In an earlier post, I had taken Walter Becker to task. I had chastised him for a whole variety of things, mostly having to do with guitar solos on records that I didn’t feel were up to the early standard that he set on albums like Katy Lied, and some other things such as how he sounded live, or what guitar fills he was playing on various things. In short, when my favorite band, Steely Dan, is involved, I always wanted to hear them at their very best.
But right now I’m listening to his own Paging Audrey, which is just a beautiful tune, with gorgeous chord changes, melodies, and atmosphere. And it doesn’t end there – Upside Looking Down and Darkling Down are both outstanding pieces (could the word “Down” be a key element in his success? Countdown to Ecstasy and all that? But that’s just a conspiracy theory, and far be it from me). The writing is of the highest standard, the lyrics are just as cynically clever as always, guitar solos are succinct and funky with no excess baggage, and the most pleasant surprise is that his voice really sounds good on the studio cuts, and is very appropriate for the feel of the tunes.
Continue reading “My Apology to Walter Becker”
Posted in Music |
WordPress is such a nice system that its popularity has skyrocketed. It’s easy to use, and has a phenomenal feature set. As its fame increases, many newbies are now coming into the fold, and while many are happy, some of them are having a lot of trouble.
WordPress has been the premier open source tool for blogging for quite some time now, and people are also discovering that it can be used for other types of sites. The developers (and plugin authors) have done a superb job adding features and making the system easy to use. While this has allowed people with moderate computer skills to use it, an inevitable byproduct of such popularity is emerging: a lot of people cannot figure out various parts of the system, and they are having trouble getting technical support, even though there is a nice free support forum where people can join for free and ask questions.
Continue reading “Is WordPress Good for Beginners? Yes, But Not Always”
Posted in Articles, Web Development |
Yes, and I believe it’s largely due to smart phones.
Written communication isn’t for everyone. Some people do better speaking in person or on the phone. Given some of the poor communication that takes place, I wonder if some would be better off using Morse Code, signal flags, passenger pigeons, smoke signals, the Pony Express, or other modalities.
And let’s not even dwell on the general lack of writing skills stemming from the fact that many people never crack a book.
Unlike some, I am not annoyed by spelling mistakes in emails. For me, as long as the meaning gets across, who cares? In fact, I enjoy spelling mistakes. The best one I’ve seen recently was a restaurant menu whose front cover proudly proclaimed that they offered “Fine Dinning” in nicely printed huge type. Despite a very good grasp of spelling, I do make mistakes in emails when moving quickly. To me, this is not a big concern, because spelling problems are very minor compared to other email communication snafus.
Continue reading “Is Email Getting Stupider?”
Posted in Articles |