A Few (Musical) Notes

I’ve been busy with papers and exams for school the past few days, but am happy that I turned in my final research paper last night. Now it’s just finals, and then a break. The nice thing about working at a school as well as attending school is that I actually get a Winter Break. I can’t wait.

Since I’ve been doing a lot of writing for one class and a lot of programming for others, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time at my computer. I’m on a perpetual quest for the perfect work music; something that allows me to block out the world, focus on the work, and become “inspired.” Now I have a new favorite: The Soundtrack to The Hours . Mark was right , as usual. Phillip Glass does an amazing job of conveying the emotions of the book and film through music. The Hours is one of my favorite books , one of my favorite films , and now one of my favorite CDs.

There’s a well-trodden adage comparing programmers to musicians, and while I have certain doubts about it’s truth, I do find myself more focused (productive?) and creative while listening to music such as this. And naturally I want to share what I’m listening to with others.

As an iTunes and Movable Type devotee, the iTunes Trackback Script is cool; it queries iTunes and posts trackbacks with the artist and title of what’s currently playing. But I want something better. What I really want is something which queries iTunes, sees what’s playing, gets cover art from either iTunes or Amazon, and then creates a post for the album in a particular blog category. I know all the pieces are available to make this an accessible task; maybe during break. Maybe using PyObj-C .

And on the subject of iTunes; wouldn’t it be cool to add Creative Commons licensing verification? Maybe display the attribute icons in the “LCD” area? Just an idea at this point; anyone know if iTunes provides hooks to draw things differently, or display different “tags” there?