Outkast and Pimp Hats

Three days in a row this week, I had a song pop randomly into my head. Thursday it was Nick Lowe's "Cruel to be Kind". Yesterday it was, well, I don't remember what it was. Today "The Whole World" by Outkast popped into my head. I knew immediately that I would be listening to a heavy rotation of Outkast tonight. I got home only to discover that I don't have any Outkast on my computer. Something I should have known by the lack of any Outkast on my Phone. But how could this be? Six or seven years ago I had a fair collection of Outkast music.

A little over two years ago my computer crashed and, while most of the data on my hard drive was saved, I lost most of the licenses to my digital music collection. This was before the days of AmazonMP3 and the explosion of license-free (legal) digital downloads so there was little I could do. I set to work rebuilding my collection. I thought had done a good job replacing all my music but somehow Outkast fell through the cracks.

No great deal, I can just download the songs I want. Right? Yes, mostly. From what I can tell, the Outkast catalog is available for download, EXCEPT The Whole World. So I can't, legally, have the one song that I love the most from this group. What is that about?!?

So I will have to settle for the video on Youtube which I will share here for making you read through this.

One final note, after watching this I had to go dig my old blue-felt pimp hat out of the closet and wear it around the house. It was a bit dusty from sitting for a good five or six years but it's still in perfect condition. I think I'll wear it to the Shooter Jennings concert next weekend.

I Believe

In 2006 I blogged about things I believe. Lately I have really been enjoying "I Believe in You" by Don Williams. I have always liked the song but recently have been struck by how the song is just as true today as it was 30 years ago. I could have easily written a blog post of things I believe that did not stray from the song If I hadn't been beaten to  the punch by a few decades.

For your listening pleasure Don Williams - I Believe in You. Enjoy it and believe it. 

I Believe In You - Don William...

And Lyrics:

I don't believe in superstars,
Organic food and foreign cars.
I don't believe the price of gold;
The certainty of growing old.
That right is right and left is wrong,
That north and south can't get along.
That east is east and west is west.
And being first is always best.

But I believe in love.
I believe in babies.
I believe in Mom and Dad.
And I believe in you.

Well, I don't believe that heaven waits,
For only those who congregate.
I like to think of God as love:
He's down below, He's up above.
He's watching people everywhere.
He knows who does and doesn't care.
And I'm an ordinary man,
Sometimes I wonder who I am.

But I believe in love.
I believe in music.
I believe in magic.
And I believe in you.

Well, I know with all my certainty, 
What's going on with you and me, 
Is a good thing.
It's true, I believe in you. 

I don't believe virginity,
Is as common as it used to be. 
In working days and sleeping nights,
That black is black and white is white. 
That Superman and Robin Hood,
Are still alive in Hollywood.
That gasoline's in short supply,
The rising cost of getting by.

But I believe in love.
I believe in old folks. 
I believe in children.
I believe in you.

But I believe in love.
I believe in babies.
I believe in Mom and Dad.
And I believe in you.

Video Share

Success

On March 6 of this year I joined last.fm. As I way of filling out my music profile I decided I would play and rate all of the music files on my computer. I have contemplated rating all of my music for some time now in order to better take advantage of the functionality of the Windows Media Player. Last night, some 1500 scrobbles later, I finished the project. All of the music files on my hard drive have been rated, deleted, or removed from my library. Whoo!
Now I can get down to the business of really teaching last.fm what my musical tastes are. The biggest hiccup I encountered was the music from other family members. My wife's in particular. Ana's entire digital music collection seems to consist of Kenny Cheseney, ABBA, REO Speedwagon, and the BeeGees. I don't hate these groups but I don't love them either and they are greatly over-represented in my last.fm profile. The boys music wasn't much of a problem. I like much of what they like. Besides much of their music is stuff their friends have burned to cd for them and the files don't contain enough info for last to scrobble them. The main exception to this was Tenacious D. I find Tenacious D entertaining and humorous. I do not, however, find them to be my sixteenth most favorite out of the 188 artists I have scrobbled on last. Even 116th would be pushing it.
I find myself babbling now so time to wrap it up.