Forgot to mention the other day that in order to play my new PSP acquisition Burnout Legends, i was forced to update my PSP system software, which in turn forced me to set up a network connection between my PSP and wireless router. Luckily the process only took about 5 minutes, and as a bonus i got to check out the surprisingly full-featured PSP web browser. Works like a champ. Well, except for rendering this site, on which it fails miserably. Today i downloaded the now ad-free web browser Opera and had a look, and it displays fac13 similarly ... the animated buttons at the top right don't work, and it doesn't support the semi-transparent iframe background. So i apologize to anyone who's been trying to read my ramblings on those interfaces. I'm not quite sure what interpretation of W3C Opera and the PSP are using, when i get a chance i'll have to do some research.

Well, that was quick ... a brief Google search has informed me that Opera doesn't support the CSS directive opacity or its Mozilla-friendly cousin -moz-opacity, on which my animated buttons and semi-transparent background are based. Looks like more browser-specific conditional statements are in my code's future. Woohoo.

So apparently JD won Rock Star: INXS, although i slept through the entire show (i passed out around 8:15pm and slept straight through to morning). Up next for the smarmy bastard, recording an album and going on a world tour with the aging Australian "supergroup" (so says Dave Navarro, it must be true). Howard Stern had several choice quotes about the show:

• "All those INXS guys look like they're 80 year old! When they perform together it's going to look like they kidnapped this kid!"
• "They're supposedly going on a world tour now. That'll be great for the four people who will actually buy tickets."

I concur, particularly about the second point. INXS World Tour 2006, coming soon to the Konocti Harbors and Caesars Lake Tahoes of the world. Buy tickets early and the band will serve you a prime rib dinner before the show.

On to more relevant musical topics, i'm preparing for tonight's Bloc Party show by refamiliarizing myself with the album. It'll be strange to watch them from the Warfield balcony after seeing them at the infinitely more intimate Slim's a few months back. It turns out that interesting neo-blues/punk duo the Kills (fried my little brains!) are opening, so i'll have to be there early even. V and Jenz will be down on the floor to get a closer view of their latest indie heartthrobs, so i'll be with an as-yet unnamed show buddy. Bloc Party's debut album Silent Alarm is up there with Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut as the record that most resonates with me from the latest indie crop. At the last show, the guitar dynamics between Russell and Kele were worth the price of admission alone.

i can't eat, i can't sleep
i can't sleep, i can't dream
like drinking poison, like eating glass

The new Legends album Public Radio was released on September 14, so naturally i ordered it from Sweden as soon as we returned from Europe. I'm now waiting impatiently for it to arrive at my doorstep (today, perhaps?), a process that has not been ameliorated by the catchiness of their single "He Knows the Sun", which i caught in video form on the Labrador website. More straight-up pop than Up Against the Legends, but with even more reverbed, entrancing vocals. These guys need to come over here and tour, or else i need to go to Sweden.

You get the feeling that Stellastarr* (is that asterisk really necessary?) are throwing everything but the kitchen sink into their latest album, Harmonies for the Haunted. The whole ends up an incoherent mess of modern hooks ... echoed guitars à la the Church's "Reptile", soaring, meandering vocals, a little guitar wall here and there. Definitely not an album that's grabbing my attention away from other things while coming over my headphones at work.

Speaking of work, i seem to be finding a million pointless things to do other than writing my ACS grant. It's not due until October 17, although i told one of collaborators i'd have him a draft by October 1. Discipline, grasshopper.