Random Sample

It’s Friday, we’ve got crappy weather outside, and I really want to take a bike ride.  But where here in the Bay Area gets to enjoy the, um, smokey freshness of the wildfires burning in the hills of CA.  Yep, because of the way the wind is blowing (or not, at times) it’s like our own version of Beijing here with an amazing amount of nature’s own pollution. It’s tough to breath, you can’t go outside much, and, well, it generally sucks.

Just to let you know how bad the smoke is, here’s a shot from NASA that was taken yesterday:

The titles on the image are blurry but San Francisco is just below the midway point of the photo.  At the top is Crescent City — which is near the California/Oregon border. Because of all the PM (Particulate Matter) in the air, the incidents of asthma are going up.  So yeah, we’re in Hell right now.

Okay, enough boo hoo for now.  Let’s get on with the tunes, shall we?

“Tennessee,” The Mimsies (Listen) They had a 10 year run (1994-2004), and made some really good music that would have been just so-so if it weren’t for the vocal talents of Casey Castille. Someone put up a tribute page on My Space where you can check out some of their other songs, but I was introduced to this song by a former co-worker who thought The Mimsies were the cat’s meow.  This gem came up on my iPod the other day, and I forgot how great it is.  Now you can check out how great it is, too.

“Great DJ,” Ting Tings (Listen) Just look at that CD cover. Doesn’t it say “1982” all over it?  If you couldn’t figure it out, the Ting Tings are bringing the early ’80s back with their new wave pop.  The album is a pleasant in a retro way, but be warned:  repeated listens to the earworm that is “Great DJ,” will result in spontaneous eruptions of “Ahs” and “Eeees” at inappropriate moments.

“Big Love,” Fleetwood Mac (Listen) Jefito featured an acoustic version of this song on his old blog a long time ago, and yes, it came up on my iTunes player the other day.  But I’ve heard this acoustic version so many times, that I sort of forgot the album version. So…here ’tis in all it’s overproduced glory. And here’s the acoustic version (Listen).