music, online

here are some small reviews about ways to listen to music online:

Pandora: Remember when this one came out? It was crazy. I haven't been that into pandora for a few years, and especially now with the ads they put on.  The music selection was too repetitious and I often didn't like the things they chose for me to listen to.

lastfm: I don't really get lastfm, except that I know I have an account there and I've listened to stuff.  Pretty similar to pandora but I like the selection better.  More independent artists, and you can listen to friends' "stations" of stuff they like.  You can compile artists you like and they play a selection -- I think.  Also, I think there is a way to hook up your itunes to it but I don't know about that.

8tracks:  My housemate told me about 8tracks.  On this site, you can listen to tons of playlists made by other users. I liked it pretty good for about a day, but then couldn't seem to find any playlists that I found consistently to my liking. There aren't ads, and theoretically this would be a good way to discover new music.

Grooveshark: My other housemate told me about grooveshark, and so far it's my favorite of these sites.  You put in an artist or song name, and you can add tracks to your play queue. I don't know how this is legal, but so far I've been able to hear lots of music I've been curious about, but didn't want to purchase. So far I think every artist I've searched has come up in their database. Somehow it searches all music uploads and makes them available. No ads!

Bonus Options:

NPR Tiny Desk Concert: I love getting these via the "All Songs Considered Podcast." Very famous musicians like Bela Fleck, or lesser known, but talented musicians perform a few songs at the NPR music office.  I've liked or really liked everything I've heard here.  It has been a good way to discover new music.

Snore and Guzzle Radio Hour:  Eclectic hours of music put together by an individual and downloadable to your computer. Thematic descriptions such as: " I’d say this radio hour would be a good soundtrack to accompany the study of the anatomy of flight and bird migration patterns."

FLUFFY: Keste Pizza

Guys, Leah pointed out to me today that, despite only being updated once a month or so for the past year and a half, Small Reviews gets more hits everyday than the blog I painstakingly update everyday.  And also that our most popular entry, Behr Paint Color 710c-3: Gobi Desert, gets as many hits in a week as my most popular entry ever has gotten in three months.  Clearly, folks, you have been ignored too long, and we're sorry.  Today, the pause ends.  Maybe.

This afternoon, my boss took us to a very nice lunch at Keste Pizzeria (warning: that website plays music) in the West Village.  It was amazing.  I went in with no expectations (this was part of the key, I think, to why I didn't love Grimaldi's so much), and I was just delighted with the pizza.  I ordered a prosciutto e arugola, which is my signature favorite pizza of all time.  It's hard to mess up, so they had that going for them already, but Keste took it to a whole new level of delicious.  The crust was perfect: light and fluffy, with a crisp black exterior layer from the giant wood-burning oven in the back.  The mozzarella was fresh, the prosciutto perfectly salted, and the arugula just bitter enough to settle the whole into a perfect melding of wonderful pizza.  The other pizzas in our group (one with sausage and one very similar to mine, but with shaved pecorino and tomato sauce) looked equally good.

Our waiter was very nice and even seemed passionate about the specials, but wasn't overbearing the way waiters can sometimes be.  The restaurant is small, and I've heard it can get quite crowded and noisy, but we went early, so that wasn't a problem for us at all.  We were seated right away, and it was more than quiet enough for us to chat.  The prices were a little high (between $9-$18 for a pizza, but most are $15-18), so it certainly couldn't be my first go-to pizzeria, but for a business lunch or special evening, I would say the food is more than worth it.  Everything felt extremely high-quality, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone searching for some filling, delicious pizza on Bleeker.

postcrossing.com

 
One day, I woke up with the wish to have an international penpal.  Years ago, I tried some mail exchange sites, but have seemed either too public or fizzled out since I last saw them.

I found http://postcrossing.com as an alternative and decided to try it out.  It is an active site with lots of users.  Here is how postcrossing works: you sign up and request an address.  The site emails you the address of some person in the world (you can indicate if you want only international addresses or if you're ok with domestic too) and a little description that the person writes about his or herself.  You also write a numerical code somewhere on the postcard.  Once the person receives the card, they enter it into the website, and you get "credit" for having sent it.  For every postcard you send, your address will be provided to another user so that you can get one.

So far, I have sent a postcard to someone in the Netherlands, and someone in Taiwan.  By accident, I received 4 postcards in return, from Buffalo, NY; China; Finland; and Japan.

I like that the website doesn't publicly display your address but I also preferred being able to browse through people's profiles myself in order to find an address.  I have found it kind of unsatisfying and limiting to just send postcards here and there to random people.

I might try to find another mail project, but I don think I'll request another address from postcrossing for now.

Best SuperBowl Commercials

Hello, all. These are my favorite Super Bowl 45 commercials:





Edit for Clarity: The first is my favorite because OH MY GOD IT'S ADORABLE. Who doesn't want to make their small child feel like they magical? Even if they are using that magic for the dark side... The second is my second favorite because, come on. Doritos bring people back to life? Haha!

Midflight Movies

Hello, friends! It's been a while, hasn't it? Hope you're all enjoying 2011. As some of you may know, I rang in the New Year in France, and since I saw three movies on the plane back, I thought I'd give a quick review of each, in the order that I saw them.

Inception:
The story, roughly, of a group of people who can enter into someone's subconscious to steal their ideas and go in to plant one, I really enjoyed Inception. The cinematography was really interesting, I liked all the actors in it, and the storyline was complicated but never felt confusing. I know it's a little too sci-fi for some people, but I thought it had enough in the way of drama and personality not to make that an issue. Also, who isn't interested in meta-meta-meta-meta stories?

Up:
I'm not, in general, a hyperemotional person at the movies. In real life, maybe a little bit, but at the movies, unless it's really late at night and I'm alone and feeling sorry for myself, I can usually keep it together. So, imagine my surprise when I found myself repeatedly choked up at Up, an animated Disney-Pixar film. The story of an elderly man who sets out to live his and his wife's lifelong dream of moving to a faraway land, this movie is an emotional rollercoaster. I was laughing, I was crying, I was constantly up and down and up and down. It was absolutely beautiful, completely heartbreaking at points, and just the best movie I've seen in a long, long time. Possibly the best movie I've seen since Wall-E. Yes, I really like Pixar films.

Killers:
A sort-of bizarre, kind of cute romantic comedy, Killers stars Ashton Kutcher as an ex-hitman, and Katherine Heigl as his too-perfect wife. I liked both of them in it, and Tom Selleck as Kutcher's father-in-law was hilarious, but I'm not in love with car chases and violence, and that makes up a fair amount of the film (probably in an attempt to make guys watch it), and I'm also not in love with hyper-contrived love&marriage&baby stories, which makes up the rest of the film (probably in an attempt to make girls watch it).

The moral: If you're stuck on a plane for 8 hours and can't sleep, Killers will do in a pinch, and Inception is good, but really, Up is where it's at.