Just a note about my music rankings: I do grade on a curve. That is, I think these ratings should be distributed on a Bell Curve. See, I've listened to maybe like three 1s in my whole life. Maybe 6 or 7 10s, but then I'm actively seeking good music, not bad. In general, most of my ratings are going to be 5.5-6.5, since I'm actively seeking out good music, the average value of my ratings necessarily will be slightly above the 5 average of the general music population.

That's all.

I listened to three new albums today. Nothing too exciting. Here's a breakdown:

• The Plastic Constellations, Mazatlan. Entirely average indie rock. Not bad by any means, but nothing exciting. 5.5.
• The Free Design, Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love. They say these guys influenced Stereolab. And I dig Stereolab. While fairly good 60's sunshine-happy-rock, there are far too many lyrics about butterflies. All in all though, not bad. 6.
• Jason Forrest, The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash. This is more like it. Pitchfork called it "maximalist" electronic music. Think Basement Jaxx or maybe Daft Punk, but a lot more strange. It's got this sort of post-modern lack of focus that sadly strips of it of just about all emotional appeal, but it's quite interesting to listen to. 7.5.

Just finished my first lab report for my physics lab. Oh boy.

Let me just make this emphatically clear: I hate physics lab.

That's all.

I think of myself, in many ways, as a philosopher. I've never taken a philosophy class, let alone declared it as my major. And I'm woefully under-read in the area. But I find thinking about philosophical questions to be extremely enjoyable.

Over the years, mostly since I started college, I've developed, what seems to me, a fairly consistent philosophical world-view. In talking with my friend Lane, among the the brightest individuals I know, I've found myself able to support my claims with pretty good arguments. (Though she may not be pressing me hard enough!)

So, I feel the need to sort of formalize my ideas, write them down, and fill in the gaps. For now, let me make explicitly public some of my basic claims, and later, talk about some areas in my thinking that still need more thought.

Perhaps it's the lack of sleep (I managed a meager 4 hours last night. Damn physics lab.), but I have to say there seem to be a few select words and phrases that I really enjoy, and probably overuse. I'm going to update this post as I think of more, but here's a few to start with:

• in the context of ...
• rationally
• In the context of IMs (doh!): heh heh
• Also in the context of IMs: yeah

What a geek.

In a perfect world, the band Wilco would have been slapped with a lawsuit for producing one of the most overrated albums of all time. However, this is not a perfect world.

But, all that press has a way of bringing out lawyers anyway. And this is an interesting one, indeed, at least from my (bizarre, warped) perspective. Irdial~Discs, who put out an fascinating four disc set of recordings of shortwave radio "number stations" (just follow the link), are suing Wilco's record label, since, apparently, Wilco sampled, without permission, over 1:30 of one of these recordings. Here is Irdial's take on the issue.

More overrated bands should get sued like this. Wee.

Kidding aside, I find this a little irritating. For one, these are shortwave radio recordings! Recording stuff off the radio isn't the kind of creative act that needs to be protected by copyright. Granted, the compilation is really great, and I appreciate what Irdial did, but come on. This is the kind of thing that ought to be public domain.

Secondly, and this really follows from my first point, the sounds and atmosphere of these number station recordings are fantastic, and a really great motif to build music around. I think Irdial, as a very independent media company, is totally out of line taking a copyright stance that seems more like the stance of a major label or studio in the context of creative re-use of their intellectual property.

So, as much as I like to see Wilco getting sued, I'm afraid I just can't support. And frankly, Irdial has really disappointed me.

Oh, Steve Jobs. Your genius (or perhaps your turtlenecks) bring immeasurable joy to my heart. It also makes me want to drop $3k on a new Power Mac. Most impressive.

I loved Fahrenheit 9/11, I thought it was thought-provoking, entertaining, and in general an extremely important film. However, it's always good to read the response of the less enlightened..

Some friends and I saw Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 at like 12:30 am Friday night/Saturday morning. It was excellent. I recommend it to, even to the conservatives out there. Everyone needs to see this film. Maybe more on this later. It's sleepy time.

Just finished listening to OnOffOn by Mission of Burma. My feelings about this album are rather mixed. Every individual song is pretty good. Not a single terrible track. But the album as a whole is, for some reason, overly long and boring! I give it a 6.

Here's an interesting link on memetics that I'll talk about later. I find this concept interesting, from a socio-philosophical standpoint.

Okay. I'm a terrible blogger. Life has, in general, been rather odd the past couple of months, but things are looking up. So here we go.

Right now, I'm sitting in my dorm. What's that, you say? It's June! Yes. Don't remind me. I'm attending the summer session here at ol' U of K. Taking Linear Algebra, Astronomy, and, shudder, Physics Lab II. Oh boy. That, folks, is a full load.

Oddly enough, I have a boatload of free time. I've been reading a lot (The Mirrodin Cycle of Magic: the Gathering novels, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Andrei Platonov's The Foundation Pit at the moment), and sitting on my computer a lot. And that's about it. Campus is uncool this time of year. Oh. That pun was unintended, and now that I think about it, not all that funny. In any event. I have plenty of time to use for blogging and other questionably productive activities.

For example, I've been hitting Soulseek hard. Listened to a bunch of new music. The Thermal's album Fuckin A is terrific. Erlend Oye's DJ Kicks is a fun listen as well. I've also become somewhat obsessed with the band Clinic. They're back catalogue is pretty slim, but it's uniformly kick-ass. And they're as-yet-unreleased album Winchester Cathedral is really, really good.

Ben, of Me, Tim and Ben are renting a place in the fall fame, coerced me into taking up the game Kings of Chaos. It's pretty fun. Reminds me of this web game I played back in like 9th grade that I really enjoyed. If you have excessive free time, you might give it a try.

That's all for today.