Mann's World

Here's a link to The Fire Ant Gazette, a cool blog that I just now stumbled upon. Haven't had a chance to really look at it, but the first few posts I read look interesting.

I found it by looking for an article that was in today's N&O on "Godcasting," which is a term for the proliferation of religion-themed podcasts out there. Unfortunately, the N&O doesn't carry Cox News articles, so I'm still looking elsewhere for it. Scroll down to Feb. 16 in The Fire Ant Gazette and you'll find two interesting posts on podcasting -- one on The Godcast Network and the other on Pale Groove Studios, which offers a place for people to go and create their own podcasts. One day I'm going to get on the ball and do a local club podcast -- that is if I get over the flu, quit stressing over my Flash class and actually get the energy to leave the house.

In other news, I purchased my first iTunes download the other day. Though I'm a big supporter of digital music, most of what I've downloaded sounds terrible, which isn't a problem if I'm not paying for the music. Therefore I've still been buying CDs and uploading them to my iPod. My desire to get hold of The Mars Volta's new CD, "Frances The Mute," made me go ahead and give it a try. It sounds OK, but I wish I'd gone ahead and bought the CD. I'll give a full review of the CD at some other point (quick take -- it's not as good as "Deloused in the Comatorium").

I will say that I vaguely approve of the whole prog-rock/concept album resurgence. I love King Crimson (specifically the "Starless and Bible Black," "Larks Tongues in Aspic" and "Red" trio), and The Mars Volta really sounds like a cross between King Crimson and Santana, with "Deloused" having more Zeppelin overtones. I'm also still trying to gather my thoughts on last year's Iced Earth Civil War concept album "The Glorious Burden," which I really want to like, but so far it hasn't really stuck with me.