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See the following journal entries! -----December 6, 2003 Hmm... well so much for updating this site every day! I think I'm going to have to hold up on the updates until Thursday. I have two big finals this coming week, and a paper due on Monday ... and I just learned today that I will be working at Roly Poly's next week during two days. (One of these days is in between two finals!! ... but the calculus final is going to take place during two days, and it'll be the same test that we're working on, so I'm not phenomenally worried about it ... another test is going to be one in a communication class. Even if I don't study for those, I'd get a B. ... I'm not going to take my chances though!) Anyway ... I just couldn't turn down the opportunity to work there! I'm afraid that if I turn it down, I'll not be asked to work there more often, so ... By the way, I got my paycheck from Roly Poly's today, and the bosslady spelled my name "Machiel!" I've seen my name misspelled many different ways, but never as creatively as that! So, no more updates until Thursday! Maybe I'll have an update extravaganza! (I did actually write two reviews today. I reviewed Bob Dylan's Planet Waves and Duran Duran's Rio.) Today, I was also going through a lot of the reviews that I have already posted, and touched them up. Unfortunately, I am so eager to write reviews for the site that I don't always take the time to re-read everything. I'm probably going to be doing quite a lot of heavy editing, hopefully, over the Christmas break. --M.L. ----- Album Reviews Added: Barry White: White Gold (1974)
-----December 2, 2003 ...okay! I'm going to try the sleep thing again ... tonight! (I didn't write a single thing today for this site! Everything I added today was stuff that I already wrote ... so it makes like it seem that I was actively working for the site, but I really wasn't. Ooooooh I'm bad!) I can't promise that I'll have time to do anything tomorrow, because I have a lot of crap that I have to do. But if I do do something, it'll probably be reviewing Bob Dylan's Planet Waves. Then ... sometime down the road, I'll review Duran Duran's Rio. Good night! --M.L. Album Reviews Added: Michael Bolton: Michael Bolton (1983)
-----December 1, 2003 Oh man! Yesterday, I thought I was going to go to bed nice and early. Well, I started to go to bed nice and early, but I couldn't sleep! So I got up and started piddling around with the computer. I thought about my Procol Harum reviews and about how much it sucked that I don't have Broken Barricades, and if I went on to review The Grand Hotel, then I would be missing a major gap in the Procol discography! Amazon.com still had it for sale for a whopping $21! I'm not paying that, no siree! I found someone selling it on Ebay for $8 (a nice price) but they tacked on an extra $5 for shipping and handling (but it's still a nice price). So I made a bid on it ... This morning I got outbid, though! Grr... "That's it," I exclaimed. "No more Mister Nice guy." So, I forgot about the Ebay thing and, this morning before going to calculus, I "acquired" it rather easily through means in which I would rather not disclose. So, now I have Procol Harum's Broken Barricades. I'm not sure when I'll get around to reviewing it, however. While I was at it, I also cryptically "acquired" Procol Harum's eighth studio album Procol's Ninth. (Their six and seventh studio album, I have, however, bought them online.) Oh ... and I snuck in that review of Duran Duran's debut album last night, too. I ended up staying up until midnight! Grr... Man ... I did do a lot for the site today. I reviewed Barry White's 1975 disco album. (Geez! This guy bored me so much with his instrumental albums, that I just want to get him over with, seemingly! But this disco album is much better.) I also reviewed Genesis's And Then There Were Three ... and you can count that as another instance when I disagree with George Starostin. He thinks Wind and Wuthering is a nauseating album ... well, I bloody think And Then There Were Three to be the nauseating Genesis album! It was ICKY! (But, of course, it wasn't totally icky.) I also finished that webpage where I organize all the album reviews by score ... I think I'll probably upload that tomorrow. I did notice something interesting on that page. For the most part, all the albums that scored the similar ratings are actually similar in quality. However, there were a few exceptions. I feel like I came down too harshly on David Bowie's 1967 debut! It's not really a 3.0. That, however, was the first album that I reviewed using that grid-method-thingy, and I was being overly cranky. So I'm putting it on my list as a priority to revisit that one. I'm also thinking about reviewing my assessment of Blondie's debut album ... I think it probably should be a low 8 instead of a high 7. But, I'll have to think about that one again. I also noticed that if you would graph all the reviews that it would be a skewed bell-curve. The largest group of reviews was in the 8.5-range. I'd imagine that when I review more crappy artists (like Michael Bolton), the bell-curve will move over to the 7-7.5 range. I started reviewing the best artists, you know. Well, I feel really wasted right now, so I'm going to go to sleep ... or I will attempt to, at least. --M.L. -----November 30, 2003 Album Reviews Added: Marc Anthony: Contra La Corriente (1997)
-----November 30, 2003 I reviewed three albums today ... whoa! It's only 7 p.m., so I might even have some room to review another before I go to bed! (Dude!) I got around to reviewing the rest of Barry White's White Gold (I did review half of the tracks before I went to sleep last night). Also, I reviewed Kiss's Rock and Roll Over. Then, I went to Barnes and Noble and bought a large caffe latte, so I had that extra *push* to review The Moody Blues' In Search of the Lost Chord as well. After disliking White Gold and Rock and Roll Over and only sort-of liking In Search of the Lost Chord, I decided that the next album I'm going to review is the Duran Duran debut, Duran Duran, which is an album and a musical genre that I actively enjoy! I'm not sure if I'll get around to doing that tonight or not. Other than that, I didn't do a whole lot today. I did a few mineralogy cards ... hopefully, I'll do some more tonight. (I'll be listening to albums while I do it ... perhaps that's really how I became prepared to review the Moody Blues album so quickly ... I listened to it two times over while doing the cards and then twice while actually writing it. Heck! I don't know! But the coffee thing did work. I was about to fall asleep! That's why I got the coffee! Well, my greatly anticipated Thanksgiving Break is over (GAH!) and now it's back to the front tomorrow. (BOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBOBO!!!!!) Oh well. Mondays, at least, usually aren't too difficult for me. I'm going to have to work on that article, though. --M.L. Album Reviews Added: The Kinks: Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (1969)
-----November 29, 2003 Hello! Today I reveiwed Marc Anthony's Contra La Corriente today as well as Roxy Music's Manifesto. Tomorrow, I'll probably get around to reviewing Barry White's White Gold and Kiss's Rock and Roll All Over. Yikes! I was almost going to get all depressed today that tomorrow was the last day of my five-day weekend ... but then I realized that there is only 9 more school days left for me to have to endure! And then there'll be 39 days of almost pure freedom. (There's one final I have to prepare for, however.) After that comes next semester, though ... and it's going to suck. It's glistening with pain because I have to take calculus II and physics (which is calculus based). Well, good luck to ME. Me go sleeeeepy. I'm thinking about doing a few Barry White tracks before I hit the sack, though. Hopefully I'll go to sleep okay. I've been sucking on a bottle of diet coke all night! --M.L. Artist Page Added: Album Reviews Added: Bleu: Redhead (2003)
-----November 28, 2003 Well, I finally added that Bleu review! I must have written that back in October or sometime. All the reviews that I still need to add, I put on my desktop so that I would remember to add them! Nevertheless, I am keeping to my promise that I will add and only add two albums per day. The 10 or so album reviews that are sitting on my desktop is almost like a bank. I have to keep writing the reviews so that the bank won't run out! (I know that's really dumb, but whatever keeps me workin ... I too often sit down in front of this computer to write an album review and do NOTHING.) I worked at Roly Poly's for a little bit under three hours today, and I'm working again tomorrow morning. It's only 8:30 and I'm already sleepy! In spite of that, I am listening to Marc Anthony's Y Hubo Alguien and I might sneak in a few track reviews before I go to sleep ... but I am surprisingly drowsy right now! It's a good thing, then, that I'm drowsy if I'm ever going to go to sleep. Today, I wrote the reviews of The Kinks' Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire ... but I actually had parts of that already written for Epinions.com. I spruced it up a little bit. (My goal at Epinions.com was not to write decent reviews, but to annoy the heck out of all the snobs. Even though there are many epinions-style reviews that I left on this site, my goals have changed!) I also reviewed Bob Dylan's New Morning. Also, I'm working on a list that has all the album reviews of this site in order by overall score. (That is going to count as one of the two-uploads-per-day when I get around to doing it.) --M.L. Artist Page Added: Album Reviews Added: The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)
-----November 27, 2003 Hhhhhhhhhhhhhappy Thanksgiving! I got on the old bathroom scale and discovered that I have gained a grand total of five pounds this week (it's time to hit the old gym ... even though I absolutely despise the smell of that place, which I classify as womany sweat). I think I might be able to get the scale to read 2 or 3 pounds less if I don't stuff myself tomorrow (after I visit the restroom a few times that is). I've been trying to lose weight ever since last April when I discovered, to my horror when I was out buying pants, that I increased a waist size. I started going to the gym from that April until about June, when the smell finally got to me. However, I took the exercising outdoors fairly faithfully ... however I wasn't really losing anything. THEN last August, I switched to Diet Coke (and bought a bathroom scale, which I check myself on constantly) and I finally lost 20 pounds. (Whew!) Now I'm up five. (Sigh!) Anyway, it's really cold outside now, so I'll simply have to hit the gym now! (Oh well!) Boy ... through these days off, I wish that I could be more enthusiastic about this site! I only succeeded in reviewing Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road today ... but that's a very long album, too. Before I go to bed, I might sneak in a review of Barry White's Rhapsody in White, which is a very interesting album because Barry hardly even sings on it! It's practically just a huge 70s style symphony! I, by chance, while I was browsing around on Music Rhapsody ran across a death metal band called "Testement." I only listened to two tracks of theres, but I liked them! So ... death metal is a genre that I can appreciate after all. I thought that my extreme lack of appreciationg for the alt-metal of A Perfect Circle forever banned me from ever liking movements of heavy metal from the past decade or two. I finally proved myself wrong! (The album I was listening to was made in 1994.) I do have a lot of album reviews sitting on my harddrive. I sort of made a pact with myself to upload two reviews a day until the last day of classes, which I believe is on December 12th. After that, I have only one final, which is in mineralogy. Apparently, we've gotten so far ahead in calculus that we can take our final early. Thank goodness for that! I'm sort of strange in that I really don't like to have a full week to study for a difficult test. (It would have been December 19th, I believe.) I end up doing nothing until the day before, and the entire week that it took me to get to that point, I always feel guilty for not studying, and therefore I cannot fully enjoy the time I have off! Taking it without having a week to study for it, I don't get any more studying done. (Besides ... I'm feeling semi-confident in that test.) Even though I have a week to study for mineralogy, I do feel that I would periodically study for it throughout the week, because this is a subject that I'm actually interested in. I had this teacher last year, and he let us have a take-home final. POSSIBLY, he might let us do that again. I'm hoping! Then, I could really have an extra week off for winter break! --M.L. Album Reviews Added: A Perfect Circle: Mer De Noms (2000)
-----November 25, 2003 'Ay! Guess 'ho added some reviews to his website? Me! That's 'ho! And I didn't even play Riven! Not one millisecond of that game! Instead, I went to class (bummer) gave a speech (bummer) and then I went home (huzzah!) for a five-day holiday (huzzah!) I finished the review of Mer De Noms by A Perfect Circle (huzzah!) but I thought the album sucked (bummer). Unfortunately, I didn't get around to reviewing anything else today. I fell asleep for a few hours, though, and didn't feel particularly cranky when I woke up. (90 percent of the time, when I fall asleep for a few hours in the middle of the day, I wallow around the house feeling utterly cranky! This was one of the 10 percent.) Man! I'm feeling really tired right now, though, actually! But I suppose that's to be expected 'cause it's 10:45 at night. Instead of working on my speech last night, I finished the review of Self Portrait by Bob Dylan. I think I'm going to start reviewing the track reviews first from now on. That is usually the only time I really analyse the album, and unlike what's happened when I did that before, I think it really lets me write something more intelligent in the introductions. I'd imagine that it would save some time as well. Tomorrow and/or tonight, I'm probably going to review The Byrds' Turn! Turn! Turn!, The Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Then I might review something unusual. Maybe I'll attempt to find a post-grunge alt-metal band like "A Perfect Circle" that is actually worth listening to. One of these days I'm going to have to review The Kinks' Arthur album. I practically know that one by heart. --M.L. -----November 24, 2003 Oh, hello! My Internet has been working for awhile, I've just been lazy in the days as of late. I fiscovered two days ago that they released a fourth Myst. I have the first three (including a 3D version of the original Myst) and I decided that if I was going to get the fourth one, I would have to beat the third one. And, before I do that, I would have to go through the first two again. Well! Myst was easy. I remembered exactly what to do there. Man! And it brought back some memories, too! ... I must have been in middle school when I was trying to go through that game ... and I never did get far. I eventually beat it after going through a walk-thru. Riven, which I remember coming out when I was a Freshman in high school ... in 1997 ... I had an easier time beating, but I still had difficulty. The third Myst ("In Exhile" I believe it's called) I bought in the summer of 2001 right before I went off to K-State. I tried playing it at K-State, but I was too caught up in schoolwork and writing short stories to ever finish it. And now, a mere two years later, they released a fourth one. Right now, I'm in the middle of "Riven," but it might take me a while to beat "Myst III," because I hadn't beaten it before. I'm going to have to go to Cinnamon's Deli (Oh... I think I've got that name wrong), though, because I associate Riven with that place, because I remember one particular Saturday afternoon when I was yanked from "Riven" and went to Cinnamon's Deli and had a bowl of cheese brocolli soup. So I'll go there tomorrow afternoon for a "tribute" or whatever.) Unlike what you might think I've been leading up to, I'm not about to say that I have done nothing for the spirit of this web site! No! I've done next to nothing but that's far from being nothing! I completely finished my review of Abbey Road. THAT'S RIGHT, SUCKA! ...Eh! It's not the world's most inspired review, but dang it! I reviewed it! I also reviewed probably about a third of the tracks of Bob Dylan's Self Portrait. I started with the track reviews for that one because the album is so danged long! I just didn't feel like doing it the traditional way, where I write the introduction before the tracks. Oh well! (The reason I do that is because I typically don't have anything to say about the album if I already reviewed the tracks ... but I'll think of something.) I swear I would have finished it, but the Internet got disconnected in mid-song. Since I'm reviewing it on Music Rhapsody, when the Internet's out, so is the service. I don't know how long it was disconnected, because I just put on "Riven" after that and didn't quit playing until about 30 minutes ago. NOW, I've got to write a stupid 'performance appraisal' speech about a student whose speeches I haven't really been paying attention to. Oh well. I've got to come up with something tonight, though. Oh! And by the way! I re-established an account at epinions.com, "illegally." I'm wondering how long it'll take Baron Von Cleft-Chin Jackson to figure out it's me. I used my old zip code from New Jersey and changed my name to "Larry Christopher," which is a variation of my last name and middle. Also my e-mail address is "bannister@donignacio.com," which of course has my original screenname on it. I'll give him a week. Anyway, I uploaded my review of A Perfect Circle's The Thirteenth Step on there. The reason I decided to sneak 'round back to that place is because I really miss having feedback on my reviews. I'm gettin' nothin' on here as of late. I also want to have a little bit of fun. (Honestly, how can this guy expect me to stay away, anyway? If I'm banned from the site forever ... he gives me no incentive to actually stay away other than simply having the satisfaction of being free from stupid jerks. But it's stupid jerks who I like to bother!) Oh yeah ... Shhhh! Don't tell anybody! I'm going to upload some more 'views tomorrow for sure. --M.L. -----November 19, 2003 Um ... the cable is completely out in my household, which means that I am completely cut off from the outside world (as far as television and the Internet goes) and so I won't be able to update the site until those goons come by and fix it. Actually, I'm unsure who the culprit is and why the cable is completely out ... I do know that earlier this month, South Western Bell came by our house and attacked our lawn with a can of spraypaint ... so it could be related to that. At any rate, I'm going to try to figure out what the deal is either tonight or tomorrow if the situation isn't fixed. Eh ... I need a break anyway. ----- Artist Page Added: Album Reviews Added: A Perfect Circle: The Thirteenth Step (2003)
-----November 15, 2003 Man! I am so tworked off at the band "A Perfect Circle." As I was uploading these pages, I listened to their debut and ... IT WAS THE MOST EXCRUCIATINGLY BORING ALBUM THAT I HAVE HEARD IN A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG TIME! Heck! It's the worst album I've listened to since ABBA's debut. I'm going to have fun trashing it tonight. Listening to that really makes me appreciate their follow-up album, which I just uploaded (and which I reviewed a LONG time ago). November is half over, thank goodness. In a month from now, I'll be out on Christmas break! (And it doesn't look like I'm going to make that 175 music review goal! Oh well!) I was fairly good about reviewing today. I finished up that Marc Anthony review. I also reviewed Barry White's Can't Get Enough, Genesis's Wind and Whuthering, which I found to be much better than what George Starostin says it is (this might be one of our most major discrepancies), The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man, and I wrote an extremely uninteresting introduction to The Beatles' Abbey Road. The hard thing about writing this Beatles review is that I can't think of anything to say about it! Man! It's so immaculate that I can't even find a foothole! I might also get to reviewing A Perfect Circle's Mer De Noms, which is so awful that I feel completely drained at the moment. I don't feel like reviewing anything else for a little while! (Man! That was soooo bad!) Well ... the Bowie ticket auction ran out today, and there were no takers. (YOU JERKS!!!!!!!) I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'll think of something. If I don't feel so drained tomorrow, I'll probably attempt to review Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road as well as finish that Beatles review. Other than that, I probably won't be able to do anything else, because we're going to celebrate my birthday! (It's on Monday ... I'll be 21, which means I'll probably show up at a bar somewhere and get sloth-faced ... then again, I don't think I'll ever drink.) Oh, and by the way. Earlier I mentioned that I was going to review Madonna's Erotica but there was a problem with my disc ... so I'm not going to touch any more of Madonna's stuff until she puts her stuff online (which might take a few years ... it's interesting and probably even smart of Madonna to reject the online music revolution because if people were able to pre-listen to her stuff, they would never purchase it.) Well ... I think I'm going to go to sleep, actually. (Man! That album left me so draiiiiiiined! What a crap, crap album!!!!!!!!!!) --M.L. ----- Album Reviews Added: ABBA: Chess (1984)
-----November 14, 2003 Holy freaking crap! I bombed test #293845 of the semester today. Man! I totally blanked out on two problems on the calculus test. And man! It's not like I didn't try studying for it! (I didn't have as much time as I would like ... because EVERYTHING WAS JUST MUCH BUSIER THAN I ANTICIPATED!!!! Notice how I didn't update anything since the 10th. Yeah! I didn't work on a thing since then! This was supposed to be my not-busy week, too. And it was busy. How do you like them apples? (WORMY!) I lowered the price of the Bowie tickets to $48 and there was not a bite. There is about 15 hours or so left for people to bid on it. Hopefully, somebody will put in a bid! Yikes! I'm guessing people don't trust me to e-mail the ticket to them and then on the big night, they might be afraid that I'll come in early with my own ticket and swipe it ... or perhaps even selling the same ticket to other people. I don't blame 'em. I might just give it away, then. Possibly to bowiewonderworld.com or something. (I always liked that site. Might as well do a bit o charity if I can't get rid of it.) That Chess review was from my old epinions.com days ... I thought I'd might as well upload it. It's sort of an ABBA album, even though the gals have long-departed ... and it's a musical play soundtrack. I was hoping to write a lot tonight, but I ended up just listening to a bunch of stuff. That Tonight review I had mostly-written on Monday except for three tracks. I finished that up with no problem. I also wrote the introduction to Marc Anthony's sophomore album Some Stupid Spanish Name That I Don't Feel Like Looking Up Right Now. Man! His reviews are as irrelevant as this site gets, which is something I need more of! Even though the dude does have talent, his albums are about as throwaway and unimportant as it gets (which is a perfect breeding ground for irrelevant silliness). I'm also nearly prepared to write a review of Barry White's third album Can't Get Enough, which is much much better than Stone Gon' thank goodness. Also, I'll start reviewing The Byrds pretty soon and I'll probably get to Bob Dylan's Self Portrait. (Yeah ... this is a highly underrated album!) My birthday is in three days, and we're going to celebrate it tomorrow by going to the MOOOVEEESSS. We're going to see "Masters and Commanders," which I'm expecting will be a fine flicker. On Sunday, we're going to go to Arkansas City to visit my brother. HOaaaaaaah! --M.L. ----- Album Reviews Added: Barry White: Stone Gon' (1973)
-----November 10, 2003 Oh! I decided to do a Barry White review! I don't know why ... I didn't say I was going to do another Barry White review yesterday. I'm actually proud of myself today. I wrote two reviews! That Barry White one I didn't even listen to outside of today. I listened to it a couple times, I didn't feel that I had to listen to it more times, I wrote it fairly quickly yet it's fairly lengthy. I'm going to read it tomorrow and discover that it is crap, but so what? The point is that it is done! I also did that Blondie review today, but that's no surprise. I listened to it a few times yesterday and ... you know ... it is much easier (for me) to review an album that I hate as opposed to an album that I love. Also, it is easier to review albums that haven't been reviewed before by a trusting resource. The only other reviews of these albums that I could find were either from the All Music Guide and Rolling Stone magazine! Well, I had an easy and slow day today. Unfortunately tomorrow will not be as such. I have straight classes from 8:30-12:15 and then after that, I have to get cracking with *TWO* news articles. One of them is about the guy who discovered the Titanic in the 80s, Robert Ballard, who is coming to Wichita State this Thursday. I did the primary interview already; I just have to speak with some teacher who *NEVER CALLED ME BACK!* (So she can't be in my article now! HAH!) This is going to be a short article, anyway. Technically, he is here because Wichita State promoted some science education program (called the Jason Project) within the Wichita Public School district. The teacher whom I wanted to get back with me was doing this program since it began. Well ... she was an accessory! College students probably don't give much of a crap! (Possibly, I might try contacting her again tomorrow afternoon, and then there is another teacher I could try to call.) Also, and this is the painful one, I have to get a student reaction on the Collegiate Readership Program. This is a program that the Student Government Association (my coverage beat) is going to vote on in Wednesday's meeting. If they approve it, then $190,000 (!) will be taken out of the association's reserve fund and put into this program, which will provide students with three different newspapers on campus. WELL, the university supreme court justice (whose function, I gathered, is to do NOTHING) wrote in a strong letter to the editor against this program. (Which, I guess, he isn't supposed to do, because the supreme court justice apparently isn't supposed to have an opinion ... so now I have to see if he gets thrown out or not, which I don't suspect he will, because this guy is annoying as it is.) Well, now that there has been some opposition expressed, I have to get a student reaction. The problem for me with getting student reactions is that I am shy! I hate approaching people and asking them questions. When I do this on campus, I try to make dang well sure that this person is in four different categories: 1. He/she doesn't look busy or hurried; 2. he/she is going to the parking lot, signifying that they are finished with classes; 3. he/she is not smoking or on a cell phone (which is half of the student population!); 4. he/she doesn't look capable of biting my head off. Yeah ... I am an awful reporter. I ought to just do this for a living! (Hah!) ...So I'm not looking forward to that. Plus, I think that my recently-turned-evil geology professor is going to redeem himself by giving us a takehome test that is worth a possible 10 percent extra to our grade. That's nice, but if he would have graded my test nicely to begin with, then ... --M.L. Artist Page Added: Album Reviews Added: The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed (1967)
-----November 9, 2003 Oooooooooooh! The weekend is over already! Don't you just hate it when that happens? Thank goodness that I was actually able to enjoy this weekend. This week, it'll be back to work for sure! (However, it won't be as unrelentlessly busy as last week was, I believe.) I saw "Elf" today at the theater starring Will Ferrell, and I must say that I was shocked to find out that it was so good! The critics loved it, so I thought ... why not? Hollywood's really on a roll with these silly, yet family-friendly comedies lately. Last summer, Disney released "Pirates of the Caribbean," which might just be their funniest live-action film of all time. I never had my hopes up for "Pirates" based on the previews, but it turned out to be excellent. Then there was the re-make of "Freaky Friday," which I thought would be utterly awful as well and just something for preteen girls, but it turned out to be endearing and hilarious, too. NEXT, there was "School of Rock." I actually thought I was going to like "School of Rock," and I was thankfully correct! It's the most genuine new film I've seen in ages. And now there's "Elf!" Based on the preview I saw of it on the Internet, I thought it was going to be absolutely awful (it contained a scene of Will Ferrell wrestling a racoon). ...And then I saw a preview of it a few weeks ago, and I thought, ya know, this might just be something worth seeing. Boy! I was just cracking up at the theater! I thought the final third of it could have used a little less sap and a few more laughs ... but my sides were still hurting from the first two-thirds, so I didn't care. Will Farrell (4th generation SNL) might just become a star out of this ... if he continues to land good scripts that is. (Such is a tough thing.) Previously, I also saw a preview of "The Cat in the Hat," which just made me think that it was going to SUCK. But before "Elf" started, I saw a funnier preview. Well ... perhaps that'll be another good film on that string. Well, the Bowie ticket's not selling yet unfortunately. If I can't even sell in on Ebay for $50, I might just offer to barter with somebody on bowiewonderworld.com, perhaps for some of his out-of-print albums. (Hey! If I can't get my money back, I'd might as well get something.) I still hope to get $61 for it. I'm impatiently awaiting. Coming up in a few days will be Blondie's final album The Hunter, which is awful, David Bowie's Tonight, Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Madonna's insanely long Erotica. --M.L. Artist Page Added: Album Reviews Added: Barry White: I've Got So Much to Give (1973)
-----November 8, 2003 For some silly reason, I tried to convince myself against uploading more than one artist page on here today. Oh so sue me! I really don't want to get too carried away with beginning too many artists, though. I should finish the ones I already have! And, that is what I'm working on at the moment! I'm about halfway through writing the next Genesis album, Trick of the Tail, and I'm listening to the next Foreigner album, Inside Information, which will be the last Foreigner album I will review for now! (Foreigner had other albums after this, but they are not available on Music Rhapsody.) Well ... the night is still young, so I hope to write both of these reviews before I go to bed. I put my Bowie ticket up for sale today on Ebay ... it was a hard thing to do, but now that I've got it on sale, I know it's the best thing. Even though it was a 'pilgrimage' of sorts, I have to forget it. I simply don't have enough money! And I'm not going to dig into my savings (a principle which I abused too many times). At any rate, this takes off a lot of pressure, and now all I have to do is worry about raising $120 for the SALT conference (as well as some extra spending money I imagine, which might just be covered within my relatives monetary presents ... if I get 'em! I don't take anything for granted anymore!) The ticket, I won't be able to sell for the $80 I spent for it. It really sucks, but Illinois apparently has a law that you can't resell tickets for more than the face value. The face value is $61. Ticketmaster charges $10 'convienience charge' (convienient FOR THEM!) PLUS $2.50 for the 'privilege' to have the ticket e-mailed to me and, to top that off, the government wanted a huge chunk of my ass, so they added on some extra cost with that! Anyway, if I sell it for the $80, it would be illegal for anyone in Illinois to purchase the ticket. Because I don't think anyone outside of Illinois would be too keen on buying it, I thought I'd just sell it for $61 and see if anyone bites. Because there are still decent seats available for the concert, I might not even be able to sell it for that! If there are no bids two days before it runs out, I'll probably end up lowering it to $50. (If I put it on Ebay again I'll have to pay them another $2.20, which I'd rather just avoid. I want to get rid of this ticket within the next seven days.) Maybe the next time David Bowie tours, I'll try to catch it ... though I doubt I'll ever have antoher ideal chance to do it like I did this year. *sigh* Anyway, whatever money I get back from this, I decided that I'm going to actually spend it on STUFF! I don't need to save it. Saving money is for chumps. I was thinking it might be a fun idea to just purchase the entire Japan discography. (Oh! It's hardly a replacement for seeing David Bowie live, but Japan is one of those old school bands who I only heard a few tracks from and it managed to turn me into an obsessive person about it ... the song "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" is currently in my Top 10 of 80s songs.) And there's absolutely nothing by this band on Music Rhapsody. (I've been regularly 'checking' for it, but it's been no dice ever since August.) They have some David Sylvian solo albums, though. I might also have to start reviewing some Doors albums. I noticed, today, that they added in some of their albums. Coincidentally, the two Doors albums that I own the tangible disc of, The Doors and Strange Days haven't been uploaded! Even if they never get loaded, I can still do a Doors page. How cool is that? (They're missing The Soft Parade, though, but I'll probably get over it.) Oh! And I'm on the search engines now! I typed in "donignacio.com" and WHAM! There I was! I was also added on the dmoz.com categories. Also, today, I gave my front page a bit of a facelift. I added in a welcome statement, the FAQ, and a copyright disclaimer. I also added myself on a music review web ring, and I put the graphic for it at the bottom. I hope to start getting some traffic ... some day. --M.L. ------ Artist Page Added: Album Reviews Added: Marc Anthony: Otra Nota (1993)
-----November 7, 2003 Oh man! I just saw that cover art of that Marc Anthony album, and I simply had to review it! Although, I realize that I may one day feel obligated to review his entire discography now. (Oh no! What have I gotten myself into??) I'm now wondering what I did to tick off my geology professor. I got my test back yesterday (hence the cryptic comment I left) and it was at a sixty-five percent! I noticed that he didn't give me ANY credit for two problems, in which I did the right thing. One one problem, we were supposed to label the parts of a crystal-shape. It's put on a three-dimensional graph, and by that, we're supposed to be able to name the sides with a series of numbers. WELL, I did that, but I misestimated the lengths, which by the way were not clearly marked, and I got the whole thing wrong! Everything else I did right! I just said the lengths were 1.5, and they were really 1. I asked him about it later, and he ended up giving me 2 points out of the 10 possible. But still! EVERYTHING ELSE, I DID ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! (And you probably have no idea what I'm talking about!) Grrr... And there was another problem that I forgot to do something, but what I did put down was part of the answer and correct, yet I got the whole thing wrong again. But he ended up giving me two points extra there. So now it's a 69. But that's still not good. I wanted a B in that class. (He told us something interesting, that he found crystallography excruciatingly difficult when he was in that class, so now I'm wondering if part of this was some type of keeping-the-tradition-going thing.) We also has a mineral quiz today where we were supposed to identify specific minerals. I probably failed that one, too. (WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS WORLD?!) Everything! The world is against me and all the other pod people! Oooooooh, man! I don't think I'm going to that Bowie concert anymore. I just can't afford it. With all these stupid services I'm signed up for (and I really am going to cancel Netflix ASAP) and two entirely unsteady jobs, I just can't afford to go. I'm still going to give myself a little bit of time to think about it. (I've been having these 'second thoughts' for probably about three or four weeks now, and the cashflow situation has not improved whatsoever.) But, in all liklihood, it is now just a faded dream. Boy! I have no idea how I'm going to sell this ticket, either! It was e-mailed to me! Hopefully, I'll be able to get the full $81 back I paid for it. (I might compromise and buy a few t-shirts or something.) Anyway ... It did take me awhile to admit that. (Roly Poly's has bailed out on me this weekend. I was supposed to work tomorrow, but I got called today saying not to come in. Ooh! I was so excited when I got called back there! When I talked to her two or so weeks ago, I asked her not to give me anything over 20 hours. Now, I can't even get 20 minutes! This world is against me! I also has a pretty busy week. My speech went well, at least. I think. I didn't go "Uhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhh" in the introduction again, like I did the last time. --M.L. ----- |