Here is the latest and greatest version of LastFMProxy so far. The previous version had more than a few quirks, and hopefully these have now been taken care of. Changes are mostly related to charset issues, but new features include “audioscrobbling” (submission of tracks to your Last.FM profile) and much faster metadata updates; they should be about “live” now. Download links, changelog and readme here. Happy listening.

Wow, I really suck at this blogging business, don’t I?

Anyway, here is today’s random selection of brain lint.

On new year’s eve I proposed to Linda, and the crazy wench accepted! We’re doomed! Aaah!! (I’m joking, dear. Ow. Stop. OW!)

Red wine and my recently acquired movie quiz book go together like … two things that go together really well. Especially the red wine. That goes together exceptionally well. (Certainly better than the beer I had last weekend, when we celebrated Michael’s (a friend of ours) 30th birthday, which brought me a insaneously hidderous headache, despite only consuming a few of them.) The quiz book was a great bargain, too. It cost me NOK 10.00 (approx EUR 1.25), and it contains 1800 questions (most of them pretty hard), and hopefully the same number of answers. We’re working on finding out.

In more technical news, I’m hoping to have fibre (FTTH) pulled through my wall soon - as in a few weeks. After moving to Karmøy, my ADSL has acted up quite a bit, dropping the connection every Nth minute, but only staying offline for 30 seconds or so. Enough to be annoying, nonetheless.

Music! I have discovered Dark Lunacy, a great melodic death metal band from Italy. Great stuff. Also, only a few more weeks until the Karmøygeddon Metal Festival kicks off, under which I plan to see Kamelot, Scar Symmetry and Communic. (May 5th on Byscenen, for those who may be interested.)

And I need more disk space.

Haugesund isn’t a particularly large city, and hence is often deprived of many of the benefits of big city life. The lack of good concerts has long been a pet irk of mine. But things have apparently changed! Earlier this week, Bryan Adams came to town - and while he’s not anywhere near my cup of tea, nobody can argue that he’s not a big name. Yesterday, however, glam-, hair- and horror metal veterans W.A.S.P. dropped by, which is right up my alley!

And boy, do they still know their stuff! (I use the term “they” loosely, since the main song-writer and vocalist, Blackie Lawless, is the only one remaining of the original line-up, but the rest of the band did a great job as well.) What really sold the gig for me was the play list. Almost nothing but golden oldies, from the early 90s and back to the very beginning, which is exactly when I discovered the band. Except for one track, which was brand new, it was like a live “best of” compilation. Perfect!

The band also put the scaremongering pietists to shame and delivered nothing but a rock solid concert, almost devoid of special effects. I say almost, because the microphone stand was a sight to behold! (The local newspaper claimed that seeing the stand was worth the entry fee alone.) The band’s show in the earlier days included liberal amounts of skulls and fake blood, but that was how you provoked back then. An image like that would be nothing but cheesy these days, I suppose. (On a related note, I wish the black metal bands would lose the ridiculous corpse paint. Yes, yes, I know they’re supposed to look “dead” and all, but we all know they really aren’t!)

Conclusion: Top score from me. Minus one small point for not playing a longer set. 70 minutes (or so) was a bit too short for my tastes. Oh well.

PS! One things that certainly should not go unmentioned is their support band for the Norwegian gigs, Triosphere. Thunderous and powerful heavy metal, just the way your deity of choice intended it to be. (I guess this is a good time to admit that I tend to be a sucker for metal bands fronted by women. But only the good ones! (Good bands, that is. Ahum.)) Anyway, their debut album is out in October. Do check it out. I know I will!

So, I guess I have some catching up to do…

Marte is growing. No surprise there, really, but it happens much faster than you would think when you’re smack in the middle of her doing so. She can smile (occasionally), lift her head, kick (to the extent of *almost* pushing herself forward when lying on her tummy), and today she rolled over from her back to her tummy all by herself. You know, all those strange little things that make parents go wonky.

In other domestic news, we’re moving in just under 3 weeks. I can’t say I look forward to that ordeal, but I do look forward to having done it and getting settled in the new house.

Also, I have discovered some new music. Summoning, an austrian epic black(ish) Tolkien-metal duo, is well worth a listen! I haven’t dug too deeply into their older stuff, but their two latest albums, Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame, and their brand new Oath Bound are terrific. Another great one is Amorphis‘ latest album, Eclipse.

And I would like to extend my gratitute to Albie for reminding me about Top Secret! I haven’t seen that since I was the size of a (largish) cabbage, and I had almost forgotten all about it, until now. Definitely on my to-see-again list.

Oh, I almost forgot; Comment and trackback spammers should be stabbed in the face. As should the pricks who hire them to market their useless crap. (If it wasn’t useless they wouldn’t have to resort to spamming to sell it, would they…) In the end it’s the customers’ fault, though. If nobody bought anything as a result of unsolicited junk mail, they wouldn’t bother sending it out…

OK, I think that will do for now…

I’ve been (re)discovering a lot of old and new music lately. On the
new side, Slumber is one of the bands that definitely deserve some attention. If you’re into melodic-symphonic death metal with a sprinkle of doominess, do yourself a favour and pick up their debut album Fallout.

And since I have an acute urge to flaunt my musical taste, I’ve made a few more themes for my phone. I have gathered them up for perusal in their own page.

Draconian is an awesome death/doom metal band from Sweden, well worth checking out if you’re into that kind of music; dark, atmospheric, melancholic doom/gothic metal.

Being the big fan that I am, I have made a Draconian theme for my phone, a Sony Ericsson K700i. (I believe it will work for some other SE models, as well.) Go here to
give it a look.

Holy smokety poo!
Swallow the Sun, the most smashalicious death-doom metal act to hit the surface of the planet in long time has a new album coming up; Ghosts of Loss, scheduled for release August 24th (in Finland - the rest of us will have to wait until October. Drat.)

Anyway, should you happen to be into this particular branch of music, their debut album, The Morning Never Came, is the safest procurement you can make.