I’m generally a ‘card guy’. I like giving cards, receiving cards and making cards and this year I made my wife an “old school mix-tape” card (only it was a CD because, you know, who has a cassette recorder anymore?) Here’s what was on her mix:

Hem – Waltz (from Rabbit Songs)
Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes (from So)
Jason Mraz – I’m Yours (from I’m Yours)
311 – Love Song (from 50 First Dates)
Incubus – Dig (from Light Grenades)
Band of Horses – Marry Song (from Cease to Begin)
Dave Matthews Band – I’ll Back You Up (from Remember Two Things)
The Bird and the Bee – How deep is Your Love (from Please Clap Your Hands)
Nick Drake – Northern Sky (from Bryter Layter)
Stevie Wonder – I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever) (from Talking Book)
Prince – Call My Name (from Musicology)
Paul McCartney – Maybe I’m Amazed (from McCartney)
U2 – Sweetest Thing (from U218 Singles)
Hot Chip – Wrestlers (from Made in the Dark)
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman – My One and Only Love (from John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman)
Dave Mathews Band – Crush (from The Central Park Concert)
Jay Wood – #41 (from ???)

Anyone else get crafty and make their sweetie a Valentine this year?

Here’s what I have so far. By all means, feel free to add more rules in the comments. I’ll be adding live commentary beginning at 7:00pm MST.

• Every time someone thanks God (or any higher power) during an acceptance speech – point to the sky – 3 drinks
• Every time music cuts off an acceptance speech – laugh – 1 drink
• Rihanna sightings – nod – 1 drink
• Every time anyone mentions “Rehab” – 1 drink
• Every time the name “Bublé” is mentioned – 1 drink
• Every time an American Idol (contestant or winner) is shown – 1 drink
• Every time an American Idol wins a Grammy – put your drink down – that’s how we ended up with these people in the first place
• If Bruce Springsteen wins a Grammy, stand, salute the television, and drink the rest of your beer.
• During the Foo Fighters performance take 1 drink every time: 1. Dave Grohl spits 2.Dave Grohl screams like a madman 3. Taylor Hawkins spins his drumstick a la Tommy Lee
• During the Rihanna / Time performance:
  • If they go into ”The Bird”, stand up and join in for at least 5 seconds, then sit down – 3 drinks
  • If it’s “Jungle Love”, exclaim “Somebody bring me a mirror!” – 3 drinks
• Should Prince win a Grammy for “Future Baby Mama” do a shot of Purple Motherf**ker (Recipe Below)
• Should Prince win a Grammy and accept it during the broadcast drink a pint of Purple Motherf**ker

Purple Motherf**ker

Over Ice pour:

1 Part Blue Curacao
1 Part Triple Sec
1 Part Vodka
1 Part Pineapple Juice
Top with 7-Up

One shake and serve as a shot or drink in the glass!

If you’re watching the Grammys on Sunday night, don’t forget to dial up Ickmusic for some live commentary from me and Michael, as well as the premier Ickmusic Grammy Drinking Game ®. If somebody thanks a higher power during an acceptance speech? Point to the sky and take 3 big gulps! Kanye West appearing visibly upset after losing another award? One hearty laugh and chug a beer.

So bring your laptop and a six-pack over to the TV and join us, won’t you?

More rules to follow…

If you’re here, you love music. And if you love music, you should be on LastFM – a free social music networking site. Especially with this morning’s news…

LastFM, which CBS bought last year, just announced a major deal with all four major labels, and thousands of indie labels, that will allow you – the music fan – to go to LastFM, and listen to any song you want, in its entirety. Pretty sweet, if you ask me.

Okay, so what is LastFM? What all does it do? I turned a few friends on to it over the last few months who had never heard of it, so there are probably bunches of you fine people out there who don’t know about LastFM. So here goes…

The first thing you want to do is sign up for LastFM. It’s free.

The next thing you’ll want to do is download their software (PC or Mac, it doesn’t matter). What the software does is it ties in to your music player, whether it’s iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, whatever – and keeps track of the music you listen to.

When you go to your profile page, you’ll find “charts” of the music you’ve been listening to, your top artists, your top songs, etc. Pretty sweet in itself. But that’s just the beginning. This is where the networking part comes in to the picture. Based on what you’re listening to, it shows you other LastFM members with similar interests, and displays them as your “Neighbors”. You can check out their profile pages to see what they’re listening to. You can send them invitations to be your “Friend” too. Friends can send recommendations to other friends, send private messages, etc.

Then there’s the Recommendations feature. By just typing in an artist, LastFM will start playing full tunes of similar artists – a great way to discover new music. It’s pretty sweet. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but it’s not. I’m a music GEEK, and this is music geek heaven, in my opinion. And now that they’ve made a deal with virtually the entire music industry (refreshing to see), this takes LastFM to another level.

Just think, any song you want to hear – in its entirety – for free. I am GEEEKED!

So check out my LastFM presence. If you sign up, send me a friend invitation. The more, the merrier!

Pete’s LastFM Page

That was my LastFM pitch.

Next Up: I have a ton of friends who still visit web sites one by one to check them out. This cannot stand! So coming soon… “Bloglines, Google Reader, and RSS Feeds: Get Fed!” or “You Still Check out Web Sites One by One? WTF?”

Folks, my hosting plan renews on the 14th of this month, and – wellll – I could use some help. This is my first ever plea – if any of you have a few dollars you can kick in to help with the costs associated with running ol’ Ickmusic, I certainly would appreciate it. You can donate whatever you wish through this Paypal link.

So here are some classic Temps to sing me out of this one… Thanks everybody!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9qUZHIpJAw]

In April, I turned into an Apple guy when I bought a new iMac. I also have my iPod, and, as of a few weeks ago, an iPhone (can you say L-o-v-e?). So call me heavily biased in favor of Jobs & Co.

So next week, Microsoft will release 2 new models of their media player, the Zune. One is the 80 GB player, “available in any color you want, as long as it’s black *“. Haha – love that. The other is a flash based model with less space – either 4gb or 8gb. Zune has the capability to wirelessly share music with other Zune users – though they are limited to 3 plays of the song. And starting next week, Zune users will be able to wirelessly synch with their PC. Lots of other features too…

But the point of this post is this: I have never ever met anyone with a Zune. I haven’t even seen one. So I pose these questions to you guys and gals…

Is there anyone out there who has a Zune?
Or do you know anyone who has a Zune?
Or are you like me: iPods rule the roost among your family, friends, and co-workers.

Just curious.