We’ve got a nice show planned for June 4 in Philadelphia at the North Star Bar ‘Victorian Dining Room’, 8 PM. Oh, and we’re hammering away at a full-length album. Due out Summer 2012. Check out our unique ‘stirring…parlor-esque’ sound.

This song was submitted for the 2012 Philadelphia Songwriters contest, and is also available as a free download.

Goldbrick highlights Smiles, Everyone’s spirited command of art-rock theory and power pop punch. Jangly guitars layered over deft basslines and disciplined percussion create perfect structures for Nicola Dixon’s expansive vocal range and exquisite storytelling. Thematically, Goldbrick celebrates the awkward duality of living with a briefcase in one hand and a guitar case in the other. Smiles, Everyone capture this notion beautifully in their latest single Debbie Harry, an addictive, catchy gem that sets the pace for this impressive EP.

This is the first progress proof of a small engraving I’ve been cutting this week. There’s still much work to be done, but the composition and tone are beginning to emerge. At the moment, the grain elevator in the background appears to be thatched. That will need to be refined.

The scene is not real. It was drawn from a model that I composed with N-scale (1:160) structures – ones normally used for a model railroad.

[five-star-rating]

Upon launching version 2.0 I was greeted with the blog user set-up panel, as if my blogs weren’t already set up in the previous version. No Cancel or Done available – only Save. I quit the app and realized that the new version did not install itself ‘over’ the old version. Consequently, I could still access my sites with the old version. While this install behavior is strange, it wasn’t a big deal for me to set up three sites again…just had to find those login credentials…

After typing that first paragraph I tapped Save and returned to the posts pane, where I started. Seems more responsive.

One bug: after setting up a new blog, when you return to the main blogs selection page, that new blog doesn’t appear in the list. If you quit the app and relaunch, it shows up. This happens each time with three blogs.

The most important user interface change is that you now have a bottom menu letting you move arbitrarily among posts, comments, and pages. No more back and forth through the list trees.

When editing a post, you bottom nav changes to these four options:

Write. The expected post editing form which include title, tags, categories, and post status, along with the new option of geotagging your post. I did that with this post, but don’t think my theme renders it…have to work on that.

Photos. Add and manage photos for the post

Preview. My theme ‘cannot be retrieved’. I wonder what the requirements are for true in-app previewing.

Settings. Publish date, password protection, resizing of photos

I noticed minor display bug: when saving a revision to a live blog post, I saw an empty (no label) left-arrow/back button, slightly misplaced in the upper left until the save was completed. This only happened once, the first time I encountered the scenario described. , the first time I saved a revision to a live post. No biggie.

I’m done for tonight. Must say this version of the Wordpres iPhone app feels better and more responsive throughout. Still wish I could reply to comments. And now, it’s easy to reply to comments!