The real world sucks.

I haven't been updating the content management system that runs this site for the past few years. So I'm about to convert this site into a static html site so that I can retire the CMS, which has undoubtedly had myriad security patches released in the meantime.

The future of the pAved earth is probably nothing, but Andy and I still get together occasionally and we've talked about doing a podcast or something. We're really lazy, so don't count on anything, but you never know...

Long live Crock Alternative!

-Ben Thu, 24 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT I've got the new machine configured correctly and our suspension has been lifted. So, we're finally back up and streaming. Sorry for all the confusion. Mon, 21 May 2007 12:56:00 GMT Apparently, I misconfigured something when setting up the new box. I was streaming at 96k while we've only purchased 56k through our streaming provider. So, our account has been temporarily suspended until I get it fixed, which will happen tonight. Argh. Sun, 20 May 2007 21:26:00 GMT The stream is up again! It's not done, but it's up and you can listen to it. Let us know if you have any troubles with the new setup. Mon, 14 May 2007 23:52:00 GMT The streaming server was dead dead. So, I'm taking this opportunity to get rid of my last windows machine and setting up a new streaming server running on Debian Linux. So far, I've got it setup to stream and play music. I still need to setup the playlist and figure out how to make it update the now playing line above. I'll probably not bother having it post into the chatroom anymore. I'll post again when it's back up completely. Tue, 8 May 2007 16:00:00 GMT I guess I spoke too soon. The server has died again, so apparently there was more wrong with it than just the power supply fan (or the overheating actually damaged something...). That machine is pretty old, so I guess it's time to switch to a new box. I'll post here when it's alive again (again). Tue, 8 May 2007 14:00:00 GMT I've replaced the fan on the streaming server, so the stream is finally back up! Sorry for taking so long. Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:09:00 GMT The fan in our streaming server's power supply died over the weekend. The inevitable overheating caused the machine to crash. I'm going to be replacing the busted fan tonight, so the stream should be back up then. I'll post an update here when it's going. --Ben Sat, 31 Mar 2007 12:14:00 GMT Main Yikes! It's been months since we posted anything. I don't have much of anything to say, except that I've been working (off and on...) on a redesign of the site and a new playlist system that should keep the stream more fresh. Stay tuned... Sat, 23 Dec 2006 05:00:00 GMT Main

I finally moved the streaming server to our new 'headquarters.' This means that requests and the 'now playing' line in the site header are now working. Sorry for the long delay. Thu, 30 Nov 2006 13:50:00 GMT The stream is up and running in its temporary location. The move is ongoing... Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:50:00 GMT The TPE headquarters (currently in the basement of my house) is moving to a new location (the basement of my new house). I'm moving the streaming server to a temporary location (the basement of my parents' house) until the internet is connected at our new place. The stream will be down for the next several hours until I am able to get it hooked up at my parents' house. I'll post here when it's back up and running. Thu, 9 Nov 2006 20:00:19 GMT

I'm working on some pretty major changes to the site with some new features as well as the return of some old features that went away. Most of the new stuff is geared towards making the site be a little more dynamic and not appear to be stagnating for months on end. So, there's something to look forward to.

In the interim, go read my review of the Beautiful South concert that Cyndi and I attended last week.

So long, 24k stream; you've served us well. Alright, not all that well...

Also, we've switched stream providers, so please let us know if you encounter any weirdness when connecting or listening to the stream. Thanks.

It's been a while since we last added some new music into our rotation. Sorry about that. We're totally weak. We actually have added some since we last posted about it, but we just never got around to announcing it. You know how that goes...

But, it's all better now. I've just added a bunch of music. First up is The Capes. You may remember when we added their promotional EP a while ago; it was the first time we added a promotional CD that we received into our rotation. Since then they've come out with their first full-length CD titled Hello. It's a great CD that is even better than the promo EP, so I've added several songs from it.

Second up is Duvall. You may or may not know that Duvall is the band that the lead singer of the Smoking Popes formed before the glorious reuniting of the Popes themselves. The Popes had broken up so that he could devote himself more fully to his religion. I see Duvall as the stepping stone between singing in the choir and the Smoking Popes; it sounds like and rocks out like the Popes, but has a more religious (although mostly not overtly) bent. As far as I know, they only ever put out this one album, Volume & Density.

Speaking of the Smoking Popes...they've got a new live album out. It was recorded at their first concert after reuniting. Since it's a live album I'm not adding too many from it, but there are a couple songs whose live versions are so different from the originals that they really deserve to be in rotation.

Last but certainly not least, is the all-powerful Morrissey. His new album Ringleader of the Tormentors inspired quite the debate on a recent episode of Pave the Earth Radio. Mainly, the debate was whether ROTT was better than his last album You Are the Quarry. We didn't come to agreement on that topic that night, but either way, the album's great. I've added most of it into rotation.

So, there you go. A bunch of new music to listen for here on the pAved earth. Mon, 19 Jun 2006 20:12:42 GMT Our technical difficulties have been remedied. The streams are back up. If you're still encountering problems, please post a note in the Tech Support forum. Mon, 19 Jun 2006 12:37:04 GMT We're having technical difficulties. Apparently, our dynamic DNS provider, dynDNS.com, has removed our account or something. This means that the relay servers are unable to find our main stream. I'm working on it and will post an update here when it's back up. Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:13:03 GMT

As promised, Friday's episode of Pave the Earth Radio is now available through our podcast. See? We can be trusted sometimes!

And, as an extra bonus, we have posted a photo that Rrrob took during the broadcast. You can see it in our neglected photos page. Fri, 9 Jun 2006 17:40:12 GMT

I know it's lame posting the contents of The FITS to the home page two weeks in a row, but what can I say? I'm lame. Anyway, here's what was just sent out to the mailing list:

Hi everyone,

Ok, so last week we ended up not doing a show. We are jerks who abused your trust and have been severely reprimanded. We promise to never do it again.

In an effort to re-earn your trust, we propose the following:

You tune in tonight starting around 9 p.m. eastern, and we'll put on an all-new live episode of Pave the Earth Radio, complete with Andy, Ben, and probably Rrrob. There may even be a super-secret surprise guest. It will be a good show; we're having pancakes beforehand, so we'll be all hopped up on Mrs. Butterworth's and bacon. Also, you can join our lame chat and berate us mercilessly, if you're not satisfied that we've suffered enough for what we've done.

We hope that you can forgive us and we can go forward together as friends. We understand that our relationship will be a little strained for awhile, but we know that if you will but give us one more chance, everything will be better. We can change; we promise.

Just add that to your podcast client (probably iTunes) to get our shows automatically. If you have any problems with this, please post in our tech support forum on our message board. Fri, 2 Jun 2006 20:27:48 GMT The following dispatch has just been released to our super-secret mailing list of the ultra-powerful:

It's been forever since we did a show. Travel and scheduling conflicts have conspired for months to make it so. But, that all changes tonight! Not only are we doing a show, but we'll be joined in-studio by a new, never-heard-on-TPE guest (who will be making lasagna beforehand). As always, it will be a good show. So, blow off your Friday night plans and tune in! (as if you've got plans anyway...)

The show starts at 9 p.m. eastern. Fri, 17 Mar 2006 20:09:05 GMT

Shocking news! There will be another live episode of Pave the Earth Radio tonight! Yep, you read right--two episodes in a row! You've got 6 hours to let that sink in at which point it will be time to tune in, join chat, and listen to the show. So far, Andy and Ben are confirmed for tonight; Andy's giving Rob a call, so there's a pretty good chance he'll be there as well. Also, Andy is bringing a secret guest.

The show starts at 9 p.m. eastern. Click one of the 'tune in' links above to listen.

Again, Andy has taken a break from his gallavanting around the world in order to bring you (with Rrrob and I (ben), of course) an all-new episode of Pave the Earth Radio! It's been a month and a half since our last show, so there is a ton of stuff to talk about: Andy's head-smashing as he tries to convert the bushmen to Hinduism (no idea why, Andy isn't Hindu and he has an unswerving hatred of the bushmen), Rob's rash, the Smoking Popes concert that I attended, music, technology, politics; the whole bit.

The show starts at 9 pm eastern tonight. Click one of the tune-in links at the top of the page to listen, and be sure to join us in our lame chatroom.

Anyway, even though the plans are somewhat less than concrete, I wanted to post to let everyone know just in case. I'll update this post once the plans solidify one way or the other.

If we do a show, it'll be our first since November, so it should be pretty good. It'd start around 9 P.M. eastern. Your best bet is to just tune in to the station right now, and then never disconnect. That way, there's no possibility of missing the show.

Maybe, I'll even get the webcam up and running...

Hmmm. There sure are a lot of maybes and ellipses in this post. Maybe I should edit it... Fri, 11 Nov 2005 16:50:18 GMT Well, it looks like we'll be doing a live show tonight.  So, be sure to tune in starting around 9 eastern tonight, for hijinks, hiliarity, and a rather disturbing tale from me, ben.  I'm in a rush, so this update's pretty weak.  Sorry. Sun, 30 Oct 2005 23:18:37 GMT I upgraded our content management system today.  So, there may be some bugs in the site that I haven't found yet.  If you find one, and feel so inclined, please post a note in the tech support forum. 
Mon, 17 Oct 2005 17:14:05 GMT Main The contact form on the Contact Us page has been broken for a while.  I've just fixed it.  I know this isn't a very exciting entry.
Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:18:11 GMT Main

Last week's show was such a hit, that we decided to go crazy and do another one.  Andy and Ben will be here, with Rrob a possibility.  He's got 'a thing' to do.  No word on what 'the thing' is, but I have a hunch it's a hit on this guy who has been stepping on Rrob's toes.  That's right...You know what I'm talking about. 

So, you better tune in tonight at 9 eastern, or we'll send Rrob to your house.  And then he'll take you to his dance class.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in for last night's episode of Pave the Earth Radio.  We discussed a myriad of topics, disected Serenity, and generally did what we always do: crack lame jokes until we either geek out (and drive all the listeners away) or the Mountain Dew-induced high leaves us and we come crashing down to the non-caffeinated rocks below.  The show lasted until about 1:30 AM, and some of you stuck with us the whole time.  We're planning on another show next Friday night, so hope to see you then.

In other news, I've just re-added the form to sign up for the FITS, our e-mail newsletter.  We only use it to announce live shows and new features on the site, so it's not really intrusive or anything.  So, sign up and know when to avoid listening.  You can sign up to the left on the homepage, or through the FITS link at the bottom of every page.  --ben

The ever traveling Andy has returned, which means that there will be a new episode of Pave the Earth Radio tonight!  Andy, Rrrob, and Ben will all be there, with much to talk about, so it should be a good show.  So, tune in using the buttons at the top of every page.  The show will start around 9 P.M. eastern.

Here at the pAved earth, we get a fair amount of promo cds, mainly from indie bands and labels.  So far, we have yet to add one of them to our playlist.  Usually, either they really really suck., or they're a completely different type of music from what we play.

But, that all changed with the arrival of promo cds Taste from The Capes, and Just Wait from The Jane Anchor.  Both are great pop albums that fit perfectly in with our collection, so I've added 4 songs from Taste (out of 6 on the EP) and 4 from Just Wait (all 4 on the EP) to our regular rotation.  For more info, check out The Jane Anchor's  official site, or this review of Taste.

I just added 3 new bands to the rotation: Noise for Pretend, PlusMinus, and Earlimart.  I found them all on Emusic (although I think Andy had found Earlimart previously). I don't know much about any of them, only that after listening to them I liked them enough to not delete them.

I've added some new Cinerama and Wedding Present to the rotation. OK, the Cinerama's not really 'new' per se, but it's new to us.  It's the most recent b-side collection, Cinerama Holiday.  The Wedding Present album is actually newish (released this year), titled Take Fountain.  I've just finished going through both, and they're both great.  Funny note about Take Fountain: when they entered the studio, they were planning to record the new Cinerama album, but after hearing it, they decided it was really a Wedding Present album (they're basically the same band).

We will be doing a live episode of Pave the Earth Radio tonight.  So far, Andy and Ben are confirmed, while we're still waiting to hear from Rrrob (who is apparently too busy to check the message board every 10 minutes; the nerve of some people!).  And as a special treat, one of our two longest-time listeners, Melli, is in town and will be joining us in studio for the show tonight (the other longest-time listener is Carrie, who we thought we had lost forever until a recent post on the message board; welcome back Carrie!)

So, the show should be good.  So, tune in, request away, and join in the converation in our lame chat. The show starts around 9 p.m. eastern; hope to see you there.

Rrrob is back from exile and will be taking back the web Friday night on an all-new live episode of Pave the Earth Radio!  In addition, Andy is back, too!  So, for the first time in about a year, all 3 living members of the pAved earth will be in the studio.  We will undoubtedly discuss deep and heady topics such as: politics, technology, music, and hideous space locusts -- all with our patented lack of knowledge and patent-pending miniscule intellects!

So, tune in Friday night at 9 p.m. (eastern time) for the show.  Of course, we'd love for you to join us in our lame chat room during the show.  For more info (not really info, per se, so much as more text), click on the locusts link above.

I've just added a self-titled LP from Ambulance LTD to the rotation.  They were introduced to me by the same guy who introduced Stellastar, and they're pretty good.  Listen for them in the stream.

I (ben) have launched a blog entitled furiousBlog.  Rrrob has had a blog for quite a while now entitled Genetic Synonymic (well, actually, it used to be called Generic Synthetic, but was recently changed -- I typically just refer to it as gensyn).  How does this relate to the pAved earth?  Not very closely!

But, we do have our ideology section of the site, where the motto used to be 'steal our ideas and impress your friends', but has been somewhat neglected of late.  So, since some of us on TPE are expressing our ideas, I decided that it'd be a good thing to assimilate them into the ideology page to give it a little life.

Why, you may ask, did I not link to Rrrob's blog before?  Why did I wait until I had my own blog that I wanted to get people to visit?  The answer is obviously that I am a selfish inconsiderate jerk. Happy?

 While you're thinking about blogs, you may want to check out the blogs of a couple of our friends: the poo, and Gary.  See?  I'm not so inconsiderate as you jerks think.

Ok, I know we've been through this before, but it's still exciting.  The best part about the pAved earth, in my opinion at least, is our Crap Music On-Demand request system.  And it's been down for a couple of months due to a change in our content management system (really it's due to the fact that I didn't pay attention to the fact that this change had happened while upgrading and broke the request module that I had written).  But tonight, I got off my lazy butt and fixed the requests!  So get over there and request away!  We've got around 17 or 18,000 songs these days, so there's plenty to choose from -- probably even some cool new stuff you haven't heard.

There are a few little bugs still in the requests, but they seem to be back where they were when I broke them, which is about 90% working.  In rethinking the remaining bugs, I still can't figure out what may be causing them.  Oh well, they'll get worked out at some point...

Andy's back, so there will be an episode of Pave the Earth Radio tonight.  So, be sure to tune in.  The show starts at 9 p.m. eastern. 

Also, the New Music on TPE page is working now. 

Andy's been wanting a page on the site where we can post a note whenever we've added new music to the station.  I finally got around to setting it up.  When we add music, we'll make a post about it.  It'll show up both here on the home page and on the new 'New Music on TPE' page.  The new music page will just have the new music posts, and as such, will be easier to go back though to see what music we've added over time.

This is actually the first new music post.  A few weeks ago, we added The Delgados (who I think just broke up), One AM Radio, and an EP by the French.  Tonight, I added several albums including a few from Heavenly, two from the Decemberists, and one from the Arcade Fire.  I got the Decemberists and the Arcade Fire set up in the normal rotation.  I also added a Bjork tribute cd featuring the Decemberists and Kind of Like Spitting.  I haven't listened to all of it, but what I heard was great. --ben

During my show tonight, I got the lame chat room back up and running.  So, tomorrow night, when you're listening to the show, you can get into chat easier.  Lucky you.

There will be an episode of Fetid Cheese (Q.R.V.) tonight.  That's right, after a literal eternity, I (ben) will be doing a show.  Since it's quite possible that you've never heard one of my live shows, you should check out the link earlier in this paragraph, and then be sure to tune in.  The show will start at 9 p.m. EST.  I've been listening to a lot of Hefner, Modest Mouse, and The Postal Service recently, so they'll probably figure heavily into tonight's playlist.

Also, Andy and I (ben) will be doing a live episode of Pave the Earth Radio tomorrow night.  It will be (I think) the last show for at least a few weeks, since Andy (I think) will be travelling again starting next week.  So, tune in for that, too.  It also starts at 9(ish) EST.

We've finally switched away from ezboard for our forums.  We're now using PhpBB to run them.  It's hosted on our own server, there's no ads, and there's a lot more cool stuff we can do with it.  Not that we will, but we could. 

Over time we've gotten away from referring to the forums as Agnes.  Why Agnes, you ask?  Well, you see, when we first started the pAved earth, we were using this horrible remotely-hosted message board solution that was called Agnes.  I have no idea why.  So, we got used to referring to it as Agnes, and even when we switched over to ezboard, we still called it agnes.  But, like I said, that has faded over time.  So, as a small but lasting homage to our fallen message boards of yesteryear (yesterday in the case of ezboard), I have assigned the new message board the URL of agnes.thepavedearth.com.  So, please stop in and say hello.  --Ben

The paved earth is moving to a new server (again).  Luckily, this time it's from one Linux machine to another, so I won't have to rewrite the site all over again.  Also, since we've started using CMS Made Simple, the transition will go much smoother.  In fact, if you're reading this, you're already looking at the site on the new server.  --Ben

You know all that stuff I said in the post about the show last week (2 down from this post)?  Yeah?  Well imagine it was actually about a show tonight.

There will be a show tonight.  Andy & I have discussed it and I'm not planning on being gone when he gets here (which is what happened last week).  So, barring a flood (actually a possibility), you should tune in and listen tonight.  The show starts at around 9 p.m. eastern.  If you find yourself trapped in a flood with absolutely no chance of survival, you should tune in, so that your last minutes on earth can be filled with the merry revely that is the trademark of a live episode of Pave the Earth Radio.

I fixed most of the problems with the new CMS. Sadly, there is still one lingering problem: the requests. CMS changed their module interface between versions 8 & 9 (we were going from 8.2 to 9.2 I think), and it broke my requests module. So, when I get a chance, I'll update it to the new module interface.

While fixing the site, I stumbled across the option to make the news available as an RSS feed, so I turned that on. I seem to remember seeing it before, but I can't remember if I ever messed around with it. So, there you go; no requests, but you get an RSS feed. Pretty crappy deal. You should get a better agent.