Dear readers you must know by now that I am somewhat of a procrastinator. Despite that fact, I am here to deliver the second installment of my musical autobiography. In case you missed the introduction this project is going to describe how I came into the indie fold and perhaps give some of the reasons that I have for listening to music that is only appreciated by a small sliver of the music listening population. We last checked out after my first real romance with music (Dylan) and in a lull between my introduction to music and actually following music.

Middle school is definitely a time when no one wants to be a nerd. The college and post-college years are rife with nerd pride and the sheer exuberance of nerds that have found their niches, realizing that they have been vindicated after years of petty taunting and social rejection, at least vindicated within their own nerd communities. Middle school is not that time.

I am not fully aware of exactly when I realized that I was pretty lame. Perhaps it is only in retrospect, but I feel that there was a lot of forgetten anguish over that fact that I was decidedly uncool. This, sadly was where my next musical turn came from. Some time around 6th or 7th grade I discovered the radio. I remember a feverish excitement in finding out that I could find “all the cool new music out there” just by listening intently to X103.3 “Indy’s new rock alternative.” Let me tell you that I was definitely a true believer.

I was definitely primed for corporate radio because I had been, for a long time, watching MTV. I can remember watching MTV very early on in its inception. I can remember watching They Might Be Giants videos and the release of some early Madonna. I even saw once the only Grateful Dead song to be turned to video and played on MTV, “Touch of Grey.” I have a distinct memory of seeing the first “Real World” and being incredibly pissed off because I watched MTV for music not for feature programming. I know that my favorite three videos were “Money For Nothing” by the Dire Straits, “Take On Me” by Ah Ha, and “Hotel Detective” by They Might Be Giants.

Flashing forward again to middle school I definitely wanted to fit in and liking “cool” music was definitely one pathway. I got Pearl Jam’s album “Ten” from my uncle and that was my first CD that I actually owned. From there it was Green Day, Alice In Chains, Bush, The Smashing Pumpkins, and pretty much anything that was thrown on the radio. My generation was definitely riding the backwash of Generation X, grunge was on the way out, bad pop was ascending but as middle schoolers we were rabid for new “cool” music. I definitely have a whole CD book full of music from this time that I rarely ever listen to but is the sum total of nearly all of my disposable income from 6th to 9th grade.

I am not sure what exactly to think of this musical period. Sometimes I am near ashamed of some of the albums I have in my collection. I remember a lot of out and out battles with my sister over why her music sucked and mine was superior, which are in and of themselves a little embarassing because on reflection both Bush and the Indigo Girls are probably not worth fighting over. However, this period was not completely devoid of musical merit. I did start some important habits with respect to where I am now. One is the fact of collecting a lot of music and discussing the pros and cons of artists/songs/genres. There are definitely a large number of people for whom music never becomes important enough to debate or collect. The second is that I did begin to develop a taste for certain strains of music. I loved They Might Be Giants because they were different, strange, and good. I keyed into the Violent Femmes, because they served up something a little different than the normal fare. The third, which is more important than I realized then, was that I developed a taste for harsher music. There is a lot of excellent music that seems too harsh or raw on the first listen but grows on you after a while.

So at this point I was definitely primed for music. The only thing I lacked was any real guide other than MTV or X103.3 “Indy’s new rock alternative.” So the next epoch of my musical development is where I get launched in a new direction, not my final direction, but more near the mark.

NASA has scored big with the Mars rovers. We are definitely WAY beyond what we thought these guys would do. They are in their 500 something days and I seem to remember that they were originally planned for 60 days of use. So huzzah for NASA. There is some excellent footage of dust devils on Mars (from the Spirit rover) here.

UPDATE: Another article from Space.com about the Spirit rover and its incredible journey.

As many of you may already know, Costa and I are much cooler/nerdlier than almost anyone we know. Case in point we are now talking on the as of yet unreleased Google Talk instant messaging service. All you need to use it is a little know-how, a Jabber compatible client (Gaim, mac’s iChat, Adium, etc.) and THESE instructions. There are some more instructions posted in the Slashdot forum on the topic.

Google is expected to announce the service as early as tomorrow, so these instructions have limited utility. It is not yet known whether Google will be introducing a new chat client or suggesting a current client. However, it seems likely to the author that Google will go with something they have turned out (and it will probably be incredible). As far as any special features, or implementation of this with current Google features, your guess is as good as mine.

UPDATE (acosta): Officially released. Here is a link. Seems only an official Windows client now, but who cares, it’s Jabber! I’m currently using Adium and it’s lookin’ nice.

Now that orientation week is over and we (the new grad students) all know what we have to do next week, I feel it’s an appropriate time to comment on my experiences here at Purdue thus far. First of all, I’d like to say my internet access at Purdue FAR outweighs my crappy and unreliable bandwidth in my apartment, so I’m thinking of moving at least one of my systems to my office, permanently. There’s a great wireless blanket across the whole campus, Cisco 802.11g MSCHAPv2 encapsulated PEAP/WPA/802.1X. Yay!

Anyway, basically the whole orientation experience has been one easy ride … although they talk it up like it’s stressful as hell, it really isn’t — at all. The vast majority of my time here so far has been sitting in a chair, listening to various lectures on a variety of subjects, from safety to not sleeping with or dating your students (that talk was 2 hours long, really). The major exception to this slew of monotony and boredom was Tuesday afternoon.

That time, we were teaching. In front of a large audience (OK it wasn’t that large an audience). To be videotaped and commented on by fellow grad students. Terrifying. They had given us 10 introductory chemistry problems to be prepared to teach at the board. Although they were all relatively simple problems (pretty much all the ideal gas law), it was suprising to see how much trouble most of these “brilliant chemists” had with such a simple task. Granted, we all arrived at the right answer by the end, but each and every person was struck with varying degrees of terror throughout their explanation. As it turns out, I talk into the board instead of toward the students, and get lost in the middle of simple problems for no reason. My question was literally calculating the number of moles of an ideal gas given V, P and T … and yet I blanked halfway through.

The point of this exercise was to provide feedback about our teaching so we could work on it and know our problems. And, to be honest, this was accomplished. Still, with 2 whole hours of teaching experience under my belt now (ha), I’m still terrified about getting up in 2 sections of Chemistry 115 (2nd level general chemistry — mostly engineers). From what I hear though, that fear goes away in the first week. So here’s to week 2.

Chemistry 115 has over 2400 students in it … yes, a good 700 more students in one class than Bowdoin had total. There are God knows how many sections of students, but I have 2 (24 students each), for a grand total of 48 little freshmen. Each of these sections involves a lab, two classes and a recitation that I must attend. Combine that with grading and preparing for recitation and it’s about 20 hours of work a week total. On top of all this I’m taking 3 classes for credit, and 2 that are just required and I get no credit for. Granted, 605 and 695A won’t be very much work, but with all of this together, I’m sure to want to kill myself by the time next week rolls around. The classes are:

CHM 620: Spectrochemical Instrumentation (3 ch)
CHM 679: Chemical Thermodynamics (3 ch)
CHM 696A: Surface Analysis (3 ch)

CHM 605: Safety In The Chemistry Laboratory (0 ch)
CHM 695A: Seminar In Analytical Chemistry (0 ch)

The past two nights have been filled with the usual chemist/alcohol ordered pair at a few bars in downtown (yes, downtown) West Lafayette. Other than that I’m just chillin’ until Monday, when everything starts. Off to try to figure out my schedule …

Here it is kids the first installment of my musical autobiography, and as of yet I see that no one has risen to the challenge of a parallel tale based upon their own experience no matter how fictional that experience may be.

It is very hard to start a project like this. The beginning seems too obvious, the end too cliché, and the middle far too mundane. So if it will be the lesser of three evils let us take the obvious course. The earliest memories I have of music are pretty standard kid stuff. I remember Sharon, Lois, and Brahm, Sesame Street songs, Raffi, and the rest of the glut of half hearted children’s music that was never really meaningful to me. I remember I liked “Baby Beluga” quite a bit but I really cannot remember feeling anything significant about that kind of music. Perhaps I was too young to enjoy music, perhaps it just wasn’t the right kind of thing. Maybe children don’t have strong musical feelings. Maybe it was the numerous head injuries I sustained at the hands of the Swiss, my own father, and the treachery of gravity itself. Maybe my parents could remember my youthful musical joys better than I.

Despite my apathy towards the music of my earliest years I can clearly remember the first time I really felt moved by any music. I can’t remember the exact details of the event. I have a basic framework in my mind of what was going on but that is about it. What I strongly remember was the feeling. Looking back I realize that it was definitely the start of a departure from the normal vein of popular music appreciation, which I have only begun to appreciate in my introspective quarter life analysis, lame though that may be.

So the first meaningful blast of music I ever got was in a car trip with my parents. I think we were driving around some back roads in Indiana, which tangentially is something I have grown to love quite a bit but completely unrelated musically. My parents had just bought the Bob Dylan Greatest Hits Volume I album. From what I recall my normal mode of interaction with my parents music was either vague annoyance or concentrated ignorance, which is how this listening started. The only problem (although I now realize it was a boon) was that my parents were dead set on hammering out the lyrics of every song. As one might imagine this is not as easy with Bob Dylan as it is with Mariahcareybritanyspearschristanaguileraashleesimpson & Co. This meant that each song was played through at least 5 times with certain sections rewound and replayed over and over. It was at this point that I learned one of the most valuable lessons that anyone can really learn as far as appreciating art of any kind. Things with real quality are often hard to enjoy the first time through. It is very easy to detect what is not good, but often enjoying something with real quality takes some time. Despite the initial annoyance, I found that there was definitely something richer and deeper in Bob Dylan than Raffi. That is definitely something that has stuck with me. I still have an unnatural affinity for gruff voiced nonsensical lyrics. Raffi, sadly, does not feature prominently in this autobiography. Though, he will crop up once more, but much later.

That was the beginning and end of my early musical life. After my small epiphany I decided I had moved fast enough for the next few years. I know that I listened to music, but it was mostly whatever my dad listened to, which is not really all that bad. I did in the next few years pick up on some of the classics like Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, and more Dylan. I got my first CD player as a hand me down sometime in this time. I can distinctly remember thinking that these things would never catch on because the early “walk”man model I had was pretty much useless for any kind of actual walking. The CD skipped if you breathed on it and no CD could be kept scratch free. It seemed like they had a built in half-life. I definitely had CDs that were all but unlistenable for a couple years until anti-skipping technology caught up and even to this day they play just fine. That however, is getting ahead of this autobiography.

Me + Linksys network gear + Comcast + $19.99 + Powerbook = Internet!

I just got back to Chicago last night after helping Costa move up to West Lafeyette. Before his lies begin I want to put this on the record: his apartment is smelly… really smelly. Other than that nothing much is happening. I am eagerly awaiting some Boston musings from Mallon. I think he should definitely do a “top ten places in Boston to be denounced as a homosexual and threatened with violence by brookseque characters”.

You wanna know what really grinds my gears? When the fan-belt and/or the rotar wheel of the belt system that is attached to the water pump in your water ski boat engine ceases creating a loud screeching noise. Thus forcing your day to be ruined because you have to be towed back to the docks. Also, the trend of obesity at the lake.

And that folks, is what grinds my gears.

Today I enjoyed a wonderful dinner by the hospitality of one Mr. John Costa, who never fails to entertain. Costa, Mr. Costa, and I all met in dowtown Chicago. The two Costa’s are (as you may have read previously) in the midst of a gigantic cross country road trip zig-zagging across the western and near-western (midwestern) US. They are making a short stop in Chicago to see a little baseball of the White Sox variety and enjoy the city before the wheel down to Indiana to get Costa settled in at Purdue. Then the venerable and inscrutable Mr. Costa will be flying back to Bend, OR, leaving Costa to wallow in his nerdliness at Purdue.

Somewhere between my third and fifth Coca-Cola and in the midst of some fabrication concocted by the young Costa in an attempt to diminish his complete lack of content on his own (and gloriously provided) vdov.net, he mentioned a wonderful idea. He claimed he would make a Pros/Cons list for life in West Lafayette, IN (hold him to that one). I thought this would be a worthy addition for all of the posters here at vdov.net. I also thought since I was settled into my new digs I would kick things off. Perhaps now that SMallon is primed for vdov posts he could follow up with a bit on life in Boston.

My list will focus on the three cities I have spent the most amount of time in (New York, Indianapolis, and Chicago). I am leaving out Brunswick because it would be a kind of apples and oranges comparison, but cities I will do.

PROS:

Midwestern friendliness - It really is true that people in the midwest are friendlier or at least more gregarious. On the few rides I have taken on Chicago’s El I have either spoken with or noticed conversations between complete strangers. I actually learned about a German festival happening in September from someone who just sort of randomly struck up a conversation on the train. In all my train riding in New York I don’t think I ever talked with anyone. There is definitely some truth to the accusation that New Yorkers seem to willfully ignor each other. Indianapolis falls more in line with Chicago but the lack of density and mass transit seems to cut down on the random friendly interactions.

“The cityscape” - It is very hard to deny New York’s amazing skyline. It is almost a standard image in any movie that might remotely involve the city. However almost all of my images of New York are of narrow urban canyons, because the skyline in New York is only pictaresque from off the Manhattan Isle. Chicago is a different fish entirely. Since it is a little less dense and many of the boulevards are broader there are amazing vistas everywhere, even in the heart of downtown. Indianapolis just doesn’t have the big buildings downtown to really be breathtaking. I feel like it is getting there, but its hard to compete with Chicago and New York as far as skylines go. The Chicago River also tends to open up the downtown area, creating a visual blank spot that creates many a long senic view of the bustling metroplois. Which brings me to the next pro.

The architecture - I think that since Chicago is a little more open and spread out there is a much greater focus on architecture, especially downtown. The skyscrapers in Chicago are really amazing. The Tribune Tower is one of the most breathtaking buildings I have ever seen. I may be a bit biased as well, living as close as I do to the University of Chicago. I pass no less than three Frank Loyd Wright buildings on the way to school and that is before I even get to the Gothic Section of the university. The Rockefeller Chapel is another building that just blows the mind and that is just a taste of the architecture around here.

The museums - The Chicago museums are without peer. Not only do they have an amazing collection of diverse museums, but the ones they have are of the most amazing quality. The Musuem of Science and Industry here is amazing. The Shedd Aquarium/Field Musuem complex is not only intellectually stunning, it sits out above Lake Michigan like some gigantic Roman Pantheon of knowledge. The view of it from Lakeshore Drive is beyond reproach. As far as I can tell neither New York nor Indianapolis have any competition in the Science and Industry or Natural History arenas. However, Indianapolis had the Children’s Museum and New York has the visual arts on lockdown with the MOMA and The Met.

Greenness - Chicago simply has an incredible amount of green space for a big city. Indianapolis has always been wonderful because it has so much green space in the city limits. Chicago is definitly one of the few highly urbanized cities that I have been to that maintains a high level of foliage. New York definitely has a big score in Central Park, but there are huge swaths of city that fit the description “concrete jungle” whereas Chicago seems to have more of a forested feel to it. Also, living in Hyde Park definitely accentuates that feeling.

CONS:

Movie theaters - Apparently Chicago has no movie theaters within any reasonable distance of where I live. I don’t really understand how you can have a population as affluent and dense as Hyde Park without one. New York and Indianapolis are both brimming with them but Chicago seems to be at a lack. I also fault University of Chicago for not having one good independet movie rental place near campus… what kind of nerds go to this school anyway!?

Urban Density - New York, especially Manhattan, seems to have reached some kind of critical density of urbanness that few cities have. Chicago is not quite there yet. The city is definitely not as unified as New York. This is probably due to the fact that it has such an expansive real estate whereas New York is fairly confined geographically. The rich density of New York is definitely one selling point that beats Chicago. New York is definitely the prime example in the US of urban culture, no one can compete.

Public transportation - While Chicago beats the pants off of Indianapolis, it cannot hold a candle to the NYC public trasportation. The El is excellent, but the Metro in New York goes everywhere. My unhappiness with the Chicago system is probably accentuated by the fact that I live in Hyde Park, which just doesn’t have any convenient El stops. This is mind boggling considering the university was around before the El. You would think that someone would have had the foresight to lobby the city to bring the train just a little closer to campus. There is however a Metra stop right near campus, very convenient. The only problem is that the Metra is more of a train and not a subway or local metro. It stops running frequently at about 7:00pm. That means it is fine for getting into dowtown duing the day, but good luck getting back to Hyde Park quickly if you let the time get away from you. I know New York has its share of headaches when using public transportation and Chicago takes excellent care of their infrastructure, but New York wins this round.

“Town feel” - Both New York and Chicago lack something that Indianapolis has loads of. That is the ineffale feeling of “townness.” Despite the fact that the metro area of Indianapolis is more than 1 million people strong there is a certain small community feel that persists. It is hard to describe, but New York and Chicago have definitely left that phase of their development.

That is all I’ve got for now. If anyone else has spent time in these places… bring on the comments suckas. Otherwise I await more living area pros and cons from the rest of our posters.

PS: The music autobiography is coming…

I just removed the browser Opera 8 from my computer at work. I decided to try it out because I like new things, and because I was bored (mainly the latter). I will spare you the wasted time, and say that Firefox remains at the top of my list, along with Konqueror and other obscure linux software. With this said, I was disappointed to learn that Mozilla has become a corporation, abandoning its non-profit Foundation status. Actually, that isn’t entirely true, only Firefox/Thunderbird will be developed under the Firefox Corporation. While we have all used the great services provided by Google following its IPO (see Andy’s post for review), and the competition with MS has its benefits, I wonder if the move by Mozilla is an augury for the open source community. A few days ago there was a post on Freedom Toaster, a foundation dedicated to bringing open-source software to South Africa, where communications infrastructure prevents reliable access to the software. This is a great step for the community, who seem to following Chris Griffin’s advice to ‘fight the machine’. Although he was congratulating Peter for being fired. Thoughts? (on the Mozilla move/open source thing, not Family Guy). My original intent was to fulminate against Opera 8, mainly because one must pay for services available freely to Firefox users and because a download/install glitch caused a few problems elsewhere on my machine. And because the browsing experience was not all that unique; perhaps aesthetically pleasing because of its different look.

Part 1 of my musical autobiography has sadly been delayed. However not so sadly, it has been delayed by moving in to my apartment and applying to be a DJ at WHPK 88.5FM (UChicago’s radio station). I have NO idea what they want in a DJ but I am applying. We shall see. Pictures soon to come.

I was reviewing the site of the Discovery Space Shuttle and found that the videos were quite interesting to watch. Here is a link. On the lower right of the page is a STS-114 Crew and Mission Link which is pretty fun to play around. I really enjoyed the last two videos of that page: WB-57 Chase Plane Video and Discovery Launches. I couldnt imagine the feeling of 10’s of thousands of pounds of thrust propelling you into the outskirts of space, granted they are right around the corner from our atmosphere. Well… we can say they are a sliver away, compared to the size of space; ok, ok, the distance at which Discovery is from the earth compared to the size of the universe is miniature, mathematically I’m sure the distance is zero. Anyways, check it out, there are some pretty interesting facts and videos.

I’m here at Interlochen, sitting on steps of the bowl, listening to the World Youth Symphony Orchestra (WYSO), of which I was a member in 1999 and 2000. And, they have wireless over the whole campus. Not only that, it’s .11g! What could possibly be better than this? It’s the last week for summer here at Interlochen, so all the orchestras and other groups are practicing for Les Preludes, an end-of-the-summer tradition involving over 500 musicians and other artists (all on one stage at the same time). Anyway my dad and I are here hangin’ out visiting my sister.

When I get to West Lafayette I’ll publish a little best and worst of list, as well as some other comments/pictures from our trip. But that won’t be till at least the weekend.