Archive for July, 2006
The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band Concert (with some Kumon and Badminton Racquet Shopping Thrown In)
by Joe on July 30th, 2006
Another video of ASMZ performing in Berlin can be seen on YouTube by clicking here.
(see more pictures and video in the gallery).
What a busy day…
Today (well, technically yesterday) began when I had to wake up early (eg 10:00) for work. Got dressed for the occasion (white polo shirt w/ name tag - it’s coming back!), and arrived at work. Once again it was pretty slow, not a lot of kids like simplifying fractions on a summer Saturday afternoon…after work we all went to Mrs. Chows for a very cheap lunch. After lunch, Larry and I went to Sports Authority to buy our brand new badminton racquets. A few dollars later, we had our new racquets. It was getting to the time when I had to leave to pick up Paul to go to New York, so I bid larry adieu and got ready to go to New York for the Silver Mt. Zion concert.
I picked up Paul and we made our merry way to Princeton Junction, and I thought I was somehow being deceived by a) the many parking spaces available at the station, and b) the fact that I didn’t have to pay for parking. Too good to be true - but it was. So we bought our tickets and waited for the 5:23 train to arrive.
Once we got into the city we wanted to go see the Apple Store again, so we took the subway up to it. We spent some time in there but it was nearing 8 o’clock and we had to get a move on if we wanted to see the show. So we reluctantly left the Apple Store and tried to find a subway that would take us Downtown. We eventually did, I guess, but on coming out of that subway we didn’t know where to go. The directions told us to go east - where’s east???? Needless to say, we were walking all over the place with no luck, so we called down a taxi (with the perfect wrist movement, by the way) and told the cab driver, who looked like a sultan or some rich arabian guy with a long mustache, to take us to Delancy Street. The directions we had were wrong; we had to go up a few blocks before we would hit the street we were looking for earlier. Oh well. Cab fare wasn’t that much anyway, and it was my first time ever riding in a taxi cab. Wild stuff.
So, we walked around and then, there it was, the Bowery Ballroom. The first club I’ve ever been in, complete with the roped entryway and a bouncer, who checked our IDs before we climbed down into the lounge area, which we waited in for a bit until they opened the hall. I guess the doors opened at 9 - the concert didn’t actually start until a little bit after 10. So, we got a pretty good standing location, closest I’ve ever been to the stage at a concert.
The first group was Black Ox Orkestar, which played old Jewish folk songs which was pretty cool. Most of the members of this group were members of the featured band A Silver Mt. Zion.
The main event, ASMZ, came onto stage (see the intro video up above) and Efrim Menuck introduced the band, and came raging out with the first song “God Bless Our Dead Marines.” The second song they played was one of my favorites, so I was pretty stoked with that. One of the new songs they played was really good and I can’t wait to hear a studio version if they ever surface that song to an album or ep. All in all the concert was awesome, it was really cool seeing these people whom you’ve listened to and read about for a while up on stage, not 20 feet away. Fun stuff.
After an encore song, the band left the stage and the lights went up - Paul says, “Hey Joe, it’s kinda late.” I look at my watch - 12:50! WHOA! I thought for sure the concert would have ended before midnight - I thought we would have caught the 12:42 train. Guess not. So I said, “Paul, we gotta go!” and we busted out of the Bowery Ballroom and raced around like mad rats in a maze (literally) trying to find a subway that would take us Uptown to Penn Station.
I didn’t know when the last train ran to Trenton, but I knew that there were no trains after 2 AM. So we had to hustle. At a lot of points my worries were twofold: we would possibly not catch the last train out of New York, and that my car was towed since I was so doubtful about the free parking. We caught a subway and ran down towards Penn Station, and saw the time schedule - next (and last) train to trenton would be arriving at 1:41. It was 1:29 when we got to Penn Station, so we had enough time to get drinks (we hadn’t had ANYTHING the whole time we were there, sooo hungry….). Wow. We made the train. That was exciting.
I don’t know if any of you drive around at 3 in the morning, but there is NO ONE on the roads. It’s amazing. Princeton was a Desolate Railyard (Silver Mt. Zion song reference, yea!).
Oh and it turns out my car wasn’t towed after all.
The birds are starting to sing, that’s my cue to go to sleep.
New to Mac? 16 24 Apps You Can’t Live Without
by Joe on July 26th, 2006
So, all those hours of babysitting or working behind some counter or bagging groceries has finally paid off: it’s now time to spend your well-earned money on a laptop for college. Over the past weeks, I’ve noticed that a large amount of people are choosing one of the Apple laptops over the many PC laptops out there in the market. As you can imagine, I couldn’t be happier about this. There are several programs that you may need to install onto your brand new Mac to make it work the way you want it to - but I daresay, right out of the box, your Mac laptop of choice will certainly serve you mightily well. I have a list of 16 24 applications that I feel will enhance your Apple OS X experience well beyond your expectations.
1.Adium X (http://adiumx.com/) - The best instant-messaging client for Mac OS X, hands down. I used iChat for a little bit, and then found this program and have used it ever since. It will remind you of AIM, or Gaim, if you ever used Gaim for PC or Linux. There are tons of plugins and add-ons that you can get off the Adium website to suite the program to your liking. It’s the best IMing program I’ve ever used on the Mac or PC. There is currently a beta version out, which is actually quite stable and has a lot of new features, so I can recommend getting the beta version.
2.Growl (http://growl.info) - This program is a message notifier which pops up with any messages programs have for you, such as IM’s, even when the IM window isn’t in focus. It’s like the little box at the bottom right with AIM that pops up and says who has signed on or logged off, or who has messaged you — only better.
3.Desktop Manager (http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/) - Want more desktop space, but only have the 13″ screen on your new Macbook? Create more desktops with Desktop Manager. This is one of those really cool flashy programs that can ONLY be found on Macs. With the press of a button you can easily switch to different desktops on the same screen, with cool transitions like a fade in/out effect, etc. Definitely try this one out, I use it all the time, it helps keep me organized with what I’m doing on my computer.
4. QuickSilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/) - This one’s great, very flashy. QuickSilver is an application launcher, basically, a heavily modified version of Spotlight (OS X’s real-time search program, which you can use to search for ANYTHING on your computer in seconds). QuickSilver is quite possibly the best-looking program made for Mac.
5. Flip4Mac WMV (http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv_download.htm) - This is a plugin for QuickTime that will enable you to view Windows Media Video (WMV) encoded files. You don’t have to buy it, just download the trial version. You may want to look into ways of getting QuickTime to play videos full-screen (the only “legit” way to do this is to buy the Pro version for $30, but there are ways around this, of course).
6. Microsoft Office:mac
(http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/office/) - Yup, you can still use Microsoft Word on your Mac. It’s expensive. I recommend either using Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org) or getting a copy of MS Office:mac by some other means.
7. Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/) - Ah, well, speaking of obtaining MS Office:mac by some other means, the best bit-torrent downloading program you can get for Mac is Azureus. Azureus is a cross-platform application which you may have used on Windows before. It’s pretty much the same on the Mac as it is on Windows, and downloads any torrent you so wish to download. I hope you all can see what I’m getting at here. If not, it’s ok. Let me know. You will need Office next year!
8. Menu Meters
(http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/) - This little application runs in the background and can display, in numerous ways, information about your computer - as in, how much memory it is using currently, the temperature of the computer, how much CPU is being used, and more. Very useful to keep track of your computer’s performance.
9. Handbrake (http://handbrake.m0k.org/) - The best and easiest-to-use DVD video converter. With this program, you can convert all of your DVD movies into iPod video format..
10. MacTheRipper
(http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22715) - A DVD ripper, which will allow you to make exact copies of any DVDs you own, for back-up purposes (of course!).
11. MacSaber (http://isnoop.net/blog) - This program basically turns your Apple laptop into a light saber from Star Wars. No, really. With this program running, you can lift your laptop, and swing it around like a light saber, and your computer will make light saber sounds judging from the movement of your computer! It’s really cool, try it out. Just don’t swing your computer out the window, or drop it. Handle with care.
12. soulseeX (http://chris.schleifer.net/ssX/) - A Mac client for the popular Soulseek downloading network. Sort of like KaZaA (but spyware-free) or Direct Connect for your Mac. Works very very well.
13. Cyberduck (http://cyberduck.ch/) - A free and extremely easy-to-use FTP client for OS X. I use it for this website and it works very well, especially considering that it is free.
14. CoverFlow (http://www.steelskies.com/coverflow/) - One of the best looking programs for Mac. It’s like a better, more visually-oriented version of FrontRow. Allows you to browse your music collection in a visual way, with all the album art. It’s as if you’re shuffling through a shelf with all your CDs neatly organized on it. Very cool.
15. Toast 7 (http://www.roxio.com/) - The all-in-one burning program for Mac. Burns data DVDs and CDs and much much more. It’s not free, but, there are ways to obtain it (see #7).
16. Voice Candy (http://www.potionfactory.com/voicecandy/) - Just a neat little program with which you can record yourself or anything and manipulate your voice with pre-set modifiers like the Darth Vadar effect, or Chipmunk effect. Just a neat little program to play around with.
17. TextExpander (http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/) - This one was brought to my attention by Zubair. This is a neat program that can make typing out, for example, long titles of books much easier (see Zubair’s comment for an example). You can download a 30-day trial for it or buy it for around $30.
18. Remote Buddy (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21872) - Another app brought to my attention by Zubair. You all may notice that a little remote control, that looks awfully like an iPod Shuffle, comes with your new Mac laptop. You can use this remote to open and navigate within FrontRow. With Remote Buddy, you can use the remote to do a lot more. Check it out.
19. OurTunes (http://ourtunes.sourceforge.net/) - Cross platform app that allows you to transfer your music from your PC to your Mac.
20. GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/) - Unless you want to use Photoshop (whereby you would have to spend a lot of money, or use a lot of bandwidth over night) the GIMP is a free image editor that virtually mirrors Adobe Photoshop. The installation can be a little tricky, so read that part carefully.
21. iSquint (http://www.isquint.org/) - This is a really easy-to-use program that will let you convert any video files you have (downloaded TV shows for example) right into iPod video format.
22. iAlertU
(http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/29578) - From Paul: iAlertU is a remote controlled, motion-sensitive alarm system for your Macbook. You set it with the remote when you are away, and if the computer is moved, iAlertU will sense the movement and begin alarming with audio and/or video. It’s only available for the Macbook Pros and Macbooks so I don’t have any experience with it first-hand.
23. Acqlite (http://acqlite.sourceforge.net/) - This one’s for you, Larry: A p2p client much like Shareaza or KaZaA. Runs off the Gnutella network. Extremely simple to use. Another alternative to soulseeX if you can’t find anything with that program.
24.
Parallels for Mac
(http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/) - From Tom: Run any OS right next to OS X. Runs like Virtual PC, creates a virtual machine for Mac. The difference between this and Boot Camp is that you can run Windows, or any other OS, along side (”parallel” to) OS X.
In addition to these, you can find many many more fun applications at http://www.freemacware.com/. There are a TON of apps out there, so go download a few and have fun.
Episode 8: In Living Color
by Joe on July 24th, 2006
I was sitting at the kitchen table, eating my ramen noodles, thinking about the mysteries of life, as you do when you eat ramen noodles, when an idea suddenly came to me: to do a video edition of my podcast!
I knew I would be able to make it, with the iLife suite at my disposal (thank you, Apple Computer); it was just a matter of doing it. So, this Sunday evening I sat down in front of my laptop and began creating the first video edition of the OMB podcast. It was, to quote a great man*, a “funky adventure.”
Episode 8 of the Our Man Bendzick podcast, the final product of my first attempt at creating a video podcast (which is actually something I’d never thought I would do) is now up and ready for download. I’m happy to say that the video is iPod video ready, (in fact, it’s formatted for the thing), so it should play perfectly in iTunes and on your iPod with video if you so wish to put it on that. It’s only 14 MB, so it won’t eat up a lot of harddrive space, considering that it’s a video.
I’d definitely like to do at least one more video podcast, depending on how much material I can salvage.
As usual, you can get the podcast via iTunes, and you can view the complete episode listing for the podcast here.
*Cosmo Kramer
Our Man Bendzick Podcast Up, Running
by Joe on July 18th, 2006
Episode 7 of the Our Man Bendzick Podcast is now up!
From the info section:
“The Our Man Bendzick Podcast returns from its nearly 3-month hiatus. In this episode, we reaquaint ourselves with Bendzick, the man, through learning that two plus two does really equal four, about Greek culture in America, and how the government is working for YOU.”
Episode 7 runs for almost 7 minutes and weighs in at around 14 MB.
Get it via iTunes.
View the entire episode listing 
.
Best Fortune EVER
by Joe on July 17th, 2006
It’s true.
But besides that, I wanted to mention that yes, I am well aware that no new OMB Podcast episode has been released. I’ll let all of you folks know though that there is one already produced and ready to be released. The only thing holding me back is my FTP which has been giving me trouble lately (saying that I’m using too much space, what??) And apparently like, the whole podcast is broken. So I need to work on that.
And then Wordpress had to go and screw up, and my beautiful sidebar disappeared until tonight. That was annoying. But it’s ok, I still like Wordpress.
So maybe I’ll get on releasing that OMB episode, or, fixing the podcast as a whole, maybe.
I want to get a calendar into the sidebar but it might screw everything up, and I am not willing to risk anything with that right now.
The main point of this entry was to blog a photo from flickr.
Oh, today I had ramen and it was pretty good, even though I’m not a soup/noodle guy. Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice is faster, but so much more expensive!
–Site Update–
by Joe on July 2nd, 2006
I figured that I needed to redo my site sometime or another, so here’s the result of…wow actually only two days of tearing it down and rebuilding it with a new theme and layout.
That’s what you get for staying up till 3 AM I guess.
Anyway, the site has a new look, and the links at the top and in the sidebar are now much more organized and navigatable. My favorite addition to the site that was never there before is the last.fm page, which automatically posts what I am currently listening to and what my most played tracks and artists are for the week etc etc, it’s pretty cool.
And of course, the iTunes library has been updated as well.
No new OMB podcast episode yet! But I promise that sometime soon I’ll have something. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with that.
Speaking of which, the OMB podcast page is no longer password-protected.
So I think the site has undergone a nice revision, and should appear nicely in your web browser of choice (except for you people still using Internet Explorer, however I think the site will behave itself in that browser). It looks nice using Firefox or Safari, so avoid IE if you can (and not just to be able to see my site, but to avoid getting infected with spyware, ok!).