About a month ago, the hard drive in my 15-month-old Macbook Pro started making that bad “clicky-clicky” sound that is often associated with impending data loss. The 15 month age is critical to this story, as it’s over the standard 1-year warranty period for the MBP, and I was clearly too cheap (and suspicious) to purchase any kind of AppleCare protection.

Now, nothing really bad had happened to the machine yet, but when live and die by a single machine you tend to trust your instincts with these kinds of things. The hard disk was definitely threatening to take a dirt nap.

In one of the few signs of intelligence I’ve managed to display over the past few years, I have regular Time Machine backups, so I wasn’t overly concerned about losing any work. It was more an issue of timing… when was this thing going to bite it, and what would I be working on while it happened? And how could I circumvent the inevitable 2-3 day layover associated with the local Mac repair shop? (Keep in mind, there’s no Apple store — hence, no genius bar — in Calgary). Then it occurred to me: why simply replace the hard drive when I could upgrade it?

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A large chunk of this mix came together on a flight from Calgary to Montreal, early one morning a few weeks ago. It was a really nice way to spend the flight, and the presence of power adaptors on the seats really made my day. Flying the horrors of Continental or United lately has really blinded me to the perks the rest of the civilized world enjoys.

Only one comment this time about the set: Sultan and Ned Shepard have delivered one of the most mind-blowing breakdowns in recent memory in the form of “Jeopardy”. I’ve switched things around a bit here by combining the original’s techy progressions with 16-Bit Lolitas’ funkier remix, and it gives me chills. Enjoy.

1. Bonafied Lovin’ (Juri Hulkkonen Remix) - Chromeo
2. Movin’ (UNKLE’s Surrender Sounds Session 9) - Skylark
3. Mongoose (Guy J Remix) - Sasha
4. Jeopardy feat. Kuba Oms - Sultan and Ned Shepard
5. Jeopardy feat. Kuba Oms (16-Bit Lolitas Mix) - Sultan and Ned Shepard
6. One Dress, Two Legs (Dub Mix) - Jaytech and Jeff Drake
7. Fun Punch (Bag Raiders Remix) - Bag Raiders
8. Ikaros feat. Nicky (Retroid Remix) - Clesk, Pea and Shuda
9. Anime (Rocco Main Mix) - Hernan Cattaneo and John Tonks
10. Shine On - Soda Inc.
11. The Big Space (Subsky Mix) - 3kStatic
12. Dusty Horizon (Trafik’s Sirocco Mix) - Roland Klinkenberg
13. Pyramid - Jaytech

 

 phoenix sessions 004 [71:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The alt text on Google’s Marc Chagall-themed logo today reads “Happy Birthday, Marc Chagall! Chagall images are copyrighted and used with permission.“

Well that’s a relief.