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  • Billy Miles

    • 10 out of 10
    • Billy Miles
    • Take the voice of a young Billie Holiday and stuff it into a svelte, petite body with the face of an angel, and you have some idea of what it's like to experience the music of Billy Miles in her self-
  • Spanks for the Memories

    • 8 out of 10
    • Asylum Street Spankers
    • The Asylum Street Spankers are...well...The Spankers. Hailing from Austin, where I saw them live dozens of times, the band played entirely acousti

  • One Word Extinguisher

    • 8 out of 10
    • Prefuse 73
    • It's an album about a breakup, done with beats instead of mopey lyrics. But the beats are raw, and the emotions are there, even if there aren't many words on top of it. While possibly not Scott Herren
  • The Stooges

    • 8 out of 10
    • The Stooges
    • Another pillar of my musical foundations, The Stooges' first album is one those records whose influence far outweighed its popularity. Like The Velvet Underground & Nico, hordes of people wh

  • Cocked & Loaded

    • 8 out of 10
    • Revolting Cocks
    • It's hard to believe it's been more than a decade since Ministry founder and front man Al Jourgensen's side project Revolting Cocks released any new material. 2006 brings us Cocked and Loaded

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Free on iTunes

Traveling North, South, East, And West

I have a confession to make: I have a huge crush on Samantha Brown.

I thought it was just a phase I was going through; I got new channels on cable and one of them was the Travel Channel. I tuned in one day and there she was, cute as a button, intelligent, outgoing, and having the time of her life traveling about and telling us about it. It must have been her Paris show that made me realize that I wasn’t watching to see far off places, I was watching to see a familiar face; hers.�

Of course I knew nothing would ever become of my affection for her; she witty and sophisticated, worldly and well travelled. I’m not any one those things. So I put her out of my mind. Or so I thought. I guess the people you care for never really leave you, they just find a comfy couch in some forgotten corner of your mind and hang out until you remember them again.

That’s what happened when I was browsing through video podcasts in the iTunes Store. There I was minding my own business when I see Samantha Brown’s name on a podcast. You know I had to find out more.

Samantha Brown: Passport to Latin America

It seems Ms. Brown has a new travel series that centers on Latin America called, interestingly enough, ’Samantha Brown: Passport to Latin America’, and you can pick up four clips from the show in the Video Podcast section of the iTunes Store.

I can watch these clips all day long; Samantha shopping in Uruguay, having cocktails in Brazil, chugging beer in Chili, and dining out in Rio. I bet she’s a riot to run with, and you can get a taste of what’s she’s into South of the Border by dropping by the iTunes Store.�

(You think she reads my columns?)�

(Nah!)

Speaking of traveling, I did get to spend a day in Paris a while back. It rained almost the entire time I was there, my hotel room was perhaps 1 square meter (a little more than 3 square feet) bigger than the full size bed I slept on, my French is only marginally better than my Chinese (and I can’t speak Chinese), I only got to see two of the many sights the city has to offer, and I loved every second I was there. I can’t describe it, there must be something in the water that makes your heart beat with a bit more gusto when you are in Paris.

I can only imagine what it must be like to live in Paris, even if you’re a rat.

Brad Bird of Pixar fame has an idea what life is like for the denizens of the alleys and sewers of the French capital, yet even in Paris a rat is a rat. That is unless it’s a rat that can cook. Meet Remy, a rat with a culinary flare and the subject of Pixar/Disney’s upcoming movie, Ratatouille.

The movie won’t hit screens until June 29, but you can get a 9 minute preview, hosted by Brad Bird,� as a free download from the iTunes Store.

I’m a huge fan of Pixar movies, my favorite is another Brad Bird creation, The Incredibles. ("Honey, where’s my super-suit?"� "Why do you need to know?") Another favorite of mine and one of Brad Bird’s earlier non-Pixar efforts is The Iron Giant. Both movies typify what makes Pixar movies stand out, whether the characters are toys, cars, or monsters, there is a really good story behind them. Ratatouille appears to be following that tradition. Check out the sneak-peek and see if you don’t agree.

I started this article talking about traveling and so it is only fitting that I finish on that note as well. Two new TV shows offer seat-of-your-pants adventure and eye-popping stunts, and both have free episodes available on the iTunes Store.

If you’re going to make a reality show, this is how you do it. Ice Road Truckers may sound like the title of a cheesy SciFi flick, but what goes on in this show is very real. The show centers on the men who drive 18 wheelers loaded with supplies across the deep freeze that is northern Canada, often over frozen lakes and through blizzards that would send a polar bear running for cover. It’s obviously dangerous work, but it is fascinating what these guys go through to earn a buck. The first episode, Ready to Roll, looks at how the highway these truckers roll on gets created. Watching makes you wonder why anyone would do what these guys do.

The next show take us to several different locations to watch extreme sports competitions. Jeep World of Adventure Sports looks at daredevil competitions around the world; extreme para-sailing and hang gliding acrobatics in Switzerland, Free diving off the Grand Caymans, snowmobiling through Chilean volcanoes are all featured. Some of the things these people do for fun who have the the rest of us clutching walls and dry-heaving; I guess that’s why they do it.

Jeep World of Adventure Sports is worth checking out, and don’t be surprised if you find yourself wondering if you could do what these people do.

Lot’s of free stuff this week at the iTunes Store. Check it out;


Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.

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