opinios

What's in a meme?

I learned a new word from Cameron Adams today - meme - when he passed me a musical baton. Not to be confused with mame (god I want one of these!)

Here goes:

Total volume of music files on my computer:

410 MB (a few CDs and a few tracks recorded with the band when living in Tokyo. What's that? You didn't? Well, I was. And I played bass.) Most of my music is either on CD (gasp) or on the hard drive at work.

The last CD I bought was:

REM - Around the Sun. Back before I had a house deposit to save for.

Song playing right now:

Interpol - Evil

Five songs I listen to a lot/mean a lot to me:

• Radiohead - Optimistic: the standout track from Kid A for me; the guitar riff lifts you up and shakes you round, and there are multiple layers typical of a Radiohead masterpiece.
• Dave Matthews Band - Best Of What's Around: every couple has "their song". I think this is the one Kim and I consider to be ours, for nothing more complicated than the fact that we relate to the positive message of the lyrics. We got it pretty good and we appreciate that.
• Bentley Rhythm Ace - Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out: I remember seeing these guys live New Year's Eve 1998 at the Falls Festival in Lorne. The energy and the vibe was entrancing and made for one memorable NYE. Oh, and that pretty blonde thing that seduced me might have been part of it too, but we don't talk about that in front of the wife (it was before we met, ok??)
• Rakim - Lyrics of Fury: the angry and arrogant rapper lead the way for my forage into hip hop and R&B. Why does music that teeters between bragging about one's pay packet, dodging bullets and promiscuous sex sound so damn good? Yeah, it's the 'R', baby!
• Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonaise: when I was at university and first discovering live music, this was the band that made the biggest impression on me. The bass on this track from Siamese Dream squeals and moans in a way that the instrument was not intended, and the wallowing self-pity in the lyrics resonated with my teenage angst perfectly. I had become a fan.

Five people to whom I am passing the baton (ooh ooh, can I have six? Can I?):

Building on Cameron's list of Aussie geeks (an Oz-pack to rival the Brits?) I'm going to list a couple of mates as well as use this as an intro to some folks whose sites I have been following but haven't actually touched base with before. G'day!

• Cameron Pegg - Melbourne lad who deserves a bloggy for "Best subtitle. Ever."
• Ben Bailey - another Melbourne-based designer who needs to come out of the basement and socialize with the standards-savvy crowd
• Justin French - Textdrive's man in Melbourne. Singled out because I need to know what music one listens to when having the balls to sign up for employment by a (albeit well-respected) startup company on the other side of the world run by people you've never met
• Michael Efford - Perth boy with a marvel for pixel massaging and a penchant for quality design-related linkage.
• Andrew Krespanis - Brisbane blogger with a beautiful site both on the surface and under the hood
• Lachlan Hunt - a Sydney-based markup nerd who is brave enough to include a photo of himself in a Firefox t-shirt on his site. Rock on dude!

Thanks Cam, was wondering what I was going to write about next.