Windows XP SP3 became available for download this week, so I decided to install it today.  It went rather smoothly.  Started downloading at 9:00pm, and around 9:20pm Windows was ready to restart to complete the installation.  So far, nothing to complain about.

more cat pictures

Suddenly, I get two emails from the Coldplay website with song download instructions, after I successfully downloaded “Violet Hill” already.  What the… ?

For those of you who haven’t downloaded it yet, you have until the end of May 5th (Monday) to grab your free copy.

When I was a kid, I read a lot of Archie Comics.  They were fun at the time (uh oh, Betty and Veronica are fighting over Archie… again), but when I actually got to high school myself, I discovered how the comics were so unlike real life.

In 1995, Pulp had a big hit with “Common People.”  Well, it was big in the UK, and being a US resident I kind of missed out on it.  However, years later I became familiar with the William Shatner version.

Recently, I was poking around on the b3ta newsletter archive and found this:

* ARCHIE MEETS PULP VID - After looking at last week’s retelling of Common People through comic strips, theholefiller “decided it would ‘only’ take a few minutes to link them up to the Pulp song itself. Many hours later it was finally done.” And thanks very much for doing that - it’s rather enjoyable.

Enjoyable, indeed!  Now keep your fingers crossed, and hope that Archie’s lawyers aren’t reading this post…

Archie meets Common People via Pulp (video by theholefiller)

Yesterday, I tried downloading the new Coldplay song, but I wasn’t successful.  Today, I had an easier time (I whitelisted Coldplay’s email address) and was able to download “Violet Hill.”  After a few listens, I can tell there’s something different about it, different than their previous releases.  Looking forward to the full album.

Now that The Verve are back and touring this year, let’s have a look at their “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”  I was aware that they had used a sample of a Rolling Stones song, but I hadn’t heard the full song until recently.

In 1965, the Rolling Stones released “The Last Time,” a big song for them.  If you don’t remember the last time you heard “The Last Time,” have a listen below.

Rolling Stones - “The Last Time”

Andrew Oldham was the original manager for the Rolling Stones.  He had a side project called the Andew Oldham Orchestra, which released an album of symphonic versions Rolling Stones songs, including “The Last Time.”  I hadn’t heard this version of “The Last Time” until now, and it’s not bad.  It’s quite good, but it reminds me a heck of a lot of the song that follows this one.  It actally took me a while to pick up on the melody line of ”The Last Time.”

Andrew Oldham Orchestra - “The Last Time” (video by skatoad)

30 years later, The Verve went through all the proper legal channels so they could use a sample of the symphonic version of “The Last Time” in “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”  However, it was argued that The Verve used too much of the song in the sample.  To make a long story short, the end result was that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were given writing credits on “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”

The Verve - “Bitter Sweet Symphony”

Coldplay has a new album coming out soon, and you can download a new song from that album by going to their web site.

I tried today, but it didn’t work.  I may try again tomorrow.

Yes, I realize I haven’t posted much this month, but not because I’ve been napping.  I’ve been busy, but now that the bulk of busy-ness is over, I am taking a nap!  I jotted down a few notes about things that I’ve either observed or things going on, but I’m not going to sift through them right now, and some of them might be obsolete anyway.

see more crazy cat pics

Yesterday, I had an echocardiogram.  Right before I arrived at the doctor’s office, I heard this song.  In retrospect, it might not have been a good idea, as it might have been a contributor to a test result that was a false positive.

Puddle of Mudd - “Psycho”

There are certain words I don’t use, sometimes because I just don’t like to use them.  One of them is “mint” when it is used as a slang term for “very good,” or sometimes “awesome.”  A couple of decades ago, it seemed highly prevalent (a.k.a. ridiculously overused), which is probably why I never used it.  I thought it had fallen out of fashion in the intervening time, but perhaps people are becoming nostalgic for it.  Last week, I read a blog comment about something (probably software) that was so good and cool it was “mint.”  Just today, someone used the word in the office.

Mint.  Never used it, never will… unless I’m describing the condition of a comic book being sold on eBay… or a flavor of Mentos.