Tag Archives: music

Inventing a new game – Apple Music Trivia

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
July 28 2019

Before you go searching for an app, there isn’t one. This is just a DIY trivia game that requires nothing more than a streaming service, a streaming device (like your phone) and preferably a second person to make it fun. My wife and I invented the game by accident, but now we’re playing in the car all the time to pass the commute or part of long trips.

We have Apple Music, although any streaming service will do. All of them have genre playlists or radio stations, and with Apple Music, we go for the radio station option for the variety. We click on RADIO STATION / GENRES / YEARS and then we often choose 1980s POP (one of the few years where we both have a good chance). We press PLAY, and then turn the phone away.

As the song starts, we play NAME THAT TUNE and try for the title and artist.  » Read the rest

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NAC Pops – Women Rock

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
January 13 2019

My wife and I had tickets for the latest NAC Pops show this week, and unlike the odd one last time (NAC Pops – Holiday Swing), this was a bit more their style when it comes to non-orchestral “modern music”. They’ll do Broadway or rock or a host of other “pop” sources for music, stick the orchestra in the back playing the music, and throw some good singers up front. I confess, at times, they bury the orchestra. But it’s still fun.

This one was along that line, with eighteen fantastic songs made popular by female artists. To handle vocals, the program had three female ex-Broadway-calibre performers — Katrina Rose Dideriksen (Hairspray, Rent, Grease, Legally Blonde, etc.), Cassidy Catanzaro (American Songbook, backups for big rock stars, songwriter), and Shayna Steele (Rent, Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar, huge backup opportunities with larger stars, etc.). Katrina is the young relative newbie, Cassidy is a bit older and richer voice, and Shayna is a bit older still with more experience and a more vibrant voice.  » Read the rest

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NAC Pops – Holiday Swing

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
December 9 2018

Andrea and I went to see one of the National Arts Centre (NAC) Pops series last night entitled “Holiday Swing”. As the name suggests, it is a “swing” / big band version of Christmas music. While the series is almost always a good time, it is much improved when Jack Everly is conducting himself as opposed to designing the overall program for the year. Unfortunately, in that regard, it was not Jack, but Byron Stripling performing as conductor, trumpet, and vocals.

I confess that I’m not a big band aficionado, nor a jazz specialist, and was not familiar with Byron Stripling directly. You can see him online in a popular YouTube video:

His trumpet playing is awesome, but that’s about almost where the kudos end for the evening. The night was so inconsistent, it’s hard to know where to begin.

Overall, there were 14 songs during the night, and the NAC Orchestra was sitting twiddling their thumbs for far too much of the show.  » Read the rest

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#50by50ish #38a – Share my music on mobile and home devices

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
November 11 2018

I’ve blogged before about a desire I have to be able to listen to any of my music anywhere in the house. My network-attached-storage (NAS) options didn’t really work out (The joys of network attached storage or not) and although my needs aren’t that complicated (Articles I Like: Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time), they have shifted a bit. As have the options available to me.

Here is what I want:

  • All of our (Andrea and I, and eventually Jacob) music available to all of us all the time;
  • Available in our bedroom (i.e. the nightstand);
  • Available in J’s room (likely the nightstand or at least near his desk);
  • Available in the office on our computers (likely a desktop app of some sort);
  • Available in our playroom/kitchen area (likely through the stereo system, or not, as the case may be);
  • Available on any of our mobile devices (A’s iPhone, my Android phone, my Android tablet with LTE, J’s iPad on wifi, possibly an old iTouch, iPhone, Android tablet, and a Sony MP3 player); and,
  • Ability to stream new songs and old songs, and even store them offline.
  » Read the rest
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Articles I Like: Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
November 14 2017

Way back in 2012, I saved an article entitled Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time from over at LifeHacker. What caught my eye originally was the initial premise:

Ever been told that you should fully discharge your battery to prolong its life? Or that jailbreaking your phone is illegal? Or that you should wait for the newest Intel processor because it’s going to be “so much faster”? These are tech myths we hear all the time, and likely spread to our friends—but most are just a waste of your time (and in some cases, they can actually harm your gadgets). Here are some of the worst offenders.

What kept me around though, and why I’ve saved the article all these years is the fact that many of the “top ten” are still pervasive, and are still myths.

One that I embrace is debunking the MP3 myth.  » Read the rest

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