Stuff From Kevin

Calorie-Friendly Favorite Foods

2007-12-20T22:36:00.001-06:00

Someone I know just started a diet counting calories, so I thought we'd share my favorite low-calorie foods. We use these products on a daily basis - they're always in the house and provide lots of options for low-calorie snacks. All are available at our local supermarket.

Blue Bunny Sweet Freedom Fudge Lites
35 calories per bar
link

Pop Secret Kettle Corn in 100 cal bags
link

Kernel Seasonings Popcorn Flavorings
Low calorie
Caramel or white cheddar flavors
link

T Marzetti Veggie dips
We prefer Dill flavor (Light)
There are also regular and fat free dill dips.
Great with cut up carrots and celery
link

South Beach Meal Replacement Bars
210 Calories
We suggest Choc PB only!
Half or whole is a great snack in between meals
link

Smart Balance Butter Spread
link

Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt
We like Vanilla only
60 calories each

Wish-Bone Salad Spritzers
We prefer Asian Silk (sesame ginger)
10 sprays are only 10 calories!
Great on supermarket salad bar (we eat this several days a week)
link

Veggie Slices - Soy Cheese Slices
We suggest Mozzarella or Pepper Jack (spicy)
35 calories per slice
link

Sara Lee Delightful 100% Whole Wheat Bread
45 calories per slice
(You can get bread for 35 calories a slice but this is much better!)
link

Thomas' English Muffins - 100 Calorie Multi-Grain
link

Quaker Instant Oatmeal
Low Sugar - 120 calories each
We suggest Maple Brown Sugar flavor
link

Breakstone's Cottage Cheese
2% / Small Curd
90 calories per half cup
This is a perfect breakfast
link

Guy flips out in coffee shop

2007-10-25T12:08:00.001-06:00

Dude Flips Out In Coffee Shop - Watch more free videos

Where I ate in San Francisco

2007-10-17T09:06:00.001-06:00

I was in San Francisco for 4 days recently, the first half on my own, and the second half with a client.

Here's where I ate.

Lunch: Naan and Curry (Tenderloin). This place was pretty bad. It's open 24 hours... unless you need Indian food at 2 AM, I would skip it.

Dinner: Siam Lotus (Haight Ashbury). Fantastic. This is a small, unassuming place with great food. There's another Thai place across the street which is also supposed to be good.

Breakfast: Noah's Bagels (Financial District). Pretty darn good. Very fresh bagels, good coffee and spreads. Not like NY, but pretty good.

Snack: Harvest Market (The Castro) This is a great little gourmet with some prepared foods for take-out by the pound. There are benches on the sidewalk where you can sit with other hipsters for a little snack.

Lunch: Estele's Sandwiches (Lower Haight). Fantastic, tiny sandwich shop. Great fruit smoothies, lots of veggie sandwich options. Only about 3 tables.

Dinner: Hunan Home's (Chinatown). This is supposed to be one of the best in Chinatown, but I left disgusted. The dumplings were good, but the egg roll was full of oil and the spare ribs looked more like pig's knuckles than ribs. I left. (I even had to delete the photo of the spare ribs, they were so gross). Then I headed to...

2nd Dinner: Buster's (North Beach). Best Philly cheesesteak I've ever had outside of Philadelphia. For best results, get one with tomato sauce and whiz... and a beer. There's also something rewarding about a $10 dinner in the midst of all those expensive restaurants where people are paying $30 for pasta.

Breakfast: Pinecrest Diner (Union Square). This is a small, old fashioned diner. I sat at the counter and had eggs. They were OK. I don't recommend this place.

Lunch: On the Bridge (Japantown). Fantastic. This was a casual Japanese place with more options than I've seen since I was in Tokyo. I had an Unagi rice bowl (eel). If this place were in my town I'd be here all the time.

Drink: Buena Vista Coffee (Fisherman's Wharf). Yes it's touristy, but this drink is pretty great.

Dinner: Tadich Grill (Financial District). If you're a real fish or seafood lover, check this place out. I'm not, so it wasn't my thing. It has character though - you can sit at the counter and watch all the action.

Lunch: McCormick and Kuleto's (Fisherman's Wharf). Big, touristy, expensive chain restaurant in Ghiradelli square. Kind of like a fancy Houlihan's with more fish. Go there if you want to dine with the tourists.

Dinner: Caffe Macaroni (North Beach). Great little Italian place. Very local, very casual. Food was delicious. Don't believe the guide books - they DO take credit cards.

Dessert: Cafe Trieste (North Beach). This is a coffee shop to hang out in. Great coffee, a few cookies and cakes to choose from, and great people watching.

Organize itunes albums by date

2007-01-25T18:48:00.000-06:00

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I'm a bit OCD when it comes to organizing my itunes library. One of my recent organizational projects is to enter date information for all albums and songs.

There are a few benefits to this. If you have accurate years on everything, you can:

View albums in chronological order, both in itunes and on your ipod. This is especially helpful for artists that you have a lot of songs from.
Sort any list of songs by year.
Create smart playlists by year, decade, etc.

Here's how I do it.

I select all the songs within an album, go to Get Info, and enter the year of release as the Year tag. You'll find that many tracks have the year the CD was released, or re-released, not the year of the original release. When you see Elvis songs from 2004, you know something's wrong!

Here's the best part. For the Album tag, I put the year of release BEFORE the name of the album. Think about it - there's no point in listing albums alphabetically. I want to see them in chronological order so I can tell the early Elvis Costello from recent Costello! So his Spike album would have the following info as the Album tag: "1989 Spike".

The results are incredible. Here's what my Elvis Costello album list looks like:

If you want to make a playlist of songs from a certain year (or span of years), here's what it would look like.

Some tips to make this easier:

I only attempt this with artists I have a lot of. Someday I'll get around to all the onesies and twosies.

I found that a lot of my tracks were from greatest hits collections. There's a tough decision to make - keep the tracks under the "Greatest Hits" album title, or relabel the album tag for each song with the original album it was released on? I use both approaches. If I have just 2-3 albums from an artist, I like to know which ones are on the greatest hits release. But if it's an artist I try to collect all of, like the Beatles, I relabel each track with it's original album release name. EITHER WAY, put the correct year on every track, so it will come up in smart playlists.

Putting in the year info for all these songs is time consuming. Here's the most efficient way I've found to do it:

In itunes browse view, with the artist highlighted, I highlight the names of the albums and songs that need year information added.

Sort the song list by name, so it's A to Z.

In your web browser, go to allmusic.com and pull up the list of all songs by that artist.

Go to Get Info for the first song, find it on the allmusic list, and type in the album name. Don't worry about the year yet, and don't enter OK.

Click Next (or use the keyboard shortcut - Apple N on the Mac - to go to the next song. Flip back and forth between the browser and itunes (or line them up side by side on the screen) until all the album names are entered. Use "Unknown" or "Other" for any odd tracks. Using "next" saves time, so you don't have to keep going back to the list of songs and clicking on Get Info.

When this is done, pull up the artist's discography on allmusic.com, and find the years for each album. Back in itunes, highlight all the songs on an album, go to Get Info, and enter the year tag, and insert the year before the album name. While you're here, you might want to copy the album art from the AllMusic album page, and paste it into itunes on the appropriate spot in Get Info.

If you are doing a lot of these and you set up both windows on your screen side by side so you don't have to flip back and forth, you can do this pretty quickly.

That's it. I've been working on it sporadically for a year and I'm far from done, but it's gradually getting there. Good luck.

Comments and feedback appreciated.

Kevin Dern
www.kevindern.com

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Essential free software for the mac

2007-01-20T06:29:00.000-06:00

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Silverkeeper
Backup software. Easy to use, works flawlessly. You are backing up on a weekly basis, right? Free. link

SlimBattery Monitor
Useful little utility that reduces the size of the battery icon in the menu bar, and shows more information. Free. link

Quicksilver
Amazing interface for the mac that allows you to open programs and execute actions with a couple keystrokes. Hard to learn, amazing to use. Free. link

Graphic Converter
This is a powerful graphics program. Great for slideshows, photo editing, renaming, etc. Better than iphoto. It's no photoshop, but it's free. Free. link

Write Room
Eliminate all distractions and type on a black screen. Very sleek. Amazing program if you like to write. Free. link

Netflix Freak
If you're a Netflix fan, you'll love this. Edit your queue, browse movies and more within a clean, OS X interface. Free. link

Audacity
Audio editor. I use this mostly to extract songs from podcasts and save them as MP3 files. Free. link

Disc Inventory X
Allows you to view how you are using up your hard drive. Shows each file as a small box. Helps you to see how you're using up all those gigabytes. Easy to use and free. link

Mac the Ripper
This program will allow you to rip most DVDs to your hard drive. You'll need another program to burn your DVDs. I use Toast, which is not free, but works great. Mac the Ripper is free. link

VLC Media Player
Allows you to play FLV files that you download from YouTube or GoogleVideo, as well as lots of other video formats. Free. Link

Gawker
This is a useless but fun little program that takes photos from your built-in isight camera and makes them into a time lapse video. Free. link

Google Earth
No explanation necessary, right? If you haven't played with this yet, prepare to be blown away. Free. link

Gmail Notifier
If you use gmail, you'll love this. A little icon sits in the menu bar and tells you when you have mail. Free. link

Limewire
The only P2P program I'll use. No spam, no spyware. Free. link

Renamer4Mac
I love OS X, but renaming files is a pain. This program makes it easy to rename batch files. Free. link

Stuffit Expander
Essential utility to decompress sit and zip files. Free. link

YamiPod
This program allows you to easily access ipod files without itunes. This makes it easy to copy songs from your ipod to your mac (or from a friend's ipod!). Free. link

Firefox
In my opinion, Firefox is the best browser available. It's definitely better (and more customizable) than Safari. If you've never tried it, you owe it to yourself. Seriously. Free. link

Click here for a list of addictive Flash Games

iphone and widescreen ipod guesses

2007-01-10T20:57:00.001-06:00

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Over the last few years, we've seen lots of guesses, "leaked" photos, mockups and ideas about what the iphone and widescreen video ipod would look like. Turns out they were all wrong. Here's a look back at what people imagined.

Giant collection of photos here from our-picks.com

Lots of photos from the iphoneblog

Some iphone guesses on Gizmodo

More iphone guesses on Gizmodo (2005)

More iphone guesses on Gizmodo

More from Gizmodo

Gizmodo Spoofed

MacRumors page of iphone patents

iphone concept video (wrong)

More concepts (all wrong)

Another guess?

Another

Brilliant concept using apple remote

Widescreen video ipod guess
Another
Another
Another
Another

Lose Weight in 2007: 25 helpful links and reference tools

2007-01-02T08:32:00.000-06:00

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Diet Before and After Photos (Inspiring!)
One, Two, Three, Four, Five

How Many Calories am I Burning?
Calorie Calculator

BMI Chart

Diet and Fitness Tracking Sites
The Daily Plate
Fitday

3FatChicks.com
Great reference, but even better forums for dieters. Best place to chat about weight loss.

How Many Calories in this Food? (Calorie King)
Excellent reference.

The "Cost" of a Cookie (MSNBC)
To burn off the calories in one gingerbread cookie, you will have to swim 18 minutes. The martini and party mix will take 47 minutes on the bike.

Exercise = Weight Loss, Except When it Doesn't (NY Times)
On one hand, you may have heard that exercise is not very useful for knocking off extra pounds, though it helps to maintain weight. Or you may have heard that only weight-bearing exercise — like jogging or brisk walking — can help you lose those unwanted pounds, while activities like swimming and cycling are not helpful as far as weight goes. At other times you may have wondered why, after you took up activities that were supposed to burn 500 calories a day, you failed to lose that pound a week.

Exercise Demo Videos for Each Muscle Group

Weight Loss Blogs

Top 10 Tips to Lose Weight without Losing Your Mind
Water, Water, Water. We all know how important water is to our body. It helps flush your system and makes you feel full.

10 Things Your Gym Won't Tell You

Men Join the Migration to the Spa (NY Times)
"About half of our customers are now men," said Marika Olsen, a spokeswoman for the Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa in Aventura, Fla. The cost for a week ranges from about $3,000 to $5,000, depending on the room and the season. In the past, many men attended only when prodded by their wives. "Now we are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of men who are coming on their own," Ms. Olsen said.

How do you lose a large amount of weight and keep it off? (Ask Metafilter)

How to Eat Right (eHow)

I.Ate.A.Pie.Net
A Guy reviews diet foods.

50 Weight Loss Tips
Start reading labels. I know it sucks, but you have to do it - and there’s no way to avoid this tip. If you don’t know what you’re putting in your mouth, you’re flying blind.

11 Tips to Boost Your Metabolism

BMI Calculator

Glass Size can Affect How Much you Drink (Cornell Univ)
Beware of the shape of glass you use. It could contribute to you drinking much more than you think.

Amazon's Best Selling Books on Diet and Nutrition

How the Times Square ball is assembled for New Year's Eve

2007-01-01T01:34:00.000-06:00

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Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Create free ringtones from any MP3

2006-12-28T10:37:00.000-06:00

This is a great program (windows only)... converts any MP3 to a ringtone and sends it to your phone in a text message. Completely free, and works with most phones on the market.

It works great with my Sanyo Katana, but the volume is not loud enough. Any tips?

Here's the link to the software: http://www.tonethis.com/

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Compact Calendar

2006-12-26T10:30:00.000-06:00

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Lifehacker pointed me to David Seah's site this morning to check out his compact calendar for 2007. It's pretty great, and it prompted me to upload the compact calendar I've been using for about a year now.

It all fits on one page, designed for me to post at my desk with a snapshot of trips for the year (I work in the travel biz).

Feel free to try it yourself.
Kevin's 2007 Compact Calendar.xls

25 Really Addictive Flash Games

2006-12-18T19:25:00.000-06:00

UPDATED! See below...

Kill the Popup Ads
Can you close the popup windows fast enough? Fast paced.

The Idiot Test
Seems simple enough, but how far can you go? Are you a dummy or an idiot?

Double Wires
Swing like Spiderman. Addictive!

Line Rider
One of the most addictive recent games. Draw a line for your biker to ride on.

Draw Play
Draw a line for the mummy to walk on. Really cool.

Ping Pong (Solo)
How many times can you bounce the ball on the paddle. Completely addictive game.

Sand
If you haven't seen this game, you're missing out. Brilliant and, yes, addictive.

Nudist Trampolining
Fun for a few minutes.

Deviant Art
Not a game, but a fun drawing experimental thing.

Fastr
A flickr game where you have to guess the tag

Bugs
Blow bubbles and kill the bugs. Really beautiful.

Windy Days
Another beautiful Orisinal game. In this one you fly a kite. Great.

Binball Wizard
Toss the paper in the trash can. The ultimate office game!

Iceblocks
Punch the ice blocks to get through. Really addictive!

Blueprint
Puzzle game - move the parts around to make the ball go to the goal.

80's Games
Pac Man, Simon, etc.

Mouse Maze
Move the mouse through the maze without touching the sides. Good music.

Second
Hold your mouse button down for a specified amount of time. Very difficult.

Penguin
Cute penguin holiday game. Addictive.

Gravity
Keep your orb from crashing into the planets. Very addictive.

Asian Breakout
Adorable little breakout game with an Asian alien. Annoying sound effects though!

Stackopolis
Build a city block. Also addictive!

Hitchhikers
Deceptively simple game. Fun.

Paper in Trash
Another game where you toss the paper in the trash can.

More flash game suggestions from Diggers:

Bumperball

Dice Wars

Short Circuit

Matrix Rampage

Tower Defense

Tomato Domino

From Kevin Dern
www.kevindern.com

test

2006-11-30T08:35:00.000-06:00

New Post Test

28 Weird Al Yankovic Parodies (1983-2006)

2006-11-29T18:14:00.000-06:00

please digg me!

Click on links for videos on YouTube.

1983: Weird Al Yankovic
VIDEO: I Love Rocky Road
VIDEO: Hey Ricky
VIDEO: My Bologna
VIDEO: Another One Rides the Bus

Weird Al on iTunes

1984: In 3D
VIDEO: Eat It
VIDEO: I Lost on Jeopardy

1985: Dare to be Stupid
VIDEO: Like a Surgeon
VIDEO: Yoda

1986: Polka Party
VIDEO: Living with a Hernia

1988: Even Worse
VIDEO: Fat

1989: UHF
VIDEO: Beverly Hillbillies
VIDEO: Spam

1992: Off the Deep End
VIDEO: Smells Like Nirvana

1993: Alapalooza
VIDEO: Jurassic Park
VIDEO: Bedrock Anthem
VIDEO: Livin' in the Fridge

1996: Bad Hair Day
VIDEO: Amish Paradise
VIDEO: Gump
VIDEO: A Complicated Song

1999: Running with Scissors
VIDEO: Polka Power (top 40 medley)
VIDEO: The Saga Begins
VIDEO: It's All About the Pentiums

2003: Poodle Hat
VIDEO: ebay
VIDEO: Bob
VIDEO: Couch Potato

2005: VIDEO: You're Pitiful

2006: Straight Outta Lynwood
VIDEO: White and Nerdy
VIDEO: I'll Sue Ya

25 Amazing Live Classic Rock Performances

2006-11-26T16:18:00.000-06:00

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John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards (together)

Dylan at the Concert for Bangladesh

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits on iTunes

Beatles - Nowhere Man

Billy Preston - Nothing from Nothing

The Best of Billy Preston on iTunes

Grateful Dead - Ramble On Rose

Grateful Dead Europe 72 on iTunes

Grateful Dead - 60's - St. Stephen

Stones - Paint It Black

Rolling Stones Greatest Hits on iTunes

Elvis Costello - So Like Candy

Elvis Costello - Radio Radio (SNL)

Elvis Costello on iTunes

Beach Boys - I Get Around

The Beach Boys Pet Sounds on iTunes

The Who - Baba O'Riley

The Who's TOMMY on iTunes

The Doors - Touch Me

Best of the Doors on iTunes

Elvis Presley - Blue Suede Shoes

Elvis 30 Hits on iTunes

Elvis - Love Me

Springsteen - Thunder Road

Springsteen's Greatest Hits on iTunes

The Band - Up On Cripple Creek

The Band's Greatest Hits on iTunes

The Animals - House of the Rising Sun

The Animals' Greatest Hits on iTunes

Allman Brothers - Ramblin' Man

The best of the Allman Brothers on iTunes

Lynyrd Skynrd - Freebird

Lynryd Skynryd's Greatest Hits on iTunes

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama

Neil Young - Old Man

Buy Neil Young's Greatest Hits (Amazon)

Neil Young - Needle and the Damage Done

Neil Young's Greatest Hits on iTunes

Crosby Stills, Nash & Young - You Don't Have to Cry

Crosby, Stills and Nash's Greatest Hits on iTunes

Chicago - I'm a Man

Chicago's Greatest Hits on iTunes

Badfinger - No Matter What

Badfinger's Greatest Hits on iTunes

Bob Marley - Jammin'

Bob Marley's Greatest Hits on iTunes

Selections by Kevin Dern

70's Children Television Clips (with great music!)

2006-11-24T08:52:00.000-06:00

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Sesame Street 12 Counting

Sesame Street - The Alligator King

The Electric Company Opening

Great Space Coaster Intro

Sesame Street Phone Martians

Muppet Show - Mahna Mahna

Schoolhouse Rock - Conjunction Junction

Sesame Street: I Get Mad

Schoolhouse Rock - I'm Just a Bill

Electric Company: The tion Song

Sesame Street - Subway

Schoolhouse Rock - Pronouns

Sesame Street - Telephone

Cookie Monster Shaft Parody

Sesame Street Letter B (Parody of Let It Be)

Schoolhouse Rock - Interplanet Janet

Sesame Street - Sammy The Snake

Schoolhouse Rock - Sufferin til Sufferage

You Can't Do That On Television

Brady Bunch Theme

Brady Bunch - Sunshine Day

Brady Bunch - Keep On

Embarassing Moments on TV News

2006-11-22T20:56:00.000-06:00

(Scroll down for many more)

Weatherman is terrified.

Click here for 25 AMAZING Classic Rock Videos

Reporter falls squishing grapes and hurts herself.

Commercial radio sucks.
Click here for my list of 50 BETTER albums.

Weatherman curses on the air - oops.

Is he gay or blind? This is a funny blooper.

What did he say about J Lo?? Another blooper on the news.

Snake attacks reporter - embarrassing.

Funny Bush Videos Here (Click)

Reporter Falls Down - another blooper on the news.

Reporter meets the snow - TV blooper.

Great classic rock videos - rare

Can't say Spongebob Squarepants - oops

Oops - TV news blooper.

Weatherman gets mad - embarrassing moment on the news.

Blooper reel from tv news.

She's not a stripper - embarrassing

Tooth falls out - blooper on the news.

Click here for LOTS of funny George Bush videos

Unenthusiastic reporter on the news

What? - blooper on the news.

What? - blooper on the news

From Kevin Dern
www.kevindern.com

First Cat Stevens pop album in 28 years!

2006-11-20T17:58:00.000-06:00

Cat Stevens has released a new album... called An Other Cup. It's great - very much like the old Cat Stevens.

Links:
- Cat Stevens Home Page
- Listen to the CD here
- An Other Cup on Amazon
- News story on Reuters
- Download on AllofMP3!

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Reporter makes YouTube debut

2006-11-20T15:53:00.000-06:00

This reporter bodychecked an OSU fan right out of camera view... pretty funny.

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Why Bush Invaded Iraq

2006-11-20T11:54:00.000-06:00

(Click image to see it larger)

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Hysterical Bush videos here.

Collection of 20 Funny Bush Moments

2006-11-19T21:03:00.000-06:00

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Scroll down for many more!

Letterman: Fakin' It

Bush was a little brighter 10 years ago

Bush does a little dance

Bush meets a locked door

Bush gives the middle finger

"Rumors on the internets"

Bush puts kid to sleep

Collection of Bushisms

Don't Get Fooled Again

Letterman: Bush cleans glasses

Letterman: Top 10 Bush Moments

Letterman: Joke that's not really a joke

Letterman: Lesson about February

Letterman: What?

Letterman: Slipup on Iraq

Letterman: Inexplicable Laugh

Letterman: Slick Finger Point

Letterman: Economic Expert

Commercial radio sucks: 50 better albums to get you started

2006-11-19T07:23:00.000-06:00

Call me a snob, but it's hard to believe anyone is still listening to commercial radio. There's so much great music out there today, and the internet makes it so easy to explore and find.

I assume most people reading blogs like this one have already broken away from commercial radio to discover what they really like. But I'm sure you know someone who listens to the radio every day! PLEASE send them this list so that they can begin to explore some of the wonderful music out there. There is more to modern music than Justin Timberlake and Coldplay!

Please add your suggestions in the comments.

Here we go... 50 albums to get you started. If you made a mix of the best of these, you'd never go back to commercial radio again.

In alphabetical order by artist. Click on links to preview in itunes.

1. Beck: Sea Change
2. Beck: The Information
3. Belle & Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
4. Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit
5. Ben Folds: Rockin’ the Suburbs
6. Blur: Parklife
7. Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
8. Cake: Pressure Chief
9. Cake: Prolonging the Magic
10. David Byrne: Look Into the Eyeball
11. Death Cab for Cutie: Plans
12. Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
13. Decemberists: Castaways and Cut-Outs
14. Dido: No Angel
15. Eels: Blinking Lights
16. Elliott Smith: Either/Or
17. Elvis Costello: When I Was Cruel
18. Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
19. Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Robots
20. Fugees: The Score
21. John Linnell: State Songs
22. Johnny Cash: Unearthed
23. Kaiser Chiefs: Employment
24. Los Lobos: Kiko
25. M.I.A.: Arular
26. Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs
27. Morrissey: You Are the Quarry
28. Mountain Goats: Get Lonely
29. Mountain Goats: Sunset Tree
30. Mountain Goats: Tallahassee
31. Natalie Merchant: Tigerlily
32. Nellie McKay: Get Away From Me
33. Postal Service: Give Up
34. Radiohead: OK Computer
35. Ron Sexsmith: Other Songs
36. Scissor Sisters: Scissor Sisters
37. Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
38. Shins: Oh Inverted World
39. Sly & The Family Stone: The Essential
40. Stephen Stills: Manassas
41. Sufjan Stevens: Illinoise
42. Sufjan Stevens: The Avalanche
43. The Band: Stage Fright
44. The Streets: A Grand Don’t Come for Free
45. They Might Be Giants: Factory Showroom
46. They Might Be Giants: The Spine
47. Tom Petty: Highway Companion
48. White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan
49. Wilco: A Ghost is Born
50. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

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Cheap Eats in St. Louis - Top 20 Places to Chow Down

2006-11-15T07:37:00.000-06:00

There are some great cheap eats in St. Louis... here we go (in no particular order):

1. Pita Plus (Chesterfield) - Great homemade pita, falafel and gyros. Trust me, it's worth the drive out to the 'burbs for this!

2. Olivette Diner (Olivette) - Classic old time diner. Perfect for breakfast. Cash only.

3. Natasha's Kabob House (South Grand) - Classy and cheap middle eastern food.

4. I Love Mr. Sushi (Olivette) - Tiny place with fresh, affordable sushi.

5. Al Tarboush (The Loop) - Middle eastern: gyros, baklavah, falafel.

6. Raccinelli's (Several Locations) - Best pizza in St. Louis... no argument.

7. Carl's Burgers (Manchester) - TINY burger place (16 seats). They make them thin and flat here. Homemade root beer, too.

8. City Diner (South Grand) - Neato old fashioned diner, except this one has a bar. See which waitress has the most tattoos.

9. Courtesy Diner (Hampton) - Another greasy spoon, but pretty good food. Off of 40 and Hampton.

10. St. Louis Bread Co. (Everywhere) - I know it's a chain, but it's good, cheap and healthy.

11. Whole Foods Market (Brentwood) - Perfect place to stop for a salad and a little tuna.

12. The King and I (South Grand) - Excellent Thai food, nice atmosphere, not expensive.

13. Buffalo Wild Wings (Chesterfield) - Best wings ever... about 20 sauces to choose from.

14. Big V's Burgers (The Loop) - It ain't healthy, but it's a great greasy burger and fries!

15. Fast Eddie's Bon Aire (Illinois) - Granted, it's a drive. But the food and beer are CHEAP!

16. Kaldi's (De Mun) - Best coffeehouse in St. Louis, and the vegetarian food is pretty good. Try the hummus!

17. Kayak's (U City) - Second best coffeehouse in St. Louis, and the food is pretty good here too. Try the make-your-own smores!

18. Blueberry Hill (The Loop) - This is on everyone's list for a reason: it's fabulous. Great red beans and rice, burgers, fries, toasted ravioli, etc. Try everything.

19. House of India (U City) - Best Indian lunch buffet, 7 days a week for under $10.

20. Shu Feng (Olivette) - Best Chinese in St. Louis. If you've been getting Chinese from anywhere but here, you're in for a treat! Try the crispy fried eggplant.

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Top 10 Albums of 2006

2006-11-14T21:29:00.000-06:00

It's possible that something great could come out in the next month or two, but chances are, the best of 2006 is behind us. Here's the best of the best so far:

1. Beck - The Information
Fascinating, entrancing and addicting. Beck has created a sound here that is a mix of South American rhythms, blues, techno, rock and grunge. The more you listen the more you are drawn in. Check out "Nausea".

2. Tom Petty - Highway Companion
No one writes songs like these anymore. This CD goes back to the basics - great rock songs that you can sing to. You and your mom will love it. Check out "Big Weekend".

3. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
I can't help it - this is a GREAT album. Even aside from Crazy, most of the rest of this album is pretty brilliant. Check out "The Boogie Monster".

4. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Wonderful... one great song after another. This is Belle & Sebastian's most accessible album, and their best. Check out "Funny Little Frog".

5. Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics
The Flaming Lips do it again. I can't say every song is incredible, but the ones that are good are fantastic. Check out "Free Radicals".

6. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras from the Illinois Album
I don't know what to call this... new age, rock, folk, world music, classical? It doesn't matter - it's really beautiful AND it rocks. Illinois is better, but this is great too. Check out "The Mistress Witch from McClure".

7. Decemberists - The Crane Wife
I love the Decemberists - such passion, great songwriting and interesting orchestration. I can't figure out what makes them sound Irish to me. Listen a few times and you'll be hooked too. Check out "Sons and Daughters".

8. Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
John Darnielle is one of the most prolific songwriters of our time. This album is pretty mellow and takes time to get into, but it's really quite beautiful. Check out "Wild Sage".

9. Scissor Sisters - Ta Dah!
This is definitely a guilty pleasure. If you don't know the Scissor Sisters, they sound like a combination between Elton John, the Bee Gees and Abba. Even the slow songs are fun. Check out "The Other Side".

10. Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Anyone who likes folk music has got to love this one. True, the arrangements are pretty far from authentic, but Bruce's spirit, energy and love for this music draws you in. Check out "Erie Canal".

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10 Essential Apps for Creative Mac Users (and most are free!)

2006-11-14T19:27:00.002-06:00

1. Firefox – this one’s a no-brainer. If you’re still using Internet Explorer, you REALLY need to check out Firefox. I recommend the following extensions to get started: Adblock, Cookie Culler, Sage, Scrapbook, Customize Google, Flashgot, Foxmarks and Tiny URL (does not work with Firefox 2.0 yet). Free.

And if you use del.icio.us (you really should), check out del.icio.us and Foxylicious. Free.

2. Graphic Converter – This is the best free photo utility software I’ve ever used. Convert, import, rename, resize, rotate, etc. The startup screen asking for money is a pain, and I’ll probably pay for it eventually to get rid of it. If you’re a photographer you’ll use it daily. Free.

Note: Importing photos with Graphic Converter is the ONLY way I’ve found to retain the date and time information on the photo. If you import in the finder or via iphoto, you can lose this information.

3. Audacity – This is a very useful program for editing any type of audio file. I use it frequently to rip songs from podcasts. It’s also useful to change the tempo of a song without changing the pitch, which is great for putting together the perfect running mix! Free.

4. Mac the Ripper and Toast – Use Mac the Ripper to rip any DVD to your hard drive, even if it has copy protection on it. Then use Toast to compress and burn the movie to a DVD. Toast is not free but you might be able to find it on Limewire (of course I don't encourage that.... of course not). Mac the Ripper is Free.

5. FLV Viewer and Flip4Mac – Between these two apps, plus Quicktime, you should be able to watch almost anything. FLV Viewer allows you to watch downloaded YouTube or Google Video movies, and Flip Mac allows you to watch WMV movies in Quicktime. Amazing and Free.

6. Quicksilver – This will really change how you use your computer forever. I was resistant until I tried it. It’s amazing… allows you to launch or open anything with just a few keystrokes, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s an introduction and here’s a great video demo. Free (but worth $50).

7. Photoshop – OK, this one is not even cheap, let alone free. But it’s essential. It’s easy enough to find for free (not that I encourage you to do so). There’s no other program that gives you the power that this does. If you are an amateur photographer, you need this program. Not free.

8. iScrobbler and Yamipod – For all you music fans out there… I hope you’re using LastFM? It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. You install iscrobbler (I prefer the old-school plugin version, not the LastFM program) and the Last FM site keeps track of every song you play. This allows you to track your listening habits and find new music similar to the music you actually listen to. Here’s my LastFM page, for example. Yamipod allows you to sync music played on your ipod too (plus lots of other uses). Free.

9. Flickr Uploader – If you’re into photography, you’ve got to check out Flickr. Here’s my photostream, for example, currently at about 3,600 photos, viewed over 26,000 times. Use the Flickr uploader to easily upload copies of ALL your photos. Free.

10. Disk Inventory X – If you’ve got lots of movies, photos, music, etc., you are probably running out of disc space as fast as I am. This program allows you to see what you’ve got and what’s eating up all your hard drive space. Great way to discover those 2 GB files you forgot about. Free.

That's it for now... more to come.

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