Joshua Van Tassel

All of us at one point or another during the course of our day spend time worry about money. If we don’t have it, how do we get it, if we do have it, how can we get more, etc.. Sometimes you have to just forget and buy yourself something nice and sparkling that you didn’t really need or just have some fun.

Me and my lady friend went to a great restaurant on Queen east called Barrio ( I blog and link about it by choice not by sponsorship) and had a great meal.The staff was on it even though it got super busy all at once, and my coffee was damned creamy.

So go out. It’s fun, it makes you feel good, and you probably deserve it. If you don’t, find someone who does and take them out, then reward yourself for being so good and go eat out.

Here’s some tasty desert being cracked -

That’s right, the album that changed/scared the life out of basically everyone in the 80′ s is 25 years old today. I recently got a copy of it, and had forgotten why it’s still so highly regarded. I’ve never listened to a record with so much attention to every minute detail; every single sound happens how and when you would want it to. It makes you want to dance, it makes you want to buy expensive headphones and sit down with it, it kind of does it all. Here’s a little extra from the bonus edition with Vincent Price and Michael doing the “rap” from the title track….

even when he looks really cool, he’s still scary.

I haven’t spent time with the melodica lately, and I miss and love it. It’s got everthing one needs in a cute plastic portable shell. Here’ s something that may be something soon, but maybe not. And Happy Valentine’s Day too lovers.

then this is for you.

A very brave friend of mine just had her brain opened up, poked at, examined, separated, and generally invaded; but all for a good cause. She’s at home recovering and is doing well, and this is what it would sound like when you go through airport security with pieces of titanium holding things together. I’m glad you’re ok…..

here’s a Monday afternoon warm little song. Things are coming along well, very busy which is always nice. Stay inside if you can and make something pretty.

I have some very good friends who love to leave me very charming yet chastising messages on my phone when I don’t come out sometimes. Here’s some fun I had with one of them.

how do ponies use a cell phone? The buttons are so small.

……came over and recorded some great sounding bass for me. It needs some mixing but here’s a bit of it. Thanks also to Marc for the lending of some nice things to record with…

Thanks to Robin for passing this one to me……sound geeks everywhere, it almost reads like audio porn. I love it.

When you take a picture with an S.L.R., there is a distinctive sound, somewhere between a clatter and a thump; I worship my beat-up Nikon FE, but there is no denying that every snap reminds me of a cow kicking over a milk pail. With a Leica, all you hear is the shutter, which is the quietest on the market. The result — and this may be the most seductive reason for the Leica cult — is that a photograph sounds like a kiss. -Anthony Lane

A couple weeks back I posted a rather eerily quiet recording of a full street car during rush hour in Toronto. So many people, so close together, and no one was saying anything. Weird. Last night I was on the exact same streetcar, and let me set the scene for you.

1. It’s midnight on a Wednesday. People have to work in the morning. They have to get up early.

2. There’s a giant blizzard happening. And I don’t mean light flurries that make Torontonians drive like morons and pedestrians sputter and walk head down into lamp posts. By Toronto standards last night’s snow heralded the beginning of the apocalypse.

3. The streetcar took about a half an hour to come. Anyone who wanted to get on it was waiting for quite a stretch in the undesirable weather, and most likely would be cranky.

Now listen to this -

EVERYONE IS HAPPY. It was the strangest thing. People weren’t super drunk and belligerent, just conversing with their fellow man. About 20 seconds in, a man gets off and randomly wishes everyone a good night. Did my streetcar take a back alley and end up in small town Nova Scotia? I loved it.