Justin Clark

So I got a call today.. apparently my name was drawn from a drawing at some Indian restaurant aaaand I won a trip to the Bahamas!

To “win” something usually means you get that thing for free, but of course there are always little fees that add up.  Basically what it boils down to is $187 per person.  That’s still pretty good if you ask me.  Here are the details that were given to me:

Bahamas Cruise for two
Cruise there, 4 days 3 nights in hotel, moonlit dinner cruise return trip

Leave from Ft. Lauderdale, FL
6-7 hour cruise to Bahamas, 1200 passenger 8 decker cruise ship (Titanic?)

Bell Channel Hotel, great location, all rooms are waterfront
15 minute walk from Count Basie Square and Port Lucayan straw market

Trip includes cruise (food/drink/entertainment on the ship is free), plus hotel
Responsible for expenses once in Bahamas

No blackout periods for trip, can go anytime within next 18 months
Nothing to do with timeshares, don’t have to sit through any presentations, name won’t be sold, no sales gimmicks
Can choose 2nd person at the time you set your trip dates
60 days notice required before trip
U.S. citizens only
100% transferrable, no transfer fee

$87 per person registration charge
$99 per person covers port tax, entry fees, docking charges, and service fees (pay this instead of paying sales/alcohol tax in the Bahamas.  Once in Bahamas everything is tax-free and duty-free)

So I’m all about helping friends discover new music, but it’s a little inconvenient trying to help everyone out very often. I think I’ve found a pretty great free solution… it’s called Mojo and it works with iTunes on both Mac and PC.

Basically all you do it download the application and run it. The first time you run it you pick a username, then you’re good to go. Add other friends by typing in their username and they will show up on your very iChat-like buddy list. Just double-click on them to open up their iTunes library window where you can stream their music, view their playlists, ratings, etc, and most bodaciously download their music. Mojo automatically adds anything you download to you iTunes library and can be set to add the songs to a specific playlist. If you upgrade to the pro version, you can subscribe to playlists, and even auto-download anything that is added to that playlist by your friends. The playlist subscription helper runs in the background so you don’t have to have Mojo running for it to auto-check for new stuff.

I’ve got mine set up, so go get it and add me as a friend- my username is bigchina@deusty.com

Mac version

PC (beta) version

Phosphorescent

Bowerbirds

The call of a kookaburra has got to be one of the funniest animal sounds ever. I laughed out loud for most of this audio track.. it gets real good about 20 seconds in.. I could just picture them cracking up at whatevers going on below them

Kookaburra laugh

In order of occurence:

1.  All of the tribute videos played throughout the night..  I thought it was especially cool to see Charlie Chaplin as an old man accepting an award.

2. Catherine Heigl presenting.  Ohhh myyy… she looked incredible as usual.  That smile makes me weak in the knees.

3. Amy Adams singing.  I haven’t seen the movie that the song was from, but it was different and she is just so gosh darn cute I loved it.

4. Watching Javier Bardem give thanks to his mother in Spanish and her crying.

5. The performance by the gospel choir from August Rush, minus the annoying 11-year old girl who sounded like she was being choked.  Also, Jon Stewart making a joke about the “cabin patch” which must be some sort of variation of the cabbage patch.

6. The very moment that the second Enchanted song performance ended.  I blacked out for the second half, but I do remember some awful singing, and a musical composition that mixed together like oil and Kool-Aid.

7. Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill’s presentation.  Those guys just crack me up.

8. The performance and win of “Falling Slowly” from Once.  I haven’t actually seen that movie yet, but I have it and can’t wait to watch it.. I’ve heard great things.  I do love the soundtrack.

9. Getting to hear Penelope Cruz speak.  As far as I know I’ve only seen her in Vanilla Sky, so I’m still new to the whole enjoying her accent thing.

10. Tom Hanks

Every time you stop loving someone, your heart loses some of its blush. It vanishes. It’s cancelled. You’re a little colder, a little older, a little harder. You’re a footstep closer to death. Both of you are. & you wonder which of your feelings you’ll no longer have the capacity to feel again. How much less am I, today, than I was yesterday?

-Sean Michaels

So I caught a track from Vio/Miré back in July that tickled my ear, so I decided to order the CD. Shortly after I had placed my order, Ben Segal from Leisure Class Records emailed to tell me that “the artist who designed and constructs the covers is in the process of a move” and that it might be a few weeks before they can ship my CD. Well I got the goods in the mail today, and it was worth the wait. Dallas Foster, co-owner of Leisure Class Records, had included a personal note apologizing again for the wait, informing me that he was including a free CD of the label’s first album, extending the invitation to write anytime, and asking for advice on any potential Oklahoma venues. The album he included is a 22 track split album by Cassette Concréte/Joshi, described to me as “2 altar egos of the amazingly talented Josh Carrigan”. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I’m excited. Both of the albums had some great packaging, which I will show you now.

Tied with a classy string with hand-screened art

The inside is pretty cool.. it’s constructed from several layers of art + a hand-screened CD.

The split album was also hand-screened and constructed

and finally, the long (nudge nudge) note

Here are some of my favorite Vio/Miré songs to tickle your ear

To Keep Warm

A Taped-Up Note

Savannah, Early January

Tot Seins

left by Orrin Clark (my dad)

left by Jason Graham

Now what?  I’ll let you know when I find out.