Follow the followers

Judging from our site visit statistics, not a whole lot of people even noticed, but I've been making some tweaks to the layout. My goal was to upgrade to the Blogger widget layout, which I have been putting off for way too long, but no matter what I tried, I just can't get the script to work that writes the different taglines under the title. The main reason I wanted to update were the labels list, which I now realize is not near as cool as I thought, and also the collapsible archive links, which I somewhat remedied by moving all those links down in the sidebar so they're not so much in the way. And Maria, thanks for subscribing to the feed while the new layout was up, but I'm not sure it will work anymore. Sorry. I did add a link to the atom feed so people can get automatic updates if they want.

The only thing that really changed is that I set the width of the sidebar and posts area to a fixed number instead of a percentage. I remembered that viewing the blog on a widescreen monitor was causing super-long lines that are hard to read. And since most new monitors are widescreen these days, I figured it was time to get with the program. Links are no longer underlined. No one does that anymore.

Reading is always better with lots of pitcures

It's time I start reviewing music on here. Past regular features have been trainwrecks, dead-ends, superfluous and unsuccessful, but this might be one I can get excited about. At least for some time. I'll try to review new stuff, but I'll dedicate just as much effort to talking about older albums, especially ones I think not a lot of people listen to. First up is a more recent release though:

As I Am by Alicia Keys

As we all know you're supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this ain't a book, so what the heck am I supposed to do now? Just have a look:

Now I might be saying this because we saw a bona fide batmobile here in Secaucus last weekend while doing the laundry, but Holy Cover Copy Batman, can you spot the similarities!?

Leona Lewis Spirit

Guess what I also just found out. They were released on the same exact day. So weird. I actually saw the other cover in the store the other day and thought it was kinda odd, and I started wondering what other covers have a close-up like that, and look who else is in on it:

Britney Spears In The Zone

That Britney! Of course. If you think this is a perogative of young female singers though, you're dead wrong:

Gavin Rossdale Wanderlust

Yeah, this thing is big. But we've only just licked the top of the ice-berg with the tip of our tongue. Check this out:

Phil Collins Face Value	Phil Collins No Jacket Required

Phil Collins friggin' loves the close-up. But of course there's more, and look, even some of music's greatest have joined in, offering some variation:

Miles Davis Tutu	Aretha Franklin Spirit in the Dark
Billy Joel Piano Man	Joni Mitchell Blue

That's a total of 10 so far. There's no stopping this, the close-up cover is popular across genres, decades and sexes:

George Michael Older	Fiona Apple Tidal	Mos Def Black on Both Sides

You know what's missing? Some Greatest Hits type compilations. But of course:

Sade The Best of Sade	Rob Zombie Past, Present & Future	Sinéad O'Connor So Far...The Best of Sinéad O'Connor

Yeah, that's Rob Zombie. So, do your homework and find other albums that have a close-up of the artist's face on the cover. They have to be official releases though and be proper close-ups. I wouldn't count this one for example, on account of you can see too much of his chest, and the hands. You know how you can tell that an album is really awesome? When even John Mayer's guest appearance doesn't ruin a song.

Leaders of the Poo School

When I came home from work on Tuesday I couldn't connect to the Internet. I checked a couple of things and couldn't find the problem, so I tried calling our provider, but there was no dial tone. And since our phone and internet provider are the same, they committed to restoring service by Friday, which they did. That's still 4 days without. Anyway, if you read the comments to the last post, you already know that Bo Snagley has eaten a plate of dried ladybugs which officially makes him a level 7 wizard, and he thinks it's a big deal. Level 6 and 7 are relics of the old academy standard, and were only retained to appease a handful of senior councilmen. So usually you have to do something silly and they just let you advance. Oh well, it makes him happy I guess.

Who knows that song by Lil Wayne with Jay-Z in it where Wayne talks about the seasons hating on him and the refrain has some singing "Hey Mr. Carter tell me where have you been" or something to that effect? Whoever knows it, raise your hand. Don't be ashamed, it's ok. If you haven't already noticed this do me a favor next time you hear that song (You can say it was on the radio, I won't double-check and spare you some embarrassment): Pay particular attention to Wayne's voice. Now is it me, or does he record his raps while squeezing out a number two in the bathroom? Further proof is this line: "I flush 'em, and watch 'em go down the drain quick". (Got that off of The Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive, and the song is called "Mr. Carter", by the way). As we learned in Biz Markies's Toilet Stool Rap, writing raps on the toilet is nothing new, but building your flow on top of that has got to be ground-breaking.

We watched "Burn After Reading" and it was hilarious.