SteveCastellano.com

I thought long and hard about what to give my loyal readers for Christmas this year and came up with what I think is the perfect gift: XHTML 1.0 Transitional validation.

This has meant taking down the Referrer code. Sadly, URLs with ampersands will not validate. That means that many search engine referrers will make my XHTML Validation claim worthless when they are appended to the list.

While the search engine queries were among the most interesting things under the Referrers headline, I can sum them up for you thusly: the SY77 is still very popular in Europe, resulting in a lot of searches for service info and sounds. People like their VSTs free if possible, and many of them were wondering what that VCS3 rumour was all about. There are periodic bursts of interest in things like service manuals for electric pianos and the Sound Lab Mini-Synth DIY project. And occasionally there are baffling referrers indicating that someone got here by clicking the 271st ranked entry for “Yamaha trumpet mouthpiece”.

And some people get here by Googling my name, which is equal parts flattering and unsettling.

Just in time for the ‘04 election, I have uploaded a remix of America. In keeping with the spirit of the election season, it features a guy saying the same thing over and over again, and isn’t really all that much different from the version that I recorded four years ago. Featuring vocals by Joe “could have been a contender” Lieberman.

Time:	5:32
Size:	6.9 MB
Download MP3

There are people who are going to read more into this tune than they should, and there’s nothing I can do about it. All I can say is that you take inspiration where you can find it, and Fire and Rain wasn’t really about a girl dying in a plane crash.

A slightly improved remix, hot off the, uh, out of the… oh nevermind.

Time:	4:22
Size:	5.4 MB
Download MP3

As has become an annual custom here, I’ve uploaded some near-classic Christmas songs that I recorded a while back to help offset (augment?) the tide of overplayed and unlistenable music in which we are all immersed at this time of year.

Sing along, if you know the words.

Santa Please			Stars Come Out			Close Your Eyes
Time:	3:10		Time:	3:00		Time:	1:48
Size:	3.7 MB		Size:	3.5 MB		Size:	2.1 MB