I’ve been listening to it for the past week now.  It’s mostly good…I’ve heard a lot of old groups that I loved that I haven’t heard in a long time.  Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins, Our Lady Peace, Live, and songs from groups that I’d never heard before, or completely forgotten.  One slight annoyance is that there does seem to be a lot of repetition.  I got the same thing when I listened to a streaming radio station all day; after a couple of days the playlists would start to repeat and I’d get bored with it.  The new Edge has a lot of variety, but there have been times where I’ll hear something on the way to work, and then hear the same one on the way home that night.

Either way, it’ll have to suffice until I manage to replace the stereo in my car, right?

Now?  Partial cast episodes.  I realize the cast is expensive.  But tough, it’s the last season, cough up the dough and write real episodes.  Lately, they’ve been too emotional and touchy-feely.  This is the crap that made Season 6 awful at times.  And then the Interns.  I’m aware of the rumored plans for an “interns” spinoff, or even worse – keeping the series name with a completely new cast.  Ack!  Don’t get me wrong – I actually *like* the interns.  “Joe” is hilarious, and I’m bummed they got rid of the “zwa” guy.  But they can’t carry the show, especially if half the regular cast is gone.

At this point, they might as well have had the series finale after episode 4, and started off the new series then.  Psssh.

This has been bouncing around the hopper for awhile, but thought it somewhat appropriate given today’s MacWorld announcement that iTunes Music Store would finally be dropping it’s Digital Rights Management on music.

For the past few months I have been getting my online music from Amazon.  Their MP3 store offers most everything I’ve looked for – and the stuff I couldn’t find was pretty obscure.

At Amazon, I don’t have to download and install software to see what they have to offer.  Everything is web based.  I can’t install iTunes on Ubuntu, and don’t want to install it on Windows.  Why should I have to install software to see if they’ve got that one song I’m trying to find?

At Amazon, each track is $.99 or less; many I’ve purchased have been 89 cents.  I’ve always received a high quality MP3 file that I can copy or burn or convert to anywhere or anything I want.

But I think the coolest thing is the used CD selection also available through Amazon sellers.  The MP3 store may offer an entire album for somewhere between 8 and 10 bucks.  But if I’m looking for a used CD, I can get the actual CD shipped for less than $3, and so far they’ve been great quality.  It’ll arrive in a few days, and I can rip it to whatever I want.  This has been great for collecting music that isn’t brand new.

In addition, the Amazon MP3 downloader says it will automatically add new tracks to iTunes for you.  So Apple’s finally eventually going to offer music files you can copy and do with what you want, and let you pay extra to convert your existing ones?  Yay?  Why bother?

I only have two requests.  Well, three.  First, keep adding more!  Then….

Give me a 10ft workable-from-the-TV interface.  I want this in MythTV or Windows Media Center or something.  Hmmmm….I wonder if it would work from the Wii web browser.

Finally, mash this up with my MP3 collection database.  I want to see corresponding music videos for the artists and songs in my music collection!  Happy browsing!

I’d contact their support, but apparently there’s no more email support , either.  What?!?  There’s a phone support option…but I don’t want to talk to someone on the phone.  First, it’s late.  Second, it’s not a big enough deal to deal with talking to someone right now.  But an email could be written tonight, answered sometime in the next day, and I’d have an answer at my leisure.  Gahhhh!

On a similar note, the 90s really are coming back, aren’t they?  Smashing Pumpkins had a new album, now Weezer and The Offspring are back, too.  Do the last 3 or 4 decades just perpetually repeat?

• The Office – wow, this is what it’s all about.  When it’s running on all cylinders, The Office is the best show on television, hands down.  There must be a law that if there is a Jim-Dwight prank involved, an episode will be great.  So many things happened in here, I think it ranks with the top episodes of the previous seasons.  A great finale, and I’m gonna go download some N3Ps from Amazon now…
• Scrubs - more on this below, but at face value I thought this final sucked.  After looking more into it, I understand what’s going on better, and it’s disappointing about the whole mess that has happened to this show.  Here’s hoping that they regroup and get things straightened out for next year….otherwise, at least we have reruns on Comedy Central.
• CSI - wow, what an ending!  Even though almost every other crime drama on TV this year ended with a main character dying or getting shot or something, CSI still brought it strong.  Thoroughly enjoyed it!
• Criminal Minds – we started watching this lately, and it’s actually pretty good.  The final episode had a great premise, and ended with a bang.  Will definitely be looking forward to next season, and we’ll have to check out the earlier seasons on Netflix.

Now, for the stuff about Scrubs.  I came across this mammoth interview of Bill Lawrence on TV Squad, and it is packed with things about this season, about next season, about the season-after-next (?!), about the final episode, about NBC vs ABC, about everything.  It’s long, but if you’re a fan take the time to read it all.  Essentially, thanks to NBC for screwing everything up, and the writers strike for being the catalyst.  Good job!