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Ready for the Lunar Eclipse?

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Are you ready to view the upcoming total lunar eclipse this weekend? It’s your last chance at a full eclipse until 2014. Wake up early on Saturday morning, and maybe you’ll see a reddish-orange moon, maybe you’ll see a supersized moon, or maybe you won’t see the moon at all.

Don’t worry, viewing a lunar eclipse is safe but to enhance the mood of this rare phenomenon, I suggest bringing a boombox with you and play Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart. As the totality of the eclipse nears, keep chanting “turn around, turn around.” Trust me, that’ll surely be a memorable event!

Holiday Gift Guide: Relaxation

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This gift is the gift of relaxation, and it’s free. Just listen to the video below to understand.

This song is Weightless from Marconi Union and is supposedly the world’s most relaxing song. Weightless reduces anxiety by 65% and slows heart rates by 35%. Avoid listening to Weightless while driving warns scientists.

When the chaos of the Holidays starts getting to you, turn on Weightless and relax.

You can also listen to Weightless on Hype Machine.

naked-famous

(Sorta) Failed First Google Music Purchase

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Now that Google Music is rocking, I figured I’d give its accompanying Android Market a run and buy a song. From the radio, I soundtracked Young Blood by The Naked and Famous on their album, Passive Me Aggressive You. As a quick test comparing Google, Amazon, and iTunes, I searched for “young blood passive me aggressive you” on the respective services.

Here’s what I got on Google Music. No match found.

Here’s what I got on Amazon’s MP3 Store. Entire album found with the single costing $0.99.

Here’s what I got on iTunes. Entire album found with the single costing $1.29.

What would you surmise seeing these results? I’d say Google Music fail, right? It’s the only music service that doesn’t offer this song. But… I changed my search terms on Google Music and looked for “naked famous”. And guess what shows up?

The single is actually there, hiding in plain sight. This is really strange, since Google being Google is synonymous with search. Why wasn’t this song found when searching for its title and the album name? Maybe the songs are still being indexed or something, I don’t know.

Once I found Young Blood, I easily completed the purchase and shared a listen on Google+. I downloaded the single via the web and imported into iTunes. Then I uploaded the song to my Amazon Cloud Drive.  Sadly though, this Google Music-purchased single won’t be available in iCloud without subscribing to iTunes Match.

Overall, a bit of a rough start with Google Music.  I’m pleased I eventually found the single but am confused why searches didn’t find it initially given Google’s searching strength.  Maybe the service is just being passive aggressive during launch?

Google Music Now Open to the Public

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Take that beta tag off of Google Music. It’s now available to everyone!

Upload your music to the cloud and access them anywhere you’re connected. Play back your music on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet. And it’s all free (up to 20,000 songs)! You can also purchase songs from Google’s Android Market, and the store offers a bunch of freebies as well.

So there’s yet another player in the musical cloud market: Google Music, Apple’s iTunes and iCloud, Amazon’s MP3 Cloud Drive and Player, and even Spotify. What the heck, have accounts with all of these services and scatter your music in the clouds. Think of this as a backup to the backup to the backup.

starbucks-coldplay-potw

Coldplay is Starbucks Pick of the Week

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Coldplay’s Hurts Like Heaven is Starbucks’ Pick of the Week for the week of October 31. While your neighborhood Starbucks location may not have the curren POTW redemption cards, you can always download the freebie while in the store.

Just hop onto the Starbucks WiFi connection and navigate to their Digital Network in partnership with Yahoo. Note that the link only works while connected to Starbucks WiFi. Alternatively, you can use the Starbucks Mobile app which shows a special SDN button when you’re in store. This SDN button facilitates your connection to the Starbucks Digital Network. Once in, find the Pick of the Week and download the song right then and there.

Older POTW songs available on the SDN

Oh, and you can get older POTW songs from the SDN. Just watch out for those expiration dates. Be sure to pick up the single from Feist, Lady Antebellum, and Bobby.

Kaskade Fire & Ice – 5 Stars?

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After one day on the market, Kaskade’s Fire & Ice has an average rating of 5 stars from 732 ratings in iTunes. Ten bucks for twenty tracks. Can they really be that good?

Yes, they can. Fiery beats juxtaposed to chilled trance. Nice.

david-coverdale

Why Do I Have This?

Rummaging through some old stuff, I found this poster of Whitesnake’s David Coverdale. Why, oh why, do I have this?

Whitesnake's David Coverdale

But since we’re on the topic of Whitesnake, let’s reminisce with “Here I Go Again.”

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New on My Playlist

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What’s playing on your iPod? Here’s a list of my most recent musical additions.

  • Whirring – The Joy Formidable.  Identified this song on the radio using SoundTracking.  What can I say? This song sounds happy.
  • It Will Rain – Bruno Mars.  More music from the Twilight saga.
  • Physical – Olivia Newton-John.  It was her birthday, the iTunes Genius recommended this song, I had a buck to spare, and I wanted to hear my body talk.
  • Paradise – Coldplay.  These guys keep cranking out the hits.
  • We Saw – Bobby.  Once in awhile, the freebies from iTunes are gems.  This is one of them.
  • In the Dark – Dev.  You can’t deny the hook is catchy, “I got a sex drive that’s push to start.”
  • Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People.  Is it only me that envisions this when I hear the song title?
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