Jason Smith

See you tomorrow NYC.

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:24:24 -0500

See you tomorrow NYC.

"Goldwater was encouraged to rave and snarl at the cameras until he ran out of things to say. His..."

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:05:43 -0500

“Goldwater was encouraged to rave and snarl at the cameras until he ran out of things to say. His speech set the tone for the whole convention, and his only real competition was Ronald Reagan. Compared to those two, both Agnew and Nixon sounded like bleeding-heart liberals.”

- Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail ‘72, Hunter S. Thompson

Workplace Win

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:09:14 -0500

I once convinced our graphic designer that the reason why most web pages were predominately white was because it cost more money to display color.

Maurizio Cattelan All, 2007 I had the chance to see this piece...

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:26:00 -0500

Maurizio Cattelan All, 2007

I had the chance to see this piece at the Menil in Houston over the summer, and of all the Cattelan on display this one is still the most thought provoking and intriguing.

The 9 marble sculptures are displayed in an empty room, and the effect upon entry is startling. (Via)

xkcd: Orbiter This is so true.

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:32:32 -0500

xkcd: Orbiter

This is so true.

kevinnuut replied to your post: Reasons Why Ping Is Useless Thoughts on hypem.com ? I think...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:56:30 -0500

kevinnuut replied to your post: Reasons Why Ping Is Useless

Thoughts on hypem.com ?

I think The Hype Machine is great. I use it to look for MP3’s of hard to find tracks that I can’t buy. As far as music discovery is concerned I don’t use it that much. I did submit my Top 10 albums of 2009 to their Zeitgeist which I thought was pretty cool.

Also, Anthony is a genuinely great guy and I would recommend talking to him if you ever get the chance. His girlfriend was living here and that gave the opportunity to see him around town fairly often. Though I haven’t seen either of them since SXSW.

Feathers - Buxton I think we can all agree that Houston has a...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:09:00 -0500

Feathers - Buxton

I think we can all agree that Houston has a terrible* music scene. It’s not that there aren’t good bands. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s a weird music town. Marc, tell me I’m wrong You’re there, and I’m just an outsider looking in.

But that’s not what we are here to talk about today. Give this track a listen. Buxton is from Houston, and one day Cactus Music might decide to send me the 7” of this that I ordered from them weeks ago. They are worth seeing live, and will be in Austin in late September.

Also, if you’re looking for more Houston music I would recommend Roky Moon & Bolt. They are straight up glam rock, and sound better in person than the recordings they have up.

^{*That’s probably hyperbole}

Reasons Why Ping Is Useless

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:48:05 -0500

This is a quick review of the Ping service that iTunes launched

iTunes has plenty of information about what I listen to and what I buy, and yet there are no recommendations from the start. Even their lame genius feature in the store attempts to do this.
Finding people isn’t tied to twitter or facebook, but emails addresses. So, I’ll never try to find anyone.
The artists you can follow are lame. I’m not interested in them, and I already don’t follow facebook pages because I find the updates to be inane usually. I am interested in these people because of the art they create, not their photos of them on tour. Unless you’re Tom Waits. I’ll follow him on any network.
There is also no artist sign up so local/small bands won’t be on it. This will not aid in music discovery, or bringing smaller artists recognition. What a waste of an opportunity.
It is completely tied to iTunes, and what if you listen to music they don’t sell? Then you have no way of sharing that with your friends.

^{*All of the above opinions are subject to change based on user adoption, and improvements to the service Apple makes, but it looks like I will continue to use last.fm and just asking my friends in person about music.}

Running On Fumes - OBN III’s You’re allowed to put...

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:31:00 -0500

Running On Fumes - OBN III’s

You’re allowed to put your own stuff up, right?

Anyway, we are playing Beerland on Friday see you all there. We’ve got a few new recordings on the myspace as well.

GPOYW - Jorts Edition

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:27:34 -0500

GPOYW - Jorts Edition

Dig On This I remember being a kid and my parents always playing...

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:34:57 -0500

Dig On This

I remember being a kid and my parents always playing the Oldies station. Of course I loved it, and then Jr. High came around and suddenly I was embarrassed to like anything that wasn’t on MTV. Sometime during High School the station changed formats and stopped playing anything before the British Invasion. I wouldn’t even know where to look on the radio for this stuff anymore.

Not that is was a big deal to me then, but lately I’ve been really into some Motown/Northern Soul. This is a quick 10 song mix I put together that I think is pretty strong.

Gino Is A Coward - Gino Washington
31 Flavors - The Shirelles
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) - The Four Tops
You Can’t Hurry Love - The Supremes
Runaway - Del Shannon
Come See About Me - Nella Dodds
Stay - The Hollies
Laisse Tomber Les Filles - France Gall
Whiplash - The Shells
You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me - The Miracles

Get it here*, or click the picture. If you end up liking any of this find a way to get money to the artist.

^{*Mix tapes available for five days after posting}

uhoh

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:22:00 -0500

cderby:

Student: You blog miss? What do you blog on?
Me: I cant tell you.
Student: I blog on tumblr. It’s like Narnia in there.
Me: I know RIGHT?…I mean…I don’t know what you’re talking about.

This represents an incredible waste of strings. Why...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:10:07 -0500

This represents an incredible waste of strings.

Why wouldn’t you just stay on the guitar? That’s your only job.

Done and done! Thanks, and hopefully my post doesn't repulse you anymore :)

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:37:49 -0500

Thanks, and now I’m going to have all kinds of horrific grammar mistakes that you will be able to point out.

Now playing: The Kinks

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:27:00 -0500

Now playing: The Kinks

My dad has a gig coming up, and he asked me to make him a...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:52:58 -0500

My dad has a gig coming up, and he asked me to make him a poster.

Somewhere there is a hipster

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:46:34 -0500

who thinks that the lyric to the Beatles song, “And Your Bird Can Sing” is “Andrew Bird can sing.”

Don’t waste your Saturday mornings.

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:19:17 -0500

Don’t waste your Saturday mornings.

Mathilde - Jacques Brel I was thrilled to get this record in the...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:07:00 -0500

Mathilde - Jacques Brel

I was thrilled to get this record in the mail last week after about a year of looking for it. The Frenchman I bought it from even wrote a note expressing how shocked he was that an American was buying the record.

This might be my favorite song off of it, and it always makes me think of this. The switch to F major at around 2:10 kills. So grand.

I’d rather not.

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:51:33 -0500

I’d rather not.