This Is The Last…

I think its so lame that Saturday Night Live and NBC do not allow videos of live performances on You Tube. If someone misses an episode, how are they gonna be able to catch the performance if its not put up on the internet somewhere?

I could even understand if they didn’t want the performances on You Tube, but I have no idea why they don’t put the live performances up on their official websites.

In my opinion, the musical guests are normally the most redeeming part of these late night shows, its definitely not the comedy. Why not share?

Ghacks has a list of ways that you can show your disdain for the music industry and their shenanigans, and still enjoy good music.

1. Buy used CDs and trade CDs

2. Borrow CDs.

3. Support local bands / bands without major contracts

4. Listen to (internet) radio and record it

5. Audio Blogs / Podcasts

6. Download free music

Here’s the full article.

Do you have other ways of showing that don’t agree with the sneaky, greedy things the music industry does?

My husband and I have boycotted Ticketmaster, so we now we only go to concerts at small venues or concerts that sell their tickets through other online ticket agencies (ones that don’t add on a 50% convenience charge). I think that if you really like an artist, and are gonna listen to their album, then you should buy their album. I’ve bought music from Insound.com before, its cheap and they have a sizable selection to choose from.

Artists deserve money for the work that they do, this is just a different approach.

That last post sounded really snotty. I didn’t mean it that way. There’s nothing wrong with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ fans.

I just think that music festivals have the potential to be so good. You get a bunch of new and innovative bands and have local arts and crafts, you get to hear music you’ve never heard before. I think Jeff hit the nail on the head - everything is overpriced. I used to think that is was worth the money and worth the expense, but not anymore. Water is $4, tickets are $100. Some of the bands that are headlining this year’s Lollapalooza haven’t done anything especially new or innovative.

I feel like someone’s laughing all the way to the bank.

There has been a lot of drama over the debate of Digital Rights Management (DRM). Who has the right to dictate how you use your music? Some companies will sell you a song and then say you can only make copies of it up to a certain number of times. Some companies will sell you a song and then only allow you to use it on certain music players (ie. Windows Media player only, or iTunes only).

Some of you may have heard Sony mentioned in the news in the last few weeks and something about them sneakily installing a rootkit on their customers’ computers. If you’re like me, you’re probably like what is this all about? What the heck is a rootkit?

According to Wikipedia…

A rootkit is a set of software tools frequently used by a third party (usually an intruder) after gaining access to a computer system. These tools are intended to conceal running processes, files or system data, which helps an intruder maintain access to a system without the user’s knowledge.

Sony made it so that its invisible, and even if you went looking for it in your computer, you wouldn’t be able to find it, because the files are hidden. That was insidious. Sony put this rootkit on 52 albums that they sell. Here’s a list of the infected cd’s.

If you only listen to your music on cd players and in your car, then you’re safe. But if you’re a person that listens to your cd’s through your computer, and you’ve bought one of Sony’s infected cd’s then you have a problem. Sony wants to dictate how you use your music that you bought. They force you to use their media player to listen to their cd’s. They also installed spyware that talks to their homebase and tells them what you’re doing with your music. If you try to uninstall rootkit it will kill your Windows operating system. If you leave the rootkit on your computer, you’re left vulnerable. This makes it very easy for people that write viruses to do extremely scary things, such as giving up bank account numbers and login passwords.

On November 4, in an interview with NPR, Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business President Thomas Hesse downplayed the recent DRM fiasco saying he objected to terms such as malware, spyware and rootkit. “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” he said.

Sony released something that was supposed to help its customers remove rootkit from their computers. Come to find out that the remover doesn’t work and it makes your computer vulnerable to viruses. Sony will stop shipping infectious CDs. Sony will no longer be putting malicious rootkit software on its CDs. Sony is beginning a limited recall of some of the CDs from stores. But they still haven’t fixed the problem that they caused.

Granted Sony’s not the only company that is guilty of being so evil. For a long time I didn’t get why Digital Rights Management was such a big issue, but now I get it. Its all about control. The record companies want to dictate how you use your music, music you bought with your own money. Informed consumers can play a vital role in this DRM controversy.

Most of this information can be found at Boing Boing here and on Beta News here.

I’ve come to realize more and more that Icelanders are hot dog fanatics! Don’t get me wrong I like hot dogs but I just don’t get how this nation can be so hocked on hot dogs that every where you go there’s some crazy Icelander eating a hot dog!

Ok so for you people that haven’t had the pleasure of tasting The Icelandic hot dog let me break it to ya. Eina með öllu, which basically means one with all, is a hot dog with ketchup, fresh onion, mustard, fried onion and remoulade. A lot of people think its similar to the New York hot dog and I have to agree with them.

Still its just a hot dog! I mean how many places that sell hot dogs are there just in down town Reykjavík alone? Probable over 15 or something and its not like Reykjavík is so crowed with people! Take for example one of the more popular hot dog stands in town, Bæjarins best (=best in town), I don’t think I have ever walked passed it with out being a queue in front of it!

When people move to this country one of first 10 phrases that they learn is either Eina með öllu (= one hot dog with everything) or �slendingar borða SS-pylsur (= Icelanders eat SS-hot dogs) which is phrase from a hot dog commercial.

A few months ago I was driving in the country side and I passed by this small village, Selbrekka, with about 10-15 inhabitants and they have their own hot dog stand!! Its middle of nowhere and still they just had to have there very own hot dog stand!!! I just had to get out of the car and take a picture of it. Its probable the smallest hot dog stand I’ve seen in this country really cutie and all but still its insane!!!

Once again I want to remind people that I do like hot dogs that’s not the issue there, I don’t want to get any death treats here, ok! I just think we are over doing it here people. I’m curious to know if anybody knows how many hot dog stands we’ve got in the hole country. I think the number would shock a lot of people. If you feel like finding out for ourselves if the Icelandic hot dog is really worth all that fuss you can buy everything you need to make your very own icelandic hot dog at Nordic Store. Now how crazy is that!!!

It’s seems that each time someone asks me why I loathe Coldplay it gets easier and easier to answer. You might already know this but just in case you don’t and even if you do let me rub it in, Coldplay has announced another North American tour. Wait for it…wait for it…of course it isn’t the tour that’s revolting (or at least the more revolting part) it’s the manner they’ve announced the tour dates.

According to Pitchfork the dates will be kept secret until their fans flock in mass quantities to a website the band launched. Whenever the site, TalkTheTour.com, gets 33,000 hits a new date will be revealed. Just in case your wondering this hasn’t been set up to benefit any cause except for the expansion of their heads, we can only hope they soon explode. There will be 26 six dates in all, multiply that by 33,000 hits and what you get is four very sad needy boys. I can just see Gwyneth now, ” Damnit Martin for 50th time yes, yes I love your music and you are the sexiest man I’ve ever been with.”

I don’t know whether to call them pretentious or just pathetic. Is there some hybrid word I could use? Maybe something like douche bag. Funnier still is the fact that not all of the dates have remained secret both Ticketmaster and The Chicago Tribune have announced shows that haven’t been listed on TalkTheTour. Such idiots, the whole lot of them… And the award for biggest blow hard in a pop category goes to…sorry Bono but you have been overthrown.

-A Boy In Bigger Pants

Yes there is something wrong with the audience. Did you know that if you score an IQ of 70 you are considered mentally retarded? Let’s compare it to that of the most powerful man in the world whose IQ is 91. Yes, I believe it’s safe to say that there is something definitely wrong with the audience. I’m surprised more people don’t die on an everyday basis from “freak” accidents involving toasters and vacuum cleaners. This kind of cancerous stupidity has affected everything, sadly enough it has extended its reach to music.

I’ve been thinking of writing this post for a while but hadn’t found the right way to go about it. I’m still not sure I have a good grasp on it but one of Quinton’s post lit a fire under me. The idea first came to me when speaking to a very close friend of mine currently in the band Geisha Girls, a local Southern California band. I’ve mentioned him before the notorious Johnny Roller. The core of the conversation was whether or not it was good thing to adopt the sound of your heroes. Being that he feels that his band sounds just like The Gun Club he of course decided it was a good thing. I on the other hand am not so sure. Don’t get me wrong I believe in influences no one is an island blah blah blah. However, you look back at things so that you can learn from their mistakes and avoid them not so that you can replicate them. So in my own subtle way I say, music your current state fills me with bile.

Obviously there are current exceptions but it seems that the riches are reserved for all of the copycats. Take for instance The Libertines, why is everyone in such an uproar about them? They craft well written catchy pop songs built on foundations put there by others, like The Clash for example. Now I’m pretty sure Jesus accopmlished much harder tasks before reaching his well deserved fame, I guess we just dont scrutinize like we use to. Everything short of bitting ones own finger nails seems to be amazing now adays. I’ll admit it’s so awesome when there is a band that you know to be amazing who don’t get credit they deserve and all of the sudden you hear something on the radio that sounds like a comeback single. Once you realize it isn’t the band you though it was the excitement settles away but you feel happy that someone shares your respect and admiration for them. You go out and buy their album and listen to it insensibly for about a week. Then you realize that the reason you like it so much is that it reminds of someone whose album you already own. What happens next? You say thanks for the remainder I’m going to go back and listen to the original.

If you’re reading this and either have a band or are thinking of forming one do not take this offensively. It isn’t an insult it’s more of a plea. It’s great to go in and record something that resembles music you love, if that’s the way it sounds then that’s the way it sounds, but don’t go in with the contrived notion of making it sound like it. For two major reasons; first you won’t be as good and second you’re not even trying. I’ll plea once more keep music vibrant because it’s beginning to feel stagnant, moldy even.

If your reading this and are an avid music lover. Shame on you, shame on us all we’ve all been guilty of it. We fall in love with a band and the sound they’ve created but when they steer away from their signature sound we get upset and boycott. Thus we discourage experimentation and growth. Let’s start flexing our big muscle. In summary don’t buy Libertine albums. HAHAHAHA…just kidding I’m Sure they’re great kids.

-A Boy in Bigger Pants

My company has just implemented a health plan called a CDHP which stands for Consumer Directed Health Plan. Roughly translated as you the consumer will pay more than you did before. I received a company email indicating that as of January 1, 2006 we will be switching from a PPO to a CDHP. We were given no choices in the matter the explanation was pretty vague, it informed us of the lack of control set on health plan companies allowing them to raise costs for the companies and their employees.

The letter went on to list the exact cost increase the company would be subject to if they continued with our current health plan yet when it came to listing our hit it simply stated we would receive a moderate raise. Along with the email we received a couple of attachments further explaining a CDHP. Being that I’ve never dealt with one I was grateful for the information. While reading the letter I think I blew a gasket (I don’t actually know what that means I just really wanted to say that). First off our annual deductible will rise from $25o to $1100. They tried softening that blow by letting us know that they will contribute $550 to each of our HSA (Health Savings Account). How nice, right? Wrong I am still seeing a $300 annual increase in my deductible.

So what’s an HSA anyway? Yeah, I asked the same thing. Apparently HSA’s have been around since 2004, they have been set up as bank accounts used specifically for “approved” health expenses. The funds that you acquire on a yearly basis cannot be used for any other purpose other than medical expenses. If you do use those funds for any other purpose you will receive a 10% tax penalty. These funds do become fully available to you once you turn 65. Even though I will not loose my funds they become locked which wouldn’t be an issue if I had more control over the amounts deposited into the HSA. At time of enrollment I will be able to choose an amount I wish to be deducted from each paycheck; unfortunately it’s hard to gage an appropriate amount. If I choose too high, will I have enough medical claims to make full use of my funds? Or am I just forfeiting money until the age of 65?

The funds can be used for family members not covered by the health plan just as along as it’s an “approved” medical expense. What the hell is an approved medical expense? It’s hard enough to sift through all the medical gargle they shove down your throat, now they throw in the word approved. Approved by whom? A medical expense is a medical expense! You can’t confuse it with car or mortgage payments! If it’s a medical expense it will be billed from a medical facility. Does approve imply eye exam but not the glasses? Dentist check ups but no procedures?

Of course these are questions usually answered in information provided in your welcome package. You know after you’ve signed up. Under these methods the consumer can’t know whether something will benefit him/her until after they’ve agreed to enroll. The thing that really grinds me is the letter starts off saying something to the extent of “now you can control how much money you want to invest into your health plan” and “were putting the decisions in your hands”. Thanks a whole lot but how about next time you start by saying hey guys who likes mass sodomy?

-With A thorn In My Side

Like a lot my fellow Icelanders I suffer from winter depression. As soon as the days get shorter and the nights get longer it’s easy to get depressed. So even though the autumn colors are all around me I’ve decided that this year there’s not gonna be any winter. It’s not that I don’t like the snow cause it lights up everything and makes the day longer, it’s just that cold wind and the dark gloomy days that makes my day miserable. Ok, so i know that I don’t have any magical powers to stop the seasons from changing (though I know I can be pretty powerful) but I have a plan.

The master plan is that I’m gonna pretend that I live on one of the Caribbean islands. I’m gonna make everyone go crazy with my salsa and reggae music. And Mojitos!! I’m not much of a cocktail girl more of whisky/beer kind of girl. Cocktails tend to be to sweet and squeamish for my taste. But anything with lime works for me so I love Mojito. So what was I talking about again? oh yeah the master plan! Ok. So we have sunshine music, dancing on the streets and Mojitos. What else do we need? Well if you have suggestions then let me know…

the caribbean viking

I call for the immediate destruction of Henry Rollins. He has corrupted Touch and Go for as long as can be allowed. The labels almost perfect catalogue which includes the likes of Blonde Redhead and TV on The Radio has a speck on its windshield. Actually it’s more like a smudge; a bland, obvious, obnoxious, irrelevant closet case of a smudge.

Granted I know that his presence on Touch and Go is nothing new but it seems like he’s sinking his rotting teeth into everything holy. I came to this conclusion while watching his talk show on IFC. Why did I put myself through such misery? Its simple the guy’s got history that can’t be ignored I figured there was something I was missing. Maybe I blinked when I wasn’t suppose to. After watching his show I realized that the reason that he is the angriest man in LA is simply because he’s the most inept at everything he tries.

We’ve endured comedy, spoken word and dare I say it “music” from this hack. The pain of knowing that Touch and Go released these atrocities brings me to my knees. It’s as if U2 were on 4AD. I know I should cut my fingers off for even typing such a blasphemy but the vile comparison is appropriate. Corey please come to your senses stop looking at his swinging locket, you are not getting sleepy! Purify your label and remove the cancerous lump from your colon. There is a wretched inhuman smell in your bowel and it starting to make me dizzy.

Funny thing about this post is I sent it to a friend before posting to get an idea of the Henry Rollins fan base. What I got was one of the bitchiest replies ever, well as bitchy as a passive aggressive person could be. I believe I was getting what the kids called schooled. Apparently Henry Rollins isn’t someone who I should give much thought to. Hmmm is that what punk has evolved to; a snide turn of the attention. Ouch, that punk temper, will it ever simmer down? You kids can sure still dish out the punishment.

I think I got the answer to my own question. The reason why people like Mr. Rollins continue to circulate in music is that hipster slime have inherited it. With no passion or sense of ownership they cripple music. The anger needed to fuel its progression is dead. Now I’m left wondering if the likes of Henry are responsible for our cold blood or is our cold blood responsible for the likes of Henry.

Henry if your out there don’t be angry I m sure your a nice enough guy. This is isn’t an attack on your person its more like a plea to have your insides ripped out! Get off of my favorite label!

-Cracked Up Years Ahead