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Note: In general, I use my blog as an archive of the
tidbits that appear on my front page. Occasionally, I'll write
directly to the blog about non-music topics.
Blog Archive
2007
January
February/March
April/May/June
July/August
2006
December
November
October
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by George Ziemann
September 2007
Sept. 2, 2007 -- The New York Times magazine
has a
story about Rick Rubin, who is now an executive at Columbia
Records. It's an interesting article because Rubin is a rather
unusual guy, and not just because he actually likes music and
hates the way the music business does business. Don't expect
to see him in a suit and tie, either.
While there is a discussion
about whether or not what Sony is doing is technically a "rootkit"
or not, consensus seems to be that it has the potential to be
just as destructive and difficult to remove as last year's version.
MediaDefender's Colossal Screw-up
Sept. 16, 2007
-- One of the RIAA's peer-to-peer
fighters, MediaDefender has run into a small problem, namely
that a ton (700 MB) of internal memos just got leaked. There's
a discussion about it at slashdot,
which will only whet your appetite to read the actual
files, which are being hosted at a site in Norway for public
review.
Now I haven't had a chance
to read much of it, but these documents have the potential to
expose the underhanded and potentially illegal methods of both
MediaDefender and the RIAA member labels. It could also put a
big dent in the "sue 'em all" strategy.
Follow-up -- Ars Technica has been scouring
the contents of the e-mails. Here
is their first report.
P2P Now Legal in Canada -- Michael Geist points out that the
CRIA (Canada's version of the RIAA) has been backed into a corner
and has admitted that the levy on things like hard drives, blank
CDs, etc. that they spent 15 years lobbying for somehow got worded
in such a way that it makes P2P use legal in Canada.
NPR's Series on the RIAA Inquisition
Sept. 21, 2007
-- Earlier this week NPR ran a
three-part series on the RIAA and its legal campaign against
the world. (Part
1, Part
2, Part
3)
It's well worth a listen (or
read). My favorite part is where Mitch Bainwol explains how your
average 10-year-old can tell the difference between the "illegal"
RIAA recordings and the millions of songs
willingly posted by independent artists.
"There are tools, in terms
of, uh, uh, authentication here, and, uh, uh, I'm not a technician
so I'm, I'm, I really can't go into that in great detail. I'd
be happy to get you somebody who can."
October 2007
Pet Peeve -- Anonymous
Sources That Can't Be Trusted
October 15, 2007
-- In a story
about Led Zeppelin entering the digital market, the New
York Times (soul-sucking registration required) offers this
gem: "Under a separate deal the band is to receive blah,
blah, blah, said three people briefed on the agreement, who spoke
on the condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized
to discuss it."
Rewind... Who said that? --
"...three people briefed on the agreement, who spoke
on the condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized
to discuss it."
In other words, this news comes
from three people who obviously can't be trusted, which is why
I didn't repeat what they said.
Happy Birthday Barry
Today is Barry McGuire's 70th
birthday, which I didn't know last night when I was finishing
off the mix for Tim Austin Jones' cover of McGuire's song, "Eve
of Destruction." On the Music
Page.
November 2007
November 27, 2007 -- Rolling Stone reports
that the High School Musical 2 soundtrack, having sold
2.3 million copies, looks like it will wind up being 2007's biggest
selling album. "That figure means the album is poised to
walk away with a more dubious honor: the record for lowest number
of copies sold by the year's best-selling album since SoundScan
started keeping track of these stats in 1991. The previous Worst-Best
mark was 2006's High School Musical soundtrack, which
sold 3.7 million copies."
December 2007
December 1, 2007 -- After I added the rss feed, traffic
jumped, so I felt obligated to keep writing new stories to update
the feed. Plus I spent several long days on the music history
stuff and need to spend a couple more days on 2003.
That's like a real job, so
now I have to go do some recording for a few days.
December 4, 2007 -- The song I was working out great until
I got to the vocals and discovered that the entire thing was
just too damn slow. Now I've got to decompose it and start over.
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Quotes
"Never attribute to malice
that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"
-- Robert Heinlein (in Logic of Empire)
"I don't want to go out
and see Bob Dylan. I don't want to go out and see the Stones.
I wouldn't pay money to go see the Who, not even with new songs."
-- Pete
Townshend, 2006
"Two things are infinite:
the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the
the universe."
-- Albert Einstein
"A watched pot never boils
over. " -- GZ
"News is what someone
wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising."
-- Reuven
Frank, NBC News President, 1968-72
"I live in my own little
world. It's nice there."
-- Deborah Harry
"Music is everybody's
possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."
-- John Lennon
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