I’m excited because I just discovered that one of my favorite bands, Calexico, released a live session EP on iTunes recently. Their music is awesome, I’d describe it as an eclectic blend of rock and spaghetti western music, with surf and southwest sounds slapped on top. Much of their collection is available on emusic. I recommend checking them out.

Or, yet another instrument to learn.

My shakuhachi shipped today. I had tried in the past to make a pvc practice flute, but couldn’t get the tuning or the mouthpiece right. The mouthpiece was the worst part. It was off just enough to make the already frustrating task of learning to play all the more irritating. However, when I could get a note to sound, it was totally exhilarating.

So I found this guy in New Mexico can crafts what he calls utility flutes out of pvc. I ordered a standard D model, as it’s the traditional beginner key. It is the midrange color with a standard overcut.

I’m really looking forward to trying out the instrument, especially after my previous unsatisfying experience. I trust that this will be a much finer piece than I turned out, given the crazy tuning diagrams the guy has up on his site.

Since my readers might have no idea what the flute sounds like, I can suggest you listen here.

So a few months ago I used eMusic for a couple months. I’ve always thought they had an interesting service. The main problem of course is their selection isn’t the greatest.

Lately I’ve been using my iPod in conjunction with some hour long natural sound tracks (I like raindrops) from the iTMS. They really help me relax and lessen my anxiety. Here’s the deal though. On the iTunes Music Store, any track longer than 10 minutes is only available if you buy the album. Since these tracks are about one hour, it’s one track per album. So that’s about $8-$10 a track. That’s a pretty penny.

I just found that eMusic has 16 such tracks. I also just found an email in my inbox that says I can rejoin for a month for free. eMusic counts 1 track as 1 download. So let’s do the math. 16 tracks x $9 per track average = $144 on iTMS. Or, with my free 30 day trial on eMusic, it’s uhh, free. That’s a deal.

I picked up the album Castaways & Cutouts by The Decemberists off EMusic. It’s pretty darn good. So far I like tracks 1 and 3 the best.

I took the EMusic 50 downloads trial and have scored some other good music so far. I finally picked up The Fire Theft from them, which I’ve been meaning to get for a while. Can’t beat free (and legal), can you?

Chris informed me that the BestBuy near my house had a table full of iPod Shuffles for sale. I was surprised, since no stores seem to have them in stock. I picked one up. Now I’ll see if I can use it as motivation to exercise.

I’ve used a flash mp3 player, some little sd player from rio. However, here’s the rub. The rio music manager software just flat out sucks. You couldn’t even treat the device as a removable drive, which would have even been preferable to the software’s non-windows like folder interface. It was awful, putting music on it was a chore.

So, this is why Apple wins again. Being able to toss the songs on from iTunes, where they all already nicely reside, is the biggest benefit. Would I like a screen? Probably, though, the only thing I ever used it for when running was to tell the time. Since I carry my phone, that’s a non-issue.

Anyway, it’s pretty sweet. And if you live in Orange County and want one, check out the BestBuy in Tustin Marketplace.

I thought today might not be the best day ever….boy was I wrong

But then on my XM Radio I got to hear “Donde Esta Santa” by Charo. It was then followed by “Frosty the Snowman” from The Brady Bunch.