I know this is silly – however, “Separated at Birth” used to be my favourite in “Smash Hits” magazine when I was a kid, and since this is all about me me me, I will indulge in this for a bit.
Monthly Archive for September, 2006
I received this by email a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been a huge fan of Kinky since I saw them support Shakira in 2002, and have been following their music from this side of the atlantic ever since. I’ve bought all their albums and most of the singles, even though they’ve been increasingly hard to get for Europeans – I already was a very happy person when I got my numbered limited edition of “Rarities” in the mail. So when I read the aforementioned email, I was excited – not because of the promo stuff that was offered, but rather because of the chance to simply order the CD. Hence, I surfed over to Nettwerk to see whether they offered international shipping. They did. I basically yelled “Yay!”, and ordered ahead. I was a bit surprised when P&P remained free, chuffed actually, and only started having doubts when the CD still hadn’t arrived two weeks after its initial release date. I figured they probably cancelled my order when they realized that there must have been some kind of error in their online store system.
Well, imagine my suprise when I got home today to find this huge parcel for me. My initial reaction was guilt – I had decided to cut back on online shopping a bit, and thought that I’d gotten so bad that I couldn’t even remember my latest purchase. Upon closer inspection, the parcel turned out to be from the United States. Well, I certainly haven’t bought any stuff from the US lately. Well, I have – just not online. I’m expecting to get a “customer of the month”-award from the local “American Apparel”-store any day, though 
Then I spotted the sticker which said “Nettwerk Management”. Haha, I really was one of the first 100 people who pre-ordered the album – and the people at the management were nice and honest enough to send all this stuff to me, even though I only paid 14 bucks for the CD:
Fab! I’ve been listening to the CD all night and feel almost guilty now because they certainly didn’t make any profit from my purchase.
I’m aware that there is way too much red in this picture. I could try to fix it, but I’m lazy. I picked this one because the bike reminds me of the first time I saw the “Lovertits”-video on Viva several years ago, and I was hooked on Peaches instantly.
It’s official: Peaches rocks!!! I just need to employ a tiny one-syllable-word to sum up her show last night: Wow! The cool moments never seemed to end: A surprise entrance on top of the bar’s counter! Various stages of undressing! An inflatable penis! The entire performance was just a joy to watch. What made it even more special was Peaches’ band, the Herms, an allusion to Peaches & Herbs.
I loved everything about them. They were grrrls. They effing rocked. They wore matching outfits and had some cool dance routines. They just looked awesome. And one of them was JD Samson! I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more – this was one easily one of the top three gigs I have ever been to.
Edited to add:
I’ve installed Roel Meurders?s WP-FLV plug-in so I can have my own version of YouTube. I felt a bit self-conscious uploading my very lo-fi video clips there, so I can run them on my own server and you are welcome to watch them.
This is Peaches, JD Samson and Samantha Maloney performing “Shake Yer Dix” – alas incomplete, and very shaky. It was one of my favourites that night – I just LOVED the dancing by JD and Samantha! It starts about halfway through the clip.
Usually I’m left drooling after new product announcements by Apple, but Tuesday’s special event underwhelmed me.
Granted, iTV looks promising – on the other hand, it looks like it will just be a streaming device. And for an estimated $299 price tag, that’s not enough functions for me, I’d at least like to see some sort of integrated HD recording abilities.
The new video iPods… well, it’s not like there’s so much “new” in there, is there? I’d like one, but only when they get bigger screens. I can’t believe that any random fake design on the usual suspects’ websites is cooler than the one that Apple is currently running with. At this point, I’m more tempted to buy the Sony PSP simply because of the bigger screen.
As for the new nanos: Worst. Design. Ever. I never liked the minis, and the new nanos might just as well be called “mini: resurrected”. The original nanos looked so sleak, so elegant, so fine – I loved everything about them. But the new ones – not so much. I definitely wouldn’t want one of those. See for yourself here and here.
Another thing that totally failed to impress me is iTunes 7. Why? Well, the fact that it crashed on my twice in four hours, while all the previous crashed on me twice in, umm, eight years or however long iTunes has been around for. Secondly, in order to manage the playlist for the iPod shuffle, the device has to be connected to the computer. In iTunes 6, this was a lot easier, the playlist could be managed in iTunes, then you just had to connect the iPod, sync it, and you were done. I also thought that CoverFlow worked better as a standalone application than what Apple has done with it in order to squeeze it into iTunes.
I’m back to iTunes 6.0.5 for now, and from what I’ve seen in forums, I’m by far not the only person who isn’t happy with iTunes 7. The whole release seems very rushed, and unlike the other high quality software that Apple usually has got to offer.
Was there anything I liked about the presentation? Why, yes! I love the new shuffle. Not so much that it makes me want to ditch my current one right away, but this is the only new iPod I could see myself buying out of the current range. And just when my old one started feeling really uncool, it noticed that Dr. House has got the same model, and instantly felt revered.
