Greg's Top 5 songs in iTunes

I always wonder about which songs I tend to listen to the most. In fact, I'm kind of obsessed with it. I'm a iTunes nerd - so I just have it set up to tell me just that. We got a new iMac and so I migrated my library and KT's library into one place. One of the best things about the new library was the opportunity to reset my top 25 most played songs. So here are the top 5 I have listened to so far this year:

1. Strictly Business by EPMD - This just brings back memories of the golden age of hip-hop for me. The sample from Clapton's version of 'I shot the sheriff' is pretty sweet.
   
   
2. Waiting for the End by Linkin Park - Yeah, I know it's LP, but I like it. Deal with it. This song was on the radio quite a bit earlier this year and it has just stuck in my head.
   
3. Factory by Band of Horses - I just like the feel of this song - it really has that shoe-gazer awesomeness going for it. I think I found this because I heard it on KOHS and used one of my favorite apps (Soundhound - way better than Shazam just FYI) to look it up for me.
   
4. Need to Know - Pennywise (this one is here because I listen to it at the gym quite a bit to keep me going. Lots of energy and just good, clean, punk.)
   
5. It Kills - Stephen Malkmus (Stephen was in Pavement which was an OK band for me, but I discovered his solo music a couple of years ago and have really fallen in love with it. This is the one I have been listening to most often this year, but if you are interested check out the album Real Emotional Trash - that's the one that got me hooked. He is also releasing a new album next week which you can stream on NPR.)
   

So that's the top 5 - maybe I'll post 6-10 in a couple of days. Let me know what you think or what you have been listening to this summer.

Photojournalism

I got the scoop on why there was water spraying all over campus the other day. How? With my photo skills. Check it. I guess they were bleeding out some water lines in the legendary tunnels under campus. In any case it didn't disrupt work so it wasn't exciting enough. It would have been cooler had that been flames rather than water. Maybe next time.

Top Ten Songs

iTunes has a smart playlist that keeps track of how many times you have played a song. For some reason I am fascinated with this playlist and expanded it to show my top 100. This even affects the way I listen to music sometimes as I tend to hesitate on skipping to the next song, wanting the song to get its fair entry on the list. The interesting thing is that even though I like these songs, I don't know that they are my favorite songs of all time. You would think that I would play my favorites the most. I blame my workout playlist for distorting my actual leisure listening habits. Here are my top 10:

1. Gold Lion - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 38 (times I've listened to it)
2. Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups - 31
3. Tarantula - The Smashing Pumpkins - 30
4. Gut Feeling - Devo - 26
5. Walking Contradiction - Green Day - 26
6. Edie (Ciao Baby) - The Cult - 24
7. My Umbrella - Tripping Daisy - 24
8. That's Entertainment (Demo Version) - The Jam - 23
9. This Never Happened Before - Paul McCartney - 23
10. Knights of Cydonia - Muse - 22