4/29/04 by phil

Snap! The new iTunes* rules so much that if someone said "The new iTunes is not even cool at all," I would have to wittily retort, "I beg to disagree. The new iTunes is indeed quite enjoyable. AND it is entirely cool."

One new thing they've added for version 4.5 is that all of their videos are lumped together so you can browse the videos. While the "Fought the Law" video by Green Day seems like it may be tolerable, it is actually just the ad from the Super Bowl that Apple aired. Lame. On a similar note, there is a video from Ben Folds - Give Judy My Notice. Now I normally like his stuff, but this is a lame video of him sitting in front of a piano doing take after stupid take. And you can barely hear him singing. Sorry Ben, seeing you joke around in the studio is not my idea of a good time. Although I guess there are some who may enjoy it.

However, there is one video by a duo (I guess you'd call them that) that I have never heard of that is truly unique. Junior Senior, some crappy dancey-dance pair, released a video for their song "Move Your Feet." The title and music are as clever as you'd expect from dance music, but their pixelated, Atari-rendered graphics caught my eye and I had to watch this video.

I've never done "the acid" but I almost feel like I have after watching this semi-brilliant piece. The 8-bit graphics depict a diabolical squirrel, Junior (the smaller one), Senior (the bigger one), and a hot dog performing crazy antics. Definitely check this video out if you have the chance.

Also, most of you probably have the MTV, which may carry this as well, although it's probably on M2 instead.

*The new iTunes really hasn't changed that much**. It is still good, and maybe a little better. They are giving away a free song each day for the next week, although most of them don't look terribly good. Anyway, iTunes can still be downloaded for Windows, and I think you may be surprised at how simple managing your digital music really can be.

**The changes are: can share songs with 5 computers instead of 3; can burn a playlist 7 times instead of 10 before needing to change it (or recreate it); offers Party Shuffle DJ ability to see upcoming songs; iMix to submit your playlists to Apple (I don't see the point of this); music videos available from one screen; can import music from CDs using Apple Lossless Encoder