Audible did it right by apple - you can buy their files from audible.com (and they're CHEAP;), download 'em to your Mac and (get this): play them anywhere! You can play 'em on an iPod (or other MP3 player), play 'em on your mac or even burn 'em to CDs. You can make backups. You can transfer to different media. It's a proprietary audio format, sure, but one so transparent that the only thing it prevents you from doing is filesharing it. I mean, you can, but it won't work without your login and password. It seems like the perfect system to me: You wouldn't think of sharing it because it won't work anyway, but what's the point when what you want is cheap, easy to get and freely portable?
DRM can work for all concerned, in a way that doesn't violate anyone's rights and stil pays the artists. Why hasn't anyone else tried this?
Funny I should see this article now, as I'm currently listening to Fear of Pop, a collection of spoken-word music mostly written by Ben Folds. And You're on it (speech/singing "In Love") and...it's really good.:)
So the question is: how'd you get involved in a late-90's rock frontman's side project?
This is slightly OT, but I realised something disturbing a few hours ago and it does relate to the radio/webcasting debate in a roundabout way.
I've got a friend coming into New York tonight, so I figured I'd check out a few local venues to see who's playing, what's going on and all that. One of my favorite music venues is Irving Plaza. (flash site) I like going to random shows, I like supporting local music and I like circumventing the RIAA as much as is possible.
Chck out the link above - see what's in the lower left-hand corner of the homepage under the Irving Plaza logo? "Clear Channel Entertainment."
As great as all that is, it shows how much of the internet we without broadband are missing. Yeah, I can conveniently grab the trailer for "Awsome New Movie 3", assuming my definition of conveniently is waiting three hours for the download.
Q. Do I have to use Internet Explorer to access TitanTV?
A. Yes. EyeTV always uses Internet Explorer because other browsers do not work properly with the TitanTV.com web site.
Well, I'm going to assume that makes it unappealing for most of us mac-people, doesn't it? I don't even have IE on my machine anymore - I got rid of it when chimera hit.6.
Added to which, the only reason I'd get a box like this would be to get rid of my TV - hook my VCR and various consoles through the Mac. But according to the FAQ there's a 1.5 second delay between signal output and display, making games unplayable. Damnit.:)
"The day before yesterday the root zone was silently changed for the first time in 5 years.
That's english at least. Something changed. Hopefully the rest will tell me what.
The change was to J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET that is now managed by Verisign.
Verisign's evil, right?
The usual sites don't breathe a word about this change however as one would expect for such a change to be properly announced.
Conspiracies are bad, right?
An interesing sidenote is this thread on the IETF discussion list." the_proton writes "The server j.root-servers.net has changed IP address to 192.58.128.30. The new root zone hints can be grabbed from ftp://rs.internic.net/domain/named.root or ftp://ftp.internic.net/domain/named.root. The new zone serial number is 2002110501."
[Brain explodes]
(Isn't it amazing when you read something written in your own language and don't understand a word of what's being said?);)
My problem is headphones. Even earbuds are fairly large, and easily broken in your pocket. Carrying my music with me everywhere is of no use if I can't listen to it. Are there any good solutions for carrying around headphones in a safe but non-huge way?
Dude, you're not gonna get much smaller than earbuds. The easiest way to carry 'em is either a. have a small bag for the player that you can put the 'phones in the bottom of (my iPod came with one of these, it's perfect) or just wrap the damn things around the player. Ok, they might break every two months or so, but you can get perfectly decent 'buds for ten bucks. Worth it for the portability.
I don't even know why I bothered replying. Eminem? Jeez, you spend the money for an MP3 player the least you could do with it is listen to some good music.;)
The problem with that is that it takes the books out of legitimate circulation - by constantly checking out "Mein Kampf" (or whatever) for political reasons you're depriving someone who actually WANTS to read them from doing so. It's a twisted form of self-censorship.
Think of it this way - if the FBI paid someone to keep a library's single copy of something controversial checked out don't you think we'd bitch and moan? You're proposing the same thing. It's not good if used by us and bad if used by the feds.
Personally, I get a bigger kick out of Alpha Centauri (with Alien Crossfire or without) than I do out of CivII, if only because of the tech shift. While I do understand the perverse pleasure of stealth bombers taking out natives with swords and shields (can you IMAGINE the looks on their faces? "Shit! God's coming back!":) I'm more of a space-guy than a history guy, and to me Lasers are more fun than real-world tech. With the history it's easier to pick holes in it. When you're dealing with a completely ficticious world-scape it's easier to be immersive.
Haven't played CivIII yet - I refuse to spend more that...$30 on what is ultimately an impulse buy. When the price drops I'll give it a whirl.:)
Fox daytime anchor David Asman is formerly of the right-wing Wall Street Journal editorial page and the conservative Manhattan Institute. The host of Fox News Sunday is Tony Snow, a conservative columnist and former chief speechwriter for the first Bush administration. Eric Breindel, previously the editorial-page editor of the right-wing New York Post, was senior vice president of Fox's parent company, News Corporation, until his death in 1998; Fox News Channel's senior vice president is John Moody, a long-time journalist known for his staunch conservative views.
Fox's managing editor is Brit Hume, a veteran TV journalist and contributor to the conservative American Spectator and Weekly Standard magazines. Its top-rated talkshow is hosted by Bill O'Reilly, a columnist for the conservative WorldNetDaily.com and a registered Republican (that is, until a week before the Washington Post published an article revealing his party registration--12/13/00).
The abundance of conservatives and Republicans at Fox News Channel does not seem to be a coincidence. In 1996, Andrew Kirtzman, a respected New York City cable news reporter, was interviewed for a job with Fox and says that management wanted to know what his political affiliation was. "They were afraid I was a Democrat," he told the Village Voice (10/15/96). When Kirtzman refused to tell Fox his party ID, "all employment discussion ended," according to the Voice.
I don't care what your political affiliation is, and I don't care what you think of FAIR's liberal spin. Bottom line, bottom-feeder: facts are facts once you weed them from the fluff, and based on those FOX has a rather acute slant to the right (fine) while claiming they're unbiased (not fine).
When I was a kid a friend of my father's had a pool table in his livingroom. I used to screw around on it. One day the guy showed me something really neat.
He put two balls right next to each other against the far bumper and balanced the 8-ball on top of them. He waleked around to the other end of the table and said "I'll bet you twenty bucks I can sink the eight-ball without touching the other two at all."
(Remember, I was 5:) It looked impossible, so I took the bet. He smiled at me, made his hand into a fist and brought it down on the far end of the pool table as hard as he could. The two support balls slid sideways from the jolt and the eight-ball came gliding down towards the center of the table. He put down his cigarette, picked up his cue and sunk the eight in the corner pocket.
Cheap trick, but very clever. (I still owe him the 20):)
You ever played Oni? Easily one of the best 3rd person action games out there. The camera was fixed behind the character - it didn't randomly swing out on you. It also had a nice touch or realism - you could only carry one gun at a time (the manual actually said something like 'how many guns do you think YOU could carry and still run around beating people up? One, if you're lucky. That's reality. Deal with it:P) and ammo wasn't easy to come by.
Pick it up, give it a shot. It's old enough at this point to cost you ten bucks or less.:)
two words for ya: guardian legend. Half overhead adventure game, half top scrolling fighter-type. Without a doubt, my all-time favorite NES game. Give it a whirl.:)
I appreciate the compliments (all three of them!) but I really don't think it's rubbish at all. He traded a small group of people who respected and adored what he did for a much larger group of...well, less intelligent people. Communication to the lowest common denominator is an easy way to make it big, but I find it to be demeaning as hell.
The Goon Show quote had a purpose (apart from shocking and delighting random people:P) - media like that requires a modicum of intelligence to find it funny. It's the difference between American Sitcoms and Brittish ones. Most Americans can laugh at Friends, but most of them confronted with, say, Blackadder, wouldn't get most of it - you need to know Brittish History (just a tiny bit of it) to find it funny; that's assuming too much of an American audience. I tried showing BA to my roommate - she watched all four series back to back (!) and thought they were the same characters throughout. She had no context with which to view it. She just couldn't understand what their costumes kept changing. (I'm not exaggerating.) It's the difference between comedy and humo(u)r.
"You've certainly got your patter down, haven't you?"
"No, this is different. It's spontaneous and called 'wit'."
The element to all this that didn't come through initially was the feeling of superiority I lost when they rereleased his first album. Be it britcoms or indie bands, I take pride in finding my own media. I don't own a tv good for watching anything other than DVD's and I try to buy my music from the artists.
you wear a 3 piece expensive suit, and I wear Dockers and an Irish wool classic-looking sweater. And then you get the job. You don't find that to be fundamentally misguided?
Yes and no. I admit I'm torn on this.
On the one hand, suits be damned. If you've got the experience you deserve the job (assuming you go to the interview presentably. Dockers & a sweater or something. Not a shirt from thinkgeek with potato chip crumbs littering the front.:P) But on the other hand, I can understand how someone comfortable in a suit can seem to mean more to an HR guy. It supposedly says something about a possible employee's...state of mind? Wrong phrase, but you see what I mean, yes? And I sort of understand that - HR wants someone who'll do their job and fit in - someone who won't make waves. Not saying it's right, just that I can see why they'd think that.
Meh. I dunno. As it is I work in an extremely casual environment (jeans and a t-shirt) and, as comfortable as a suit is to me, denim and flannel is the ultimate in comfort. Slacker ethic dies hard, what can I say?:)
You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you? Lydian modes are major scales with a raised 4th - a tritone - that, granted, lets you do some pretty funks stuff, (like, in C lydian that gives you a modal D7, the prime secondary dominant (V7/V) which is quite neat to have to use whenever you want it) but 'knowledge of lydian modes'? C'mon dude, that's a pompous statement. Leave the theory to the theorists, k?;)
and as for guitarists, have a listen to Richard Thompson and tell me there are no amazing ones left!
YES! I'm not the only geek who loves Richard Thompson!
Funny story: my dad's name is, coinsidentally, Richard Thompson. Every once in awhile when he goes into an HMV in New York, one of the counter clerks sees his credit card (and has been Shelving Richard Thompson Albums for months) and looks at my dad. They say "Are you THE Richard Thompson?" and my father, being the loveable egoist he is, goes "Yeah." because, as far as he's concerned, he's the only Richard Thompson anyone in the continental US might have heard of.
So the last time this happened ('bout a week ago) he looks at the guy at the counter, points to his recept and says 'you should keep this. You never know...' The counter guy blushes and pockets the recept.:)
"Band X is cool until they sell out, then they're just commercialized pop."
Sit down, my friend, while I tell you a tale. (with apologies to Peter Sellers):)
There's this musician. A guitarist. He put out an indie album (on Aware Records, the indie side of Colombia), coffee-house recordings. 10 Tracks or so. real rough cuts. Real heartbreaking. Lyrics were kinda juvenile, but in a waspy, nostalgic sorta way.
Someone higher up hear this guy and said: "Hey. He's good, but not mainstream enough. Throw some money at the problem. Get him a band and some studio time. Have him rerecord his songs. See what happens."
So he does. Goes into the studio with a drummer who knows one beat and only one beat (DUM-dum-CHICK-dum-dum-dum-CHICK), and Dave Matthews' producer (who has the uncanny ability to make everyone he produces sound like Dave Matthews, regardless of what they sounded like before.) They rerecord his heartbreaking coffeehouse songs, and as if with a scalpel, remove the emotion, the edge, the cute mistakes, the personality and the vibrancy. The remove the profanity. They clean up the solos.
And lo and behold this completely transformed pop-star starts getting gigs at Irving Plaza in New York City and airtime on LITE-FM. People walk around singing his pointless renditions of once-beautiful songs.
HE SOLD OUT. That in and of itself isn't too bad, they gotta make a living. The problem is he changed from being honest to being a shill for Colombia.
The only thing I had over people was "Guys, I know he's vapid now, but LISTEN TO THIS: It's his first album. Completely raw. Try it. It's really really good, and it's out of print. You'll see what he used to be like."
And you know what those bastards did to me? They rereleased his first album like it was some kind of 'discovery'. They used ad slogans like "Before his success," and "Work from his younger days." (HE'S NOT EVEN 30 FOR CHRIST'S SAKE). But he's played on LITE-FM. He's on the Barnes & Noble Compilations (they're subsidised for the music they play in the stores.) He's gone.
So yes. To me, selling out is a horrible, horrible thing - once the sheeple like something, any substance that was ever there, any FUCKING ART that there ever was hsd been do diluted for mass consumption, so stripped of emotion that there's no point any more.
First thing you learn in advertising is how you ask a question is just as important as the derived statistic. I want to know if they asked "do you think you should be able to copy a CD for yourself" (relatively neutral), "Do you think copying a CD should be allowed, as it is protected by US copywright law" (weighted for) or "do you think stealing music is wrong" (weighted against). I'd wager good money on the second. It's all about the quality of the questions, not the merit of the issue. 'Tho it's good to see we can throw meaningless numbers around just as much as the other guys.
Slashdot Mirror
Audible did it right by apple - you can buy their files from audible.com (and they're CHEAP ;), download 'em to your Mac and (get this): play them anywhere! You can play 'em on an iPod (or other MP3 player), play 'em on your mac or even burn 'em to CDs. You can make backups. You can transfer to different media. It's a proprietary audio format, sure, but one so transparent that the only thing it prevents you from doing is filesharing it. I mean, you can, but it won't work without your login and password. It seems like the perfect system to me: You wouldn't think of sharing it because it won't work anyway, but what's the point when what you want is cheap, easy to get and freely portable?
DRM can work for all concerned, in a way that doesn't violate anyone's rights and stil pays the artists. Why hasn't anyone else tried this?
Triv
he guest-starred on an album released with Ben Folds called "Fear of Pop" a few years ago - it's really friggin' good. Check it here.
Funny I should see this article now, as I'm currently listening to Fear of Pop, a collection of spoken-word music mostly written by Ben Folds. And You're on it (speech/singing "In Love") and...it's really good. :)
So the question is: how'd you get involved in a late-90's rock frontman's side project?
Triv
This is slightly OT, but I realised something disturbing a few hours ago and it does relate to the radio/webcasting debate in a roundabout way.
:(
I've got a friend coming into New York tonight, so I figured I'd check out a few local venues to see who's playing, what's going on and all that. One of my favorite music venues is Irving Plaza. (flash site) I like going to random shows, I like supporting local music and I like circumventing the RIAA as much as is possible.
Chck out the link above - see what's in the lower left-hand corner of the homepage under the Irving Plaza logo? "Clear Channel Entertainment."
Fuck.
I. Can't. Get. Away.
Triv
Just a quibble.
:)
The actual reference from "Good Omens" is that all tapes turn into "Best of Queen" after a Fortnight. A Fortnight's two weeks.
Triv
As great as all that is, it shows how much of the internet we without broadband are missing. Yeah, I can conveniently grab the trailer for "Awsome New Movie 3", assuming my definition of conveniently is waiting three hours for the download.
:(
I wish broadband didn't cost a small fortune.
Triv
Q. Do I have to use Internet Explorer to access TitanTV?
.6.
:)
A. Yes. EyeTV always uses Internet Explorer because other browsers do not work properly with the TitanTV.com web site.
Well, I'm going to assume that makes it unappealing for most of us mac-people, doesn't it? I don't even have IE on my machine anymore - I got rid of it when chimera hit
Added to which, the only reason I'd get a box like this would be to get rid of my TV - hook my VCR and various consoles through the Mac. But according to the FAQ there's a 1.5 second delay between signal output and display, making games unplayable. Damnit.
Triv
Sure it may look cool, but just think of all the processing power required to render all that shiat!
Ok, I'm sitting in front of a flatpanel iMac. Doing nothing, the CPU usage evens out at...(waits)...3%.
Now I'm moving the mouse back and forth fast. CPU usage evens out at...15%.
Now I'm playing with the dock. Back and forth, fast. CPU evens out at...50%.
so yes, the GUI takes resources, but 50% of your available power for a 1 second task (clicking a dock icon) is peanuts.
Triv
An anonymous reader writes
;)
Ok. I got that. Next.
"The day before yesterday the root zone was silently changed for the first time in 5 years.
That's english at least. Something changed. Hopefully the rest will tell me what.
The change was to J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET that is now managed by Verisign.
Verisign's evil, right?
The usual sites don't breathe a word about this change however as one would expect for such a change to be properly announced.
Conspiracies are bad, right?
An interesing sidenote is this thread on the IETF discussion list." the_proton writes "The server j.root-servers.net has changed IP address to 192.58.128.30. The new root zone hints can be grabbed from ftp://rs.internic.net/domain/named.root or ftp://ftp.internic.net/domain/named.root. The new zone serial number is 2002110501."
[Brain explodes]
(Isn't it amazing when you read something written in your own language and don't understand a word of what's being said?)
Triv
My problem is headphones. Even earbuds are fairly large, and easily broken in your pocket. Carrying my music with me everywhere is of no use if I can't listen to it. Are there any good solutions for carrying around headphones in a safe but non-huge way?
;)
Dude, you're not gonna get much smaller than earbuds. The easiest way to carry 'em is either a. have a small bag for the player that you can put the 'phones in the bottom of (my iPod came with one of these, it's perfect) or just wrap the damn things around the player. Ok, they might break every two months or so, but you can get perfectly decent 'buds for ten bucks. Worth it for the portability.
I don't even know why I bothered replying. Eminem? Jeez, you spend the money for an MP3 player the least you could do with it is listen to some good music.
Triv
Bzzzt. Try again.
The problem with that is that it takes the books out of legitimate circulation - by constantly checking out "Mein Kampf" (or whatever) for political reasons you're depriving someone who actually WANTS to read them from doing so. It's a twisted form of self-censorship.
Think of it this way - if the FBI paid someone to keep a library's single copy of something controversial checked out don't you think we'd bitch and moan? You're proposing the same thing. It's not good if used by us and bad if used by the feds.
Triv
Might help to cut down on all of the mischief caused by those evil Harry Potter books.
Alternatively, you could just write a book about it.
Triv
Personally, I get a bigger kick out of Alpha Centauri (with Alien Crossfire or without) than I do out of CivII, if only because of the tech shift. While I do understand the perverse pleasure of stealth bombers taking out natives with swords and shields (can you IMAGINE the looks on their faces? "Shit! God's coming back!" :) I'm more of a space-guy than a history guy, and to me Lasers are more fun than real-world tech. With the history it's easier to pick holes in it. When you're dealing with a completely ficticious world-scape it's easier to be immersive.
:)
Haven't played CivIII yet - I refuse to spend more that...$30 on what is ultimately an impulse buy. When the price drops I'll give it a whirl.
Triv
From the linked article:
I don't care what your political affiliation is, and I don't care what you think of FAIR's liberal spin. Bottom line, bottom-feeder: facts are facts once you weed them from the fluff, and based on those FOX has a rather acute slant to the right (fine) while claiming they're unbiased (not fine).
Triv
lol. basically. I could've sworn he socketed the 8-ball, but I was little. Hyperbole is allowed. :)
Triv
read this.
:)
I realise that FAIR has what a lot of people would call a 'liberal bias,' but their facts in this case are sound. Worth a look.
Triv
When I was a kid a friend of my father's had a pool table in his livingroom. I used to screw around on it. One day the guy showed me something really neat.
:) It looked impossible, so I took the bet. He smiled at me, made his hand into a fist and brought it down on the far end of the pool table as hard as he could. The two support balls slid sideways from the jolt and the eight-ball came gliding down towards the center of the table. He put down his cigarette, picked up his cue and sunk the eight in the corner pocket.
:)
He put two balls right next to each other against the far bumper and balanced the 8-ball on top of them. He waleked around to the other end of the table and said "I'll bet you twenty bucks I can sink the eight-ball without touching the other two at all."
(Remember, I was 5
Cheap trick, but very clever. (I still owe him the 20)
Triv
You ever played Oni? Easily one of the best 3rd person action games out there. The camera was fixed behind the character - it didn't randomly swing out on you. It also had a nice touch or realism - you could only carry one gun at a time (the manual actually said something like 'how many guns do you think YOU could carry and still run around beating people up? One, if you're lucky. That's reality. Deal with it :P) and ammo wasn't easy to come by.
:)
Pick it up, give it a shot. It's old enough at this point to cost you ten bucks or less.
Triv
two words for ya: guardian legend. Half overhead adventure game, half top scrolling fighter-type. Without a doubt, my all-time favorite NES game. Give it a whirl. :)
Triv
I appreciate the compliments (all three of them!) but I really don't think it's rubbish at all. He traded a small group of people who respected and adored what he did for a much larger group of...well, less intelligent people. Communication to the lowest common denominator is an easy way to make it big, but I find it to be demeaning as hell.
:P) - media like that requires a modicum of intelligence to find it funny. It's the difference between American Sitcoms and Brittish ones. Most Americans can laugh at Friends, but most of them confronted with, say, Blackadder, wouldn't get most of it - you need to know Brittish History (just a tiny bit of it) to find it funny; that's assuming too much of an American audience. I tried showing BA to my roommate - she watched all four series back to back (!) and thought they were the same characters throughout. She had no context with which to view it. She just couldn't understand what their costumes kept changing. (I'm not exaggerating.) It's the difference between comedy and humo(u)r.
:P
The Goon Show quote had a purpose (apart from shocking and delighting random people
"You've certainly got your patter down, haven't you?"
"No, this is different. It's spontaneous and called 'wit'."
The element to all this that didn't come through initially was the feeling of superiority I lost when they rereleased his first album. Be it britcoms or indie bands, I take pride in finding my own media. I don't own a tv good for watching anything other than DVD's and I try to buy my music from the artists.
I wanna live in England.
Triv
you wear a 3 piece expensive suit, and I wear Dockers and an Irish wool classic-looking sweater. And then you get the job. You don't find that to be fundamentally misguided?
:P) But on the other hand, I can understand how someone comfortable in a suit can seem to mean more to an HR guy. It supposedly says something about a possible employee's...state of mind? Wrong phrase, but you see what I mean, yes? And I sort of understand that - HR wants someone who'll do their job and fit in - someone who won't make waves. Not saying it's right, just that I can see why they'd think that.
:)
Yes and no. I admit I'm torn on this.
On the one hand, suits be damned. If you've got the experience you deserve the job (assuming you go to the interview presentably. Dockers & a sweater or something. Not a shirt from thinkgeek with potato chip crumbs littering the front.
Meh. I dunno. As it is I work in an extremely casual environment (jeans and a t-shirt) and, as comfortable as a suit is to me, denim and flannel is the ultimate in comfort. Slacker ethic dies hard, what can I say?
Triv
...not showing off knowledge of Lydian modes...
;)
You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you? Lydian modes are major scales with a raised 4th - a tritone - that, granted, lets you do some pretty funks stuff, (like, in C lydian that gives you a modal D7, the prime secondary dominant (V7/V) which is quite neat to have to use whenever you want it) but 'knowledge of lydian modes'? C'mon dude, that's a pompous statement. Leave the theory to the theorists, k?
Triv
and as for guitarists, have a listen to Richard Thompson and tell me there are no amazing ones left!
:)
YES! I'm not the only geek who loves Richard Thompson!
Funny story: my dad's name is, coinsidentally, Richard Thompson. Every once in awhile when he goes into an HMV in New York, one of the counter clerks sees his credit card (and has been Shelving Richard Thompson Albums for months) and looks at my dad. They say "Are you THE Richard Thompson?" and my father, being the loveable egoist he is, goes "Yeah." because, as far as he's concerned, he's the only Richard Thompson anyone in the continental US might have heard of.
So the last time this happened ('bout a week ago) he looks at the guy at the counter, points to his recept and says 'you should keep this. You never know...' The counter guy blushes and pockets the recept.
Triv
"Band X is cool until they sell out, then they're just commercialized pop."
:)
Sit down, my friend, while I tell you a tale. (with apologies to Peter Sellers)
There's this musician. A guitarist. He put out an indie album (on Aware Records, the indie side of Colombia), coffee-house recordings. 10 Tracks or so. real rough cuts. Real heartbreaking. Lyrics were kinda juvenile, but in a waspy, nostalgic sorta way.
Someone higher up hear this guy and said: "Hey. He's good, but not mainstream enough. Throw some money at the problem. Get him a band and some studio time. Have him rerecord his songs. See what happens."
So he does. Goes into the studio with a drummer who knows one beat and only one beat (DUM-dum-CHICK-dum-dum-dum-CHICK), and Dave Matthews' producer (who has the uncanny ability to make everyone he produces sound like Dave Matthews, regardless of what they sounded like before.) They rerecord his heartbreaking coffeehouse songs, and as if with a scalpel, remove the emotion, the edge, the cute mistakes, the personality and the vibrancy. The remove the profanity. They clean up the solos.
And lo and behold this completely transformed pop-star starts getting gigs at Irving Plaza in New York City and airtime on LITE-FM. People walk around singing his pointless renditions of once-beautiful songs.
HE SOLD OUT. That in and of itself isn't too bad, they gotta make a living. The problem is he changed from being honest to being a shill for Colombia.
The only thing I had over people was "Guys, I know he's vapid now, but LISTEN TO THIS: It's his first album. Completely raw. Try it. It's really really good, and it's out of print. You'll see what he used to be like."
And you know what those bastards did to me? They rereleased his first album like it was some kind of 'discovery'. They used ad slogans like "Before his success," and "Work from his younger days." (HE'S NOT EVEN 30 FOR CHRIST'S SAKE). But he's played on LITE-FM. He's on the Barnes & Noble Compilations (they're subsidised for the music they play in the stores.) He's gone.
So yes. To me, selling out is a horrible, horrible thing - once the sheeple like something, any substance that was ever there, any FUCKING ART that there ever was hsd been do diluted for mass consumption, so stripped of emotion that there's no point any more.
Ever. Wow. I'm crying. damn.
Triv
First thing you learn in advertising is how you ask a question is just as important as the derived statistic. I want to know if they asked "do you think you should be able to copy a CD for yourself" (relatively neutral), "Do you think copying a CD should be allowed, as it is protected by US copywright law" (weighted for) or "do you think stealing music is wrong" (weighted against). I'd wager good money on the second. It's all about the quality of the questions, not the merit of the issue. 'Tho it's good to see we can throw meaningless numbers around just as much as the other guys.
Triv