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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi tour a home that gets 40 percent of its power from the wind. After the homeowner installed a 45-foot-tall turbine in her backyard, not only was she the talk of the neighborhood, but her home was named one of the 12 greenest houses in the world, according to the Discovery Channel.
Apple reveals new iPhoto features
At Macworld Expo 2009 in San Francisco, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, demos new iPhoto features. He shows off new GPS geotagging that allows users to organize photos using a digital camera by embedding geographical tags into photos, as well as new face detection software that helps users find photos by detecting faces across multiple photos.
Boasting that this iMac will run two to three times faster than its predecessors, Apple Computer is hoping to make a splash. The sleek machine comes with updated iLife software.\r\n
San Francisco's psych-pop wonders Oranger are pleased to offer you "Shutdown The Sun", their latest release. Once described as "Pete Townshend and Keith Moon wrecking Brian Wilsons sandpit as Wayne Coyne wipes blood from his face," with Shutdown they move beyond retro-psych into pure pop, informed by years of record collecting, enhanced by mood-altering substances, and melded into something quite its own, thank you very much. They've been busy the past few years, touring with Elliott Smith, Guided By Voices, Pavement, R.E.M., The Apples In Stereo, and Wilco, to name a few -- each time invited at the artists request. While the band has been recording "Shutdown the Sun" for the past couple of years, they've also been balancing other projects: Matt joined The Posies, Mike and Jim played in Scott Kannberg's Preston School of Industry, and Patrick played with Tarnation's Paula Frazer. Mike Drake, lead singer and songwriter, is a Florida native who moved to California and joined up with Matt Harris, Oranger's bass player, co-songwriter, engineer monkey, in the Overwhelming Colorfast. Matt drove a U-Haul truck to Iowa, put drummer Jim Lindsay in it, and drove back to California. Patrick Main, keyboardist, joined shortly thereafter. In 1998 Oranger recorded their debut record Doorway To Norway on 8-track cassette. Despite copious amounts of woo pitched by major labels, they decided to release it on Spiral Stairs a.k.a. Scott Kannberg's (Pavement) fledgling indie label Amazing Grease Records. Early shows were frequently played under fake names such as "The Invisible Chocolate Glove" and "The Apricot Yardstick" for no other reason than to confuse fans. By 1999, the band had released 1 CD and 3 singles and were headlining shows in the Bay Area. They recorded The Quiet Vibrationland on their own using a 16-track tape machine once owned by Brian Wilson. QVL also saw the addition of Patrick Main on keyboards. 2000 saw the band hand-picked by Elliott Smith to open his European tour and QVL released in Europe on Creation Records-founder Alan McGee's new Poptones label. By this time, "Eggtooth" - off of Doorway To Norway - was being played at SF Giants games. In 2001 the closing of SF's Downtown Rehearsal evicted Oranger and 499 other bands and subsequently the band spent more time on the road, including another UK Tour as well as some US dates with Guided By Voices. Recorded and mixed by the band in 2002 at their Plymouth Sounds studio in SF, the 11 songs on Shutdown The Sun evoke a stripped-down and raw approach, compared to the baroque chamber psych of 2000s The Quiet Vibrationland. Most of the songs were written on acoustic guitar, and it shows. While the title track does end in an Acid Mothers Temple-style feedback scrawl, tunes like "Tree Bent Gun" and "Othersider" have a Crazy Horse/Muswell-era-Kinks hard-rock/country groove. Preston School of Industry and David Dondero alumnus Chris ?The Texican? Heinrich lends some spaced-out pedal steel on the country-psych "Cut Off Yer Thumbs" and "The Writer (H.F.)," while big-ass guitars and thick harmonies on "Bluest Glass Eye Sea" and "Going Under" keep the bolo tie hidden in the bottom of the sock drawer. Mike and Jims time on the road opening for Wilco (as part of PSOI) rubbed off on the delicate noise-folk textures of "Delivered By Compass" and "Static On The High Desert."
Blume leads us in a fairy and dreamy universe, accessible only to those who desire to wander with childish glances.From the roofs of toy-houses, the Blume-home lights on. Into a melancholic and beautiful canvas, candid atmospheres mix with improbable paper-skies and humid gum-streets. Town views open on into imaginary panoramas and outlines, where nature?s movements are seen in new shapes and dimensions. White dancing clouds run after each other in a game among light, colors and shadows. Blume move as evanescent characters in weird spots, they stroll about un-real places from outside our immanent reality. Fragile figures likely disappearing from time to time? are you really capable to describe a dream? Blume are: Francesca Storai Matteo Zanobini Dario Brunori Mixed by Paolo Favati, produced by Paolo Favati and Blume
Blume leads us in a fairy and dreamy universe, accessible only to those who desire to wander with childish glances.From the roofs of toy-houses, the Blume-home lights on. Into a melancholic and beautiful canvas, candid atmospheres mix with improbable paper-skies and humid gum-streets. Town views open on into imaginary panoramas and outlines, where nature?s movements are seen in new shapes and dimensions. White dancing clouds run after each other in a game among light, colors and shadows. Blume move as evanescent characters in weird spots, they stroll about un-real places from outside our immanent reality. Fragile figures likely disappearing from time to time? are you really capable to describe a dream? Blume are: Francesca Storai Matteo Zanobini Dario Brunori Mixed by Paolo Favati, produced by Paolo Favati and Blume...
The Voyager Q is a versatile hard-drive-docking station for people who work with more than one internal hard drive. It saves time and spares you from having to open the computer's case.
Apple expands DRM-free music selection
At Macworld 2009 in San Francisco, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, announces a new music price plan and an expanded selection of digital rights management-free songs in its iTunes Store. Users will be able to strip their existing DRM-wrapped music of the controversial copy protection software, but doing so will cost 30 cents per song.
Apple rocks on with new GarageBand
At Macworld 2009 in San Francisco, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, demonstrates the company's updated GarageBand software. Now designed to help Mac users learn to play a musical instrument, GarageBand will let users download lessons from artists such as John Fogerty and Sting for $4.99. As a part of the lesson, artists give a bit of songs' back stories.
Download.com's Jason Parker offers us a quick tour of Apple's biggest annual event, and a glipse of the exciting software and hardware announced during the Macworld Expo. Apple representatives give us tours of a powerful, elegant, and new photo utility, Aperture, and a test-drive of the Pentium-powered MacBook Pro.
