Opening the Musical Box

Oh, Pandora, where have you been all my life? And why did I never hear about you before?

Seriously, this is a fantastic site, based on the work of the Music Genome Project. You type in one of your favorite musical artists (or songs), and it sets up a "radio station" with songs by that artist plus a whole host of other songs and artists that Pandora thinks are similar.

If Pandora's wrong in some of its choices, you can tell it so, and it will meekly pull those songs from the playlist. Then it re-analyzes its choices to try and bring them more in line with your musical tastes. Similarly, if you particularly like a song it gives you, just tell it so, and it'll add more songs in the same spirit to that particular "radio station".

Right now I'm getting some really fabulous results from starting with Prefab Sprout -- a whole bunch of artists and songs I've never heard before, but so far I like nearly all of them. I keep giving tracks the thumbs-up, and Pandora's giving me more of the same. It's a great way to discover new music.

On Pandora's playlist right now: "Beautiful Way" by Beck. And what do you know? I like it.

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Oh, and good news: my Graphire II pen has started working again. Huzzah! I guess it just needed a couple of days to dry out...

Ficlets Ahoy!

A while back I said I'd post links to all the drabbles and other quick-fics I'd written for the "Stump the Author" meme, so here I am making good on that promise.

( Doctor Who )

( Doctor Who/X-Files )

( Remington Steele )

( House )

I also wrote Snape/Luna for lizbee, but since that ended up being revised and expanded into the middle part of "Opportunities", there's no need to repost it here. I still owe her a Snape/Lily drabble, however, which I plan to write as soon as I can think of a suitable idea.