As i alluded to in my last rant, my iTunesEvents program crapped out last week. There was some intermittent problem with sending image data via http POST using curl. It appeared to be data-dependent, as Ozzy Osbourne's Bark at the Moon and Prozzäk's Hot Show would give it fits while No Age's Nouns would sail through cyberspace with no problems. After much futile fiddling, i finally changed the entire sending process so that it emulates an html form POST. That has worked seamlessly ... so far.

I'm not dying to get an iPhone, but the fact that Apple has released an SDK for it has got me wondering whether i can modify iTunesEvent to run on it. Wouldn't that be something ...

I picked up the majority of Neil Young's backcatalog the other day, a staggering 2.7 GB encompassing 35 albums. Man, what a prolific guy. Lots of good stuff buried in there.

The new season of the Venture Brothers kicked off on Sunday with a somewhat odd choice for a season premiere. The episode picked up the story of the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend (now Dr. Wife?) from their chaotic wedding during season two's finale. The pair were being held by the Guild of Calamitous Intent and tried on charges of unauthorized super villainy. Over the course of the trial we saw much of their history from the Monarch's initial "arching" of Dr. Venture in college, his time as a henchman of Phantom Limb, and Dr. Girlfriend's evolution from Lady Au Pair to Queen Etheria to her current moniker. Strangely the Venture clan was entirely absent from the episode, save for a two second cameo by Brock Samson. Despite the unconventional aspects of this installment, it was nonetheless a treasure trove for hardcore fans. I especially liked Lady Au Pairs "murderous moppets", who seized control of the Monarch's operation after the abduction of the number 1 and 2. More great stuff is surely on the way.

I'm far enough into Grand Theft Auto IV now that the missions have departed from the "pick up this person here and then drive there" variety. We're now onto tasks on the order of "go kill 30 gang members and recover the stolen drugs, then survive and escape the SWAT deployment in the aftermath". Once again, Rockstar has created an immersive world that can occupy you all night and day unless you have strong convictions to go to work or do something else useful. I just got access to the second island, which is clearly the Manhattan to the first island's Queens. I got chills on my first drive through Times Square (known as Star Junction in the game's "Liberty City"). GTA IV also presents more and weightier moral decisions than its predecessors, taking a cue from Bioshock. I'm excited to get home and play some more, especially now that i've got a sniper rifle.

Despite the fact that my travel schedule is in a lull until July, my agenda is no less dense. The weekend after next we're off to Jeremy Popscene's wedding in St. Helena. Plus there's a bevy of shows in the near future, including These New Puritans, Darker My Love, and the still uncanceled My Bloody Valentine reunion in September. Egad.