I was trying a Play All in Windows Media Center on my Xbox 360 to see what came up, so I got to listen to some stuff I haven't thought about in a while. Of course, the bulk of my music collection won't play in WMC, since they're FLAC, but I was happy to see the 360 outputting a stereo signal, at least, instead of Dolby Digital 5.1, so I could apply Dolby Pro Logic IIx processing to it. Something that's funny is that even though it won't play FLAC files, it pulls the album artwork out of all of my FLAC files to create the scrolling tile background on the Now Playing screen.

Is there a way to add FLAC support to WMC? I'll admit I haven't even looked. I suppose I should look it up now.

The instructions I was finding made it seem pretty involved, but after downloading and installing the following, I seem to be able to play FLAC files in Windows Media Center now:

xiph.org DirectShow filters

WMP Tag Plus

The only weird thing is that it doesn't display the album artwork when I'm playing the FLAC files. It just has the generic musical note image. It still has the pulled album artwork for the scrolling background, but not for the main displayed image. Ha ha.

Ramona Falls - "I Say Fever"

I like the music video a lot.

Last night I rediscovered NPR's "All Songs Considered". Their web site has improved considerably since the last time I looked. Right now they have 14 full albums to listen to (yes, every song, and not just samples) before they are released on September 14.

I like Robert Plant's new one, "Band of Joy".

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98679384

(If you are reading this after September 14, 2010, then not all the songs will be available.)

Loretta on a Nora Jones DVD.

I just bought "Classic Rock Driving Hits" from costco..and just finished listening to the Whipping Post by the Allman Brothers Band

I'm listening to a couple of mixes my online friend put together. They're pretty good. I already ordered Love Is All's CD after hearing their track, "Bigger Bolder." Good stuff.

Dean, you'll be happy to hear she included Aural Vampire's "Mad Sports," which is indeed an awesome song. She said her friend she originally made the mix for was not impressed with it, though.

New Robert Plant dropped yesterday. Rushed right out. It's very good all around. However, why the hell is every long-established artist over 50 doing entire albums that pay homage entirely to Dylan. This one, new Tom Petty. et al.

It's like having your best "foodie" friends decide that they're only gonna cook cod from now on.

Or your freaky significant other suddenly going vanilla on you.

Mmm hmm, go on ...