So – tonight I have been plugging away on some new code, trying to learn a bit more abbot programming interfaces for Apple’s Interface Builder (which creates the visual part of an application that we usually see when we launch an application). Fun. Kind of. But – I didn’t get to rip any discs. BUT I did buy a couple new ones. She and Him Volume 2 came out ‘today’ at 9pm (midnight east coast time) and I discovered that Pink Martini also has a new one. Or a newer one… at least one I hadn’t seen before. Not sure what to think about the new Pink Martini so far… one of the songs just ripped of the first Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. And I don’t mean it quoted it… I mean it used bits of melody with a ‘wrong note’ every six or seven notes. The song before that sounded like ‘Cantaloupe Island’ by Herbie Hancock, but again, not quite. I’m hoping it gets better though. Pink Martini’s first album absolutely stunned me with how great it was. It came out in 1997 after the group had been together for a few years. It was, and still is, amazing. ‘Hang On Little Tomato’ came out 7 years after that, and was a great second album. ‘Hey, Eugene’ came out 3 years after that, and it was a little ‘eh’. The new one took two years. I’m concerned after just a couple tracks. I’ll listen to the rest later and hope it gets better… on to the new She and Him for now (so Tamiko can hear it as well right now as she sites next to me).

I thought the first She and Him was brilliant. It really grew on me, and there were a few weeks this last summer that I had it on just about everyday. So far, number 2 is sounding good as well. So melodic. And M. Ward really can do almost no wrong in my book. My friend Charles sent me a mix disc a couple years ago with ‘Chinese Translation’ on it and that was one of those songs that I immediately tracked down so I could buy the album. This was right after I started to use eMusic – and there he was. I went ahead and purchased a few other albums from him over the next couple weeks and he has been a steady part of my pop musical diet ever since. I eagerly await his (and their) new releases. I would even go so far as to say that if you are serious about pop music in the 00s, you need to have an opinion about M. Ward. (If you are serious about pop music in the 90s, I think you need to have an opinion about Yo La Tengo). These artists I think show that you know more then just what the music industry ‘tells us’ to listen to. If my musical snobbery is a mountain range, it is probably statements like these that are some of the peaks. I know this is not necessarily an attractive side to me, but I would also lie if I didn’t admit to it. Anyways, so far so good on the new She and Him… and that’s it for tonight. I’m beat.