Matthew Gifford

Apparently, some people are starting to suffer from Sufjan-fatigue (via Marusin):

After having a few variations of the same conversation, I decided it was time to put my feelings out there. It is with great trepidation, but firmness of voice that I have to say that some how, in some way, Sufjan Stevens has made me bored with amazing music.

Even Sufjan is feeling it. From a recent interview:

Sufjan: Yes. I’m getting tired of my voice. I’m getting tired of…the banjo. I’m getting tired of…the trumpet.

Pitchfork: Do you think that’s because you’ve been so prolific over the past few years, or are you just getting restless?

Sufjan: I’m writing too much, for sure. I think it’s important to get a season of rest, and I’m not so sure I’ve done that. That’s why I’m not touring, I’m only playing one festival this summer. I have the summer off. I need to ride my bike more.

While I would be happy with five more albums of music in the Illinois style, I can understand why people are growing tired of it. It would probably be a good idea for him to change things up a little bit before it becomes old hat even for fanboys like me.

Sufjan: I wonder if my songwriting process is a constant reconciliation between pop music and classical music. I think the direction I’m going to go next is to work with a small string and horn ensemble and do more composition and arrangement.

On Monday, Skype announced that all SkypeOut calls originating from the US and Canada made to any phone in the US and Canada are free until December 31, 2006. Of course, I had to try it out right away. Wade made a SkypeOut call from Edmonton to my home phone. It sounded great. No noticeable compression or latency.

Out of curiosity, I checked out how much it would cost me to get a phone number and voicemail through Skype. €30 (about $38.50) for a twelve month subscription. This was shocking.

For comparable service (free calls to anywhere in the US and Canada) from Verizon, I pay about $80 per month. $960 per year. $920 more than I need to pay. Incredibly wasteful.

Even if Skype decides to start charging again for SkypeOut calls to the US and Canada, I highly doubt I’d rack up $920 in calls in one year. I would have to spend almost 639 hours (more than 26 days) in outgoing calls.

As far as I can tell, the only downside to switching to Skype is losing the ability to call 911. Is there anything I’m missing here?

I’m really trying to keep my linkblogging habit in check. But I need to point to a few free songs that I’ve been digging recently. They’re just too good not to.

• Sufjan Stevens: Dear Mr. Supercomputer
• Shapes and Sizes: Island’s Gone Bad
• Shapes and Sizes: Wilderness
• Danielson: Did I Step On Your Trumpet?

Also, if you’re a 1337 h4×0r, you should be able to easily find three more songs on the Shapes and Sizes site.

It appears that my battle to make the GUI version of Vim my default text editor in OS X has been won. Version 7 works perfectly. It also has a ton of new features that I haven’t had the chance to try out yet.

If you have a blog, please link to this post.

What happens when eighty people dressed in blue polo shirts and khakis walk into a Best Buy?