Amazon Vine Review: This Is The Life

My review of Amy MacDonald's debut CD This Is The Life is hot off the press. This was not the typical kind of music that I listen to, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless. I should be getting something up from Johnny Flynn's A Larum in the next few days.

Until next time...
PH

More New Music

I discovered a new artist a while back called The New Frontiers. They are a Dallas based band that just put out their debut CD, Mending about three months ago. I found them to be a cross between Coldplay and Better Than Ezra. For more details, check out my review available on Amazon.

Until next time...
PH

July on the Vine

Amazon released the regular Vine newsletter on Thursday, and I choose a couple of CDs to review for new artists both from the other side of the Atlantic. The first is probably the best of the ones they offered. Scottish singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald's debut is titled This Is The Life. The other one is also a debut CD from Britain's Johnny Flynn called A Larum. Both of these probably best fit in the folk genre. I should receive these early next week so look for my reviews to be up in a week or so.

Until next time...
PH

Fun Music Web Site

I got a tip recently about a music web site called Pandora - radio from the Music Genome Project. It is free to create an account, and the site will allow you to create stations based on artists that you like. Once you create a station for say, Jackie Greene, it will play a song from the artist you entered. Then it chooses similar artists and plays a song from from each one allowing you to rate the song with thumbs up or thumbs down. The more songs you rate the more it can tailor what it chooses to your tastes. I found a new artist, Kris Delmhorst, on my Sarah Harmer station. Both are singer/songwriter types. Delmhorst has a few mp3s on her site that you can download from each of her albums. Enjoy!

Until next time...
PH

Bonus Vine Selection

If you've been keeping track, June wasn't the best month of selections that I've from Vine. However, they gave us a nice surprise yesterday. Publisher Harper Collins teamed up with Amazon to give us one selection from 17 of their upcoming books. The book selection in general had not been that great since around the first of the year, but they had some interesting things to choose from. I strongly considered The Black Tower, but ultimately decided to go with first time author Lisa Black's debut novel Takeover. I hope it lives up to its description, but being from a major publisher I think it will.

Until next time...
PH

Honda Civic: Early Returns

After a week of driving the new Civic, it was time to refuel this morning. Being the first tank of gas for the car, I had fairly low expectations (for a Civic anyway) of somewhere around 30 mpg. Much to my surprise it clocked in like a champ at 35 mpg right off the bat. This is really good considering that the first week included being stuck in a construction induced traffic jam. At any rate, it is living up to expectations so far.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: The Grand

The leftovers for June turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. I've already let you know about Martin Misunderstood. The poker themed movie, The Grand, didn't turn out to be strikingly better. Click here for the details.

On a positive note, Amazon is going to be giving us a special selection of books tomorrow from Harper Collins. I'm hoping to find something of interest there.

Until next time...
PH