First Quarter Country, 2009

Here are my top five country singles for the first quarter:

1. Love And Theft "Runaway"
2. Jamey Johnson "High Cost Of Living"
3. Caitlin & Will "Even Now"
4. Sarah Buxton "Space"
5. Randy Houser "Boots On"

I've already told you about the first three; in regard to the other two: Sarah Buxton has a cute, husky voice that I can imagine some people would think is too much, but it just makes me want to smooch her. She co-wrote "Stupid Boy," which Keith Urban had a hit with in 2007, and her version is even better. As for "Space," it's cute bitter hurt; goes, Now you want space, I'll give you space.

http://www.myspace.com/sarahbuxton

Randy Houser is probably miscast as a singer; he's a powerful songwriter whom Sir Mix-A-Lot would admire (co-wrote "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" and "Back That Thing Up"), but "Boots On" aches to be sung by Ronnie Dunn. But since it isn't, this is what we've got, a hard stomp with slice-your-hands-off slide guitar.

http://www.myspace.com/randyhouser

And since I learned of three of my five tracks from Chuck Eddy, here's the list he just posted on Rolling Country.

( Xhuxk's list )

His men would follow him anywhere

From this thread:

koganbot:
Is there a way to care about Kris Allen? He's got taste and timing, and that's all I can think of to say.

So, given Allison's limitations, does this mean... that I'm rooting for Adam Lambert?

Ack!

andthatisthat:
After this week's shambolic performance? I certainly hope not. :)

koganbot:
Subject: Vote for the one who keeps you awake

With Adam I'm reminded of that set of excerpts from "British Officer Evaluations" that was being batted around the Web a decade ago, the most memorable being:

"His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity."

andthatisthat:
Re: Vote for the one who keeps you awake

Hee. The thing about Adam is that I find him as predictable as everyone else (last week notwithstanding) - his predictability is just louder than everyone else's and has more lights shining behind it.

Adware: pick it or kick it?

Back in 2004-2005 or so my antivirus programs (first Symantec, then McAfee) would remove a bunch of adware from my Temporary Internet Files/cookies folders (cookies such as snap.com, sixapartadbureau.net, casalemedia.com, insightexpressai.com, revsci.net, 247realmedia.com, etc.). Then a couple of years ago McAfee must have decided that such cookies were innocuous, since it no longer removed them. Anyhow, I'll sometimes go through my cookies and delete such stuff - a relaxing few minutes while I listen to music.

Question: Am I possibly shortchanging the sites I like when I delete such adware? Do the data that such cookies carry help ad companies to know how often someone visits a site on which they place their ads?

In general, what's the consequence of retaining or of deleting such cookies?