In what is probably a blow to my manliness, I’m a pretty big Coldplay fan. Things have become so bad that I wear green flannel and chop down trees while listening to the British four-piece, just to keep my innate gruffness in check. It probably doesn’t help my middle name is Martin, either.

Yet, during one of my more recent Coldplay binges — each song followed with a shot of manly whiskey, no less — I came upon a startling realization. The Coldplay of today is not the Coldplay of yesterday. Stunning, right? I’m expecting a gold star for this startling discovery in the mail any day now. But while every band obviously goes through some sort of transformation — a distinct evolution throughout their careers — Coldplay’s strikes me as particularly strange.

You see, Coldplay was once a band that had actual guitars involved in the song-making process. And I’m not talking about a half-hearted, Talk-style solo. These were full-fledged riffs that actually went somewhere musically, and more importantly, carried the song. Maybe even a little bass, that actually deviated from the chords in play. Today, we get a whole bunch of strings, an overabundance of keys, and a couple of band members wondering how long it’ll be until they have to learn the glockenspiel.

It’s a far cry from the early days, no doubt — just ask Bigger Stronger.

Maybe this is just the irritated rant of a fan who loved Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head oh-so much. There was something about the mix of guitar and piano that was different at the time — sappy, perhaps, but catchy. And that mix has arguably made Coldplay one of the biggest bands in the world.

Just a band with a little less guitar.

Now, to never speak of this forbidden fandom again; I’ve got some power tools to clean.

What is that sexy, beautiful piece of hardware up there? I’m pleased to say that this is the newest member of our Horrible family — the Blue Snowball microphone. Lovingly crafted in the deepest valleys of auditory wizardry, this is our first episode with Commissioner Gordon’s new mic, and we think both think he sounds better than ever.

But sound don’t mean nothing if we can’t give you the warm, gooey content you expect. What’s on tap this week?

• Me and Anand are doing the Queen Wave, and try to make sense of Google’s newest web service
• LISTEN as Anand gushes over his newest tech toy! MARVEL at the perfectly-tuned treble and bass!
• A moment of silence for Joss Whedon’s latest network television tombstone
• We debate the finer points of couch syrup remedies –  chloroform and ammonium chlorate come along for the ride!
• ChromeOS source code lands on PC’s everywhere, and I take it for a visualized spin
• And, in a new weekly feature, me and Anand tell YOU what WE did this WEEK!

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to take it to lunch. It’s the new and improved Not So Horrible Podcast.

Length: 37:03
Close: Everything You Do Is A Balloon – Boards of Canada
Download: 35.6 MB
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The Leonid meteor shower, 2009. Stitched two photos for a 15 minute exposure.

2 AM, Tuesday morning. I’m somewhere near Milton, where the roads cease to be roads, and are simply called “lines”. Seriously. Try telling a friend you live on 4^th line.

For that matter, try telling a friend that four teenagers, in a field at 2AM, are actually stargazing.

What we witnessed was the beginning of the Leonids Meteor shower. Says Wikipedia:

The Leonids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky. The 2009 display peaking on November 17 may produce more than 500 meteors an hour.

500 meteors an hour. On any given night, you’re lucky to see just one chunk of ice hurtling from the heavens, but a shower of this scale is simply immense. The hard part, we found, was driving far enough from the city to actually see anything, without actually driving very far at all.

We settled upon a small park way up Britania road, which was dark enough that we could actually see a good amount of stars – not cottage caliber, mind you, but more than was possible from our driveways.

We figured an alien abduction would occur at any moment.

Fears aside, I decided to take out the camera and try my hand at some long-exposure photography. Imagine you’ve been blindfolded, handed a cinderblock, and told to capture some stars. This is what long-exposure astral photography is like.

Capturing the stars is a dark art, and one I haven’t quite mastered just yet. It takes a tricky combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed adjustments, with the slightest tweak to one dramatically affecting the other. And while we thought we escaped the city’s reach, light pollution was still a factor too.

Nevertheless, we still saw some meteors – at least six, I’d say. It was a far cry from the 500 or so predicted at peak times and places, but it was good enough.

Thanks to Alex, Steph and Danny for coming along – you made it quite the adventure. Here’s hoping for more of the same next year!

Last year, taken in Northern Ontario. 10 minute exposure at ISO 100. Note the milky way, and single meteor trail, bottom left.

“People will never be replaced by machines. In the end, life and business are about human connections. And computers are about trying to murder you in a lake. To me, the choice is easy.”
- Michael Scott

Now, we’re not saying that our podcast is responsible for any sort of murder, or attempted drownings, but you never know. It could happen, after all. Around these parts, we’re believers that it’s only a matter of time before our subservient podcasting devices rise up and strangle us with our own mic cables.

But until that fateful day, we’ll keep the love and laughter going. Including this week, where we break out the anecdotes and cheese, and talk about us, in the least egotistical way possible. Casino Ram takes us inside the inner workings of Toronto’s AGO, oogling a Jar of Death with a four-thousand year-old boy. Meanwhile, I ride on a train, play on a train, and meet the people behind it. Literally — we were holding up traffic, after all.

And if that’s not cryptic enough, listen in for some Modern Warfare news, Arkham Asylum blues — or else you may just be eaten by a grue.

Length: 37:19
Close: Nate’s Theme 2.0 – Uncharted 2 Soundtrack
Download: 35.8 MB
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I will simply never grow tired of watching this.