely destroy New Orleans so they have to start over, someplace new, someplace ABOVE sea-level and just quit fighting Mother Nature.

I live by the maxim that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Rebuilding New Orleans again is insane and I seriously don’t want to know how much of my tax money is going to go into the effort.

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