I have been meaning to make a post about each of these things, but I never seem to get around to it. So, here are five recommendations that have absolutely nothing to do with one another:

1. Peel
If you read my review of the “Best Things to Happen to Music in 2006” you may remember my praise for a program called Songbird. As an mp3 blog aggregator, Peel kicks Songbird’s butt. Basically you plug in the url of the mp3 blogs you listen to and then you can play the mp3’s through Peel. It begs the question: how long until iTunes has this built in functionality? Download Peel while it is still free!

2. TextWrangler
I recently found the need to make changes to the .htaccess files on my server. To the 0.001% of you who may need to do this, I recommend TextWrangler because it allows you to open and save .htaccess files on a Mac. Since files with a “.” at the beginning of their name are invisible on a Mac, this is the best way I have found to work with them. It also lets you open and save files directly to your server.

3. Midlake
Midlake’s “Trials of Van Occupanther” is the cd that I have had on constant rotation for several weeks now. Rather than try to describe their sound, listen to this mp3 called Roscoe. Great stuff. I also saw the band in concert in Denver, but wasn’t as impressed. They got caught in a snow storm so they were playing without a sound check. It also seemed like they might have had a little too much alcohol or other substances before they got on stage. Still a decent live show, but the cd is what really knocked my socks off.

4. MediaTemple
I have left 1and1 and their cheap prices in search of a more reliable hosting company. So far so good, and I recommend MediaTemple for anyone looking for a web hosting company. The grid server strategy is an unique approach to the limitations that come with traditional shared hosting packages.

5. Audio Hijack
If you are on a Mac there is a great application called Audio Hijack that allows you to record any sound from any program on your computer. This comes in handy when you want to rip an mp3 from a streaming internet source or if you want to rip music off a dvd or video file. It isn’t free, but $16 is pretty cheap for what it does.

If this link hasn’t made it to your computer yet you need to check it out. There are 7 tracks for download from a mysterious “Dylan Hears a Who” album. Is it really Dylan’s lost record? No, but it might as well be. This is probably the best parody site you will ever see. Whoever they got to do the vocals has his Bob Dylan impersonation down to a science. The seven mash-up tracks take some obscure dylan songs (I can’t pin it down) over which the Dylan imposter sings Dr. Seuss lyrics. The production is seamless and I bet you could fool 99% of the people who hear this that they are actually listening to the actual Dylan. Whoever did this went all out with two tracks that last well over ten minutes! The amazing thing is that this music actually works! Dr. Suess has never sounded more profound. It almost makes you wish that this were real, and maybe, just maybe Dylan could have actually pulled this off.

If the music itself isn’t convincing enough there is cover art, an insert, and a cd label to go with it. The attention to detail on the design is as amazing as the music. This is as authentic as you could get without it being real. Simply amazing.

I watched the movie Magnolia last night and (spoiler alert) afterwards I decided to do a little research on the phenomenon of raining frogs. As unfathomable as it seems, like the kid in the movie says, “this is something that happens.” There are many accounts of strange things raining down from the sky. Frogs, fish, crabs, blood, flesh, alligators and other non-rain things have been reported to fall from the sky from Biblical times all the way to the present day. There is no real explanation for this kind of event and it is really hard to believe that it really happens.

I probably wouldn’t have posted about this at all, but I came accross some reports that describe a rain of corn that happened in Evans, Colorado. I found this interesting because I live in Evans, Colorado! The account from about.com says “From about 1982 to 1986, kernels of corn have rained down on several houses in Evans, Colorado… Oddly, there were no cornfields in the area that might account for the phenomenon.” Another website quotes Gary Bryan, a local resident as saying “I’d probably have a ton of it if I picked it all up.” The article goes on to say that “once in a while a pinto bean appear(ed) amid the corn.”

I find it kind of odd that Evans experienced the corn rain over a four year period from 1982-1986. Was it once a year? Were the same people reporting it? Was it during a particular season? Unfortunately I couldn’t find much solid documentation. In today’s video phone atmosphere it would be great to get some footage of an event like that.

Could it happen again? We definitely get some weird weather here, just check out the view from my backyard of this enormous cloud from last summer:

As far as I know, this cloud didn’t generate any corn rain, but I will definitely keep a close watch of the future storms here in Evans! If I am lucky I can catch it on video and then people might just believe me!

You may know that I write for a graphic design blog called Be A Design Group. One of the dying features of that site is the “Recommended Music” section in the sidebar. It started out as full music reviews and then when I lost the ambition to write entire articles it became a link to the reviews on Amazon. In anticipation of the next version of Be A Design Group where music will no longer be a part of the site, I have moved all my posts onto Adrian3. You can view the entire “I Like This Music” archive here. Hopefully I can get back into writing some music reviews and sharing the music I am listening too.

As I look back at the reviews I wrote, most of the albums are still in my regular rotation. If you haven’t checked out the following, I recommend the highly:

In the Reins, by Calexico and Iron and Wine
Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, by The Eels
Songs For Silverman, By Ben Folds
Woman King, by Iron and Wine
Out of the Shadow, by Rogue Wave
Chutes Too Narrow, by The Shins
Rubber Factory, by The Black Keys

Next time you’re out shopping for records or tapes — watch for pirates. Not the kind with skull and crossbones and rusty cutlasses - watch for music pirates. There are plenty of them around and, like their 18th Century colleagues, they’re breaking the law, to the tune of $200 million a year.

The modern pirates’ racket is duplicating and selling sound recordings that don’t belong to them, usually as a tape cassette or an eight-track cartridge. Their income goes right into their own pockets. While many recording artists have actively engaged in promoting the fight against antipiracy by appearing before state legislatures and acting as witnesses in court cases, Jerry Lee Lewis has taken the bull by the horns.

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