Listening to my Twitter CD

The other night I made the discovery that I had enough pre-paid credit in the Apple store to purchase 11 songs… Or a full CD. I don’t recall where I got the credit. I thought it would be a neat experiment to ask my followers on Twitter to pick songs and message them to me, [...]

The other night I made the discovery that I had enough pre-paid credit in the Apple store to purchase 11 songs… Or a full CD. I don’t recall where I got the credit. I thought it would be a neat experiment to ask my followers on Twitter to pick songs and message them to me, and I’d buy the first 11 that made it in. I am posting them now, along with their submitters (Except for one anonymous person) and my first reactions following hearing the song for the first time.

My Twitter CD, in order of submittal:

1. Perfect Timing (This Morning) by Orba Squara - This is better known as “The iPhone Song”. It’s a very mellow song. I’m just intrigued that the thing actually expanded out to a full song… I thought it was just a snippit written for the commercials. Not sure it’ll get a listen much more then this experiment. Submitted anonymously.
2. Standing On The Balcony by Clever Bastards - iTunes classified this as “Pop” which made me a little wary of it… But it’s actually pretty decent. It’s sort of… Soft-pop mixed with country? It’s got a lot of guitar to it, but certainly has the up-beat tune of a pop song. I’ll be listening again for sure. May have to look into the artist, too. Submitted by @darylcognito
3. Kiss Me by New Found Glory - I believe Sixpence None The Richer did this one first. Canadian (And near-by resident) Avril’s covered it too. Pretty decent cover, great changes. I’ll definitely have to look into more of their stuff. Submitted by @fanless
4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone - This one’s classified as “Soundtrack” and is from a compilation of music from Clint Eastwood movies. I would have NEVER bought this on my own. But good buy. All dogether now… Ooey ooey ooooh. Submitted by @kurtisnelson
5. Santa María (Del Buen Ayre) by Gotan Project - Classified as “Electronic”, it’s more of a latin-salsa-dance-remix thing. Actually sounds pretty decent. This was, for year, the only kind of music I’d listen to, so it brings back some pretty fun memories. Anything that started as one genre and moved to electronic/dance/techno, or could be tagged with “remix” is bound to stay on my list. Submitted by @danielerossi
6. Keep It Simple by Cobra Starship - The submitter “warned” me that this group was “indie”. Itunes threw them into “alternative”. Either works for me,.. As does this song. There’s a local place that ALWAYS has this kind type of alternative playing live. I’d see them there. Would be a good night. Submitted by @nichm
7. Acadian Driftwood by The Band - This one is confusing me. It’s supposed to be rock. Soft rock, maybe, certainly a taste of country to it. I think I hear a piccolo now.Maybe it’s a flute. It’s a little… too soft for me. Not sure it’ll get much play. Submitted by @geek
8. Umbrella (Single Version) by Marié Digby - Oh, Marié. This is a cover of the same song as done by Rihanna. It’s a much slower, mellow, acoustic version. Marié is well-known for getting a lot of views on YouTube and is considered by some to be the poster child for going from YouTube to fame as she’s signed to a recording contract … The same one she was signed to before the YouTube videos went up. I would have bought this had the YouTube-to-fame story been true, but it wasn’t. So I have this soley because of the game. Submitted by @tlspodcast
9. Y.M.C.A. (Can’t Stop the Music Version) by Villiage People - As the submitter put it - “A classic!”. Y’know… I hadn’t heard this in a while. I think I have it on a CD somewhere too. Definitely chair danced when this one came on. Great addition. Submitted by @xenith
10. Am I Awake by They Might Be Giants - TMBG and I have a very … awkward relationship. It seems most of the time I’ll hear a song and think “Oh! That’s a nifty song”, it’s done by these guys. But any time someone else passes me their stuff, or I go looking because I heard something else of theirs I like, I don’t like it. Sadly, that relationship continues with this track. Submitted by @bassguy
11. Miss Sarajevo by Bono, Brian Eno, L’Orchestra Filamonica Di Torino, Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Kamen & The Edge - I’m generally not a classical fan, nor an opera fan, so I wasn’t really holding my breath on this one … But it was surprising well done. It’s a verry ballady for the most part with Pavarotti bringing in during the chorus. It’s not really my cup of tea, but could have been had the opera bits been in English. Submitted by @carmanavenue

There you have it! This compilation was a whole lot of fun to put together, and was actually a blast to listen to, too.

One lesson from the ordeal? The iTunes Store sells different tracks in different countries. While they made a point at a recent event that each country’s store has 6,000,000+ tracks, they didn’t say they were all the same. My 6,000,000 songs in Canada may differ from yours. And if your store has, say, 7,000,000+… Then there’s a LOT more room for discrepancy. Apologies to @locobone, @johnbfromtn and @mrdirby who got snagged in the international distribution and DRM shuffle.

I’d suggest putting together an event like this of your own. The rules are easy, and the cost is minimal.

Thanks to everyone who participated in my experiment! The iMix has been posted and is awaiting confirmation. I’ll add the link when it goes live. Follow song titles to buy individual tracks. Enjoy!

Makin’ Bacn!

So this weekend I had the great fortune of traveling to Pittsburgh for Podcamp Pittsburgh 2. What a blast. Double points, and timbits, to Locobone for the ride from Niagra Falls. Thanks again.
PodcampPGH2 didn’t disappoint. In addition to meeting a bunch of new people, I got to learn things, talk tech/web (Something that doesn’t happen [...]

So this weekend I had the great fortune of traveling to Pittsburgh for Podcamp Pittsburgh 2. What a blast. Double points, and timbits, to Locobone for the ride from Niagra Falls. Thanks again.

PodcampPGH2 didn’t disappoint. In addition to meeting a bunch of new people, I got to learn things, talk tech/web (Something that doesn’t happen often enough in K-town), be pointed to what sounds to be a really cool day from Adobe, and hang out with existing friends.

I also got to present a new presentation from TalkShoe, ‘Your First Shoes’. I’ll have the slides on the web soon. It went over pretty well to an ever-growing group finalizing around 30 people.

And I helped coin ‘bacn’. Oops.

So bacn, if you don’t already know, is the mail you want… But not right now. It’s the middle class of email. Emails from your mom are not bacn - that’s a good, legitimate email. Emails alerting you that you won a foreign lottery is not bacn - that’s spam. What about the Facebook notifications? Or Twitter notifications? Or the Amazon recommendations? Or the countless newsletters? Those emails, while informational, aren’t something you generally have time for. That middle class, the emails you want, just not right now, are bacn.

Now, bacn does have a web site. And it has a forum. And a PSA. But most of the publicity has come from the many many many many many posts around the internet. Wow.

Was a good weekend. Who wants to send me to Boston?

Your shirt. My iMac.

OK. Here’s the deal. I know this blog has been … well… inactive for a while. I’ve been a little wrapped up in getting married. That’ll all wrap up soon though and I’ll be back.
But I need to dust it off right now. I twittered this: “Offer: Buy me a new iMac (Low end is [...]

OK. Here’s the deal. I know this blog has been … well… inactive for a while. I’ve been a little wrapped up in getting married. That’ll all wrap up soon though and I’ll be back.

But I need to dust it off right now. I twittered this: “Offer: Buy me a new iMac (Low end is fine) and I wear your company t-shirt for a year.” and it pulled a few responses. Both as replies (@s) and in direct messages. And I want to clarify one thing.

I’m serious.

I will wear your company shirt(s) every day for 365 days in exchange for one of the new iMacs. Even the low end. Delivered to my door. A few questions have come up that I’ll address here and update as time goes on.

Are you serious? Yes. You deliver me an iMac. I’ll wear your shirt(s).

So… you’ll never take it off? Well… no. I will simply replace my shirt collection with your shirt(s). I won’t shower in it, or swim in it… I often don’t sleep in shirts either. But when I wear a shirt, it will be yours.

What about special events? An event with a dress code (Weddings, funerals, locations that require specific attire) will be exempted. But for every one day that one of these occurs, I’ll tack on one at the end. So if I don’t wear your shirt for one day due to a wedding, you get 366 days, not 365.

Always the same shirt? I’m willing to purchase TWO shirt, in different patterns or colors. Feel free to provide me with more though. Want a different shirt every day? My closet can hold 365 shirts if it needs to.

Aren’t you going to start to smell funny? No. I’ll still be showering, and the shirt(s) … at least 2… at most… who knows… Will be washed after one wear… So they’ll always be clean.

How will we know you’re wearing it? Trust? I’ll flickr photos, I can youtube, I’ll blog. It’d also be my first mac… So frequent updates, all sponsored by you or your company, will be likely.

Will you cover up the shirt? I’ll accessorize, sure. I may, as I do occasionally, wear a button-up shirt over it (unbuttoned) if the mood strikes me. Jackets, of course, during rain and snow would hide the shirt too.

What else? We can work out additional details, pending additional hardware. More days of shirt wearing? Guaranteed exposure? More blog/video/audio posts? How about a wireless keyboard and mouse? More hard drive? A longer warranty? Software?

I’m in this for sure. If you have questions, or want to take me up on this or make an offer, my email is tommy -at- tommyvallier -dot- com. I’d love to talk.