Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Someone Is On Drugs


…and I’m fairly certain it’s not me.

I have Pandora on my phone, I need music at all times. And despite the umpteen hours of music I have on mp3s, I don’t take my iPod to work, don’t want the cords, and really don’t want to torch the player, I don’t have a heavy duty case for it. For the phone I have a Honey Badger Box (these are great!!!) and a bluetooth, keep some music on it, some radio station apps, and Pandora.

Pandora, for those who don’t know, is supposedly part of a Music Genome Project, wherein they are trying to quantify music by breaking it down to elements, and then registering your choices, likes and dislikes, to musically ‘profile’ you. The concept is a complete load of shit, and the algorithm used has a bug or 3…thousand in it, resulting in the site making some odd choices. Sometimes brilliant things result, and I’ve been led down some interesting tangents.


Sometimes the site determines, since I like the song ‘In The Summertime’ by Mungo Jerry, that I must like ‘Summer of ’69 ‘ by Bryan Adams. (I don’t. Ugh. It’s no ‘We Built This City’ or anything, but it no good.)

  

And sometimes, Pandora is completely baked.

Let me set this up a touch. I love all sorts of music, but sort of segregate it. I don’t make mixes with folk with rock with nerd with whatever else, I tend to get wired on a genre and stay there for a bit. For example, at the moment, I am into soundtracks, some Broadway-ish, and so on. Little Shop Of Horrors (movie), Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog. You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. Avenue Q and Rent. The Jeff Wayne version of War Of The Worlds. (Hey, I’ve already copped to being a bit off-plumb, I like what I like, when I like it, and don’t judge me, yer the one reading this nonsense!) Pandora has some glitches as said, so that one Broadway musical opens the door to other musicals, and I’m not necessarily a connoisseur. But while in my little soundtrack world, it sprung upon me



That’s Darren McGavin as Teh King.

Carl Kolchak. Ralphie’s dad. The dancing, singing, King of Siam. Yul Brynner's role.











No. Stop. Don’t ask me the song, I don’t care.

Anyone ever seen ‘Paint Your Wagons’, with the white-boy soul sensations Eastwood (Clint) and Marvin (Lee)? This. Is. Worse. So much worse.

Stick with this.


Or this.


But holy dammit, while credit is due to Darren for expanding his horizons (and Kolchak is a deity in my character pantheon, I won't rank on McGavin at all), DUDE CAN'T SING. 

1 comment:

  1. For the phone I have a Honey Badger Box

    It don't give a shit! I still have a Motorola "industrial" phone with a rubberized exterior (didn't want to lose a wimpy phone in a 15' warehouse fall or some other such mishap) that I bought six years ago. I won't replace it until it dies (I'm like that- a late adopter, and a cheapskate to boot).

    Pandora, for those who don’t know, is supposedly part of a Music Genome Project, wherein they are trying to quantify music by breaking it down to elements, and then registering your choices, likes and dislikes, to musically ‘profile’ you. The concept is a complete load of shit, and the algorithm used has a bug or 3…thousand in it, resulting in the site making some odd choices. Sometimes brilliant things result, and I’ve been led down some interesting tangents.

    I don't want an "algorithm" acting as my musical gatekeeper.

    Let me set this up a touch. I love all sorts of music, but sort of segregate it. I don’t make mixes with folk with rock with nerd with whatever else, I tend to get wired on a genre and stay there for a bit.

    I'm into a bit of everything as well, but don't tend to keep it separated (Offspring reference?). I don't mind a polka next to a punk tune, next to a Rossini aria.

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