iTunes 11 – Bring Back the Old iTunes Look

By Josh Highland in mac, music, software

iTunes 11 sports an all new interface and thats great, but if you are like me, you just want to use the features that you’ve become used to. I’ve figured out how to get most of the old features turned back on in iTunes 11.

  • Get the sidebar back by clicking the button in the upper left corner, and then click “Show Menu Bar” on Windows. Then select View > Show Sidebar.
  • Get the status bar back by clicking View > Show Status Bar.
  • Click Songs in the top bar, and sort by Artist for the traditional list view.

Now, iTunes 11 should look close to iTunes 10. I have found that I need to use the album view to show artwork. The Song view no longer shows album art.

NOW THIS WAR HAS TWO SIDES

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling, music, video

I typically stay away from politically charged topics on my blog…

I went vegetarian in 1999, 10 years ago. In that time I have basically become vegan for all intensive purposes, but I have never labeled myself anything other then a strict vegetarian. I chose to stop eating meat as a symbol of my allegiance with animal rights, and as an economic protest against the factory farming industry.

Just because I don’t eat meat, it doesn’t mean that I’m a Hippy. Hippies are pacifists, I enjoy fighting and I support direct action. Direct action is not protesting, it’s actually doing something about the problem, physically going out and getting involved. The A.L.F. (Animal Liberation Front), E.L.F (Earth Liberation Front) and Sea Shepherds are organizations that you may have heard about in the news. Often these groups are referred to as Eco-Terrorists by those who don’t agree with their actions.

Recently the Sea Shepherd’s have been in the public spotlight with the reality television series, “Whale Wars“. The series chronicles the Sea Shepard’s as they travel into Antarctic waters to do battle with Japanese whalers. Some of the Sea Shepherds actions include tangling whaling boats propellers with cords and rope to immortalize them in the water, throwing stink bombs onto whalers decks, and ramming whaling ships with their own. The show has received criticism from both sides of the debate on commercial whaling, but regardless of the stance, it has raised awareness of what is taking place in the southern ocean, and that there are people who really are willing to risk their life’s to make a change. Even if you aren’t a fan of animal rights, it’s hard to watch a whale that’s running away, get a giant metal spike slammed through it’s body and slowly bleed to death. Because of video like this being shown on “Whale Wars”, the Sea Shepherds are getting a lot of momentum and support behind them.

SeaShepherd-1
Last Saturday, in Riverside California there was an art show / fund raiser to support Sea Shepperd. I was expecting there to be some people there, but I was completely blown away by the volume of people that turned out to support the cause. It was great to see what a little positive media exposure could do for a group of outlaw “eco-terrorists”. I wish I had some money to drop on some of the awesome art work that was on display.

seanNoFlyer

I first became aware of Sea Shepherd in the 90’s through the Hardcore music scene and a band Ignite. The singer, Zoli, was very active with the group and wrote a few songs about direct action

In Defense – “Education without action does nothing, Bulldozers broken down, destruction takes the day off, the tank is filled with dirt. Land locked and monkeywrenched…”.

I was happy to see that Zoli was at the event. I got to catch up with him for a moment. Hanging out with him unlocked a flood of memories that I had locked away.

The highlight of the evening was listening to the founder of Sea Shepherd, Captain Paul Watson, speak. He was on stage for about 30 minutes and spoke very frankly about the groups intentions and what they are doing to ramp up their efforts to defend the creatures of the sea. It was inspiring. I’m really looking forward to the next season of Whale Wars.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHwBVjP4sfw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE8yzoshCTg[/youtube]
I left the event feeling energized and renewed. It’s been a long time since I was really excited about animal rights and direct action. If I didn’t have obligations that required me to have a steady job, I could totally see me on a Sea Shepherd ship.

I think its fitting to end this blog post with a portion of a song from one of my favorite bands, “Earth Crisis”

rabbitUltramilitance

Legal channels have been exhausted.
Uncruel alternatives rejected.
Awareness created and ignored.
Direct action is the last recourse.
Ultramilitance, Ultramilitants.

Salvation of innocents.
Intensified resistance.
Flooded by sabotage, disabled whaling ships sink beneath the waves.
Strikes against roving murderers.
Through destruction, innocents persists…

…NOW THIS WAR HAS TWO SIDES!


Diesmbodied reunion

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling, music, video

disembodied_flyer1

I know that I don’t typically blog about my personal experiences anymore. for the last few years I have have turned this into a very tech oriented blog. I’m going to start breaking that mold and start posting about a wider subject matter. I think it will to help increase the frequency that I update this site, and because, well… I make the rules around here.

Last Saturday was something that I didn’t think would ever happen. I got to see the band Disembodied play a reunion show. It was the first time in 10 years that Disembodied had played California, and possibly one of the best shows I have ever seen.

Who is Disembodied?
Disembodied formed in 1995 in Minneapolis, MN. Disembodied had a devastating effect on the sound of hardcore. Introducing themselves as simply the heaviest band in hardcore and going way beyond. Disembodied disbanded in the late 90’s, later moving on to form the band Martyr AD. Disembodied was instrumental in creating the distinct metal/hardcore sound so prominent todays heavy music.

Seeing Disembodied play had been a dream of mine for a long time.I sang in the hardcore band xDEATHSTARx for several years, Disembodied was always sighted as one of our major influences. The brutal honesty and raw emotion pumped into their music was something that always attracted me to them. I’ll be the first to admit that their music isn’t for everyone, but for some reason is strikes a chord deep inside of me.

disembodied_singer

My friend Jav put a lot of work in getting Disembodied to play 2 nights at Chain Reaction in Anaheim Ca. I bought my tickets 6 months ahead of time and patiently waited for June 5th 2009.

Now I regularly go to shows (concerts), and I have literally seen thousands of bands play, and heard tens of thousands of songs performed. Most of the time it not memorable and blurs together. On June 5th, Disembodied played a set that I would rate as one of the best I have ever seen (top 5 easily), and is something that I wont seen forget. This show renewed my faith in the hardcore scene and brought out emotions in me that I thought were dead.

After being in retirement for 10 years they didn’t miss a beat. The vocals were just as sharp, and still emotion packed. The music was delivered perfectly and with the impact of a bomb. “Heavy” is a term thrown a lot in this genre of music. Disembodied defines what heavy is.

Here’s a video to gove you a sample of what the of the show was like.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcTVpdU3bBY[/youtube]

I got this shirt at the show. Yes, it’s a goats head. Yes, I’m ok with that. Yes I have worn it to church.

disembodied shirt