The Vietnam War is now as far in the past as the Second World War was at the beginning of the Vietnam War…. I therefore declare 2008 to be officially The Year That We No Longer Have The 1960s To Blame.
The Vietnam War is now as far in the past as the Second World War was at the beginning of the Vietnam War. There has, basically, been at least one complete political and cultural generation turned over since the 1960s. I therefore declare 2008 to be officially The Year That We No Longer Have The 1960s To Blame.
I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
…When you consider that non-native populations only arrived here in the last 150 years, that’s impressive — to take a species that dates back to before the continents we know today even existed, that survived the glacial periods, volcanoes, all of that, and almost wipe them out in a few generations.
I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.
In the course of reading King of Fish and some of the end-of-year round ups, I think this is the kernel of a new belief system, perhaps not so new. I am struck by the themes of specialization and efficiency in the this book, but in many other places as well. Specialization breeds efficiency: after all, if you do the same thing all day, odds are you’ll get better at it. But better almost almost means more, especially in resource extraction, as we see in so many things. But the example of the salmon is interesting and maddening because it has been obvious for 1000 years or more that it is possible to overfish or otherwise wreck the stock of fish. But in a mixture of the Tragedy of the Commons and a lot of sheer stupidity, people did the wrong things anyway.
What more could you want than a healthy, protein rich food source that comes to you, for its own reasons, but on a reliable timetable and in quantities sufficient to feed an enormous amount of people if managed properly? But when people do nothing but fish and take as much as they can, rather than what they need or can use, they throw the system out of balance. So the once-prodigious stocks in northern Europe were wiped out (in all but Iceland and some parts of Scotland) and the Pacific species have been on the verge for most of the last century. When you consider that non-native populations only arrived here in the last 150 years, that’s impressive — to take a species that dates back to before the continents we know today even existed, that survived the glacial periods, volcanoes, all of that, and almost wipe them out in a few generations.
What’s especially appalling is how people react to plenty. Where in a few years they may be hard-pressed to find any fish at all, there was a time when they can take them of the river with pitchforks and use them as manure. They were too cheap to sell, but in a few short years, they were to rare to find. And this happened in Europe, then in the Northeast and Maritimes, and it’s still happening here in the Northwest.
Reading over the description of it, especially the information about conversational interfaces, I have run a few things through it and I think it could be very useful.
…It’s free, so no commitment, no wasted money on systems and no wasted time learning someone else’s way of doing things.
I decided to take a ride on this I Want Sandy service.
Reading over the description of it, especially the information about conversational interfaces, I have run a few things through it and I think it could be very useful. Key items I like:
getting reminders to my phone, which detaches me from email/computer/home
having events/appointments returned as iCal events, all ready to go into a calendar
and the conversation tone (“Wishing I could fax you a doughnut,”) makes it worth reading the replies.
My good friends at the blood center already send me my appointments via iCal/Google calendar, and that helps. But a reminder service with features like contact tracking and a snooze feature (“Remind me in 2 days”) borders on the magical.
I hate all the organizational systems I have tried, though I realize that simply projection: what I really hate is my inconsistency with them.
It’s free, so no commitment, no wasted money on systems and no wasted time learning someone else’s way of doing things. Can’t beat that. And could the icon be any cuter?
Our future is in our own hands, to make or to mar. It will be an uphill fight to the end, and would we have it otherwise?… ‘You forget,’ said the Devil, with a chuckle, ‘that I have been evolving too.'”
“There is no law of progress. Our future is in our own hands, to make or to mar. It will be an uphill fight to the end, and would we have it otherwise? Let no one suppose that evolution will ever exempt us from struggles. ‘You forget,’ said the Devil, with a chuckle, ‘that I have been evolving too.'” [From William Ralph Inge]
I heard an artist this week referring to how she had to write more songs to fill up a CD: it starts to sound more like those awful term papers where you had to write 1500 words on something, no matter how many original ideas you had on the topic.
…In addition to tips to avoid being duped by counterfeit product, the music industry is offering exciting legal products to satisfy music lovers’ appetites for innovative content this holiday season and steer shoppers away from cheap, illegal products.
The RIAA cartel is all about product, not about music, as should be well-understood. The very notion of the album and its successor the CD is a form-factor decision, not an artistic one. I heard an artist this week referring to how she had to write more songs to fill up a CD: it starts to sound more like those awful term papers where you had to write 1500 words on something, no matter how many original ideas you had on the topic.
So it’s interesting to see what the RIAA thinks is compelling for shoppers this festive season.
In addition to tips to avoid being duped by counterfeit product, the music industry is offering exciting legal products to satisfy music lovers’ appetites for innovative content this holiday season and steer shoppers away from cheap, illegal products. Just a few examples of popular offerings currently in select stores include: –
USB card wrist bracelet with the new Matchbox Twenty album “Exile on Mainstream”
K.T. Tunstall iTunes Digital Album card for “Drastic Fantastic” available at Starbucks
Taylor Swift’s “Sounds of the Season” Special Holiday Album (custom for Target)
U2’s “The Joshua Tree” in four configurations, including a 2 CD-set bound booklet deluxe edition and a super deluxe edition in a case bound book and 5 portfolio prints (2 CD/DVD set)
“Into the Wild” Soundtrack iTunes Digital Album card available at Starbucks
Linkin Park’s “Minutes to Midnight” Music Video Interactive (MVI) DVD + Bonus CD featuring superior sound quality, a wide range of video features, and interactive digital content
Special festive cell phone ringtones like Maria Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”
Norah Jones iTunes Digital Album card for her latest release “Not Too Late” available at Safeway [From RIAA]
Can you say “packaging?” What’s new about any of this? Ranging from music that was released 20 years ago to new stuff, it’s all about packaged goods, not about music. They’re not a music organization but a manufacturing concern. They think like an organization that has an easily duplicated product and no clue how to get beyond that. And I suppose they’re right, since they are not the originators of the music, the stuff people actually want. I feel like I am watching someone pitch me on a new line of shopping carts, as if that’s the reason I go to the grocery store.
The last “record company” will be the best one, by definition, but in the same sense as the last maker of buggy whips and coach lamps was the best in its field.
Watch for Compilations that are “Too Good to Be True”: Many pirates make “dream compilation†CDs, comprised of songs by numerous artists on different record labels who would not likely appear on the same legitimate album together.
…This, of course, is why teenagers should be sued in to penury, rather than something as revolutionary as the music industry putting together its own compilations that people want to buy.
The RIAA cartel admits their irrelevance and incompetence.
Watch for Compilations that are “Too Good to Be True”: Many pirates make “dream compilation” CDs, comprised of songs by numerous artists on different record labels who would not likely appear on the same legitimate album together.
So, if you see an album with all of your favourite artists on it, performing the songs you love, for the love of God don’t buy it — it’s probably pirated!
Seriously, this is their press release. And in it, they explicitly state that pirates are putting together products that people want more than the legitimate variety. This, of course, is why teenagers should be sued in to penury, rather than something as revolutionary as the music industry putting together its own compilations that people want to buy.
So much of what you consume when you get older is about accommodation: I have kids and neighbors, and a partner who could quite happily never hear another blues-metal riff or block-rockin’ beat in her life; I have less time, less tolerance for bullshit, more interest in good taste, more confidence in my own judgment.
…I never really got it, though listening to those clips, out of the context of their songs, makes it clear how much better he is as a blues stylist, either with their material or — for me the best of the lot — a Robert Johnson tune, like the last one.
In light of the Led Zeppelin reunion earlier this week, I thought I would share this passage from the book where he reflects on Led Zeppelin and the cost of growing up:
I discovered, sometime during the last few years, that my musical diet was light on carbohydrates, and that the rock riff was essential – especially in cars and on book tours, when you need something quick and cheap to get you through a long day. Nirvana, The Bends, and The Chemical Brothers restimulated my appetite, but only Led Zeppelin could satisfy it; in fact, if I ever had to hum a blues-metal riff to a puzzled alien, I’d choose Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” from Led Zeppelin II. I’m not sure that me going “DANG DANG DANG DANG DA-DA-DANG, DA-DA-DA-DA-DA DANG DANG DA-DA-DANG” would enlighten him especially, but I would feel that I had done as good a job as the circumstances allowed. Even written down like that (albeit with uppercase assistance) it seems to me that the glorious, imbecilic loudness of the track is conveyed effectively and unambiguously. Read it again. See? It rocks.
The thing I like most about rediscovering Led Zeppelin –and listening to The Chemical Brothers, and The Bends — is that they can no longer be comfortably accommodated into my life. So much of what you consume when you get older is about accommodation: I have kids and neighbors, and a partner who could quite happily never hear another blues-metal riff or block-rockin’ beat in her life; I have less time, less tolerance for bullshit, more interest in good taste, more confidence in my own judgment. The culture with which I surround myself is a reflection of my personality and the circumstances of my life, which is in part how it should be. In learning to do that, however, things get lost, too, and one of the things that got lost — along with a taste for, I don’t know, hospital dramas involving sick children, and experimental films — was Jimmy Page. The noise he makes is not who I am anymore, but it’s still a noise worth listening to; it’s also a reminder that the attempt to grow up smart comes at a cost.
So I listened to this clip (there’s no video, just still frames) and I was struck by the truth of what Hornby says.
It really is the riffs and the instrumental interplay. Hardcore Zep fans will find it unbelievable that anyone doesn’t know this (is there a stronger fan base than theirs?) but the headline summary has always been about Jimmy Page and his mastery. I never really got it, though listening to those clips, out of the context of their songs, makes it clear how much better he is as a blues stylist, either with their material or — for me the best of the lot — a Robert Johnson tune, like the last one.
The early stuff is exciting, with the raw power of the band combining to make their signature sound. But as things go on, past III, I don’t feel the same energy. Perhaps my favorite track of theirs didn’t even make this selection, as it doesn’t feature a solo.
Anyway, here are some selected clips from the reunion show of this past week. He’s pulled out the good ones so you don’t have to.
Of course, the other truth in Hornby’s passage is that music does sometimes get forced to the margins of our lives. The records and artists we thought were all-important when we were 17 become less so at 27 and are under the back stairs, with a lot of other stuff we never use, by the time we’re 37. We may have added some music to match our maturing tastes but how much of when we felt burned so hotly back then has lasted?
There’s probably a book or two either written or in progress about the phenomenon of music produced for consumption as physical goods, rather than as performances to watch or replicate.
Older European women travel to Africa to get their freak on with local men there. When men do it, it’s sex tourism, grudgingly acknowledged. For women, it’s immoral. Hmm, concern or jealousy at work?
23 months doesn’t seem nearly enough, but at the same time, what good does that punishment do? Why not require him to make amends in a more meaningful way? His astronomical salary could be re-allocated to Humane Society and animal shelter locations, and he could be required to spend some time either working at those institutions or doing something more meaningful that sitting in a prison cell.
This is the federal verdict: perhaps the state case will yield something more productive.
Reading over the description of it, especially the information about conversational interfaces, I have run a few things through it and I think it could be very useful.