Category: Music
An Update on the Music Player Quest
July 6th, 2009, 3 Comments
I’ve written a few times (parts 1, 2, 3) about my annoyance at music players. I’d come down to two finalists to consider: Rhythmbox and Banshee. I’ve used both for awhile now, and as of today, am also trying Songbird (after finally managing to make it run; see part 3 above).
In addition to [...]
Songbird: How To Make Great Software Unpopular
July 6th, 2009, 9 Comments
As part of my ongoing quest for working media players, I’ve more than once tried Songbird. But it never wanted to work in Linux, always crashing before it even fired up the GUI with errors like this:
(songbird-bin:17595): libgnomevfs-WARNING **: Cannot load module `/usr/lib/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules/libmapping.so’ (/usr/lib/gnome-vfs-2.0/modules/libmapping.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
././songbird-bin: [...]
Tagging music… No, not like that
June 19th, 2009, 15 Comments
I’m thinking it would be great to be able to assign arbitrary tags to my music, like I do to my photos. For instance, I might tag the finale to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony like this:
symphony beethoven loud choir german
I can’t figure out how to Google for this sort of feature because, well, the word [...]
Jacob and Music
June 16th, 2009, 3 Comments
Jacob has been getting into music lately.
He really likes our digital piano (an oldish 88-key Roland model, complete with integrated floppy drive). He likes playing it a bit, but he likes experimenting with it more. It has some features where it can generate a beat or an accompanying tune in various keys, which [...]
Review: Roku SoundBridge Radio
June 10th, 2009, 4 Comments
On the advice of several comments here, I bought a Roku SoundBridge Radio as a birthday gift for Terah.
It arrived today, so here’s a first impressions review.
The Hardware
It’s very nice. A touch bigger than I expected, but still quite small. There’s a subwoofer aimed up at the back of it, which helps it [...]
Buying a SoundBridge Radio
June 6th, 2009, 6 Comments
A day or two ago, I asked for suggestions for a tabletop MP3 player. I got lots of good ideas — thanks! The two most common were the Roku SoundBridge Radio and the Nokia N800.
I’ve ordered the SoundBridgeRadio. I spent some time looking over its website, and it really impressed me for [...]
We Are Plains People, And Our Music Has Tornadoes
April 26th, 2009, 3 Comments
There’s little that scares Kansans more than a good tornado. And, truth be told, there’s little that excites us more than a good tornado, either. After all, we know it’s going to be good for a story.
Here on the plains, it is easy to remember how powerful nature really is. Weather sweeps [...]
Flowers, Music, and Grandparents
April 12th, 2009, 1 Comment
Flowers
I’ve written a lot lately about my Grandma Klassen, who passed away this week. But I’m going to start this post about my Grandma Goerzen.
She died when I was just an infant. I never knew her, but as the years pass, it seems that I remember her better and better.
After we moved out [...]
Home, Home On Range
December 1st, 2008, 10 Comments
For about two years now, part of our bedtime routine for Jacob is that I read him a book, sing to him, and then put him down for the night. I’d been singing “Jesus Loves Me” because that’s what Terah had been singing when she used to do that part of the bedtime routine.
One [...]
The Power of Love
March 16th, 2008, 4 Comments
A few years ago, Elvera Voth, a musician that grew up a few miles from here was back in the area. Her specialty is vocal music, and one evening, she led a hymn sing at our church.
During the event, she talked about how much music can touch the heart. Elvera remembered many years [...]
