Pandora vs Grooveshark

Sometimes, I enjoy listening to music while I work. I like all kinds of music, but soul, R&B and soft rock are my favorites. The Internet has a lot of free radio stations, but Pandora and Grooveshark are the two that I use. I learned about both through blog posts. I like Pandora a little bit better.

Pandora allows you to choose the type of music they play for you. What I mean by that is if you select an R&B song, Pandora will start playing more R&B songs. Every now and then they'll throw in something from a different genre, just to see what you think. If you "like" it, they make a note of it in their system, then go back to playing R&B music. If you "dislike" the music, they make a note of that, too, and let you know, via popup message, that they won't play any more songs of that type. Another thing that I like about Pandora is that you can buy the songs you're listening to with little hassle.

With Grooveshark, you have to create music play lists. If you leave the music selection up to them, regardless of what you mark as a "favorite," they're going to play whatever they want. If you can buy songs through Grooveshark, I haven't discovered how to do it, yet. What I do like about Grooveshark is that you can replay your favorite songs over and over again. You can't do that with Pandora. Also, Pandora, like a regular radio station, has commercials. Grooveshark has ads that run down the side of the page; however, if you have a paid membership, you can remove the ads.

Another plus to Grooveshark is that you can mix music types. Since I like a lot of different kinds of music, my play list has everything from R&B to hip hop to rap to 80's pop to contemporary pop to gospel. It doesn't have to be that way, though. I could easily create a separate play list for each different type of music. I can do the same with Pandora by simply choosing a particular song or an artist who sings a particular type of music, then saving that music type as one of my "stations."

I find Pandora to be the most convenient to use. All I have to do is open the page and my music starts playing. Of course, I only have one station. Things might be different if I had two or more. Also, Pandora never interrupts the music to ask me if I'm still there. Grooveshark does that.

DVD Review - Live Free or Die Hard

For those who are “die hard” Bruce Willis fans, this latest offering in the franchise will not disappoint. “Live Free or Die Hard” delivers enough pyrotechnics, shootouts and tightly choreographed fight scenes, to satisfy any action-movie lover’s heart.

Based on the article A Farewell to Arms, by John Carlin, “Live Free or Die Hard” opens with hackers from various locations sharing their trade secrets with Mai (Maggie Q) over the telephone. Shortly thereafter, the unwitting hackers, all except Matt Farrell, played by Keanu Reeves look-alike, Justin Long, are compensated for their help. Because McClane is “in the neighborhood” and a senior officer, he receives the dubious honor of escorting Farrell to FBI the director, Bowman (Cliff Curtis), in Washington, D.C. It is at  this point that one might say, “Let the games begin!” Mai (Q), her boyfriend and terrorist ringleader, Thomas Gabriel (HOT Timothy Olyphant), and a team of dedicated assassins and technicians go for broke trying to tie up one last loose end.

Gabriel, et al intend to pull off an even bigger heist than either Hans in “Die Hard” or his brother, Simon, in “Die Hard With a Vengeance.” The film brings back memories of the day the Northeast stood still during a massive power outage spread across eight northern U.S. states and parts of Ontario, Canada. Picture that on a larger scale like, say, the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.

Faced with the reality of what his algorithm program has helped create, Farrell is determined to help McClane set things right again. Au contraire, you’ll be saying by the end of the film as both McClane and Farrell survive explosions, gunshot wounds and falls that should have, if not killed them, then at least left them totally incapacitate. The same goes for what some of the villains got up and walked away from, too. Nobody takes a punch more prettily than Maggie Q. Patricia Arquette, who admittedly took her punches like a man, didn’t look even half as good after James Gandolfini was done with her in “True Romance.”

The stunts and action sequences in this movie are nothing short of exciting. The tunnel and fire hydrant sequences are amazing. Later, there is a scene where one assassin incorporates "free running" or "parkour" to navigate. He also navigates a la Jackie Chan at one point and a la Mitch Gaylord at another. The whole scene is fun to watch.

“Live Free or Die Hard” is rated PG-13, in spite of all the violence. Directed by Len Wiseman (“Underworld” and “Underworld: Evolution”), the film provides two hours and nine minutes of virtually non-stop action. It’s well worth seeing if you’re into exciting, fast-paced, totally impossible movies. I can’t wait to see it again when it comes out on DVD so I can – I hope – check out how those incredible stunts were done in the special features segment.

I give this movie *** for fun and excitement.