Wake the Sun

I said I got to spin vintage film scores in my last post but, technically, Songza spun them for me.

I don't listen to the radio-radio, so other than at work (which specializes in a few specific genres), music discovery is rough for me. I tried Pandora, Last FM, whatever the others are, and they felt more like an echo chamber - nothing new, just more of what I plugged in.

Songza's different - the playlists are put together by people, not computer generated, and they have everything. Want to listen to vintage film scores? Tropicalia? Dubstep? Motown? 80s Punk Rock? Alt Country? K-pop? Want something to fit your mood (angsty, sexy, meditative, happy, bored) or activity (being creative, cleaning, going out, staying in, backyard campfire)?

I've loved everything I've heard so far, there's always something new to listen to, and if you're looking for great internet radio you can't do better.

I told nepenthe (and myself) I was going to get right to work but HAHA, NOPE, first I'm gonna make a music post!

( Santigold, Betty Davis, Monday Michiru, Rare Silk, and Khari Cabral under the cut. )

Let's post some music! What's the point of working in a record store if I don't share the good stuff?

( Mos Def, Gil Scott-Heron, and some fine instrumentals. )

* Janelle Monae was amazing last night. SO AMAZING. And Bruno Mars is adorable.

* NPR's Monkey See blog has rundowns of the new shows airing in the fall: ABC, FOX, NBC Dramas, and NBC Comedies. CBS and the CW haven't put theirs up yet.

Awake (NBC), Grimm (NBC), Alcatraz (FOX), and Terra Nova (FOX) all have interesting premises (not that I'm predictable in my SFF love or anything) but the only one I have any hope for is Alcatraz (even though the premise is pretty silly) - Fringe has convinced me Abrams doesn't always disappoint.

...I'll probably try the Charlie's Angels (ABC) reboot, too. And Scandal (ABC).

* The Disappearing Face of New York - beautiful old store signs

* Silent Choices, a film that 'explores not only black women’s personal and political struggles around reproductive freedom, but also the complexities of abortion too often ignored by the mainstream media', is streaming free for today only. Haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but it looks good.

* This has been making the rounds, which makes sense because it's fantastic - Rosanne Barr on the Lack of Change in the TV Industry

* Super Obvious Secrets That I Wish They’d Teach In Art School. I need to print this out and put it by my desk. Maybe tattoo 'Draw Every Day' somewhere.

* Fannish fests about ladies: thelittlebang is open for prompts, the fandom poll for femslash11 is also open, and the Female Character Trope Fest is indefinitely open for fanworks.

* The OTW is looking for anime/manga/manhua/manwha fans to help organize the Fanlore wiki

* scifi_fest is still taking prompts (and will until the 29th)! The turn out's been great so far (so much better than I was expecting!) and the existing prompts are hella fun, you should come join us :D

Joan Jett was such a badass, just look at her.



Heart: also badasses.

( Lupe Fiasco, The Gossip, and Voltaire under the cut )

D and I went to see Janelle Monáe Tuesday night and it was amazing, you guys, so amazing. Even with the rain, and being stuck in traffic, and arriving late, and most of the audience being there for Of Montreal and being Very Confused by Janelle, and the elections. AMAZING.

She's so tiny, I never realized. And full of energy - she segued from one song to another seamlessly, rarely pausing between them, and the dancing, omg, the dancing. And her voice. You know how amazing she sounds on her albums? Yeah, even better live.

We only stayed for her show (which was NOT LONG ENOUGH) because D's hipster tolerance was running low and there were an awful lot of hipsters. I managed to snag the Metropolis Suite EP from the merch table, though (mine is sadly not signed)! I'm going to listen the shit out of it when I'm at my parent's this weekend.

And then I started writing this up and realized I still didn't have a Janelle icon, so I made one. And another, and another, and then I had 35.

( So. Icons up for grabs! )

Also, while I have you - is anyone here familiar with The Middleman and/or The Losers and willing to beta a short fic over the weekend (Zan, put your hand down)? I'm particularly hoping for someone who knows The Middleman.

Who is going to go see Janelle Monáe on Nov. 2nd? Right, that would be me. BOOYAH.

She's opening for some band called Of Montreal, I have no idea who they are and I do not care. JANELLE MONÁE.

Like many of us, I have music. On my computer (also a few cds that are... somewhere). 7.3 gigs (1520 files) worth, with more on my external drive (which is also... somewhere). The files are from all sorts of places - my cd collection, my family's cd collection, my flist's cd collection, the cd collection of the radio station I used to DJ at, cd collections of random people on the internet, you get the idea. And some of it is tagged/organized, and some (most) of it is not. There's a 'seven nation army'/'sweet dreams are made of these' mashup somewhere in my files and I can not find it.

So! Google and Downloads.com have told me to try MediaMonkey for my organizational needs, and I'm certainly willing to give it a try. But what about you folks? How do you organize your music?