As a result of a mishap of a traditional squid spiritual rite, I was left spiritually refreshed but temporarily blind. Thankfully, my brother Darryl has offered to transcribe my non-sensical ramblings, so that you, the people, can still enjoy the greatness that is SilentTalkie.

While I’m appreciative of Darryl’s kindness in typing this out, the situation has left me rather in the dark about what content we’re giving you this week. Do not be afraid, for my other brother Darryl took a look and remarked that it was our best issue in years. What will you find? He wouldn’t tell me, so you’ll just have to take his word for it and dive right in.

via Darryl who is the coolest dude ever to be graced with a bunch of legs, huge eyes and… Hey what are you typing?! I told you to only type what I say.  Wait, are you typing this too? Stop it, you dork….

And yet, in the midst of all this chaos there was a voice of reason; John Milius.  Milius has numerous writing and directing credits to his name (Conan the Barbarian for one), but nothing would ever rival his finest work… his Spruce Goose… a film we know as Red Dawn .

If you were born after 1980, then the list of actors in Red Dawn may surprise you a little bit, but keep in mind that this movie was made in a time shortly before the world stopped making sense.  This is when Patrick Swayze was a badass, Charlie Sheen wasn’t coked to the gills and Emilio Estevez wasn’t coaching junior hockey.  Lea Thompson was (as she is now) a fox, and Jennifer Grey was… well… she was… a supporting character.

The film opens with a mid-western American high school teacher giving a history lesson and noticing hundreds of paratroopers falling from the sky.  He goes outside to see what’s going on, and gets blown away.  It seems that the Soviet nations have invaded the United States of America and the only ones who can save Mom, all her apple pie, and the rest of America are its youth.  Just thinking about it makes me want to smoke a carton of Marlboros, eat 12 Big Macs and chug a 32 oz bottle of Jack Daniels. WOOO!  U…S…A!!!!

Sorry, I digressed there.  This slightly altered view of a possible future must have resonated with an early 80s audience (this is also before the days of Gorbachev and Perestroika, so the Russian bear was greatly feared… as should be ALL bears), so if it’s lost on any of young pups out there, just imagine they’re from somewhere in the Middle East… somewhere Jack Bauer wants to go and kick some ass.

Ignoring the poignant and cleverly woven tapestry of cultural commentary (and there’s A LOT… easily enough for a Grad paper or two), Red Dawn delivers on every other level.  It’s got action sequences that will make your teeth hurt (from gritting them, or whatever), romance (albeit between the lovely Lea Thompson and some geezer), and High School Football.  Like every 80s movie, the teen characters are broken up into their various social groups (a la ‘Sixteen Candles‘ and ‘The Breakfast Club‘) but with far more depth.

For me, Red Dawn is the film to which every other film must compete… it is a perfect 10.  Disagree with me.  I dare you.  GO WOLVERINES!

For the (nearly) random discovery that radio used to offer there are two services that stand out to me for finding new tunes. The first is something that I’ve only played around with a little bit but is really pretty awesome: Pandora. Pandora is a project by the Music Genome Project who’s goal is to catalog all music using a very granular set of categorization and analysis that links similar types of music together. The way Pandora works is you put in an artist or song you already know and love and Pandora creates a streaming “radio station” made up of music that is in a similar vein. As new songs play you can skip, give a thumbs up or a thumbs down and the stream updates according to your feedback. Really works amazingly well.

The second service works in a similar way bit is a little less convoluted in its recommendation process. Last.fm works more as a community  submitted way in that you sign up for an account, download a plug-in for your music player of choice and listen to music already in your library. Over time it tracks your listening habits and aggregates it in a number of ways (which is a really fun thing to know in and of itself). You can then create a personal streaming station based on your tastes and it pulls in  music from people’s play lists that like the same kind of stuff you do. Again as it plays you can give instant feedback to hone in on what you really are digging and what falls a little flat. Last.fm also has the whole social networking thing going on in that you can see other users who have similar tastes as you and can hook them up as friends, join in discussion groups and send specific recommendations to your friends.

So you’ve just discovered your new musical obsession, where do you go to find out a little bit more about them? The first place I usually end up going is AllMusic. Think of it as an IMDB for music. They’ve got, what I think are pretty spot-on, album reviews, band bios and other essential information. It’s all a little clunky but the content is strong enough I can ignore some usability quirks.

The other service that just came out that REALLY has blown me away is the FoxyTunes Planet. FoxyTunes is a Firefox plug-in that I’ve used for a while now. Essentially it adds a little iTunes control panel in the status bar at the bottom of your browser. What they’ve just added is a search for their new FoxyTunes Planet search (you can also do a search directly on the website). What this does is if you click on the search button you will be taken to the site with an aggregated search of many of the music resources available on the webincludng some mentioned above specific to the song and artist you are currently listing to. Think of it as a Google Home Page for that particular song. You get a blurb from the band’sWikipeda entry, a list of relevant videos on YouTube, a list of related artists from Last.fm, lyrics and much more. It’s an amazingly helpful one stop shop, even for bands you are already familiar with.

So get out there find some new hot beats and if you find anything especially rockin’ drop us a line and let us know. There really isn’t ever too much new music…

I have been searching to the ultimate all-in-one device for many moons now, and all attempts have borne no fruit.  I tried with a Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), hoping that it would display my photos, play my MP3’s and videos, hold my important files, browse the web, and even play games.  A few of these things it does well, the others, no so much.  It’s also limited by the type and size of flash memory I had bought for it.  I couldn’t hold my games, MP3s, photos and movies all at the same time.

I tried again with the Cingular 8525, the mother of all phones.  It can do a lot of what the PSP can, plus make calls, minus the games.  However, its software was unstable, and the flash memory format was not at all convienent (and expensive).

What I have realized is that it is better to have many devices perform their function well, than to try and have one device handle many functions poorly.  That doesn’t mean one has to go mainstream.  What the masses choose to play music, make calls, or take pictures with is the best choice for everyone.  In fact, I was very close to purchasing an iPod after my experience with the PSP.  I no longer wanted to play games, and decided that maybe just photos, music and videos will bring me to a device that “just works”.  It did.  And though the Archos player I bought does not do music alone as well as an iPod, it does all three just fine (interestingly enough, Archos’ most recent attempts at adding more features to their players have brought the ire of their customers.  Looks like I am not the only one learning a lesson).  As for a phone, I am using a cheap Nokia that does the “cellular phone” thing just fine.

I imagine that the ultimate portable device is out there just waiting to be made.  I happen to know that the Apple iPhone is not it (not enough space for all of my media, nice try Apple).  However the PSP, Archos 404, Cingular 8525, and even the iPhone are all progress.  Until then, I will be concentrating on what I want a device to do and worrying about that function alone.  The rest is gravy.

As a professional graphic designer, he has a lot to say about the power of images.  Every now and then he’ll talk about what draws the eye, the message an artist sends with each colour chosen, the impact of good and bad contrasts, etc.  So as I began designing the promotional material for the musical my wife and I wrote, it would make sense for me to have approached him to design our logo, posters, and programs.  Of course, lots of things make sense, but that doesn’t mean we do them.

I have come to learn that when one hires an artist to do some design work, it’s a very intensive process.  First, there’s the selection of the artist, then there is the explaining of what you want, and then while it is being created, the artist accepts little to no input.  I understand that it’s a pain in the neck to constantly have someone looking over your shoulder, but I just couldn’t trust someone (no matter how close they are to me) to design something so important.  More than that, I was quite sure I could do it myself.  Why?  Years of amateur web design have given me the practice, massive upgrades in the functionality of free and cheap software have given me the tools, and mooching info off of professional friends and colleagues have filled in the blanks, so I can design what I want.

Sure, some of my initial ideas really sucked, and whatever final product I got from a professional would likely be better than anything I could have done, but this was far more enjoyable.  When you design your own work, it’s not done until you are happy with it.  When someone else designs something for you, when it’s done, you have to make yourself happy with it.

Anyone exposed to Internet 1.0 will remember the garbage that passed for art on early personal homepages.  I had a few beautiful animated gif’s, including a rotating gold cross, and a moose running on the spot.  Anything quirky and fun worked, and design didn’t matter.  Now, the balance between design, content, and technology is a much trickier dance.

‘Do-It-Yourself’ design will not be the way of the future.  As long as there are good artists doing good work, people will pay for it.  But for folk like me, who invest everything emotionally into their projects, and refuse to accept criticism from others, ‘Do-It-Yourself’ design will be more and more feasible as technology advances.

My two coworkers are pretty cool and we generally have a lot to talk about, but a commute with other people can be uncomfortable and even awkward.  Strange silences mixed with repetitive talk about the weather and how weird traffic is, can get very old.

Thank goodness there’s a radio or CD player.  Of course these distractions can bring up some more questions: What should you play? What type of music do these people like? How much compromise should I give? I mean, it is MY car.

I’ve compiled a play list which runs just under 60 minutes which should work out really well for the drive into work.  This play list is centered around my musical tastes and obsessions at the moment and some are standard indie fare. If you don’t like the songs I’ve chosen, too bad.  Granted, you can substitute most for similiar songs, but seriously… you shouldn’t have to.  Assuming your colleagues aren’t as musically savvy as you are, you can educate while they learn. Please Note: This is the Indie Rock version.  You’ll be able to gauge the success or need for a different genre if you get a poor response.

A soundtrack for the way to work (The Indie Rock Version)

Nico – These Days : A great lead off song.  Soft and lilting with a hint of interesting weirdness.  They’ve probably heard this song somewhere but can’t put their finger on it.

The Velvet Underground – Sweet Jane : Another build up song.  It has a great groove and gets every one’s spirits up. Plus, if there is some knowledge in the car, you’ve proven your knowledge of indie history while not alienating the n00bs.

The Shins – Know Your Onion : Everyone loves The Shins now.  This track from their first album as The Shins shows you’ve known them before Natalie Portman told you too, or you at least listened to her. (Modest Mouse could be added here as well, as they are getting very popular these days, or so I’ve been told)

Band of Horses – The Great Salt Lake : I’m pretty obsessed with BoH right now, so I just wanted to hear this song.  It’s a good morning song, plus it’s hard to understand what the song is about.  There might just be a conversation in there somewhere.

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Oregon Girl :  “Wow, this songs pretty good.  Who is this” “Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin” “You sure do listen to some crazy bands….  Can you burn this for me?”

The Islands – Swans (Life After Death) : Weird and wonderful, but pleasant enough for even the most horrible morning person.  It’s also over nine minutes long with a crazy classic rock guitar break at the end.  This will be a very telling song as to the preferences of your riders.

The Arcade Fire – No Cars Go : Everyone loves The Arcade Fire now, plus it’s CanCon.  Although this track is on their latest album, Neon Bible, it first appeared on their EP.  Is it history if it’s only a few years old?  Either way it’s inviting for rock radio listeners but also holds a tiny sliver of indie cache.

The Decemberists – 16 Military Wives : Now we’re building up for the horror that is the work day.  Plus, Colin Meloy’s voice and speech impediment will at least make a few people laugh.

Deerhoof – +81 : Ok, you’re almost at work. It’s time to get a bit more strange.  You need to keep your mystique a bit, right? Deerhoof. Awesome. (The Flaming Lips could work here if you don’t want to freak them out too much.)

Well, that’s it… these guys either won’t talk to you or can’t wait for the ride home.  If they say “Do you have any hip-hop, country or classic rock?” tell them to wait a couple weeks.

Next week however, we gotta get you guys home!!