Moving to Squarespace!

Wow, two days were enough to convince me to move to Squarespace. Absolutely amazing! please follow me at my new address: http://edstream.sqarespace.com

Free Images? morgueFile.com is awesome!

Just a few minutes ago I was looking for a good image to use on this blog, and low and behold, I found a 'hidden jewel': morgueFile.

Usually, when I'm looking for reference art or royalty free images I end up using istockphoto.com. However in this case, I decided to swim in the waters of freely available stock art. During this search, I stumbled on a great list of sites to choose from (follow the links for more info). Out of these, the one that fitted my needs -and had the best index- was morgueFile.

About morgueFile:

The idea to build the web's morguefile was conceived by Michael Connors as a college student in 1996. It is currently a collaborative effort between brothers Kevin and Michael Connors who own and maintain the world wide web's morguefile.

This site is dedicated to the Connors family. Dorothy, Dennis and Jean Marie Connors who are deceased. Dennis and Dorothy Connors were special education teachers who devoted their lives to educating children with special needs and behavioral disorders. In utilizing this web site, you help us honor the memory of our parents and sister.

Michael Connors is a multi-media artist at Grey Interactive in NYC. Kevin Connors is a special education teacher and part time photographer living in Clifton, NJ.

The morguefile contains photographs freely contributed by many artists to be used in creative projects by visitors to the site. To acknowledge the artist's accomplishments, we ask that you credit the photographer when possible. Any questions regarding liabilities should be directed to the specific photographer.

Note that none of these sites is as deep as istockphoto.com, but you can't argue with free! Just one recommendation: always look at the license for the image you want to use. Not every illustration or picture is free for commercial use, and if you want to avoid headaches (and lawsuits) down the road for you and your customers, always double check the terms established by the original author.

In my case, I found a great image and a link to a really cool Italian photographer: Clara Natoli. You owe it to yourself to check these free sites on your next project.

Thanks Clara!

Loving 'Death Magnetic'

I've been listening to Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' for a while already (especially considering that six songs were available last week and the whole album since the 11th) and the truth is that I'm impressed.

This album is neither perfect nor a travel back in time, instead it offers another turn in Metallica's always evolving musical landscape. Here Metallica seems to channel some of the fury and aggressiveness of ...And Justice For All with the pop melodic sensitivities of the Black Album.

This endeavor doesn't work 100% of the time (I'm looking at you 'Cyanide' and 'My Apocalypse') but when it does, it's great. My favorites so far are 'Broken, Beat & Scarred' -which fits perfectly next to any AJFA song- , 'All Nightmare Long' -with the most infectious chorus this side of the 'Enter Sandman'- and oddly enough, 'The Day that Never Comes'. Besides these big stand-outs, there are a bunch of other tunes I like a lot: 'That Was Just Your Life', 'Judas Kiss', 'The End of the Line' and (gasp!) 'The Unforgiven III' (yes, I must be the only person on the Internet that likes this song).

There is a piece of this experiment that has been semi-neglected by most of the press and it's that Metallica has finally learned from some of their mistakes by letting the fans listen to the whole album for free from their site. I applaud this idea and I hope more bands do something like this in the future (just yesterday I was able to do a virtual listening party with my brother -in Venezuela- using this feature!)

Among the few things that keep this album from being perfect, the two to come to the front -in my opinion- are:

1) The mix: talk whatever you want about Bob Rock but you can't deny that -with the exception of St. Anger- he helped Metallica sound great (don't believe me? go, play 'The Black Album' and then come back). Where was Rick Rubin when this album was being mixed and mastered? Judging by the videos from MissionMetallica he wasn't anywhere near the recording studio. This whole "loudness war" is driving me insane, these songs are too good to sound this bad. Sometimes the drums are too loud ('The Day that Never Comes') or the voice is not loud enough.

2) Whatever happened to AJFA's drummer? Almost every other member of the band seems to be coming back in shape. Kirk solos -although not always epic- give most of the songs a newfound sense of melody while providing the second instrumental voice that was so prominent in Metallica's earlier efforts. Don't get me wrong, Lars is playing better than in the last couple of albums (just listen to the brilliance of 'Broken, Beat and Scarred'), but sometimes I wish he would find his double bass more often. 'When I listen to 'The Day that Never Comes' I can' stop thinking about how 'flat' the drum fills are through most of the song. '...And Justice for All' showed the world how amazing a metal drummer can be, and maybe the problem is that the bar was raised too high by that album.

All and all this is a great record, probably one of the top 3 of the year and for sure the best album Metallica has done since their self-titled effort. I've always been a proud fan of Metallica (I even like St. Anger!) and albums like this definitely make it easy to fight the naysayers.

'Death Magnetic' Final Score: 9 bleeding skulls/10