If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you read this blog, or watch my YouTube submissions, then you know that I am an enthusiastic hookah hobbyist. I love the tradition, I love the experience, I love what it adds to community environments, I love what it adds to private meditation and study. I just love it.

So, being that I’m the kind of person that needs an outlet to share the things I enjoy in order for me to fully appreciate it, I have begun a new blog project with an online friend, Dennin. Together we’ve been working to produce HookahReport.com. An online magazine-style blog about the hookah culture.

The new blog aims to deliver hookah related news, reviews and tips and tricks. So far, things are growing quickly and readership is steadily increasing. I love the new blog and wanted to share it.

If you’re a hookah enthusiast and you’re interested in doing some writing on HookahReport, send me an email with a sample of your writing and some background on your experience with hookah!

So I’ve had my iPhone now for about four months. Anyone who knows me in real life knows I’m practically a zealot for the thing. I absolutely love (just about everything) about it.

A little over a year ago, I had switched from Verizon to AT&T so that I could get my hands on the iPhone 3G. Well, Verizon managed to lure me back with a series of pretty outstanding incentives. During the short time I had the phone, there were a handful of complaints that I had about it. The usual of course, (no picture messaging, no video capture, no landscape texting). Finally, with the 3GS, all of my complaints were addressed, and frankly, I can’t really think of anything I wish was there that isn’t! So, naturally, I abandoned Verizon and moved back to AT&T.  (And I don’t know what you all are talking about, I don’t even notice a difference in service).

So, as I have been planning on writing this for a few weeks now, the time has come. This is a list of my absolute favorite applications for the iPhone. These are all apps that I use on a regular basis. They appear in no particular order.

Vlingo
Lets up update multiple social networking sites at once. I use it for Facebook and Twitter. But the best part is, it has built in voice recognition so that you can speak you updates rather than typing them. Perfect if you on a long car ride or something. Vlingo is free.

Rowmote Pro
Rowmote lets you control your Apple computer with your iPhone. It has a built in touchpad for the mouse (full control and gestures, just like the Apple touch pad), a full keyboard, and an Apple style remote for media control. It also has built in support for lots of different applications—not just Apple’s Front Row. Among them are VLC, Plex, Last.fm and even Safari. Rowmote Pro is $4.99. It may seem steep, but when you add up all the different apps you need to do what Rowmote Pro does, it’s actually quite reasonable.

Dictionary.com
I like to avoid general web browsing in Safari when there’s a specialized app alternative. The Dictionary.com app is just that. It also includes a thesaurus. But best of all, all the info is localized in the Phone. The app predicts which word you’re looking up, and results are instantaneous. The only drawback: it takes about four seconds to start, which feels like an eternity. Still faster than Safari though. Dictionary.com is free.

WifiTrak
WifiTrak is a wifi scanner that will look further than the built in one. And it really does work. It can be set to refresh constantly which makes it perfect for scouting out open wifi networks in a pinch. And, because it’s in your phone, it can be used while you’re driving (something you can’t very well do with an open laptop). Once you find a network, then you can pull out your laptop and get to work. WifiTrak is $0.99.

The Weather Channel
The lite version and the paid version are the same, but one has ads. The Weather Channel app is more complete that the native weather app—namely with hourly and weekly reports. The Weather Channel is Free, or $0.99 depending how tolerant of ads you are.

Shazam
Identifies songs. Hear a song, open the app and find out what it is. Works about 90% of the time. I use it to identify music in movies and tv shows. The app also provides a portal to online stores selling the songs. Shazam is free.

Apple Remote
Browse and control iTunes on your computer. I love it because it lets you browse you iTunes library like it’s your iPod. See album art, rate songs. It’s pretty much all there—except coverflow. It also supports song requests by other iPhone users who are guests.

Movie Genie

Once again, I like to avoid Safari when there’s a specialized app. Movie Genie browses the IMDb website for movie and television information. It has about 90% of the website’s functionality. Movie Genie is $1.99, but it should be noted that there is now a free app put out by IMDb, but I know nothing about it’s functionality.

Cheap Gas
Pretty self-explanatory. Uses your current location to find the cheapest gas. Also provides a quick link to directions and a weird augmented reality function. Cheap Gas is free.

ProCamera
Among other things, it adds zoom and anti-shake to your camera. In fact, it makes the camera down-right usable. It has video function, but there are no special features for the video, which is kind of a blower. Perfect for photos though. ProCamera is $0.99.

RedLaser
RedLaser is a barcode scanner. It’s way faster than any other barcode scanner in the app store and it’s product search is far more thorough, even including local results. I thought this kind of app was useless until I found RedLaser, and now I rarely shop brick-and-mortar without using it. RedLaser is $1.99.

SmartSync

Syncs your phone contacts with your Facebook account. This is good for the compulsive people like myself who want to have all the last names and pictures possible for the contacts in their phone. It works fast and has plenty of options to keep you from accidentally overwriting information. SmartSync is $1.99.

Dragon Dictation
Simple voice recognition and interpretation. But the key is that it’s really, really good. No need to over-pronunciate. Just speak normally and Dragon figures it out almost every time. It doesn’t do anything else, but offers quick links to copy text and jump to email and text messaging. Best part is, Dragon Dictation is free.

Last.fm

Everything we love about Last.fm radio, on the iPhone. I use this all the time to find new music when I’m away from the computer. I recommend it over the Pandora app. Last.fm is free.

This week Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place takes the prize. Now, I have to preface all this—I haven’t actually been listening to Explosions in the Sky all that much this week. In fact, I haven’t really been listening to anything in particular. I’ve just had my top 250 play list going, skipping songs as I see fit. However, in some sense, Explosions in the Sky is kind of always playing in my head.

A couple weeks ago, I talked about having been convicted about having a lot of music from before I was a Christian that I didn’t actually own. I went through and deleted a great deal of music. Much of the music I was deleting would be sorely missed. Among the deleted was Explosions’ excellent melodic instrumental collective The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place. When I resolved to delete the stolen music, I didn’t expect that I would be deleting so much beloved music, but this week as I was scrolling through my ipod searching for Explosions’ to inspire my writing and thinking I found that it had suffered deletion; in a frenzied panic, I got online to purchase the missed tunes.

When I was first introduced to this band four or five years ago I didn’t give them too much credit. I had listened to a few of their albums on shuffle and as far as I was concerned it all kind of sounded the same to me. Long twanging melodies on a clean electric guitar usually on the backdrop of lightly building percussion and on occasions some kind of strings ensemble. At the time, I was more enamored with other melodic instrumental groups such as Godspeed You Black Emperor or the closely related Silver Mt. Zion; both projects spreading their sound out over a diverse range of sounds. In contrast, Explosions sounded relatively narrow and so held little appeal to me.

This past year, I’ve been able to listen to Explosions with fresh ears, so to speak. This is likely due in part to their becoming more popular and so hearing them in more pop-culture contexts (i.e., Primetime TV or a host of pseudo-independent film). Regardless of how or why their getting my attention now, they are and I’m pleased.

None of Explosions’ songs from The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place sport any kind of vocals. Their almost entirely “thinking music” as I’d like to call it. Or, given the circumstances, they’ll make pretty much any conversation seem dramatic (try reading a Doctor Seuss book out loud overtop of the album’s closing track Your Hand in Mine. I think you’ll get my point).

Something that I find interesting about Explosions’ music is its strange ability to amplify whatever emotion already exists. At least, I’ve found this to be mostly true for myself. Most other music in the vein of Explosions has a tendency to cultivate an emotion that wasn’t previously there. This hasn’t seemed to be the case for Explosions. For me this has made the music useful for writing and thinking since it helps me to more easily connect with what I’m already feeling and thinking.

As far as artistry goes, I’m not really qualified to judge. They have an excellent sound and it seems that they do what they do skillfully and uniquely.  However, words are really something I have a bit more expertise in (eh, maybe that’s an overstatement), and without them, I find myself at something of a loss to make critiques. In any case, I highly recommend Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place both as a tool for thought and creativity, but also as entertainment and inspiration.

Strange as it may seem, this week I’ve been listening a lot to the Counting Crows. Actually, it’s been more like a week and a half. It started when the Serius radio link went out at work and I plugged up my ipod. I needed something to play on really short notice. I found the Counting Crows CD and hit loop. Ever since the songs have been stuck in my head; plus it’s pretty easy music to just put on and forget about.

So, here’s the thing about the Counting Crows. I’m not an especially huge fan. I can remember back in high school/middle school hearing that song Long December on the radio and liking it. I can even remember singing it in the shower. It might have had something to do with social status, or maybe just an overall lack of funds, but I never did purchase a CD from them until recently. Even when I did get my hands on a CD, I think it was Recovering the Satellites, I wasn’t especially crazy about all of the non-single songs on the CD. So truthfully, to this day, I wouldn’t list the Counting Crows and any kind of top ten, or even probably a top 25 (maybe a top 50).

So what the heck am I doing writing about them? Their singles. They’re awesome. The Counting Crows radio songs a great. The hooks are great. The lyrics are great. The music is great. They’re just great. So about a year ago when I found out they had released a Best Of album titled Films About Ghosts I was pretty excited. I picked up the album (although I can’t really remember where, I think it was itunes) and have pretty much thoroughly enjoyed their whole arsenal of singles.

Some of my favorites from their Best Of album are Round Here, Long December, Rain King, Omaha, oh heck, I just really like all the songs. That’s part of why it’s been playing on my ipod for the past week or so—all the songs are great, so you never really need to skip any songs. In fact the only song I skip is Friend of the Devil. It might be superficial, but the title makes me uncomfortable.

So, the conclusion, if you like what you hear from the Counting Crows on the radio, but don’t know where to start, then go pick up their album Films About Ghosts, it will almost certainly not disappoint you with late-nineties pop-folk-rock goodness.

It’s probably on a weekly or bi-weekly basis that I move in and out of listening to a lot of one specific artist’s music—usually. I suppose sometimes it might be a certain set of artists who all share a similar sound or message. Regardless, it’s almost like tides. This week it’s one thing and next week I’ll be enjoying something else. This gave me idea to keep all of you up to date on the current week’s listening. I have an eclectic music taste, so maybe you’ll have some recommendations for me, or maybe my recommendations will introduce you to some music you haven’t given a chance yet.

So this week, my ipod has rested pretty consistently on a group that I discovered several years ago named The Weakerthans. While I’m especially fond of their album Reconstruction Site, their older albums Fallow and Left & Leaving also have some gems on them. Their music can probably most easily be described as folk rock, but that description is likely to confuse people. It’s rare that the Weakerthans sound much like the groups that probably come to mind when folk rock is used to describe them. Wiki-pedia describes them nicely as “Folk-Punk”. I think that’s a bit more precise.

The vocals of front-man John Samson sound something akin to those of They Might Be Giants, but for those of us who have some trouble stomaching the weird lyrics of the Giants (what the heck is a triangle man?), the Weakerthans are an excellent alternative. Samson could also easily be compared to Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. The songwriting is interesting, creative and almost always catchy. It’s not hard to find catchy music, and it’s not a long search before coming across some interesting writing, but to effectively marry the two is a rarity. Songs like Plea From a Cat Named Virtue, Psalm For the Elks Lodge and Our Retired Explorer (all from the album Reconstruction Site) stand out as some of my favorites.

The music itself is a nice split between acoustic and electric. The group often utilizes an array of instruments and styles (i.e., country, pop-punk, grunge-pop). Most songs are somewhat upbeat, but even when they’re not, they’ll fool you into thinking they are.

Besides some political themes, the content of the music itself isn’t at all course. You won’t find any swearing (at least I haven’t) and there aren’t any kind of graphic descriptions or anything like that. It’s pretty much clean and it doesn’t at all sound like they tried to make it that way which sometimes ends up sounding really lame.

All in all, I highly recommend you check out The Weakerthans; especially their album Reconstruction Site. Got a suggestion for me? Let me know.

 

I know it’s a tad late, being that January is coming to a close soon, however, it’s not too for me to share my cinema likes and dislikes from 2007. I would generally say that I judge movies based on whether or not I was kept entertained, then if it failed, met, or exceeded my expectations. So that’s how I’ll share my opinions; sporadically and with an inconsistent measuring stick. Enjoy!

Arranged by release date:

 

The Messengers

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Somewhat; it had it’s moments of excitement and chills.

Recommended: Probably, if it were for some reason free.

 

Ghost Rider

Expectation: Met

Entertained: I got in for free; I still miss those precious lost moments.

Recommended: Maybe for military torture; but only if its for the good of the nation.

 

Wild Hogs

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Shamefully; it was royally dumb, but I couldn’t help but enjoy myself. It was actually pretty funny.

Recommended: Yeah, in rental. Don’t expect too much.

 

Zodiac

Expectation: Met

Entertained: If I didn’t love David Fincher’s work, I’d probably have become bored at some point through the movie- it was long. However, being as it is, I enjoyed myself and got what I wanted out of Fincher.

Recommended: Yes, especially if you’re a fan of his previous stuff (se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room).

 

300

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Yeah, I enjoyed myself, it just should have been better.

Recommended: Yes

 

Reign Over Me

Expectation: Blown out of the water.

Entertained: I cried. Adam Sandler does his job way better when he’s not trying to make me laugh.

Recommended: Absolutely.

 

Blades of Glory

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Yes, it was funny, but no where near as funny as their premise allowed for.

Recommended: Only if you can put up with needlessly lewd humor.

 

The Lookout

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Yes. Joseph Gordon-Levitt did an awesome job as the lead and it was great pretty much every time he was on screen. Beyond that though, we’ve kind of seen the story already and the rest of the package was only mediocre.

Recommended: Eh, sure

 

Meet the Robinsons

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Not really

Recommended: It’s not worth the rental

 

Disturbia

Expectation: Seriously met

Entertained: Crap yes; the characters were seriously believable, the situation wasn’t too far fetched. It did a great job keeping you on the edge of your seat and Shia, he did an awesome job.

Recommended: Yes, emphatic, yes!

 

Hot Fuzz

Expectations: Failed

Entertained: Only for the last few minutes. The mock-action movie shtick was pointless because it only described the last few minutes of the movie.

Recommended: Unless you’re a fan of the troop, no.

 

The Invisible

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: By how bad it was.

Recommended: No way

 

Next

Hahahahaha

 

Spider-Man 3

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Yup; it was funny, exciting, cool and in the end pretty satisfying.

Recommended: Yeah, but don’t expect the Mona Lisa on screen, she won’t be there.

 

28 Weeks Later

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Yes, it was good second installment. I found that I cared about the characters and easily got involved with their situations.

Recommended: Sure

 

The Ex

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Yes, but it was hard to watch. It was in the same vein as Meet the Parents in that things just kept going wrong for the main guy, so much so that it almost hurt.

Recommended: Good date movie

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Only so much that it finished out the trilogy and wrapped some stuff up. Jack Sparrow lost his appeal, the spontaneous wit from the first move was gone by the third.

Recommended: If you’ve seen the first two

 

1408

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: It was genuinely scary. Cusak did an awesome job and it had a good word buried under the thrills.

Recommended: Yes

 

Evan Almighty

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Not so much

Recommended: No

 

Live Free or Die Hard

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Definitely; tons of fun action. It’s nice to see them let Bruce Willis just go nuts with a ridiculous character.

Recommended: For sure

 

Transformers

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Again, Shia is awesome, the action and effects were cool, and the soundtrack was totally epic.

Recommended: Of course

 

Joshua

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Very, it was slow, but characters and situations were so ominous, however pacing wise, it was slow. The photography was excellent.

Recommended: Unless you have an affinity for film photography, probably not.

 

Hairspray

Expectation: Met

Entertained: I love musicals, and this one was through and through

Recommended: Get the sing along version.

Sunshine

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Yeah, but it felt really incomplete; like they poorly adapted a graphic novel.

Recommended: No

 

The Simpsons Movie

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: They did a great job taking genuine Simpsons humor and putting it in a full length movie plot. It didn’t seem like a really long episode and good thing! I also appreciated that it was, by and large, pretty clean.

Recommended: Yes

 

The Borne Ultimatum

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Like the rest in the series, it was awesome. Really compelling and tons of fun. Plus, its great cause Jason so satisfyingly stays one step ahead, all the time.

Recommended: Watch the first two first.

 

Hot Rod

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Lots of good belly laughs. Nothing too crude. Stupid, it’s unrelentingly stupid, but in a witty, creative way.

Recommended: Yes, watch it with friends.

 

Stardust

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Yeah, it was fun and funny

Recommended: Yeah, but you gotta be okay with cheese.

 

Superbad

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Unfortunately. Michael Cera was really good, but it was so raunchy that I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy most of it.

Recommended: No way.

 

3:10 to Yuma

Expectation: Blown away

Entertained: Thoroughly. Maybe the only meaningful, powerful, thrilling, western I’ve ever seen. Everyone does an awesome job.

Recommended: Definitely.

 

Across the Universe

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Marginally; the music was good but strung together in a relatively incoherent manner.

Recommended: Eh

Trade

Expectation: Obliterated

Entertained: That’s not a good word, really. It was truly powerful and thought provoking. Marvelously acted. I cried through a good third of the movie.

Recommended: Yes, but it’s heavy. You need to be ready to consider what the movie is bringing to you. It’s not just for fun.

 

Darjeeling Limited

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: It was genuinely funny, not too slow, I cared about the characters and their relationships to each other. I could have done without the sex.

Recommended: Yeah, but start it 15 minutes in. You’ll miss the gratuitous nudity.

 

Gone Baby Gone

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Yeah, Casey Affleck did a great job and I liked the outcome.

Recommended: Yes

 

Martian Child

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Definitely; everyone did an awesome job. The story was touching, but not hokey.

Recommended: Definitely

 

No Country for Old Men

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Definitely, the movie was genuinely chilling and thrilling. Although it was gory in the beginning, they stopped showing it unnecessarily once they got the point across (unlike others, i.e. Pan’s Labyrinth)

Recommended: Yes

 

Beowulf

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Yeah, kind of.

Recommended: Probably if its free

 

August Rush

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Only a little cause I liked the music; but by and large it was just cheesy without much to say for it.

Recommended: No

 

Hitman

Expectation: Failed… miserably

Entertained: I forgot what movie we’re talking about

Recommended: Only if it can be refined into an alternate fuel source.

The Mist

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained:  Definitely, it looks the way books do in my head when I read them. The effects were sometimes sub-par, but I enjoyed the photography.

Recommended: No, you’ll be disappointed with the ending.

 

Juno

Expectation: Met

Entertained: Definitely. Really funny, moving, and treating a serious topic with a lot of respect while still making us laugh.

Recommended: Yes

 

I Am Legend

Expectation: Failed

Entertained: Yeah, I enjoyed Will Smith in the roll and it did keep me thrilled. However, with the plot they had, they could have taken the movie for three hours and I would have stuck with it. As is, they cut it short and it felt forced.

Recommended: Not really

 

Sweeney Todd

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Oh yeah, I love musicals, I love Tim Burton, I love Johnny Depp. Recipe for success. The atmosphere was awesome, music was awesome. Gore was whimsical and obviously artificial, which made it easier for me to watch.

Recommended: Yeah, but you need to okay with a lot of fake blood.

 

There Will Be Blood

Expectation: Exceeded

Entertained: Thoroughly; everyone did an awesome job and the characters were legitimately interesting.

Recommended: Yes