(lights off a firecracker)

2008:
1,565,266 total published words from 4,763 posts
12,402 comments

Wow, here we are and it seemed like yesterday that I published the first post, 4,762 posts ago. If you look at the monthly post counts along the right of the home page, you’ll see the writing has slowed somewhat this year, but I’m feeling good about the quality of posts being published. It’s a different blogging world than it was in 2003.

What the numbers above don’t show are the 77,835 total unpublished words from 318 unpublished posts. These numbers continue to rise with each passing year and one of the biggest things that makes me go hmm is what to do with these posts. Someday hopefully they can be published in some form or another. I think about this now and again.

The state of blogging in 2008
Today there are too many blog posts that cover areas already blogged. I hope over the next five years more bloggers will stop before hitting publish and ask themselves if they are truly adding anything new to the web. Some bloggers are and they deserve to increase readership. Others are adding to the post landfill in a blatant attempt to grab ad views. There are very few quick bucks that hold value over time in the world.

Tip for readers with blogs: put a little more of you into your posts. Blogging became popular in great part I think because of the individual voice. Refine your voice. Making sure each published post has you in it somewhere helps to separate your posts from thousands of others that are similar.

Today there is also way too much emphasis on fragmenting discussions around posts. Giving readers the ability to comment somewhere else is a good thing in concept but puts unnecessary reliance on third party sites to stay up and running. One only need examine the scaling woes Twitter has been having to analyze that this isn’t always a good thing. I’m still not convinced the current generation of commenting elsewhere will stand the test of time, but we’ll see. I reserve the right to change my mind.

Today on a positive note, sharing on the web is all the rage. It’s great to see so many different ways to share ideas, thoughts, blog posts, pictures, videos, podcasts and so on with others. The spirit of sharing has never been louder than it is today. I just hope with all this sharing with relative strangers online, that people don’t forget about spending time with the people who aren’t strangers offline.

I have been spending more time with family and friends offline in 2008. I started playing guitar again regularly and practicing with a band offline Sunday nights. This has eaten into my blogging and online time but it’s giving me perspective that will help fuel my future writing. As human beings, we need to experience new and/or different things to make use of the valuable time we’re given on this earth.

My wife was teasing me that I have been “reliving my high school days” lately. There is a kernel of truth in this observation. Sometimes it’s good to go back and find things that gave you pleasure in the past and see if you can incorporate them into the present.

Now let’s walk back through time here at MakeYouGoHmm.

2007: 1080p Yowsa!

1,371,277 total published words from 4,354 posts
9,867 comments

In 2007 there was a focus on trying to videoblog or podcast five days a week. I made it a good nine months before being buried by video editing time. Probably would have made it if I skipped the whole HD video experiment. But who can forget the series of SAW Hmmcasts including the one below:

Of course the whole ThurSAWday project turned out a failure, but it was fun building up the promotion.

2006: Families more fragmented these days?

2005: v4: Cheap Tablet PC car stand

2004: v3: Day 1-2 in Silverwood

2003: Tabasco Scratch Cards

The future of MakeYouGoHmm
Today and throughout the weekend I’m going to kick back and party with the family. Next week it’s back to work. Oh, and yes, let’s do another 5 years of blogging here at MakeYouGoHmm? I mean, come on, did you expect me to quit already?

Thank you for reading MakeYouGoHmm.com.

“and miles to go before I sleep …”
- Robert Frost

Check this out, a Google Maps mashup called Map Tunneling that answers an eternal childhood question: if you dug a hole in your backyard that was so deep it went through to the other side, where would end up?

In our case: in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Bummer. Considering 78% of the earth is water most people would end up with a gigantic pool. And here I thought all holes in my backyard led to China! My childhood dreams are crushed.

Note to purists readers: I realize it’s extremely unlikely one would ever be able to dig through to the other side of the earth. Or at least we don’t have any tools on earth capable of such a feat, see this explanation:

Well, first .. we can’t! Forget the fact that we have a mostly molten core … we have barely gone a few miles down into the crust! Plus, the physics we are going to talk about here won’t work with a rotating Earth (or at least not the way we plan to analyze it).

But hey, it’s kind of cool to know what’s under our feet. In our case and 78% of the rest of the world the answer is a whole lot of water. Guess a Google mashup wasn’t needed to tell me that. I’d be curious to hear from readers who actually have land on the other side of them.

To use the map, just adjust the left map to where you are at and the right map will show the other side.

Band’s need to be pushing to get all of their music on the game systems in both Rock Band and Guitar Hero format. How do I yell this any louder. There aren’t enough licensed music games in the pipeline!

Yeah, every Tuesday we get treated to a few new songs. Any idea how many years it will take to get a decent sized music library at this rate of publishing? According to the Zune our family has over 690 albums and 5,555 songs. On Rock Band we have purchased probably 80% of all the music released to date (I didn’t do an exact count) and maybe, maybe we have a couple hundred songs.

Not enough.

We’ve bought several albums because we played the music on these games, so it does translate into CD and/or digital music sales. I see a day in the future when we’ll see bands come out with new albums in Guitar Hero and Rock Band format (or rather some unified format(?) or wishful thinking?) the same day they sell their album in stores. This remains a huge opportunity that at least at the moment isn’t plagued by piracy.

As soon as anybody can make their own music game files, expect to see cover music coming from sources that aren’t the official artists and once again the artists will be left without a cut of the pie. Where today the blame is on P2P, tomorrow it will be on cover music on game systems.

One way to help curb this would be to simply get as much authorized music game files into the system as fast as possible and allow an easy publishing system for artists to be able to make their music available for sale and direct profit. More artists will get on board if there is an easy publishing system. Something like Amazon is doing with the Kindle for writers to publish and get paid.

There is always going to be music piracy, no matter what format. No way to eliminate it. Best thing artists can do is to embrace what new forms of publishing are out there and keep making great music. Heck, Guns N Roses white elephant album Chinese Democracy had tracks released before they have published it yet (when are you going to publish this anyway, Axl? In this decade. Maybe? Hopefully.)

On the Xbox 360 side I’d say XNA, but that isn’t really non-programmer friendly. Most artists aren’t programmers. They need a system, perhaps some kind of pro tools plugin that will let them export in a format and publish their music for sale to the masses. Not many artists are going to have the technical skill, time and/or patience to sit down and spend hours or days coding a single song. If some other party steps in for a small cut of the sales pie, they might be willing to go that route for the technical heavy work.

Before you laugh off this idea, think about how many different avenues there are for bands to be heard? The pool of music in the music games genre is still pretty small. Giving indie and pro artists the publish directly — keyword: easily — would be a huge win for everybody.

To date there have been only *3* full albums available on Rock Band (and zero albums are available on Guitar Hero yet): Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance, The Cars debut album and most recently The Pixies. We bought the first two and skipped the third. With millions and millions of song and who knows how many hundreds of thousands (or million plus?) albums are in existence, you’d expect the music business to latch on and sell, sell, sell.

How many total albums will be available by the end of the year? Any guesses? I think it will be less than a dozen, which is a shame. Next year though if sales are strong, we could see this continue to blow up and the number albums available get into the hundreds. How cool is it being able to play along with your favorite songs? Fake music games are here to stay, bet on it.

And when will we start seeing some REAL music games? I remember a story about a game like Guitar Hero where you played on a real guitar called Guitar Rising (will be released in “late 2008″ according to the website). Learn how to play along with songs using real instruments. The music industry needs to change. Reading tab or traditional music notation is boring. Games could put the fun back into practice and could unleash the next Eddie Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix plugged into a PC or console system. Why not?

It’s no secret that I’ve been a huge fan of the various fake music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. This weekend we took some time to purchase and review the two most current offerings in the Guitar Hero franchise: Guitar Hero On Tour Nintendo DS ($49.99) and Guitar Hero Aerosmith ($99 at Wal-Mart) for the Xbox 360.

Guitar Hero On Tour Nintendo DS
Guitar Hero On Tour has an interesting, but uncomfortable glove-like control pad that literally wraps around the DS. When I saw a demo of it online a couple months back (sorry, can’t remember what the publication was to link), I didn’t think it would be as uncomfortable to hold and play. It is. I felt uncomfortable with it after playing a couple songs. Carpal Guitar Hero Tunnel syndrome anyone?

It was a nice touch to include an adapter for the game that fit those of us with the older style Nintendo DS. Just have to unscrew a couple flat-head screws and pop out the control circuit, then put in the replacement one. Takes a couple minutes.

The game itself has an already lampooned mechanism for activating star power: either yell something into the microphone or blow in it. If you blow in it or yell at it you look equally foolish. Why didn’t they include some picture of an amp or something to knock over on the right screen? Who wants to give their Nintendo DS a blowjob?

The pick is the one part that feels good in the hand but no so much with the back and forth motion on the virtual guitar displayed on the touch screen. To whammy you just move the pick in a similar motion over the whammy bar. It’s not nearly as satisfying as using the whammy bar on the full size game.

I give high marks for effort and am glad to see something on the DS for portable rocking out, but I’m not sure we’ll be taking this game many places because it is awkward and not as much fun to play as the full-size version.

Also, my son pointed out that if you have longer fingers like him, it’s a little more tricky. And there are only four buttons instead of five (no orange button), which is another knock for hardcore Guitar Hero players. Guitar Hero fans will buy this, heck, you probably have, but I wouldn’t recommend for non diehards. Grade: C-

Guitar Hero Aerosmith
The first thing to disappoint is that the game wasn’t available separately at Wal-Mart. Maybe other stores are selling the game elsewhere, but Wal-Mart was forcing their shoppers to buy the Aerosmith guitar bundle which cost $99.87 or some weird penny price like that. I thought about hitting Best Buy or Circuit City to see if it was the same deal there but it was a hot day yesterday and I didn’t want to spend it shopping.

According to Amazon, the game sold separately won’t be available until tomorrow, Tuesday July 1, 2008. So for two days of impatience, we’re paying. We should have waited. Oh well. I don’t blame them for releasing the game this way, so the review score doesn’t reflect this annoyance.

Since we bought the package to get to the game, I’m not going to review the guitar itself. It’s essentially the same Guitar Hero III guitar controller, as best as I can tell. We left it in the package. Might be handy to have an extra axe in case the others go down and when you figure they are selling the guitars standalone for $59, it’s actually a deal buying the package.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith takes the player through the career of Aerosmith and boasts some 25 tracks from the band’s extensive music library. It’s nice hearing and being able to play along with great songs like “Kings and Queens” and more well-known songs like “Sweet Emotion” but if you aren’t an Aerosmith fan be warned: you will likely be disappointed.

I don’t know why anybody would buy a game with Aerosmith music if they didn’t like Aerosmith, but if that fits you, then I’d pass. If you are a Guitar Hero collector, as I said above, you probably already were waiting in line Sunday morning at 12:01am. That wasn’t us. We went Sunday afternoon.

Mad props for another Guitar Hero game, but we didn’t see that much new here to warrant a completely new game. Why not just release Aerosmith song paks? I know, I know, there’s an Aerosmith storyline that goes with the game, it’s not just the songs, but at the end of the day — and the career mode — you’re left with replay value being the songs themselves. I’d rather have paid $30-40 for the songs than $100 for the game and extra controller, but that’s just me.

I’m not at expert skill level at these games and tend to play and be challenged by the ‘hard’ difficulty for most of these type games. I don’t have enough time to practice and get as good at these games as I’d like. I’d rather use this time playing real music instruments. At the same time, I do enjoy them and think they offer a huge benefit to the struggling music business.

My middle son and younger son are both experts at these games and were able to beat both Guitar Hero on Tour for the Nintendo DS and Guitar Hero Aerosmith at expert difficulty in a few hours. Aerosmith has 31 base songs (with 9+ more unlockable) and Guitar Hero On Tour has 25 (not sure how many more unlockables). None of the songs, according to our sons were extraordinarily difficult. Nothing that matches “Through The Fire and Flames.” This was a letdown for them. They were hoping for something to shred and more challenging.

As the one who purchased the games, I was disappointed there wasn’t more challenge as well. Why not throw in some speed death metal tracks just to keep the replay factor high for players like them?

Here’s an idea — and missed opportunity — release each new version with new types of game controllers. Don’t have just another guitar, have it be one that has special effects that the other doesn’t have. That’s not my idea, BTW, Activision competitor Rock Band is planning to do just that by promising new type instruments (keyboard, maybe?). Oh yeah, sign me up.

My son who beat it on expert (pictured above), said Guitar Hero Aerosmith is “ok.” The time to beat this on the expert setting, was much too easy (for him). Therefore, at least in our household, I don’t see this one having very much replay value, so I’m marking down for that. Just being a new Guitar Hero game isn’t enough when one can buy new songs online every week. Nobody in our family are huge Aerosmith fans, but the music selection is good. Not sure I’d want to emulate Joe Perry though. Grade: C+

It’s not often that we see 98% movie review scores from the Rotten Tomatoes collective. WALL-E is getting lots of reviewer love.

This morning skeptical, but curious, I told our recently graduated son who has been working with me in our online business: “Hey, you want to go see this really quick?” At first he wasn’t that interested, but then he read some of the reviews and changed his mind.

The single line synopsis of this movie is irresistible:

What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?

Off to the 10:45am PST showing we went, intrigued.

There was a deaf person with her family in front of us buying tickets who were having some animated sign language about the movie. We ended up sitting behind the family during the movie. About 30 minutes into the movie I realized just how great a movie this is for the hearing impaired. How many movies are made that don’t need subtitles?

The first 40 minutes of the movie have almost no dialogue and the final hour have very little dialogue. WALL-E is one of those extremely rare films that don’t need much in the way of dialogue or subtitles and yet can not only sustain interest but entertain. While we’re on the “how many movies …” kick, how many movies can get laughs out of sporks?

Sporks!

WALL-E is Pixar’s latest compelling animated tale. A science fiction love story about a final remaining trash compactor named WALL-E operating on a trash-ridden future version of earth somewhere around the year 2800. Where did all the people go? And what happened to humanity? WALL-E offers a bleak, and somewhat believable premonition of mankind 800+ years from now. Without spoiling the movie, I’ll just say we haven’t become the most sedentiary beings. You’d think mankind would learn not to leave too much control to robots. This is a well-trodden path many science fiction writers have been writing about and warning us against for the last 75+ years.

The only company WALL-E has on earth is a cockroach (who doesn’t speak thankfully) until a probe droid named Eve (”Eva”) is sent back to earth. WALL-E who spends his time making cubes out of garbage and picking out the good stuff like old VHS tapes (what, no DVD?), watching movies through an old iPod, and popping bubble wrap, takes an immediate liking to Eva to stave off his loneliness.

Can’t say I ever imagined liking a romantic story involving a trash compacter but WALL-E fires on all cylinders. This is the best animated movie I’ve seen in a long time. No animated movies come to mind to compare it to, which is a high compliment. I’ve written hundreds of reviews and never given an A+ to anything. I have no problem giving WALL-E the first A+. It’s that good. It’s family friendly too. The 98% Rotten Tomatoes reviewers are giving it is well-deserved. My son gave it a B-, but his only other favorite animated movie was Toy Story. WALL-E is better than Toy Story. Get out of the heat and into the air conditioning. Take your loved ones to see this film. Grade: A+.

Last year we bought one of those above ground swimming pools and after setting up in mid July were only able to enjoy a dozen or less good swim days.

This year the weather has been so crappy to date and with June almost over there was some consideration that we may never set the pool up in 2008. I mean, why set something up for only 10 good hot days? A hot day on Wednesday and rumor of 90 degree weekend days coming this weekend quickly changed my mind. Time to switch into pool assembly mode.

Leveling the pool in our backyard proved to be challenging last year. This year I dug a bigger trench than last year and used the dirt from that to bulk up the lower side. You can see the trench in the picture above which was big enough to put the pump in. What happened this year is the pool ended up dipped on both ends and higher in the middle. At least we don’t have the sloping we had last year, but man, why is leveling earth so difficult a concept for me?

What’s buried in your backyard?
A side bonus from the excavation was finding a 1948 shilling. My son went to the internet to research the coin.

Tools for leveling land?
There must be some sort of tool for excavators to be able to easily level land, yes/no? I remember when being in the restaurant business and seeing some laser red light used by contractors to show a level line across an area. I wonder if there is something like that contractors use to get the ground level?

Anywhere, here is how it looks from the side. You can see it’s not a great leveling job:

Guessing I won’t get any pool setup jobs any time soon, but the process did go much faster this year than last. We were able to setup the pool in less than three hours, including digging the small trench. Filling the pool took about 8 hours and cost us $25 extra on our water bill last year.

Our three sons took a dip yesterday when it wasn’t even 70 degrees outside. The pool water in the morning was at 50 degrees but had warmed up to 56 degrees by the time they climbed in. I told them they were nuts. How they managed to last in that frigid water for 30 minutes is beyond me, but they splashed around and had a good time. My son’s girlfriend was the only smart one of the bunch, like us parents, she stayed out.

The final picture at 6:59am PST.

The skies are blue, it’s gonna be a scorcher. Glad that the work is done. Now all we have to do once the heat sets in is get in and enjoy.

It looks like Chrysler is going after techies — in a good way.

I’m going to contact the sales department at our local Chrysler dealer and ask them about UConnect Web and when the 2009 model cars are coming in.

The system is not rigged to keep the driver from doing such things while the car is moving, though Chrysler will discourage it. UConnect Web will be offered in most 2009 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles starting in August. The in-vehicle router will cost $449, plus installation of up to $50. Mobile Web access for it will require a $29-a-month subscription, after $35 for activation, through provider Autonet Mobile.

As some readers might recall, our last new vehicle purchase was a 2007 PT Cruiser. Subpar gas mileage aside — I mean you’d think a little car like this would get great gas mileage, but it doesn’t — we’ve been happy with the purchase otherwise. There have been a few other minor dealer-related annoyances, but nothing worth writing about. We really like the fact that all our preventive maintenance was paid for in advance. I’d buy that plan again and would recommend to friends.

I’m mildly interested in the Sebring, but like the look of the Chrysler 300. The next business vehicle we buy will be automatic and likely not an SUV. We’re interested in something small that does at least 30 MPG on highway (the Sebring does) and needs to have something like UConnect. Like the idea of a built-in GPS as well and it wouldn’t break our hearts to see built-in Sirius satellite radio either. This will be my wife’s car and she wants to get her driver’s license for the first time (hence the reason it needs to be smaller).

If someone reading knows of smaller cars that fit the above specs, please let me know in the comments or trackback in.

Loved Motley Crue’s first few albums but have drifted away as a fan since then. Or rather, I’ve kept hoping they’d put out albums as great as Shout at the Devil. Who can’t love a party band that can jam like them who are equally notorious offstage for sniffing ants with Ozzy?

Sadly, they became too much about being glam rockers of the 80s with cheesy commercial radio tracks like “Girls, Girls, Girls” when we wanted their harder, edgier side in tracks like “Red Hot” and “Live Wire” and “Too Hot for Love.” I like their cover of Helter Skelter better than the original Beatles version. That says how much I liked this band at one time.

At one time.

It’s similar to the way I felt about Great White (note: I’m not saying Great White is a better band than Motley Crue) who started as a hard rock band and then went all blues and too mellow, but at least Great White has remained fairly prolific with new material the last 20+ years.

Can’t say the same about the Crue, who have put out only *9* studio albums in the last 27 years (maybe one album every three years isn’t that anemic) including yesterday’s newest release Saints of Los Angeles. Only 7 of the 9 albums contain the four founding members of the band:

Vince Neil - vocals
Mick Mars - guitars
Nikki Sixx - bass
Tommy Lee - drums

Before we get to the strong and weak points of the Saints album, which I purchased on AmazonMP3 ($8.99) and took off Judas Priest Nostradamus to listen to instead for awhile, let’s revisit Motley Crue’s studio albums to date.

Motley Crue Studio Albums
1. Too Fast for Love (1981)
2. Shout at the Devil (1983)
3. Theater of Pain (1985)
4. Girls, Girls, Girls (1987)
5. Dr. Feelgood (1989)
*6. Motley Crue (1994) - *John Corabi on vocals (instead of Vince Neil)
7. Generation Swine (1997)
*8. New Tattoo (2000) - *Randy Castillo on drums (instead of Tommy Lee), later replaced by female Hole drummer
9. Saints of Los Angeles (June 24, 2008)

Studio albums 1-3 (purchased in this order: Shout at the Devil, Too Fast for Love, Theater of Pain), are highly recommended to add any rocker’s collection. It gets a little more sketchy (for me, anyway) after that.

While Girls, Girls, Girls disappointed this fan, it brought great commercial success for the band Dr. Feelgood had some good tracks like the title track and ballad “Without You.” I’d put Dr. Feelgood as purchase #4 for your Motley Crue studio album collection.

I never took to the self-titled album where Vince Neil didn’t even sing. WTF? How do you put out a self-titled album and not have your original singer? Quiet Riot did this too when once upon a time (1986 I believe) they fired recently deceased Kevin Dubrow and replaced with the raspy, Rough Cutt singer, Paul Shortino. I liked Shortino, BTW, but his time with Quiet Riot was short lived.

Van Halen did something similar with the critically panned (and for good reasons) Van Halen 3 with Gary Cherone at the pipes, but strangely Van Halen 1 and Van Halen 2 both had Diamond Dave behind the mic. Shouldn’t VH2 have had the second singer of the band, Sammy Hagar? Who says rock and roll needs to make sense? Braincells be damned.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to rate Generation Swine or New Tattoo, because I don’t recall listening to either of them, much less buying them. They might have some good songs, or totally suck, so get those reviews elsewhere from somebody who has listened to them (or wait for me to buy them and review them). The reality is Motley Crue ceased being as interesting to me when they broke up the first time. I do realize Vince Neil rejoined the band for Generation Swine and Saints of Los Angeles is an intriguing enough listen for me to go back and see if I missed anything noteworthy.

New Tattoo doesn’t have Tommy Lee on drums, so I’m a little less interested in buying that one. For those who don’t know much about Motley Crue, Tommy Lee has the chops and is considered one of the best rock drummers around. Replacing somebody of his caliber is like replacing Neil Peart of Rush. This isn’t like replacing the drummer for Loverboy.

But hey, now that the original Motley Crue is back together again (third time? fourth time?), let’s get to the stuff that was released yesterday and see what’s good.

Saints of Los Angeles Track List with my thoughts
1. “L.A.M.F” - is this supposed to be like the opening to “Shout of the Devil” (in the speaking sense), only using Los Angeles as the backdrop? I like the Shout intro better but this is alright.
2. “Face Down In The Dirt” - solid track with some good riffs. Nice musical intro to the album.
3. “What’s It Gonna Take” - girls singing as backing vocals toward the end ruined this a bit for me. Seems like ripping (the wrong) page out of the Girls, Girls, Girls book. Otherwise, some good moments.
4. “Down At The Whisky” - a lot of L.A-based rock bands have a fond connection to playing at The Whisky, which I believe is sort of like the Madison Square Gardens of small clubs. This is a decent song about The Whisky with some great drumming by Tommy Lee. I was a bit disappointed that Mick Mars didn’t break out with a ripping solo. The song was made for it, but the solo he does put in there seems kind of mailed in (too short and not much flash or flare).
5. “Saints of Los Angeles (Gang Vocal)” - with the title track, I expected the boys to pull out all the stops. It starts with a very effective bass track by Nikki Sixx. The opening guitar riff explodes and Vince is in top form. Very nice.
6. “Mutherfucker of the Year” - how can any rocker not appreciate a song with an MF bomb as its title? The opening is an all out left-right speaker assault. This one jams from intro to close. Some familiar, but expertly placed guitar wah effects by Mars.
7. “The Animal In Me” - old school Crue with a great thumping bass (Nikki) and drums (Tommy). Vince nails the catchy vocals and Mick Mars shreds the axe. Motley Crue is clicking on all cylinders with this one. Crank it up. I liked this one on the very first listen and it is my favorite track on the album.
8. “Welcome To The Machine” - great guitar solo and drums (I know, I keep saying that but it’s hard not to appreciate Tommy Lee pounding the skins).
9. “Just Another Psycho” - I need to listen to this one more.
10. “Chicks = Trouble” - a throwaway track for me. Didn’t care for it. Music jams but it doesn’t gel.
11. “This Ain’t A Love Song”
12. “White Trash Circus”
13. “Goin’ Out Swingin’” - need more listens to the last five tracks, nothing really sticking out as great.

Summary and Hmm thoughts
Must admit I was surprised a bit by Saints. I figured it would be mostly crap, but there are some good jams on there. I’m going to go back and visit Generation Swine and maybe the other albums. Saints doesn’t give me the same Crue pleasure that their first three albums and Dr. Feelgood did, but it’s not bad. I have a feeling it might be their best album since Dr. Feelgood but can’t say that officially because I’ve been out of the Crue loop.

Motley Crue is on the short list of bands that I like but haven’t seen live to date yet. Going to keep my eyes peeled the next time they come to town. If you like the earlier Motley Crue stuff, give Saints of Los Angeles a listen. It’s not as raw as Too Fast for Love or as gritty as Shout, but it’s not the crap glam rock that drove fans like me away for awhile. It’s also not some huge breakthrough album that will sell better than their biggest albums of the past, but it’s refreshing to see the Crue getting back to their roots, somewhat.

The first half of the album is very strong but it fades kind of like the B-side of Theater of Pain. I might get flamed for saying this, but where is the rock album token ballad? Coming from a band with solid ballads like “Home Sweet Home” you kind of expect one ballad? Yes, no? Oh well, I don’t think the lack of a ballad hurts Saints. Now if only the boys stay together and put out more albums like this, and limit time spent in Vince Neil’s tattoo parlor, I bet they suck back in more of their older fans. Grade: B-

Our weekend was active, how was yours?

On Saturday I went to the first Podcamp Seattle and learned about the service Twemes. A number of Podcamp Seattle attendees were using Twitter messages and the tag #podcampseattle (pictured) through Twitter to create an IRC-like experience.

You can tag any message in twitter with the # in front of the keyword and then follow along on Twemes. There wasn’t an official IRC room for podcamp, at least that I saw, which would have been nice. I attended the introduction to podcasting and Twitter 101 talks in the morning. Brought my HD camera and captured 3 of the 4 sessions I attended from beginning to end. I put the camera on a tripod this time around so no shaky hand syndrome.

Not enough podcasters at Podcamp
Had lunch with Stuart Maxell, Leif Hansen and Rob Greenlee at a local teriyaki restaurant. Stuart said he reads MakeYouGoHmm (thanks!).

I was a little disappointed that there weren’t more actual podcasters at an event called Podcamp.

After the event on the way to our cars I mentioned to Leif and Rob that the event seemed more geared to social networking and marketing. Not that this is bad, but not quite what I expected as far as who would be attending. I realize that the attendees are what make an unconference so I’m partly to blame for not getting more involved.

After lunch I did pipe up during Rob’s session on Advanced Podcasting and say a few words about how I felt my Zune podcast work was more about being a podcast promoter rather than being an ‘editor’ of podcast submissions. Also gave out my Zune email address if any of the podcasters in attendance needed help with their Zune podcast submissions. As of this writing, I’ve had one email thanking me for the offer.

There is a local Seattle podcaster meetup that I need to try and get to in the next few months and introduce myself to podcasters there and let folks now I’d like to help them if I can with their Zune Marketplace podcast submissions.

21 is the magic number
On Sunday my wife and I went to Hoquiam for some prospective business. Afterwards on Sunday we drove 15 minutes to the Quinalt casino and check out the speed limit sign on the driveway to the casino which is right on the beach.

First time I’ve ever seen a 21 MPH sign. Clever casino marketing, eh?

We had a nice lunch with the ocean in the distance and a live pianist in the background. We then proceeded to lose $40 rather quickly in their casino and then came home. The casino was pretty dead for a Sunday at lunch time. Rising gas prices have to be hurting their business.

Due to conflicting events our band wasn’t able to jam on Sunday night, but we’ll be back at it this coming Sunday. I’m planning on taking my HD camera to our next session and trying to catch some footage to bring back to the blog if the group is up to it, anyway.

George Carlin moves along
Sad to see comedian George Carlin has passed away at 71. Feel like I should post those seven dirty words that he was famous for outlining, but will save your eyes and ears in this post.

Judas Priest has remained my favorite heavy metal band for 25+ years now. I was delighted when Rob Halford rejoined the band, but enjoyed the time Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens (of Iced Earth) spent with the band. I’ve seen Priest in concert several times and they never disappoint live.

While some might argue JP aren’t as heavy as they used to be, they were and still are pioneers in the genre. With their newest epic studio album Nostradamus, 23 songs telling a story in a way musically that only Judas Priest can tell.

The description from the official Judas Priest biography page:

Long in the works, ‘Nostradamus’ takes epic storytelling to a whole new level, as it recounts the life of this mysterious, world-known 16th Century French prophet. Some of the events that Nostradamus experts have interpreted as his predictions include the great fire of London in 1666, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and most recently, 9-11, among countless other renowned events.

Here I thought they were just going to release another 10-15 song album and to my delight I discovered 23 songs waiting in the AmazonMP3 track list. I know what I’ll be listening to for awhile. Oh, and yes, I’ll be going out and buying the CD as well. Probably one of the two special editions:

In addition to the regular jewel case double CD version of the album, collectors will undoubtedly be interested in hunting down a copy of a Deluxe Double CD housed in a 48 page hardbound book package. But that’s not all - a Super Deluxe Box-set version will also be available with triple vinyl, the double CD, an expanded booklet & a poster.

Nostradamus track listing
These are the songs on Nostradamus in order with a few comments as I listen (will continue to update this, so check back after the post is published):

1. “Dawn of Creation” - a Priest album that starts with piano and continues with organ to intro the next track, it’s no Hellion but portends well for what follows. Prepare to be rocked in the next track.
2. “Prophecy” - just try to listen to this a few times and stop singing ‘Nostradamus’ - I’m guessing this will be played on their tour to support the album.
3. “Awakening”
4. “Revelations”
5. “The Four Horseman”
6. “War”
7. “Sands of Time” - the line “sands of time running low” an accidental (intentional?) tribute to fellow metal heads Iron Maiden?
8. “Pestilence And Plague”
9. “Death” - verse has the pace and feel of the classic Sabbath tune “Black Sabbath”
10. “Peace”
11. “Conquest”
12. “Lost Love”
13. “Persecution”
14. “Solitude”
15. “Exiled”
16. “Alone” - the acoustic guitar work on this track is some of the best of Priest’s career. If you were disappointed with how synthesizers were used in Turbo, this will restore your faith. Halford has a scream near the end that is one of his best ever. If you ever doubted that he still has the pipes, listen for it and enjoy. “Alonnnnnnnnnneeeeeeee!” Chilling. We keep playing this one over and over, it’s that good.
17. “Shadows In The Flame”
18. “Visions”
19. “Hope”
20. “New Beginnings”
21. “Calm Before The Storm”
22. “Nostradamus” - a thrasher in the spirit of “Screaming for Vengeance” and “Freewheel Burning”
23. “Future of Mankind” - one of the best dual guitar solo tradeoffs and a fitting close. KK Downing and Glen Tipton smoke the fretboards.

AmazonMP3 has easily slipped into my favorite place to shop for music online. I’ve collected all Judas Priest albums available through AmazonMP3 in the Judas Priest Store embedded in the post below (RSS readers might need to click through to the post to see)

Chronological order of Judas Priest studio albums
By my count this is Judas Priest’s 16th studio album beginning in 1974 and still rocking 34 years later:

1. Rocka Rolla (1974)
2. Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
3. Sin after Sin (1977)
4. Stained Glass (1978)
5. Hell Bent For Leather (1979)
6. British Steel (1980)
7. Point of Entry (1981)
8. Screaming For Vengeance (1982)
9. Defenders of the Faith (1984)
10. Turbo (1986)
11. Ram It Down (1988)
12. Painkiller (1990)
13. Jugulator (1997) - Ripper Owens on Vocals
14. Demolition (2001) - Ripper Owens on Vocals
15. Angel of Retribution (2005) - Halford returns as vocalist
16. Nostradamus (2008)

Judas Priest Studio Albums - best to worst list
If you’re looking to buy the past Judas Priest studio albums, my son and I collaborated on buying and listening in the following order. If you feel like the buying order should be different, we welcome your comments below (we had a fun debate over this), trackbacked from your blog, FriendFeed, whatever. I linked the albums available in the Judas Priest store (via AmazonMP3) with the price as of this writing:

1. British Steel ($7.99)
2. Screaming For Vengeance ($7.99)
3. Hell Bent For Leather ($7.99)
4. Defenders of The Faith ($7.99)
5. Sad Wings of Destiny ($8.91)
6. Sin after Sin ($7.99)
7. Point of Entry ($7.99)
8. Stained Glass ($7.99)
9. Ram It Down ($7.99)
10. Painkiller ($7.99)
11. Jugulator (the only Judas Priest studio album not available at AmazonMP3)
12. Angel of Retribution ($7.99)
13. Turbo ($7.99)
14. Rocka Rolla ($7.92)
15. Demolition ($9.99)

I haven’t had enough time to fully listen and enjoy Nostradamus yet but through the early listens I’d already place it in their top 10 studio albums. Our oldest son thinks it should be #7, ahead of Point of Entry, but I’m not sure if any tracks have the staying power of Desert Plains or Heading Out To The Highway. Time will tell. The title track “Nostradamus” is perhaps the only real thrasher and could easily have been on Painkiller or Ram it Down. The Halford scream at the end of the haunting song “Alone” puts it way, way ahead of anything on Rocka Rolla and Demolition (with Ripper Owens).

Summary and grade
Nostradamus is clearly stronger than their reunion with Halford album Angel of Retribution and despite Turbo maybe being more commercially successful than other better albums, Nostradamus belongs in company with Ram It Down, Stained Glass and Painkiller. Their worst studio efforts to date are Rocka Rolla and Demolition, so save those for last and try not to hold against the band if/when building upon your Priest music collection.

Overall, it’s a good time to be a Judas Priest fan. Feels a bit like the late 80s as they were off the heavy success of Vengeance and Defenders tours. Judas Priest are going to be in Seattle at the WaMu theater next month, July 22. Yes, I want to go. Tracks from the tour are already making their way to YouTube.

If I were to grade Nostradamus on first listen, purely in scope, it deserves no less than a B. Tracks that stuck out on first listen include: “Prophecy”, “Alone”, “Nostradamus” and “Future of Mankind.” I feel like I’m going to be listening to this album for a long time. Next stop: the limited edition CD! Grade: A-

Update 6/20/08 8:28am PST: Yesterday, after posting this review I did two things:

1. Went to hang out in the official Judas Priest chatroom. Why? Wanted to see what other Priest fans were saying about Nostradamus. Nobody in the channel was giving the album bad reviews. In fact, a few were annoyed by some negative reviews on Amazon. If the album sucks, you’d definitely hear about it in the official chatroom, but so far the early opinions — there at least — are positive.

2. I went to Best Buy and bought the Deluxe CD version. It’s on sale for $24.99 (regularly $34.99) and comes with a full booklet and a free ticket to one of 12 different concerts on their tour. Good luck on that though because I checked the closest venue to me: Mountain View, CA which is still 800+ miles away and the free tickets were all used up. The package is nice though, it comes with a 48-page book containing the lyrics to all Nostradamus songs and some fantastic artwork:

One CD is in a special compartment at the beginning and the other is at the end. The spine of the book is professionally bound.

This is quality workmanship. We saw the Super-Deluxe version which contains the vinyl for sale at Best Buy for $69.99, BTW. Good prices for both version comparatively to what I’m seeing online.

I’m now at 200+ song listens to Nostradamus and getting even more into the storyline. You’ll see some of my passion in the comments below. This is a great story and one where following the lyrics are not optional. I’m sure one of the lyrics sites has them already, but go buy the deluxe version already with the booklet. If you like albums that tell stories, you’ll gobble this one up.