II

Sure, there are plenty of things they can be criticized for. I've been a little obsessed with Led Zeppelin lately, which seems to happen occasionally, but I won't bother anyone for a while after this. To start out, check out this thing I saw on kottke.org to set the mood:



And that mood is awesomeness! It may just be that I'm a sucker for the use of stereophonic effects, but II is my favorite Led Zeppelin album. The opening song alone just blows my mind every time, starting out as a straight-forward rock riff song, and then drifting into a psychedelic episode just to remind you what year it was when the album came out. Those damn hippies. It's more than just a collection of great songs; the first album feels like that to me quite a bit. The succession of songs makes sense, and when you listen to it on vinyl, even the A and B side selections and their order seem to have been chosen deliberately. There are not a lot of albums that feature an excessive drum solo, wrap it in an alibi song, and don't disturb the flow of the whole thing by doing so. I just love the dynamics throughout, both within and across songs, and the diversity of sounds and influences. It's the kind of album you should listen to without distraction, and if you do, pay special attention to the bass.

The bass playing is amazing throughout, but on "The Lemon Song" and "Ramble On" it really stands out. In my opinion, too few albums feature the bass prominently enough in the mix, and you sometimes have to strain to hear it at all, let alone the nuances. Led Zeppelin is not exempt from this, but the second album is an exception, and the bass is mixed as an equal along the guitar and drums. (The first Black Sabbath is also mixed in a way that lets the bass parts shine, but not all of the later ones do.) I think that bassists are underrated anyway, partly because of the aforementioned mixing practices, partly because bands can get away with having mediocre bass players. But truly great bands will have great bass players, according to my theory. Listen to the first and second Foo Fighters albums as proof of this. Both are great, but on the second album, they didn't just play the guitar parts on a bass, but added a proper bassist. And The Color and The Shape is still my favorite Foo Fighters album. Easily. So indulge in the bass playing courtesy of John Paul Jones on II.

I have one bad thing to say, and that's the cover art, especially the stuff inside the gatefold. They did much better on the next two though, and an argument could be made that the cover art for Physical Graffiti is the best thing about it.

Samsung TVs and their customer service - a tale of caution

We bought an LCD TV about 2 1/2 years ago, in November of 2008. It was a Samsung LN40A650. We figured it would be worth spending a little extra for something that should last us a good while and will be used almost daily, and thought it was really awesome. Christina's parents bought a similar model because of our recommendation, and her grandmother also has a Samsung TV now.

We did buy an extended warranty for the TV, which we did not end up using, and I later read that it's not recommended to get them for LCD TVs. Well, we should have gotten an even longer one, because a few months ago, the TV started to have some serious picture issues. The left 3/4 of the screen were very dark and blurry, and it looked like each image was retained for 20 seconds, and all the images overlayed, causing the blur and dark picture. After a few minutes it would simply go away in a blink, but over time it started to take longer and longer, until about 3 weeks ago it just would not snap out of it anymore, and the thing was just unwatchable altogether.

Around the same time, Christina's parents' TV, a very similar model bought around the same time as ours, as mentioned above, had the same exact problem. Lucky for them, it was still protected by an extended warranty, and they were able to fix it in two attempts. I think they ended up having to replace the panels, which is a repair that usually costs more than buying a brand-new set. We were told our TV would require an equally expensive repair.

So crap, this can't just be a coincidence we thought. I looked up reviews and forum posts about ours and other Samsung TVs, and there seem to be quite a few problems with Samsung TVs, though our problem wasn't the most common. Of course searching for issues with any brand will yield a lot of bad reviews, given people's tendency to leave more negative than positive feedback, and this post only confirms that. But! I found many more complaints about Samsung than any of the other major brands, and even some describing our exact problem. One person even seemed to have found a homemade fix, which I will not dare to try myself. On consumeraffairs.com there are plenty of negative accounts about any brand, but Samsung is the only one that made it necessary for them to not just have the regular complaints page, but also two separate articles on the problems people are facing with these TVs. I also noticed that there were significantly more Samsung TV complaints added for the current year than for Sony or LG. In other words, they seem to be selling junk TVs at premium prices.

So at this point, I was pretty upset. Christina and I both have Samsung phones as well, she has a Samsung laptop, and her Granny even has a washer and dryer from them. My brother bought a TV from them some years ago, and we have several friends who also have Samsung TVs. So I was hoping that maybe their customer service department would be able to provide some information or help. Everybody else seemed to chuckle at the idea, but I thought it was worth a shot. I mean, aren't corporations supposed to care about loyal, long-term customers who recommend electronics to their friends and family? Even though the customer service agent and her manager were friendly and knowledgeable, Samsung's policies did not allow them to make any efforts whatsoever to try to keep me as a customer or alleviate my problem with their product. Nothing at all. This wasn't even bad customer service technically, since nothing was done at all. And offering to schedule an appointment for service does not count. They could have offered to help me with the cost of the repair, offered a discount for purchasing a new Samsung TV or any kind of other little gesture just to show that they understand I was a good customer of theirs, and they regret my bad experience. But their lack of effort is just laughable. So not only do they sell sub-par products, they also refuse to stand behind their products. Which actually confirms their lack of faith in their products. I guess I should not have expected the TV to last much beyond the manufacturer's warranty, let alone 10 years, which I thought was the minimum it would be with us.

I realize that I'm making sweeping generalizations about Samsung products based on my one bad experience. Some of the things I found on the internet confirm my opinion, but of course I was looking at it with a strong bias. And I wouldn't be so upset about this had their customer service at least made some sort of effort, but the bottom line is that they couldn't care less whether or not I ever bought another product of theirs again in my life (and I can assure you that I will not), and that they don't seem to be very confident in the quality of their TVs. Where are those one million Twitter followers when you need them?

I'm ill, literate, you illiterate

100 bonus points if you know the song that the lyrics from today's title are from. And I mean know as in you have listened to it. If you like The Onion at all, you may also like this little collection. I found it via this post.

Don't call it a comeback

I finished watching Inland Empire last night, and I did not like it. Mostly because I did not get it. Don't worry, there is no way to spoil it by me saying this: I did like how the descent into madness was portrayed, but I felt like the motifs did not really serve a purpose. Again, that's probably because I just did not get it. I had to read a plot summary afterwards just to be able to make heads and tails of it.

All thanks to the awesome power of commercials

Let's see a show of hands for people who like getting a song stuck in their head that they don't like. Anyone? Okay, I'm going to assume that everyone kept their hand down purposefully, and did not accidentally have them glued to the table. It's okay, we've all been there. And superglue is an underestimated menace. Especially when you stick something to a wall with it, as you risk tearing down the whole wall when trying to pry it off with a truck and some chains. At least that's what I remember from the ads. But it's even worse if it's not a real song, but just a jingle from a commercial. It also sucks when commercials try to use some catchy song, and then have the artist's info at the bottom so you can relive the awesome moment of watching that commercial by purchasing the song and become part of the community. It's hard to tell for me how much this is a calculated move, and how much is just coincidence, and I believe my fellow countrymen will remember a certain Bacardi commercial in horror. Or maybe not, judging by how popular that song was. But there have been two commercials recently, where the use of well-known songs did not completely annoy me, but reminded me that I hadn't listened to them, and the albums they're on, for way too long.

The first one was that Tuesday afternoon one (I think the proper title would be: The Afternoon: "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)") from "Days of Future Passed" by the Moody Blues, and the other is "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed off the "Transfomer" album. Both are really great albums I think, even though the somewhat indulgent classical parts on "Days of Future Passed" had to grow on me a little bit, and there are disappointingly few songs about shape-shifting robots on Lou Reed's album.

Ice, ice baby.

Do you like ice cream? Well I love it. And Christina loves it. And we have it way too often. Or not often enough, depending on how you look at it. One thing's for sure though, we're living the dream. And that dream just got a whole lot sweeter because we have found ice cream scoop bliss.

When I was a kid, my parents had, and still have I believe, one of those scoops with the mechanical handle, where a piece of metal would release the ice cream from the scoop and into your bowl of waffle. It was nice, but of course the mechanical part is not that easy to operate sometimes, and has the potential of breaking. When we moved to the US, we thought we'd get a nice scoop, and went with Kitchenaid. The scoops they had looked nice and we thought we were getting great quality. It made pretty round scoops too, but to get the ice cream out of the scoop I had to use a teaspoon to help it. And not before long, the shiny chrome-looking coating was nicked and started to come off. Huge letdown. Then Christina got another nice scoop from a company named Wilton, that makes all kinds of great baking tools and accessories. It worked pretty well, but because of it's shape it was really difficult to get into the corners of the ice cream containers and impossible for me to make anything that even resembled a nice round scoop. Might as well have used a simple spoon. We've looked around some more, but none of the ones we saw really looked any better. They either had that chrome coating or a funny shape.

And then we went to the city last weekend, to witness some of the madness and get a few last gifts. And inside the MOMA store, we found a scoop that very much appealed to us: a great shape, made out of aluminum alloy (so even if the ice cream sticks, using a spoon wouldn't hurt it) and made in the USA since 1935. Oh, it also uses a scientific principle to help the ice cream come out, namely a heat-conductive fluid. I assume that your hand warms the fluid in the handle, which then provides heat to the scoop part and melts the ice cream into your bowl or cone. And best of all: It really works! I am amazed by this ice cream scoop and it was well worth the price. Beautiful round scoops that come out of the scooper absolutely effortlessly. Ladies and gentlemen: Zeroll Original Ice Cream Scoop.

Well, that pretty much reads like a comment somebody who's being paid by the scoop's manufacturer would leave on an online shopping site or review page, but I just had to share the great news.

Got a broke down engine, but you're not losing any speed

Look, I used song lyrics in the title, just like Joey. There is a supermarket next to the high school I went. Of course it's not really a high school, but I'm not going into the details of the German education system right now. What you need to know is that the school had grades 5-13, and that in grades 11-13, you had a lot more freedom and were treated as more of an adult than in the other grades. Teachers would still call you by their first name, but use the more formal "Sie" to address you. Which is another German peculiarity I'm not going into right now. Anyway, before grade 11 you were not allowed to leave school grounds during school hours, but starting with grade 11 you were. Which meant that in grade 11, you were allowed to go that supermarket and buy whatever you wanted, i.e. chips, soda and chocolate, and eat it as part of your lunch. It was also a great way to kill periods where you didn't have any classes. There was no such thing as study hall in the school I went to. If you were caught going to the supermarket when you were in a grade below 11, you would be in trouble. I don't remember ever being caught or getting in trouble. I think it depended on the teacher that was supervising during the break you went in.

Anyway, the supermarket is pretty much like Wal-Mart and they sell almost everything. And they also have a music department where you can get CDs. Mostly Top 40 stuff and general mainstream, but still worthwhile having a look every once in a while. And one day in the bargain bin, I found Mudhoney's "My Brother the Cow" for an unbelievably cheap 5DM. I had never heard any Mudhoney songs when I got it, only heard the name and thought that no matter how bad this CD is, it's worth getting for the price. Around the same time, I don't wanna say the same day because it might be lie, I bought a CD there for full price, which was around 30DM. I was into hip-hop quite a bit at the time, but I never really stopped listening to other genres. This had to do with the realization that when I would listen to just hip-hop for a while, for whatever reason, there was some kind of void, that could be filled with a good dose of Metallica or maybe some punk rock. But I digress. So I also bought "Vendetta" by Mic Geronimo, after reading a enthusiastic review in a magazine and being surprised to see it in our supermarket, for the regular price. And guess what, Mic Geronimo totally sucked, the worst kind of rap music, and "My Brother the Cow" has become one of my favorite albums ever. If you even that out, I still got a good deal, but it's just so ironic. I end up loving the crapshot, and pretty much loathing the music I paid good money for. Go figure. And even though I really like "My Brother the Cow", I never got any other stuff by Mudhoney. Maybe I'm afraid it would be a letdown.

Sing theory.

I have been developing a theory about musicians from New Jersey. As you may well know, the Garden State has an image problem. And when I thought of it, I had "dirty industrial areas" and "Bon Jovi" in my head. The theory, and as you will soon find out, this is the scientific kind of theory that serves as a model to explain a certain aspect of the world, as in the theory of relativity, is that bands from New Jersey are freaking awesome (Axiom 1). Solo artists, however, are not so hot (Axiom 2). Have a look at the field data: Monster Magnet - Awesome. The Fugees - Awesome. Bruce Springsteen - Unawesome. So far so good.

But what about Bon Jovi? First of all, just admit it, when you hear "Livin' on a Prayer" or "Wanted Dead or Alive" come on the radio, you feel the excitement swell up inside of you and almost start humming those undeniably annoying songs. But then you would admit those songs are at least partly fun, so you swallow that hum, honk you horn (New York City drivers only, and yes, that's why there is so much honking going on in that town, but that's a different theory altogether), and vow never to talk about it to anyone. If somebody else is with you, you actually start singing along, in a way that suggests you are mocking the song, in order to assert your dislike of that abomination of a band. It's okay, we all do it.

Then remember, that Jon Bon Jovi is the singer of Bon Jovi, and thus they belong to a particular subset of bands, a subset that, at least to my knowledge, does not exclusively contain crappy, but definitely questionable bands. They're bands named after one of their members, usually the singer, without actually saying "band" in the name. Like Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson and, of course Bon Jovi. Anyway, Bon Jovi doesn't count as an example of a NJ band that isn't awesome, because they are named after their leading member (Axiom 3).

Enter Titus Andronicus for further proof. Back in 11th or 12th grade, I was struggling a little in my English class. In case you didn't know, the German school system goes up to grade 13, and you have either classes that meet twice a week, or intensive ones that meet 3 times, and individual sessions last longer. You have to pick 2 intensives starting in the second half of 11th grade where I'm from, and a bunch of regular ones. I picked English and Math as my intensive classes, because those were my favorites and I got decent grades. However, I wasn't doing as well in the English class as I was expecting. I ended up doing a few sessions with a tutor, who basically helped me practice writing essays, and next thing you know, I get a freaking 1 in the next test (scale is 1-6, 1 being the best). No, it was the second next. But that doesn't matter. What matters is, that the test was on Shakespeare's Macbeth. I really enjoyed reading it, and that good grade was a great reward. And what's even better, I didn't struggle in that class from there on after. All thanks to Ol' Bill da Bearded. Yeah, he has a rap name. And the tutor of course, but I like to think she just helped me get on the right path. I had to do the walking myself.

Also, an album with the first song called "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ" is almost certain to be awesome, especially if you actually know where that town is. Though I think some people might not like the singer sounding a bit like Johnny Rotten sometimes. I guess it's an acquired taste. But Fear and Loathing, the one of the Las Vegas persuasion, reminds me of another great book, one of my all-time favorites, on which I wrote a paper in university and also received an excellent grade. It's "The Crying of Lot 49", which incorporates some elements of "Oedipus the King" by Sophocles, who also wrote "Antigone", which we saw at the theater last night. Science, Shakespeare, Greek drama, Rock and Roll. Is that what life is all about?

So here we are, all alone, day after day, pretending to be real...

After that half-hearted Freddie Hubbard tribute mixed in with a little bit of an album recommendation, I figured it's time for the second official album review on here. And since the last album was more of a mainstream thing, let me take you back to a time when I wouldn't have been caught dead listening to anything like it. Yeah, as a teenager I wanted no compromises when it came to music and listened to quite a limited variety. A lot of punk rock-like stuff, some Alternative and Metal and that was pretty much it. A littler later on I got heavily into hip-hop. But no matter what, I didn't want no commercialized fake crap and despised almost anything in the charts. And of course it annoyed me to no end when a catchy radio tune got stuck in my head even though I had resolved to loathe it.

But over time my tastes have become much more eclectic, and I'm not gonna bore you with the whole ordeal of me expanding my musical horizon as I grew up, but one thing's for sure; these days, when I like a song or an artist, I will stand by it no matter what. Christina Aguilera's got a bunch of good songs for example. Here's a band I don't like and would still have a hard time admitting to like: Radiohead. As far as I can tell, nothing's right with them. The whiny voice, the boring songs and the people getting all excited about them. And even though I have to admit I'm not the most familiar with their catalog, I do believe that people should just listen to the originators instead: Pink Floyd. Anyway, this is getting way off track.

Automatic 7's self-titled work is nothing like Pink Floyd. They have published two more albums since their debut, none of which I own. I discovered them in a little record store specializing in punk rock that was located in a town me and my friends used to go to because it had a big skate shop. It was about an hour and a half on the train, but we went there quite regularly for a while. I remember this band particularly, because they were playing it in the store while I was browsing their selection, and I asked the dude working there what it was and, obviously, ended up taking it home. This was at a time when the internet was just starting to become big. So inside the booklet, they list their e-mail address, using an AOL account. How awesome is that?

Freddie Hubbard

I only learned yesterday that Freddie Hubbard passed away on December 29th. So even though it's a little late, I suggest you break out your Empyrean Isles, or get it from itunes or some place like that if you don't have a copy, and let him take you to a better place.

So last week

I know I'm turning this in the official old news blog, but I came across this article, bookmarked it, but never got around to sharing it with you. And since it's late, I'll let you provide your comments first, before I offer my own other than that I enjoyed reading it.

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.