I don't care if you don't watch this video

The song, however, you must listen to.


Download the mp3 here.

Most Irritating Song

James Blunt's You're Beautiful was voted most irritating song of all time. Finally. It's a shame that song raked in as much money as it did. Only the brain dead American public could appreciate being told they're beautiful that many times.

Scrobbling

I recently joined last.fm and it is my latest internet addiction. Now you can see what I'm listening to at all times. How cool is that? There's a little chart in my sidebar here, or you can go to last.fm to see my profile with plenty of (embarrassing?) details about the music I listen to.

Creeps Me Out / Year Zero

Jeez, I have no idea how I missed this one. Ima Robot is a great band out of LA. I think they sound a little like the Buzzcocks's early stuff. Anyway, they came out with an album last year which I somehow didn't hear about. I haven't downloaded the full album yet, but the lead single Creeps Me Out is really fun. Feel free to sample / purchase here.

Also, if you haven't heard Nine Inch Nails' new single on their forthcoming album, do so. Very different from their previous stuff. Very good. I do suggest, however, that you be careful how you get it, because apparently the RIAA has a problem with viral marketing campaigns they sign off on. If you'd like to legally purchase Survivalism, do so here.

EDIT:
Hah! What a coincidence. Boing Boing just posted Reznor's response to the RIAA's ridiculousness. Read Year Zero's other satirical warnings here.

Life In Cartoon Motion

Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion

You absolutely must listen to this album before you die. It's easily one of the best albums I've ever heard. I should probably warn you that it's by British pop artist Mika. Don't let that turn you off to it though. This isn't at all the pop music we've gotten used to in the States. This is what pop music should be. Stylistically, it's kind of a mix of the Beatles' poppier songs, Queen, The Scissor Sisters, and well, Mika who certainly deserves some credit for his own brand of subtly sophisticated pop music. (He claims to be influenced also by Beck, Rufus and Elton. That last one's dead on.)

Seriously though, if you're ever in a bad mood, pop in this CD. After the first track (Grace Kelly - youtube) you will feel like you've just taken a hit of purest ecstasy. Each song is magnificent, which I've found is quite a rare. (Maybe it's just me but even for artists I really like, there's usually a few kick-ass songs, and the rest are mediochre at best.) Please. Do yourself a favor. Buy this album.

The Day the Music Died

Anyone reading this should be familiar with my feelings for the recording industry. (Anyone who doesn't feel similarly is wrong.) Anyway, I was delighted to see Ars Technica posted a study into the effects of P2P on music sales. Their findings effectively refute everything the RIAA has claimed about the insidious internet pirates.

"Using detailed records of transfers of digital music files, we find that file sharing has had no statistically significant effect on purchases of the average album in our sample," the study reports. "Even our most negative point estimate implies that a one-standard-deviation increase in file sharing reduces an album's weekly sales by a mere 368 copies, an effect that is too small to be statistically distinguishable from zero."

The report claims that the decrease in album sales is caused by a decrease in demand on the part of retailers who don't want a surplus of CDs sitting on their shelves any more. People are also buying more DVDs. (Suck on that, move industry.) The most interesting fact from the study, however, is that for popular music, increased P2P downloads also increased album sales.

Speaking of music downloads, a super hot new blog seems to have shown up on these intertubes. Check it out here. Many fun things to be seen, and of course, free music.

Totally Psyched

Okay so I just kicked my psych exam's ass to the ground and beat it senseless. I'm super-excited about that. I've been doing rather well in that class. Especially considering I literally have not read any of the required texts. For whatever reason my professor really likes me.

So anyway, a little more catch-up time, as I mentioned, I am currently employed by Apple. Incidentally I am also anxiously waiting to find out whether I'll be allowed to stay at school so I can continue to work into the winter break as I promised my managers I could. I have yet to successfully contact the person who approves the extended stay and considering wer'e supposed to be kicked out tomorrow, I'm more than a little concerned about what's going to happen.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a good day. It's certainly going to get off to a good start with a nice 9AM BS (biblical studies) exam. I've cared about each exam I've taken less and less and this class I care about least of any class I've ever taken. My roommate was arguing last week that at least BS has a nice story to it. I told him he hadn't read the whole story. I'd take another round of loftily worded philosophy over another semester of this any day, but sadly, I've gotta fulfill my core requirements. After I lather on enough BS, I'll be knocking down the door of the bastard who's going to approve my squatting in my dorm room over winter break. Then it's off to buy new jeans and anything else I feel like spending money on. (Maybe I'll even pick up a few things for someone other than myself. Meh.) And finally, yesterday one of my coworkers informed me that he was filming a fight scene for something and for some unfathomable reason he wants me to be in it. (Perhaps I should be concerned that my reputation beyond mere resemblance of Edward Norton proceeds me.) Don't know what to expect from that. All I can do is wait for him to call.

Speaking of which, I just got a fancy new phone that I love.

It's basically the most gorgeous thing ever. Especially next to the bottom-of-the-line free phones I've had until now. A wonderful improvement.

I think I'll leave you now with the latest video I've uploaded on my iPod. It's the spectacular music video for the Scissor Sisters' latest single. While the song itself isn't the Bond-themiest they could have chosen, the video is nonetheless stunning. So now, I present for your viewing pleasure (in ScissorVision!) Land of a Thousand Words.

A Glorious Return

I've been avoiding blogging for a while since I got my fancy new job working for Mr. Jobs. (They don't like bloggers at apple. Meh.) Anyway, I won't be discussing apple stuff any more, but that's cool with everyone, right? Right. Okay! So, blogger also now lets me restrict who can read my blog and I do like the ability to control my readership a little bit so I think I'm bringing back the Bernal Jernal one more time.

Right now I'm waiting for my psych exam to start. Little less than 2 hours. I have another one tomorrow. My exam schedule is awful. Everyone left yesterday, but I was planning on being on my own for a while. I'm staying on campus until xmas eve. I told my managers I'd work through xmas so I'll be chilling in boston for a while. The weather sucks right now, but I'm thinking a healthy dose of retail therapy tomorrow will fix that. (I love being able to afford stuff.)

In other news, you must download and listen to this album. You will not regret it. I'll post more interesting things later tonight. I just wanted to get the BJ juices flowing again. Until then, I've studying to do. Wish me luck. I doubt I'll need it.

I'm In Love

Goldfrapp – Strict Machine – We Are Glitter Mix

The Knife - We Share Our Mothers' Health

Okay, this one's only good for a week. The iTunes Music Store has a great discovery download from Swedish electro pop artist The Knife. Not at all what I'd call mainstream, but worth a try if you'd like something different. The bitrate's an awful 128kbps, but I"m sure you'll survive.


The Knife - We Share Our Mothers' Health

Also, new this week, loads of Warner Bros. content including Hannah Barbera cartoon classics and the failed Aquaman pilot.

The only real reason anyone was interested in watching:


Also, as it turns out, the show didn't even get the chance to fail. The trailer leaked to the internet, but after UPN and WB merged, they decided to scrap it. This is probably their attempt to see if there's any money in it.