Tony Cordova

I’m trying to put together a mix CD to give away at our wedding, a collection of songs that Melanie and I have really enjoyed together or have some kind of special meaning to us. It has proven to be a very difficult task because there is so much I want to put into it but there are a few problems:

1. There are some songs that were influential to us that we don’t particularly like anymore
2. I want there to be 6 MGMT songs
3. Some songs are particularly good when looked at from the perspective of the entire album they are on, not necessarily the single song.
4. There are just too many songs from too many artists that we want to represent.

So here is a list of what we have so far. This is very close to the final playlist, but the order will likely be different:

Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Arctic Monkeys – Teddy Picker
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – The Sun Ain’t Shining No More
The Beatles – Octopus’s Garden
David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
The Decemberists – The Legionnaire’s Lament
Five Iron Frenzy – On Distant Shores
Gogol Bordello – Ultimate
The Last Shadow Puppets – Meeting Place
MGMT – Electric Feel
The New Pornographers – Go Places
Pink Floyd – Us and Them (Symphonic)
Queen – You’re My Best Friend
The Raconteurs – The Switch and the Spur
Ratatat – Montanita
Sigur Ros – Staralfur
Super Furry Animals – Presidential Suite
Wolf Parade – Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts

As I am beginning to think about what to write in this blogpost I anticipate 2500 words with pictures and videos to sum up what has happened over the last month or two. Luckily for you, I will lose interest in saying things about Russia, marriage, music, and beer and resort to a few music videos that are awesome. Shall we begin?

What an incredible video. Anyway, when I went to Russia for a month in May and June I asked my girlfriend to marry me. Well, actually I didn’t really have to ask, it just happened. Here are some pictures from the trip.

In Front of Lenin’s Tomb in the Red Square

In front of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

Me giving Melanie her ring in St. Petersburg.

You can view more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonycordova/sets/72157620558506628/

In other news we went to Monterey for a wedding a few weeks ago and spent some time geocaching! If you don’t know what geocaching is go to this website: http://www.geocaching.com Usually when I describe geocaching to people they look at me funny and say things like, “Why on earth would you want to do that?!?!” Well, let me tell you, geocaching is one of the coolest exploration activities one can do. You go out into unknown territory with a friend (or by yourself) and look for something someone else has left behind. The satisfaction you get when you find a difficult cache is incredible. Here are some pictures of us finding a cache on Lover’s Point in Monterey.

More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonycordova/sets/72157621319032950/

If you can’t already tell, I got a Flickr Pro account and am trying to justify putting all these pictures online.

Next up, a post about our adventures with brewing our own beer! I shall leave you with this:

and this:

The great thing about Nine Inch Nails is that the music is awesome, the cherry on top is that Trent Reznor is releasing tons of new material for free or very cheap. Earlier this year he released Ghosts I-IV for a $5 digital download and the first 10 tracks for free, a month later he released a new full length album, The Slip, completely for free. Now we get the new EP Lights in the Sky, the North American Tour Sampler, again, for free.

Thank you, Trent, for setting an example for other artists and sticking it to the money grabbing record labels. I will continue to support what you do.

http://lightsinthesky.nin.com

Daft Punk’s Electroma is a film written and directed by the members of Daft Punk: Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. The movie follows the history of two robots, the members of Daft Punk, on their quest to become human. [IMDb]

Electroma starts off with two robots driving into a mid-western town inhabited by other robots.  In an effort to become more human-like, the main characters go to a high-tech facility where latex is poured over their heads and human features molded onto their faces. When they leave the facility the other inhabitants are shocked by their appearance and chase after them; at this point the latex is starting to melt off from the sun.  After discarding their masks, the duo starts a lengthy walk through the desert.

This movie contains no dialog. The emotions of the characters are evident despite the lack of speaking and the fact that we only see them in their robot helmets.  None of the music is by Daft Punk but the music that is there compliments the art and emotion of the movie.  The art direction and cinematography is outstanding and nearly every scene is memorable and beautiful.  Unfortunately several scenes are so drawn out, it is almost unbearable to watch.  The desert trek lasts for over 20 minutes with very little story development, sometimes no music, and seemingly endless walking.  You don’t have to like Daft Punk to like Electroma, and contrarily it will not be liked by all Daft Punk fans.

If you are into art film and can suffer through some long, dull sequences, you should check it out.  The story is easy to understand but also deep enough to find some underlying meanings. Altogether I believe the film is at least worth watching.

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.

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

February 7th, 2007

I hadn’t heard of the band Midlake until I read a little on them at What Greg Likes. I thought, “What the heck, I have some iTunes money left over from last time I went to Coinstar.” And there it was. I loved The Trials of Van Occupanther the first time I listened to it, but I didn’t really get a chance to concentrate as much as I wanted to. Now that I had time to give it more attention, I can say that they don’t really do anything especially new. However, Midlake does do a great job of mixing keyboard, bass, guitar and vocals, turning all these traditional sounds into something interesting. I would like to point out the great way the band can make each instrument stand out, especially the keyboard and bass.

If you’re looking for a nice, non confrontational, and traditional-sounding band with great entertainment value, then The Trials of Van Occupanther is perfect. If anything, take a look at the first song called “Roscoe,” it is very entertaining.

Midlake