Notice: Senua’s found a new home

That’s right. We’ve moved. All the older posts, plus one (at this time) new post can be viewed at http://senua.michaelnoker.com/

Regards

Patrice Pike @ Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival

So, this isn’t really much news, because I’m pretty sure Patrice Pike was established to play at Michigan Womyn’s Music Fest long ago.

But it gives me a springboard to explore the amazing mass of talent this woman unleashes.

Patrice Pike is a super-chick hailing from Austin, TX. She’s got a much award-winning songwriting capability that she flexes in one of my personal favorite songs, “Hopeful Morning,” co-written by Wayne Sutton. She owns the pop-ish folky genre, and even puts claw marks in the rock genre. Ultimately not “right” for the band whose third member/lead singer was decided in CBS’s reality show Rock Star: Supernova, Pike remains unhindered and as full of kickassery as ever, having been given positive reviews throughout the course of the competition and advice to take on a solo career.

Oh, and did I mention she’s bisexual? No shock to me or anybody who knows my musical preference, of course. I must be doomed to falling in love with the music of bisexual and gay women everywhere.

So, run out, pick up a CD or two of Patrice Pike (I personally recommend her with her band, Black Box Rebellion, on the CD named Live at the Brushwood Lounge). Also, be sure to arrange a stop by the music fest in August should you live in Michigan. I want pictures and videos.

10 Reasons Why I Hate Albuquerque as of Saturday

So, the boyfriend and I jumped on a plane early Thursday morning (I think like 7ish… but that’s early to me). Around 11 AM after a whopping 50-minute flight, we landed safely in…

drum roll…

Denver, Colorado!

And that’s exactly what this post is about, for the most part.

So, being spoiled by the absolutely breathtaking city that is Denver, I present to you: Ten reasons why I hate Albuquerque as of Saturday.

Requisite note: I really, really loved Albuquerque until Saturday.

Requisite note 2: Yes, we did arrive in Denver on Thursday, but I didn’t enjoy it until Saturday.

Unnecessary note 1: I dislike suburbs. A lot.

And on with the story:

I hate Albuquerque because…

1. We don’t have cows:

SO AWESOME!

When we showed up and I pulled out the phone, there was a girl standing there fingering the cow’s mouth (yes, that does sound dirty, so I’ll leave it worded like that). She ran out of the shot. I told her, “No! Stay in there! I can just say we made a friend while we were here.” She was like, more or less, “No!”

Camera shy?

I think yes.

2. Pete’s family isn’t here.

Yes, Jeanie, since you read this apparently, this is here for you. Call me when you see this. We’ll have a chat.

In all unseriousness, and yet perfectly sincerely, I was completely overwhelmed by how nice and not-afraid-of-me everybody was (the exception being one of Amber’s two dogs, Otis. I’m seriously not trying to hurt you).

The line-up:

Myria*, Pete’s baby sister and the whole reason we were going to Denver in the first place (Oh yeah, and I didn’t take any pictures at the graduation… I’ll get some eventually. Maybe.)

*Myria has absolutely amazing photography skills. We stole a lot of pictures, including one that was super-high-quality and on display, of the Hard Rock Cafe at the 16th St. Mall. And a whole bunch of black and whites that were printed many times just in case. If you would like to view her work, Myria Hoppal Photo has some great examples.

Matt, Myria’s boyfriend. They picked us up at the airport.

Shortly after, we left for Amber’s house.

Amber, Pete’s middle sister, is the shortest (barely), nurse-iest (by a long way – she was trying really hard not to yell at me about infected cuts), and also the one I spoke to the most, I think. This is probably mostly because Myria was busy getting her presentation ready on Thursday and busy with her dogs, Jasmine and Mecus, the rest of the days (they found some anti-freeze… Thank goodness they’re both doing just fine). And Jeanie, Myria’s and Amber’s mom/Pete’s stepmom/my future stepmom-mother-in-law-thing, was busy getting Myria’s presentation ready on Thursday and busy with Myria’s dogs the rest of the time.

Amber and Jeanie were hanging out at the kitchen table (which is probably insanely smudged now… Sorry, Donny) with Jim, Pete’s (and Myria’s. And Amber’s. And Tabi’s. And…) father. Shortly after, Donny, Amber’s boyfriend returned home and… I didn’t have to meet anybody else for at least 10 minutes. Donny’s parents, Helen and George, showed up with their dog, Theo, AKA Devil Dog, who is (I’m not sure at all what breed he is. I just kind of assume most dogs around their family are miniature Australian shepherds and if they don’t fit the loose description then I guess…) after googling, a pomeranian.

The next day, Friday, I met Tabi, Pete’s older sister, and her husband, Dion, who didn’t speak more than three words, which I would have loved to accomplish myself, but I failed, Kassia and Dylan, their children (Pete’s niece and nephew, if you’re having as hard a time following this while reading as I am while writing), Peggy (who makes absolutely incredibly cookies) and Harley, Jeanie’s parents, Jeanie’s uncle Lauren (he’s grrrreat), and Jeanie’s aunt Betty, who I am very bummed we didn’t get to go out to lunch with. Matt’s parents came up to visit as well from Ft. Worth, Texas. Their names are Debbie and Ronny.

So, in short (hah!) I really like the people there. Or at least around 10ish of them (I don’t want to count).

At the risk of putting way too much in one post, I’m going to cut this off at two. Look forward to reasons 3 through 10. Don’t worry. I’m tired of writing this already. I just want to show off the fact that I actually like my someday-family.

The Most Addictive Songs You’ve Never Heard

At the risk of a way too long title (though I’m a fan of those…), this is officially:

The List of 20 (and growing) Most Addictive Songs You’ve Never Heard, But Should

I will try to keep it short, sweet, and to the point. I’ll leave it up to you to find them on youtube, hype machine, project playlist, or Amazon (Unless you’re a pirate. Arrrrr) and leave it at this. These are in no particular order, and one of my favorite songs is close to the middle, so note that.

1. “Foundations” by Kate Nash
2. “Night Reconnaissance” by The Dresden Dolls
3. “Sugar Cube” by Porcelain and the Tramps
4. “Painted by Numbers” by The Sounds
5. “Breathe Me” by Sia
6. “Snail Song” by A Particularly Vicious Rumor (Note: anything by them is addictive)
7. Cover: “In The Air Tonight” performed by Anousheh Khalili (Available for free eargasm on her myspace page)
8. “In This Life” by Delta Goodrem
9. “Virginia” by Tori Amos
10. “The First” by Tegan and Sara
11. “Après Moi” by Regina Spektor (Don’t deny that you pretended you could speak Russian after hearing the bridge…)
12. Cover: “The Unforgiven” performed by Apocalyptica
13. “All Over Me” by The Danger Flowers (From the Loving Annabelle (2006) soundtrack)
14. “Shutterbug” by Veruca Salt
15. “Hopeful Morning” by Patrice Pike (This one’s hard to find, but worth it)
16. “Shy” by Ani DiFranco
17. “Freedom” by Melissa Ferrick
18. “Run Baby Run” by Garbage
19. “Where I Stood” by Missy Higgins
20. “Mystery Achievement” by The Pretenders

Now, keep in mind I chopped off about 15 songs total in reviewing this list, because they were way too popular to keep true to the “You’ve never heard” bit.

That said, I feel I’ve done well. With every song on the list, I’ve either listened to it way too many times for my own good, most of those times within the first week of knowing it, or I’ve spent hours upon hours searching for some way to find it (“Hopeful Morning” is a big one for that criteria, along with “Mystery Achievement”).

Some people with a very ecclectic musical taste may have heard all these, but I’m sure most people will find at least one they haven’t heard.

And yes, I know, I have an awesome taste in music. You can tell me, but it doesn’t need to be said.

Ten Reasons Why I Couldn’t Come Up with 10 Reasons

Web application Second|Brain helps you organize your online life by providing all the content you choose to import in one place.

Said content can include (but is definitely not limited to) bookmarks from del.icio.us, microblogs on twitter, digg, your own posts at wordpress, your feeds in gReader, flickr… The list goes on.

Thus, here’s a list of ten reasons why you should use Second|Brain (I know, I’m very anti-linkbait):

1. It will save you massive amounts of time. You use an RSS feed reader for your blogs, right? Well, this is an RSS reader for things you liked when you read your RSS reader.
2. It’s in Beta. Hence, it’s buggy. The only way they’ll ever eliminate any bugs is if you report on them!
3. You can win a MacBook Air.
4. You can follow both me and Alex over at Blogsessive. Awesome, right?
5. Because I don’t think I can list ten reasons, but I’ve already given you three awesome ones and one linkwhoring one.
6. The community is still relatively small, and you have a chance to become an oldbie on a fantastic website. Imagine you were one of the first thousand people to sign up for StumbleUpon. Wouldn’t you feel entitled to some kind of ego?
7. Because it’s free (as in beer).
8. AAAAAAA A AAAA AAA!!!!
9. ?????
10. Profit!

Now, all this being said, there is some criticism of things like this, which I have wanted to say for a long time. And I think I said it rather well (don’t you agree?) over at Blogsessive (I think Alex may be a little frustrated as well):

I signed up for Twitter about two weeks(?) ago, and I think I used it for about two days to talk to a friend I have in Alabama. Think I’ve logged in once since.

It’s not that I don’t like these things; I think it’s more what all these webapps are suffering from, and that’s “done it before.” Even being able to mention three off the top of your head is a major problem, and that’s even leaving out Pownce.

I hear so many great things about these sites, and I put them on my “I’ll try it” list, try it, and then don’t really see anything particularly impressive. Maybe it’s just because I’m not a huge fan of “microblogging” (in case you haven’t noticed, I like to talk… a lot.).

But most likely it’s because I hear so many things about how great X is and how it’s better than Y and Z, but I don’t really want to take my foo over to yet another bar, if you know what I mean. It’s happened with digg, del.icio.us, stumbleupon… I’m trying really hard to return to these things, but I just don’t have the patience.

I’m also not the biggest fan of this whole “Web 2.0″ buzzword thing we’ve got going on. It’s not that I’m not enjoying the buzz just as much as everybody else. It’s just that it requires a lot of effort to keep up with, and I’m lazy beyond reason.

Maybe I’m just getting too old for this stuff, when I’m just now nearing the edge of 18? Is it possible to be jaded with the internet?

Now, all this being said, I still feel there’s room for more of these sites, with a little ingenuity and innovation. I feel Second|Brain has done this. Rather than just cloning Twitter, they seem to capitalize on all the clones, allowing all these clones to be fed into one concentrated area.

Thank you, SecondBrain, for not following the trend. I applaud you.

So that’s it. Head on over to Second|Brain and be welcomed to the rest of your 2008 life!