The Quixotic Jedi

I got nothin’.  My date cancelled on Tuesday.  I knew I shouldn’t have said anything to you.  :-p

wtf – l33t is creeping more and more into my regular writing.  lol, brb, ttyl/s, etc. – I even used h8 once in an email this past week.  If it gets much worse, I’m going to have a serious talk with myself.  And those NEVER go well.

Work is still busy, but that’s cool:  I’m in a groove.  Copywriting in the evenings and trying to squeeze in some sci-fi reading.  Right now I’m reading Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds.  It’s the fourth book in his hard sci-fi space opera beginning with Revelation Space.  Best damned sci-fi I’ve read in a LONG time.  The editing kind of sucks, but that might just be me being anal.  I suppose a typo every fifty or so pages is to be expected.  I don’t remember reading with this critical an eye before – it’s only the last year or two that the quality of the editing of a book – or rather, the lack thereof – can have an impact on my reading experience.  Still, it’s a great story.

And that’s about it.  Like my seminal vesicles, my apartment needs a good cleaning.  I have no desire to look for someone to help me out with the latter, though.  The former, well…I suppose it’s good that I’m so busy right now.  I don’t even have time for reflective whining about my singlehood, much less extensive discussion thereof.

I’ve been listening to The White Stripes in my car of late.  I downloaded Elephant, Icky Thump and White Blood Cells from iTunes, though not in that order.  That’s the order in which I’d rate them, from more- to less-enjoyable.  That said, please don’t think I find White Blood Cells unenjoyable.

Overall, I like The White Stripes.  I enjoy the simplicity, and not just because Seven Nation Army is one of the few songs I can play tolerably well on the bass.  The albums aren’t albums, though.  I find them to be more of a collection of singles.  I’m an album kind of guy.  I like 45+ minutes of flow, not 2-5 minutes of head nodding with abrupt pauses and changes interspersed.

So I think I’m going to look for something else to download.  My tastes on Pandora (here’s my profile) have been leaning more toward electronic stuff -  trip hop and whatnot.  (Whatnot’s a figure of speech, not a genre.)  Pandora tells me that the attributes I’m enjoying right now include the following:

four-on-the-floor beats
latin influences
disco influences
blues influences
danceable beats
straight drum beats
subtle buildup/breakdown
use of modal harmonies
the use of chordal patterning
extended harmonic patterns
emphasis on instrumental performance
a tight kick sound
acoustic drum samples
the use of clean-sounding organs
a hand percussion layer
prevalent use of groove

I’m going to download this Supreme Beings of Leisure album I’ve been digging on lately and listen to that in the car tomorrow, I think.  I’m really close to downloading some Bhangra, too (heheee).