NAME: Ian Brill
BLOG NAME: Brill Building
NAME OF CD: Mix Your Mind Up
NUMBER OF CUTS: 21
RUNNING TIME: 74:43
COVER ART: No
SONG LIST: His posts of June 8 & June 12
ALREADY REVIEWED BY: Chris “Lefty” Brown on June 20
GENERAL THOUGHTS: There are CDs from the bloggers that I could say quite specific things, based on the fact that they are of a theme, or what not. This is not one of them. I found Ian’s album to be just a bunch of good eclectic cuts without any discernable concept, except the first cut from the Brill Building, which was just fine. Probably more hip hop than any of the other CDs to date, and I found I enjoyed that.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: Actually quite a bit: Dr. Octogon, the Magnetic Fields, Sonic’s Rendezvous, even the ABBA cut, which was totally unknown to me.
ON THE OTHER HAND: What’s with the numbering? 01-09, 12-14, 14b, 14c, 15, 17-22 – ah mess my mind up with “Mix Your Mind Up.”
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: The Brill Building, for those of you who didn’t know, is a place in NYC where songwriters such as Neil Sedaka and Carole King worked in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Star librarians
As I’ve said somewhere, I am a librarian. I’ve been working at the same job for over 12 years, the second longest-tenured person in my organization (but #1 has me beat by about eight years.)
Last week, I went to a morning training session about the Economic Census. I thought it was interesting. Anyway, one of my former colleagues, Sheldon, with whom I worked for over five years, was there, as was one of our former interns, Fran, who was here for several months. Our current intern, Frank, also attended, but I knew HE’D be there.
Then I get to work and get an e-mail from my former colleague of nearly four years, Anne, asking me about a reference source. She only writes a couple of times a year.
Also, I get an e-mail from my library boss for my first two years here, Michele. She’s living in Bermuda, but she’ll be in upstate New York for a little while and wants to get together.
Obviously, I had hit on a former SBDC librarian constellation that day. It was quite wonderful to reconnect with people with whom I’ve had a fruitful shared experience.
Blog Mixed Bag CD Review-Gordon
NAME: Gordon Dymowski
BLOG NAME: Blog This, Pal!
NAME OF CD: Non-Stop Hit Parade
NUMBER OF CUTS: 26
RUNNING TIME: 79:11
COVER ART: Clever (that picture of Ricky Gervais from The Office apparently dancing scares me)
SONG LIST: His post of June 7
ALREADY REVIEWED BY:
GENERAL THOUGHTS: He noted in an e-mail that was a “pretty conservative – some alternative/rock with one reggae song”. I really liked the first half dozen tunes, which really rocked. And indeed, the first ten are excellent. The Futurama song seems to be palate cleanser for the second half. These songs are also pretty fine, and indeed from Bow Wow Wow to the Easybeats especially well programmed. Oh, and I LIKED the outro track, possibly because I thought it was SUPPOSED to sound tinny.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: Echobelly (I love women who rock, and that “Penny Lane” sounding bridge.) Picked a fairly obscure Monkees tune. The Brian Wilson song is a great ending.
ON THE OTHER HAND: There was no half hour speech by Dan Quayle, as he had promised in the e-mail. Oh, he was kidding! Never mind.
OFFICE FRIENDLY: I’d skip by MC Chris
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: My wife thinks that Steve Winwood is this lightweight performer, based on his 1980s output. “I’m a Man” was playing, and I think he’ll get a reassessment.
Voting machines
Radio Interview – Weds. Aug. 3, Re: NY Voting Machine Issues
VOTING MACHINES -Which ones will New York end up with? Is touch screen voting in our future? Aimee Allaud, election specialist, for The League of Women Voters of New York State, in a twenty minute interview, answers questions and provides information New Yorkers need to hear about the process of choosing voting machines for their state. Decisions will be made without our input if we are not informed! Tune in tomorrow, August 3, 7:30-8:30 a.m. to WRPI-Troy on 91.5 FM.
Copies of the interview may be obtained for replay on your local radio stations. Contact Helena Kosorek.
Mixed Bag CD Blog Intro
I’ve mentioned this Chris “Lefty” Brown Mixed CD thang (May 23) I’ve been doing with some two dozen bloggers. I even reviewed one whole CD. But I’ve been negligent in recent weeks. And since I can’t file them into the collection until I review them, I’d best get to it.
Before I do any specific reviews, I should make some general observations:
None of them I hated, as in “Get that thing out of my stereo,” though my wife looked askance at me when I was listening to a couple of them. Some folks did some fancy graphics, while others were a 5″ X 5″ piece of paper, and while that didn’t matter much to me, a couple of covers were particularly outstanding.
Thank you to those who indicated that some of the material may not be suitable for the office. I mention this because I played every single one in the office first, just to get a feel. (Kudos to Tony and Eddie, who put warnings on the package; also, Fred indicated the same in an e-mail to the group.)
I’m reviewing these in a particular order: as of July 27 – first the folks that listed their CD tracks on their blogs, then the folks that Lefty listed their CD tracks on HIS blog, then everyone else who had tracks listed by others, then the ones where the tracks aren’t listed anywhere. Within those categories, I’m reviewing these in the order in which I received them.
I developed a matrix by which I’ll address each of the discs, more for my ease than anything. I was discussing with Fred Hembeck a while ago how difficult CD reviewing can be because I don’t always know the lingo, so at least the formula will allow me to touch on certain aspects more or less consistently. (You’ll be able to tell a librarian did this.)
The first pair of reviews tomorrow.