You might say I am “soft” on protection of copyright.
It’s not exactly one of my 10 commandments.
It is this kind of story which makes me so unsympathetic to the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and the Music Publishers’ Association (MPA) of America.
If I MUST see live music, there is no better venue than outdoors on Prince’s Island at the Calgary Folk Music Festival.
The headliner on Friday night in 2006 was Macy Gray.
Gray’s profane show was sloppy. Her vocals slurred and often lost in the mix. I was disappointed. The only highlights were her two funky backup singers.
Moreover, some drunk girl tripped over me. Then cursed me as a poor fan for not standing throughout her show. (Is it impossible to enjoy music while sitting?)
Gray was booed in 2001 after forgetting the words to the American national anthem. I have to assume she is no one I would want to know in real life.
I love Macy Gray’s recorded music. But thumbs down on the live show.
This is one of the best album covers of all time.
Great music too.
Just saw Bedouin Sound Clash — they reminded me of the Clash in a way.
A lifelong CBC AM radio listener, these days I am reduced to listening almost exclusively via podcast. Radio on demand, when and where I want.
Best is downloading the podcasts to my MP3 player and listening while cycling.
My favourite show is Definitely Not the Opera, the weekly pop culture wrap-up hosted by talented Sook-Yin Lee in Winnipeg. It is consistently excellent.
Check it out on the DNTO website. You can download the podcast from iTunes, of course. It’s free.
James Kim posted a nice summary of the DRM controversy:
MP3 Insider: Rallying behind the eMusics of the world – CNET reviews
Two of his points rang true with me:
DRM seems to be used less to thwart piracy and more to establish a dominant position in the music industry.
That’s certainly true of the iTunes store. It’s Apple’s business model.
I’m not anti-DRM, but I have a problem with closed DRM schemes–I’ll buy DRM tracks if I can play them on any device. … I have purchased many iTunes and WMA tracks and find it deplorable that I can’t play my music on all my devices.
Those computer savvy and ethically flexible enough to download music illegally may continue to do so — after getting ticked off when music they bought legally will not play on a new MP3 device or computer.
larger propoganda on crfp.com
What ever happened to Weird Al ??
He’s huge in the blogosphere right now after offering a new song as a free download.
I love My Life is Brilliant, by James Blunt. It’s a perfect song.
But ripe for a Weird Al parody.
Boing Boing: Anti-iTunes DRM demonstrations across the USA tomorrow
Freedom of choice demonstrators will picket Apple Stores, unhappy about the proprietary restrictions bundled with every song you buy from iTunes.
I have mixed feelings myself. The DRM (digital rights management) format has not caused me any grief yet.
I can easily convert iTunes songs to a format which plays in my non-Apple MP3 player right in iTunes.
These days it’s tough for a new track to break into my favourites lists in iTunes.
Surprisingly, I just downloaded a Country song and a Bon Jovi song. And they are the same song. “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, with Jennifer Nettles, #1 on the Country Billboard Charts May 6, 2006.
Bon Jovi just won’t go away.
I am keen too on the reinvention of Nelly Furtado. She’s a hip hop diva now! Producer Timbaland is magic. Everything he touches turns to gold.
Best of all is John Legend, “Ordinary People”. This is the best R&B track I’ve heard in the last decade. A timeless classic.
I’m now following @1NatalieMaines Natalie Maines on twitter. Like me, she’s no fan of Drumpf.
https://twitter.com/1nataliemaines/status/748715749024288768
Here’s my original post from 2006 ___
I just saw the new video, ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’.
Love it! What striking images. It’s on heavy rotation on Canadian music video TV.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
If you missed it, the critically acclaimed Dixie Chicks were soundly lambasted for criticizing George Bush in 2003. They alienated their redneck, southern country music fan base.
Update – Samsung to introduce laptop computers June, 2006 without a hard drive. Instead? 32 gigabytes of NAND flash memory. US$3700 in Korea only.
Samsung Notebook Replaces Hard Drive With Flash
The very limited Apple Shuffle with 512MB of flash memory costs C$89 today.
Competitors need offer twice as much memory (1GB) plus more features for C$79 in order to sell.
A 1GB flash memory card for my camera costs C$40. A 256MB USB key fob drive C$10!
Flash memory technology has no moving parts. It is much more reliable than the spinning disk on this computer. Or on the original iPod.
Death to spinning disks. In future I buy devices with flash memory instead. Like the iPod Nano, for example.
