New Speakers = Better iTunes!

I post today from a slightly rearranged and slightly improved desk area. About a half-hour after my last self-indulgent rambling, my desk at work got rearranged to accommodate a new printer, and in the process, I got the speakers a now former co-worker had been using. It's a brave new world, iTuneswise.

Before we get to the weekly list, here are some random thoughts/news.

* We're starting to get serious about working out and dieting now. I've even started training myself to accept diet soda as something worth putting in my mouth. Of course, the recent Easter holiday has resulted in an abundance of temptations. Stupid bunny.

* They've always said that you shouldn't put metal in a microwave, but until today I had never seen an effective demonstration why not. I was making myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when I noted that I was working with refrigerated PB and a plastic knife, a combination that tends to result in broken knives. So I put the jar of PB, minus the lid, which I think was plastic anyway, in the microwave with a paper towel on top in case any splatter occurred. I fired up the microwave, and about 5 seconds later there was a very bright flash. As fate would have it, I had failed to remove all of the safety foil from the jar when I first opened it a week or two ago, and that had sparked and ignited the paper towel. It proved to be an easy enough situation to correct, and I learned a valuable lesson about foil removal. Happily, 5 seconds was enough to soften the peanut butter sufficiently.

* "The Last DJ" by Tom Petty got some notoriety a few years back for being a song so anti-corporate radio, bemoaning the disappearance of DJs that play whatever they want, that no radio station would play it. But now our local JACK-FM station is playing it. Their gimmick is that they play whatever they want, but they also don't have any DJs. It's just music, commercials, and a pre-recorded station ID (albeit with comments that at least try to be clever) between the two. So I think the station is playing a song that's actually against what they are.

Anyway, here's this week's iTunes list:

1. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" - The Beatles
2. "That's Entertainment" - The Jam
3. "Log Blues" - Ren and Stimpy
4. "Mary Ann" - Ray Charles
5. "The Look of Love" - Susanna Hoffs
6. "Breaking The Girl" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
7. "Hole In The River" - Crowded House
8. "What A Wonderful World" - Joey Ramone
9. "She's Right On Time" - Billy Joel
10. "It's Only Natural" - Crowded House
11. "Walking On Sunshine" - Katrina and The Waves
12. "Wolf" - Veruca Salt
13. "I Wanna Rock" - Twisted Sister
14. "Rio" - Duran Duran
15. "Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I)" - Ray Charles
16. "We Are All Made Of Stars" - Moby
17. "Bitchin' Camaro" - Dead Milkmen
18. "Hot For Teacher" - Van Halen
19. "Hey Ya" - Outkast
20. "Caroline" - Fleetwood Mac
21. "Dangerous Girl" - Vitamin C


"Log Blues" does not actually feature Ren and Stimpy, but it was on Ren and Stimpy's "You Eediot!" album. It's a commercial for the International Log (there's a blues bass background playing, thus the title). It speaks Five Foreign Tongues! It's better than bad - it's good! Yes sir, I like it!

Katrina and The Waves have kinda lost some of their popularity in the Trackrick household. You can imagine why.

While going through my CDs last night, I noticed how many bands and songs that I was into in the mid to late 90's just don't do it for me anymore. Veruca Salt, happily, is not one of them. Though the band totally sucked after Nina Gordon left the group and took all the talent with her.

Speaking of going through my CDs, I need to get more MP3s for my computer here. Apparently 382 songs is not enough to avoid repeats from week to week. Not that I have a problem with "Bitchin' Camaro" or anything.

One of the rules for this iTunes exercise is to list everything, including the embarrassing stuff. Vitamin C falls into that category.