Monthly Archives: May 2008

Bleg – smartphones

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I’ve hummed and hah-ed over getting a smartphone for nearly 5 years now. I’ve made do with pay-as-you-go basic phones, and they’ve served me well. As mobile phones. I’ve also been willing, in that time, to lug my laptop around on the off-chance that I’ll find wi-fi at my destination.

No longer. I’d like to shrink my phone, music player and surfing capabilities into one package. Preferably a robust one that works whether there is free wi-fi or not. I thought I had done well to narrow choices to my three favourite brands: Palm, Apple and Nokia.

My very early Palm PDA was a joy to use in its youth, and I’ve always admired the simplicity of its OS. Apple gets on the list for the very simple reason that I use a Powerbook as my main computer, and would hence benefit from easy porting of music and other crap to and from the iPhone. Nokia is, for me, a no-brainer where mobile phones are concerned; I bought the early banana phone and graduated to various very basic Nokias (and one fairly fancy hand-me-down from my mother). Again, the familiarity of navigation is greatly in its favour.

Well and good, you’d think. Not so! I now find myself dithering even more. Do I like the low(ish) prices of the Palm Treo (or the even cheaper Centro) enough to sacrifice screen size and sexiness? Or am I so pro-Apple that I can overlook the lack of 3G capabilities in the current iPhone (let alone be prepared to buy the model that is bound to be superseded by Christmas)? Or do I want to bankrupt myself and get the sexiest Nokia N95 8GB?

My cheapness nags me to get the cheapest (that’d be the Palm Centro then). My shallow nature informs me that the N95 will up my cool factor (which is currently non-existent) and worth every one of its 750 unlocked dollars. My Apple-washed brain screams that the iPod/phone/browser-in-one is a no-brainer (especially since my old 3rd gen 15GB iPod AND my not-as-old 4GB iPod mini both died recently).

Then I remember why I stopped using my Palm: the sync station is unwieldy if you don’t have a dedicated computer desk (which is my current situation) and the battery life is somewhat ridiculously short. Did I already mention the $750 price tag of the Nokia N95? I should write it on a post-it and leave it on my screen as a reminder. And as for the more-than-three-in-one iPhone, BOTH my iPods died recently; there’s some mega flaw with the hard disk that is clearly incompatible with my lifestyle.

What to do, interwebs? I bleg you to save me from my dithering and give me some advice.



N.B. No one has prompted me to list these 3 brands as advertising. Who’d be silly enough to want to advertise here anyway? I just like them because their stuff kind of works for me. But I’m not adverse to any free phones… (Oh, if only I’d taken this offer up!) I have no scruples. And I save my ethics for science and the environment only.

muse ick

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It’s gonnae be a super-hectic weekend, which means I’ll have nae chance of making this blog feel loved. But I just had to put down something about the fabulous music I’ve been hearing: live, on the radio, on last.fm and in my head.

Last Friday saw us finally getting some tickets to the concert venue closest to our home in SaMo: McCabe’s Guitar Shop. I’ve been itching to see something there ever since popping my head in to buy some picks a few months back. It’s celebrating it’s 50th birthday this year, and in LA, I reckon that’s a pretty big deal since everything’s a temporary tattoo here. Anythehoo, McCabe’s has a back room where they host concerts every weekend. I have to confess to never having heard of most of the artists¹, but I overheard excited whispers regarding a certain Hansard fellow while picking my plectrums². Unsurprisingly, it was a sold-out concert and not for the likes of me³.

This Friday past, on the other hand, must have been the day off for my Ticket Tormentors4. Their slack resulted in us being blown away by the amazing Peter Mulvey, of Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He’s a very engaging performer with an easy patter. His folk rock was part of his patter, or is it the other way round. Anecdote after anecdote, he charmed us all and really raised the bar for the main act, Patty Larkin.

She was amazing. The things she did with her pedals made her one-person show a full aural spectacle. And like Peter Mulvey, she was on fine form with the stories and explanations. We were left in no doubt that she’s mighty annoyed about her MySpace squatter (thus leading to an evening of puns, which you’ll be pleased to hear I won’t be repeating here). I think if I’d heard her music before the show, I would have enjoyed the experience a lot more. As it was, I sat captivated by the technique, the meshing of different sounds. And quite forgot to listen to the music.

How can Blink-whatever-number get so much airtime and a wonderful and truly gifted musician like Patty Larkin never be on the radio at work? Oh yes, I work in a lab filled with teenagers. Fortunately, when I remember to put batteries in, I have my trusty FM/AM/LW-bigger-than-an-iPod radio which allows me to drown out Kanye with KCRW. Which was most fortuitous this morning because I suspect a very sneaky Fran Healy leaked one of the band’s latest songs on Morning Becomes Eclectic.

Oh yes. Immediately after the latest Coldplay single (which, btw, sounds very Travis-rock-like), a two-chord riff jarred out of the earphones and a very familiar voice launched into J Smith5.

there’s a man on the street
and he looks at his feet from his window
and he swears at the sun
and he curses the moon for his shadow

take a leaf from his book
take a thread from his suit
he’s a new man
and he prays to his god
that he reaps his reward for his new plan

It’s a good song. It’s lean yet anthemic. A touch of Queen with the dramatic Latin/Italian chorus. And yet saved from becoming melodramatic with the chew and growl of the guitar, driven by a rough bass line, accented with perfect bursts of drum. It’s raw but smooth: like a freshly caught fish, sashimi-ed in front of your very eyes. If you’re not a sushi person, think Lagavulin: smoky and peaty, with a hint of acid that threatens but never emerges, leaving a rolling smoothness in your mouth. Only it’s aural not oral.

I’ve gone from feeling like my music tastes had stagnated to being overwhelmed with choice. Despite my complaints about Ticketmaster (it hates me, I’m sure of it), we have a list of summer events to make up for the end of the LA Philharmonic’s season. This weekend sees us back at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but for the Kronos Quartet. Halfway between here and there, we’ll see KT Tunstall at the Wiltern. I’m off to be eaten by gators in Florida after, and then get lost in the Smithsonian in DC, but I’ll be back for REM and Modest Mouse at the Hollywood Bowl.

And maybe I’ll just stay at home in June. Maybe.

2nd May 2008 Update: My little delurk (see footnote 5 below) made the front page of the Travis website. Woot!

1 Not because they’re not good or famous. Just chalk it up as yet another thing in a bajillion that I know diddly squat about.

2 I settled for the variety pack by the counter, thank you very much for asking. And my favourite of the random pack is the Pickboy 100; a solid plectrum with dimples for grip. P likes the really thin own-brand pick. But plectrum or pick choice has not turned us into Turin Brakes. Maybe we need guitar straps?

3 There are many, many concerts that I am clearly unworthy for, as Ticketmaster often reminds me. They have very rightly screened the potential audience for plebs, and have informed me in no uncertain terms that I’m not good enough to see Flight of the Conchords or Radiohead live. But I thumb my nose at them, for I am one of the privileged few to have seen the f*lksome twosome when they were selling themselves as Figwit and friend at the Edinburgh Fringe. Surgeon’s Hall, if I remember correctly. The Fringe was always a little surreal for me: comedy in my lecture halls.

4 Like Dementors, only they suck out the joy and excitement you feel in anticipation of a concert and replace it with that bottomless dread of having to tell your fellow concert goers that you have failed in your mission to bring joy to their lives.

5 If interested, go to the Morning Becomes Eclectic page and listen to the 1st of May edition at 40 minutes into the show. Hearing it was enough to prompt a de-lurk on the Travis messageboard. Back under the rock now…