Trapped at Berkeley

iPod vending machine, originally uploaded by sbisson.

via: Boing Boing

Oh, yes, another one of my early morning posts…

NSLog(); asks “What’s the most powerful song you can think of?”

I can’t decide upon a single song. However, Rage Against the Machine’s music is extremely powerful. Their lyrics, like Michael Moore movies, highlight social injustices with unrestricted fury. Although the band has broken up, the message they conveyed is as timely as ever.

After watching A Clockwork Orange last week, I snagged a copy of the soundtrack. As with most Stanley Kubrick movie soundtracks, A Clockwork Orange’s soundtrack is highly original. To say the least, it’s a very interesting mix of mostly classical pieces. I especially loved the eerie opening track to the movie; it sounds so modern and foreboding.

As an interesting side note, I was so interested in the soundtrack that I decided to look up music by Walter Carlos, who synthesized the album. After spending a few minutes searching on Google to no avail (I only found results leading to a Wendy Carlos), I finally decided to click on a Wendy Carlos result, thinking her to be Walter Carlos’s wife.

Much to my surprise, Walter Carlos = Wendy Carlos. Apparently Walter Carlos had a sex change operation. Scary.

But nevertheless, Walter/Wendy Carlos is very talented musician. I also found out that he/she composed the music to the movie Tron, so I guess I’ll be watching that soon.

This is what happens when you’re forced to overhear your roommate’s music:

I’ve become addicted to Lustra’s Scotty Doesn’t Know. Grab a copy *cough* P2P *cough* and hear what I’m talking about. It’s a stupid song, but it gets addicting. This has got to be ironic considering my post earlier today.

It seems like someone is out to get me. I just had a Chem 4B midterm on Wednesday, and this week I have a midterm Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. I think I’ll be getting very little sleep this week…

I’ve been wearing my headphones a lot these days. After discovering freshlymixed and hybridized.org (thanks nonforma), I’ve renewed my interest in Radio 1’s Essential Mixes. I highly recommend downloading DJ Touche’s mix…it rocks!

With all this music, I’m feeling the need for a decent mp3 player. The iPods are certainly nice (especially the 40 GB one), but I would prefer a player with native Linux support. Furthermore, I’d like one integrated with something else I’d need, like a PDA or cellphone. I guess I’ll have to wait until stuff from Japan gets brought over…

Talking about Linux, I’ve scrapped Crossover Office in favor of VMWare Workstation. In my emulated Windows XP environment I’m able to run Matlab and MS Office 2003, among other things. It’s a little slow, and I definitely need more RAM (anybody want to donate a Crucial 1GB SO-DIMM to me?), but with Con Kolivas’s auto-regulating swap patch, my Linux handles the load suprisingly well.

Oh yeah, ssh X-Forwarding really rocks. I think I’ll be setting up a Linux shell server sometime next year…

Darn, I’m hungry. I think West Coast Pizza is going to make some money off me tonight.

Being an avid fan of CSI w/o a television, I downloaded #BT’s HDTV rip of the latest episode, Butterflied. Near the beginning of the episode, a tune in the soundtrack caught my attention. I recognized the sound, but I couldn’t identify it…

I had to know what song it was!

I paused the episode and opened up XMMS. I quicked scrolled through my list of songs, stopping first at Depeche Mode. I felt that the sound I heard had an electronic, inorganic, atmosphere, and Depeche Mode was known for their unique electronic tones. However, after listening to a few Depeche Mode sound bites, I ruled them out. The sound wasn’t cheery, nor was it blended in the ’sad’ Depeche Mode way (I can’t think of a better description).

Next came Moby, another famous electronic artist. I took a lot longer to rule him out. Moby tends to use many different techniques and styles, so it was difficult to totally characterize the sound I heard as not Moby. Nevertheless, I ruled him out too, because, if it was him, it would have had to something he did in the 70’s, and in that case, I was already doomed.

I came upon Peter Gabriel, but I decided to ignore him. I had an hunch. I scrolled back up to Bjork.

The sound was definitely Bjork. Or was it. The sound I heard was melancholy. Bjork has tons of deep, dark, songs. And she oftens use electronic mixing. Nevertheless, even though I have EVERY SINGLE Bjork cd, I couldn’t find a match.

At this point, I normally would have given up. I was interrupting a good episode of CSI, and my search was going nowhere. But I came upon one last idea. Bjork had worked with many European bands, and one of bands closely associated with her music is Massive Attack. I remember this because I was talking to my high school friend Mina Hong the other day, and she had a Bjork buddy icon. I pointed it out, and she and I discussed Bjork’s music, and Massive Attack was brought up.

I was right! The song was Massive Attack’s Name Taken from their new album 100th Window. I took a few minutes to listen to the song in its unedited entirety, and then I finished enjoying the CSI episode.

After that episode, I’ve found myself listening to Massive Attack again. Emily’s gonna hate me for the next note: If anybody wants to buy me a gift, Massive Attack’s album Blue Lines would work very well =)

Today, I had a rather uneventful day. I woke up at 10:00 AM and listened to Radiohead’s new CD, Hail to the Thief. It’s an interesting CD, to say the least. Hail to the Thief follows the style set by Radiohead’s last two CDs, Kid A and Amnesiac. The music is very unique, and most people need to adjust themselves to it. Indeed, after a few listenings, people tend to agree that the CD is really good. As for myself, I just love the CD! I hope Radiohead has a concert in the Bay Area soon; I’d really like to go.

When lunch time arrived, I ate the remainders of my In-N-Out hamburgers. I used my roommate’s microwave to heat up the 3×3 and enjoyed every single bite of it. Even day-old In-N-Out is better than DC food! Too bad I’ll have to wait until Saturday (at least!) to eat In-N-Out again…

Surprisingly (for a procrastinator like me), I already have a (real) plan for Saturday. I am going to leave my dorm early in the morning and take BART to the Montgomery Street station. I’ll head north towards the Financial District and spend some time looking at the skyscrapers there. From there, I’ll walk a few blocks east to the Chinatown Gate and hopefully grab a bite to eat at one of the many authentic restaurants located there. Once I’m full with Chinese food, I’ll head north (again) to reach Lombard Street, and, following that street, I’ll find the famous crooked section. Continuing to follow Lombard Street, I’ll hike up the Russian Hill and arrive at Coit Tower. Hopefully the tower won’t be too crowded with tourists; I want to go to the top and see the entire city. I’m sure the view will be amazing…

I’ll be undertaking this adventure alone, of course. However, if anybody wants to come along, I’m sure that would fine. However, they’ll have to pay their own BART fare because I am poor =). I estimate that the walking distance from the Montgomery Street station to Coit Tower will be around 5-6 miles (factoring in the convoluted route I’ll be taking), not to mention the hike up the San Francisco hills. It may be tiring, but it sure will be good exercise!

Now back to what actually happened today. At 3:00 PM, I left my dorm to meet Milton, my fellow bible-student. We met at the entrance to the Doe Library, which was unfortunately closed. Since I was thirsty, we headed to the Terrace Cafe, but it was closed, so we doubled-back and headed towards the Golden Bear Cafe, which was surprisingly empty. I bought two lemonades and a roasted hot dog. Again, I hate paying for food on campus; those three items cost more than $7.

Milton and I ate at a table in front of the Cafe. While we were talking, a guy politely asked if we would mind sharing a table with him. Being good Christians, we, of course, said that we wouldn’t mind. In fact, we initiated a conversation with him. His name was Iliad and he was a Russian Jew who came to the United States in 1991. He retained a moderate Russian accent, but he was fluent in English. We began talking about religion, and it was interesting to have the perspective of a person with a (Russian) government-imposed secular background.

After Iliad left, Milton and I arranged for another meeting on Monday. We were unable to begin our actual study of the Bible today since the libraries were closed, but hopefully they will be open next week. We parted ways, and I lazily returned to my dorm, where a screening of the Matrix Reloaded awaited…