Tag: Music
2022 Week 46 & 47 – It’s HUGE!
It looks like I missed another post last week. Work has been crazy, and my schedule has been off since last weekend due to a cold (or whatever it is going around). This should get us caught up before the Thanksgiving Holiday.
After seeing a review on YouTube, I had the itch to buy some new computer hardware. So, I was pleasantly surprised when the Ultra-Wide screen monitor was on sale at Amazon (I picked this up for $999, and it’s worth every penny). This 49-inch 5120×1440 5k monitor is a thing of beauty.
It’s like having two 27-inch 4k monitors side by side with no seam in the middle. So far, it’s playing nicely with my personal MacBook Pro M1 and my work HP Z-Book. This thing is a game changer when it comes to productivity. I really wish I had this when we were all working from home for months. The only thing that’s been a challenge is video calls. I have to use an external camera & my AirPod Pros (vs. everything that’s built into the MacBook Pro). Small price to pay for this much screen real estate.
I’ve been watching the Welcome to Wrexham series on FX, and It’s been an interesting lesson on how European Football operates (so many levels). The show stars Ryan Renolds (from Deadpool Fame) and Rob McElhenney (from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). It’s more of a reality-type show than Ted Lasso was, and it’s pretty entertaining. Wrexham plays Farnborough at 10:00 am on November 26
Ever wanted to learn more about Indianapolis? Well, the Indianapolis Encyclopedia is a great place to start! This website was mentioned in a meeting at work a few weeks ago, and it has some great articles and seems to grow as more people contribute. This piece on Geist Reservoir is an excellent place to start.
Eric Hilton, one of the founding members of one of my all-time favorite bands, Thievery Corporation, just released an EP called Present, Past, and Future. It’s great to listen to in the background while working or cooking. You can check it out wherever you get your music from.
And finally… Do you know all about I-69, the interstate that will never be finished? Check out this video for all the details.
2021 Week 5 – The Super Bowl is Set!
The American Football Conference champion Kansas City Chiefs will play the National Football Conference champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV (55) on February. SB 55 will NOT be in 4K “because of COVID“. I’m a little disappointed the major networks haven’t upgraded all of their programming to 4k when the industry went digital several years back. The trick of upscaling 1080 to 4k is just that, a trick. Looks awful on a 50″+ setup.
Best Chocolate is back open on Mass Ave! They used to have a storefront along the east end but when they were acquired in 2019 they closed the brick and mortar. This made finding some of the best chocolates in the city really hard to find! Well, I just learned they are back in a physical storefront pretty much across the street from where they were previously. You can find them at 871 Massachusetts Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46204
Hellbender Documentary in Indiana – I was participating in a virtual 1 Million Cups event the other day and before things got started we were put into breakout rooms for some networking. One of our participants was a documentary filmmaker who is currently working a film about the elusive Hellbender salamander in Southern Indiana! You can follow along with the film progress here.
I Million Cups is a really cool program for entrepreneurs to present their ideas and get feedback from the audience. It’s also a way for them to talk about where they’re stuck and ways the audience can help them (through referrals or ideas). The events are held monthly and currently they are online. When things get back to normal they will be back at the SpeakEasy co-working space in Broad Ripple
And finally here is a fun band out of Australia. We saw them live in 2019 at the HiFi in Indianapolis.
First Impressions – Apple AirPods
After purchasing Christmas presents for everyone on my list this year I decided to get myself a gift. After 3-weeks of waiting the package finally arrived… Apple AirPods!
I love listening to music (mostly Spotify) whenever I can and after seeing the AirPods announcement last fall I was curious about how they performed. Thanks to a lot of media outlets getting advanced units the reviews were out there before the AirPods were even available for order. For the most part they were very positive.
I’ve tried the inexpensive Bluetooth earbuds connected with a cord that is supposed to go behind your head and I’m not a fan. The cord gets caught up in your clothing and makes the entire process rather uncomfortable and annoying. Now, with the AirPods, you can actually go completely wireless and it addresses all the issues I was frustrated with.
The AirPods sound better than the EarPods that come with the iPhones. They are just slightly larger and, in my case, fit very comfortably in my ears. The bass is noticeably improved and the overall sound is very nice. Battery life and bluetooth range is very impressive too.
These are not going to replace my Bose noise canceling over-the-ear headphones that I use when I want to tune the world out but they will be part of my daily carry for those times where I need a little music to make the day go a little better.
It’s to early to say if they were worth the $159 asking price but so far I haven’t regretted the purchase!
Moving From Pandora to Spotify – WOW!
I had a paid subscription to Pandora for years & was generally satisfied with the service. I was also happy with the $3.99 cost for commercial free streaming music.
I read an article earlier this year comparing several of the online music streaming services. I was surprised to learn how much I was actually missing by using Pandora. I had no idea the Pandora catalog was a fraction of what other services offer (1 million songs vs 20 million with Spotify). I also didn’t realize the other services let you listen to an entire album, repeat songs, and pick exactly what you want to listen to! (Face palm)
This is an older chart but you can get the general idea of how the services differ.
So I switched to Spotify. They had a promotion that gave you 3-months for something like $0.99 so it was a no brainer to try it out. I wasn’t able to convert my playlists from Pandora but it was easy enough to start typing in my favorite artists and flagging them as favorites.
Then Apple released their new music platform. Same price as Spotify and same size catalog. They’re giving away a 90-day free trial and I’ve tried it. The Apple Music interface isn’t as intuitive as Spotify but it gets the job done.
Now I’m torn. Do I switch again (to Apple Music) and take advantage of it’s tight integration with IOS? (Hey Siri, play The Church) The OS X interface uses iTunes which needs to be burned to the ground and rebuilt to from the ground up. Spotify’s OS X app is pretty user friendly but takes some 3rd parry apps and plug-ins to make it integrate with the OS (and use the play/pause controls on the Apple keyboard.
Is there another streaming service that beats Apple & Spotify? I’d love to hear your feedback on what you use, what you like, & what you don’t like.
Nokia Ringtone Interrupts, Violist Plays Along
At least this guy has a sense of humor. I bet the guilty party was pretty embarrassed too!