here's a useful link:
www.cybercafe.com
This is a supposed international guide to help you find cybercafes. i have been looking into this today because i'm going to austin tomorrow to look for an apartment and since i don't have a laptop, it's going to be tricky getting internet access while i'm down there. the idea of going for an entire week w/out internet access is not only unappealing, it would actually be very problematic, since i'm auctioning something on ebay and i'm going to have to be in touch w/ the buyer over the next coupla days. grrrr not having a laptop is irritating. but IBM is supposedly gonna hook me up w/ one. so that'll be cool.
anyways, here are some other links i've found dealing w/ internet cafes.
Some guy's blog
NetCafeGuide
Another searchable database of internet cafes
An interesting thing i noticed was the prevalence of internet cafes in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. i was thinking about it today, and realizing i can't even think of a single internet cafe in Ann Arbor, except if you count the Espresso Royale on State St (shout out to my homeys at ERC). (incidentally, i don't actually have any homeys at ERC, at least not the one at State Street, but i do play my guitar out in front of their place every now and then.) and that's not really an internet cafe per se, but it does have Internet access, which is the important thing. i've never actually used it there, though.
anyways, i was going somewhere w/ this thought... oh yeah, well i was thinking, i guess maybe there really aren't all that many cybercafes in the states, because everybody has internet access at home. but in playa del carmen, there was practically one on every corner. which would make sense, since a lot of people don't even have phones, much less internet access at home. ok, well i've droned on enough i guess.
just a blog of my ramblings. really an on-line journal.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Monday, May 12, 2003
hey. well, i was kinda too depressed to post anything here for a while, but i finally feel up to it. i figured since i've been mostly listening to a particular subset of my musical collection, but i'm too lazy to make a new "music pix" page, i'd post some music reviews here.
In my CD player now:
1. Portishead- "Dummy." This is just such a great record. I've been told that the genre of music is "trip-hop," although I have to admit i'm not entirely sure what that means. I just know that i like it. I was first exposed to Portishead when i learned a dance to the song "Numb" (track 7, incidentally) in my modern dance class. Being the child of the Internet that I am, of course i had to immediately go home and download a bunch of mp3s, and from then on I started to get into the other songs like "Wandering Star" and "Sour Times." One song I actually hadn't heard until I got the cd turned out to become one of my favorites- "It could be Sweet". Well if i keep this up I'm going to list every single song because they're all good. *sigh* what a great cd.
2. The Flaming Lips- "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." Although I bought this CD almost a year ago when I was in Chicago, I find that i'm still listening to it on a consistent basis, especially lately. I actually finally even figured out how to play a song off it on my guitar, the inspired if somewhat sad ballad "Do You Realize." Most of the album is twinged with melancholy, although I'd by no means say it's a depressing record. The first track, "Fight Test," gets it off to a very strong start, and the rest of the cd doesn't disappoint. It's about this girl battling robots and so on and so forth. I think i've mentioned it on this blog before.
3. Smashing Pumpkins- "Siamese Dream." I think this might be the pumpkins' most underrated album. Despite radio hits like "Today" and "Disarm" (that's that one "killer in me is the killer in you" song where Billy sounds kinda whiny- incidentally one of my least favorite tracks), it seems like this album didn't garner much acclaim. Nevertheless, I really enjoy most of it, especially the last half of the cd, including "Soma," "Mayonaise," and "Spaceboy." The last song, "Luna," which is kind of softer than the rest of the record, is really good, too. It also sounds like it has a sitar or something, which is kind of neat. There's a lot of variety on the cd, which makes it good to listen to the whole thing. One of my favorite things about the songs on this cd is that many of them are split between soft, melodic parts and harder rocking sections. This is particularly noteworthy on "Mayonaise," which starts off with some very light, pretty sounding guitar licks, and then gets rougher during the chorus or whatever. *shrugs* I like it when songs have variety in them, kind of like how in most classical music there is a lot of variation of tone and volume throughout a piece.
4. Coldplay- "A Rush of Blood to the Head." The first coldplay cd was so good, i had to brace myself for disappointment before buying their 2nd cd. However, my fears proved totally groundless since it turned out to be so good. I would be hard pressed to even choose which one of them i like better. From radio hit "In My Place," (also one of quite a few of their songs featured on the teeny-bopper tv show "Smallville," which happens to be the only tv show that i actually watch) to my personal favorite, "Green Eyes," (a song which is special to me) this is a really strong album. It's one of those discs that just keeps growing on you the more you listen to it. There is a soft spot in my heart for track 4, "the Scientist," which sounds to me like a perfect song to dance to. I just love songs that have a long intro and then finally when the drums come in it just makes me feel like dancing. this sounds SO LAME. well, whatever. this is my blog so i'll write whatever i want. =) Some other highlights are the 3rd track, "God put a smile on your face," which has cool-sounding guitar, and "warning sign." seriously, it's all good- anyone who liked the first album will definitely enjoy this one as well.
Well i was gonna put up a few more, but i don't have time now. However, some other stuff i've been listening to somewhat lately is James Taylor's greatest hits (volume 1), the White Stripes' "Elephant" (I think Meg has improved. really), and this cool jazz cd i stole from colette (well, actually she gave it to me) by the Ellis Marsalis Trio called "twelve's it." I usually only like jazz live, but colette has been trying for at least a year now to win me over w/ recorded jazz and she finally pulled it off. this cd is very nice to listen to especially if you don't mind drum solos. personally i kind of like the drum solos.
ok, i'm done.
In my CD player now:
1. Portishead- "Dummy." This is just such a great record. I've been told that the genre of music is "trip-hop," although I have to admit i'm not entirely sure what that means. I just know that i like it. I was first exposed to Portishead when i learned a dance to the song "Numb" (track 7, incidentally) in my modern dance class. Being the child of the Internet that I am, of course i had to immediately go home and download a bunch of mp3s, and from then on I started to get into the other songs like "Wandering Star" and "Sour Times." One song I actually hadn't heard until I got the cd turned out to become one of my favorites- "It could be Sweet". Well if i keep this up I'm going to list every single song because they're all good. *sigh* what a great cd.
2. The Flaming Lips- "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." Although I bought this CD almost a year ago when I was in Chicago, I find that i'm still listening to it on a consistent basis, especially lately. I actually finally even figured out how to play a song off it on my guitar, the inspired if somewhat sad ballad "Do You Realize." Most of the album is twinged with melancholy, although I'd by no means say it's a depressing record. The first track, "Fight Test," gets it off to a very strong start, and the rest of the cd doesn't disappoint. It's about this girl battling robots and so on and so forth. I think i've mentioned it on this blog before.
3. Smashing Pumpkins- "Siamese Dream." I think this might be the pumpkins' most underrated album. Despite radio hits like "Today" and "Disarm" (that's that one "killer in me is the killer in you" song where Billy sounds kinda whiny- incidentally one of my least favorite tracks), it seems like this album didn't garner much acclaim. Nevertheless, I really enjoy most of it, especially the last half of the cd, including "Soma," "Mayonaise," and "Spaceboy." The last song, "Luna," which is kind of softer than the rest of the record, is really good, too. It also sounds like it has a sitar or something, which is kind of neat. There's a lot of variety on the cd, which makes it good to listen to the whole thing. One of my favorite things about the songs on this cd is that many of them are split between soft, melodic parts and harder rocking sections. This is particularly noteworthy on "Mayonaise," which starts off with some very light, pretty sounding guitar licks, and then gets rougher during the chorus or whatever. *shrugs* I like it when songs have variety in them, kind of like how in most classical music there is a lot of variation of tone and volume throughout a piece.
4. Coldplay- "A Rush of Blood to the Head." The first coldplay cd was so good, i had to brace myself for disappointment before buying their 2nd cd. However, my fears proved totally groundless since it turned out to be so good. I would be hard pressed to even choose which one of them i like better. From radio hit "In My Place," (also one of quite a few of their songs featured on the teeny-bopper tv show "Smallville," which happens to be the only tv show that i actually watch) to my personal favorite, "Green Eyes," (a song which is special to me) this is a really strong album. It's one of those discs that just keeps growing on you the more you listen to it. There is a soft spot in my heart for track 4, "the Scientist," which sounds to me like a perfect song to dance to. I just love songs that have a long intro and then finally when the drums come in it just makes me feel like dancing. this sounds SO LAME. well, whatever. this is my blog so i'll write whatever i want. =) Some other highlights are the 3rd track, "God put a smile on your face," which has cool-sounding guitar, and "warning sign." seriously, it's all good- anyone who liked the first album will definitely enjoy this one as well.
Well i was gonna put up a few more, but i don't have time now. However, some other stuff i've been listening to somewhat lately is James Taylor's greatest hits (volume 1), the White Stripes' "Elephant" (I think Meg has improved. really), and this cool jazz cd i stole from colette (well, actually she gave it to me) by the Ellis Marsalis Trio called "twelve's it." I usually only like jazz live, but colette has been trying for at least a year now to win me over w/ recorded jazz and she finally pulled it off. this cd is very nice to listen to especially if you don't mind drum solos. personally i kind of like the drum solos.
ok, i'm done.
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