Apparatschik - Pandora and Google Suggest

I just moved to a new and bigger city, so I was kinda busy. Nevertheless, I found two amazing and useful websites that really seem to work:

Google Suggest - a beta version of an extended google search, which suggests possible queries together with estimated result number while you are typing. Amazing and extremely useful.

Pandora.com - an electronic internet DJ that creates customized radio stations. You provide your favorite song or artist and the artificial intelligence (based on something called the music genome project) calculates streams of music which you like. Seems to work pretty well.

That's the future. Now you just have to teach it how to compose music and it'll create customized bands based on the 'genome' of your favorite music.

"Biggie, noooo... "

Check out this Motorola spot featuring a contemporary who-is-who in the musicbiz: Common, Questlove, Madonna, Alanis Morissette, etc.

American Catastrophes

I don't really want to write about the Katrina catastrophe, but I found a disturbing video on the web: This sad interview.

Plus this disturbing animated gif (is it really real or is it from a movie?):



Something less sad: There is going to be a new Blackalicious LP, soon. It's gonna be called The Craft.

Cities Have Personalities

Cities have personalities, and just as I have a specific feeling about a person (as soon as I spent a certain amount of time with her/him) I develop a certain feeling about a city.

Random Shiznat

Despite the FAQ, I still don't get the title of the page. Nevertheless, it's a nice little private website. Something like a grandfather/grandmother of weblogs: Randomshiznat.

My favorite categories:
1) A nice selection of mp3 DJ Mixes
2) Some nerdy Math Puzzles
3) A fine collection of nice music reviews (HipHop, 1999-2003)
4) Interesting travelogues, e.g. Cologne, Germany, visited in 2003
5) Many more interesting statements, ideas, stories and it's still work in progress

Haircut Memories

I'm back - with the first genuine observation of this weblog:

It's beyond dispute that music can function as a medium for memories. A single tune can capture (and reactivate) the emotional state of one special second, an exceptional evening, a whole holiday, or even an entire season.

A certain type of haircut, however, seems to be able to preserve particularly longer periods of time (up tp -say- 10 years). I am not sure if it can re-evoke emotions like music can, but in any case it seems to be capable of prolonging a certain feeling of oneself. It may have something to do with mirrors.

It seems to me that preferably fourty-something-year olds try to preserve their twenties by sticking to their (back-then) haircut and thus often maintain weird eighties mullets.

What do you think?

Vivid History Twice

To get a grip on general (American) history there is a nice archive containing loads of original recordings of historical turning points - short audio clips as well as full speeches: American Rhetoric - The Power of Oratory in the United States. A special recommendation would be the list of Top100 speeches.

In turn, to get a grip on special (i.e. your own family) history you can consult the huge archive of mankind at familysearch.org. Just submit your last name or the full name of one of your ancestors and explore your lineage.