Glee has the potential to be one of the best shows this season. Early on, it looked so good, and really, it still is, but some changes need to be made.

Will Schuester, the music teacher played by Matthew Morrison, needs to never ever rap again. Why do they keep doing this? They seem to be going out of their way to do it. It’s horrible, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s lame. Which leads me to my next point.

Will Schuester, the music teacher, needs to leave the show. It’s a painful truth, but literally all of the characters in Glee are great, except for Will Schuester. Part of it is the writing, he sings too much, it’s too much about him, and yet he’s the least interesting person on the show. If this character were to switch to someone slightly more charismatic who could sing, but only did so when the kids weren’t supposed to be singing, the show would be near perfect. I know, it’s a bit mean to single this character out, but you can see it too, right? Think about it, you look forward to hearing from every other character, even the football coach, even the gay kid’s dad. But when Will comes around, it’s kind of a bummer, like an intermission from the rest of the show.

I suggest he get together with the guidance counselor and move to another city. She’s more interesting, but won’t really be missed either.

The only other thing that needs to happen on Glee is that the singing needs to become more realistic. I have no problem with them lip syncing so that it sounds good, I just want all the kids to actually be singing actual parts of the music, and no other mystery voices to be singing. Right now, they will have 15 people in a room and only one will actually be singing, the rest will be moving their lips for no reason, and then some mystery background vocals will come in from nowhere. Remember Rehab from the first episode? That was awesome, I want more of that. The solos are great when they’re in the hallway or whatever. When the kids are together, it should actually be the kids singing, not just one person, and not the music teacher. It’s not a “fairness” issue, it’s that it would sound really good, and it makes you feel a bit uncomfortable watching people lip sync where there is no actual sound coming out. There are enough solos in the show already, how about hearing an actual glee club? It would be nice. Rehab was proof of that.

But for the majority of country music, once you get over the cuteness of it, you start to hear the ignorance. There are a lot of songs about how good things used to be, and those are just plain wrong. Things only used to be better if you are a white homophobic racist. Otherwise, things are much better today. I suppose it was simpler when women would just shut up and do the laundry, but certainly not better.

But the country music mini-boom is quite clearly over. It was fun for a bit, and while there are some progressive country artists that will always be in our hearts, like Leann Rimes, for country music in general, it’s back to the ignorant listeners. If you feel that the world was better when gays stayed in the closet, blacks stayed out of your city, and women cooked your dinner, then country music is for you!

I have to say, Amazon music is getting more attractive every day. I tend to prefer iTunes, but now Amazon has some of the music cheaper, including this song which is 89 cents. In this crazy economy, who doesn’t want that?

I heard this song on the Above & Beyond Trance Around The World continuous mix podcast and fell in love with it. It has that perfect seventies techno feel, sort of Reading Rainbow meets modern music production. Suitable for the dance floor, the car, or a Montessori post nap play time. Listen to the clip for the regular length radio mix to get an idea of what it sounds like because the clip for the long mix is poorly done and is just of the lead in drums for mixing. (Who makes these clips?)

• Neo Love (Giuseppe Ottaviani Radio Mix)
• Neo Love (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix)

There are times where the “long version” of a song really is better than the original. This is the case with Counting Down the Days. The bass and the piano are so soothing that they are great to listen to on their own. By the time the vocals come in you’re all warmed up and left thinking, “Oh wow, that’s awesome!” That’s really, in my opinion, what remixes were always supposed to be: the version of the song that makes it the best possible song regardless of duration.

This song wasn’t of interest to me when I heard it on the radio. But just this longer mix made all the difference.

My focus is always on figuring out how to do the most dramatic designs as simply as possible. I don’t want to spend all day in photoshop, or even buy photoshop, and my customers don’t want to pay for that anyway. Using the Mac makes all sorts of things possible quickly and with a minimum of cash outflow.

We went to the park again today. The paths are narrow and I was letting Kody go in front of me, but then I realized that was completely wrong. So I kept him behind or next to me, which meant I was pulling him back the entire time. Hopefully he’ll start to get the picture. Still it was easier that walking with him pulling me constantly.

I’ve downloaded a few songs recently that I really like. Please forgive the JoJo:

• U Drive Me Crazy (Mahjong Pophouse Mix)
  Bettersweet Passage
• Too Little, Too Late
  JoJo
• Need You Tonight (Kenny Hayes Sunrise Vocal)
  Friday Night Posse

LeAnn Rimes

Strong (Cicada Mix)

This is one of the best remixes I have heard in a long time. The clip doesn’t do it justice. It doesn’t have many of the original lyrics it’s just feel good kinda music. Buy it! It’s DRM-Free on iTunes as well! I love the original song too. The whole album Whatever We Wanna was not released in the USA for some reason. It’s awesome. It was on American iTunes for a while but no longer. The music business is truly bizarre. Anyway, cheap imports of the physical CD are available on amazon.com or tower.com.

I didn’t want to spend that time watching that horrible show. And it was so confusing. Every band looked just like another group of gay guys or a gay couple. I’m talking to you Hall & Oates. Every new song that came on I would say, “OK, now these guys were gay, right?” No, they weren’t.

VH1! I’ll get you for this!

As a wonderful coincidence of doing things and making decisions that are good for me, Above & Beyond has released their single Good for Me on iTunes. This is an absolutely amazing single and I can’t help but recommend you just buy the whole thing. However, my favorites are the Redanka Mix, the Above & Beyond Club Mix, and the mix that I first heard, the Darren Tate Remix. They’re all so good, I just really can’t help but think everyone’s going to love them.

I’m really enjoying this. I had for a while lost my taste for trance music. I can’t believe it either, but because the club and party scene had gone so tragically downhill, I started rejecting the music as well. However, now I’m learning to appreciate it for what it is again. I like almost all of these tracks. No vocals here, but the music is really quite good enough on its own.

I’m re-ripping all of my CDs into iTunes again this time using 320kbps AAC which is pretty near CD quality. I’d do lossless, but I don’t want to use a proprietary format or a format that doesn’t work in iTunes. Right now I’m really enjoying a couple of remixes of Erasure’s Run to the Sun. My definite favorite remix is titled The Simon & Diamond Bhangra Remix which has a wonderful middle eastern funky dance flair with a little attitude. My second favorite remix is the Beatmasters Outergalactic Remix which is sort of an electro dub type thing.

I think that I Say I Say I Say was one of the high points of Erasure’s career.

I just have to say that I love The View one more time. Especially Joy Behar. Today they were talking about dolphins and Joy said, “Have you ever ridden a dolphin? It’s like a vibrator with flippers!” Joy, you really are a star!

Anyway, another thing to note, in case you haven’t noticed Peter Presta is pretty hot. Here’s a link to his website where you can listen to the song I’ve linked below. The version there is called Totally Hooked. I love this song because of the samples of Boston’s More Than a Feeling. I think everyone must love this song.

Peter Presta featuring Bonse

Totally Revamped

Perfect Beat Link

I have a couple of close female friends who have yet to go baby crazy, and both claim to never want kids and their husbands agree. I kind of hope they stay that way because women really turn into different people once it happens. Not worse, necessarily, but in some cases definitely worse (“baby insane”). Women usually change enough that relationships change which can be hard on a friendship, and sometimes even worse on their partner relationship. Anyway, they’re both about my age with no signs of changing so if they make it past 40 I’d say were in the clear. Don’t get me wrong, if someone goes baby crazy, I’m happy for them. I just know it probably means a serious and sudden change in the dynamic of my relationship with them, which can be kinda sad sometimes.

Reina

On My Own (Giuseppe D.’s Pumping Piano Mix)

Here’s a good dance song for you. The Freemasons must be having quite an effect on dance music because while this is a Giuseppe D. remix, it’s also a knock off of the Freemasons style. However, it might be a good kick in the pants for the Freemasons as their remixes are a bit formulaic. We love them still, but maybe a bit more diversity would be good if they want to be more than just a flash in the pan.

I’m currently listening to Marrakech (Alex M.O.R.P.H. Synthetic Empire Remix) which is next to impossible to find. But here’s another good one:

ATB
Long Way Home (Starfighter 2 Remix)

I know it’s quite a claim to say this is the best holiday song ever, however I have never known anyone not to absolutely love this song. George Winston in many ways is like a remixer. In fact when I was young, although my sister and I loved him, my Mom held out a bit claiming his music was a bit repetitive. And it’s true, he’s all about theme and variation and when he does a song it turns out very similar to a dance mix. A very yuppie pleasing, wine tasting, brie snorting dance mix, but still a dance mix. George Winston also used to please the crowds with his awesome rendition of Linus and Lucy. And just for the history books, when I went to see George live, I wore a white skinny piano tie. Oh yes, I did. And I’m not entirely sure if I even regret it.

Anyway, the rest of this album is also very good. Take note of the iTunes comment by a “normal” 13 year old boy as proof either that it’s good, or that he’s not nearly as normal as he thinks he is. Remember, I was once 13 and listening to George Winston, and we all know how that turned out.