The Station

http://robertjhastings.com/

Synchronicitea

I believe every word of this story - cool.

Lonely Jew on Christmas

For Those About to Rock...

It's been a rocking end of the year.

We had Guitar Hero 2 set up at the annual JamBase holiday party. Right there in the conference room, projector and all. It was a sight to see. Jessica, Freebird, Message in a Bottle. Wow. You could really feel the intensity in there and even our meetings since have possessed a certain ShreadFactor which is hard to describe. \\__//



Tonight, Steven Colbert presented his Guitar Solo Challenge with Decemberist's guitarist Chris Funk. It had moments of funny, but felt a little mailed in especially with all the album promos and payola references. Still funny though, even when Steven chickened out at the end and brought on a ringer...i'll let you watch and find out.

As we approach the end of the year, it's nice to get a dose of some simple (shready) mindless entertainment. Instead of all that constant barrage of, you know...truthiness.

Moment of Zen

The Disco Biscuits Return

It had been 4 years, 9 months and 2 days 4 years, 2 months and 12 days since The Disco Biscuits played a show in San Francisco. Ironically enough, The band lived just south of the city in Santa Cruz for a solid few years of that expanse, yet never quite made their way up to the city for a big gig.

After a lot of waiting, prodding, begging, convincing, suggesting and divine intervention, they finally returned to the stage in the city by the bay this past weekend, this time for two nights at The Independent.

The shows, which had been sold out for a few weeks in anticipation of their triumphant return, find the Biscuits settling into their new line-up after what all accounts have said was their best tour in recent memory. Drummer Allen Aucoin (who replaced Dr. aspiring Sam Altman last year) had actually never been to San Francisco before this past weekend.

The stars seemed to align well as the band delivered two solid performances, showcasing the kind stuff that makes them truly the only ones that do what they do. With setlists interwoven with new favorites and old classics, it appeared from the look and feel of it like the band was back in a prime form and hitting strides they haven't felt in a few years.

They are truly at the top of their game when they're all playing together, patiently confident. Often times they try too hard or want to get to the peak so quickly. But it is the journey that is the prize. As it is the moments in between the peaks, when the band is finding their groove or just settling into one, or building on a rhythm or exchanging melodies that build into rhythms and back into melodies, which are often the most interesting...

It was great to go back into that world which I've been absent from for so many years. To re-experience this kind of music that can be so powerful, emotional and exciting, forging ahead into the future...

Once around the world and now I think I'm done...seeya on the boat.

You have new Picture Mail!

San Fran Bisco

The JamBase 2007 Wall Calendar

As we've done the past 2 years, JamBase has produced a beautiful Wall Calendar with a dozen up and coming artists (and some legends)!

The best part? All the money goes to charity.

Read all about it here.

Buy a few and give them away. It's a great gift for a great cause.

A Call for Feedback

I just posted a message to the JamBase forum asking for some ideas on future features and general feedback on what you like and what you'd like.

Feel free to drop by and lend a hand.

Thread

The Slip find themselves

I've been following The Slip for the past eight years since the glory days of From the Gecko. Throughout this amazing trio's evolution it seems that they've always been searching for a defining sound as they continue to innovate in new directions.

From Jazz beginnings through Rocking, Accoustic, Indie and even some electronic, the band has been all over the map.

With their latest release, Eisenhower - they have settled into a confident stride of top quality SONGS. Strong songs, with lyrics that move and melodies to compliment. It feels like The Slip have hit a stride and are as confident as ever in these shoes.

Clear from the beginning of the anthemic "Children of December", through the Guitar Hero "Even Rats" and the tear jerking "If One of Us Should Fall", the band adds new instruments and arrangements to bring a deep layered texture to their familiar muse.

It's "Life in Disguise" which could be the strongest song lyrically and musically (for me) on this release.

Enjoy...

JamBase Review

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Just saw this movie - it's truly amazing how stupid and corrupt the people who run these companies and are country can be sometimes.

See it for yourself and be amazed...

Computer Maintenance

I spent a couple days this past week performing routine maintenance on a few computers in my office. Some have been out of commission for a while so it was time to update and clean them to be used again.

Today I was talking to a friend about their computer situation and they were complaining that it was slow, so I offered to check it out. What I realized is that most people are likely working on un-updated, inefficient computers that could be optimized with a few words of encouragement.

So, here is my attempt to give you all a few examples of the things that I do when I am trying to fix or update a computer. I offer these words simply from my own experience, and I hope they help speed things up for you.

(note: PC users only, MAC folks - i envy you and your AppleCare)

1. Windows Update
- Open Internet Explorer, select Tools > Windows Update
- Follow the instructions and install all of the latest security updates (especially the critical ones)
- If you haven't updated in a while, you'll get the latest IE 7.0. It's better. You'll also get a ton of Windows Security fixes. These are small pieces of code which patch some security hole found in Windows.
- Also be sure to turn on Auto Updates. This will download and install updates to your computer every night at 3am when available.
- Restart when prompted

2. Disk Clean-up
Generally speaking, it's a good idea to delete any old files you haven't used in a while. If you can't bear to part with that term paper you wrote in college, get an external hard drive and back it up.

Your computer also comes with a lot of useless installed software (AOL, seriously?)
- Go to Start > Control Panels > Add / Remove Programs
- Look through this list and remove anything that you know you never use. If you don't know what it is, you're better off leaving it be since it may be a system important file. Be sure to leave anything Windows Security related.

You can also clean things up by running a disk cleanup utility that comes with windows. Open My Computer > Right click on the C: drive and select properties. At the bottom of this page is a "Disk Cleanup" button. Click it. Once it calculates how much space you'll save by performing certain actions, look through the list and check the boxes which make the most sense for you. Note: compressing old files may take a while

All of these actions will save you a lot of space as well as time for when you perform the next item on the list...

3. Defragment Hard Drive
- Open My Computer, right click on your Local Disk C: drive and select Properties
- Select the second tab: Tools
- Click "Defragment Now..."
- Click Analyze
- If it tells you that you should defragment your computer, then guess what? Do it!
- Note: You typically need around 15% disk space to perform this operation. Remove any extraneous files before you defrag (see #2 above)
- Repeat the defragment process for your additional hard drives

It's good to Degfragment every month or so - think of it like an oil change.

4. Error Checking
- In the same menu as Defrag (C: Properties > Tools), select "Check Now..." under Error Checking
- Select both boxes for "automatically fix file system errors" and "scan and attempt to recover bad sectors"
- Start
- Note: if this is the C: drive, then likely you'll get an alert here that it can't check the drive because it is the boot up drive and it needs certain utilities. Click Yes
- Reboot your computer, upon reboot, a blue screen will appear and check your computer for errors. Go get something to drink or walk outside to the park for 15-20 minutes while this runs.

...that's about it. I could go into more details about Paging Files and Optimization Performance but we'll save that for another post. I hope this helps and feel free to leave a comment if you've got other sagely computer advice for our readers. Honestly, I think all of this should be a lot easier for the casual computer user to do without having to call the Geek Squad.

Do you see the arrow?

I've seen this logo a thousand times, and not once until now when it was pointed out to me (thanks Tanner!) did I notice the arrow between the E and the X.

It's right there, staring me in the face, but I've never noticed it. What does it mean? Why is it important?

The arrow is clearly a symbol for movement, direction, evolution - which are all things that FedEx is trying to embolden. Is it a coincidence or did they pick that font and colors specifically so that once you've discovered the arrow, you can't help but notice it?

Does it make me feel more confident in their company to know that they're thinking about the progressive qualities of an arrow? Maybe, but if I had to guess I bet somebody over there in their marketing department considered it.

What else aren't we seeing?

Interview with the Logo Creator