Tony Cordova

I sit here at 1:00 AM on New Years Eve, trying to sleep, when I suddenly feel like saying something.  I wouldn’t say I get very lonely very often, but with my better half all the way across the country I suddenly feel it, or maybe I just really enjoy listening to Radiohead and I don’t want to stop.

So, I have a list of things that I want to change/do differently, not a new years resolution, just something interesting to think about.

In order of importance:

1. Read more. I honestly don’t think I have picked up and read an entire book in the past 2 years. My excuses include slow reading, time, and exhaustion(I get very tired when I read, even subtitles in movies make me sleepy).

2. Manage my time better.  I sometimes wonder if when I get to Heaven I’ll be able to look at a tally of how much time I have spent doing things.  How much time I spent watching TV, playing video games, sleeping, in class, sleeping in class, watching movies, being naked, pooping, on the internet, picking my nose, chewing, pretending to sleep, doing nothing, waiting in line, driving, drinking, talking on the phone, talking in person, chatting, stopped at red lights, looking at the stars, crying, smiling, holding hands.  I have wasted precious time just writing all of these things out.  I know for a fact that one thing I need to do less of is spend time on the internet.  Sure it’s nice to know every daily internet sensation out there, but it obviously doesn’t matter in the long run. Youtube ruins time management, and in the time that I am writing this very section of the blogpost I have read three web comics, this one is funny:

xkcd.com

3. Spend Less. This one is going to be difficult considering many things that I will not bore you with, but bills are high around the holiday season, and I’m not helping it.

4. Work Better.  I personally feel that I am a very good worker and I try my best to be efficient, but sometimes when I am working I will sacrifice quality for speed.  I would rather jury-rig something in 5 minutes than go through a dramatic sequence of steps and fix it properly in 4 hours. It’s not that I am lazy, I just want clients to see that I am efficient and I can get the job done quickly.  Also the longer I am with a client, the more money they are spending. I believe that in most cases there is a middle ground between 5 minutes and 4 hours that I can take advantage of and I need to do so.

5. Be mindful and attentive.  I HATE it when I am talking to someone and it seeps from their skin that they are not paying attention or have no interest in what I am saying, and the last thing I want to do is babble on to someone about something they don’t care about.  On the other had I also want to make sure that I don’t come off as un-interested in what someone else is talking about.  Maybe it comes down to how good of a conversationist(is this a real word?) I am.  I know people who can hold a decent conversation with someone about the most trivial and meaningless things and from an outside perspective you would think that it was a serious and healthy conversation(this sentence has 3(4) “ands.” Oh wow, I am a poor writer.)

I could also listen to less podcasts, eat healthier, ride my bike, get Melanie flowers, and drive safer.  Now I’m just talking crazy!

Ideal Tony is awesome.  Current Tony is…meh.

And now for something completely different:

I have been extremely low on hard drive space on my laptop so I thought it was finally time to archive some old music.  Some of the archived artists included:

311
AFI
Alien Ant Farm
Anti-Flag
Aphex Twin
Apocalyptica
Aqualung
Avenged Sevenfold
Bad Religion
Barenaked Ladies
Black Sabbath
Blind Guardian
Bon Jovi
Brian Eno
Bush
Cars
Chicago
Concrete Blonde
CCR

I think I’ll stop at “C” before I get to some really embarrassing artists.

In the same vein, I think I might list ten of my favorite bands of all time here in no particular order.
1. Radiohead
2. Sigur Ros
3. Super Furry Animals
4. Pink Floyd
5. The Beatles
6. Muse
7. Nine Inch Nails
8. Daft Punk
9. The Mars Volta
10. The New Pornographers

And some of my current faves:
1. Modest Mouse
2. Wilco
3. Neutral milk Hotel
4. Frightened Rabbit
5. M83
6. Hospital Ships
7. Crystal Castles
8. Matthew Dear
9. The Mountain Goats
10. Ratatat

All of these bands are worth checking out.

This is not the official video, but it is one of my all time favorite songs:

Wow, I just talked about myself a lot, well I guess it is my website, and it is called Tony Cordova, so what do you expect?! I wish I could be creative…

Oh, but there’s more.

Tonight I’ll be spending the evening without my beautiful girlfriend sitting next to me, which is kind of depressing, but she will be back soon and you won’t have to wade through posts like this(if you haven’t already forcibly drowned yourself.)

Also, a sequel to a post earlier this month:

Happy New Year.

Indescribable is an understatement. Immigrant was better than I thought and Juliette and the Licks were entertaining, but the energy, sound, and visual effects that Muse put together made this one unforgettable performance. Every song was epic enough to finish the show with and every transition was seamless. While watching Matthew Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard you could tell they were very passionate about what they were doing. Everyone needs to add “See Muse in Concert” to the list of things to do before you die.

They played every song perfectly, and sometimes even better than I remember on the CD. Watching them play my favorite songs was surreal, I could see their smiling faces as they were playing which reminded me of why I love Muse so much. You could tell they were having a good time which allowed me to enjoy the show so much more knowing that they aren’t just down there to make money. I wish they could have played every one of their songs….twice, I could have listened to them all night. Unfortunately the concert did not leave me satisfied, it only whetted my appetite even more Muse. Their next album/concert cannot come soon enough.

The guy in the upper left of that picture is funny.

I’m sorry for the horrible quality of the photos. It was a poor camera.

I’m sorry for the horrible quality of the video. It was a poor camera.

Tonight in LA I will be seeing Muse and Juliette and the Licks with Melanie and my friend, Nathan. I will get to see Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme rock out and play some of the best songs of the decade. Don’t worry, many pictures will follow! Wish us safe travels!

I have reached another milestone when it comes to my music collection. Here are the current statistics:

240 Artists
800 Albums
10,028 Songs
28.5 Days
68.49 GB (Most songs are encoded at 320 kbps m4a)

The 800th album was Dream Theater: Systematic Chaos

Averages:
3.33 Albums per artist
12.535 Songs per album
6.99 MB per song
4:05 minutes per song

Noteworthy Collections:
Pink Floyd (Missing “Relics”)
Nine Inch Nails (Missing “Halo 12: Closure” [Closure is actually a VHS video that I don't think is even on DVD yet] “Halo 18: The Hand That feeds”, and “Halo 20: Only”)
Muse
At The Drive In
The Mars Volta
The Beatles (Missing “Yellow Submarine”)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The Cure
Dream Theater
David Bowie (Missing “The Buddha of Suburbia”)
Radiohead (Missing EPs)
Placebo

On September 21st Melanie, a friend, and I will be seeing Muse in concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine.

Holy Crap…

January 22nd, 2007

A friend of mine recently let me listen to some music by a band called Muse, who I had heard of but never sat down and listened to. He saw my review of Thom Yorke: The Eraser and knew I liked Radiohead, so he let me check out all six of Muse’s albums. I must say that Black Holes & Revelations is easily in my top 5 albums of 2006, and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it. Now, the comparison with Radiohead is valid and it is true that on the surface the bands sound similar, but after closer inspection it is obvious to me that Muse definitely has their own style. Muse is not only unique, but they make me forget about Radiohead altogether. I cannot say that one is better than the other, because now I can distinctly hear two separate styles. However, if I were to flat-out compare the two, I would say that a lot of Muse’s early music is like Radiohead’s album Pablo Honey, but much better.

OK, enough comparing them to Radiohead. Let’s talk about the music.

I am only going to talk about Black Holes & Revelations because it is the most recent of their albums. It starts with a song called “Take a Bow.” When I first listened to this song I thought, “It can’t possibly get better then this.” Then the album went on, and, although amazing, the songs weren’t really as good as the first. But then came “Assassin.” This song is an amazing change in the pacing of the album. It is fast and energetic, and Muse pulls it off beautifully.

One of the best things about Black Holes & Revelations is the song that ends the album. It can only be described as epic, like a scene from a movie. That song is called “Knights of Cydonia.”

If you haven’t already, you need to check out Muse. I can’t believe that after all this time, I’ve never heard any of their music. Shame on me, and shame on you if you don’t check them out now!

Muse