Music guilt

Every five years or so, I succumb to "music guilt". This phenomenon is the realisation that I own a hell of a lot of music that I never listen to.

My solution for this is to force myself to listen to all of my music.

Last time I did this, my music was all on CDs. My CDs are sorted alphabetically by artist (and soundtrack name), so I started with "About A Boy" and finished with You Am I.

This time it's all in iTunes, and there's a lot more of it (over 30 GB). To ensure I wouldn't be listening to the same artist over and over again, I sorted iTunes by album, so there was a good mix of artists and styles. I started listening in February ("1" by The Beatles), and finished today ("9" by Damien Rice).

Part-way through this experiment, iTunes changed the way it orders items alphabetically, which threw me off a bit. In February, numbered titles appeared at the beginning (before A), and now they appear at the end (after Z) - hence why I started and ended with numbered titles. Also, titles starting with The originally appeared under T, but now the The is ignored and they're sorted alphabetically by the next word.

Annoyingly, these changes were applied to iTunes, but not to the iPod software, so the album order is different between the two.

I always play music when I've got my computer on (yes, I study while listening to music - always have, always will), and otherwise I listen to my iPod - either on the way to and from uni, or in the car.

I was quite strict about listening to the albums in order, although I did allow some to jump the queue, e.g. if I bought/acquired a new album, or if I was going to see a specific band in concert (Dave Matthews Band, My Friend The Chocolate Cake) or on the big screen (Dixie Chicks), or if I just felt like it for some reason.

There are 4 albums that I haven't listened to for a good reason - I don't feel like listening to Christmas albums when Christmas is so far away!

This experiment has reminded me of how much I love my music collection! It was great to hear some of the stuff that I don't listen to very often (e.g. albums that I've acquired from friends) - none of it's bad music, but it's just not my favourite thing to listen to.

I have many, many soundtracks in my collection (71 according to iTunes). I'm a sucker for a soundtrack - they're often wonderful mixes of unusual/popular songs. I love: "About A Boy", "The Beach", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Garden State", "High Fidelity", "Kill Bill Vol. 1", "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels", "Lost In Translation", "Northern Exposure", "The Piano", "Pulp Fiction", "SeaChange", "Singles", "Twin Peaks", "The Virgin Suicides", and so on...

The bands/artists I have the most albums for are: R.E.M. (21), U2 (13), My Friend The Chocolate Cake (7), Chris Isaak (7), Dave Matthews Band (6), Crowded House (6), Counting Crows (5), INXS (5), Powderfinger (5), Stereophonics (5), Smashing Pumpkins (4), The Whitlams (4), Eva Cassidy (4), Dixie Chicks (4), k.d. lang (4), Things of Stone and Wood (4). I also have a lot of "Best of" collections (over 30), several of the Ministry of Sound collections, and various 80s collections.

So now that's done, I can get back to listening to my favourite tunes! First up is "Give Up" by The Postal Service - haven't listened to it since 18 April (according to iTunes)...

Dolly Doctor

We had a lecture today from the doctor who is actually "Dolly Doctor"!

Anyone who was ever a teenage girl (or boy??) in Australia will understand just how awesome this is.

Here's an article she wrote about it in the MJA: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/183_08_171005/kan10595_fm.html

Triple J Hottest 100

Over the past few days I've listened to the Triple J Hottest 100 CDs, from 1 to 14.

If you're not familiar with the Hottest 100, Triple J radio in Australia runs a countdown every January (usually on Australia Day), where listeners have voted for their favourite songs of the previous year, and the top 100 are played in reverse order. It's an institution these days, and people even hold Hottest 100 parties (I've been to a few over the years). Then, in about July of the same year, Triple J release a double CD containing about 42 of the Hottest 100 songs. I've bought every one of these CDs.

(The Hottest 100 started in 1989, and for the first 3 years it was a countdown of listeners' favourite songs of all time. They skipped 1992, then relaunched it in 1993, focusing only on songs from the previous year. They started producing the CDs in 1993 too.)

The CDs are generally a good mix of music, but each year there is at least one completely shit song that I can forgive listeners for voting into the countdown, but I can't forgive the Triple J producers for putting onto the CDs at the expense of something brilliant.

My favourites are numbers 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. The early CDs can transport me back to their specific years in seconds, allowing me to reminisce about my days at uni in the early 90s. The standard has fallen in recent years, although perhaps I can put that down to my music tastes evolving beyond what Triple J plays (e.g. I really can't stand Wolfmother).

Anyway, for each Hottest 100 double CD, I've listed my favourite song (difficult to choose just one), the hidden treasure, and the completely shit song (you'll see that I'm not a fan of The Bloodhound Gang). Anyone care to challenge me?

Hottest 100 1 (1993)

• Favourite: "Cannonball" - The Breeders
• Hidden treasure: "Juice" - Headless Chickens
• Shit: "All That She Wants" - Ace of Base

Hottest 100 2 (1994)

• Favourite: "Cornflake Girl" - Tori Amos
• Hidden treasure: "Fall" - Single Gun Theory
• Shit: "Absolutely Fabulous" - Pet Shop Boys

Hottest 100 3 (1995)

• Favourite: "Common People" - Pulp
• Hidden treasure: "Summer" - Buffalo Tom
• Shit: "The Reefer Song" - Mindless Drug Hoover AND "I Wanna Be A Hippy" - Technohead

Hottest 100 4 (1996)

• Favourite: "Underground" - Ben Folds Five
• Hidden treasure: "Coppertone" - Fini Scad
• Shit: "Ballad of the Skeletons" - Allen Ginsberg

Hottest 100 5 (1997)

• Favourite: "Bitter Sweet Symphony" - The Verve
• Hidden treasure: "Crazy" - Cordrazine
• Shit: "Fire Water Burn" - The Bloodhound Gang

Hottest 100 6 (1998)

• Favourite: "Intergalactic" - The Beastie Boys
• Hidden treasure: "Drinking in L.A." - Bran Van 3000
• Shit: "I Don't Like It" - Pauline Pantsdown

Hottest 100 7 (1999)

• Favourite: "Weir" - Killing Heidi
• Hidden treasure: "Theophilus Thistler...An Exercise In Vowels" - Sonicanimation
• Shit: "The Bad Touch" - The Bloodhound Gang

Hottest 100 8 (2000)

• Favourite: "The Time Is Now" - Moloko
• Hidden treasure: "Teenager Of The Year" - Lo-Tel
• Shit: "Sunset (Bird of Prey)" - Fatboy Slim

Hottest 100 9 (2001)

• Favourite: "Where's Your Head At?" - Basement Jaxx
• Hidden treasure: "Dust Me Selecta" - Gerling
• Shit: "Fat Cop" - Regurgitator

Hottest 100 10 (2002)

• Favourite: "Don't Mug Yourself" - The Streets
• Hidden treasure: "Punk's Not Dead" - Darren Hanlon
• Shit: "6.66" - Salmon Hater

Hottest 100 11 (2003)

• Favourite: "Step Into My Office, Baby" - Belle & Sebastian
• Hidden treasure: "Life Sentence" - Epicure
• Shit: "Gay Bar" - Electric Six

Hottest 100 12 (2004)

• Favourite: "Fit But You Know It" - The Streets
• Hidden treasure: "Somersault" - Decoder Ring
• Shit: "Chicken Payback" - The Bees

Hottest 100 13 (2005)

• Favourite: "Do Do's and Whoa-oh's" - Kisschasy
• Hidden treasure: "This Year" - The Mountain Goats
• Shit: "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" - The Bloodhound Gang

Hottest 100 14 (2006)

• Favourite: "One Crowded Hour" - Augie March
• Hidden treasure: "Heart's A Mess" - Gotye
• Shit: "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)" - Eagles of Death Metal

Black Sheep

Tonight I saw the NZ film "Black Sheep".

"An experiment in genetic engineering turns harmless sheep into blood-thirsty killers that terrorise a sprawling New Zealand farm."

It's a shlock-horror zombie flick, and I was really hoping it would be as good as "Shaun of the Dead" - but that was asking a bit much.

It's amusing, with plenty of clever lines, plus some more obvious sex-with-sheep jokes, and an obsession with fart jokes (which was unexpected).

It's over-the-top gory, in the style of the early Peter Jackson films "Bad Taste" and "Braindead". For example, when a sheep tears out the intestines of a human victim, the camera doesn't pan away - we get to see EVERYTHING. I have a high tolerance for that sort of thing, but even I was wishing I hadn't eaten dinner before seeing the movie.

The special effects and creature designs are AMAZING, and they're one of the the main reasons I wanted to see the film. They were done by Weta Workshop, who did the effects for the Lord of the Rings films.

It's really beautifully filmed too - yet another film showcasing New Zealand's natural beauty. I have to go there!

I think what let it down was the acting - very wooden, especially from Danielle Mason, who played the female lead. Every time she spoke I just wanted her to shut the hell up! She wasn't believable at all.

And it's also not really scary. Just gory. Oh so very gory.

But I'm glad I saw it - my curiosity is satisfied. However I'm also glad that I didn't pay to see it - I won tickets from Triple J...

Scrubbers and bitches

Last night I caught up with a couple of my close girlfriends. We've been friends for over 25 years.

For a long, long time, this group of friends has eschewed names when talking to each other, and instead we call each other "Scrubber", "Scrub", "Slapper", "Bitch", and even "Skanky Ho". This applies in person, on the phone, in emails, etc. It's very common to hear me answer the phone and say "Hi scrub, how you going?"

We were speaking like this long before Paris and her merry band of scrubbers even knew how to pronounce the words!

One of the friends I saw last night has lived in the US for the past couple of years, and she was home for a short visit. She was telling us about how she's made friends over there, but that it's just not the same as hanging out with her old friends. At the end of the night, she sighed, smiled, and said "It's just so good to be called "Bitch" again".

Heh - gotta love that.