Recently in Listening/Watching Category

I'm really looking forward to the new Depeche Mode album, Sounds of the Universe, which releases on April 20th. The early single Wrong is classic but modern, and the video is perfectly dark.

Opera surprise

For a while, I've stored my music in to PGPdisk folders, each mounted into an NTFS sub-directory. Originally, primary music files went in one folder, and secondary files went in the other folder. Like many good intentions, this setup didn't last long once I ran out of space in my primary folder, and started using the secondary folder for overflow.

This worked well enough, but I wanted to change it, for a couple of reasons. First, I'm trying to get away from PGPdisk and move all my encrypted file systems to TrueCrypt, for long-term flexibility and cost savings. Secondly, I wanted a single, large area for all my music, so I didn't have to remember (or search for) where a particular artist might be located.

Monday, I did some research, and found this site: HOWTO: Move your iTunes music while preserving library data. The description seemed very straightforward, so I went to work.

First, I created a single, 105gb TrueCrypt volume. At some point I want to move this volume to an external disk drive, and wanted it to fit even if I went with a 120gb drive. I only have 70gb of music now, so it also gave me a big chunk of space to grow into. TrueCrypt is good - very good - but it takes a while to create, encrypt, and format a 105gb volume, especially one stored on a network drive. I started on Monday afternoon, and it took about 16 hours to finish.

On Tuesday, I copied the files from my current PGPdisk folders onto the new TrueCrypt volume. This took about three hours total. Later that afternoon, I created a backup of my iTunes folder per the instructions.

This morning, I copied the XML and ITL files to my Linux box. I substituted the new file location in the XML file, and zeroed out the ITL files, also per the instructions. I copied the updated files back to my Windows system, and started up iTunes.

iTunes started, but didn't display anything. I watched for a while on the Task Manager and saw it was working on something, but no status bar was displayed (contrary to the instructions). After fifteen minutes or so, I got a dialog box saying my ITL file was corrupted, had been saved, and was then rebuilt. I spent a few minutes poking around in iTunes to make sure it was reading from the new location.

Everything looks good so far. I had no real podcast subscriptions, so losing them is not a big deal. All my custom play lists are intact, and everything appears in order. Fry's has a 250gb external drive for $99 - I'll probably head out there on Thursday to check it out.

The Tivo in the family room came with 75 hours of recording time, which seemed like a lot at the time. Over the years everyone put in the shows they wanted to record, and with some proper maintenance we made everything fit.

With the new season upon us, we had hit the limits. First, we started recording Rachael Ray every day, so we can burn it to DVD and send it to Cindy. Between the four of us, we also started recording a lot of the new shoes, to see if they're worth watching. We still record a few things for Jason to watch when he comes over, too - Bill Maher, Kings programming. Add it all up, and we were overextended.

The solution: a Tivo upgrade from Weakness.com. They sent a new 160gb — the largest that would go in without an OS upgrade — along with a new mounting bracket, new quiter fans, cabling, tools, the work. It took me about an hour to do the upgrade - I worked slowly to make sure the existing programming wasn't lost or damaged - and I'll admit to more than a little trepidation when I plugged it in after the upgrade. It came up without a hitch, and the System Information screen showed a new total capacity of 207 hours, give or take.

The first DVD writer from Newegg was DOA, and the replacement isn't expected until Friday at the earliest. With the new capacity, and the ability to burn off some of the older shows (along with weekly dumps of Cindy's Rachael Ray shows), we should be good to go for the foreseeable future.

A classic.

Ken Jennings paid the price for doing his own taxes, and maybe for a little hubris in his two incorrect Daily Double questions in Double Jeopardy, losing to a real estate agent from Ventura on last night's show. It was a good run. I think I'll take a few weeks off - it won't be the same without Ken at the right-side podium.

Update:The real estate agent lost in her first game as champion.

Here's an audio clip of the Final Jeopardy answer: Listen

I've been enjoying the documentary series Long Way Round, where Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman, along with their cameraman Claudio, ride east from London to far east Russia, then from Alaska to New York. It makes me long for a nice, extended ride - minus the icy river crossings.

The series is broadcast here on Bravo, but I prefer the British version available as a torrent from digitaldistractions - it's in HDTV format, the trip is spread over seven episodes instead of the six shown on Bravo, and the commercials are removed.

Here's my copy of the Long Way Round eBook: Download file.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Grosse Pointe Blank. John Cusack plays a hit man who winds up at his ten-year high school reunion. Anyway, the kids and I have watched it maybe 40 or 50 times. A few years ago, one of the Starz channels ran the same three movies over and over again for a week. We must have watched GPB 20 times the week it was in the rotation.

We know the movie so well, we'll quote random lines as part of day-to-day live. If I have trouble opening up the front door, Justin will tell me "you can't come in', using the bad Jamaican accent that Minnie Driver used in the movie.

Lately, Justin and I had an argument about one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Rival hitman Grocer (Dan Ackroyd) meets up with Blank (Cusack) in the local diner, with no love lost between them. As Blank is explaining something, Grocer says either: "Clip your string, Chatty Kathy, I don't need to know" [this is Justin's version], or "Chatty Kathy, clip your string, I don't need to know" [my recollection].

The argument escalated to the point that I needed proof, so I setup the DVD with captions, and paused it at the right spot:

I rest my case.

Jason, Carole, and I went to the Laemmle in Pasadena to see Before Sunset.

After Jennie and Janet left on Sunday, I went to see Kill Bill Vol. II at the new Edwards in Alhambra with Jason and Jeremy.

I squirmed a little when Bea crushed Elle's eye ball with her toes. Not because I'm squeamish - far from it - but because we all knew that there were at least two kids in the theater, both 8 or younger, accompanied by their parents.

Why can't there be an R-13 rating: no one under 13 allowed, even with their idiot parents or guardians?

The girl who plays B.B. is fantastic.

I found at the bottom of the video cabinet, and knew it had to be. I made it to shaka-buku, a "swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever" before it was time to go.

They cancelled my appointment on April 12th with staffing problems.

Seriously good stuff.

calendarlive.com: Original story

Diana Krall has a new CD on the way and a new collaborator: husband Elvis Costello.

By Don Heckman, Special to The Times

April 13 2004

It's only noon, but Diana Krall looks weary.

Curled up on a couch in a room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, she smiles wanly, noting that she is well into the third week of publicity events for her new album and is eager to get back to her music.

"Talking about yourself," she says, with characteristic candor, "can get very boring after a while. You start digressing, forget what you said to who. I'll just be glad when I'm playing again."

Krall always has been a determinedly private person, as protective of her personal life a decade ago, at the start of her career, as she is now. But publicity, by definition, demands revelatory information and her marriage to pop star Elvis Costello in December has generated precisely the questions she most dislikes.

A two-song teaser for the upcoming album The Girl In The Other Room, this is a nice step back from the commercially focused over-lushness of the last studio album. The title track is an old Tom Waits tune, well played by the band with a heavy bass line that overextends the pathetic factory speakers in my car.

Dutch pink and Italian blue
he is waiting there for you
my will has disappeared
now my confusion's oh so clear

I couldn't get my normal 6:30am appointment - 9:30 was all they had. After a quick hour of face time at the office, I got to the Red Cross a couple of minutes late.

The cute nurse from last time checked me in - gave me the best finger poke I've ever had. (Doesn't that sound lurid?) The finger poke is usually the worst part of donating. My BP was still too high at 142/90, but the combination of exercising, walking, and dumping the Hyzaar has me feeling a lot better overall. I should talk it over with the doctor.

I watched the first half of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The guy had just stolen the slave's heart when I was through. A lot of people think this is the weakest of the three, and the reason I hear most is that the Willie (Kate Capshaw) character isn't the strong-willed heroine of the other two films. There may be something to that, but I've always thought it was deserving of its place in the series.

Temple of Doom is also famous as the instigator of the PG-13 rating. Before its release in 1984, ratings jumped straight from PG to R (maybe M at that time). The heart removal scenes caused such a fuss that the MPAA instituted the PG-13 rating.

• Old Time Radio - Jack Benny, George Burns, westerns, dramas...

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line

I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you
Because you're mine, I walk the line

As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I've known proves that it's right
Because you're mine, I walk the line

You've got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can't hide
For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide
Because you're mine, I walk the line

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line

Johnny Cash

• School of Rock soundtrack
• Diary of Alicia Keys
• Blink 182
• Hank Williams, Sr.
• Johnny Cash
• Weakerthans
• Eels

The kids and I went to see Return of the King this afternoon. We'd made arrangements to meet Mandy and her dad at the Hastings - Jeremy got there first, so we all went in on his coattails.

The movie lived up to its reviews - an old-fashioned epic, where the action is used to highlight the universal truths about love, friendship, and honor.

A kid in the row behind jabbered through the whole movie. His parents and I exchanged dirty looks on the way out of the theater. It's not the kid's fault - his parents need to teach him that it's inconsiderate to disturb so many people's viewing pleasure, and that questions and comments can really wait until the end of the movie.

Mandy's dad seemed nice - apparently a big movie fan. We all bemoaned the crummy seats at the Hastings; a 3+ hour movie raises the punishment level on your back to neo-medieval in scope.