A few weeks ago our television picture suddenly shrank down to a 1/4 inch by 27 inch wide image. So you can imagine our surprise when it happened. M called me at work and informed me of this and told me that it happened to her parents' television right before it died. At the time we decided that we should wait until it really dies before we invest in a new one. Last night the picture pulled the incredible shrinking trick four times. So now we need to get a new one much to our dismay, and finances. We've narrowed our search and budget to a 26 inch LCD television, which when watching movies and the like would be somewhat equivalent to what we have now. Admittedly it comes at a rather bad time with a new baby coming any day now, M's mom coming out on Tuesday. It's the kind of situation I would have liked to avoid but it's something we need to take care of. (insert heavy sigh here)
Around the same time the TV started to first act up iTunes software updated and installed this thing called Genius. I of course had no idea what it was let alone what it did, and just went on my way listening to my music. A week later I was using the Safari browser and saw Steve Jobs' presentation of this mysterious feature called Genius. (see image below)
Basically it looks through your music library and matches up music you'd honestly never think of putting together in a million years. So today I turned the feature on, and I must say it's pretty awesome. First you select any song from your library and then click the little atom shaped icon at the bottom of the iTunes window and Genius takes over. In a fraction of a second it compiles a list of 25 songs that the program feels goes well together. For my first list I clicked on "november has come" by the Gorillaz off their Demon Days album. Included in the playlist was Rob Thomas, Gnarls Barkley, Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, Kyle Minogue, Incubus, Beck, Cake, Colin Hay, just to name a few. I will enjoy this very much, and like Steve Jobs said you'll re-discover music you haven't listened to for a while. Sure enough he was right. Pretty awesome.
Adrian from a very young age has had an interest in music, and the wide variety that is out there in the world. You could even say that he's developed his own taste which is quite eclectic. He always has listened to what M and I are listening to at the time, which could range from Vivaldi to the Gorillaz or one of his all time favorites Kanye West feat. Daft Punk. I caught him bobbing his head to the beat of a Zero 7, or a fast past song on the television or radio. Not only do we get to see the head bobbing, but we are also treated to him dance to the a fore mentioned artists respectively. Before he falls asleep he like to listen to the A side of They Might Be Giants, Flood Album from 1990 (a cassette that I borrowed from my Dad), sorry Dad. When I'm listening to music on the computer through itunes Adrian will request that I make it "big" meaning I switch it to full screen with the album covers enlarged. I guess he likes the full music experience. Can't blame him though, I used to listen to my dad's records through head phones for hours on end when I was younger. The technology may have changed but the ultimate experience hasn't.
