Good Morning K-Mart shoppers. It’s a bright, sunny day outside. Wonderful spring morning. I think spring and fall are the best times of the year. It’s not too cool but it’s not too hot either. Just right. Totally vibing with the ipod this morning. Let’s get to it.

Playlist: Big D Radio – Morning Mix

* I’m going to start noting skips in my playlist recaps. It kind of helps me gauge how much me and the ipod are vibing on a given day.*

• Skip
• Skip
• Like I Love You – Justin Timberlake – Justified
  Memphis represent!!!! Perfect song to start the morning. I was a dancing fool in the shower when this came on. Can’t wait til dude’s next album drops.

• Two Step (Live) – Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Live at Luther College
  Two Step is probably my favorite live DMB song. The key word there is live. I don’t know why but I was never really feeling the studio version. It’s a nice song on record but never really blew me away. That was before I started experiencing Dave and company live. What?!?!? Two Step is off the hook. I’ve purchased several live concert recordings in addition to downloading fan recordings of their shows online (thanks to DMB’s fairly liberal live taping policy). Two Step is a repeated standout in my mind at each show. The two DMB concerts I’ve been able to attend to date have further reinforced that.
• A Kiss Without Commitment (UK Bonus Track) – Daniel Bedingfield – Second First Impression
  I seriously wonder if Daniel is living in my head sometimes because his songs really strike a cord with me. His tracks are tight from a purely musical standpoint (which I have mad respect for) but he’s also on point in the lyrical department. This song is a prime example of both of those areas.
• Steam Will Rise – Silverchair – Neon Ballroom
• Wishing Never – The Alpha Conspiracy – Aura
  Not much to say about this track. I always enjoy it when it plays. Just another one of those random iTunes gems I stumbled upon one day. One of these days I’m gonna have to do some hardcore digging on The Alpha Conspiracy.
• Everlong (Acoustic) - Foo Fighters –
  Random live recording of Dave Grohl playing Everlong on the Howard Stern radio show of all places that I found out on the web.
• Hand In Hand – Hanson – This Time Around
  I won’t rehash my respect (dare I say love?) for Hanson again except to say check out their two studio releases (This Time Around and Underneath) since the major pop success of MMMBOP and Middle of Nowhere. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
• Section – The Roots – Illadelph Halflife
• Soul Power – James Brown – Star Time (Disc 3)
• Warehouse – Dave Matthews Band – Smirnoff Music Centre 9/3/2005 –
  Another gem from the show that wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had actually taken that roadtrip.
• Only One – Yellowcard – Ocean Avenue –
  Great song to listen to on a nice spring morning like today. Thoughts of a new person in your life floating through your mind. Nice. Nearly missed my turn off to work this morning thanks to this song and said thoughts.

That’s it. Cool list huh? Folks think I’m crazy but I’m developing a theory on Apple and the 5th Generation iPod with Video. This is my 3rd iPod in about a year and a half time frame so I have a bit of experience with the devices. I swear me and my 5G are on same the wavelength sometimes which makes me wonder if there isn’t some super secret brain wave attenuator built into the device or something. My old 2G and 3G didn’t have this theoretical device. The theory is still being developed but that’s the basic hypothesis. Maybe an email to ThinkSecret is in order to see if they can get their hound dogs on that.

No huge revelations or cosmic wavelength connections from this morning’s mix. To be honest I skipped the first 7 songs it chose to play because I just wasn’t feeling them at the time. It’s nice to see the ipod seems to have gotten off of the Tuesday “Love” theme it’s been on the last two weeks. The first week it foreshadowed doom. Last week, not so much but you never want to get stuck in a rut.

Playlist – Big D Radio – Morning Mix

• My Name Is Jonas - Weezer – Weezer
• Talk - Coldplay – X & Y
• Take Me Away (Into The Night) - 4 Strings – Believe
• Reborn - Rebecca St. James
• I’ll Be There For You/You’re All I Need To Get By - Mary J. Blige & Method Man – I’ll Be There For You
  Great song. I remember the first time I heard this song and saw the video. I have mixed feelings about videos. Once you see a video in conjunction with a song, the visuals are firmly implanted in your mind. The two are linked pretty much forever at least for me. I’m very visually and obviously audio oriented. Music videos are an audio-visual medium. I like videos because they’re fun and artistic (that’s the high level ideal of them at least). I don’t like videos because they tend to be an artistic representation of what the director or the band or even the record company draws from the lyrics or wants to promote etc. I don’t want someone else’s visual perception of the music I like implanted in my head. Part of the fun of reading or listening to/creating music for me is coming up with my own visuals in my head. That’s the other half of the equation. Listening to the music/reading the book and getting lost in the world that they invoke in my mind completes the experience. The book or music provides the framework or jumping off point for exploration. My imagination fills in the rest. Movies are a little bit different for me. I really, really enjoy movies. I enjoy getting enveloped in someone else’s world for a short period of time. Ultimately though I have no control over the experience outside of watching or not watching. That’s why I’ve always dreamt of making my own movies and seeing my own vision up on the big screen. I’m way off topic though so I’ll reign it back in a bit. The video for this track and the actual track are imbedded in my mind but I think that’s a good thing because the two meld so well. I think it helps that the first time I heard the song and saw the video were one in the same.

• Southernplaylisticadillacmuzik – Outkast
  This is the first Outkast song I ever heard. I knew immediately that these dudes were different and represented a sound or an approach to making music that I’d never experienced before. I also remember thinking I can’t believe they’re playing this on our crappy military radio station.
• Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson – History (Disc 1)
• Chi-City – Common – Be
• Do Not Move – David Crowder Band – A Collision Is Coming Ep
• How Many Mics – The Fugees – The Score
  Not my absolute favorite track of an incredible album but probably 5th or 6th in my top tracks list.

There’s a new letter from the chairman in my inbox. I haven’t read it yet but it’s usually good for a chuckle or two as evidenced by the previous one.

redbull,
originally uploaded by Okiboy14.

Today’s work day has been sponsored by Red Bull. It gives you wings but it needs to come with some toothpicks to prop your eyes open as well (Tom and Jerry style). That would be helpful on days like today where sorry folks like me only got 2 hours of sleep and are using the drink as liquid fuel to get them through the day.

To avoid the brief Red Bull induced coma I put myself in a few years ago I limited myself to only 3 of them today.

Brazil’s World Cup Secret – Plenty of sex – So that’s the secret I’ve been missing all these years.

It’s a brutiful day in the neighborhood! Today appears to be shaping up to be a wonderful spring day. Wish they’d let us work outside on days like this. This morning’s mix was darn near perfect. It matched my mood step for step from more mellow reflective material as I woke up and started shaking out the cobwebs to a rousing conclusion as I pulled into the parking lot at work. Let’s get to it shall we?

Playlist: Big D Radio – Morning Mix

• Have You Got It In You – Imogen Heap – Speak For Yourself

• Take Me Away (Into the Night) - 4 Strings – Believe
• What You Are – Dave Matthews Band – Everyday
• Be My Friend (Michael Gray Remix) – Scape ft. D’Empress
• Fallin’ - Alicia Keys – Unplugged
• Over My Head (Cable Car) – The Fray – How to Save a Life
  I don’t listen to the radio much any more (thanks to my ipod) and I don’t watch as much music television (MTV, VH-1, etc.) as I used to so I’m kind of late on The Fray. I just happened to catch a clip of this song at the tail end of some show I channel surfed to on VH-1 a while back. It sounded familiar but I couldn’t pinpoint where I’d heard it before. Probably over the PA/Muzak system at a store or something. Anyway I just knew that I liked it. It’s pretty catchy. So I did a little research on the web. Came across folks comparing these dudes to Coldplay and stuff. Um…. not so much. Other than a lead singer with a kind of higher pitched tenor voice and some piano sprinkled in here and there I just don’t see the Coldplay references. Maybe that’s just me. I’m obviously biased in the Coldplay area. Anyway I bought the album off of iTunes and am very happy with it for what it is. It’s just nice music. I wasn’t blown away or overly impressed or whatever. It’s just nice.
• Velvet Morning (Beach Vibe Mix) - Kyau vs. Albert – Here We Are Now
  This is a fairly mellow dance track. It’s almost chillout but not quite. I guess laid back would best describe it. Beach Vibe Mix is a great label as this song definitely takes me back my days on the Rock (Okinawa). As a brotha I’m was never really into the whole beach thing but I’m definitely feeling the island vibe. Things can’t help but take a more mellow, relaxed feel when you’re surrounded by beautiful beaches, palm trees, and island breezes even in a hustly, bustly place like Japan. I guess that’s why all the mainlanders (folks from mainland Japan) came(come) down there to get away.
• AddictionKanye West – Late Registration
  I personally feel that this is one of the strongest tracks (production/sample wise) on this entire album. I like the sample ‘Ye used and the surrounding instrumentation. I’m also feeling what he’s talking about. The first couple of lines of the chorus: Why everything that’s supposed to be bad make me feel so good? Everything they told me not to is exactly what I would. Man I tried to stop man, I tried the best I could… brings to mind Romans 7:14-25. Paul talks about being a slave to sin and “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” I don’t know if that’s where Kanye was coming from when he made this song but that’s the vibe I get from it.
• Gotta Get Through This - Daniel Bedingfield – Gotta Get Thru This
  Yeah this is a repeat from yesterday. At first glance you would think that this would put a dent in my new, highly touted, smart playlist scheme but in the ipod’s defense this song is a duplicate in my iTunes library. I’ve got Daniel’s last name spelled wrong in the ID3 tag and ended up putting the song in multiple times. Chalk that one up to user error. I always tell people computers, software, etc. only do what we tell/program them to do. Garbage in, garbage out. That’s easily corrected though. It’s never bad to hear one of your theme songs repeated though.
• Simple Things - Zero 7 – Simple Things
• Dare (Soulwax Remix) - Gorillaz – Dare (Single)
• I’m Just A Bill – School House Rock –
  We’ve already covered my love of School House Rock and this segment in particular. Favorite part of the song is at the very end where Bill says “Oh Yes!”. Classic. I’ve always thought he said Oh Yeah at the end but it’s actually Oh Yes. Learn something new every day.
• What Up Gangsta – 50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin’
  This is 50 at his best I feel. Catchy hook/chorus. Great beat. It’s a real head nodder (as the folks in the lane next to me at the stop light discovered). It’s the 50 Cent formula. He had it working in spades on Get Rich but seemed to let it slip a bit on The Massacre. I haven’t really sat down and dissected The Massacre but that’s my observation from the periphery. Seems like his hunger is waning a bit now that he’s reached the top.
• Numb Encore (Seven Radio Cut) – Jay-Z & Linkin Park – Numb Encore CDM
  Folks have been going a bit overboard with the whole mashup thing the last couple of years since Dangermouse’s The Grey Album percolated up from the underground to the mainstream. This particular project/mashup (Collision Course) was a match made in heaven though in my eyes. One of my favorite bands combined with an MC I truly respect (a rarity these days). This track is actually a dance mix. Never thought I’d hear Jay-Z sped up on dance tune. He’s not on this specific cut but there are other versions on this CD where Jigga is actually flowing over a dance beat. Hillarious. My personal favorite off the Collision Course album is Izzo/In The End. It’s just too short. Jay-Z and Linkin Park should do a full length album of original material someday. Seriously. That would be bananas!
• Petrified (Doors Remix) – Fort Minor – Fort Minor: We Major
  Take Petrified (Fort Minor’s first single) mix it over a Doors sample loop and you’ve got this track. Very nice. Being a Linkin Park fan and a recently rekindled hip-hop enthusiast I was destined to like Mike Shinoda’s Fort Minor project I guess. If you haven’t already check out The Rising Tied. It’s really good and has received some fairly high praise from major hip-hop heads in the know. Of course having the Jigga-man Executive Produce for you doesn’t hurt. He basically co-signed on this joint signifying that this is some hot sh*t. Now if you really want to get into something check out Fort Minor: We Major the mix tape Mike and Styles of Beyond put out a couple months before Rising Tied came out to help generate buzz. To be honest from a track for track standpoint I think We Major is hotter than Rising Tied. You can cop that over at MixTapekings.com.

I’ve been a little gun shy about doing these since last Tuesday turned into the day from hell shortly after I started typing that one up. But here we go. The ipod and I have been vibing pretty well the last couple days after a fairly rocky end of last week. For a couple of days I just wasn’t feeling what it was choosing to play. This morning started off much as last Tuesday. It looked like the ipod was going for a “love” theme. I thought oh crap. Another Tuesday from hell. That has thankfully not been the case so far.

Playlist: Big D Radio – Morning Mix

• More Than Words (English Version) – Frankie J
  I like this update of the classic Extreme tune. Back in the day I dedicated that song to a girl on the radio. The military radio station on the island sucked for the most part but there weren’t a lot of options as far as music on island back then especially when you had no money. I remember being nervous and scared. The DJ picked up and answered in a much more brisk and abrupt manner than his on air personality would have dictated. I asked for the song and dedicated it to Jennifer. No message or greeting just from Daryl to Jennifer. That was my first and last time calling a radio station to dedicate a song. Maybe I’ll call up a local station here and dedicate this new version to Jennifer just for old time sake. I wonder what ever happened to her and if she was actually listening that day when I requested that song.

• SI-N+R-JE (Original Funaki Mix) – Woody Van Eyden – The Lost World (George Acosta)
• Lonely Heart – Boyz II Men – Cooleyhighharmony
• I Wanna Be Where You Are – Michael Jackson – 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Jackson 5
  This song is credited to just Michael which has me wondering why it’s on a Jackson 5 compilation but who cares. I like it. It’s been stuck in my head all day. Michael’s singing I wanna be where you are in my head when I’m feeling anything but that towards some of the callers I’ve talked to today.
• Munich – Editors – The Back Room
• Here We Go, Let’s Rock & Roll – C + C Music Factory – Gonna Make You Sweat
  This song really takes you back to the Early 90’s.
• Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson – Bad –
  All time favorite MJ tune. Best MJ video of all time as well IMHO.
• Run It! (Remix) (Featuring Bow Wow & Jermaine Dupri) – Chris Brown – Chris Brown
  Folks are tired of this track because it’s been played so much but I like it. Chris Brown has got talent. The new Usher? Not so fast my friend. Sure he can dance and has a great voice but let’s let him get a couple more records under his belt before giving him that title. Time will tell whether brown is the next Usher or the new Tevin Campbell. Remember that dude?
• Clothes Off (Pressure Club Mix) – Digital Dog – Ministry of Sound: The Annual 2006
  Updated dance version of the original. The clip on this compilation is way too short which is typical for dance mixes like this.
• Gotta Get Thru This – Daniel Bedingfield – Gotta Get Thru This
• Tonight, Tonight – Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
  I used to love this entire album (both CDs) but over time I’ve found that most of the songs haven’t held up in my mind. Maybe it’s because I’m just not into the Pumpkins that much any more. A couple songs still stick out as gems in the rough though. This one more for it’s cool video than the actual song itself and 1979 because I just really dug it at the time.
• Papa Don’t Take No Mess – James Brown – Star Time (Disk 4)
  This song always brings a smile to my face. Most James Brown songs do simply because of all the James Brownisms they contain. This one is no different in that respect. My favorite verse though goes as follows: Papa didn`t cuss, He didn`t raise a whole lotta fuss, But when we did wrong, Papa beat the hell out of us. I love that because that was so my Dad when we were little. To be honest though my brother and I were more afraid of Momma than Daddy when it came to punishment. JB needs to release a remix, Momma Don’t Take No Mess, fresh for the ’06. Ya heard?

* Bonus Track *

Only In Dreams - Weezer – Weezer
With the exception of Buddy Holly there is not a song on this album that I don’t love.

Slanket blanket with sleeves – This idea came into my head a year or two ago. It’s sad when you find out that things you come up with have already been done. The book of Ecclesiastes talks about there’s nothing new under the sun. I think the author is right. There is hope though. My vision for this type of product doesn’t quite match their final execution so maybe there’s room for improvement or tweaking. For one thing they need to cut costs. Who want’s to pay $65 bucks for that when, while not nearly as functional, the blanket my momma gave me is free. Improve the design while cutting manufacturing costs and pass the savings on to the customer while still enjoying a tidy profit. Isn’t that the way of business?

How Digg.com is democratizing the news – Seeing as I’m a geek (and proud of it) I obviously enjoy keeping up on the latest in technology. Part of that is to stay current from a professional standpoint but I also enjoy it from a purely personal standpoint. In that respect Digg.com is great. It’s the brainchild of Kevin Rose, über geek and former Tech TV personality. Kevin is the man (the good the man as opposed to the bad The Man). He’s my age, 29, which is cool. He’s technical but seems to understand the other side of technology which is the humans who interact with the darn stuff. Kevin is basically doing the damn thing. I’m basically green with envy but until my hot idea that will revolutionize the technology world hits the market I guess I’ll have to bow at the throne of greatness that is the Kevin Rose empire.

Memphis lost tonight. I’m sort of depressed. I guess that means I’m officially a Memphis Tigers fan now. I was screaming, hollering, extoling, encouraging and just about any other ing you can think of in front of the TV tonight. Props to UCLA. They gutted out another one. It wasn’t pretty but they got it done. Their senior, Hollins, showed up. Our senior, Carney, pretty much disappeared. Memphis picked the wrong time to have their worst game of the year. The numbers don’t lie. 3pts. made 2-17 (.118). Carney 2 for 12 with only 5pts scored. Shawne Williams finally looked like a freshman. 2 for 9. 8 pts. scored. D. Wash had okay point production but wasn’t really the floor general that they needed tonight. Memphis started off tight and stayed that way the whole game. It was sad. Tonight made the difference between a really good season and a magical one. Good luck to UCLA. Unlike Digger Phelps I’m not gonna hate on a team that’s done nothing but win and win and win.