Bon soir, Maurice!

I went to a French restaurant for today with my sister and our friends Yamilee and Austin. The place was called Rendez-Vous, and it was located in Fort Lauderdale. I'd never heard of it, but then, I don't go to a lot of French restaurants. It was actually part bakery, as those sorts of places tend to be, and the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. (No snooty waiters who take offense at your butchering of the French language.) I had a crepe with chicken, spinach, and mushrooms. It was good. Apparently Yamilee and Austin eat there a lot. I think I should go back at least a few more times to try all the things that looked good on the menu, not to mention the desserts.

When I upgraded my operating system a few weeks ago, I got a new version of Rhythmbox, my media player. In the new version, a plugin is enabled by default that allows you to stream and download music from Jamendo, a site that allows artists to distribute their music for free and receive donations from fans. So I poked around and found some albums that I liked. Here are a few of my favorites. All are downloadable for free.

• Demo by MoOt. Though it's a demo, its six songs are more polished than some of the other tracks on Jamendo. This album consists of nice pop-type numbers that are -- dare I say it -- Beatlesque. Very catchy, imaginative, and well-done.
• I Don't Know What I'm Doing by Brad Sucks. The artist's name and the title of his album both suggest a lack of self-confidence, but this album of moody-sounding semi-electronic numbers has managed to capture my interest -- an achievement to be proud of. I think I'd actually heard of Brad Sucks, even, and his music sounds like stuff that may or may not have been on the show with zefrank.
• I've saved the best for last: The Heavens by The Heavens. It's a professional recording by experienced musicians -- and it shows. This new British group's four psychedelic rock songs show that kickin' it old school is cool. The final track, "Echo Serena," is -- dare I say it -- sublime. (Or at least lime. I'm daresaying a lot of things today.) Highly recommended.

Although I've run out of the space I've allotted for myself, I will continue to go on about The Heavens for a minute. Their songs are cool. Their album cover is cool. (Seriously. Look at it.) A reviewer on Jamendo says of "This Beautiful Machine" that its stereo separation is "straight out of 1966." The drums and bass on either side, with guitars in the middle, hearken back to the days before record producers decided they should always be the other way around. "Echo Serena" is one of the better expressions of love ever committed to tape. And The Heavens the first and only band (not counting my friends' bands) that I've friended on MySpace. That is no small thing right there. I look forward to acquiring their next record, whenever it comes out, even if it involves paying money.

And now, the links.

If all the humans on Earth died, our buildings and cities would fall into a state of disrepair. Here are some lovely pictures of what it might look like.

Here's a fun read: "40 Years in the Future," from Mechanix Illustrated, November 1968. According to the article, the world of 2008 will have such advances as computer-guided cars, vacations in space, the four-hour workday, domed cities, and plastic silverware. Big-screen TVs will allow us to shop and take college classes from our own homes. We'll also be able to get new hit movies on demand!

Wikipedia has a list of common misconceptions.