Piqued

I’ve been a Netflix subscriber now for over a year and have been consistently impressed with them.  I remember when they began their limited “Watch Instantly” feature, and then when they made it unlimited without charging a cent more for the service.  Then I remember getting a message saying my monthly subscription rate was being lowered because they had repriced my plan.  In other words, in a matter of months I got the huge value add of their “Watch Instantly” feature (which now has an impressive library featuring lots of great movies and TV shows), and was paying less for it!  That alone bought them some serious points in my book.

Recently I ran across a movie that looked interesting (Bottle Shock) which was available on Netflix to view online.  However, unlike every other movie I’ve tried streaming through Netflix, this one had an error whenever I tried to play it.  I tried to find an answer through the website but it seemed the only way to tell them about the problem was via their customer service phone number.  Not excited to wait on hold to fix this problem, I finally gave in after being unable to find a fix otherwise.  The website gave a code that I could give once I called which tied that service call to my account, bypassing any need to give their representative any information.  After I typed this in, a friendly guy named Brian immediately answered.  I told him my problem, and he quickly confirmed that that movie was having issues playing in their “old player.”  I wasn’t aware there was a new one, but he had an email sent to me telling me how to upgrade.  After maybe 2 minutes on the phone, I had the email, clicked a link (www.netflix.com/silver), pushed a browser button, and viola, their new Silverlight-based player was activated and the movie played in the new player (and seemed to take less time to buffer at that).  For a company with so many subscribers to have such friendly and responsive customer service is extremely impressive, and yet another reason I plan to remain a loyal Netflix customer.

I recently took a road trip with my family to California and spent the travel time catching up on some reading.  The first book I read was given to me by my grandmother for Christmas, a choice ostensibly inspired by my recent purchase of a motorcycle.  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was written in 1974 by Robert M. Pirsig and received widespread acclaim for the novel way in which it presents fresh philosophical ideas.  Here’s my review.

Zen is a rather remarkable book in that it brings together many genres of literature into one fairly lengthy but enjoyable book.  Depending on what part of the book you’re referring you, it could be categorized as a travelogue, psychological drama, presentation of alternatives to traditional forms of higher education, or innovative philosophical theory.

The whole of Zen appears to be a semi-autobiographical account of a motorcycle trip the author takes with his son, Chris, and two friends.  Where they visit is hinted at, but not ultimately important.  The important details are the thoughts the narrator shares during the long stretches of road that separate the group’s various stops and personal interactions.  The heart of the book is contained in these passages, and it is here that the book is interesting, fresh, and at times strange.

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I’m a fan of the “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language” known as xkcd, and one of the recurring “hero” characters in it is Cory Doctorow, author and founder of former magazine and current blog Boing Boing.  I was perusing some of the older xkcd comics, most of which I’d already seen, and came across one of the references to Doctorow and decided to wikipedia him.  Turns out he’s a pretty interesting person, and a well-read and respected fiction author.  He’s really into comics and science fiction, as well as personal privacy, intellectual property right laws, and a host of other “nerdy” subjects, many of which interest me as well.  I then read about his latest novel, Little Brother, and some of the critical acclaim it had received.  It piqued my interest, so I looked into it more.  Turns out that Doctorow publishes all his books under the Creative Commons license, which is essentially a more flexible alternative to Copyrighting your work.  Creative Commons has been a great success online, along with GNU free documentation and other “share-friendly” licensing methods, and has many sites dedicated to works published under its “some rights reserved” protections.  The beauty of Creative Commons is that it preserves the content creator’s rights to profit from and retain ownership of their work (be it musical, literary, photographic, etc.) while recognizing that allowing the public to freely keep, share, and (optionally) modify artistic work can be a tremendous boon to their success.  To make a long story short, by being published under CC, Doctorow’s books like Little Brother are freely available, and he has a wide variety of text and ebook formats available for free, anonymous download on the book’s website.  If you’d like to know more about why an artist would choose to freely give away their works, read Doctorow’s explanation at the beginning of the book.

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I love music. I’m also pretty open to listening to different genres, with a few exceptions (those being nearly everything that makes it to a pop hits radio station). My favorite type of music overall is definitely rock, but I also enjoy listening to metal, jazz, Latin, classical, big band and even a bit of country from time to time. Today, however, I’d like to write about one of my favorite sub-genres: symphonic rock/metal (which often overlaps with goth metal).

Chances are you haven’t heard most of these albums, and may not have even had the joy of hearing this type of music before, so I highly recommend you start. For $6/$9 per month (depending on whether you pay annual or monthly), you can listen to most of these full albums with Yahoo Music Unlimited (a service I highly recommend… almost as good as a Napster subscription and cheaper). Here are my my top five albums in this genre:

1. “Once” by Nightwish (2004)
   Nightwish is a Finnish metal band popular in Europe and in my opinion epitomizes the symphonic metal genre better than probably any other band. “Once” is probably their best album to date, and was their last with classically-trained opera singer Tarja Turunen. I could mention the best songs on the album, but they’re all too consistently good to single any out (although “Nemo” is a good place to start). With rocking drums, beautiful vocals, crunchy guitars, nice keyboard, and a full orchestra and choir, this album is nothing short of a masterpiece. Nightwish’s latest release, “Dark Passion Play,” is also good, but not as consistently excellent as “Once.” Thanks to my friend Daniel for introducing me to Nightwish several years ago.
2. “Heart of Everything” by Within Temptation (2007)
   Although perhaps not as classically-influenced as Nightwish, Within Temptation (of the Netherlands) also features a fantastic female vocalist combined with symphonic metal. Their beautiful lead singer Sharon Den Adel has an amazing range and is the main reason to check out the band. But that’s not to say the rest of the band doesn’t rock. They definitely do, and this is one of my favorite bands to crank up and rock out to while the house is empty . “Heart of Everything” is their latest and arguably best album, although the earlier “The Silent Force” is also excellent.
3. “Beethoven’s Last Night” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra (2000)
   Although more classically-influenced rock than symphonic metal, TSO is best known for their awesome rocked-out Christmas-themed albums. They combine excellent rock arrangements with very talented singers and poetic lyrics to create some truly powerful albums that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. They also put on an amazing live show, as I was fortunate to experience last Christmas. But while their Christmas albums are their best known and in some ways best, their sole non-Christmas album “Beethoven’s Last Night” is a wonderfully original fictionalized account of Beethoven’s last night on earth in the form of a rock opera. Part original songs, part reworked classics, BLN is a really cool album to listen through (in order) while paying special attention to the lyrics.
4. “The East Village Opera Company” by The East Village Opera Company (2005)
   A band I just discovered, EVOC is rock band meets opera company (with a string section) that breathes new life into the opera genre. No, it’s not the same thing as a true opera, but their singers are very skilled and capable of powerfully belting out opera classics such as “La Donna e Mobile,” “Habanera,” and “Flower Duet.” For me, it’s a perfect mixture of classical beauty with upbeat and sometimes groovy rock. And a more approachable version of opera for those like me who find the “real stuff” a tad boring.
5. “Classified” by Bond (2004)
   Ok, so Bond is probably the least “classical” of all these bands since they have a very “pop” sound which I would normally stay far away from. But I think they deserve to be included in this list because all four members of the band are classically-trained string musicians who perform upbeat and fun versions of everything from James Bond songs to classical pieces to original arrangements. Don’t be scared of their pop girl band exterior. These ladies can play.

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Here at Texas A&M, the student organization responsible for bringing a bit of culture our way is MSC Opas. The few shows I’ve attended in the past have been most enjoyable. The Irish Tenors concert last November was particularly fantastic. Last night’s East Village Opera Company performance was no exception.

Since I procrastinated about finding someone to go with (being single has its drawbacks), I didn’t find someone to give my second ticket to until 45 minutes before the show. But thankfully, a friend of mine was interested in going on short notice so the ticket wasn’t wasted. And he knows more about opera than I do, so it was interesting to hear his perspective on this opera company meets rock band.

Indeed, if you’ve never heard this mixture before, you’re really missing out. Although last night was the first time I had heard true opera performed in a rock fashion, it’s not the first time I’ve had the joy of listening to amazing opera singers against the backdrop of crunchy guitars and bombastic drums. Finnish gothic/orchestral metal band Nightwish featured a female opera singer until recently, and their stuff sounds amazing. Less opera-influenced but similarly enjoyable rock bands are Within Temptation and Trans-Siberian Orchestra (best known for their excellent Christmas albums, but which also did a great Beethoven-themed album). So, since I was already a big fan of this sort of band, I was interested to see what EVOC was all about. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting anything quite as polished as the aforementioned bands since I hadn’t heard of EVOC before, but half-way through the show I was glad to see I was wrong.

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