Day: October 3, 2005

Good week for free music

Item number 1: Seattle band Harvey Danger, of “Flagpole Sitta” fame, has released its newest album as free MP3 downloads from its website and via Bittorrent. Should be good stuff. (Via Slashdot)

Item number 2: Indie stalwarts Steadman have released their major label albums for free download from their website. (Via BoingBoing)

Finally, the 31 tossed-off-in-an-afternoon tracks of Van Morrison’s contractual obligation album, featuring such fine songs as “Ring Worm,” “Blow In Your Nose,” “Want a Danish,” “The Big Royalty Check,” and “Here Comes Dumb George,” are available for download at WFMU. Go nuts. (Again, via BoingBoing)

Virginia football: too good to be true

Well, Virginia was off to a strong start. Too bad about Saturday’s game: 45-33 is an ugly loss by anyone’s standards. I DVR’d the game but missed the last five minutes, thanks to the game going over three hours, and consequently missed the last scoring drives from both teams. It really looks like there wasn’t a heckuva a lot of defense going on, though. The polls seem to agree, as we’ve dropped out of the top 25.

Oh well. Maybe I can get to Saturday’s game at Boston College and watch the Cavaliers make up for it.

Disney is around here somewhere, isn’t it

In the light of day, the Gaylord Palms looks like the sort of resort that makes you say, “Now I know what Disney’s contractors do on their days off from the Magic Kingdom.” The central atrium has a kind of Disneyfied view of Florida architecture, from a mock Everglades to a faux spanish castle to multiple fake Mission-style buildings. Not to mention the alligators. It’s all very theme park and all very subtly wrong. Gibson’s Cayce would convulse in a massive allergic reaction to all the not-quite-reality.

The show floor is about 80° and humid. If that doesn’t get better by the time the day is over, I’m going to be dripping wet. That makes for an attractive sales experience.