The Empty Soda Can

Hayley Westenra • Never Saw Blue (Full Length Drums Mix) (✭✭✭✭✭) Sigur Rós • Gobbledigook (✭✭✭✭) The Locust • I Become Overwhelmed (✭✭✭) ABBA • Voulez Vous (✭✭✭½) Hayley Anderson • Every Corner of My Heart (✭✭✭✭) Mephisto Odyssey • Bump (Hot Pink Delorean Remix) (✭✭✭✭) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Once There Was a Snowman Heart • Who Will You Run To? (✭✭✭✭) Heart • Magic Man (✭✭✭✭) Heather Sullivan • Twisted (✭✭✭✭✭) We the Kings • Check Yes Juliet (✭✭✭✭✭) Holly Conlan • You Are Goodbye (✭✭✭½) Freddie Jackson • You Are My Lady (✭✭✭) Micky Dolenz • St. Judy’s Comet (✭✭✭✭) Micky Dolenz • The Moonbeam Song (✭✭✭✭) Les Rossignols de Poznan • Alleluia, Ave Maria Black Rebel Motorcycle Club • Dirty Old Town (✭✭✭) James Kibbie • BWV673 Christe, aller Welt Trost James Vargas • Sitting Pretty (✭✭✭✭✭) Tulsa • Rafter (✭✭✭✭) Pink Skull • Oh, Monorail (✭✭✭✭) Dr. Dog • The Old Days (✭✭✭½) U-Nam • Street Life (✭✭✭✭✭) Jazzmasters • Free as the Wind (✭✭✭✭) Tim Bowman • High Def (✭✭✭✭...

Steve Miller Band • Abracadabra (✭✭✭✭½) The Mills • Abran fuego (✭✭✭✭½) Steamroller • Absence (✭✭✭✭½) Jewel • Absence of Fear (✭✭✭✭½) They Might Be Giants • Absolutely Bill’s Mood (✭✭✭✭) Kelis • Acapella (✭✭✭) Counting Crows • Accidentally in Love (✭✭✭✭✭) Ex-Voto • Accidents Never Happen (✭✭✭½) Power Music • According to You (✭✭✭✭) Lita Ford • Aces & Eights (✭✭✭) Crash Test Dummies • Aching to Sneeze (✭✭✭½) Mark Morgan • Acolytes of the New God (✭✭✭✭) Sigur Rós • Gobbledigook (✭✭✭✭) The Locust • I Become Overwhelmed (✭✭✭) Chicago • I Believe (✭✭✭✭) Cloning Einstein • I Believe (✭✭✭✭✭) Micah Stampley • I Believe (✭✭) Tears For Fears • I Believe (✭✭✭) The Studio Sound Ensemble • I Believe I Can Fly (✭✭) The Darkness • I Believe in a Thing Called Love (✭✭✭✭½) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • I Believe in Being Honest The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • I Believe in Being Honest (Instrumental) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • I Believe in...

Paula Abdul • Coldhearted (Quivering 12″) (✭✭✭½) Love Derwinger and Roland Pöntinen • Concerto in A♭ Major for Two Pianos and Orchestra: III. Allegro vivace Lenny Kravitz • My Love (✭✭✭½) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • The Tenth Article of Faith Pepe Ahlqvist & The Rolling Tumbleweed • Big Pig Beta (✭✭✭✭) Narvalo • Aven Aven (✭✭✭✭) Blind Pilot • Go On, Say It (✭✭✭½) Blind Pilot • Go On, Say It (✭✭✭½) Blink 182 • All the Small Things (✭✭✭✭) Cathy Dennis • Falling Aretha Franklin • Angels We Have Heard on High (✭✭✭✭) Fresh Body Shop • Can't Get Enough (✭✭✭✭) Bryan Adams • Cuts Like a Knife Mainz Chamber Orchestra • Symphony No. 29 in A Major, K. 201: II. Andante Boom Crash Opera • Forever Ron Davis Trio • Popeye (✭✭✭✭✭) The B-52’s • Roam (Extended Remix) (✭✭✭✭) Winger • Baptized by Fire (✭✭✭) Frida Hyvonen • Enemy Within (✭✭✭✭✭) Throw Me the Statue • Lolita (✭✭✭½) The War on Drugs • Taking the Farm (✭✭✭) Sen Dog • Fumble (✭✭) Near the Parenthesis • Not Here, No...

It’s been noted by many authors that a surprising number of Latter-day Saints don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that we think ourselves above improvement; in fact, quite the opposite: we’re so constantly trying to improve ourselves, attempting to become more like our Savior, that making a New Year’s resolution is actually kind of redundant. So with that in mind, yesterday I came up with a New Year’s resolution that is completely unrelated to bettering myself per se , yet something that I can actually work towards with some semblance of completion. So, on to the task: in my iTunes library, I have a smart playlist with every track that iTunes has no record of me listening to. Obviously, I’ve actually listened to a lot of them: many are ripped from CDs that had been played at least once, often more than once, before I added them to iTunes. However, having never listened to them in iTunes, they have no play count, no volume adjustment, no equalizer preset, no ✭ rating, ...

A few weeks ago, my parents came for a visit. As it happened, just before leaving, my father accidentally deleted five songs he had recently downloaded from iTunes, and contacted technical support to see if he could download them again. Now, in my experience, this is a fairly simple endeavor. Long-time readers may even remember that I blogged about it, a while back, when a few of my own tracks went missing. Unfortunately, my father, who has probably the worst luck on the planet, was not so lucky. By the time my parents arrived at their hotel, en route to our house, a support tech had contacted him and re-enabled every track he’d ever purchased from iTunes . Let me re-emphasize this: he needed five tracks replaced, and they supplied his account with something to the effect of 981 tracks, 976 of which were already on his hard drive. What’s more, they were queued up in chronological order, so he had to download all 981, to get to the last five. In a hotel room. Over hotel WiFi. He le...