I don't drink (except for on the very rare occasion). I don't smoke. I don't do any illicit drugs. I have only had sex with one person, to whom I have been faithfully married for over a decade. I have three children whom I support both financially and emotionally. I attend church three days a week and regularly study scripture and pray. But I'm evil.
How am I evil? I mean, besides that whole pesky original sin way.
I am evil because I have the audacity to accept that my heterosexuality is merely a happenstance of birth. I am evil because I do not believe that heterosexuals possess a monopoly on love and its legitimate expression. I am evil because I do not believe that my government should "define" my marriage as the only legitimate way to be married.
By the way, "conservatives" who do believe that should reexamine your conservative cred. Even I, the liberal who believes that the public option for health care should be a public mandate (because some things, like our health, should not be ruled by a profit margin), thinks that form of government intrusion is way too far.
I'm not saying your pastor has to perform the ceremony. I'm not saying that you have to attend. I'm not saying your children have to be taught that it's OK to be gay and they should give it a shot some time to see if they like it. I'm just saying that it is fundamentally unjust for the government to prohibit same sex marriage while endorsing heterosexual marriage and providing all of the benefits that my spouse and I enjoy.
And that makes me evil. Pray for me. Maybe I'll come around.
As you may (or more likely may NOT - since you probably spend less time here than I do) have noticed, it's been a bit desolate around here. It's not that I haven't been up to anything, it's just that I can't seem to be bothered to take the time to tell the internet all about it. There's a new band in the works, there's always new material being written, there will be a few new studio projects over the next year, and there's ALWAYS something to make fun of. For all of those things and more (not to mention the promise of updates more than every few months or so) I have decided to join the Twitteratzy in the Twitterlution and become a full fledged card carrying Twit. You may follow me on Twitter now.
This site is not dying or anything, I just have not maintained the proper feeding and watering schedule to nourish it the way that I would like to. As always, I intend to correct that some other time. In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter.
It has been far too long, but I am still going to make this brief. The writing process for the Jackrabbit Dares project continues, and I am taking this opportunity to post six demos I recorded today. They are a bit rough. It's just me and a guitar. Everything here is a first take only mixed during playback. I even flubbed a couple of lines (no, I won't tell you which ones).
This text will be replaced by the flash music player.
The other day my five-year-old son, Caleb, asked me if we could work on a song called "Lightning Strikes". I've been listening to Live's Throwing Copper around the house lately while cleaning and what not, so I assumed he meant "Lightning Crashes". I played it for him to see if that was what he meant and he told me that it wasn't. In fact, he said, that song was "boring". He then sang for me more of what he had in mind. It is truly a Caleb original. He let me know the general idea of what he wanted on guitar and then he sang even more. I'm not sure where he got the ideas behind the lyrics, maybe it was from watching too much Weather Channel with his Pops.
Anyway, I told him that I would record it with him and we did today after church. This is a first take, just me and Caleb, with one mic in the room. Without any further ado, I present to you "Lightning Strikes".
UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.
I will keep you posted on what's going on with my music hopefully in the near future.
I have been writing for the new Jackrabbit Dares album at a much faster pace than I can record. In the spirit of the new year and as an apology for not keeping up with posting regularly here, I have decided to post the rough acoustic demos for some of the songs that will most likely make the album. I have written about 30 songs so far, but some of them really suck. Here are the demos of 5 of the ones I am happy with (the songwriting, not necessarily the performance) and will begin recording "for real" in the very near future:
UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.
You can download a tarball with the mp3s and the lyrics here. The name of the file is a little weird, but I promise it's just music.
We've got another new song done, called h8. As evidenced by the title, I wrote this as a response to California's Proposition 8 and other such legislation. Here's the demo:
UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.
h8 Words and music by Tom Baker (c) 2008
You see it happen all the time
I've always wondered how you're blind
To all the suffering intertwined
To your policies that bind
Easy enough to demonize
Anyone you are not like
But when you take away their rights
You really overstep the line
What's your fight in all of this?
Do you think you'd be remiss
To not keep someone else
From loving who they choose?
You hate the lover not a sin
You never give in, not an inch
Why do you think you have a win
When there are people suffering?
What's your fight in all of this?
Do you think you'd be remiss
To not keep someone else
From loving who they choose?
Is your love so weak?
That it is threatening
To see someone different
Married just like you?
Just like you...
I will be posting all of the new material to the Jackrabbit Dares site as soon as the site is ready. We will be releasing this album sort of like software. There will be alpha releases, which may not include all of the tracks and artwork, and need a fair amount of reworking. There will be beta releases, which will have all of the tracks but will still very much be a work in progress. When we think we've got a finished product there will be release candidates that will pretty much be the finished album. If we ever get the money for it we'll have a "real" release, with CDs and everything.
For the time being, you can get the first alpha release here. I have posted it as a tarball, so you will need to extract the files after you download. See here for more on how to do that.
I just got back from Chappy's house, where we spent the afternoon putting drums on a new song called Wasting Time. Here's the demo:
UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.
Wasting Time Words and music by Tom Baker (c) 2008
I'd like to use a metaphor
Before you throw me out the door
If that is how far gone we are
If it seems we fell apart so fast
Like Alice and the looking glass
Illusions masked the way we were
It was 10 degrees below
Like children playing in the snow
We were distracted from the cold
When frostbite came to settle in
We were wondering how it came to this
We didn't really want to know
We were wasting time...
I'd really like to be profound
Try to turn this thing around
But I'm just wasting all your time
I'd like to think of something deep
To try to make you stop and think
But I'm just wasting all your time
From your myopic point of view
The best was right in front of you
But there was more you wouldn't see
Demons lurking underneath
Start surfacing eventually
And when you saw the worst in me
You knew you were wasting time...
We are leaning towards eventually releasing this material under the Jackrabbit Dares name. The current working title for the project is "All Hail Our Arctic Overlords".
Barack Obama seized command of the race for the White House Tuesday night, defeating John McCain in Ohio and building a near insurmountable Electoral College advantage as he bid to become the first black president.
I have no words. Congratulations to President-Elect Obama!
Happy Halloween! I hope you enjoy this scary good performance from this scary good band. The band is Wilco and the track is Impossible Germany off of their album Sky Blue Sky. Nels Cline's solo is my favorite thing about this song. I'm not sure if I like this one better than the solo he played on the live version of Ashes of American Flags from Kicking Television, but this is just awesome. I love the way the band comes out of the solo section, too. Nels Cline is a bad, bad man and Wilco is about 800,782,114 times better with him playing lead. Reason number 1,213,872,463 why I want to be Nels Cline when I grow up.
For some reason I'm in a random ridiculous numbers kind of a mood today. Sorry.
Here's a bonus video of Ashes of American flags. The audio on this one is a little weird, but the performance is awesome. The solo is at around the 3:45 mark.
Super bonus video, only for the truly brave: Here's what Nels does (well, one of the things he does) without Wilco. I now present the Nels Cline Singers:
Still here? Now that was a track for Halloween!
Here's something completely different to send you on your way.
Did I mention that this guy is one of my all time guitar heroes? Have a happy Halloween and enjoy your own scary good music!
Remember the PSAs at the end of G.I. Joe cartoons. It was like they plugged in some wholesome message at the end of the show so that your parents would let you watch a half hour of people blowing each other up interrupted periodically by commercials for toys that you just had to have? That didn't really work on my parents, who wouldn't even let me play with toy guns, so I had to go over to my friend Mike's house to watch it. Oops, I just let the cat out of the bag. I hope the statute of limitations is up on that one.
Anyway, if G.I. Joe had PSAs like these, I may have been able to watch it at home. (From For Tax Reasons.)
Shannon and I are celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary today, so in honor of that I wanted to do a large pictorial showing what we were like back then and how much we've changed over the years. However, I saw the pictures and decided that I would like to survive to be married for ten years. So, in honor of our ninth anniversary, for absolutely no reason at all, I present this hilarious attack add that has nothing at all to do with my wedding or marriage.
Yes, you read that right. "Hilarious attack add" was written here. Trust me. (From Cracked.)
Happy anniversary, honey. I'm sorry I'm such a goon.
I just finished writing another new song. There's a few more that I'm working on, but I haven't really gotten them where I'd like them yet to demo them to post here. I can't really put a timetable on the project (whatever it is) yet, but the ideas are starting to come. This newest song is called "Think of Me", and it's a little dark and vindictive. As always, there are some deep seated reasons for that, which are between me and my therapist (a Yamaha guitar). Also, my brother Chris played the tasty artistic violin part on this.
Here's the demo:
UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.
Think of Me Words and music by Tom Baker (c)2008
When you look back on your life
And see what's passed you by
If you start to wonder why
I hope you think of me
When bitterness consumes
And it's eating up at you
If it's all that you can do
I hope you think of me
I hope you think of me...
When it never feels quite right
And it just isn't worth the fight
When you lay awake at night
I hope you think of me
When you're swallowed by despair
And you can't bring yourself to care
If you wonder how you got here
I hope you think of me
I hope you think of me...
When you look back on your life
And all you can do is cry
When you see what's passed you by
I hope you think of me
I hope you think of me...
I'll put the others up here when they're ready. As always, any feedback is appreciated.
If the RIAA and MPAA ran the handbag industry, from Wired:
For starters, handbags would only work in one country. All of a handbag's contents would fall from the bottom at a border crossing, or while on an international flight, under the industry's HRM standards.
This HRM tool, like DRM on digital music files and DVDs, would only allow the purse to be worn with a single outfit. The handbag would not function with a different outfit, thus requiring another purchase of the same handbag if a change of clothes was in order.
Yes, DRM is that bad. So is the aggressive litigation and general misinformation produced by these ridiculous agencies.
I've begun writing some new material. I'm not sure if it will be for the band or solo, but I've just finished recording (with Chappy) a demo of the first song for this project. It is called "Let Me Drown". I'll let it speak for itself.
Here's the demo:
UPDATED: Due to a script issue I have yet to solve, you must go to the permalink to hear the demo. Sorry.
Let Me Drown Words and music by Tom Baker (c)2008
You seem disappointed
Did you think this would last?
The statement so pointed
"All things must pass"
Are you that naive?
Did you really believe in me?
If this came so easy
How would you figure out
That nothing worth having
Is just laying about?
Why can't you see
You're just spinning your wheels with me?
Love is an anchor
Pulling you down
I'm already sinking
Just let me drown
Passion may be a good thing
But not for paying the rent
Time is like money
And mine's already spent
You're just wasting your time
I've made up my mind
Love is an anchor
Pulling you down
I'm already sinking
Just let me drown
Am I just a habit
You never could shake?
I keep on bending you
But you never break
Love is an ocean
We're a ship lost at sea
The waves keep on crashing
But you never leave
I hope you enjoy the rough mix. I will post more as I write and record it. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Not to belabor the point, but I almost didn't vote in the 2000 election because I was apathetic and didn't see a big difference between Bush and Gore. I couldn't have been more wrong.
But Ulrich disagrees with the comments that have surfaced since the record hit stores earlier this month (Sep08), and is proud of the album's live feel.
And the drummer blames the Internet for fan's unrest - because it fuels people's urge to complain.
He adds, "The difference between back then and now is the internet. The internet gives everybody a voice, and the Internet has a tendency to give the complainers a louder voice."
Or maybe your fans are right, your album sucks, and it's mastered too damn loud.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Duluth, Minnesota, declared a mistrial in the case of Jammie Thomas, a Minnesota mother of three, setting aside the $222,000 penalty levied by a federal jury last year for copyright infringement -- $9,250 for each of the 24 infringing music tracks she made publicly available on the Kazaa file sharing network.
Thomas was the only RIAA conviction, and now that has been overturned due to confusion over what the level of proof is. It does not appear that the "making available" argument is going to be enough. That is going to make the RIAA's job a lot tougher, which I obviously have no problem with.
Because this interweb thingy just doesn't buy his bull...
Obama rejects McCain call to delay debate (from MSNBC) The headline should read: McCain holds debate hostage. The man is refusing to debate unless bad legislation is forced down America's throat in order to make it look like he has any actual ability or desire to govern.
Welcome Back, John McCain! (from Daily Kos) He's missed 109 of the last 110 votes. I guess the argument from the McCain camp here is that if McCain isn't in Washington, shit happens and the economy explodes. That's why it's so important to cancel the debates have show non-stop coverage of McCain "working" on the economy.
Here Are The Results of SurveyUSA News Poll #14454 (from Survey USA) While I don't know an awful lot about polling or the validity of this poll, the money quote here is so overwhelming I feel obligated to share it: "A majority of Americans say the debate should be held on Friday. Just 10% say the debate should be postponed. A sizable percentage of Americans, 36%, think the focus of the debate should be modified to focus more on the economy. 3 of 4 Americans say the presidential campaigns should continue. Just 14% say the presidential campaigns should be suspended. If Friday's debate does not take place, 46% of Americans say that would be bad for America."
To recap: McCain has "suspended" his campaign (though the campaign is campaigning about the "suspension"), purportedly to focus on economic terrorism legislation that he has had historically no interest in (in the land of Tom, not showing up shows a lack of interest), while holding the debates the American people overwhelmingly support (and that he and his running mate were unlikely to perform well in) hostage and deflecting attention away from his lipstick Palin's disaster of an interview, and his own disastrous economic policies that have led to this collapse.
UPDATED: I love what this post has to say on the McCain campaign. The money quote:
(I)t comes as no surprise that the McCain-Palin strategy on the economic crisis is to -- that's right! -- blurt out random crap.
This references the McCain campaigns philosophy that getting anything on record is better than nothing.
The goal: Get McCain on record saying something no matter how ridiculous. This way, he can hit the stump later and boast that he said something with regards to scary stuff in the news. I said something [that didn't make any sense and was probably a lie] and Senator Obama didn't say anything [also a lie]! My friends! And whenever he's accused of routinely blurting out random crap, Senator McCain trucks out the old punishment theorem: If Senator Obama had only agreed to the town halls, I wouldn't be selling-out the last shreds of my honor or integrity just to get elected. Can't you see? Senator Obama turned me into a hack, dammit!
That's what's going to save the economy? Ridiculous photo ops with the President and "random crap". Letterman is right about this one. McCain has made one bad decision after another on this campaign. He's throwing up one last Hail Mary. Let's hope the American electorate doesn't get fooled and allow it to be completed.
McCain Loses His Head (from The Washington Post) When you're a Republican candidate for President, and George Will is saying you're "behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high", things are not looking good you.
In other news, with the exception of one instrumental written over vacation I have officially not written a song (collaborations and recycling don't count) in nineteen months. But who's counting?
Here are some interesting reads from the interweb.
The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama (from The New York Times) The money quote: Just imagine for a moment if it were the black candidate in this election, rather than the white candidate, who was born in Central America, was an indifferent churchgoer, had graduated near the bottom of his university class, had dumped his first wife, had regularly displayed an explosive and profane temper, and had referred to the Pakistani-Iraqi border ...
The 10 Villains Who Deserved Better (from Topless Robot) Now, I don't normally advocate for evil, but I have to agree this: Despite his totally awesome double-bladed lightsaber and totally sweet hover bike and bitchin’ horns, Darth Maul is barely around for two fights. They’re well-choreographed fights, but they don’t really fill in much. For his motivations and whatnot, you’ll have to check the “expanded” Star Wars stories. And that just kicks off other problems.
I've got four baseball games in the next three days, so I don't really have much time to post anything. I've started getting back to regular posting recently after about two years of laziness, and I really hate to break this streak. That's kind of a problem given the lack of time and energy. The solution? A bullet post.
While I understand that the bulk of my posts are not that challenging (I find something interesting on the web, post a link to it, possibly a flash video that will crash your browser and piss you off, and write a few snarky lines about it -- this is not rocket science), a bullet post requires even less of me. I don't even have to provide my own observations, all I'm doing is pointing you to someone else's material. This is awesome! Why haven't I thought of this before?
When pirates offer a better product, one that actually plays where consumers want their video to play, it's hard for digital download stores to compete, and the entire ecosystem of companies knows it. That's why movie studios joined retailers like Best Buy, consumer electronics companies like Sony and Philips, Intel, Microsoft, and others in a new acronym-ready alliance that will, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, put the consumer "at the center of the universe."
You'll notice the lack of Apple on this list. While everyone else has figured out that, far from discouraging piracy, DRM is a pirate's best friend (it allows those who illegally distribute copyrighted material to actually be releasing a superior product), Apple has been too busy figuring out a way to DRM your clothes to notice.
Well... at least most of them are moving in the right direction. I've never understood how companies ever came up with the notion that intentionally crippling their releases would be good for business. Hopefully this is one more step towards "RIP DRM". You won't be missed.
I ran across this video on reddit, and while the childish insinuation that McCain's campaign would have been less negative if Obama had done what they wanted him to with regards to "Town Hall" meetings, what really struck me was this quote:
It’s easy for me to go to Washington and frankly be somewhat divorced from the day to day challenges people have.
While the intent was to support small town mayors (and more specifically his running mate) and the difficult jobs they have, I'm not sure McCain is well served by admitting that he really has no clue what American life is really like. His campaign up to this point has been so divisive and misleading (OK, LYING) about so many issues of late (Palin's record of reform, the "Bridge to Nowhere", Obama's tax plan, Obama's voting record, Obama's education ideas/record, etc.) that this frank honesty, even if by mistake, is wierding me out.
McCain's lies and the "balanced" reporting of them have been so brazen that I'm surprised that I haven't seen Headline: McCain says the sky is green. Obama disagrees, on the defensive against allegations of color-bias in the newspaper yet.
I am not a Windows user. I do not use or advocate for the use of any Microsoft products unless absolutely necessary. [Example: I still have not convinced my employer to switch to Linux, therefore it is absolutely necessary that I use Microsoft software at work.] That said, while I do not think that it works as a commercial (if I did I would probably not show it), this new Microsoft ad is hilarious. It still has about the same WTF factor as the last one, but this time it just works.
I don't always agree with Olbermann, and I don't believe that Olbermann seriously thinks John McCain has a real plan for capturing Bin Laden. I don't believe Olbermann even thinks McCain believes that he has a plan and that no one else can do it. But McCain and the Republicans have been pulling this stuff for too long not to be called out on it. I just wish that the rest of the press would do its job so that Olbermann isn't the only one saying this stuff, coming off like a liberal O'Reilly, and damaging his credibility with those who are not predisposed to agreeing with him.
I just read this hilariously blasphemous blog post about Jesus leaving Christianity. Some highlights:
(I)n an announcement that has left his followers shaken, the Christ himself has come forward to announce that he is leaving Christianity, effective immediately. The reasoning: The 2008 Republican Platform. Reached for comment at a West Hollywood coffee shop, Christ said that he couldn’t deal with a world that so misinterpreted his words and actions.
Christ went on to say that he had grown tired of being portrayed as a “marauding archangel of vengeance,” and that he held out little hope that the world would ever accept his message of peace.
As a liberal Christian I have often lamented the Republican hijacking of my religion. I know several people who, in the last election, voted for Republicans solely because they were "Christians", while ignoring that these "Christians" promoted a political agenda that had nothing in common with the Gospel. I think it says a lot that an atheist blogger seems to understand this hypocrisy better than most believers. I can only hope that the debacle that has been these last eight years has opened some eyes.
Because I'm not sure how else to explain this ad. I saw this last night while watching a football game. It was so surreally bad that I rewound it on the DVR and watched it five times. I have no idea what they're trying to say with this one.
Here are some videos that expertly spoof the "Get a Mac" commercials for Linux. I strongly advocate that everyone try Linux. Distributions like Red Hat and Ubuntu (as well as many others) are becoming increasingly user friendly. They are easy to install and upgrade, extremely customizable, and have great support communities. If you're still cursing Windows and either can't afford or just don't want a Mac then there has never been a better time to try Linux.
I still love me some good ole hypocrisy exposing political videos that take up space on a page and only require me to write one sentence. Enjoy...
I know it feels like I'm always saying this, but a lot has been going on that I would love to post on and I will have some new original content posted soon. Hopefully with sound and pictures. I'm such a tease.
Just picking some nits, but isn't this from Rocky III?
I'm probably just missing the obvious and this is the second such video. Does anyone know? Anyway, I thought it was brilliant. H/T to Jack and Jill Politics.
We just got back from our annual trip to Holden Beach, NC. Like usual I brought along a guitar (this year it was the Taylor W15) and found that the ocean acted as a muse. Unlike years past however, this year I also brought along a hand held digital recorder to capture some of the ideas that seemingly came from nowhere. The recording is more than a little rough, most of the piece is improvised, and there are several playing "mistakes", but I have decided to post here one of the instrumentals that I worked on this week because I think it shows a lot of promise.
Here it is. Enjoy.
This text will be replaced by the flash music player.
Also, Scot and I have started writing new material for Jackrabbit Dares. We should start recording it soon and I will try to post on as much of the process as possible.
Brian Eno and I recently finished our first collaboration in about 30 years. For the most part, Brian did the music and I wrote some tunes, words and sang. It's familiar but completely new as well. We're pretty excited. The name of the new record is Everything That Happens Will Happen Today and the music will be available on this Web site on August 18th, free for streaming and available for purchase as both a download and in physical formats.
David Byrne will also be touring this material with his band. I probably can't afford tickets (or gas right now) but I would love to go to see this show in Ashville, Nashville, or Memphis. At the very least I plan to buy the album on the 18th. Very cool stuff. Check out the website.
I really don't think I can add anything to this. The video just speaks for itself. I'm not sure if Ray Bradbury is laughing about this. What is a proper response to such stupidity?
The bad dream of DRM continues. Yahoo e-mailed its Yahoo! Music Store customers yesterday, telling them it will be closing for good—and the company will take its DRM license key servers offline on September 30, 2008. Sure, it's bad news and yet another example of the sheer lobotomized brain-deadness that has characterized music DRM, but the reaction of most music fans will be: "Yahoo had an online music store?"
You can read the rest of this snarky commentary on this pathetic affair here.
It's bullshit like this that makes piracy inevitable. How can you, as an industry, collective take a dump all over the living room of your consumer, and then expect them to love you for it?
Since it would appear that I have nothing better to do I would like to share some really cool musical YouTube clips that I have stumbled across of late. If you've found something you think is particularly cool that I have left out, link to it in the comments section.
Any thoughts? Have you found something cooler? Let me know.
Sorry it's been so long. I've just got a little bit of time for this, but I'm afraid there will be much more to come. For better or for worse I've been avoiding the topic of gays and the church. While I favor full inclusion I have not been vocal about it. My church hasn't really made a big deal about the issue. God loves everyone and so do we, right?
It seems my assumptions on the matter may have been naive, and so I feel like I may need to reluctantly join the fray. I've got some things in mind, but they are not really for public consumption. But one thing I feel strongly about is speaking out here more on the issue. I don't have my own words formed in such a way to speak yet, but I would like to share part of this excellent post.
When slavery, the oppression of women and child labor were recognized for what they were, modern nations changed. When certain Biblical practices including the stoning to death of adulterers were recognized for what they were, modern nations changed.
And when the abuse of homosexual children was recognized for what it was, modern nations changed--tragically we were not among them.
Anything less than full inclusion just perpetuates this cycle of abuse. I will have more to say on the subject later, when things settle down around here and I actually have time to write.
In a bit of unrelated music news, The Silent Screen is no more. We are working on trying to get a different project, tentatively labeled Jackrabbit Dares, off the ground. I'll keep you posted on these developments.
I guess I am a bit of a geek. Do you think that you can do better? Let me know if you can beat my score. Feel free to post yours in the comments section.
Jesse Alexander, co-producer of both "Heroes" and "Lost", as quoted on TorrentFreak:
“People watching shows such as Lost and Heroes on BitTorrent is the present world reality. TV networks have to recognize this, give their viewers more ways to interact with the shows, and find ways to generate revenue from every member of the global audience. It’s the same for music artists. The reality is, people share music. Artist(s) now make money by driving people to concerts, through community websites, and by offering exclusive events. TV networks are focusing too much on one exclusive product, instead of building a community. This is a mistake I think.”
While I'm not sure how this works in an economic sense, at some level it makes a lot of sense, at least for musicians, to embrace file sharing as a way to build a following and a community. The artist could then use the goodwill and loyalty generated within that community to drive ticket sales, merchandise sales, and even music CD and download sales. I know that sounds a little idealistic, but that's just my $0.02.
It has occurred to me that I spend a fair amount of time railing against the RIAA. I would like to say that I don't consider myself to be their enemy. In fact, I even bought a CD recently. Well, three CDs to be exact. It was a three disc live Phish set, and it is awesome. All told, I usually enjoy the experience of purchasing a CD from a store to the download experience.
First off, a download is usually an inferior product. You don't really have that tangible physical product to interact with, just files to open with a program on your computer. Also, usually those files are compressed mp3s that sound just good enough on your computer speakers while not having the dynamic range and clarity of a CD. Sometimes you'll find someone who distributing flac files, but those are few and far between. If sites would offer legal downloads of flac files with liner notes and art it would go a long way towards convincing someone like me that downloads are worth paying as much for as a CD. But that looks like it's a long ways off.
Now, I said I usually like the experience of purchasing a real CD over downloading. Sadly, this was not the case with my most recent purchase. I went to a store that will remain unnamed here (it's name suggests that it is the Best place to Buy music, computers, electronics and other such items). I'm usually upset with Microsoft, Apple, the RIAA, MPAA, and other such entities for being much better at protecting their own interests than the interests of their consumers, and this store is no different. I spent what I thought was a reasonable amount of money for the Phish discs, and I put it on my debit card. I understand that I'm a little weird, but I was somewhat perturbed that they didn't looked at my card or my ID and did not require my signature for the purchase. I do not sign my credit cards, but instead write "ASK FOR ID" on the back to make damn sure that if anyone other than me is using the card that they will be unable to actually complete the nefarious purchase. With the new self swipe machines, it seems as though that will no longer protect me from unauthorized usage of my cards.
I guess that's OK. The times are changing and I guess my expectations should change with them. But what happened next really ticked me off. The unnamed Best store to Buy stuff at has at the door a small security area where they sometimes check receipts to make sure that no one is trying to rip them off. That's OK too, I supose. You've got to protect your bottom line. Nobody like shrinkage. But I just bought one item. And I bought that item about ten feet from this guy. And now dude wants to check my receipt!? Not cool. It just strikes me as wrong on too many levels that they are completely unwilling to make sure that the person using my debit card is actually me, but they've got no problem harassing me on my way out the door.
I really want to do the right thing. I want to pay for music. I want to support musicians. But between the death of small music retailers and the oppressive tactics of large box stores, the RIAA, iTunes, etc. I just don't know how I can do it. And that's the problem with the music industry right now.
A federal judge is awarding Tanya Andersen, who defeated the Recording Industry Association of America's file sharing lawsuit, $108,000 in legal fees to compensate for defending herself against the RIAA.
The Associated Press, upset that some in the online world might be stealing its audience by reprinting brief quotes from news stories and then linking the source, embarked on a recent campaign to curtail the practice. The Associated Press, upset that some in the online world might be stealing its audience by reprinting brief quotes from news stories and then linking the source, embarked on a recent campaign to curtail the practice. The AP sent DMCA takedown notices to the Drudge Retort, a sort of left-wing counterpoint to the infamous Drudge Report, and Retort owner Rogers Cadenhead published the news on his blog. Reaction was nearly instantaneous, apoplectic, and mature, with Techcrunch's Mike Arrington "banning" the AP from his site and CUNY media professor Jeff Jarvis crafting a curt headline of his own: "F U AP."
Well, I hope no one sues me for this! Seriously, as this article goes on to question, in what universe is it a part of a good, healthy business model to threaten litigation against your customers? The MPAA and RIAA have consistently shown that these types of notices and threats don't actually curb the practice they wish it to, and they are almost always bad PR moves. I just don't buy, even if this stupid tactic works, that getting bloggers to no longer post these types of posts benefits the AP in any tangible way, as I'm not sure that these posts do any harm to the AP. Why would this type of bullyish behavior be considered worth the risk by anyone with half a brain, especially in light of the serious recent flack Metallica has received for similar behavior?
The mainstream media seems to consistently misidentify their own interests. The music industry is suffering in sales, so it sues people who it can't even prove have actually hosted copyrighted content and finds itself in both legal and PR hot water, all the while ignoring the argument that the kind of piracy it is killing itself to fight might actually be good for business. Now the AP has somehow missed the enormous failure this type of policy has been and has decided to adopt it?
Ladies and gentlemen: I give you the death of the newspapers.
More on this and *GASP* some actual Tom Baker music news in the next few days.
The new site is up! I guess that's pretty obvious, isn't it?
Let's go over some of the features of the new site real quick. I had a little rant about some recording industry ideas that I wanted to post, but I really don't have the energy right now. So I'll make this short and sweet and you can look forward to some inane rambling some other time. The biggest change to the site, other than the obvious cosmetic changes, is that I have eliminated the online store. I am no longer going to be selling CDs online, just in person. I have, however, made my entire catalog available to download for free on the Downloads page. There are a number of reasons for that, and I will get to them in a different post.
Everything else is pretty straightforward. I'm not sure that I'm going to put all of the pictures that I had posted back up. and most of the flash is gone. I have a new flash player on the Music page that I think is a little bit easier to use. It's definitely a lot easier for me to update. That's the direction that I've gone with most of the remodel here. I've tried to make this site as streamlined and functional as possible. The other site was just getting too bloated.
I'll post here later with more on the site, the state of my music, what pisses me off most about the RIAA, Microsoft, Congress, etc., and a little bit about our trip to Punta Cana.
I have just begun a massive redesign of this website. Since launching this site in the Spring of 2006 I have been using a template provided by the hosting service that I'm using. I have decided that I'd like to try this whole website design thing out. I will no longer be using this template, but instead am building the new site from the ground up (with a little help from a good friend and website designer who has given me access to his code to try to learn from).
The results of this redesign should be interesting, and the site will ultimately be less cluttered and a lot more navigable and functional. I am also looking to use the launch of the new website to totally change the way that I release music.
I plan to release a new instrumental project that I've been working on off and on for the last couple of years as a download, rather than as a physical CD. I will also be releasing this project under a Creative Commons license, meaning that whoever downloads the music is free to share it with whomever they chose as long as they do not sell it.
There are a number of reasons that I have decided to do this, chief among them being my longstanding hatred for DRMed music and over zealous prosecution and persecution of piracy by the RIAA. I'm not saying that artists don't have the rights to profit from their art and control their intellectual property, but I believe that a certain level of good will should be afforded the consumers of that art as well.
My token of good will is a free download of my new project and the promise that I will never release anything that has been encrypted and crippled by malicious software that ensures that even the legal owner of the product must use certain hardware and software in order to use the legal copy. Piracy is another issue altogether, and not something that I support. That said, the bulk of solutions to this problem as offered at present also interfere with legal products, software, and services as well. To me, these solutions become more of a problem than the original problem (piracy) and I cannot support them.
I am not sure how I will do releases in the future. I may release all of my music in this manner and rely on the good will of the consumer (you) to support this music via donations. I may find a service to use that will legal distribute my music without crippling the product for the consumer. We'll see where this little experiment takes us.
Either way the winds of change are blowing around here at The Woebegotten Wonderland. The new website will be up soon and the rest of these issues will begin sorting themselves out at that time.
IFPI CEO John Kennedy agrees. "Baidu is China's largest violator of music copyrights, generating huge revenue by deliberately providing access to illegal content," he said in a statement today. "The record industry wants partnership with China's internet companies, but one that is based on respect of copyright and the law. It is totally wrong that internet giants like Baidu should build a fortune by abusing the rights of artists, songwriters and record producers."
That's the record companies' job, right?
I'll have some more comments about this issue as well as the future of this website and my music in the very near future.
