Albert Banks

Rating:
Release Date: Mar 9, 2010
Critic Review
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What started as a trio has grown into a quintet. On their third studio album, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, Scottish indie rock/folk band Frightened Rabbit has expanded their numbers and their sound. They’ve evolved closer to the rock spectrum from their folky beginnings.
While more sophisticated and electronic, some of the melody the group is known has become lost.

Favorite Tracks
Things

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Swim Until You Can’t See Land

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If you’re like most Americans, you’ve got a DVR or Tivo for your TV watching. This brilliant device allows us to cram more viewing into less time. We no longer have to sit through the 20 minutes of commercials per hour.

Nor do you have to sit through a show’s intro. But do you? Most of the time I don’t, but there are a few show that I just can’t skip. Here’s my list:

The Office
The jingle gets me every time.

Chuck
Cartoony Bond-like intro backed by Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”

Battlestar Galactica
Closes with high-energy snippets of the current episode

What TV Show intros do you watch?

If you have a next generation gaming console, odds are you were one of the millions of people who purchased Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA 4). I hadn’t played a GTA game since the original on a PC, but the reviews convinced me to give this one a try. Not only are the graphics and audio ridiculous, the physics and AI are off the charts. It is so realistic!

I found myself hooked. So much so that I started thinking about the game while driving around doing everyday tasks. Thoughts kept popping into my head. I present them now as the Top 5 ways to know you’ve played too much Grand Theft Auto.

5. You start wondering how much money nearby pedestrians have on them.

4. You think you can squeeze down the middle of the cars on a two lane road.

3. You doubt anyone would really hit you if you drive fast enough through an intersection.

2. You start justifying giving The Intimidator move to the jerk next to you.

1. You get excited about a straightaway in front of a pile of dirt. Stunt Jump!

With the recent update to WordPress 2.5 and my new theme, the commenting function was no longer working. I found the problem and have fixed it. Thanks for letting me know, Jesse! So, feel free to post comments…

A majority of Americans still rely on cable companies for television service. Here in Charlotte the culprit is Time Warner Cable. We all know the benefits of cable: service not affected by weather, low installation costs and package deals with internet and home phone.

But in recent years satellite has been gaining on cable in the quest for subscribers – and for good reason. I’ve recently considered switching from Time Warner Cable for a very simple reason: High Definition (HD).

Many of us have joined the HD revolution. In fact, I can’t even watch standard definition stations anymore. Once you go HD, you can’t go back – and cable companies continue to lag behind in their offering of HD channels.

Out of 500 or so channels on Time Warner digital cable, there are only 29 high definition channels with the premium HD and movie package. And that includes the HD channels available for free over the air (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, WB and PBS).

Meanwhile, DIRECTV has 88 HD channels with the highest HD package. Even Dish Network beats cable with 58 HD channels. And both satellite options plan to add more channels in the near future.

So, cable better hustle. The numbers don’t lie. High Definition customers, such as myself, are ready to overlook the pitfalls of satellite to increase their number of channels. We didn’t invest in HDTVs to watch pixelated or stretched standard def channels.

HD offering numbers for Charlotte found at www.whereishd.com.

Like many regions across the US, the Charlotte area has been experiencing a drought. The city and surrounding counties imposed mandatory water restrictions including no watering of lawns, no car washing and no fountains or pools. Residents were also encouraged to take shorter showers and run less loads in the dishwasher and washing machine. Residents complied and due to recent rains, the drought status will soon be downgraded.

There was another effect of residents using less water in the past few months. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities Department made less money, leading to a whopping $20 million deficit. Charlotte City Council is bailing them out by approving a 15 percent hike in the water and sewer rates starting next month.

So, our prize for doing what the city mandated? Less water for a higher price. How no one at the Utilities Department or City Council foresaw this is mind boggling. Perhaps they were dehydrated…