Work pix: Sunset Station

Oh man, what a week. I'm glad it's over. The only easy day I had was yesterday (Thursday), when I had my regular cycle 15, the Alamodome route. I haven't posted any work pix in a while, so here are some I took yesterday around Sunset Station.

Headed toward downtown on Commerce. I tried to take a picture of my own shadow but the sunlight was too diffuse. I'm the long dark shadow in the exact center of the sidewalk.

An engine that is always sitting behind Sunset Station. I guess they use it for something, but it's just sitting there every time I do this route. There are two meters to the right of where I'm standing.

Another shot of the train.

Just past the train, looking south behind the row of restaurants toward the Alamodome. There's another meter inside that fence to the right, and one more farther down where the next fence is, but in a vault outside the fence.

Around the back corner facing the Tower. Two more meters are to my left, just in front of the station building. Another meter on the sidewalk right in front of me.

Today was the first day this week that I finished with dry feet. The waterproofing on my boots has worn out.

Strange, campy, retro, creepy...

...and I like it very much.

The Raveonettes - "Last Dance"

10 albums a day #63

All various artists label samplers, free downloads from Amazon.com. All 2009.

Strut World Music Sampler
Sub Pop Sampler
Tomorrow's Stars from SXSW
Tuff Gong Worldwide World Music Sampler
World Music Network Amazon Sampler
Worn & Grazed: A Park the Van Sampler

Strut: 1/6. Overall: 1.5. Not all that great collection of pop, jazzy tracks, and one that I would call electronic reggae.
Starred artist: Mulatu Astatke.

Sub Pop: 3/11. Overall: 2.3. A not entirely bad collection of alt rock with one rap track that I did not delete in this case because it's funny (by Flight of the Conchords). No longer available.
Starred artists/groups: Blitzen Trapper, Fleet Foxes, Iron & Wine.

SXSW: 5/6. Overall: 3.3. A good collection of alt rock. Unfortunately no longer available.
Starred artists/groups: Anberlin, honeyhoney, Iglu & Hartly, Paper Route (this one sounds like an 80s group), Tyrone Wells.

Tuff Gong: 0/7. Overall: 1. I guess if you are a reggae freak, you'll love it. Otherwise...it's seven songs from the Marley family & friends, headed up by Ziggy.

World Music Network: 1/7. Overall: 1.6. One starred artist: Benjamin Escoriza. This track has a prominent part by something that sounds like a double-reed instrument that I can't idenify.

Park the Van: 0/11. Overall: 1.3. Another totally meh collection of alt rock, with nothing that allows me to recommend it.

And so we have finally come to the end of the digital collection as it stood when I first began this series of posts. I already have a couple of more posts lined up, and will post more as the opportunity and the mood strikes me, and of course I have loads of records yet to rip, and buy new CDs occasionally that I will probably feel the need to mention.

I don't know what the big point of this series is, if there is one. But I have enjoyed methodically working my way through it.

Album count: 640.

10 albums a day #62

All various artist samplers, free downloads from Amazon.com. All 2009.

Nutone Amazon Spring Sampler
One Little Indian Amazon Label Sampler
Open Remix
Real World Amazon Sampler
Ropeadope Label Sampler
Sample the World Through Music
Secretly Canadian Sampler
Six Degrees Free Indian Music Sampler
Stax Sampler for Amazon
Sterns Amazon Sampler

Nutone: 4/8. Overall: 2.5. A good score and a nice collection of mostly pop music from India. Still available but now costs $7.92. Might be worth it if you're looking to get into this stuff.
Starred artists/groups: Jai Uttal, Donna De Lory, Wah!, Reema Datta.

One Little Indian: 3/6. Overall: 2.3. A not bad collection of alt rock. No longer available.
Starred artists/groups: Pieta Brown, Astrid Williamson, Surrounded (hmmm...two different tracks by this group on two different collections).

Open Remix: 0/7. Overall: 1.6. Seven remixes of one basic track. This is a "benefit" album, but I don't know exactly how they "benefit" by giving away a free album. It's still available. This is dance music, some of the remixes are hip-hop(ish), heavy rhythms and such.

Real World: 5/11. Overall: 2.5. A pretty good collection of "world music," although it includes one song from The Blind Boys of Alabama who are from the U.S. I would recommend this one, even if it cost a few bucks, but it's no longer available.
Starred artists/groups: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Joi, Afro Celt Sound System, Peter Gabriel.

Ropeadope: 8/12. Overall: 2.4. This is a good one that suffered from having two rap tracks, which I deleted. Several tracks of just fine jazz, some leaning toward chill, one newgrass (jazz bluegrass) track, and a few alt rockers. Still available, and recommended. All tracks can be downloaded individually so just skip tracks 1 and 9 (the rap tracks). Skip 11 and 12 if you don't want the mediocre alt rock tracks.
Starred artists/groups: Carlon, Bodega, Dred Scott Trio, Fatty Acid, Leo Genovese, Otis Grove, Reut Regev, Cabinet.

Sample the World: 4/8. Overall: 2.8. Another good one of world music. Still available and still free.
Starred artists/groups: Niraj Chag, Sub Swara, Kush Arora. The three tracks by the latter two artists are what I would consider chill or smooth electronica.

Secretly Canadian: 1/8. Overall: 1.8. Mostly mediocre alt rock. One starred artist: Jens Lekman.

Six Degrees: 3/8. Overall: 2.5. Another enjoyable collection of music from India. One deleted track (rap). Still available and free, but you have to download the whole album in one shot.
Starred artists/groups: Cheb I Sabbah, Midival Punditz. I would put all three of these tracks in the chill/smooth electronic category.

Stax: 2/4. Overall: 3. A good but woefully small collection of blues and r&b from the Stax label.
Starred artists: Albert King, Isaac Hayes.

Sterns: 2/12. Overall: 1.6. Spanish-language (or possibly some Portuguese; I can't tell the difference) world music. This one didn't strike me as all that great.
Starred artists/groups: Bembeya Jazz National, Amadou Sodia.

Album count: 634.

10 albums a day #61

All free label sampler downloads from Amazon.com, all 2009.

Eenie Meenie Records.
Eagle Records Live at Montreux.
Dead Oceans Sampler.
Chess Records Black History Month.
Lookout Records: Be On The Lookout!
JDub Records Presents Wild Peace
Jagjaguwar Sampler.
Ioda SXSW Opening Day Bash Sampler.
ESL World Music Sampler.
Emo is Awesome Emo is Evil 2

Eenie Meenie: 4/11. Overall: 1.8. A mostly mediocre collection of alt rock.
Starred artists/groups: Great Northern, Division Day, Golden Boy, Irving.

Eagle: 3/13. Overall: 1.9. Not a good overall score, but there was a wide range of really good and total garbage on this one. Two deleted tracks, both rap. The three really good tracks were so good that I will be more detailed than usual. First is "Frosty" by Albert Collins, a jazzy and bluesy instrumental. Second is "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. Now, the thing that makes me bump this one up a notch isn't because it's a timeless classic [smirk], and not because it's a live version. The cool thing about this one is the jazz piano instrumental that riffs on the theme of the original song and which takes up the first 2 1/4 minutes of this 9-minute version. The piano part should have been longer. The third one is the awesome balled "Angel Eyes" by the great Jeff Healey Band. This one is no longer available, but all the individual artists' live albums from this event are available. This collection is mostly classic rock/pop, r&b and those two rap tracks.

Dead Oceans: 1/5. Overall: 1.6. Mostly meh alt rock. The one starred track is by a group called The Donkeys which sounds kind of like The Grateful Dead.

Chess: 0/3. Overall: 2. This was Amazon's token freebie in honor of "Black History Month." They could have done a much better job. Nothing at all wrong with these three tracks, it just seems like a shoddy effort in today's overly-politically correct world. Also all three tracks fade out at about 2:30; I know these old tracks were generally shorter than songs are now, but they still sound like they are sort of "demo" versions that were faded out before they really finished.

Lookout: 2/9. Overall: 2.2. Another generally unexciting collection of indie punk(ish) and hard(er) rock.
Starred artists/groups: Ted Leo, The Reputation.

JDub: 3/9. Overall 2.4. This is a collection of "world music," which is someone's lame idea for categorizing any music that is created outside of the United States. Therefore, if someone says "world music" they really aren't saying anything because it can mean almost anything (provided, of course, that it was created by someone outside the United States). I think this stuff is mostly from eastern Europe, and it's a nice collection.
Starred artists/groups: Deleon, Golem, Balkan Beat Box.

Jagjaguwar: 2/8. Overall: 1.9. Alt rock, nothing really exciting.
Starred artists/groups: Okkervil River, Parts and Labor.

Ioda: 1/11. Overall: 1.6. More meh alt(ish) rock. Don't really know what to say about it. Nothing really hit me as mentionable, but one starred group: The Phenomenal Handclap Band.

ESL: 3/8. Overall: 2.5. More world music, and not a bad collection with some of what you call "smooth electronica" verging into darkwave (a genre of which I'm becoming more and more of a fan) in here. This one is still available for free.
Starred artists/groups: Thievery Corporation, Ursula 1000, Natalia Clavier.

Emo: 1/15. Overall: 1.6. Well, I had to download this one for my own musical education. It's not completely horrible. Allegedly "emo music." To me it sounds like harder alt/college rock. They still have this one but it costs $4.98 now. Not worth it.
Starred artist: Surrounded.

Album count: 624.

Standby time

Paid to do nothing - Federal news, government operations, agency management, pay & benefits - FederalTimes.com

The U.S. Postal Service, struggling with a massive deficit caused by plummeting mail volume, spends more than a million dollars each week to pay thousands of employees to sit in empty rooms and do nothing.

It’s a practice called “standby time,” and it has existed for years — but postal employees say it was rarely used until this year. Now, postal officials say, the agency is averaging about 45,000 hours of standby time every week — the equivalent of having 1,125 full-time employees sitting idle, at a cost of more than $50 million per year.

This is my favorite part...

Nor can supervisors require employees to brush up on their training. One mail handler in Pennsylvania said a supervisor used to force employees on standby time to read postal manuals.

“The local union shop filed a grievance against the Postal Service,” said the employee, who asked to remain anonymous because of concerns about retaliation. “We’re on standby time, not training time. Standby time is different. ... You can’t make people read training materials on standby time.”

10 albums a day #60

All free downloads from Amazon.com. All various artists.

Badman: Has it Really Been 10 Years? (2008)
Deep Elm Sampler No. 8: Bonfire of Trust (2008)
P is for Panda Mix Tape Vol. 1 (2008)
The End Records Free Sampler (2008)
Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records: The Amazon New Music Digital Sampler (2008)
The Very Best of Naxos Early Music (2008)
Alive Records Sampler (2009)
Anti Sampler (2009)
Arts & Crafts Label Sampler (2009)
Barsuk Records Amazon Digital Sampler (2009)

I've now been through all the Amazon samplers and made brief notes. There's a lot of good music in here. There's also a lot of total meh. So what I did in my notes was to put a star next to the track that I thought sounded good enough to be worthy of further consideration and possibly even eventually buy something by that artist. Therefore, there are two ratings for each album. The first will be presented as a ratio, for example, 3/13, which would mean 3 starred tracks out of 13 total tracks in that collection. The second is an overall album rating on a scale from 0 to 5 (based on an average system of my own devise, with 0 meaning a track got deleted and 5 being almost impossible to attain--anything that reaches 3 or even rounds off to 3 means I think overall it's pretty good).

Badman: 4/12. Overall: 2.2. Mostly folky alt rock, but not especially remarkable.
Starred artists/groups: lanterna, Starf*cker, James William Hindle, Mark Mallman.

Deep Elm: 5/16. Overall: 2.3. A mix of country-ish rock and Americana.
Starred artists/groups: Ride Your Bike, Desoto Jones, Moving Mountains, 500 Miles to Memphis, Track A Tiger.

Panda: 7/16. Overall: 2.8. An overall rating of 2.8 puts this one fairly high up on this particular scale (trust me). This is a good one. I think that it's not longer free, but it is available and really cheap, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes that music that wanders across the genres of Americana and folky countryish rock.
Starred artists/groups: Josh Moore (has a Toad the Wet Sprocket flavor), Pasadena, J.R. Rund and the Holdup, Gasoline Heart (lead singer sounds like Springsteen, but don't hold that against him), Damion Suomi.

The End: 7/16. Overall: 2.7. Another fairly high overall rating makes this an interesting collection, at least for me. The End Records apparently specializes in metal of all sorts, and I found it an interesting exercise to look up all the sub-genres that these groups are categorized in and see how the metal genre has exploded since the mid-80s. Another one I would recommend for anyone who wants a snapshot overview of many of the different sounds that all fall under the "metal" genre. I especially enjoy the tracks that fall under what is called "power ambient" or "drone metal." It's like darkwave (or dark ambient) that has been supercharged with the energy and instrumentation of metal. These groups are bolded below. Unforunately this sampler is no longer available.
Starred artists/groups: Lordi, Nadja, Jarboe, Aqua de Annique, Ulver, Agolloch, Kosmos.

Vanguard: 4/5. Overall: 3.6. A small but excellent sampler of Americana music. Unfortunately no longer available.
Starred artists/groups: Matt Nathanson, The Watson Twins, The Duhks, Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson (wife & husband duo).

Naxos: 12/12. Overall: 4. A "4" means get this one by all means. This is a collection of very early music, both choral and instrumental, and if you like very early music then you will love this collection. It's still available, and it's still free.

Alive: 0/8. Overall: 1. Total meh. None of them actually deleted but just forget about this one. Alive Records publishes "lo-fi" music that sounds quite raw and unpolished, but that isn't what I hold against them. The songs themselves are just nothing to get excited about.

Anti: 11/13. Overall: 3.6. The overall rating from this one suffered because of one deleted track: a rap piece by NASA. Other than that this is a really good collection of alt rock. No longer available.
Starred artists/groups: Neko Case, Booker T., Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Jason Lytle, Bob Mould, Westbound Train, William Elliot Whitmore, Bettye Lavette, Michael Franti, Mavis Staples, Jolie Holland.

Arts & Crafts: 5/15. Overall: 2.4. A mostly mediocre collection of alt rock. Still available but now costs $8.99.
Starred artists/groups: Gentleman Reg, Amy Millan, Timber Timer, The Bell Orchestre, Charles Spearin.

Barsuk: 2/8. Overall: 1.8. More alt rock, and not a very good collection in my opinion.
Starred artists/groups: Rah Rah Riot, Mates of State.

Album count: 614.

10 albums a day #59

The Rolling Stone Collection: 25 Years of Essential Rock (7 CD boxed set)

I know that I have several, perhaps many, albums that someone, somewhere at some time originally ordered from a TV commercial. However, there are only three that I can think of that I so ordered myself: a Mamas & the Papas CD, Freedom Rock, and this one. I remember that it didn't seem too expensive for such a large set,* and I thought it might help expand my own knowledge of rock history and fill in some blanks.

The reader should note that this is not a collection of the greatest hits from 1967 to 1992. It is a collection of what the Rolling Stone critics and editors believe are "essential rock." Caveat emptor.

It is an interesting journey through rock history. Many of these songs are by famous artists, but they are not necessarily songs that that artist is most famous for. Like I said, it's not a collection of the biggest radio hits.

The booklets with the CDs have a lot of information on the songs and artists, although skewed by Rolling Stone group-think and over-gushery.** I think this might be a good collection for a newbie who wants to learn more about how rock got where it is today (or at least where it was in the early 90s), but for the old-timers it would be pretty much useless.

I suppose since this is a boxed set I can't count it as 7 albums. So, it only counts for 1.

Album count: 604.

*A commenter at Amazon says it retailed for $100 when it was first released. No way did I pay that much for it. I think I paid around $40. Also, the other commenter there obviously 1) did not listen to the whole collection, and 2) wasn't paying attention to the description when he ordered it.

**I made that term up. I don't know how else to put it. It means: when someone says all kinds of cool things about something because they can't think of anything intelligent to say about it.

Well, I guess that's settled, then...

Wikipedia:

Plagal cadence: IV to I, also known as the "Amen Cadence" because of its frequent setting to the text "Amen" in hymns. However, William Caplin disputes the existence of plagal cadences: "An examination of such a cadence rarely exists...In as much as the progression IV-I cannot confirm a tonality (it lacks any leading tone resolution), it cannot articulate formal closure. Rather, this progression is normally part of a tonic prolongation serving a variety of formal functions - not, however a cadential one. Most examples of plagal cadences given in textbooks actually represent a postcadential codetta function: that is, the IV-I progression follows an authentic cadence but does not itself create genuine cadential closure."

A few days ago I slapped together a big "favorites" playlist for Winamp, and have been listening through it to see what I should delete or add. Just heard "Diggy Diggy Lo" by Doug Kershaw. The song ends, and suddenly there's this weird unresolved sub-dominant (IV) chord tacked on at the end, which made me do a mental WTF?

I remembered the IV-I cadence was called the plagal cadence, not from college, because I don't think I ever heard the term there, but from much earlier when I was learning music theory at a summer church music camp.

I'm almost certain I've never seen a real plagal cadence used in any hymn, and I'm pretty sure it's frowned upon in classical music theory. I've only seen it used in a tacked-on "amen" at the end of a hymn, and which no gospel singing group or congregation that I've been part of has ever actually sung--it's just ignored. Classical theory--which is also used for traditional hymn composition--insists upon a closing "authentic" or "perfect" cadence, V to I (dominant to tonic).

So what's this all about? Nothing really. Except I'm going to have to figure out some way to work that phrase "postcadential codetta function" into a conversation sometime.

10 albums a day #58

Various artists.

The Enigma Variations 2 (1987, CD)
The Finest Hours of U.S. 60s Punk (undated, mono LP)
The Glory of Gershwin (1994, CD)
Theodore: An Alternative Music Sampler (1990, CD)
Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin (1991, CD)
Until the End of the World Soundtrack (1991, CD)

Getting more or less toward the end now, and what's left is going to be treated a little more specifically, so only six this time.

The Enigma Variations 2 was one of those cheap label samplers that used to turn up in the olden days (maybe they still do, I don't know). This was one of my favorites of this kind of collection, and was from the now-defunct Enigma record label. I could have bought albums from almost every artist/group in this collection, but most of them never turned up at Hastings. I might still hunt some of them down someday. Some that I went on to buy albums from because of this sampler: Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper, The Dead Milkmen, Agent Orange, Don Dixon. One song from the Milkmen really cracked me up, called "The Thing that Only Eats Hippies." "Now it's got a sweet tooth for long hair/So Bob and Greg and Grant you'd best beware..." That's a reference to the members of Husker Du. The other one is also funny, the poignant love song "Stupid Maryann." "Maryann/Can't you understand/I wanna be your man/Oh, stupid Maryann." Epic! Other artists from this one that I would like to track down: Peter Hammill, Plan 9, Wire, TSOL.

The Glory of Gershwin was a tribute to the Gershwin brothers, with pop artists covering many of their famous songs. I bought it just so I would have "The Man I Love" done by Kate Bush. Some of the other artists included are Peter Gabriel, Sting, Elton John, Carly Simon, Elvis Costello, and Meat Loaf. Sixteen tracks in all. Some of the artists I could do without (Cher, John Bon Jovi), but overall it's a decent album.

The Theodore CD was another label sampler that is also quite good, ignoring a couple of more or less rap tracks (Public Enemy, 3rd Bass). It has a few artists that I was already familiar with (Kate Bush, Indigo Girls, Psychedelic Furs, Big Audio Dynamite), but there were two groups that I discovered on this one that I went on to buy albums from: Poi Dog Pondering and--most importantly--Toad the Wet Sprocket. There's another group called Nuclear Valdez that I kept an eye out for, but to no avail. Another one I might try to track down sometime. By the way, I knew a couple of people who were big B.A.D. fans, but I never could figure out why.

Two Rooms, as the title states, was a tribute to Elton John and his song writer Bernie Taupin. I bought it just so I would have Kate Bush's version of "Rocket Man" (her version has a sort of reggae beat). Overall I think it's a decent album. Some of the artist/song combinations seem a little, I don't know, clichéd, maybe. Like Rod Stewart doing "Your Song." But some of the songs seem made for these alt versions, like The Who with "Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting," The Beach Boys with "Crocodile Rock" and Oleta Adams with "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me." I think I could have gone my whole life without having to hear John Bon Jovi belt out "Levon." Whew. Man, he must have missed the lesson on dynamics. But like I said, overall an okay collection. Oh yeah, and I must admit that I like Wilson Phillips' version of "Daniel."

I bought the Until the End of the World soundtrack for one song: "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears" by Julee Cruise. At that time, Cruise had released only one album and I was hungry for more. This album turned out to be an unexpected favorite. Overall, the music has a very dreamy feel. I should note that I've never seen the movie. Maybe I should get it from Netflix just so I know what the music is about. It has 19 tracks with some famous names like Talking Heads, R.E.M., Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, U2, etc.

Album count: 603.