Monthly Archive for November, 2007Page 2 of 2

They Might Be Giants: The Else - CD Review!

Published
by
Hung
on November 13, 2007
in Music
. 3 Comments

the-else.jpg

Whoa, so I just got The Else in the mail. And just in time, since the TMBG concert is tomorrow night! I had gotten psyched for it this weekend by watching the TMBG documentary, Gigantic. I guess I could’ve written about it too. Maybe I will later. But this is a review of the new(ish) CD!

Tracks:

1. I’m Impressed
I think They Might Be Giants is trying to trick reviewers into giving good reviews of the CD by calling their first song “I’m Impressed.” And either by cognitive osmosis or pure wordplay, the reviewer will somehow work in the phrase into his/her review. This is a Linnell song, apparently. I just assume that whoever sings the song is the person who wrote it.

Umm… The actual song seems to be about a guy who’s impressed by natural disasters (like plane crashes and Godzilla attacks). But he’s also scared. I guess I’d give it a solid 7? Maybe a 6.

2. Take Out The Trash
This is a Flansburgh song. He’s petitioning for a girl to dump some dude. And it’s Thursday now.

The song’s not particularly melodic, instead featuring Flansburgh’s trademark “Olive Oyl-like singing.” It’s nothing special. 5?

3. Upside Down Frown
This may be the best song of the album. It’s a Linnell. There’s this crazy frantic drumbeat underneath the calm guitar strumming. I like it!

Like all good TMBG songs, this one’s meaning can be left to interpretation. I think it’s about some dude getting dumped who seems happy about it. I guess he’s taken the oft-given advice to turn his frown upside down. The only problem is that obviously sad people who are smiling seem kinda sinister/crazy… I give it a 9!

4. Climbing The Walls
This is a song about a dude who is way too high strung. But he’s found a good outlet for it: climbing the walls. I think that’s merely metaphorical, but what do I know?

This is a fairly typical Linnell song. By which I mean it’s really repetitive, except when we get a refreshing bridge! Like most Linnell songs, this one’s incredibly melodic. It’d work just as well without any backing at all. Which I think is a mark of a good song. Best line of the album: “I was grinding my teeth / I was wasting my youth / And using up my teeth.” I’ll give it a 7.5.

5. Careful What You Pack
Okay, this is the “Flansburgh sings like a girl” song of the album.

This song doesn’t make any sense, and it’s not fun to listen to. 3.

6. The Cap’m
Is this song about Captain Crunch? No. It’s about a guy who likes to be called the “Cap’m.” Apparently people think you can’t be called that unless you drive a boat.

There’s nothing really striking about this song. It’s musical filler. It sounds like it was written in less than an hour. Which is bad, in this case. Especially given this is a Linnell song. I’d give it a 5.

7. With The Dark
John Flansburgh sings some harmony with himself in this song. But I think they’re questionable harmonies. At least this one’s sort of funky (by which I mean, there are some funky horns)!

There’s some nautical elements in this song, which make me think it might fit in with The Cap’m? The song is just all over the place though. I don’t like stupid all over the place songs!!! It seriously feels like they’re just making shit up as they go. 3.

8. The Shadow Government
Okay, so this song’s a little more cohesive and maybe even rockin’. It’s still a little random though (in the bad way). It uses the the quote “I doth protest,” though, so I can’t give it too bad of a score. 5?

9. Bee Of The Bird Of The Moth
This song is fucking weird. Which is good. Subject: Hummingbird moth who’s acting like a bird that thinks it’s a bee. The lyrics are really mind-numbing. A Linnell song, it’s once again fairly repetitive. But the funkyness and strange lyrics sort of redeem this song. I give it a 7.

10. Withered Hope
This song is all about the buildup. It starts off soft, giving some exposition of sad sack and withered hope. I guess they’re characters, and not just anthropomorphic emotions. As the plot is revealed, the song really ramps up! And by plot, I mean new characters such as “soul mate,” “crook” and “motorbike” are added. It’s sort of a love pentangle.

The whole song is weird and great. 8.5!

11. Contrecoup
Contrecoup had a lot of words that I had to look up. Which makes it good? Apparently this dude is too obsessed with science, including phrenology (analyzing a person’s character from their head shape) the science of being in love (Limerence!). He was hit in the head, which made him fall in love. Or something. Maybe he’s just a hypochondriac. Of love.

I like the idea, but the song itself (as a song) really isn’t that great. 6.

12. Feign Amnesia
Feigning amnesia is a pretty good coping mechanism. What this dude is coping with, I’m not quite sure. It’s probably one of the better Flansburgh songs. But that’s not saying much. 5.

13. The Mesopotamians
People think the Mesopotamians died out or something. In fact, they just started a traveling band.

This song is sort of like “We’re the Replacements” except with a dead civilization. It also sorta reminds me of those “band songs” where the bands sing about what they’re all about. Like “The Monkees.” It gets cleverness points, along with some “I guess it’s not a bad song” points. I’ll give it a 7.

Hmm. So the trend of me liking the Linnell songs and not liking the Flansburgh songs continues. I don’t really like any of the Flan songs, though most of the Linnell songs are at least decent. There’s probably 3-4 songs that I like on this new album. That’s still not very good, but it’s better than the 2 songs I liked on The Spine and the 0 songs I liked from Mink Car.

I had heard that this album was the best TMBG has released since Apollo 18. It probably is, but that’s not really saying much. I guess it’s nice that they’re slowly getting “better” since having hit rock bottom with Mink Car. I’m still waiting for State Songs Vol. 2 from Linnell…

Hopefully they’ll play some “classics” (She’s an Angel, Don’t Let’s Start, etc) at the concert tomorrow.

Banished From Boggle

Published
by
Hung
on November 7, 2007
in Code and Facebook
. 3 Comments

boggle.gif

There’s a Facebook app called “Bogglific.” It’s sort of the Boggle equivalent to Scrabulous. Anyway, my boss Gillian likes playing it, so I added it to play against her. And she beat me handily. So handily, in fact, that I was resolute to come up with a way to have my revenge.

I’m the kind of person who likes to play smart, not hard. And I’m a programmer. So put one and one together. Go ahead, I’ll give you some time to predict what I did.

YES, I WROTE A PROGRAM TO CHEAT AT BOGGLE!

I mean, it’s sort of this fun problem if you think about it. My solution used a lot of recursion (probably too much), and a dictionary function that verified actual words.

And it worked pretty well, too. I beat one of my coworkers 70 points to 1. Of course, afterwards I fully disclosed this information. I’d never be able to live up to the hype if someone challenged me to a live game anyway. I mostly cheated to see if my program was any good. And apparently it was. My plan was to make it to the top of the leaderboard, then retire from the business altogether.

I have to hand it to the Bogglific people; they’re pretty clever. They detected that I was cheating and banned me. And I have nothing against that. I knew what I was getting wrapped up in. I still even have my pride intact, since it was my program that I was cheating with! I understand though that cheaters should be banned. It really isn’t fair for everyone else who comes up with their three and four letter words.

I’m thinking of adapting my Boggle solver into a Facebook app. For educational purposes only, of course. Like, check out all the words you missed! It’ll be a sort of Boggle trainer…

Anyway, I am taking my Boggle banishment in stride. I hold nothing against my oppressors. At least now I’ll have some free time to work on my Scrabulous Solver (which is actually a somewhat more computationally complex (and interesting) problem…).

The Meijer Free Sample Lady Saved My Life!

Published
by
Hung
on November 4, 2007
in Life and Random
. 2 Comments

Yep. So today I went to Meijer for my weekly groceries. I had an extra hour, so I figured I’d be extra slovenly this morning. I made some coffee. I wasted time on the internet. Then I left. But I forgot to eat breakfast!

I only remembered this once I got to Meijer. I felt really weak, and realized I should’ve gotten food first. So I sorta just staggered around, getting stuff I needed. I went to the bottle return thingy too. Due to my weakness, I think I talked to myself a lot more (”soup get!”) and weirded people out. Wandering the aisles, I was trying to figure out if I could eat anything, then pay for it later. But that doesn’t really work in grocery stores. I would’ve sampled some Jelly Bellies, but I doubt that would have satiated my weak shell of a body.

Luckily, about halfway through the adventure, I saw that the foreign-sounding lady (”here! it’s-a very good a-pumpkin cake!”) that’s always giving away free samples at the Saline Rd Meijer had setup a pumpkin cake sample area! I ate one, and told her it was the first thing I had eaten all day. Then she gave me another! She basically saved my life, maybe.

I didn’t end up buying a cake, but I did buy lots of other crap today. So thank you foreign-sounding Meijer sample lady, whoever you are!

Orange Juice Snobbery

Published
by
Hung
on November 2, 2007
in Life and Random
. 2 Comments

simplyorange.jpg

So since I’ve been living alone, I’ve been buying groceries for myself. One thing I’ve been drinking more of is orange juice. I’m not quite sure why; probably because I think that if I drink high volumes of the stuff, I’ll be healthier than if I don’t. And it’s sort of worked. I think pretty much everyone in Michigan is currently sick except for me.

On my weekly grocery run, I always make sure to grab at least two things of orange juice. I go through two in a week, and sometimes more. I think a 2-2-3 pattern works out nicely. Typically I just buy what’s on sale at Meijer. So far, I’ve had pretty much all brands of orange juice available. There’s Minute Maid, Tropicana, Simply Orange, Meijer brand…

In short, I’ve become somewhat of an orange juice connoisseur.

I never could make the distinction before between “from concentrate” and not. These days, “not from concentrate” is equal to “tastes like crap.” I’m drinking some Meijer from concentrate orange juice as I write this, and 1) It tastes pretty bad, 2) I think it’s giving me heartburn.

Aside from the concentrate issue, we have things like pulp density, added vitamins, etc. There was one version of Minute Maid I bought that had some kind of weird joint drug in it… Needless to say my joints were feeling great after I drank it. Perhaps this is due to some placebo effect. Or perhaps it’s due to the fact that I’m not quite old yet.

Also, there exist orange juices with an added “Omega-3″ ingredient. Apparently this is good for you. But you get this ingredient from fish. Yeah, orange juice with fish in it. Not my idea of a tasty breakfast beverage. Incidentally, I think my multivitamin also has this fish stuff added. But I just swallow that whole. I guess it’s still gross, just somewhat less so.

But let’s keep on track. I’m blogging about orange juice, goddamn it! When I see OJ with added vitamins or minerals, I’ll probably go for that. Calcium is good, but normal is fine too. Last week, Tropicana was on sale. But they only had the “Low Acid” and “Healthy” versions. The “healthy” one apparently had half the sugar… I got the low acid one. And it tasted really damn good! I have to wonder where the acid went after being extracted from my orange juice. I can only hope it was used for good, and not evil.

Let’s get back to the pulp. I’ve been experimenting with pulp densities. So far, I’ve found that moderation is key; medium pulp works well. No pulp is just unnatural, and high pulp is just too chewy and hard to clean. Low pulp can be substituted if medium pulp is unavailable. The thing is, there’s no common pulp density measure between orange juice distributors. How high is high pulp? Only the juicers know for sure. I’ll continue experimenting with the pulp density levels until I reach, with a high confidence level, a consensus on my preference.

Due to cost and time issues, I have not yet ventured into the business of “home brewing” my orange juice. I think I’ll leave that job to the professionals. While there is something to be said about one who juices his own oranges, I cannot be bothered to perfect my skill in this particular craft.

In conclusion, there is no clear winner as far as orange juice brands go. I’ve only bought single brands of orange juice each week. I can say that I like Simply Orange, Minute Maid, and Tropicana. I haven’t tried the more expensive Meijer version yet. Perhaps in the future I will try a double blind orange juice taste challenge. But for now, I’ll just buy what’s on sale. I hope it’s something good this week…