Author: James McNally

PHP

I’m thinking of trying to learn PHP. Does anyone know any good sites/books/whatever that would help me get started? What are some of the more useful capabilities of PHP for a site like this one, for instance? Let me know.

Oh boy! Now there

Oh boy! Now there are Anti-Bloggie Awards™. If I win both a Bloggie™ and an Anti-Bloggie™, there could be a momentous rupture in the space-time continuum and we could lose the entire warp core (at least that’s what the Trekkies say, anyway). So get on over there and vote for me there, too. All publicity is good, no? Personally, I’m rooting for a nomination in “Most Banal Content Blog”! And don’t get all worked up, Dave and Leia are just having a bit o’ fun. If they’re not careful, I might just nominate them in the “Cutest Blogger Couple” category!

Male Singers

I’ve been thinking about music again. I tend to like male singers only if they have strange voices (ie. speech impediments, lisps, falsetto, whatever) whereas female singers with these characteristics just annoy me. That is, the women have to be good singers, and the men, preferably not. Not sure why these distinctions. But for proof, here’s a partial list:

  • Isaac “Not the Canadian colonial war hero” Brock (Modest Mouse) – extreme lisp
  • David Gedge (The Wedding Present) – strangled sounding
  • Black Francis/Frank Black (Pixies) – screams, barking noises
  • Britt Daniel (Spoon) – gravelly
  • Billy Bragg – outrageous accent
  • Elliott Smith – almost a falsetto
  • Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) – just not very good
  • Steve Malkmus (Pavement) – lazy, off-key
  • Iggy Pop (The Stooges) – sneering, half-spoken
  • Thom Yorke (Radiohead) – falsetto, strangled, paralyzed
  • Martin Tielli (Rheostatics) – often falsetto
  • Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo) – robotic, just plain weird
  • Fred Schneider (B-52’s) – loopy accent
  • Shane McGowan (Pogues) – drunken, strangled, slurring

What quirks exist in your musical taste?