Happy Birthday Mini!

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Mini! It's a fantastic little car, one that has been revolutionary in terms of engineering and marketing, with broad popular appeal. As usual with things like this, I've done a writeup here.

I absolutely love my car, as I’ve written about before. The entire experience of driving it differs from anything that I’ve driven before, and I often will break out into a grin when I’m driving along. I love throwing Maxine into corners at speed, accelerating along straits and simply enjoying owning a car. I don’t believe that a car should be boring, or simply just to go from point A to B during commutes. That just seems dull, and that just seems like a waste.

Happy Birthday Mini. Here’s to another 50 years.

Here's a playlist of some good driving songs that I've collected for the occasion. I've always seen the Mini as fast and quirky, and I think that these songs fit the Mini's character quite well.

The Shock of Lightning - Oasis
Mercy - Duffy
She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
Shuffle Your Feet - Back Rebel Motorcycle Club
Queen Bitch - David Bowie
Young Folks - Peter Bjorn and John
Venus - Shocking Blue
You Get What You Give - New Radicals
This Time Tomorrow - The Kinks
Hazey Jane II - Nick Drake
On Days Like These - Matt Monroe

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Warm Weather Drive

So, it's getting warmer, and as such, it's high time to get back to some fun drives. Here's some of what I've been listening to on the occassions that I've been out and about on the road thus far. These songs in paticular are forever associated with the coming warmer weather.

All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix

Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

Clocks - Coldplay

Flyin' - Adam Ezra Group

If There's A Rocket Tie Me To It - Snow Patrol

Kids - Goodtimes Goodtimes

The Long Goodbye - A Girl Called Eddy

My Maria - B.W. Stevenson

Queen Bitch - David Bowie

Stay (Wasting Time) - Dave Matthew's Band

This Is My Song - Carbon Leaf

Time Is A Runaway - The Alternate Routes

Waiting - Josh Clayton-Felt

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Image from Flickr

Cover & Original: Life on Mars

Tomorrow, ABC will be airing the US remake of the brilliant UK show by the same name. The title takes its name from the David Bowie song, Life on Mars. In the story, detective Sam Tyler is hit by a car and wakes up in 1973, where he has to exist while trying to find his way home.

The UK version is one of my absolute favorite shows of all time, and it's got a fantastic soundtrack to boot. I'm excited for this US remake, and a little worried that it won't live up to expectations. There was a scrapped pilot that has since been re-shot, and it looks like it could be a good one.

Life on Mars (David Bowie) - Michelle Branch
Life on Mars (David Bowie) - Phish
Life on Mars (David Bowie) - Seal
Life on Mars (David Bowie) - Seu Jorge
Life on Mars - David Bowie

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Live on Mars

ABC announced today that they green lit an American version of the UK show Life on Mars. The show has become one of my favorites, and while I'm nervous that the new version won't hold up to the original, I'm interested to see what direction they take this show, and if it will take off here in the US. Increasingly, SciFi shows are canceled due to lower ratings, and it's entirely possible that while this can be a great show, it could also be off the air regardless of quality.
The show, which follows detective Sam Tyler, takes place in 1973, when Tyler, a modern day police officer in Manchester, finds himself stuck in after an accident. The show is one of the best that I've ever seen. A follow up show, Ashes to Ashes is almost as good. Not quite, but still interesting to watch.
Life on Mars comes from the title of the David Bowie song, which is pretty neat. And Blunt's 1973 video actually looks and feels a lot like the world Sam finds himself in. Check the show out if you haven't. It's brilliant, and has a killer soundtrack.

Life on Mars - David Bowie
1973 - James Blunt

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Geek Mix

Geek Weekend for me, and this week's mix will go right along with that theme. It's a particularly fun time for this - Anyone read about the large-scale UFO sightings earlier this week in Texas?
This weekend, I've got:

• Convention, where I'll be trooping with the 501st
• Spamalot
• Cloverfield

Here's a good set of Sci-Fi related songs that'll fit well:

All Along The Watchtower (Galactica Version) - Bear McCreary
Cosmic Castaway - Electrasy
For Science Fiction - Maritime
Firefly Main Title - Sonny Rhodes
It's My Turn To Fly - The Urge
Mr. Spaceman - The Byrds
Pressure Suit - Aqualung
Sci-Fi Kid - Blitzen Trapper
Space Oddity - David Bowie
Texas Stars - Carbon Leaf

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Back in 1973

I never thought that I'd recommend a James Blunt song after "You're Beautiful", but with his latest single off of his sophtomore album, I'd have to say that I'll recommend it, along with a BBC Television drama.

1973 is a nostalgic piece from Blunt, and is a much, much better song than his prior song. The video's quite good as well, really fitting with the nostalgia theme. There's something really appealing about that, at least to me. I sometimes think back to earlier and reminice, especially now, being newly out of college. The song does just that, and has a good, fairly quiet sound to it, one that reminds me a bit of Fleetwood Mac for some reason (Although you can't compare the two at all). This song really feels like the 1970s, and the video does as well, with the proper filters, giving it a great look and feel between the 1970s parts of the video and the modern parts. I'll be interested to hear the rest of the album, because this new song isn't bad at all.

Listen to the song here, on Blunt's Webpage

Along the same lines, the BBC launched a show two years ago, called Life on Mars, named for the David Bowie song. In it, Manchester DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Sam Tyler gets into an accident and wakes up in the year 1973 (Ah ha, see the connection?). Life on Mars is not only playing on his iPod when he gets hurt, but on the other side on an 8-Track tape in his car. Later, you learn that part of his life then is code named M.A.R.S, and he comments in the pilot that being in the 1970s feels like being on another planet. It's a top notch show, a high quality police drama, and if you can get a place to see it, I'd highly, highly recommend it.

Life on Mars - David Bowie

Life on Mars Theme - Edmund Butt

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