So I told you about Quicksilver a couple of posts before this one. I love messing around with my Mac and getting it set up just right. Here is a another.
I am trying out a new one today called Total Finder. From the developer-
I have been derelict in my attention to my lovely blog. For months I slaved away at creating a fresh and different design every single day and then I got some full time work and it all went to hell.
Can’t say if I will ever get back to that daily grind, but here is a picture of my friend that ‘angs out on my desk.
Ok, I may not end up with a design every day. I won’t be far off though. I have been working on a couple of projects that have taken me away from the original plan, but that’s a good thing. I am helping a friend promote a church function and am continuing to produce material for the softball league that I play in. I will feature those projects soon, but today it’s a post about a couple of mac software apps that I can’t live without.
Number One on the must have list is called Quicksilver. The website says this about it;
“A unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data.”
So what does that mean to the average user? Well, I never have to open the finder window to find a file, application, web address that I have visited. I just hit my key command (I use Option + z) and up pops the window and start typing. Open Mail? Option + z and type M, Quicksilver remembers how you work and will start to default to the most used application/folder/file that starts with M! Wow, I cant live without Quicksilver! Download it here.
I set myself up for a Herculean task. Post a new deign every day. So far, that comes to 77 designs or “projects”.
Some are good, some are stuff I pulled from the archive and three or four have really been good (opinions are of course mine).
So this is a shot of all the designs completed thus far in 2010. Whew! Looks fairly impressive, and again that is just my opinion.
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.
In his teens, he acquired a taste for percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands—he later switched to electric guitar. He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was one of rock, jazz or classical. He wrote the lyrics to all his songs, which—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech and the abolition of censorship.
Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist and he gained widespread critical acclaim. Many of his albums are considered essential in rock and jazz history, and he is regarded as one of the most original guitarists and composers of his time; he remains a major influence on musicians and composers. He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and for most of his career was able to work as an independent artist. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
Zappa was married to Kathryn J. “Kay” Sherman from 1960 to 1964. In 1967 he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death from prostate cancer in 1993. They had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. Gail Zappa manages the businesses of her late husband under the name the Zappa Family Trust.
The Yardbirds are an English rock band that had a string of hits in the mid 1960s, including “For Your Love”, “Over, Under, Sideways, Down” and “Heart Full of Soul”. The group is notable for having started the careers of three of rock’s most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, all of whom were in the top fifteen of Rolling Stone’s 100 Top Guitarists list (Clapton as #4, Page as #9, and Beck as #14). A blues-based band that broadened its range into pop and rock, The Yardbirds were pioneers in the guitar innovation of the ’60s: fuzz tone, feedback, distortion, backwards echo, improved amplification, etc. The band’s disintegration led to the formation of the rock band Led Zeppelin, by Jimmy Page in 1968.
The bulk of the band’s most successful self-written songs came from bassist/producer Paul Samwell-Smith who, with singer/harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty and rhythm guitarist/bassist Chris Dreja, constituted the core of the group. The band reformed in the 1990s, featuring McCarty, Dreja and new members.
X is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1977. Established among the first wave of American punk, the original members are vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake. They released seven studio albums from 1980 to 1993. After a period of inactivity during the mid to late 1990s, they reunited in the early 2000s, and currently tour.
X achieved limited mainstream success, but are considered one of the most revered punk rock bands and, by some critics, one of the best rock bands. One critic also suggests that X are one of the all-time greatest live rock performers. The band received an Official Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles in acknowledgment of their contributions to Los Angeles music and culture. They were also influential on various genres of music, including punk and folk rock.
In 2003, X’s first two studio albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift, were ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as being among the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Joseph Fidler “Joe” Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician.
Edward Lodewijk “Eddie” Van Halen (born January 26, 1955) is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 . Eddie Van Halen is widely known for his innovative performing and recording styles in rapid guitar playing, tapping, and high frequency feedback; he is also known for energetic and acrobatic stage performances. The All Music Guide has described him as “undoubtedly one of the most influential, original, and talented rock guitarists of the 20th century.
By the third album, the group became known simply as ‘Utopia’ and settled into a four-person lineup of Rundgren (guitar, vocals), Kasim Sulton (bass, vocals), Roger Powell (keyboards, synthesizers, trumpet, vocals) and Willie Wilcox (drums, vocals).
Like the Beatles, Utopia rotated lead vocals and shared writing credits, although Rundgren was a predominant influence. One distinctive feature of Utopia was its stylistic breadth, which ranged across psychedelic/progressive 1970s rock, soul-pop, blues, ‘stadium rock’ and heavy metal. Another was the band’s unabashed optimism, as evidenced by its name.
During that era, one knew a Utopia show wasn’t actually over until the band played Just One Victory (which Rundgren himself referred to as “the national anthem of Utopia”) from Rundgren’s seminal 1973 release A Wizard, A True Star.
Talking Heads was an American rock band formed in 1974 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison. Auxiliary musicians also frequently made appearances in concert and on the group’s albums.
The new wave musical style of Talking Heads combined elements of punk rock, avant-garde, pop, funk, world music and art rock. Frontman and songwriter David Byrne contributed whimsical, esoteric lyrics to the band’s songs, and emphasized their showmanship through various multimedia projects and performances. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes Talking Heads as being “one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the ’80s, while managing to earn several pop hits.”
In 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of the band’s albums appeared on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and the Channel 4 100 Greatest Albums poll listed one album (Fear of Music) at number seventy-six. Their concert film Stop Making Sense is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of the genre.
Squeeze are an English band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the New Wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording successfully in the 1980s and 1990s. They are known in the UK for their hit songs “Cool for Cats,” “Up the Junction,” “Tempted,” “Labelled With Love,” “Black Coffee In Bed,” “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell),” and “Hourglass.” Though not quite as commercially successful in the U.S., “Tempted”, “Hourglass” and “853-5937″ were all American chart hits for Squeeze, and the band have a dedicated following there and continue to attract new fans. All of Squeeze’s hits were written by band members Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford.
The group formed in Deptford, London in 1974, and first broke up in 1982. Squeeze then reformed in 1985, and broke up again in 1999. The band has reunited for tours through the United States and United Kingdom in 2007 and 2008.
Squeeze confirmed during an interview at the V Festival in 2008, that they plan to write a new record of material in 2009, during and after another tour of the United States.
Queen are a British rock band that formed in 1970. The band originally consisted of lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor. Queen have been described as giving the greatest live performance ever, producing the greatest single in history, and being the best British band of all time. They have released 15 studio albums, five live albums and numerous compilation albums. In 2009, the band’s record label EMI reported their worldwide album sales as over 300 million
Don’t know much about these guys except they are from Oz and I love the one song I know of theirs, “Collapse on Me”. Here’s the only video of them I could find. Good song, but not as good as Collapse on Me.
The New York Dolls are an American rock band, formed in New York City in 1971. In 2004 the band reformed with three of their original members, two of whom, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, continue on today and have released two records of new material. The original bassist, Arthur Kane died shortly after their first reunion concert.
The band’s protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later spawned the Ramones, Blondie, Television and Talking Heads, among others.
The Monkees were a pop rock quartet assembled by Robert “Bob” Rafelson and Bert Schneider in Los Angeles in 1966 for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968. The members were Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Englishman Davy Jones, who were supervised and popularized by Don Kirshner.
At the time of the band’s formation, its producers saw The Monkees as a Beatles-like band.[1] At the start, the band members provided vocals, and were given some performing and production opportunities, but they eventually fought for and earned the right to collectively supervise all musical output under the band’s name. The group undertook several concert tours, allowing an opportunity to perform as a live band as well as on the TV series. Although the show was canceled in 1968, the band continued releasing records until 1970. In the 1980s, the television show and music experienced a revival, which led to a series of reunion tours, and new records featuring various incarnations of the band’s lineup.
Los Lobos (“The Wolves”) are an American rock band. They are 3-time GrammyAward winners. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country music, folk,R&B, blues and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as boleros and norteños. Mexican-American roots-rock group, Los Lobos has been performing and releasing albums since the late 1970s. And they continue to rock.
Kraftwerk (“power plant” or “power station”, German pronunciation: [ˈkʁaftvɛɐk]) is a pioneering and a highly influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving, repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies, mainly following a Western classical style of harmony, with a minimalistic and strictly electronic instrumentation. The group’s simplified lyrics are at times sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. Kraftwerk were one of the first groups to popularize electronic music. In the early to late 1970s and the early 1980s, Kraftwerk’s distinctive sound was revolutionary, and it has had a lasting effect across many genres of modern music.
