January 2009 – Page 3 – The Designer Monologues

January 24, 2009

iTunes Update

Thanks to , who pointed me towards iPod.iTunes, the problem is now solved.

Of course, this is after I tried Yamipod (for free) — only to discover that it offers full function on Linux and PC, but not Mac. Sure – why offer full functionality on the OS that iTunes and the iPod were originally designed on? That’s crazy-talk!

I also tried iPodRip ($20 for full version, only to have it freeze up on me whenever I tried anything — email in to support, in the vain attempt to get a solution or a refund), and Senuti (another 20 bucks — only to find that while it does handle playlists, you have to import them one at a time, manually.)

To my fellow Mac users: Seriously. Grab a copy of iPod.iTunes ASAP. It’s brilliant. Not only for recovery purposes, but for a helluva lot more (including the fact that if you use it to sync, instead of iTunes, it won’t overwrite the iPod — which means no deleted files. It’ll just add the new stuff). I can’t say enough good things about it.

Thanks to everyone who suggested solutions, and especially to , for pointing me in the right direction.

January 23, 2009

iTunes JOY. Bleh.

Well, this is fun.

The “iTunes Music Library” XML file — the data file that keeps all the playlists and categories and such — got corrupted. I still have all of my music (on the original drive, and on my iPod), but iTunes doesn’t know what to do with it.

Over 12,000 songs — organized via playlists into albums and categories. Now that organization needs to be re-done.

FUCK.

What I need to do is copy the playlist data from my iPod (where it’s still intact) to iTunes. I’ve downloaded iPodRip, in the hopes that I can just import the playlist data from my iPod, but I don’t have high hopes — I think the program is actually more concerned with copying the actual music files.

If anybody has any ideas, I’d be glad to hear ’em.

January 23, 2009April 19, 2010

Friday Music

Here we go:

First up — M.I.A. is nominated for an Oscar! She’s nominated (under her full name, Maya Arulpragasam) for a collaboration with A.R. Rahman on the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. I’d love if this track won, but the statuette will probably go to the song from “WALL-E” (then again, I could be surprised — “Hard Out Here For a Pimp” won in 2005). A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam – “O Saya.”

Here’s a new Lily Allen track, introduced to me by . Love the lyrics on this (a bit of NSFW language, by the way). Not many folks do satire in song these days. Lily Allen – “The Fear.”

Forgive me — this song has been worming its way through my brain over the past week. It’s the psychedelic theme tune to an early-70s UK kid’s show, “Ace of Wands”, about a stage magician who uses genuine supernatural powers in his strange adventures. In finest UK kid-show tradition, the program was genuinely creepy at times. Check this youtube video of the opening credits, with a prominently-featured pentacle (yet another reason why you’d never have seen this show in the US). Here’s the full-length version of the very trippy (and extremely catchy) theme: Andrew Bown – “Tarot (theme from ‘Ace of Wands’)”

Lookbook is an unsigned Minneapolis duo — Grant Cutler (instrumentation) and Maggie Morrison (vocals). The vibe (especially on this particular track) is very Twin Peaks-y Julee Cruise. The band releases their own music, which you can get via the band’s myspace page, or via iTunes Music Store. Lookbook – “Believe The Hype.”

Lastly, U2 has released the first single from their forthcoming album No Line On The Horizon. I still wait (in vain, I know) for a return to the raw emotive power of their 80s output, but this is still pretty good. U2 – “Get On Your Boots.”

Enjoy.