Category: Uncategorized

I was a little confused when I first visited this blog. I couldn’t figure out if the blog belonged to Curiosa or Wildchild. When I clicked on the links to their profiles I could only find out a bit of info about Curiosa. Apparently she lives in Sweden but is American. No mention of where she grew up or how she ended up in Sweden, at least none that I could find. The blog seems to start off in the beginning about dating in Sweden but sort of loses direction after a few posts. Some of the posts are in Swedish so I couldn’t understand them at all. If you speak Swedish maybe you can get more out of them then I did.

The blog is a basic blogger template, nothing fancy but has some links down one side to the archives, favorite posts, and links to other blogs. There are a few links to some blog tools but that’s about it as far as extras go.

This blog wasn’t bad and I did enjoy some of the posts and pictures but it didn’t really capture my attention or make me want to dig deeper into the archives although I did so I could be fair in my assessment.

I give this blog a 2.75 rating because it lacks originality. Maybe if the author or authors gave a bit more info on themselves I might get more of a connection with the posts.NULL

My first impression of this blog was that it was a bit boring. Now don’t take that the wrong way, it’s just my opinion and in no way reflects upon the individual behind the blog. Maybe it’s because I’m not a single mom and can’t relate to single motherhood I do consider myself a fairly objective and open-minded person. I’m also sensitive to other people’s feelings so while I thought initially that this blog is boring, I feel guilty about saying it. The point though is to be truthful here and I will do that. The thing is that reading the same old stuff about being a single mom just isn’t that interesting–to me. There’s no humor, no excitement, nothing shouting “HEY YOU-YEAH YOU-LOOK OVER HERE!” and when I’m perusing blogs, that’s what I look for. But that is not the author’s style and that is just fine too.

One thing is for sure–the author is certainly juggling much in life like buying a new house on her own, raising her son, dealing with a boss who drives her crazy, bringing God back into her life, and trying to find stability and her rightful place in the world, among many other things. When reading her posts you can tell right away she’s trying to find out where she fits comfortably into society, one that doesn’t exactly show much respect to single mothers. Her blog isn’t funny or exciting, her posts are the reality of her life. Many who blog like to add cute quips and brazen humor into our posts, but our single mom is just telling it like it is. Actually her blog is really more like a real journal, it’s an honest account of her everyday feelings and thoughts. She’s not out to impression anyone (like so many are), she’s just out to make sense of her life.

The author is just getting to a point in life where things are stable and she seems content. She has worked hard to get where she is and she deserves a break in my opinion. Her priority in life is her son and who of us doesn’t respect that? Even though there isn’t much excitement in her blog, it’s her life and she is happy the way things are and after all she’s been through maybe too much excitement isn’t a good thing. I do think other single mothers enduring the same experiences as the author could really get something good out of knowing they are not alone.

There is something interesting about the design of the weblog, and that is that it doesn’t really have a design, it’s not supposed to detract from her writing. The sage color at the top of the blog reveals absolutely nothing mysterious about the author, like her posts, it is what it is. The typeface is also very plain. My guess is that she didn’t want to bring too much attention to graphics or herself, but really her words, which do really help you see inside her soul.

In all honesty, survivingsinglemom.com isn’t a bad blog at all, but it’s definitely not for anyone who just isn’t interested in the routine everyday happenings of an uneventful single mom’s life. However, other single moms who crave stability, desire respect for their hard work and sacrifice, and who are struggling to find their own place in society, could relate to our author’s life as they won’t feel so alone. That’s the great thing about blogging, there’s always someone else out there who shares in the same emotions and experiences as you so you know you’re not alone.

This single mom has obviously sacrificed a great deal of herself so her child can grow up happy, and she doesn’t seem to crave a lot of attention or excitement in life and I really do think that others in her position could really relate to her and feel a special kinship by reading her blog. NULL

By the name of the site “intellectualmusician.com,” I began to think about what this site could be about. I imagine a site where music is taken to another level – thought. I would imagine that the owner of the site is probably either a musician or someone in an academic world. I expect to see music from the eyes of the mind instead of the ear. I hope to see this take place. Hopefully someone can help the world understand the thought behind putting a music piece or composition together displaying the musicians thought behind the music rather than a catchy tune that all of us seem to enjoy as we turn on the radio today.

The site has a simple interface. It does not render well in IE 7.0, but there is a disclaimer on the site stating to use Firefox. I am not sure if this is done on purpose for kickbacks based on downloads of Firefox from the site or not, but since the majority of the world does use IE, I don’t feel this is a good thing. It is easy on the eyes and can clearly be placed into different categories. There is an area devoted to forums. These forums could be of use to many musicians. It provides a means by which musicians can discuss their opinions of music, and how to develop new music.

The site is, as expected, about teaching music and brining a new level of music to listeners. The site has 4 authors, Henderson, Mylotte, Gerson, and Oakleaf. Oakleaf appears to be the reason why intellectualmusician.com is currently in existence. The authors wanted a place for musicians to work together and grow as an organization – a group of musicians. All of them have extensive bios in music and education.

The site takes on a new meaning for beginners on the web. If you want to learn about playing an instrument, I would recommend you to check out intellectualmusician.com. It appears they have the knowledge and the professional skills to take a beginner with no knowledge and get them playing quickly. They focus on not just telling you what keys or strokes of the instrument to play, but they actually inform you about the instrument itself. They want the beginner to not understand music, but understand how to create music through the instrument. I feel their skills would be beneficial on any college music program. Their skills are not only growing together as a group of musicians, but they are providing information to help the world grow into music.
If you want to learn how to play the guitar any beginner should check out their articles on the composition of the guitar. I am sure that more instruments will be coming as releases on this site as it grows. They are currently trying to build their reader base and their membership so that intellectualmusician.com can be a centerpiece pushing the music industry to new levels.

This is a good site for any musician. Currently it is probably more geared toward beginner musicians, but as the site develops, I think the concepts will develop. I am sure the authors of the site would love for more advanced players to subscribe to their forums and offer up their personal advice as well. This site is highly recommended for the beginner musician.

I rate this site at a 3.75 for 2 reasons: the first is for a good site to be used it must be able to be viewed with many different browsers and the second is that it is still in the growing stages and is geared toward beginners and not the advanced musicians. I do believe that this is a good starting point and that it will grow with time to truly become the “intellectual musician”.
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First things first — I feel suddenly very, very old.

I’m 40. Should I be reviewing a site that focuses strictly on music that I am not listening to? I mean, I like to think I’m slightly more in tune with what is going on musically than the average 40 year old housewife who thinks Kenny Chesney is just so effin’ HOTTTTT in his wifebeater Ts, straw cowboy hat, pookah shell necklace, flip flops and swim trunks (insert swoony noise here).

I feel almost guilty giving this one a go. But that’s not going to stop me.

Kids Pushing Kids as a site has a decent layout. The colors are interesting and reminded me of the very first layout I had for my very first blog entry in 2001. The greens, the white, the overall simplicity. Nice.

The site has an “about” page (and I always head there first to gain thoughtful understanding of the mission the writer/s have in mind) and was happy to realize that I just read about Danielson in Rolling Stone recently… and I went to iTunes to get some of their music… so I didn’t feel too incredibly out of touch and felt somewhat at ease going through the site.

Kids Pushing Kids hopes to share mp3s of bands the author/s enjoy/s and I have to say that it is nice to be exposed to some new music. There are embedded YouTube videos, and embedded links to songs so the reader can listen while looking at the review. The site writer/s don’t let on where they are located geographically, so I am not sure if there is a specific local scene that they are into, or if they are trying to build an national audience.

I liked the mp3s and absolutely loved the music player, similar to the one I play when I listen to Guster concerts on Archive.org (yes, I am unbearably lame but proud of it, shut up) to help make the pain of my undeniably horrible workday lessen. But hated that when I went from page to page to read the archives in the sit the music stops. Feh. A standalone player to listen to the ten items on the playlist while flitting around the site would be a great improvement.

And I knew three of the ten artists on the playlist. You go ahead and guess which three. Be proud of my nineteen sixties born ass.

As for entries, mostly they focus on a band with an mp3 and an opinion. As I write this I am listening to Pterodactyl’s debut on Brah Records — “Esses.” It’s not bad, but I feel it falls apart at the end and bores me.

Other entries are “Shortlist” content which consist of a series of links and pack a few news items in for a punchy entry. (I love Human Giant too, so it was fun to read the little blurb about them taking over MTV). There are industry links and news items and not every entry is an opinion piece on a song or a band. So that’s nice. And unlike other mp3 sites, this one hasn’t had a lot of time to develop into a really heavy duty “oh we’re too smart for YOU and YOUR pedestrian allegedly indie tastes” kind of sites, where they discard the music of anyone other than their friends and mock mock mock like Paris drives drunk. But they do link out to those sites (Pitchfork was mean to Guster back in the day!!! and I’ll never forgive them!!!) so it is good to get a lot of different portal-esque coverage of the music scene.

Two criticisms. First — there are sadly not a lot of archives. I enjoyed the visit to the site, but felt like it should be reviewed in about a year. Perhaps a re-review will be necessary as the site grows beyond May and June archives.

Secondly, I immediately cringed at the Ads by Google at the top of the page(s) and the Amazon videos on the right navigation area.

It is hard to look at a site that focuses on up and coming music with a big fat ad at the top calling out for 2007 cutest kid of the year and 3d educational games.

Everyone needs to make money but … feh.

Now, my favorite indie bands are Dealership out of California, and The Knockout Drops out of Brooklyn NY… The Knockout Drops are as of this moment doing a kick ass Off Broadway show called Escape From Bellevue. Check them out! Consider me a kid pushing kids. I went to high school with lead singer Chris Campion. He rocks harder than any 20 something I’ve ever seen… and that’s saying a lot for a 41 year old man from Long Island.

I wish this site well, good growth, great success, and have added it to my personal blogroll.
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With a name of Tessellar > Blog I wasn’t quiet sure what to expect. Did this guy think he was better than a blog? If so what is his blog about? The only thing I did expect was that it would be a personal blog.

The first thing I noticed was that it was hosted by blogspot. Now I am not knocking them, but for a name of “I am greater than blog” maybe your own domain name would be slightly better. To top it off the blog has a slightly modified blogspot template that I have seen many times before. Unfortunately the template does nothing for the blog.

I quickly browsed the main page of the site for any indication of what I might actually be reading. I found a small blurb about the author and a couple of his sites. He is an architect in Malaysia and likes to talk about people and the houses and what not.

Now going through the blog I quickly discovered that I was very bored with it. The information provided is written as if it is for a history book. I was quickly reminded of all the boring little detailed things I was forced to memorize in high school just to pass a class. That isn’t to say the information is not well written, it is just not written to entertain.

The blog is about different houses and families and that sort of thing all through out the world. I must give the author some points for a unique blog, because I don’t think anyone else has quite done this before. The highlights of the blog were the personal stories about where he grew up. While these still read more like a history lesson than a blog, these at least had some grasp of outside readers’ attention spans.

Overall this is not a blog I would recommend. The topic is very narrow in who it will entertain. The author tries which is of course a big part of the blog. I do not wish this review to discourage the author from continuing his work. Merely I hope that this review helps him focus his attention towards the specific group of readers that would enjoy his site.
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