Author Archives: Barie

About Barie

I'm in sunny Florida, of the middle variety
Aug6

More Tallest Man, M.I.A., Wolf Parade and Some Newbies

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More Tallest Man, M.I.A., Wolf Parade and Some Newbies

What I’m Listening To – July 2010

So 2010 is more then half over and I’m thinking about Best of 2010. So much to choose from! Band of Horses, Hot Chip, The Tallest Man on Earth, Jonsi, The Black Keys! And more is still coming out. 2010 has rocked my socks off! As for July, I could not stop listening to The Tallest Man on Earth. This album came along and said everything I needed to hear and I just could not put it away. I did take some time at the end of the month to listen to some new stuff and even found some new artists that I liked.

M.I.A – Maya An interesting release from M.I.A. There are some danceable tracks, some rock-ish tracks and even a slower track. Having a baby hasn’t slowed down this lady at all!

Maps & Atlases – Perch Patchwork I never heard the 2 EPs that Maps & Atlases released so Perch Patchwork is the first I’ve heard of them. It has potential to make it into my top albums of 2010, but the song “The Charm” is brilliant.

Peter Wolf Crier – Inter-Be allmusic.com compared Peter Wolf Crier to The Helio Sequence. I don’t see that at all. Inter-Be is a good album. Not extremely memorable. Although, they are awfully cute.

Wolf Parade - Expo 86 I really enjoyed Wolf Parade’s first two albums and Expo 86 sounds very similar. So you’d think that I would really enjoyed this album as well. I wouldn’t say it’s bad, I was just hoping for something different.

She & Him – Volume Two I really want to like She & Him. I like M. Ward, Zooey Deschanel is alright, but this album is so boring.

Sia – We Are Born Unlike any Sia you’ve heard. So poppy. I like it, but not as much as I like past Sia.

Jul8

Black Keys, Phosphorescent, Tallest Man on Earth and Commercial Radio

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Black Keys, Phosphorescent, Tallest Man on Earth and Commercial Radio

What I’m Listening To – June 2010

June started out really awesome in the music department, but it all went down hill when my laptop started acting up again. I was able to burn some new albums but once again I’ll be playing catch up in July. And to make matters worse I had to listen to commercial radio! I’ll get to that later.

The Black Keys – Brothers This is going to sound weird but I never wanted to listen to an entire Black Keys album until I heard Dan Auerbach’s solo stuff. There is not a single song on Brothers that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.

Phosphorescent – Here’s To Taking It Easy Wow what a voice this guy has! This album is short, sweet and doesn’t disappoint.

The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt This sophomore album from Kristian Matsson has really solidified my love for The Tallest Man on Earth. Oh that voice!

The Apples In Stereo - Travellers in Space and Time I’m not a huge fan of the Apples, but I did like this album much better then their last. So dance-able.

Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles The first song I heard off this album had a vocalist that sounded exactly like Jonsí. Alas, that was the only song  that sounded like this. Not a very exciting album.

Caribou – Swim This is a really good new release from Caribou. Mostly electronic and light on lyrics. Also very dance-able.

Josiah Wolf – Jet Lag First solo project from the drummer of WHY? and also the brother of the lead singer. Very different from WHY? in sound and style. A tad boring but overall a good first attempt at a solo album.

The National – High Violet I wasn’t too thrilled with this album. The Boxer was good but I just couldn’t get into this one.

Now onto commercial radio. Every once in a while I’ll give someone all the CDs that are in my car. No one in particular, just someone who I think could use some new music to listen to. So I did this in June and was stuck with no CDs in the car. Of course my first choice on the dial is WPRK but it only reaches so far. Here are some observations I’ve made.

  • I hate commercial radio
  • I hate commercial music
  • I don’t understand why they play the same songs over and over, sometimes within the same hour!
  • Commercials suck
  • I kinda like Eminem
  • Real Radio used to play good music on the weekends, but not anymore
  • I really need to have back-up CDs in my car so this doesn’t happen again.
Jun8

Finally In Infinite Arms

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Finally In Infinite Arms

What I’m Listening To – May 2010

The much anticipated, new Band of Horses album came out in May. Seeing them in concert at the end of April and hearing songs on their website made me even more excited for the release. I ended up getting the album about a week and a half early when their promotion company sent it to a friend at the station (YAY!). Also in May I was still playing catch-up from the CD drive debacle; which worked out well since I missed 6 weeks of my radio show working a temp job and wasn’t burning new music.

Band of Horses – Infinite Arms These boys would have to put out something pretty crappy for me not to like it. Although Infinite Arms was very different from their first two albums, I still loved it. This album is more poppy and country then the first two, but still has the original Band of Horses feel.

Phantogram – Eyelid Movies The lead singer in Phantogram sounds a lot like Karen O, but it doesn’t sound like a Yeah Yeah Yeah record. Electronic rock, not bad.

Quasi – American Gong Another Quasi record that sounds just like every other Quasi record. I know that sounds mean, but they aren’t bad so doing the same thing over and over hasn’t really hurt them. The lead singer has an intriguing voice and they are fun.

Rouge Wave – Permalight For some reason this is the first Rouge Wave album I’ve heard, even though it’s their fourth. Some songs are really poppy and danceable, while other are more mellow. Zach Rouge has an great voice, sometimes sounding like Jason Lytle.

Surfer Blood – Astro Coast Unfortunately when it came time to write this post, I couldn’t recall a single Surfer Blood song I had heard this month. I guess I burned the CD since they are a Florida band. They are alright, but it’s only the first album. We’ll see how they progress.

Field Music – Measure This album is quite long with 20 songs lasting 67 minutes. Again not one song stuck out for me. I just don’t have time these days for long albums with mediocre songs. It’s one of those albums that you wouldn’t mind hearing on shuffle with other albums, but all together it’s a little boring.

The Bird & The Bee – Interpreting the Masters Vol 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates The Bird & The Bee covering Hall & Oates songs. I don’t have much else to say about this album. If you’ve heard The Bird & The Bee, you know why.

Xiu Xiu – Dear God I Hate Myself How could I not burn an album by that name? But dear God I hated this album! I don’t like to be overly mean so I’ll just leave it at that.

May27

I Never Thought I’d Make It

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I Never Thought I’d Make It

Yesterday was my first weeknight off in 6 1/2 weeks. On top of my full-time job, I took a temp assignment being a score evaluator for McGraw Hill through Kelly Services. Last spring I did the same assignment while I was unemployed but it was during the day shift.

When I received an email from Kelly Services back in February asking if I was available for the assignment, my first thought was “extra money!” Then I realized I’d be working 14 hours a day, for 7 weeks. Looking back, the 7 weeks went by somewhat fast, but by week 2 I had had enough. I really wanted to quit. But I stuck it out and earned an extra $1300.

4 1/2 hours a night doesn’t seem like that much time, but look at everything I missed in that 6 1/2 weeks:

- 6 editions of my radio show on WPRK
- 5 episodes of Lost leading up the series finale (I don’t have a DVR and my computer is too slow to watch online)
- The final episode of Ugly Betty (I really liked that show)
- Approximately 19 trips to the gym
- Seeing my brother-in-law while he was on R&R from Iraq
- Countless happy hours and networking events with my partner in crime, Maria-Cristina
- 2 hours of sleep per night

And I’m sure there is more. Working 2 jobs was extremely hard. I admire people who do it all the time. For me, the assignment ended 3 days early (apparently I was one of the 20% that had low accuracy and speed scores that they were kicking off). So technically I did not do the whole 7 weeks, but at least I did not quit.

May19

I Don’t Need Any Privacy

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I Don’t Need Any Privacy

With the recent changes in Privacy Settings on Facebook, everyone is up in arms over their lack of privacy. I obviously am not concerned at all. I have several public profiles on the internet that give away my personal information. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp, Google Profile, Foursquare, this Blog; there is probably all kinds of info about me floating around the internet.

Today I went to ReclaimPrivacy.org and did a privacy scan of my Facebook page. Apparently my “Instant Personalization” and “information that my friends can accidentally share” are insecure. OK, so someone might find out that I like Band of Horses and Sex and the City. The important thing is that only my friends can view my photos and wall posts, nor do I give out my address, what car I drive, or check-in at a locations where I’m alone.

I like to Google my name on a regular basis. I recently found an online profile for myself that I did not create. I emailed the site’s customer service and it was removed, that simple. As for people with common names, it might be a little harder. I also found information about myself on a site called Spokeo. They claim for a small fee you can get my address, email address, and photos and videos from social networking sites. It also says that I’m “in a relationship,” have “some college,” have a “$1M+ home,” have “children,” have “elderly parents” and “enjoys shopping,” none of which is true. Well except the shopping, but who doesn’t like shopping? None of this bothers me though. You can get my address by picking up a phone book, and as far as all the other info they claim to have, I’m sure it’s not anything that I haven’t willingly put on one of my many profiles.

I tend to agree with Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy at Facebook. In a recent blog post in The New York Times he answered several questions concerning Facebook’s privacy policy. “Participating in the service is a choice…Please don’t share if you’re not comfortable.” You can’t blame Facebook because you got fired for posting a picture where you are drunk. I would never think that something I posted on the internet is completely protected.

And it’s not just the internet where I share personal information. Every week on my radio show I discuss things that are going on in my life. For five years I’ve talked about what bars and restaurants I go to, which concerts I’ll be attending and not once has anyone tracked me down. There was that 3 page (front and back) fan letter with poems, riddles and confessions of love that I received, but the man who wrote it turned out to be completely harmless…at least I think he was.

May5

Jónsi, MGMT and Some Other Bands You Haven’t Heard Of

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Jónsi, MGMT and Some Other Bands You Haven’t Heard Of

What I’m Listening To – April 2010

Towards the end of April I was finally able to get my hands on some new music! I had a lot of  catching up to do. In fact, I still have 8 albums I didn’t get to. Also in April, I got to see Band of Horses!! One of my favorite bands of all time. Their new album comes out May 18th, so stay tuned for that.

Jónsi – Go First solo project from Jon Thor Birgisson of Sigur Rós. If you like Sigur Rós, then you will probably like Jónsi. It’s a little more poppy and the songs are all under 5 minutes. The first couple days  I listened to this CD I could not wait to get back into my car to hear more. It was that good!

MGMT – Congratulations When I heard the first single, “Flash Delirium”, I wasn’t sure what to expect on MGMT’s sophomore album. I was pleasantly surprised. This was definitely a well thought out album as opposed to a collection of singles like the first album. Congratulations has a bit of a Pink Floyd feel, which made the snobby hipsters criticize them, like they did Vampire Weekend. It got them on to SNL though!

Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks In 2008 a friend called my radio show and requested a song off of Midnight Organ Fight. It was in the new section but I had over looked it. I immediately took a shine to these Scotsmen, although they did curse a lot. The Winter of Mixed Drinks is good follow-up. They start out strong with “Things” and keep that energy throughout.

Asobi Seksu – ReWolf Sometimes I will pick up a CD at the station for no reason other than the interesting sounding name. Such was the case with Citrus in 2006. Based out of NY, Asobi Seksu features a lead female vocalist who sings in both English and Japanese. ReWolf is more mellow then Citrus and the sound is much more developed.

Yeasayer – Odd Blood It took me a couple of months of thinking about this band before I decided to burn this CD. From what I saw on Pitchfork, they seemed so weird. I’m glad I gave a chance though. It’s really good, and not weird at all.

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor I heard “Airplanes” on WPRK and really wanted to hear the rest of their album. This is their first album and it was actually recorded in 2008. I’m hoping they evolve and put out an even better sophomore album.

The Ruby Suns – Fight Softly Like Local Natives, I heard a song from The Ruby Suns and wanted to hear more. Although, I can’t think of which song it was that got my attention now. I guess that means the rest of the album just wasn’t as good as the single. They aren’t bad, just some basic indie rock songs.

Apr21

My First Relay For Life

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My First Relay For Life

This past weekend I participated in my first Relay for Life at SouthPark Center in South Orlando to benefit The American Cancer Society. I found out about this location’s event through a group I belong to on meetup.com. When I signed up I only knew one other person on the team, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

With the economy the way it is I felt a little awkward about asking people for money, but many of my friends and family made donations. Our team also had fund raising events outside of the relay itself. We sold team spirit items at a charity basketball game with the XL 106.7 Cheapshots, we had a wine tasting at Taste in College Park, and we even have a couple more events lined up even though the relay is over.

A couple of days before the main event I got strep throat! My doctor told me I should not go. I decided to wait til that night to see how I was feeling. I took a late night nap and ended up getting to the relay at 3am. Apparently I missed all the fun cause there were a lot less people then there was in the picture my friend had sent from the event the evening before. Although, there was a DJ there and some dancing. I took a few laps around the track and after spending 3 straight days in bed, it really wore me out!

For the rest of the night and into the morning, I did some more walking on the track and spent time in the tent with my teammates. 6am came and my team made breakfast to sell in one last effort to raise money. Our team surpassed our goal and the SouthPark location raised over $26,000!

As I walked around the track by all the Luminaria, I thought about the women in my life that were affected by cancer. My mom, Jocelyn and my aunt Joanna are cancer survivors and my cousin Lisa passed away on March 31 from breast cancer. I walked the track in memory of these women and every person who has been or will be affected by this horrible disease. One day we will find a cure.

(The bracelet pictured was made by my best friend and Relay for Life teammate, Maria-Cristina)

Apr13

So Long CD Rom Drive

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So Long CD Rom Drive

What I’m Listening To – March 2010

It really pains me to say that I did not listen to a single new album during the month of March. If you’ll recall from previous posts, my CD Rom Drive had been giving me problems and a friend gave me an external one to use. I was able to burn several CDs over the course of a couple of weeks but when it came time to put them on a CD to listen to, the external drive stopped working. I suppose I could listen to the music straight from my laptop, but I don’t use it on a regular basis, and one of the speakers doesn’t work. Yes, my laptop is dying. It had a good run though. So in March I spent the majority of the time in my car and at work listening to WPRK.

In other news, I made the CUTEST Spring Chick Cupcakes for Easter. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart and to my amazement, they came out perfect! I was so proud of myself.

Mar24

My Latest Trip to Low Country

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My Latest Trip to Low Country

This past weekend I went to visit my sister who lives in Ft Stewart Georgia. My brother-in-law is in the Army and they are stationed there for the next couple years. Being on the base itself is actually really weird. You have to show ID every time you come in the gates, there is a weird shopping center with a food court that tries to be a mall but is more like a Wal-Mart that sells Coach purses and has Clinique and Lancome counters, and there is probably about 500 playgrounds. I would go crazy if I had to live there, but my sister seems to do well with it.

The base is right next to the city of Hinesville. It’s a typical small southern town without the southern charm. You know, the kind that would bore you to death. I always feel awkward in places like this. Technically I was born in the south, but I grew up in Winter Park. I don’t smoke or swear in public or own boots, trucker hats and flannel; I’m city folk.

Luckily my sister lives only 40 minutes from Savannah. When ever I visit I make sure to drive over and spend some time on the Riverwalk or in the shops, restaurants and museums. This past weekend it rained on the designated Savannah day and I had my nieces with me, so we went to the Savannah Mall and did some site seeing from the car.

I really love Savannah. If I keep going up there, I may not return.

Mar20

A Short Review of the Winter Park Art Festival

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A Short Review of the Winter Park Art Festival

This weekend is the 51st Annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. Having grown up in Winter Park, I have gone to the festival every year since I can remember. The city of Winter Park always does an excellent job of organizing this festival and the Central Park/Park Ave location is beautiful. This year I was taking a weekend trip to Georgia and only had about an hour on Friday afternoon to check out the event. As with most Central Florida days in March, the weather was gorgeous. I parked at the The First United Methodist Church of Winter Park where they were passing out free bottles of cold water, super nice! WLOQ was set up on the stage of North Central Park with live jazz. I took a couple laps around the park trying to visit as many tents as I could in the short time I had. I can’t really say that I saw anything new and interesting this year. Had I more time, I would have taken down names and given a proper review of the festival. 

I realize that art is subjective so I won’t be mean, but I want to point out a couple things I did not like. I thought that this year there were too many tents with jewelry, hats, purses, clothes etc. I’m not sure at which point these items become “art” and not just something to wear, but I could have done without them. The next thing was the official poster, I did not like it at all. Ken Bowser does some very interesting illustrations, but I don’t think the poster represented Winter Park, nor the Art Festival. It looked like it belonged on a paper napkin at a gaudy Italian restaurant.  

Although I would have liked to spend more time there, I did enjoyed the Art Festival. I hope you got to go and enjoy it as well! I almost forgot, I also had an arepa. I couldn’t resist.