Ben O’Brien Smith

Ben O'Brien Smith

• Best Radio Out There :: Part I August 21, 2009
  Consider this Part I of a three-part post I’ll be doing on my opinion of the best radio options available today. I grew up listening to the local rock/mainstream radio stations alongside classic oldies stations that my dad was listening to. As I got older, I lost interest in the mainstream because I was starting to [...]
• Upcoming Documentaries To Watch For August 20, 2009
  Over the past few months I’ve become very interested in documentary films. Part of this is that I’m kind of sick of the Hollywood work of late. The same story, the same ending, the same explosions, it’s like listening to mainstream radio- the same thing over and over. I’ll still watch a new movie, but [...]
• “Time Flies” :: New Single from Porcupine Tree August 18, 2009
  Porcupine Tree has released the first single from their upcoming album, The Incident (due out 9.15.09).  ”Time Flies” is a nostalgic, catchy song in 6/8 that is quite reminiscent of “Trains” (In Absentia). Hopefully this will help to tide us over until the release date. An accompanying music video was created by videographer/visual ar […]
• New song by Radiohead :: Free download! August 17, 2009
  Following Thom Yorke’s comments about the decision to stop releasing full length albums, Radiohead has released a new song, “These Are My Twisted Words,” for free download. Johnny Greenwood posted on the bands website this morning; “So here’s a new song, called ‘These Are My Twisted Words’. We’ve been recording […]
• How many speakers does it take… August 17, 2009
  If anyone were to know the answer, it would be sculptor Villu Jaanisoo. Jaanisoo is the creator of an art installation at the Art Museum of Estonia. Wave features hundreds of speakers on poles. All of the speakers are in working condition and are wired up to play sounds of crashing ocean waves. The best [...]
• SoundCloud :: Audio sharing of a higher quality August 16, 2009
  A glorious day has finally come; WordPress now supports the embedding of SoundCloud sound files. For those of you who aren’t familiar, SoundCloud is a website that allows you to upload audio, embed it, share it (publicly or privately) and interact with other users in a social networking scenario. Not to sound like a fanboy [...]
• Scenes from a Vermont Summer August 14, 2009
  I’ve been really enjoying my camera this summer and, recently, I’ve been very interested in outdoor photography. I’ve been taking hikes, going for walks, drives, etc. with my camera and taking shots of anything that I thought I might want to look at again. Here are a few of my photos from the past few [...]
• Movie Review :: The Soloist August 12, 2009
  Last night I decided to watch a movie that I’d heard some great things about but managed to slip past me when it was in theaters. I loaded The Soloist into my DVD drive and sat back. The following 117 minutes were filled by a genuinely honest film about a musician and journalist who were [...]
• Zappa Plays Zappa Nails it Again | Higher Ground 8.10.09 August 11, 2009
  Last night was a night to remember (and certainly not a night easily forgotten). Dweezil Zappa and the gang of talented musicians known as “Zappa Plays Zappa” performed a 2 hour 45 minute set without break. They were so tight and well rehearsed it was mind boggling. Having seen the group perform at the same [...]
• A Hot Day in the Green Mountain State August 10, 2009
  Today was likely the hottest day we’ve had this summer in Vermont. I decided to take advantage of the partly cloudy sky (nicely diffused lighting) and do some outdoor photography. I was first inspired by the fresh vegetables in our raised bed gardens. After taking a few photos and swatting off mosquitos, I loaded up [...]