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Best Free iPhone Application

Everyone out there is posting stuff about iPhone applications, so I thought I should do the same because if you know me, you know I like to be completely and utterly trendy. It’s almost a genetic thing. That and my need to wear comfortable shoes. Now I can already hear you saying “but Jody, the need to be completely trendy and the need to wear comfortable shoes cancel each other out!” You know, for some people, that would be true. But I can be completely trendy AND wear comfortable shoes and they do NOT cancel each other out. That’s how awesome I am.

So here is my pick for the absolute best free iPhone app. The runners-up, More Cowbell and SimStapler, were very worthy opponents. I’m guessing tens of thousands of people out there did not know they needed an iPhone application that allowed them to make a cowbell sound, followed by Christopher Walken saying “I need more cowbell”.

As for SimStapler, well, where else can you go if you have an urgent need to pretend to staple something? Nowhere I tell you! SimStapler does it all! It pretends to staple, and keeps count of how many pretend staples you’ve done! Perfect!

But to get all serious, the true winner here, in the “I can’t believe it’s free” category, is AOL Radio. All kidding aside, this app (which I’ve run on Mr. Dump’s 1st generation iPhone so it doesn’t need the 3G) gives you access to dozens of radio stations, to listen to live over your iPhone. There are some custom AOL set up stations (comedy, trance, and my favorites, One Hit Wonders and All 80s.) If you hear something you like, you can mark it as a favorite and/or go pull it up in AOL Music (where you can learn more about the song/artist) or iTunes to buy it. You can set favorite stations to find them quickly. And big bonus, it carries some terrestrial local stations, so you can listen to WBCN anywhere.

There are some limitations if you aren’t on wifi or 3g, according to the iTunes site, but don’t let that stop you. If you have an iPhone and haven’t grabbed AOL Radio, go do it now.

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Well, THAT is Disappointing

I got really excited yesterday when my iTunes music alert told me that Jason Falkner had released a new CD. I love Jason Falkner and his old band Jellyfish. I went running to iTunes to check it out, and its….instrumental versions of Beatles songs.

If I want to listen to Beatles songs, I will listen to the originals. Or the 1970s Sgt. Pepper movie soundtrack, cause I’m one of two people in the universe who liked that movie.

To give Jason some credit, the sample of Norwegian Wood had so much of a Pink Floyd vibe that I’ll have to check to see if David Gilmour was somehow involved. However, the next track I sampled, Something, sounded like bad department store Muzak. For those of you locals who have been local for a while, it would have fit perfectly on the speakers at Capital Toy/Capital Warehouse. I know my sister will understand that one…there was just a certain style to the songs they played there, they featured a lot of electric guitar in that old country music style (that I cannot accurately describe but I know it when I hear it.)

I just don’t know if I’ll be buying it. If it’s new age-y and Pink Floyd-y enough, I might. But that second track is killing it for me right now. C’mon Jason. I want more “Feeling No Pain”. That was only 4 years ago, dude!

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Song Stuck in My Head

And it’s a freebie! I have this week’s main “free song of the week” over at iTunes stuck in my head. Pretty unusual for me, from the freebies (although there have been some awesome songs provided for free, including Sarah Bareilles). The song is called “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” by The Wombats.

I cannot speak for the rest of the CD, but dang, the free song is tap toe-ing!

So ya, that’s what I have going on today. A song stuck in my head.

And you?

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Secret Quiz of the Day

Okay, quick, tell me what this is:

click
click
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If you guessed “Mr. Dump playing Guitar Hero with the television muted” you’d be right!

My God, that is just a horrifying treat for the whole family if only one person is playing and the others are surfing the web on their laptops while they sit in the recliner, pondering the meaning of life and re-doing the household budget so that there is a small amount of cash available so that you can eat dinner at Chilis because you have a fierce addiction to their chips and salsa. (Yes, I am reduced to wanting to spend money on chips and salsa. I think that’s better than trying to figure out how to get $400 to buy a replacement video camera, anyway.)

Anyhoo, thank you for playing. And someone promise me that a version of Guitar Hero for Wii will come out with something other than “Legends of Rock” or whatever this is. I hate 80% of the songs on here, and if I have to listen to Miss Murder one more time I’m going to scream. I have an idea. They should come out with a classical guitar version of G.H. You could play like Andres Segovia or something.

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Inside Jody’s Brain: Part 14

I have to work today. I have to work Monday as well, but that is not the point of this point. This is the point of this post.

There are songs that immediately put me in a different place and time. Like brings back smells sounds, everything. I’m listening to my iPod on shuffle and the song The Ballroom Blitz by Sweet comes on. Suddenly, I am at Mason’s Bowling alley on a Saturday morning (I was on a bowling team – the Pink Panthers. I have no idea why I can remember the name of my bowling team all these years later, but there you go). There are whole bunch of songs that were on the jukebox at Masons for years – I assume the owner just stopped buying new 45s at some point – because in junior high I was on another bowling team (after school league) and a bunch of those songs were still on there.

But Ballroom Blitz is the one song from that bunch (Telephone Line by ELO was another one) that when I hear it I’m back at Masons. (There are a couple of songs that bring me back to the Mason’s mini golf. I think I spent too much time there one summer, but my best friend lived around the corner and it wasn’t that bad a walk from my house, so it’s not all that surprising.

So anyway, Ballroom Blitz came on and I was just back in that bowling alley in a split second. Candlepin, for you out-of-towners. I think I need to go bowling now.

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