100th Post Spectacular!

Well, okay, maybe I'm being a little overly boastful to call my hundredth host spectacular, but a cloned monkey with three arms made me do it. Knife to my ribs and everything. So, here we are. I can't believe you guys have allowed me to ramble on the internet for a hundred posts. Really, someone should notify the CRTC or, failing that, the good people at Shaw Cable. Perhaps there were no good people to be found at either place and so I am able to continue. In any case, thank you all whether you pop in once or check daily, weekly, or when I beg you. In honour of this, I'm hoping to offer a grab bag of random topics, one of which is sure to not offend you. Not the least likely is the resumption of my podcast.

The Podcast Returns
Those of you who wrote me to continue my podcast, rejoice! As for the planet Earth, I suppose you can just wonder what the heck I'm doing putting together podcasts after the fantastic failure that was Episode 1. Well, I'll tell you. Over on FrankBlack.Net, my podcasting associate for the FrankBlack.Net Podcast and co-maintainer of the site came up with an idea. An idea to swap discs with other members of the forum. And then I came up with an idea. An idea to, instead, or rather also, record a podcast where we introduce people to the music and so forth. So, 'my' podcast is no longer mine at all except that I maintain the feed and came up with an idea. Now every week, at least for the next while, someone new will be publishing a podcast on Fridays, with music they like. Already, Kathryn has done a podcast focusing on the talents of Brian Eno and David Byrne. This week, I have a more eclectic mix of stuff. Next week, someone else will be posting theirs. Want it? All you have to do is add the following to your podcasting software (if you're not already subscribed to my podcast): http://dean.katsiris.com/podcast/feed.xml. If you have iTunes, it's as easy as selecting the "Advanced" menu, selecting "Subscribe to podcast" and pasting that link. I'm looking forward to some of the future hosts' shows. I've found out about some cool music from another mix like this I did a year or so ago.

Soccer and Lollies

So, the winter, the constant sitting at the desk, the getting out of shape, it's all done. Done, I tell you! Except for the desk, but now I will hopefully stop after work and get outside. Spring is here and it's glorious. There is magic (aka pollen) in the air, and I'm going to be so outdoors this summer that you won't have a clue how I still keep this thing up to date. I'm hoping to reinstate my team, Dynamite Dean and the Formidable Pylons, for a little summer recreation, and perhaps get some new players. Let me know if you're interested. I'm also thinking of doing an Ultimate Frisbee team this year. And some golf and tennis lessons. And biking. Yup, I love Saskatchewan summers more than I love taffy. Well, that's not true, which is part of the problem, I suppose. I need to work the taffy off. And other 'lollies' which is what the Australians like to call candies of any sort. Except, perhaps, for suckers and lollipops. Speaking of which, still planning on heading away this winter for a year there, but I haven't even begun to start looking at planning or tickets or tours. Perhaps I'll book it whilst biking on the Meewasin trail.

Simpsons Movie

Speaking of summer, and next year, coincidentally, there is a Simpsons movie coming out. Now, I know that the show is one of my favourite of all time, and also that many have lost interest because the writing really went downhill after the twelfth season in particular, but it has come around again if the recent episode with Ricky Gervais is any indication. Of course, he also wrote it, but to be fair, the last few I've seen have been pretty funny. And so, I have some hope that this movie could be pretty darned good. I also hope to win the lottery, but I think the odds are a little better on the Simpsons movie. You can see the trailer by clicking on the image over there. Meanwhile, they've squashed rumours of renewing Futurama, another 'F' show (Family Guy, Futurama, and there are others) that Fox cancelled for no good reason. I don't know what's going on over there. They have brilliant people getting these guys signed up and then idiots deciding who gets to stay. "We're sorry, Futurama has been cancelled. Please enjoy the next five shows which are all from the World's Blankiest Blank" genre. Still, there are also supposed to be some straight-to-DVD movies for Futurama coming, and that's cool. I hated the show based on a few viewings but finally knuckled under (thanks Darren) and now love it. It takes some growing.

Spaced Extras

British media is so ridiculously superior to anything we've got over here that it's scary, possibly with the exception of the BBC, which, although it has some great programming, doesn't have anything that holds a candle to the CBC's efforts at promoting Canadian music. Well done! Still, the BBC did bring us The Office, a brilliant piece of work from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom are doing the second season of a newer show called Extras. Which, if you haven't seen, is (if you will allow) bloody brilliant. Hilarious. Ricky is a movie extra, which is a great role as he seems born to play the ambitious nobody who likes to think he's already somebody, and, well, hilarity ensues. Patrick Stewart, a man I never once considered funny, was on the last show of season 1 and made me split a seam. Which may be related to the whole taffy-love. Who knows? Another show I've heard NOTHING about over here is Spaced, which is probably the closest thing to Family Guy that any show with real people could get. It's not crude, but it does rely on quick flashes and wacky over dramatization/parody for its humour. Check this show out if you can.

Goodbye, Cruel Blog!
And now we come to the least objectionable part. I will be back, of course, with a new post in a new week, but it's about time I got outside and more importantly, to the restaurant for the supper rush that I don't anticipate will materialize (unless I stay home). So, happy Easter to all and I'll see you on the other side of the bunny.Read More...

I Say Controller

The other day I went to see Controller, Controller and You Say Party, We Say Die! with Johnny boy at the local university venue. Controller Controller had been here many times before, and perhaps YSPWSD had too, but in any case I'd never seen them. In fact, while I'd heard of them, I'd not actually heard them until a few months ago when I started listening to the CBC Radio 3 Podcast. Speaking of podcasts, I'm actually going to discontinue my own podcast before I get it started, I have enough on my plate already. But I'm still happy to introduce people to bands as requested. The FrankBlack.Net one, incidentally, is going strong. And, speaking of the CBC Podcast, the free single of the week (at least on the Canadian iTunes) is The Old Soul song River of Daughters. I LOVE this song, so go and grab it (free!) before it's too late. I think I'm going to buy their album actually, but I have to go to NewMusicCanada and check them out. Anyway, on with the show!

Well, first the opener. Spotty performance at best. I won't specify his name, mostly because I don't remember, but it was generally a decent beat with a bunch of noise and incongruous elements layered so high on top that King Kong wouldn't have ascended to the top of that pile. There were moments of goodness, but they were almost always ruined. I didn't mind the downbeat "Interpolishness" of his voice, but John was not impressed. There were points where he finished the song and nobody - I mean not a single person - realized he was finished for about 15 seconds after. He was aware of this, of course, but the show must go on. His last song was actually pretty good for the most part, there were parts I genuinely enjoyed. Out of pity I almost went up to him after his set to tell him this, but for the fact that he was on the wrong side of the all-ages boundry and I didn't feel like digging out my ID.

The bad thing was that this was supposed to be The Meligrove Band, who I was actually kind of looking forward to seeing, in spite of their emo look/leanings. I mean, really! Still, I'd heard their song, Planets Conspire, and if I was going to see Controller Controller anyway I certainly wouldn't mind seeing them. Apparently they're not touring now, though. Probably either fighting about which one gets to be 'the moody one' on their next batch of PR photos. OK, maybe I'm being unnecessarily harsh, but you should see some of their press photos.

Next up was YSPWSD, who were excellent. They stole the show, I think, which is not a slight on Controller Controller, but their sound was great and they have a tonne of energy and good riffs. Their music just conveyed itself really well there. They had a DVD recording crew with them too, and I bet that some of the material will find its way in, just a great sound and a good crowd for a Tuesday night. I don't think I'd like them on CD, but I'll definitely see them next time they're live. I suppose I'll try to find a few tracks and see if I want to buy them. I'm listening to Midnight Snack as I write this and quite enjoying it, so who knows.

Finally, Controller Controller. It was the singer's birthday, and YSPWSD came on stage with a big cake, which, if I may say, was delicious. But then, who doesn't like chocolate cake? And moreover, since when do I not like something with sugar? She shared the cake with us which was cool anyway. Their sound wasn't too great, however, prompting John and I to decide they were probably better on CD. But they were energetic, having a good time, and still fun to watch. Given that it was Tuesday night, we didn't hang around for the encore, but I think we were the only ones that left.

Anyway, not much else to say. I'm heading to Vegas next week so I'm sure to have some pictures and stories of disinterest on here when I get back. See you soon.

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Enhanced Podcasts, MP3s, and Laughter!

On Valentine's Day, many people were out with their significant others, dallying through some fine dining, a movie, and perhaps creating their own home movies after. Aside from working at the restaurant that evening, I actually kicked off my first foray into the podcasting world: The Frank Black.Net Podcast. It's been pretty succesful so far, over 800 downloads at the time of writing, not even a week later. We had some an exclusive premiere of a heretofore unreleased Frank Black track from his next CD, Fastman Raiderman, which definitely helped. Anyway, today I'm debuting my own personal podcast as well, and that has me wanting to do it right. So it was with some dissatisfaction that I discovered the enhanced podcasts that enable you to skip sections and have graphics and URLs associated with them, can not even be created on my Windows XP PC. I resolved to do something about this. WARNING: It may get geeky. Read on at your own peril.

As it stands right now, there are two types of enhanced podcasts. There is the ubiquitous Apple variety, which can ONLY be created on an Apple and must be either M4A or M4B file format. You need software that will encode the audio in those formats (instead of MP3) and then software that will create 'chapters'. Again, both of which are Apple only. There is also a Windows enhanced podcast, but it likewise requires the use of WMA files which can't be used on iPods and, to be honest, are a pain to make even if you wanted to. So, to offer broad support, I would need my podcast in both of those formats, plus MP3, that's THREE files for the same exact podcast. If I could just create an MP3 enhanced podcast, I thought to myself, life would be good and one file would be fine.

So I did some looking around. ID3.org, it turns out, just released an update to their specification for the ID3 tags that give MP3s the ability to display artists, song titles, and so on. ID3 tags now support chapters! That means there is already a defacto standard for encoding the MP3 with chapter information, the standards people are on the ball. That's one less thing to do. There are two other things that must be done. The first is to get publishers of popular music software, such as WinAmp, iTunes, MusicMatch, et al, to recognize and handle these new features. This should not be a difficult update for any of the parties involved, but there must be demand for it. Currently, there is no software out there for creating enhanced MP3 podcasts. Which means that nobody out there is developing them, which means no demand, which means that it might be difficult to persuade mp3 player producers to incorporate those features.

So what the world needs now is a way to create those MP3 Enhanced Podcasts. Badly. A command line application shouldn't take long for someone in the know and with the correct tools. I even attempted it myself briefly, but the tools I have aren't quite up to the task. I downloaded the ID3 library to find out it was C++ and intended for use with Visual Studio, which I don't have. As well, I'm pretty sure the library doesn't support these new chapter/contents frames yet, so I'd have to wait for them to update or else, and more likely, go and write the new frames in myself. But I am extremely interested in seeing this come to light, so I've not given up all hope yet. I just need some time and a better grasp of how the ID3 tag is set up. Most of that information is laid out on the id3.org site. But not all. So what I'm asking is that anyone interested in such a tool let me know so I know that it's not just for me, and if there are developers out there working on it or interested in doing so, definitely, let me know about that too. Let's get these MP3 enhanced podcasts out there.Read More...

Deanologue: What Am I Up To?

Perhaps unsurpsingly, I see that thanks to the long delay since my last post, I actually have things to talk about. Perhaps too many. So I'm going to break this week's post into several smaller posts, and trickle them out this week, presuming that they don't get even more out of date than they are already, having been typed a week ago. In this post, I think I'll live up to the title of this blog and tell you what's new with me in this last while. It's been a busy few weeks, despite the fact that I spent one of them pretty much comatose in my bed. But don't worry, I won't spend much time on that particular week. After all, I'd rather tell you about those beautiful cans that we've started making on the left there.

I suppose the least logical way to do this is to go reverse chronologically. No, that's not true. Random would be the way to do it. I'll do my best. This weekend, not much to report, aside from Steph & Adam's engagement party (which was delightful). Last weekend though, I had my first taste of poker, specifically, Texas Hold 'Em. I'm not a huge card player, and I never got much into it even in Engineering where EVERYONE plays Kaiser. Certainly, my luck in such things is not, shall we say, legendary, and while true poker enthusiasts would probably tell you it's all skill, I conveniently disagree. At least until I start winning. Because on Friday night, a lack of decent cards wasn't my problem. A lack of skill was the culprit. John invited me over to play with Adam & Clint, and I was going to go out with Jonathan that night but invited him along instead. For some reason, I always think that John lives on the same road as me, but, you know, 15 km away. So, once again, with poor Jonathan on my tail and probably scared to death of these unmarked Saskatchewan grid roads on that dark and foggy night, I took a wrong turn. Of course, I've taken that wrong turn so many times that it's part of the route for me now, but he doesn't know that.

So, anyway, playing the game, I was happily reading the flop, taking solid positions, and taking tricks. Well, maybe not that last part - that must have been my problem. Or maybe it was the fact that my solid positions weren't necessarily sound positions. Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting at the table watching the other three play. But it was still fun, it is a social game after all. Plus I probably learned as much watching as playing. The next day, the three of us, that is, John, Jon, and myself, went out for dinner and a few drinks at Bacchus. The power was out for close to an hour, which really wasn't too bad although combined with the pasta and over-priced martinis, it wasn't exactly a recipe for energy. Then we went off to Amigos, there was a CFCR CD Release this weekend, and No Birds were playing as well as Maybe Smith were playing. I'd been meaning to see Colin/Maybe Smith for some time, and I always enjoy No Birds, so that was a done deal. Smokekiller, an acoustic guy who was actually quite good started, but I'm against mixing acoustic acts with full bands. If I want to hear some guy playing a guitar and singing, I'll go to a coffee house or open mic night. You basically destroy the vibe of a rock show by mellowing things out first, especially starting at 11:30, however good. That said, Maybe Smith was well worth seeing, Colin's got a great voice and I think he'd do really well to have an actual band, and of course I love No Birds. Mehta was wild and funky on base, and I think the girl playing French Horn, who I found myself watching almost exclusively, (I love French horn, plus she) was fearing for her life on that small stage. Hilarious facial expressions. As for Mehta, he may have been on something, but at least he was into it. Be sure to pop by NewMusicCanada or Teargas and hear some of their stuff - I recommend Heavy Metal Will Never Die to start.

We were supposed to meet some girls after, but it wound up being only Jon's current lass and another girl I'd met before, and they were drunk and silly and passed out at Jon's within a half hour. Which freed the three of us to go upstairs, eat cabbage rolls, and play some more Texas Hold 'Em until almost 7 AM. We each had won a round, with me never being the first one out, and then we played a tie breaker in which I WAS the first out and John wound up being the winner. The night went quickly and was a lot of fun, possibly thanks to the drink de soir, Mike's IPA. Yes, we've started canning our beer now - you did see the picture up there, didn't you? My dad was in Seattle with my mom a couple weeks ago making sure the labels were just right (they look great) and we now have the canning equipment and everything. We're hoping they're a little bit more appealing than the 2L bottles we had before, certainly they're easier to drink in one sitting. While they were away, as always, it snowed, probably the first big snowfall of the year. Larissa & I went to pick up my dad's truck from the airport, which is on the opposite side of the city from us, and got all the way there realizing that neither of us had taken the keys from the table, each assuming the other had. So, with the roads bad as they were, Larissa opted to do some shovelling at one of the properties in the city while I rushed home to get the keys. By the time I got back, there was still another half hour of shovelling to take care of, and then we got the truck, went home, and I shovelled the driveway and walks. That was a good four hours or so all said. Of course, it snowed again the next day, not much, but enough that I had to go and shovel in the city after work, which meant that the snow had been compacted by foot traffic and it was a task. Luckily, I had my iPod full of CBC Radio 3 podcasts and actually managed to catch up on the backlog and get up to date.

Speaking of podcasts, I've mentioned before that I'm working on one that could serve as a sort of intro to indie for those looking for something else or just getting started in the indie scene. I am still waiting on a few sources to make sure that I have the artists' blessings. However, last night, I recorded another one that should be going ahead soon - a Frank Black podcast. I'm hosting the podcast with Brian, a friend and fellow moderator at frankblack.net, which is an interesting experience when I live in Saskatoon and he lives in Manhattan's shadow (AKA New Jersey). How did we accomplish this? Well, it was amazingly easy. We actually both have Google Talk accounts, and both have microphones for our computer, so all I did was click the little phone beside his name and we were having a conversation, easy as that. And cheap as free, too! Anyone with Google Talk can talk free as long as the other party has it too, which I think will come in quite handy for my next trip.

I heard from Joaquin, a guy I met on Contiki, the other day. He's having a blast in New Zealand right now, which has gotten me excited about travelling again. On his trip, he says, "When I started out on the first week of the trip I had a sense that there was no way they could keep up the pace, one day I would wake up to do something absolutely amazing that I had never done before, and then the next day it would be repeated with some other activity..." and then goes on to talk about hiking/kayaking through a park to a secluded and perfect beach on the edge of a rainforest, camping in there, going swimming and having hundreds of dolphins in the area playing with you, rope courses, rock climbing, hiking through mountains, and it goes on. He's with a company called Pacific Challenge which sounds great but I'm not sure about the 6-week duration. I don't think I want to be stuck in a group that long. Even so, there are lots of tour companies and I AM thinking about this one as a way to kick off my year down under, I'll see what Joaquin has to say about it when it's all over with. I also finished Bill Bryson's In A Sunburned Country as I lay up in bed, which only served to make the task of travelling around a place so vast and empty as Australia all the more daunting.

Ah yes, the laying in bed thing. Well, I had the flu. It kept coming and going and coming back worse. I call it the demoralizing flu - just when you get your hopes up that you're getting better, it comes back at you even worse than ever. I was sickest on the very last day and I think I said something like, "I don't think I'm going to get better" to my mom. I had to miss three days of work and was too sick to do much on the other two days for a grand total of 5 days, plus a sore throat/cough for a few more days after that.

Nicole & I are going to Las Vegas in March with mom, dad, and Shawn (our bar manager) for a Food & Beverage Show. Larissa & Mariah won't be there, but they're in Mexico on vacation as I write this, so I think they'll be okay. I've never been to Vegas so I'm quite excited to see the sites/sights and even the show itself. It's not exactly a hammock on the beach, but I think it'll be a good time. But I should probably go. I've been playing lots of X-COM: Terror From the Deep lately and am hopelessly hooked. I'll have those other posts up soon if they're still relevant, and a link to the podcast assuming it's approved, as well as a feature on buying a new PC coming up next week, so I hope to see you back soon.
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New Year: New Look: Old News

Yes, I know, I'm guilty of not keeping this site as up to date as I'd like, so I hope that with a new look (featuring one of my favourite photos from 2005) that will change. Better still, the site's never looked this good in Firefox. New look aside, a new year doesn't necessarily mean much new to report, so here's a look at some of 2005's new treats, from podcasts to 102" Plasmas, audio books to MacBooks, and just some other stuff I think you might enjoy. Please let me know what you think of the redesign by leaving a comment.

Books, Books, Everywhere
There hasn't been a "Year of the book" since they finished the library in Alexandria, but 2005 might as well be one as far as I'm concerned. Thanks largely to Dan and a free offer at Audible, I really was surprised at how much I enjoyed listening to these. Ender's Game and A Confederacy of Dunces were particular standouts, the former passing the time en route to Europe and the latter en route from Greece to the UK. Not all the books I read were audio, however. I also went through all of Dan Brown's books, particularly enjoying the illustrated Robert Langdon novels, several Micheal Crichton books (which were equally delightful) starting with Air Frame, and a few others like Star of the Sea. And many, many, more - I probably could have filled my backpack with all the books I read last year. Which is what makes an invention like Sony's new eBook so appealing. The only drawback to all these new digital media gadgets is that the companies expect to sell digital media at the same price as their non-digital predecessors. You can't expect consumers to pay the same price (or more!) when we know that, in the case of books, there is no printing cost, paper cost, shipping cost, etc involved. This goes for music and video too (ahem, Apple). Speaking of Apple, and books for that matter, I've decided my next computer/laptop purchase will be Apple's MacBook Pro- it runs on an Intel dual-core processor (I expect multi-processor chips will finally win). I imagine I'll be able to boot it with Windows and OS X for whatever I may want to run.

And Then There Were Gadgets
While I was away for a good part of last year, gadget makers didn't seem as phased as I imagined they might be without me personally financing them. Take a look at this "Fly" pen-puter for kids, for example. Draw a piano on a piece of paper and then tap the notes and play/record/multitrack a song, just as an example. I bought Mariah one for Christmas, but I'm not sure who's been playing with it more. Or if you were one of the 14 million people that got a new iPod over the holidays, you may want to swing by this site of cool things to do with it. Or if you'd prefer to avoid the bandwagons, maybe check out the new Creative Zen Vision:M. I'm probably not the only one unimpressed with the iPod's lack of support for other video formats and iTunes' lack of conversion ability, after all. Then again, who wants to watch video on a little screen like that anyway - especially when you can watch on this ridiculously awesome 102" Samsung Plasma. Though I think I'd sooner spend the $100,000 on a projector and theatre seating - and lots of popcorn.

Let's All Go To The Lobby
Speaking of movies, there were a few exceptional movies last year, but I think that next year is more exciting. I don't need to tell you I loved the final chapter of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. And both King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia held up under scrutiny, if you can overlook exceedingly long movie runtimes and spotty child acting. But the highlight for me, aside from Star Wars, was the release of some of my favourite shows on to DVD. The Simpsons Season 6 is inside-outside (of the disc) classics, and Season 7 is not far behind. These are the two best seasons the show has had to date. And of course we're up to season 6 in Seinfeld as well, though season 5 has my all time favourite episode - The Marine Biologist. Not to mention Family Guy Season 4 and others. The girls in Greece somehow (hypnosis?) got me hooked on Desperate Housewives, too, which isn't relevant, but I feel I need to confess.

Music, Sweet Music
There were some excellent new bands last year that I really got into, but the latest development for me is podcasts. I've finally gotten around to it and I have a few podcasts to recommend. Wait, what's a podcast, you ask? Well, it's basically a show that someone puts together (like a radio show broadcast) that you can skip past boring parts, songs you don't like, and still get to experience some new music or audio. And you don't need an iPod to do it, contrary to popular belief, you can actually tune in with just a PC or any portable MP3 player. My favourite two, for the moment are CBC Radio 3, chock full of new Candian music, and the Ricky Gervais Show, Ricky being a hilarious British guy (creator/star of The Office and Extras) and the show being a talkshow. I must be getting old. But of course, you know I'm going to list some music I've just gotten into last year, so without further hoopla: Andrew Bird (mellow rocker), The Decemberists (mariner-sounding rock folk), Kaiser Chiefs (tasty as Franz Ferdinand, only half the popularity), Beulah (listen to Yoko first), Sigur Ros (Radiohead play Iceland), Arcade Fire (OK, so that was 2004, still... Canada plays rock), and a bunch of others (Dean gets lazy).

And so there you have 2005. Now I'm off to start working on the 2006 collection. Wish me luck!
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