BOARD GAME

Let’s face it, we live in a hotbed of redneck activity. Hell, I was born in doublewide trailer. (OK, my mom made it to the hospital, we just lived there.) Perhaps that’s why I love Trailer Park Wars. The two-to-six-player game puts you in the position of trailer park manager. To be the park in town, you must place quality tenants (grouchy old guys, cat ladies) in your trailers, add tubular amenities (beer vending machines, bass fishing ponds) and destroy competing trailer parks. Best of all, each card bears a photograph of an actual, real-life trailer.

WEBSITE

I won’t rant about the beauty of open software and file sharing. I’ll simply say Linux operating systems — particularly Ubuntu — reign supreme in the world of computers and the interwebs. That said, Linux people should checkout Pithos. The native Pandora Radio website has all the features of Pandora, but Pithos gives you unlimited skips, provides detailed song information on the screen, previews the next three songs on your station and, best of all, doesn’t have any commercials. It’s online radio, but better.

ALBUM

Last week, after a seven-year hiatus, Fiona Apple released The Idler Wheel is Wiser than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do. Yes, that is really the title. I wasn’t interested in the album until I read her quote in the New York Times: “I’m a very stressed-out person, because still everything is so important. I have to give everything, my everything, and that’s exhausting, and how the hell am I going to do that for the rest of my life?” And I was sold. She described my crazy existence is one quote, and her twisted album and sultry voice is masterful. The album is like a Grimms’ fairytale. Childlike, yet so tortured.