The Z Files

Waking up is often the toughest part of my day. I’ve thought long and hard about how to kick myself out of bed in the morning. For a time, I considered bringing a Clocky home. (I still may!) Today, I was thrilled to find Alarm Clock. It’s an OS X alarm clock (really!?) app that tucks away in the menu bar and plays whatever you want from your iTunes library. I’m not entirely optimistic about its chances at getting me up in the morning, but I’ll give it a shot.

Symphony X is doing a North American tour that will stop in Toronto on April 11. They’re bringing along both Epica and Into Eternity. That’s one sweet package, as all three put on great shows. This will be the first time I’ve seen SymX do a full set, as my only experience with them was their brief second-stage appearance in Gigantour ‘05. It will be my third time seeing both Epica and IE.

Now for the bad news: the Sonata Arctica/Visions of Atlantis tour is pretty much avoiding anywhere touched on this fall’s Sonata tour, so I’ll likely take a pass on that.