It’s been some months since I’ve had any interest at all in any music at all.
This collaboration is interesting and sophisticated.
Chris Cornell is one of those rare ‘90s rock gods who’s still inspired enough by music to take big chances. The rocker from legendary grunge bands Soundgarden and Audioslave recently released Scream, a collaboration with the superstar hiphop and R&B producer Timbaland (known for his work with Justin Timberlake, Aaliyah, Missy, and Jay-Z). Timbaland makes slick, futuristic tracks that don’t seem to have a clear fit into the musical world of Cornell, a man from Seattle who grew up intensely listening to the Beatles. But the two spent months in Miami collaborating on Scream which, Cornell says by phone from Detroit, “Is an ambitious album which is one hour of non-stop music, almost from a movie soundtrack.”
… Scream is the third solo studio album by American musician Chris Cornell. Released on March 10, 2009, it marked a shift from Cornell’s previous musical efforts with the massive exclusion of guitars and rock elements that were replaced with producer Timbaland’s electronic pop soundscapes. The album was promoted with the release of five digital singles and three music videos, and was generally met with mixed to negative reviews. …
… Billboard noted that “Sometimes it’s good bizarre. Other times it’s bad bizarre.” …
I almost never listen to commercial music any longer. Except as background noise.
The future of music — like the future of all other digital content — is to make it yourself. And share it with friends.
This is the first “published” music by a friend of mine, Steve McCain. He was inspired to write and record this song by a friend going through breast cancer.
The Colbert Report is the best comedy show on television. And my favourite TV show of all time.
Colbert is a “well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot”, a caricature of televised political pundits like right-wing idiot Bill O’Reilly.
Colbert debated Lawrence Lessig, “a founding board member of Creative Commons, a board member of the Software Freedom Law Center and a former board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.”
Needless to say, Colbert pretended to be outraged against anything “free” on the net, especially illegal downloading.
Here’s one clip from Colbert’s ongoing coverage of the internet.
Stephen Colbert makes a remix featuring himself on some “jaw dropping, ear popping fresh” beats so others won’t 🙂
Her Morning Elegance
Directed by Oren Lavie, Yuval and Merav Nathan
Photography by Eyal Landesman
Featuring Shir Shomron
Oren Lavie is a songwriter of curly brown hair, whisperish voice, green eyes and suspiciously cold feet. He was born in 1976, two minutes behind schedule, and has been trying to catch up ever since.
… the album track ‘Her Morning Elegance’ was chosen to feature on a US Chevrolet TV commercial. The aforementioned author, who has never owned a car in his life, and who has diligently ignored the invention of Television, could not stop giggling for days.
With a song in his heart he continues to take the bus.
I love the Hunter S. Thompson line so often attributed to the Record Industry:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
This week Apple announced that all 10 million songs in itunes will soon be DRM (Digital Rights Management) free. A death sentence for the old model of music distribution.
The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
… Should anyone care that in the process, the iPod has all but killed the music industry as we’ve known it? Maybe not, Steve Knopper writes in “Appetite for Self-Destruction,” his stark accounting of the mistakes major record labels have made since the end of the LP era and the arrival of digital music. These dinosaurs, he suggests, are largely responsible for their own demise. …
This quotation has has achieved the status of urban legend. Here’s the original:
… The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. …
Buffy might have been a fad. But the new TV series True Blood seems to be a hit. (I saw episode #1. It was OK.)
And the staggering success of the Twilight novel series by Stephenie Meyer makes me believe this is a real “craze”. There’s almost a blood lust for these books.
Twilight is a series of four vampire-based fantasy/romance novels by the American author Stephenie Meyer. It follows the adventures of Isabella “Bella” Swan, a teenager who moves to Forks, Washington, and finds her life turned upside-down when she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. …
The Twilight series is popular among young adults, having sold 20 million copies in the United States and over 5 million further copies worldwide.
The film scores an overall approval rating of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Not good.
Actually, I thought it was quite good. Well cast. But some of the changes made to the book were unnecessary. Better would have been to stay more true to the details of the original.
I’m planning to read Book 2 in the series next. Leave a comment if you have an opinion on the vampire craze.
