Hummingwolf at Home

Now wearing: Old-looking blue jeans, brighter blue mock turtleneck (or something), white socks, brown & silver shoes, old glasses I really need to do something about, and boring underwear.

Now hearing: Well, I would like to say it's my personalized Launchcast station; but that was discontinued a month ago, so I couldn't possibly be listening to that, right? ("Kuos" by Banco de Gaia.)

Now seeing: Computer screen as I sit here trying to think of what to type. Shifting my eyes to the left, I see a grey day out the window. The tree nearest the window is just starting to put out little green leaflets, which will soon grow into bigger leaves, which will provide food for what may be a massive infestation of Eastern tent caterpillars. I never wrote about those last spring, but I was utterly fascinated with those fuzzy guys in their teeming thousands as they took about three days to defoliate the old tree. Since both tree and caterpillars are native species, they do have a working relationship: tree puts out a set of leaves, caterpillars munch on them, tree mopes for a while, then tree puts out more leaves. Here's hoping the tree is healthy enough to put out an entire second set of leaves this year if it has to.

Now smelling: One of the spicier herbal teas from Celestial Seasonings. ("Not Yet Remembered" by Harold Budd playing on my nonexistent station.)

Now tasting: See above.

Now feeling: Sleepier than I should be, but less headachy than I have been.

Last meal eaten: Egg substitute, mushrooms, mashed potatoes, onions, and corn fried in olive oil & topped with Swiss cheese.

Pie eaten on Pi Day last week: Bacon and onion quiche (store-bought).

Beverage drunk to excess on St. Patrick's Day: Green tea.

Are there more of my kind? Possibly: see here for possible evidence.

Number of library books currently checked out: Hmm... four returned yesterday, three checked out, so... nine.

Wasn't there some New Year's resolution about reading all those books you bought last year? Um, yes. (Now playing: The Police, "Driven to Tears.")

Now reading: M.M. Manring, Slave in a Box: The Strange Career of Aunt Jemima. Marketing, racism, sexism--what's not to love? You gotta admit, the 1919 advertisement titled "The Cook whose Cabin Became More Famous than Uncle Tom's" has a certain undeniable OH AUNT JEMIMA NO quality to it.

Speaking of racism... O HAI RACEFAILZ: Notes on Reading an Internet Conflict.

Mutant joke of the week: Two Cows: SF Version (see both the comments there and the original post; link via supergee). (Now playing: Underworld, "Dirty Epic (Dirty Guitar Mix).")

Cuteness of the week: On Monday as I was walking down the alley, a wee child with whiskers on his face and his father (or guardian) were in one of the back yards I passed. I soon discovered that the little boy had a tall paper hat--he was the Cat in the Hat! The father said, "Apparently it was a very exciting day in school today. Who knew?"

Synchronicity: That night's House, M.D. episode had a cat as a major character.

Last TV show watched: Wednesday night's episode of Lie to Me.

Dream of the week: The one featuring Dean & Sam Winchester and Castiel. Mmm... Castiel.

How much TV do you really need to watch? Less than I have been watching lately.

Miles walked today: Probably a little over two. I wasn't feeling terribly ambitious (and now it's Sting, "Love Is the Seventh Wave").

Have you anything else to say? Not that I've managed to think of in the last few minutes (Liane Foly, "Des Heures Hindoues").

Not sure when they'll pull the plug on the personalized stations, so I just want to post with the last 26 songs I heard before going to sleep. Real entry later, assuming I can wake up enough to think.

( Playlist if you're interested )

Never did get as much variety on my LC station as I really wanted, though it's still been a pleasure hearing artists like Liane Foly, Plainsong, Hevia, Peatbog Faeries, Fernanda Porto, and others I might never have known much about if it hadn't been for the LAUNCH folks (both before and after their association with Yahoo!Music). Here's hoping CBS eventually decides to find a way to bring the personalized stations back without hemorrhaging money. In the meantime... here's hoping the station still works when I've got a chance to sit down and listen a while later today.

If you have been using Launchcast, listen to your personalized Launchcast station now while you still can, because customized Launchcast stations will no longer be available after mid-February 2009. According to one of the folks at Yahoo,

Earlier this morning [December 3], we announced that Yahoo! Music will be partnering with CBS Radio to offer a jointly operated radio service.

This will replace our existing service by moving radio to the CBS Interactive platform, with CBS providing the content, radio player and advertising. Our content team will continue to create our wide array of 150 radio stations using the CBS programming tools.

Though we're announcing this today, the first release will take place on Feb. 12th, 2009, with subsequent releases afterwards to add features and functionality.

Changes: All of the "LAUNCHcast powered by CBS" stations will work on Firefox and Macs as well as Internet Explorer. All of the programmed stations--including ones which are now only available to paying Launchcast Plus users--will be free. There will still be artist fan stations, which play music related to the selected artist (based on fans' ratings, I'm guessing, since ratings will still be around). People who are currently subscribed to Launchcast Plus beyond February 12 will be getting refunds, since the paid service is being phased out.

But in addition to the good stuff, there is the sad news that "our beloved customized LAUNCHcast Radio will be going away. We spent a long time trying to figure out how to get this to work with the CBS platform, but it unfortunately wasn't technically feasible. I understand that many of you have invested long hours in building your radio station, but the fact is that due to the increasing rates, we can't continue to offer this service.... Yahoo! has never made a lot of money from Internet radio: it's generally been a consumer feature and not a big profit center. However, we really couldn't afford to pay the new rates, so we therefore faced a choice: either cripple the product to greatly reduce listenership, or find a partner with strengths in radio and different economics."

Launchcast Transition FAQ.

tlttlotd and lyssabard went off hunting for bargains a few hours ago, so I've been here relaxing and enjoying the mellow music my Launchcast station is playing for me. Now that I've said that, of course, the algorithm will decide I need to hear some of the more obnoxious tracks from Alice in Chains or Nine Inch Nails. Still, Suzanne Vega "Caramel" followed by Ella Fitzgerald "Get Out of Town" followed by Harold Budd "The Room of Ancillary Dreams" certainly qualifies as mellow in my world.

Huh, the algorithm decided not to jolt me too much yet--it's playing The Corrs' "Irresistible" as I type.

Anyway, some language silliness with daisydumont prompted me to look for any MegaHAL poems in my Yahoo account with the word "daisy" in them. (Ooh, Eva Cassidy doing "Autumn Leaves." Launch has decided to lull me with more mellowness.) Ahem, anyway, here's the poem I found:

There was a man, a face through a paradise.
only a poor, poor shadow
stirring his coffee with his life
i part the sea
and on i went, though the dogs were spent and aged
things
a daisy equal to a stop while her understanding

keeps making november difficult
than joshua's harsh measures,
they dance together then till dawn
and we fairies, that do run
the face of fear
may also be abnormalities in the caves!
they are still,
save for something it had to do
keep the peace i was tucked
up at the window-pane,
a trip to the customer
who sleeps all day... Like mine!

To begin with, Daisy and I are agreed that "stirring his coffee with his life" is a striking line. I also like the shadow & cave imagery here, which reminds me that I ought to refresh my memory of Plato someday soon. It's a pity I don't remember enough Greek to reread him in the original. "And we fairies, that do run / the face of fear / may also be abnormalities in the caves!"

(New U2 playing now.) Parting the sea and going on "though the dogs were spent and aged things" resonates for me too. And on the day after Thanksgiving, sleeping all day, perhaps while tucked up at the window-pane, certainly sounds appealing. Whether or not you have any leftover turkey, may you all have a beautiful Friday!

As it turns out, I did spend a good amount of time this weekend resting. Yesterday was one of those days where lethargy grabs me and pins me down till just before sunset, but the rest felt good and necessary. Listened to music most of the time I was online. Walked a little in the evening light to get some also-necessary chocolate.

Today had more resting, as well as entirely too much munching of chocolate. Did some stuff online, napped, read a little of a book I probably won't finish, listened to more music, napped some more, read a tiny bit more, and then finally found the energy to go for a walk which the Gmaps pedometer tells me was about four miles.

At any rate, it's been a while since my last posting of a Launchcast playlist, so I figured it was about time. Since Yahoo's reached different agreements with different record labels in different countries, I wondered what difference it would make if I listened to the German version of meine Station. So that's what I listened to yesterday.
( Playlists for the intensely curious )
I think my station needs more variety. I always think my station needs more variety. Though I used to think this was a reflection of some weirdness in my psyche, I now think the Launch algorithm's got a sneaky way of leaving me just unsatisfied enough to get me to listen and rate even more than I would anyway.

Bad things may have happened this week, but there was something good too: Yahoo Music and one of the big record labels (am forgetting which one right now) finally reached an agreement, which means even more music is available on customized Launchcast stations! Whee!

Simple pleasures. Right now, I'm all about the simple pleasures.

Anyway, I've got lists of many songs which were played on my Launchcast station for me while I was signed out of Yahoo. As ever, the station needs more variety--any station that plays music from Jonatha Brooke, Keith Jarrett, Banco de Gaia, George Winston, Nine Inch Nails, Angelique Kidjo, Solas, T.A.T.U., Sergei Prokofiev, Queensryche, and Tom Lehrer is clearly too monotonous for words. I mean, you can listen for hours and not hear any J-Pop or zydeco! Something must be done.

If you're incredibly curious what I've been listening to yesterday and today, ( here there be lists. )

Since today was one of those days where it seems like it's too hot to move (till you start thinking about all those molecules zipping around with their kinetic energy, but who wants to think about things that are that much more energetic than you are?), it seemed like a good time to sign entirely out of Yahoo, mosey on over to my Launchcast station and listen for a few hours as a guest. So, in lieu of anything requiring deep thought, this post includes a playlist of a few hours' worth of music.

As always, I think my station needs more variety, though today my definition of "more variety" is something like "more songs which aren't about burning things, please." Well, at least the station hasn't yet turned into a substitute for Muzak.

1. Angelique Kidjo, "Adouma"
2. Siouxsie & the Banshees, "Cascade"
3. Nine Inch Nails, "Right Where It Belongs"
4. The Carpenters, "Our Day Will Come"
5. Afro Celt Sound System, "Inion/Daughter"
6. Toni Childs, "Daddy's Song"( ...and many more! )

This Launchcast station definitely needs more songs about ice and snow.

Still listening to Launchcast, I was remembering someone's complaint that their station only played popular songs by the artists they listened to, even if they'd rated less popular ones. Wondered silently to myself, "Does my station play 'Every Breath You Take' more often than the less well-known [Police song] 'I Burn for You'?"

See what Launch is playing for me now.

While I was offline, many of you wrote entries listing the first X number of mp3s randomly played on your machines. I still have no music on this computer, so I decided to sign in to my alternate Launchcast account and see what my station had to play for me.

This was more difficult than it sounds. Launch's servers have been under a bit of a strain lately (I can see why they instituted limits on heavy listening for free users, though I think all free users should get extra Yahoo accounts to get around the restrictions anyway) and the player would stall for a bit, then suddenly decide to switch to a playlist for the station I was signed in as rather than the Hummingwolf station I was trying to listen to.

Anyway, ignoring superfluous bits of soundtracks that snuck in there, here's what I heard:

1. Martin L. Gore, "Loverman (Bola Remix)"
2. Queensryche, "Open"
3. Solas, "The Newry Highwayman"
4. Loreena McKennitt, "The Lark in the Clear Air"
5. Beth Hart, "Leave the Light On (Full)"
6. The Tea Party, "The River"
7. Evanescence, "Going Under"
8. Jackson Browne, "Your Bright Baby Blues"
9. Laura Love, "Less Is More"
10. DJ Rap, "Live it for Today"
11. Natalie MacMaster, "Appropriate Dipstick"
12. Michael McGoldrick, "Buain Na Choirce"
13. Dave Gahan, "Black and Blue Again"
14. Underworld, "Mosaic"
15. Kate Bush, "Experiment IV"
16. Neneh Cherry, "I Ain't Gone Under Yet"
17. Jeff Black, "Gold Heart Locket"
18. Howard Jones, "Hide and Seek" (version from The Peaceful Tour)
19. Right Said Fred, "Upon My Heart"
20. Roland Orzabal, "Kill Love"
21. Martyn Bennett, "Joik"
22. Aaron Kwok, "Track 12" (from Fascinating)
23. The Corrs, "So Young (K-Class Remix)"
24. Toto, "Tale of a Man"

I'm both a child of the '80s and a child of Fiona Ritchie. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate! Happy Sunday to everyone else!

In spite of vague thoughts of going out and looking for trouble, I rang in the new year in moderate fashion, sitting here at the computer and chatting with friends while the TV showed a ball dropping in New York. Was startled by loud noises in the haunted woods for the next couple of hours; but after some more online socializing, I did manage to get some sleep until roughly 7:30 in the morning. Ick. It seems I'm now neither morning person nor night person, but lukewarm (or something like that).

I wrote last Monday:

I've decided that my big New Year's Resolution will be to rate songs in every genre and subgenre that Launchcast has available, using the powers of the Launch Information Project to guide and assist me.

I rethought the resolution and turned it into something a little less vague:

Using the powers of the Launch Information Project (http://www.wam.umd.edu/~gsweeten/main.html) to guide and assist me, I shall rate at least ten tracks in every category with significant representation in the Launchcast database ("significant" shall be defined as "with more than 20 artists or albums available on user stations").

So there you have it. My one great New Year's Resolution is entertainment-related. I'm sure other folks can think of resolutions they believe I should be making, but--and I cannot stress this enough--I don't care. Because any resolution I need to make that has any significance at all isn't going to wait for an arbitrary date like January 1, it makes perfect sense that my NYR should be frivolous. And so it is.

So here's what I've done today: Listened to and rated songs in both the Christmas genre (wait! that's not a genre; that's a subject matter!) and the Asian genre (that's not a genre either; that's a bleedin' continent!). Songs I particularly liked: the Cocteau Twins version of "Frosty the Snowman," Sheila Chandra's something or other from ABoneCroneDrone (but I've loved Sheila for years anyway), Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Longing," the fifth track from an album by Dunk (cheesy, but anything that puts a little smile on my face when I don't have a clue what it's about deserves mention). Also, I've come to the conclusion that Aaron Kwok, in spite of the fact that his music is cheesy pop of the pasteurized processed kind, has an annoying habit of making music I really, really like.

After all the cheesy pop on the Asian station, my ears are now taking a break. I may need to use classical as a palate cleanser tomorrow.

Other things done today: Took an almost-nap. Played with computer graphics. Went for a walk around sunset & walked well past dark, probably close to four miles total. Ate junk food above and beyond what the walk burned off. Typed this post. Re-read this post and was amused by mental image of myself walking around a sunset and then walking past some entity named "dark." Reminded myself I need to get more sleep tonight. Re-reminded myself that there's nothing wrong with being easily amused.

Listening to an '80s station on Launchcast, I skipped over a Starship song (even though I have a high tolerance for cheese, I do have standards), and "We Built This City" was immediately followed by Siouxsie & the Banshees' "Cities in Dust."

Maybe I'm too easily amused.

In other news, I'm still tired and hurting and more than a little bit antisocial. Hopefully will be up to updating and responding to e-mails tomorrow or the next day.

Before Launchcast was bought out by the Yahoo empire, there were many many people who subscribed to my station: that is, these people, voluntarily and without coercion, decided to allow my song, album, and artist ratings to influence what got played on their stations. I always felt rather sorry for these people, even knowing that they must have clicked the appropriate box of their own free will. But when Yahoo bought Launch, that sort of subscription became impossible.

Now that Yahoo's made Launchcast Plus available to paying users, it's possible for the folks who are shelling out money to subscribe to other stations again. Since there's still a free version of Launchcast, most people haven't paid for the Plus version and taken advantage of the Influencers feature. Yet this week, much to my surprise, two people who are paying good money for their Launchcast experience subscribed to my station. Not only that, but after looking at their stations, I think they may even deserve what they get. How odd.

For those wondering what I'm talking about who don't feel like listening to my Launchcast station, here's a ( sample playlist )

Why is it that after making a total of 11,712 ratings I still think my station needs more variety?

~~~~~

In other news, I'm an idiot who hasn't been taking enough of her supplements or getting enough sleep. Did manage to walk about 3.5 miles today, though. Even if I don't get into DC this cherry blossom season, the flowering trees around here are gorgeous.

For those of you with Launchcast stations: Yahoo has settled their lawsuit with Sony, so your Launchcast station now plays more music than it did before. Woohoo!

And if you've got a little change to spare for the Launch folks, here's news from the guy who created Launchcast (his Yahoo/station name is "hitsman" if you're interested):

Check it out:
http://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/subscription

LAUNCHcast Plus offers all the great features of LAUNCHcast, plus...
* Listen to commercial-free music
* Access 50 exclusive programmed stations not available in the free version
* Create genre-based moods for your station
* Subscribe to "influencers" and get recommendations from other
listeners who share your tastes

Wooohoo!
Todd

If you had a Launchcast station before Yahoo bought Launch (hi, bearybipolar!), you'll recognize these as features which used to be freely available to everyone. Well, at least the Yahoo empire is letting Launch provide them to somebody. Personally I'm amused by some of the ads for the pay service, like the one saying (paraphrased), "You know how your friends used to make fun of you for listening to Barry Manilow? Well, now you can relive that experience!" Hee. (Makes me think of penguinboi for some reason. Can't imagine why.)

A few stations which were available on Launchcast's home page are no longer listed on the page and are not currently being updated, but you can listen to them here:

Alt Country:
http://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/play/?p=1&m=414

Ska Punk
http://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/play/?p=1&m=409

Indie & Eclectic
http://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast/play/?p=1&m=390

No real update from me today 'cos I'm too tired for rational thought and my irrational thoughts of the day aren't very entertaining, even to me.